December Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: September 25th
Where: Bishamon's temple, the Far Shore
Summary: Training and informational sessions for newly arrived gods and shinki



Gods and shinki arriving at heaven's meeting hall are, should they allow it, guided to Bishamon's temple, where a reception area and a traditionally styled dojo and training ground have been made available for the day. The gods and shinki are free to take their time during this day to learn about the details of their new life from Amaterasu's shinki or from the many veteran new god and shinki volunteers.




God Training

Newly arrived gods are escorted into a Western-styled reception hall within Bishamon's temple for an informational meeting covering the basics of proper god behavior, although the minor deity conducting the meeting is in too much of a rush to take questions afterwards. They are encouraged to discuss the information with each other and ask questions of more experienced gods, as well as instructed to guide their new shinki appropriately.

Shinki Training

Various shinki volunteers, both in the white-and-gold of Amaterasu's shinki and in Bishamon's red-piped black uniforms, are stationed around the dojo, passing out helpful informational pamphlets. They will be happy to instruct the newcomers in the use of the borderline as well as offering an explanantion on the basics of what is expected of a shinki and the importance of teamwork with other shinki and with gods. Shinki are encouraged to work together to practice what they've learned and discuss their perspectives.

Someone has brought two overflowing boxes of back issues of From Ama, the Heavenly magazine, which includes profiles of successful shinki and gods, historical tidbits, and the occasional magazine quiz to help shinki determine how well they're currently working with their god or what their greatest strength might be.

Physical Training

The dojo is stocked with a wide variety of practice weapons, traditional and modern, to offer some practice opportunity to gods who, for example, find themselves with a sword shinki but are at risk of cutting off their own toes. It's also useful for veteran new gods wishing to train with their current partner shinki.

This month, a clever shinki magician has created a dozen straw-stuffed training dummies, some with sword-length sticks and some with polearm-length sticks, that have been enchanted to really fight back. Unfortunately, the spell isn't perfect yet! They're good training partners, but sometimes they might go a little haywire and try to smack passersby.

Rest and Refreshments

Along with bottled water, there are several large boxes of energy drinks and vitamin drinks in small amber glass bottles, and an array of protein bars and meal bars. One particular shinki in white, a bespectacled twentysomething man, is explaining the health benefits of everything on the table (even the water!) with great enthusiasm to any guest who looks even a little confused. It takes great tact to discourage him.

Party games have been set up on the lawn near the refreshments table: Twister, Kubb, lawn Jenga, and more.

In Summary:

• Get all the information you can handle
• Veteran new gods and shinki are welcome to volunteer showing the ropes
• Get in some training
• Play some games
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[killsthebuddha]

I’m not interested in considering something so half-assed ‘death.’ [ He’d had a conversation with Sharak already. It’s a challenge to not operate with some preconceived notions, but based on what he’s been told so far. ]

For that matter, whether it sticks or not... from what I’ve heard, I’d need better proof than a body at this point.

[reformedsinner]

I'm not yet convinced that the things we experience here have much to do with reality. Still, better safe than sorry.

[Their bodies aren't -- quite -- their real bodies. It's not too much of a stretch to think that death might also not quite be real death, but if deaths can be final, they're inconvenient, at minimum. But getting philosophical about the meaning of death is not much more useful than philosophy about the meaning of life; Hakkai sails ahead to a new topic.]

Have you had the chance to talk to Sharak Sanzo?

[killsthebuddha]

Yes, she’s given me a good idea of what’s going on.

[ Gods, magic, and all that crazy bullshit might be important, but there are more pressing concerns to cover. The Genjo Sanzo party had been scattered all over the place in various states of amnesia, and that is going to take some work to fix. There’s probably a gentler way to broach one of the more important subjects they need to discuss.

Genjo Sanzo isn’t a delicate man. He keeps his volume relatively low, bringing up the topic only because there’s no one particularly close enough to catch their conversation. ] I heard that idiot kappa has been a bigger pain in the ass than usual.

[reformedsinner]

[Of all the things Sharak could have told Genjo, she picked that? Hakkai swallows back the immediate outrage. After all, Gojyo is her shinki. She must have felt his reaction the moment he'd seen Hakkai... and, of course, she'd set them up for that, too.

A second drags past, then two, and Hakkai doesn't bother to pull on a smile; instead, he rolls his eyes, pitching his voice as low as Sanzo's.]

Yes, it seems he's decided he can't trust a murderer. His timing could use some work.

Since he's a shinki, it may be easier to work around him than to convince him we're trustworthy, at least for now.

[killsthebuddha]

[ What the hell did they do while he was away? Sharak clearly didn’t tell him enough to know he didn’t want to touch this bullshit in the least. ]

If that’s an option, I’ll take it. I’m not putting up with a sudden outbreak of delicate sensibilities. [ Couldn’t trust a murderer? That’s more impressively stupid than he expected.

He’s being entirely inaccurate about his intentions, of course. He isn’t lying, so much as entirely underestimating his ability to resist throwing something at Gojyo’s head and making an ass of himself later in the day. ]

[reformedsinner]

It might even be the safest option. Shinki who learn too much about their past are destroyed.

[Gojyo's delicate sensibilities can go without detailed explanation. Hakkai doesn't know all of what might be behind his explosion in any case-- and does it matter?

He learned about Hakkai's past somehow, and he's having a crisis. It is, frankly, annoying.]

As for the real problem-- [Which is, of course, them being trapped here and not at home, which is where they all ought to be--] Sharak has more of the details than I do, at least for now. I wasn't taking notes as well as I should have.

[killsthebuddha]

We’re going to need notes on it, too. [ For all the good that notes might do them. ]

We discovered her memory can’t be trusted either. [ His brow furrows as he narrows his eyes at Hakkai, suddenly suspicious. ] She didn’t remember our fight with Nataku.

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai stares at him. Several seconds drag by in silence before, carefully, he suggests:]

Are you sure she's the one whose memory isn't reliable?

[Here he is, having apparently forgotten months of his life, but.]

I don't remember that either.

[killsthebuddha]

[ For a moment, Sanzo looks entirely pale and washed out, and the drink in his hand hits the ground. Hakkai doesn’t remember either? That hadn’t been some kind of fever dream. He’s certain it had been real.

But, then, Sharak had also told him that he’d been a shinki. Who the hell knew for certain? ] That’s bullshit.

[ It’s really more an “I don’t want to accept that” than a “you’re a goddamn liar” bullshit. ]

[reformedsinner]

[There's a whole range of "bullshit" that it could be. Hakkai knows that tone; he doesn't glance down after the lost drink, which is probably no great loss, preferring to watch Sanzo's face.

Slowly, he speaks.]

We know that shinki memories are altered on their arrival. It seems I was a shinki once myself, and from what I've seen, you were once, too.

[And Goku. But Goku's not here right now, and Hakkai's not going to hit Sanzo with that information while he's that particular shade of off-white.]

What I remember seems real, but I can't trust it to be fully accurate or complete.

[killsthebuddha]

[ There is entirely too much to unpack in the idea that he was remembering something that didn’t happen for the others, even knowing that amnesia ran rampant. It reminds him entirely too much of something Ukoku Sanzo had said about the nature of self and memory.

He’s not going to let him define something like that for him. No, it doesn’t matter, not when they’ve got work to do. He’s quiet longer than he should be before he makes himself say something. ]

We won’t get anywhere trying to figure out what is. [ It’s going to bother him, that much is probably obvious, but he’ll make an effort to shake this off. ] You’ll just have to start taking better notes.

[ He’ll just not say anything to that effect about himself, of course. ]

[reformedsinner]

We both will.

[He doesn't have to; Hakkai is here to say it for him. Still, he nods briskly, moving past that question. He can ask for details about fighting Nataku later, if necessary; for now, whether it's real or not, it doesn't matter for the purpose of getting them out of here.

If it's even possible to break out, it's more likely to be clues inside this world that get them to that point than clues outside.]

Have they assigned you a shinki?

[killsthebuddha]

I don’t know who was assigned to who. When I met him briefly, he seemed to already have an idea of what he was doing on the temple grounds. [ This is going to take some getting used to. He’d rather frame it from the perspective of a Sanzo being given a handler when he visited a temple rather than being shoved into the role of a god and master of another person’s very soul. It’s less unnerving that way, but he can’t really deceive himself on the matter. The whole system makes his skin crawl.

For now, the best plan he has is to just leave that odd, quiet man to his own devices. ]

I left him to it to come out here on my own.

[reformedsinner]

Hm. Well, if he's not new, he may be able to answer some of your questions himself.

[Or he just likes to look as though he knows what he's doing, in which case, he and Genjo Sanzo will make an excellent match, Hakkai thinks, and smiles to himself.]

For now... I'll let you settle in.

To the extent possible, that is. I'm sure more questions will arise with time. -- Ah, speaking of which, have they given you a phone yet?