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

[abgrund]

[ It's a slight point of surprise that Roxas doesn't react to him immediately, though that might be because the other shinki hasn't seen him yet.

One of the white-robed shinki steps forward to inspect the damage left behind by the eye explosion. Without further instruction, Ain turns his attention to the person who had received his hood. ]

That's mine...

[ He floats forward a short distance, watching. ]

[cloak]

[Roxas stiffens with the approach, the tension about his posture suggesting he expects to be attacked as he turns around. But even so, he holds out the garment almost mechanically. If the guy is the owner, then he doesn't need to hold onto it.

And no one else around here seems to be treating him as a threat, so... Whatever that feeling is, he tries to ignore it]

Here—

[And then he gets a good look at the guy, and the rest of what he might have said gets lodged in his throat. What is he seeing here?]

[abgrund]

[ .... Ah.

Slender fingers pick the cloak from Roxas's hands, draping it over his chest and falling neatly over the hole. Hopefully it would snap Roxas out of his trance. ]

Thank you.

[ Though his singular gaze still lingers on the boy's frame, expectant of perhaps some other words. ]

[cloak]

[Although he isn't sure what spurs him to voice it, nor what lends itself to such a question, Roxas still asks—]

Did something happen to your heart?

[That's where one would be, wouldn't it? And it's important. Something in him tells him that this is so]

[abgrund]

My heart...?

[ He echoes the question slowly, looking vaguely downwards at his own body. Perhaps one could call the eye his heart, with how it pulses to an unseen rhythm - the song of the void. ]

I... [ something stirs at the back of his mind, a ripple through dark water. ] ... don't have one.

[ This is a shell. Yes, that's right. ]

[cloak]

[He tips his head curiously to one side, the movement of his hood choreographing the motion]

You don't?

[The concept is familiar, somehow, though he can attach nothing to it except for that. People can exist without hearts. Or perhaps they don't exist without them, but they're there all the same]

...Did you have one?

[Surely, once, he must have]

[abgrund]

[ It's a good question. His eyebrow curves in the slightest of frowns as he focuses... but whatever memory he once had falls out of his fingers like sand. ]

.... I don't remember.

[ Does it matter? ]

[cloak]

Right...not like any of us would.

[But it seems like a pretty important thing, one they shouldn't forget.

Well, it's not as though they have any say in the matter]

Did you do that?

[He moves right along, easily guiding the subject elsewhere by pointing at the guy's handiwork...or rather, what remains of his training dummy]

[abgrund]

[ So this stranger is also a shinki... a piece of information that he didn't have before, but can't find any opinion to form out of it. ]

I did.

[ He had been instructed to leave out his void gates, so he merely used the explosive properties of his skills. Not that he knows where they come from, but he knows that they are mutated from what they were originally meant to be. ]

What about it?

[cloak]

I don't remember how to do some of the things I can do.

[And he sees no reason to mince words where this is concerned. It's a potential problem if he can't control or anticipate his own actions.

If this guy understands his capabilities, maybe there's something to it that he can learn]

[abgrund]

[ That can be something troubling, especially since shinki are expected to fight. As much as his emotions have dulled, the thought of leaving Roxas without skills strikes him as.... inappropriate.

But how best to go about this? ]

Do you know how to use a weapon?

[ As if in demonstration, he holds out a hand - and his scythe manifests in his grasp. ]

[cloak]

[The best he can offer is a helpless shrug]

I'm not sure about that either. But when I tried to make a borderline...

[He turns, repeating the gesture he'd tried earlier. Instead of the intended result, electricity bounds in the direction he points instead]

I just get stuff like this.

[abgrund]

[ Ain closes his fingers over the pole of the scythe, and it vanishes in a shower of black sparks. ]

Affinity...?

[ - is the first thing that comes to mind. Something about elemental types lingers in his thoughts, but not much more. ]

Do you think of anything... when you do that?

[cloak]

Stopping something, because that's what we're supposed to do...and direction. We're supposed to focus, they said.

[So he's tried to focus his energy, but what he's getting just doesn't seem right.

It could be that he's doing it the wrong way. He just hasn't figured out how]

[abgrund]

[ There is a difference between focusing and guiding, definitely. He thinks back to how he had drawn on the void to release the energy of his own creations; there had been a purpose to it. ]

What are you.... focusing on?

[ It had been so easy to key a gate into his core and let the power flood out. ]

Think of the effect... that you want; to make your thoughts real.

[cloak]

There's none of those ayakashi things, around here.

[And probably for the better. They sound like trouble, and there's something uncomfortably familiar about how they're described, too]

But it seems like the point's stopping them.

[Destroying them, rather]

[abgrund]

[ He's quiet for a few moments, trying to sieve out words from the murky mess that is his thoughts. How to convey this to someone who did not hear the song of the void in his mind....? ]

You have to.... focus on your intent.

[ Ain holds out a (visually disembodied) hand, willing a borderline to fall. It flares into existence a little shakily, but it's there. ]

Think less of lightning.

[cloak]

[He thinks the word here is Thunder, but that's besides the point]

That's the thing, I didn't think about it.

[Puffing out a breath, he drops his hand and glances back up at the taller fellow]

What kind of...intent...do you think of?

[abgrund]

.... separation.

[ The former angel closes his eye for a moment, dispelling the boundary line. ]

They said the intent should be to keep you separate from... something else. [ Ayakashi, perhaps. ] A.... boundary.

[ It comes naturally to him, though that may be because his mind interprets it as a cutting tool. ]

[cloak]

[Roxas weighs that thought, his line of sight sinking to the place where the boundary once was, his hood dipping along with it]

If I wanted to keep something away...

[He extends a hand, tries to bend his focus to such a task.

But instead of a boundary, a plume of black smoke and glitter heralds the appearance of what might best be described as a menacing, giant skeleton key in his grip. He jumps, holding the object as far from himself as possible, shoulders tense]

That's—

[Not right either, is it?]

[abgrund]

[ It doesn't look different from Ain's own scythe, so his only reaction is a slow blink. ]

... not a line.

[ But it is interesting, so he floats a little closer. ]

Is it... your weapon, that you hold now?

[cloak]

[Cautiously, Roxas turns the object in his grip]

I think so.

[That seems right, anyway]

But I'm not sure what it's supposed to be.

[abgrund]

[ Perhaps the correct word is a key, but: ]

A sword...?

[ He summons a projection sword in his own hand, the weapon composed of outlines of hard light in black and green. ]

I have some too...

[cloak]

Can all shinki do stuff like that?

[He doesn't remember it from the pamphlet he'd been handed earlier, but they can both do it. So maybe there's something to that.

Or it might not be something they're expected to do at the onset? It's hard to say]

[abgrund]

[ That is a Good Question. ]

... I don't know.

[ The projected sword shatters into a spray of black shards, fading away. ]

But, you now know something you can do...?