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

[sweetdeath]

Can I see? [He reaches over to snag Ryoma's phone and prod at it for a moment. Nope, it's responding fine.]

Huh. Maybe...

[tap tap tap]

... have you tried taking your gloves off?

[lightninglobster]

Should I have?

[What kind of magic brick needed flesh to work? Ryoma was eyeing it with a hint of feudal suspicion once more, still wholly uncertain as to what the true price of using these odd devices was. Maybe this shinki and his goddess were in league with whatever dark powers controlled the magic phone bricks...

Or maybe Ryoma was just old fashioned. Either way, he removed his gauntlets with a minimum of grumbling, offering a now bare hand out to the mercy of the brick.]

Are you certain these 'phones' are harmless?

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, they're fancy, but they're just machines. They'll break if you step on them or get them wet.

[Not just harmless, but kind of fragile. Tsuzuki hands the phone back for Ryoma to practice.]

They work better if you touch them with your bare skin. I don't actually know how they tell...

[lightninglobster]

[Machines are for people who weren't born in ye olde Fantasy Japan-analog. Mechanists are the closest thing Ryoma might kind of remember if he squinted, and they used fancy but terrifying puppets on strings to do their bidding. It's a good thing phones are fragile--Ryoma prefers to have the ultimate option to break things when stuff starts going awry.

He takes the phone back, letting it rest flat on his palm as he proceeds to poke at it like someone's eighty year old grandfather. He's very proud of himself for not jumping when the screen flickers to life.

Dark magic is afoot here.]

That is incredibly strange and specific.

[... but Ryoma doesn't know enough about phones to really dispute it with Tsuzuki.]

So I touch which part of the screen to find the numbers, again? And then I... 'call' you?

[Somewhere a million voices went silent, as if a million beleaguered teenagers being forced to explain modern technology to their hard-of-hearing elders were suddenly wiped out. They cried for Tsuzuki, for his plight. Run, run far away before he gets to the stage where he understands wi-fi as a word but not a concept.]

[sweetdeath]

That part, down there. See, where it says "Contacts"? With a head silhouette?

[He points, sympathetically. The idea of a touch screen had confused him for a while too. Not to mention how tiny the cell phones were. For some reason, he'd expected them to be more shoe-sized.]

Touch the head, then it'll show you the whole list. You'll spot my name about a quarter of the way down.

[lightninglobster]

[Ryoma follows directions in bewildered silence, balancing the phone on his palm as if he expected it to snap at him if he were to grip it with any sort of pressure. He tapped on the 'contacts' button--and jerked back a little as eh screen jumped, an entire list of unfamiliar names sprouting up before him.]

How fascinating.

[He murmured, wonder actually touching his voice for the first time in this whole situation that seemed primed and intended to irritate people who were born back in the good old days... or worlds that still resembled the good old days. You know! Good old days! Cholera and war and feudalism!]

How do you get the list to change?

[He poked at the screen, experimentally--and then jumped a little again as it shifted, because Ryoma had just initiated a call to someone completely unrelated. It's like a buttdial, but done with the fingers of the technologically incompetent instead of the sweet, sweet glutes of happenstance.]

Is it supposed to do this?

[sweetdeath]

[The old days, before air-conditioning and microwave dinners! Terrible time.]

If you push your finger up or down on the list it'll show you more at the top or the bottom, like you're unrolling a scroll....

[He leans over for a better upside-down look at Ryoma's screen, and pauses.]

Uh, did you mean to call... who is that?

[lightninglobster]

[Listen here, doublewitch, whatever dark magic you're weaving with your microwaves is not welcome in our good Christian vaguely Shintoistic household.]

How do I get back to the scroll? How do I make it not do... this? Who is this person, anyway?

[Ryoma rarely expressed frustration because bottling was a much healthier method of coping, thank you kindly, but... the flesh-technology was doing something, and it needed to not. Please. Help?]

[sweetdeath]

Um, I don't know them, but maybe if you hit that button there? Stop the call?

[He points out a red phone icon. That should work! He hopes! Then maybe Ryoma can go back and find the other spot and...

Somebody who's better with cell phones should probably be giving this advice. Tsuzuki is no good under pressure.]

[lightninglobster]

[Damn it, Tsuzuki, you had one job... in the context of this conversation... somebody in this relative space had to know how phones worked! We were all rooting for you!]

I--all right.

[Ryoma tapped the button, squinting at the phone suspiciously as it... stopped. The screen went back to the step before, the various... buzzings and such ceased their incessant jiggling. Everything was still. With another fortifying breath for courage, Ryoma very carefully began to scroll the phone down, looking for some arrangement of characters that matched Tsuzuki's name.]

This is entirely too complicated.

[sweetdeath]

You're telling me! It took me forever to figure out how these things are supposed to work.

What's wrong with just a regular keypad, that's what I want to know.

[Stupid touchscreens. Stupid complicated interfaces.

At least Ryoma's managed to hang up on whoever it was he was calling, so that's a step in the right direction.]

[lightninglobster]

There were other versions of these things? What is a key pad?

[Ryoma is scrolling very, v e r y carefully, one little thumb wiggle at a time. It takes an excruciating amount of time before he finally lands on Tsuzuki's name--somewhere, a child is born, at least two sports teams lose their games, and somebody probably misses a bus connection. Ryoma hovers a finger over the name, getting ready to press it--

And then the screen flashes to white, information popping as the mysteriously called person calls back. Mysteriously.]

What is it doing now?!

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, the old style were bigger, and the screen was simpler, and it had buttons instead of this weird scrolling stuff--

[The phone in Ryoma's hand rings, and Tsuzuki's so startled he almost drops his own phone.]

-- oh geez, um, I think that person's calling back.