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

[kokuyoyo]

[Oh Fubuki.]

[The question has him pause, blinking slowly, and his fingers flex against his knees.]

That.... depends on what you mean.

[blizzardrock]

[...He wants to say he’s surprised. But after finding out that his own god has killed and Fubuki didn’t know, his views are no longer that strict. (...Maybe they never were. After finding out that Chikusa was planning it in order to protect somebody, he stopped arguing it. He doesn’t know if that makes him a bad person.)]

[But at the same time...]

...I meant what I said. What kind of distinction are you making?

[kokuyoyo]

As a shinki.... and as a living person.

[He's still himself, memories or not, apparently.... but they could be considered two different lives, he guesses.]

While I was living... I killed plenty of people. And I helped kill more.

[He's sure that, outside of his memories with Ken involved, there are even more.]

[blizzardrock]

...Then as a shinki.

[He supposes it should be shocking, but honestly, he might have suspected, even if he didn't let himself think about it too hard.]

[And he shouldn't nudge Chikusa to think too hard about his living life, either.]

You living life doesn't matter, does it? [...He feels like a horrible hypocrite saying it.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa gets up and leaves.]

[That's really all there is to say on that particular matter. There's no other reaction, no glare, no sharp inhale of breath, only the scruff of his fingers in grass as he steadies himself upwards and heaves himself up. His hands tuck into his pockets and he turns away, starting to shuffle off.]

[Predictably, he doesn't give an explanation, either.]

[blizzardrock]

[...After a moment, he gets up, and before he can reconsider, creates a borderline in front of Chikusa. He knows how worthless his lines are against Chikusa, but it was just to get his attention.]

I take it you disagree...

[It comes out way weaker than he'd intended. He can't bring himself to turn it into an accusation.]

...Don't run away from me.

[kokuyoyo]

[Now this is a new experience.]

[Usually when he's walked away from people with no other words, and for often far less reasons, he's never been stopped. For a borderline to suddenly spring up in front of him has him snap a yoyo into his palm without thinking, and he slowly looks over his shoulder at Fubuki.]

....Take it down.

[blizzardrock]

[Borderlines...are weapons. He so often uses a cutting line when he needs to attack that that fact might have occurred to him a second too late.]

...Alright. [As promised, the line goes away.]

[He made it worse... But guilt is something he can't afford to let himself feel. But he can't double down, either. So he just slowly raises his hands, cautiously placating.]

[kokuyoyo]

[At least the yoyo stays still in his palm, still wound up tightly, and Chikusa lets out a slow breath. As long as he's not trapped, it's fine.]

....Why are you being so annoying... [Wait, maybe that's not clear.] What's it to you?

[blizzardrock]

[He lets out a breath as he drops his arms. He's not fooling himself into thinking he's out of the woods yet... But taking those words back would make him seem insincere.]

...I don't know. If I let myself think about it...I can't. [Trying to analyze his own reactions to things makes him wonder too much, about who he is. Who he was. Plus it's exhausting having to be one guard against himself all the time, and there's a certain threshold past where he just has to let himself be.]

...I meant what I said. ...But maybe that's just something I try to convince myself of.

[kokuyoyo]

....So you're using me to figure out your own issues.

[Reaching up, Chikusa bumps his glasses further up his nose with one of his knuckles. He's not let go of his yoyo yet.]

[blizzardrock]

...Is that what it looks like? [Because yeah, "shinki's pasts don't matter" is something he doesn't really believe himself. But there'd been no reason not to relay it. At least until he'd seen how badly Chikusa had reacted.]

I said it because it's something that shinki should follow. But I...don't know why I can't follow that conviction. [No, he does know, but the reason is "because I'm me," and that's not exactly convincing, or even logical.]

...It might have been a mistake to say it when I don't believe it. [But there'd been a reason he'd chosen to.] ...The conversation might have headed somewhere dangerous. I wanted to head that off. You caught me...I lied.

...Does that anger you?

[kokuyoyo]

Yes.

[...Count on Chikusa to be blunt.]

[Still, he watches Fubuki wordlessly after that, listening to his explanations and reasonings to himself. It's like being a sounding board, although he never volunteered for the position. Instead, he huffs quietly.]

It's annoying... [But it takes a lo to anger him. That's energy, and emotion, and he's in low supply of both, Chikusa figures.] Anyway.... Obviously it matters. More with our memories different than those of old shinki.

[blizzardrock]

I’m...sorry I gave you that impression.

...Sorry about the borderline, too. [Considering the ferocity with which Chikusa had turned around, he must have perceived it as a threat. That...had not been one of Fubuki’s better ideas.]

[But he’s been making a lot of those, lately.]

...It wasn’t a question. [It was a conviction. The fact that he fails at it himself doesn’t make it not one.] ...Why respond now? You seemed angry at it, before.

[kokuyoyo]

...Did I?

[Another sluggishly slow blink.]

[blizzardrock]

You did.

...People don't just walk away like that if they're not. [He looks away.] ...Unless you have another reason for doing that.

[kokuyoyo]

It was just annoying.... and I don't particularly want to talk about the specifics with strangers.

[Reaching up, he nudges his glasses up closer to his face.]

I'm not like Ken...

[blizzardrock]

[...Fubuki doesn’t know who that is.]

[But there's no mistaking what that "stranger" remark means.] ...Do you always tell strangers about not being able to relate to happiness?

[kokuyoyo]

It doesn't usually come up... but I'm pretty sure it's not a secret, either.

[After all, he's already learned that others view him as outside the norm in matters like these.]

[blizzardrock]

...It’s not a secret that you’d kill, then.

[It isn’t a real secret that Fubuki wouldn’t have been able to stop Chikusa. Even if he tries to hide it, he’d exposed how weak his borderlines are to Chikusa himself. But if he weren’t...?]

...What made you decide I wasn’t a threat?

[kokuyoyo]

...I mean, the fight did happen in a public place...

[Although perhaps that means, due to the circumstances, people would have been willing to forgive it under some misconception. Chikusa doesn't really care.]

As for you... [Chikusa tilts his head to the side, surveying him.] ...You don't have.... that lack of uncertainty....

[blizzardrock]

[...He didn't know that the attempt had been seen. That changes things. Kind of. In a way he can't really make sense of right now.]

[But that by itself does explain the next thing, even if Chikusa hadn't given another explanation for that.]

[...And what an explanation it is. Between Chikusa's comment earlier on Fubuki's..."habit," and now this... Fubuki's beginning to realize that Chikusa sees more than Fubuki thought he did. ...Which might have been a ridiculous thing of Fubuki to think to begin with. He'd been afraid of him at first, after all.]

...And that's why you could be honest, huh.

[kokuyoyo]

I mean, I'm usually honest... Lying takes too much effort.

[Lying as most people think of it, anyway. Not saying anything takes no effort at all, and Chikusa usually takes refuge in that. As long as he's not inclined to say anything anyway, then it's not so unusual...]

[Well, he hasn't been called out on it yet.]

[Staring at the other, Chikusa consides him.]

...Is it bothersome?

[blizzardrock]

[Is it bothersome that Chikusa's usually honest? No...]

...I was mistaken about something.

[...He sits back down. He'd revealed how weak his borderlines were to Chikusa without even a second thought because he'd trusted him. Looking back on it, he doesn't think it was a mistake, but he also doesn't know why. Like a lot of things, it'd just...come to him. No one ever needs a reason to be friends with someone.]

...You're really going to do it? You're really going to go kill someone.

[kokuyoyo]

I have to.

[Glancing away, Chikusa curls his fingers a little tighter together. Ken had been all he'd had back when the poisoning had first taken place. Now, with his memories back of his partner, the idea of going through that again... It's even worse. It gives him an even clearer idea of how Ken must have felt as he'd died in his arms.]

[That sort of thing... He won't ever let it happen again. So he can't let Add keep surviving like this.]

The only obstacle... is making it happen in a way that gets past the defenses.