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

physical training

[revolutionfalcon]

If you're talking to yourself already, you might as well take a real sparring partner.

[A significantly less practiced, but still serviceable swing of a naginata knocks the head off the the dummy, and the bulky thing lists to one side to reveal a golden-eyed boy behind it, lowering the weapon in question. He looks skinny on first glance, but without the coat that usually covers his arms, the wiry muscle that lines them is visible as he gestures to her with the polearm.]

You look like you know what you're doing with that thing. [Shun hasn't trained with a polearm user for a while, and considering he only started learning it relatively recently, he feels he could use the brush-up that sparring with someone with a heavy experience advantage provides.]

[wingedprincess]

I may as well, huh? (Tana certainly agrees with his assessment as she watches him with a casual posture. Her guard didn't raise when he moved in to strike at that dummy and it's not raising any now.)

I don't know what it is that calls me to this weapon, but I think that you may be right! (She's much too bubbly for someone who has been sparring by herself for the past however long it's been.) Alright, I accept your challenge!

(Pause.) That was a challenge, right? I didn't assume the wrong thing?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shinki, then, judging by her answers. It doesn't really make a difference to Shun unless he knows the person, but it's useful to know for future reference. He figures it's something to do with why she's being so passive about it, too.

Her question does make him sigh quietly, though.] Obviously. I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't offering.

[He gestures towards an empty area of the dojo with his weapon. While it looks like he knows how to handle it, it also looks like he hasn't had the extensive experience needed for it to be more like an extension of himself.]

[wingedprincess]

(Listen, people offer things without thinking them through all the time. Tana is a prime example of that generally, but she has very little to offer up at this time. The only thing she can do is train with others and so she's all too eager to get right to it.)

Okay, okay! Let's hurry up and do this.

Oh, are there any rules? You know? No hitting below the belt or anything of that nature? It only seems polite to ask.

(Feel free to consider popping her in the mouth to shut her up. It may be considered community service at this rate.)

[revolutionfalcon]

[The running her mouth isn't particularly impressing Shun, but at least she's asking about rules upfront, unlike other people who often end up complaining about him doing something they consider below the belt halfway through the spar. With that in consideration, he'll at least respond to the question.]

My only limit is no lasting injuries, since it's a spar. There's not much point fighting against someone if there's no risk at all to it.

[Even if that risk might just be a bruised jaw or a bloody nose. Regardless, considering she's being so hasty about it, Shun holds his naginata ready, since he wouldn't put it past her to just charge him as soon as the rules are established.]