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]

[ He’ll connect it together, if somewhat slowly. It’s a matter of working through from start to finish, but he knows this situation is probably feasible for all that his magical education was lacking in several key areas. (Briefly, it occurs to him that this might be a chance to do some real research since someone has apparently made time mean jack shit here.) ]

A gourd with some kind of eye. It could reach out with vines- [ Tentacles, really. It’s a memory that makes his skin crawl. ] -and Gojyo broke the damn thing before I could inspect it. That said, it was a tool used by someone that considered himself a protégé of Ukoku Sanzo’s. [ More or less. That kid that had been manipulated by Kami-sama didn’t need to be brought up. ] If whoever brought us here goes for three out of three on Sanzo priests, you could always ask him.

[ It’s not an entirely facetious suggestion. ]

[bussounoshima]

[Research is one of the few things they can do, though how "real" it is, Sharak's not sure. Every time she goes to the library it feels like she may as well be picking out books at random. Still, there's a stack of them off to the side somewhere.

Sharak listens quietly until Ukoku is mentioned, making her lip curl briefly in disgust.] If they bring that bastard back I might have to throw caution to the wind and just kill him.

[Except he'd probably get off on that, so she won't. Also. Surprise, Genjo, guess who's been around.]

He never mentioned having anything like that before.

[That fucker. To be fair, the idea that they were all shikigami hadn't been fully developed yet so it hadn't really come up in conversation but still. That fucker.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ It takes him just a fraction of a second too long to react.

And then he’s sitting up a little more abruptly than he should. Ow. There are more important things to focus on. ]

Back-? That crow fucker was here? [ Yes, she’d just said that, but it’s taking him a moment to process. Ukoku is a special sort of sore spot for him. ]

[bussounoshima]

[See, now that's an appropriate reaction to Ukoku Sanzo, Sharak thinks. Much better than deciding he was an appropriate tutor on philosophy, accepting a vessel name from him and spending nights hanging out on his front porch. Well done, Genjo.]

I thought it was "that crow bastard". [It's important that they get their terminology right.] Yeah, he was here. He vanished a while ago, for whatever that's worth.

[He probably vanished to the same place as everyone else, unless he unnamed his shinki without them noticing and demolished his temple on his own, only to disappear for several weeks. Which she's not completely dismissing as a possibility, though she's not sure how likely it is. She feels like he'd at least have left some flowers on her front step or something.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Crow bastard, crow fucker, a shitty crow is a shitty crow. Genjo grunts under his breath, expression dire.

Ukoku makes for a far more real existential threat than this nebulous god situation. ] Even if people vanish around here, I don’t know how much that’s worth.

[bussounoshima]

[Ukoku's probably happy to know that, wherever he is.]

It happens to everyone, gods and shinki. [Sharak gestures at the temple around them with her cigarette.] Even the real gods- I have no clue where the real Aditi is, and neither does her family.

[At least, from what they told her and Sharak isn't convinced that they were lying. She pauses for a moment before continuing.]

You vanished too, for a while.

[They need to discuss at least a little of that. There are still people left on the Far Shore that will recognise Genjo.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Ukoku probably can’t actually be happy, though that isn’t much of a consolation prize.

He’d vanished, too. He resists the entirely foolish urge to echo her. Absently, he realizes that the cigarette he’d been smoking had burned down to the filter, and goes through the motions as he works his way through that statement. ]

I’ll apologize, then, for making you rehash old conversations to bring me back up to speed. [ It’s a careful statement in ways he usually wasn’t, but it feels entirely warranted. ]

[bussounoshima]

I'm just repaying a favour.

[It's funny, how their roles have been reversed. Though Genjo's still the one laying on the floor of Aditi's temple on the verge of passing out. Perhaps that's just a universal constant.]

You were a shinki then. By the time I'd arrived, you'd already started to remember a few things. That's not unheard of either, by the way.

[killsthebuddha]

[ Genjo Sanzo spends entirely too much time going against things that he can’t possibly win against. She’ll get used it it in time. Everyone else that’s had to deal with him for any length certainly hasn’t had a choice in the matter.

There’s a lot he wants to cover, but there are priorities to focus on. ]

I take it that we don’t know how to force that, either. [ Not with Gojyo being a problem. ]

[bussounoshima]

[Sharak hesistates but-] No, we don't.

[Genjo's theories about Maten are all well and good, but correlation does not imply causation. She was unconvinced at the time and she still is.]

Trying to discuss the past with any shinki is a bad idea. You'll get a feeling if it comes up telling you to stop. It's possible to force yourself to ignore it, but that won't help anyone. Blight appears on shinki that are told of their pasts without remembering it themselves first. Too much of that and they turn into ayakashi.

[Axel was a while ago, but people remember the lesson learned.]

[killsthebuddha]

I wouldn’t have accepted that. [ There are too many ways this could have gone bad. He knows himself too well these days. ]

If a shinki goes out of their way to try to recall, do they turn into an ayakashi as well? [ Without his memories, just how suicidally reckless would he be? He can’t imagine handling that gracefully, not when too much of his identity was tied up in being Genjo Sanzo, 31^st of China.

Suddenly, the idea that Gojyo’s disavowed his past entirely makes entirely too much sense. ]

[bussounoshima]

... In theory, yes, if they dwell on it too long.

[Most shinki stop when they notice the blight on their neck and most ablutions have more to do with guilt than memories, but it makes sense. Dwell on what you can no longer have and you lose yourself.]

But no, you didn't accept that. Actively taking measures to try and undo the memory loss is safe enough though. Researching, experimenting, that sort of thing. It's dwelling on the specific things that must have happened in your past that is dangerous.

[And, of course, how they died. No wonder so many shinki seem to decide they just want a blank slate.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Well, he didn’t turn himself into a murderous abomination. That’s... something.

Today’s clearly going to be one for accepting the little victories. ] So what was I doing?

[ He might not have gotten anywhere trying to figure out how to free himself from being trapped as a shinki, but it’s worth investigating. ]

[bussounoshima]

[It's okay to be proud of the little accomplishments. But now they're straying into Genjo Is a Dumbass territory, which makes Sharak furrow her brow a little. If anyone can even see the difference.]

A little while before I arrived, there was an incident where you managed to activate the Maten sutra. After that you, and others who were present, began to remember things.

[She'll refrain from mentioning Goku in particular for the moment. It'll only worry him and it's not necessary information for the current topic.]

Ukoku Sanzo encouraged you to make the connection and the two of you were... working on that. At least, you were. I think he was just having fun playing pretend.

[Playing teacher, playing house, working his way into Genjo's head, teasing Sharak with the influence he had over the young man... It'd all seemed like a game to him. Maybe he'd gotten attached, but Sharak remembers how easily he'd dismissed Genjo's abilities as soon as the man was out of earshot to her. How annoyed he'd been by any sincere compliment to the man.

All that is far from the worst of Ukoku's crimes, but it'd struck a personal chord with Sharak. She'd hated it.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Genjo freezes, going pale as if his blood pressure plummets precipitously. The floor may as well have fallen out from beneath him, but then he locks eyes with Sharak.

It’s grounding. ]

It’d be his style to take advantage of a coincidence like that. [ This is going to keep him up at night for a while. The idea that Ukoku had an opportunity to take full advantage of his lack of memory, and that he’d apparently been vulnerable and stupid enough to let it happen. It’s utterly mortifying.

What had he done? ] It’d be nothing but a game to someone like him, and I can’t believe I fell for that.

[ Yes, he can and all too easily, some little part of him wants to point out. He ignores it. ]

[bussounoshima]

[Sharak keeps Genjo's gaze steadily, sitting upright and firm. A strong, solid presence that fills the room. It's the only kind of comfort that's appropriate.]

I couldn't believe it either. [If her tone is a little sharper than it normally is, talking to her colleague, it doesn't last. It comes from a well of concern and affection that had never really been resolved, just put aside while she tried her best to protect what was left.

It had been an educational experience.]

... Ukoku himself was less of a problem than he could have been, at least. [That had been more of a personal thing, all in all, and the personal matters of Sanzos aren't important.] I'll answer whatever questions you have about what happened back then, though of course I wasn't aware of everything.

[killsthebuddha]

[ Something about her tone braces him up. He’s got a lifetime of experience in keeping his own personal tragedies just that, and he’ll have time for it to haunt him later. More than that, business comes first.

Still, the color isn’t coming back to his skin any time soon. ]

What happened with Ukoku is a dead end. [ It’s a snap decision, but it lets him go forward. ] Maten isn’t the right choice for undoing a divine spell, so I’m more interested in who affects us now.

[ He’s had to have made enemies by now, right? ]

[bussounoshima]

[Genjo's strong. Sharak knows he can manage his personal trauma. They don't need to dwell on it any longer than they have to and if he doesn't want to ask for details, Sharak isn't inclined to give them. It's in the past.]

I didn't think it was. [Kouten has been running in the background at the Temple of Aditi for months now, with no apparent effects. Kainé and Gojyo barely remembered anything at all while they were here, compared to others, and Celty and Goten haven't shown any signs of remembering at all.] Unfortunately, I can't give you much information regarding who else we're dealing with right now.

[But she'll lay out what she does know.]

There's a spellcaster- probably a god, considering their access to heaven- that's been doing work with souls. There was an incident a while ago where a bunch of spirits were made to possess corpses and forced to attack us. Some of them were recognisable to people here. When I arrived there was another incident where a summoning circle was placed in the center of a town and it seemed to sap energy from the people there. Hakkai and I found some... crop circles in the Near Shore that were covered in blight, which may be connected.

There have been other incidents as well, traps that altered moods mostly. A few arsons, which seemed to target Amaterasu particularly and were either very poor attempts to rally us against her or very good attempts to rally us for her. [Either someone is very bad at managing propaganda or they know how to make a cute girl look even more defenceless and pitiful.] We mostly interact with the Shinto pantheon; Amaterasu and her advisors are the most willing to speak to us. The others are around though. The Hindu and Vedic pantheons mostly keep to themselves, for example, but I've spoken to a few of Aditi's sons.

[tl;dr]

[killsthebuddha]

[ For the moment, Genjo just listens and absorbs the information. There’s a lot going on there, and he has to wonder how much of it was entirely accurate given the fact that no one could really rely on their memory. The idea of some god fucking with their heads like that...

Well, he hasn’t killed a god yet. That doesn’t mean he can’t. ]

Gods are a real pain in the ass. [ It’s a perfectly reasonable statement, he thinks, that sums the information up nicely. He hesitates before speaking again, more searching for wording than anything. ] Has there been any sign of the Merciful Goddess?

[ He doesn’t really want to bring that topic up, but it can’t be avoided. ]

[bussounoshima]

[It's been a hell of a couple of months, Genjo. That was the abridged version.]

You won't catch me disagreeing. [Gods Are Annoying, the Saiyuki story.] I've seen no signs of the Merciful Goddess from our world, no, though I've heard the name. [Now it's Sharak's turn to hesitate, briefly.] A woman was here who was given hir role, but she definitely wasn't hir.

[The next hesitation is more like an actual pause. This is a fucking weird topic and Genjo has no idea why.]

Hir nephew was here, for a time. He didn't seem to know any more than the rest of us.

[killsthebuddha]

It’s not like we could expect any of them to be useful. [ He’s feeling about as burned out as his cigarette, at this point. He wants to cover more, delve into details, but this isn’t going to be some short term thing and he doubts he can contribute much right now. It’s starting to sound like they’ve covered all the parts that actually affect them. ]

If that’s where we’re at, I should start rounding up my team. The longer I take, the stupider their choices will get.

[bussounoshima]

[Sharak lets out a breath and nods. She's okay with swiftly moving on from that topic. Genjo's life (lives) is fucking weird.]

You may as well get started.

[Sure, he's heavily injured and in need of rest but. Well. Passing out on Gojyo and needing to be rescued is probably the best way to make friends with him anyway.]

People tend to at least stop by Bishamon's temple at this time, even if they're not new themselves. It's a good way to stay up to date on who's around.

[So. Start there?]