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]

[Roxas gives no indication that the tone has unnerved him as he turns to look in the guy's direction. His hand remains where it is, flexing his fingers experimentally like it'll yield some form of explanation, because he certainly doesn't know what he just did]

I think so...

[Though his flat tone doesn't sound entirely certain as he looks down at his hand again. It's either a strange coincidence that it happened when he tried to draw a borderline, or it was him, and he isn't entirely too sure which.

It's not what he was going for, that part he is certain of]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That's never a particularly helpful answer, though Shun's going to guess it was him anyway. He's seen shinki with powers from home have trouble striking up a borderline without them coming into play, so it doesn't seem like that strange a happening to him.

He stands back a little more.] If you aren't sure, then do it again.

[Staring at his hand isn't going to help him figure it out, but doing the same thing and seeing if he gets the same result is going to give him a bit more of an idea.]

[cloak]

[It does seem logical, insofar as confirming whether it was something he had done or a freak occurrence goes. Still, Roxas hesitates for a moment before he extends a hand and tries again. He focuses on halting a threat, just as he had been instructed...

But once again, the result is a jolt of electricity crackling to life right where he points. His shoulders slump]

...It's not right, is it?

[It doesn't look right at all]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That's not too unexpected, and though Shun notes the slump of the shoulders, he doesn't make any particular effort to cheer the guy up. He does, however, figure he might as well point out the facts as he knows them.]

No. But it's not that uncommon for shinki to accidentally tap into other powers they might have while trying to make borderlines. I've seen it happen with others here before. You might be better off figuring out what that power is that's interfering and how to stop it doing that before you keep trying borderlines.

[At least, he's pretty sure that's how people like Yata would've solved the issue in the end. As both a god and someone who never had powers of his own, Shun can't really claim he knows the problem in detail.]

[cloak]

So...work with what I can do, first.

[It makes about as much sense as anything else. If he can control when he uses whatever this ability is, he can avoid misfiring when he's trying to do what he's supposed to. There's only one difficulty in this however, and he puffs out a clipped breath]

Which means figuring out how I'm doing it.

[That'll...keep him occupied for sure]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hums slightly in assent to the second comment. He knows it's harder for shinki, but it's also something he's seen done before.] Might be worth asking around for people who've had the same problem and how they dealt with it. It'll save wasting time on trial and error yourself when you can just use the experience from others.

[Whether he chooses to do that today and here or on the BBS, since Shun figures the process is going to take some work beyond just this training day regardless.]

Or if your god isn't new, they might've dealt with it before.

[cloak]

[It stands to reason that those methods would be more efficient. He still wishes that he could get something this elementary nailed down here and now, since it's important, but he might well waste time this way. Some job he's doing at being useful]

I don't now if my god is new or not...I guess I could ask that too.

[What a start he's getting]

[revolutionfalcon]

[On one hand, it's not a question that usually comes up quickly, but on the other it also implies this guy hasn't had much time to talk to his god. Either way, Shun just shrugs slightly.]

I might be able to tell you if you know their name. I've been here a while, so it's easier to keep track of who's been here a long time and who hasn't.

[Keeping track of what names stay consistent and which ones appear and disappear usually, but also out of knowing those people.]

[cloak]

I do know his name.

[It's one of the precious few bite of knowledge Roxas has to his name, now. People reference so many unfamiliar things in this place that it's something of a comfort to have some useful knowledge]

It's Add. Do you know him?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Seems like Add's gotten a few today. Though considering what happened a few weeks ago, maybe the Heavens thought he needed some extra supervision. In any case, Shun nods immediately.]

He's been here longer than me, as far as I know, and I've been here over six and a half months. So he might've had a shinki or known someone it's been a problem for.

[Though considering Add's somewhat loose willingness to control his own powers, Shun has some suspicions about exactly how well this is all going to end up going.]

[cloak]

[Six and a half months.

Roxas doesn't know yet if that's a long or a short while to be a god, but he gets the feeling it's the latter rather than the fore. Still, it means they have more experience and knowledge than he does, and hopefully that means someone will know what he should do to get the results he ought to]

Then...I'll ask him, if I can't figure it out today.

[He's reluctant to show himself as incapable, after finding that his vessel form wasn't particularly useful for combat]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun certainly considers it a long while to have been here, though maybe not long to have been a god, since the old gods like to keep reminding them of exactly how long they've been here. And there's not that many newcomers who've been here that long either.]

Might as well. It'll help both of you. [A shinki's skill helps their god in battle, so it's not a boon to the god to have their shinki keep quiet about problems.] Has the power only been coming out while you've been trying to do this?

[He knows people here have various amounts of lack of control over their powers at times, so it's good to be sure.]

[cloak]

[Roxas nods once, a simple bob of his hooded head]

So far. I think it requires direction and focus.

[He at least has something of an eye for patterns, he's found. Nothing happens if he isn't both concentrating and pointing in a given direction, and the energy whatever it is always follows that direction. That's what he's observed so far at least.

Hopefully it holds true so he knows one thing about what he can do]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun nods back, since it makes sense to him.] Probably. Some people manage to lose control over their powers to the point they come out even when they're not focused, but it's not that common. If you know it takes focus and direction, it at least means you don't have to worry about letting it loose when you don't want to.

[Like he could say of a certain group of fire-wielders here who seem to have a habit of just blowing out fire at the drop of a hat when they're shinki, and not necessarily when they mean to do it.]

[cloak]

Better that than causing more trouble.

[Or collateral damage. He's seen a fair bit of that today, considering how many of them are new. If he can just control what he comes up with, he ought to be in reasonably good shape.

But it's at least reassuring that he isn't facing bigger challenges than that]

[revolutionfalcon]

Right enough. [Shun can agree with that to some degree, even if his thought is more along the lines that it's better to avoid having something uncontrollable because it's impractical to make use of then.

Still, it could certainly be worse, and there are also worse places to discover the fact. Shun nods towards the targets used for borderlining.]

Might as well take advantage of being in a practice area already. You're less likely to run foul of someone else while you train.

[cloak]

[Roxas follows his line of sight, watching the dummies]

If I broke one, would it be bad?

[Not knowing what all he can do, Roxas is aware that he runs the risk of using some excessive force when trying to reign in his abilities. Better to be sure of what's acceptable now than cause trouble later.

It seems obvious they are expected to do damage, but how much is too much?]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun shrugs a little.] The shinki who makes them gets annoyed about people breaking them, but that's as "bad" as it gets. Nobody cares that much.

[Well, except for the shinki, but as far as Shun's concerned, if he can't build dummies that actually hold up against the level of power some people here have, then that's his problem more than anyone else's. Certainly not the problem of some random shinki trying to figure out how their powers work.]

[cloak]

Oh, I see...

[He trails off as he considers this, giving the dummies another lingering glance]

Maybe if I help fix it afterward, they wouldn't mind.

[Not that he knows anything about building such things, but it might lead to less work for whoever is tasked with this particular craft, maybe]

[revolutionfalcon]

You could always ask him if it's that much of a problem.

[Shun sounds like he doesn't really care himself - he breaks the dummies with monotonous regularity, and it seems like the hovering shinki is slightly more reluctant to get into it with gods - but it's better than worrying about it.]

The other option is finding someone willing to take some hits for the sake of figuring it out.

[cloak]

...I don't want to hurt someone.

[He voices the thought before he quite processes it for himself, but he knows the prospect of causing pain makes him uneasy. Why that is, he can't say.

But when he can't control what he does, it seems like a very real prospect]

But I can ask about the dummies.

[revolutionfalcon]

Some people don't mind. [But it's more of a general remark than any actual attempt to convince Roxas otherwise. If he doesn't want to do it, then he doesn't want to do it.

Asking about the dummies is probably a good idea regardless, and he hums slightly in agreement.]

It's not as if the one making them is going to do anything worse than be annoying if he doesn't agree with the idea.

[cloak]

But wouldn't it be bad to do something that bothered them on purpose?

[Roxas isn't quite sure he follows, but he's fully aware of his own newness. If he's blind to how things are done here, then that's something that he needs to correct.

And options seem limited besides, requiring a target that it's okay to damage and only having so many resources onhand. Are there times it's acceptable to do something, if it will trouble another person?

He doesn't know whether he's thought about such a thing before]

[revolutionfalcon]

He made the dummies for combat training. If he didn't expect them to be destroyed, then that's on him, considering they're being fought by gods and shinki.

[It's certainly not just shinki using them for borderline training - he makes use of them pretty frequently himself, especially if he wants to freshen up on fighting large groups of enemies. And plenty of people have powers at their disposal that would immediately wreck something as fragile as a straw effigy.]

It seems like he fixes them easily enough, anyway. They're usually patched up by the next training meet.

[cloak]

Oh, I see your point.

[The more he thinks about it, it might be a challenge not to damage something intended for such a purpose. He doesn't know what level of control he might achieve in a day, but it's less of a concern if it's to be expected that the dummies are going to be damaged. If they're fixed easily, so much the better]

How often do people train here, anyway?

[This seems relevant, as he can't imagine he'll master whatever it is he ought to know in a day]