March Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: October 25th
Where: Outside the 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 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 what looks like an old, large warehouse behind the Meeting Hall for an informational meeting covering the basics of proper god behavior. Several chairs have been moved in, but they're squeezed together between packed shelves and boxes of old ritual clothing, scrolls and rusty or chipped household goods. 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.

Back copies of the "From Ama" magazine, including puff pieces about new or rising gods or successful shinki, advice columns for resolving problems between gods and shinki, temple photographs and other articles of interest to gods and shinki, have been brought out in boxes and piled up next to a table holding a few remaining copies of the shinki questionnaire for any new shinki who want to keep one around until they can answer the included questions.


What is your name?

What is your god's name?

How do you see your duties as a shinki?

What is your favorite part of life with your god?

What is your least favorite part of life with your god?

What advice would you like to give your god?

Do you wish to be assigned to a different god? []Y []N

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 white-robed shinki are still busy cleaning and preparing the Meeting Hall for the big annual meeting of the gods. They'll recruit anyone who looks as though they're not too busy in order to help scrub floors, weed, sweep paths and walkways, and shoo away any unwelcome little spirits that are hiding away in dark corners of the hall. Heavy lifting is good exercise... right?

Rest and Refreshments

There are casks of fresh, cold water near the dojo to make sure no one gets dehydrated, but for those who've finished working, hot tea and enough seasonal treats are available to make it look as though the Heavens bought out an entire sweet shop. They're being distributed by a few shinki in indigo-blue and plain brown robes with the sleeves tied back, who aren't above teasing the newcomers a bit.

Young shinki are playing in the nicely manicured garden, trying to catch crayfish at the lake edge, dashing around playing tag and hide-and-seek. Just be careful you don't get caught in the middle of a game of "Kagome"! If you do, you'll really be stuck until you guess someone's name.

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
• Enjoy a traditional tea
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[cloak]

I can do that.

[Probably]

[cloak]

Why do you have two names?

[revolutionfalcon]

That doesn't mean I'm going to give her a pass for doing this sort of thing. Chinatsu deserves better people around her than that. [Especially considering he's felt her uncertainties and dislikes when it comes to things like not being in control. He can sympathise, which is perhaps part of why he's so steadfastly taking her side on this.]

Judging by her garbage excuse for an "apology", though, I can't argue with that comparison. [The flowers and the melodrama gave the impression she was expecting that to be some kind of emotional climax to a story.]

[kokuyoyo]

Then good luck with it....

[Because he's going to watch just to see if anything gets set on fire again.]

[all_seeing_eye]

One of them is my god name. Pretty cool, right?

[nopixiedust]

I'm not asking you to give her a pass, I'm asking you to just not attack her with vultures.

[revolutionfalcon]

If you want that, she needs to learn when not to try ordering me around. There are things that will shorten my temper even further than usual.

[Like mourning, for example, which Hibiki has interrupted him during twice.]

[nopixiedust]

I'll give her a lesson in "Shun Management Techniques", then.

[It's a single lesson, and it's "stop bugging Shun". Well, maybe a couple of lessons...]

[nopixiedust]

Yeah, like that.

[Carefully, she begins to adjust his arm.]

You have to move right, depending on the dance you do.

[revolutionfalcon]

Somehow I don't think just a lesson is going to work if she hasn't taken the hint yet.

[Granted, he hasn't exactly had reason to set vultures on her their last few meetings, but she's still made token attempts to order him around before he reminded her of what that would likely lead to.]

[royaltyloyalty]

[ That makes Doku look down at the brand again. ]

You make it sound like we're from the same world somehow.

[ And yet, even as he says that, it rings false to Doku. There's nothing familiar to him about the way Ain looks - and he's a god, so his memories can't be suppressed the way a shinki's are, right? ]

If you know this mark, should I be trying to get rid of it?

[royaltyloyalty]

[ It's the last bit that catches Doku's attention most. ]

What counts as a long time?

[ It's a simple question of course, but for Doku it seemed like the kind of answer that could spiral into a lot of other concerns around his strange memory hiccup. ]

[royaltyloyalty]

[That's not the kind of attack that Doku expects, so it's only instinct that gets him backing away enough to not get the brunt of that attack, just about half of it. His endurance isn't of any help here. He's down on one knee with a grunt, then glaring up at Chikusa.]

What the hell?!

[He thought they were sparring! And he's too damn noble to undermine an opponent like that. Coming from the back, perhaps, but a crutch hit to the balls was a whole other thing.]

[royaltyloyalty]

[ With one last push, keeping quiet so as not to alert his opponent, Doku tries to push Lancer out of the sparring area.

Once he thinks he's accomplished that, successful or not, he jumps back towards the center. ]

There!

[ He levels his weapon at Lancer. ]

If your foot stepped out of bounds, I should win. If not, I concede and we can end this as fellow warriors.

[royaltyloyalty]

[ It does surprise him to hear that Gojyo has two other friends working at his bar, but half of it is due to 'his bar' and the other half is the friends working there. After that, he nods. ]

I'll hope for that too.

[ Then, he crosses his arms across his chest and sighs audibly in thought. ]

Guess I'll stay away a bit longer. I can keep busy trying to figure out about this memory loss thing I've got going on, even though I thought that was only supposed to affect shinki.

[ And he takes a step backward, assuming that he's saying goodbye to Hakkai and that the man wouldn't want anything to do with him unless it was Gojyo-related. Even with a truce, surely that would be the situation. ]

[kokuyoyo]

[At least that seems to be a signal to Chikusa to maybe pause, for a second there. Regaining his sense of balance, he blinks dully down at the guy.]

....Does that not usually happen during sparring...

[He's still.... learning the intricacies of combat that isn't immediately life or death. Or just. for the purpose of learning at all.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai blinks, not because Dokugakuji's stepping backwards -- it's relatively true, after all, that Hakkai doesn't know him well and has met him mostly in situations of conflict -- but at the comment about memory loss.]

Ah. That? You mean, having been here for a while, but not remembering any of it?

That comes of dying.

[abgrund]

Yes.

[ this he knows, because the man in front of him isn't from the void, and things should be kept neatly. ]

I can remove it.

[ but he's hesitant to do it if this guy doesn't want to, for some reason ]

[junkyarddog]

Yeah. [Ken nods resolutely. His only real fear in this whole process is that he'll turn into something dumb for his vessel form, and Chikusa will mock him. It's not like he set a precedent or anything.]

[unlucky7]

What happened to the shinki?

[Thinking on it, Ginia doesn't remember seeing a soulless shinki around Nona's temple, even though Nona mentioned having one. Yet she was so overjoyed at having a shinki with a soul too. Ginia frowns, picking at a piece of pear.]

Why don't gods want soulless shinki?

[revolutionfalcon]

Mine? I gave her description to a god with more sympathy and he took her in. [Shun hasn't really been keeping track of what happened since he told Dokugakuji what she looked like, but he does know he apparently named her and one other from the temple.

As for the other question, he shrugs.] Most people seem to distrust them. Personally, I don't like having a shinki that won't question me. It's too much control to have over another person.

[irishfriskey]

[Oh! That's how he was planning on playing? Indeed, he is pushed to the edge of the arena, but his one foot, that would have stepped out of the arena is being held in the air.

Just above the ground.]

I haven't touched it yet.

[And with a flourish, he moves it back into the sparring area and sets it on the ground.

With a smirk.]

I believe I win.

[artificialrose]

R... Right.

[his heart feels way too anxious... about way too much... And he's pretty sure he'll faint if he keeps looking at those lack of cohesive limbs. So, hoping he doesn't look as jittery as he feels, he turns away with a small wave.]

Take care...?

[unlucky7]

[There's no escaping the fact shinki are tools for gods, first and foremost. It's a fact Ginia's accepted and accepts readily, maybe too much at times. There was a time when she had the sense to break the leash of duty before it became a noose. Without her memories, it's harder to sort out the need to serve, the need to be useful, from the need to belong somewhere and feel safe.

Would it be easier to be a soulless shinki? Did someone make a mistake and give her feelings and desires when she should have been an empty shell made to serve? Ginia smiles reflexively at her self-deprecating thoughts, realizing a few seconds too late she's been staring off at nothing.]

I imagine most gods would prefer having a soulless shinki to no shinki at all.

[revolutionfalcon]

Most of them do, that's why you don't see them getting released constantly. But I know a lot of people prefer to let them go once they get a different shinki.

[Not everyone, certainly, but enough people that it seems to be a bit of a pattern. It's more common than it used to be to run across somebody who has a soulless as part of their team of shinki, but still not that common.

However, he didn't miss that brief lapse from Ginia, and he raisess a brow slightly.] You look distracted.