February Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: October 15th
Where: Meeting Hall, 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 the Meeting Hall, 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 traditional reception room within the Meeting Hall for an informational meeting covering the basics of proper god behavior. A minor deity is giving the speech, and none of the white-robed shinki enter. 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 in the white-and-gold of Amaterasu's hosuehold 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 explanation 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.

A training game has been set up through a section of the Meeting Hall gardens, with little cut-outs of ayakashi hidden in the landscaping, tucked into bushes or taped under bridges. Prize ribbons are being offered for every ten "ayakashi" a shinki (or team) discovers.

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. Several magically animated straw-stuffed training dummies, many of which have been carefully mended and patched with neat black stitching, are set up on the lawn with a white-robed shinki hovering nearby to watch over them. They make good training partners, although anyone who comes too close risks being targeted for a sparring match whether they wanted one or not.

The pond behind the dojo has had dozens wooden poles sunk in it, spaced a few feet apart, with a bunch of brightly colored ribbons tied around the pole in the very center. Some of the white-robed shinki are practicing scaling the poles and leaping from one to the next, until they get close enough that they can snatch a ribbon from the center pole, and several have fallen in and are being teased by their fellows.

Rest and Refreshments

Instead of snacks being served at the training session, this week, white-robed shinki with little flags are conducting groups of newcomers and volunteers down to the Tokyo Daijingu shrine and into a street festival currently being held in Tokyo. Traditional dance troupes are performing on street corners, and vendors have every kind of fall street foods, from barbecue to takoyaki, chocolate-dipped bananas and red-bean pancakes. New arrivals will get a white-and-gold envelope with spending money for the fair, although gods and shinki who have had some time to settle in will have to handle their own lunch expenses.

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
• Go to a festival
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

r&r

[wingedprincess]

Hi! (Before she can even finish swallowing her treat, there's an eager woman stepping up close to her with a bright smile.)

You're different from the others which means... (Her face lights up even more.)

You're a god, aren't you? I've been trying my hardest to find one ever since I was told I would be found by mine!

(Tana, it's so rude to interrupt a person while they're eating with unwanted conversation, but... it seems like she comes from the type of background where she got away with this behavior before.)

[letteropener]

[Princess Celestia is entirely okay with this interruption, even though she doesn't answer till she's properly finished chewing. Manners are important!]

[But once she swallows down her bite of banana, she favors the girl with a smile.]

While I am a god, that isn't why I'm different. I'm simply a different species. There are shinki, too, who are not human.

[wingedprincess]

(Manners are important. It's a lesson Tana probably should remember sometime in the future...)

Really? There are shinki like yourself?

[letteropener]

No ponies, I'm afraid. [Celestia does an excellent job of keeping both her dismay and her relief at that fact out of her voice.] But I have seen shinki who are decidedly not human.

[wingedprincess]

Ponies... (Is that what she is? Tana believed ponies were smaller, but glances down at her legs just to ensure they aren't short. It doesn't even seem odd to her that she would know to look for visible differences.)

Well, I'm human. (In a softer voice, she adds:) I think?

Though I'd like to meet more ponies.

[letteropener]

As near as I can tell, you're human indeed.

[Celestia is actually a reasonable height for a pony, some fourteen hands high at the shoulders. Other ponies from Equestria tend to be littler, not that that has meaning here.]

I'd be happy to see more ponies here... although, I admit, not as shinki. [She'd prefer to see nopony she knows dead and memoryless.]

[wingedprincess]

Oh... being a shinki is a bad thing? (Tana might not fully comprehend what has happened to her.

After all, she's living and breathing here! It's hard to grasp that you might be deceased when your movements are just as fluid as they once were. She assumes a bit on that: after all, if she can wield a weapon and ride atop flying horses, then she must have been physically fit.)

[letteropener]

It would lead to certain questions. After all, there are many humans here... but a pony shinki would have every reason to believe they should know the one pony god here, which could lead to trouble as they tried to recover memories they ought not to.

[Also, it would be very sad to see one of her subjects dead.]

[wingedprincess]

They might take an interest in you, and it'd be good to be friends... but I think there's a lot of humans here from different places. I was introduced to a weapon I knew nothing about, but someone else was fairly experienced with it.

(This is probably the smartest observation she's ever made.) I understand though... it'd be painful to have to keep your distance from something vaguely familiar.

[letteropener]

More than that, dangerous for the shinki. If you saw somepony you were absolutely certain you should know, could you just avoid that? [At least humans have the advantage of being so common. Why did there seem to be no other worlds of ponies out there?]

[wingedprincess]

I wouldn't be able to avoid it myself, but... ha... (The laugh is less of a laugh and more of a downward spiral in tone.) I'm a shinki. It doesn't matter what I would think or say in that situation when it'll never be relevant to me.

I'm sorry that it isn't for you, miss.

[letteropener]

Never say never, but let us hope for never. [She smiles gently, eager to soothe the poor girl after this conversation took a depressing tone.] But shinki or god, we are all in this together. As distressing as some of it might be, it's also a chance to make new friends and do some very real good for the people of the Near Shore.