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

[kokuyoyo]

A month.

[A pause as he lets that sink in.]

With constant study... Practice... and how quickly a shinki gets the hang of it.

[declamando]

So it's a significant investment, but not so much that it's not worth it. [A month honestly isn't that long to master something, considering, though it is true that there are probably shinki who wouldn't have as easy a time getting the hang of it.]

Does it help to learn it off others? I remember hearing that the school here was setting up classes for it.

[kokuyoyo]

Probably...? I don't know who Hakkai has teaching them...

[Kairi apparently knows some spells, although Chikusa isn't sure of which ones. Beyond that... Hakkai has outright told him that he's the shinki who he knows that is most knowledgeable about them so far.]

[declamando]

So you learnt yours on your own, then. [If Chikusa hasn't been taught himself, it would make sense that he wouldn't know whether it makes a difference or not. And she presumes someone had to find the techniques initially, since she knows it took them a little while to become more common knowledge.]

[kokuyoyo]

I practiced one with someone.... but they're gone. [To his knowledge, anyway.] It's not as if there's anyone else to learn from....

[At least until now, possibly, which he's going to figure out.]

[declamando]

Isn't there? I would have assumed the older gods' shinki might be more receptive to that than the gods themselves, but obviously not.

[Otherwise they should have no shortage of people to practice with, yet here they are with, apparently, none at all. Or only the newcomers at the school, which means they're limited to existing knowledge among the newer shinki.]

[kokuyoyo]

Who knows.... They haven't made much effort to reach out to us. I heard Bishamon's exemplar knew spells... but he's with her.

[But that's not surprising, considering his station. Chikusa knows that, in his position, he'd be very much the same way if he could get away with it.]

[declamando]

I haven't heard a lot from them either...the last I remember was that Kaede girl posting to the BBS a while ago.

[And that was quite a while ago, to her knowledge, so it's not really a reassuring sign of support on that front.]

[kokuyoyo]

...Did you talk with her?

[Not that long ago, after all, Hakkai suggested talking to her about spells. It's something for him to consider if he can't find the person responsible for these dummies...?]

[declamando]

No, I didn't. I'm fairly sure it was about something I didn't know much about, so I stayed out of it. [At least, that seems like the most likely reason for her to have done so. She doesn't actually remember the specifics of the post.]

[kokuyoyo]

....Ah.... And it seems annoying to reach her anyway....

[Well, he guesses he knows his next course of action.]

Anyway.... I guess we'll see what's responsible for these eventually.

[declamando]

I wouldn't know how to contact her myself. I haven't spoken to the older gods and shinki much. [Bishamon she'd talked to all of once, and that was about the extent of it.]

Most likely. If they keep using them it'll come out one way or another.

[kokuyoyo]

...Well. It's not as if they talk to us much.

[They certainly are annoying that way.]

[declamando]

No, it's not. [Maria becomes somewhat more serious at that.] And even some of the ones that did have stopped nowadays. I haven't seen Bishamon in weeks, at least.

[Possibly months, though it becomes difficult to keep track of after a while.]

[kokuyoyo]

....She's.... a God of Fortune, right...? Or something like that.

[He's heard that phrase mentioned a couple of times.]

[declamando]

I think so? I don't know a lot about that particular part of the mythology, but I think I've seen her name associated with something like that.

[It would make sense that it was one of the higher gods making sure people had an understanding of the situation after the god conclave, at least.]

[kokuyoyo]

So the things she's involved in.... are probably different than for newcomer gods.

[Whether that's good or bad is up to a matter of guessing and opinion.]

[declamando]

Probably. Though I'd say that's true of a lot of the older gods we see.

[She certainly doubts someone like Amaterasu would be doing the kind of hands-on work they do, especially with a target on her back.]

[kokuyoyo]

But.... not to that degree. Different levels in a hierarchy... depend different things.

[He's quite familiar with that. Or at least when it concerns the mafia.]

[declamando]

I know. I just meant that I think a lot of the older gods we see are on a similar level to Bishamon, like Amaterasu.

[Who would be higher than Bishamon, and her advisors would at least have to be on a similar level.]

[kokuyoyo]

...And they probably do less work than we do....

[At least, that's what it feels like to him.]

[declamando]

It's hard to say when we don't see any of their work outside of special occasions. They definitely seemed to be pulling their weight in the lead-up to Tanabata.

[But she's also not going to say definitively that they do the amount of work that would befit that kind of station.]

[kokuyoyo]

...That was Orihime.

[Who Chikusa has decided is The One Exception.]

[declamando]

I know, but I'm fairly certain there were other gods involved from the amount of shinki they had working on it. And that merging of the Far and Near Shore for the event, or whatever it is they did, can't have just been her.

[It would take significant power and trouble to have that odd effect, where Near Shore residents were wandering into a part of the Far Shore without even realising it.]

[kokuyoyo]

...They were in white. And injured.

[So he can feel pretty confident that, really, it was only one god that was otherwise involved besides Orihime and maybe her husband. Boyfriend. Whatever.]