April Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: November 6th
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 rear of 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 a much nicer room than the warehouse where the last set of new gods got their informational speech. It's a smaller meeting room, with tatami floors and a small dais at the front of the room where the speaker stands. 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.

Butterfly spirits are swarming the flower garden to one side of the dojo, fluttering across bright pink late-blooming cosmos. Shinki who want to practice more precise borderline aim can try using them to gently herd the butterflies one way or another, or, if their borderlines aren't quite that good yet, they can try to catch one with a net. Just be careful! It would be a shame to hurt them.

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.

The animated training dummies are missing this week, although the mundane ones are still intact on their stakes; the white-robed shinki who has previously been seen looking after them is wandering among the mundane training dummies, muttering, making notes to himself and swearing under his breath. Anyone who stares at him for too long, god or shinki, newcomer or established, is going to find him marching over and assigning them a task. Measure the air temperature in each square foot of the dojo, determine the exact height of each dummy and the location where it's most likely to be hit by opponents of different heights, hook an accelerometer to someone's sleeve while they smack a dummy around -- there seem to be hundreds of little, fiddly measurements he needs, and he's not taking no for an answer.

Rest and Refreshments

There are casks of fresh, cold water near the dojo to make sure no one gets dehydrated, and a fresh autumn-themed lunch will be served a little after noon. Rice with mushrooms, salt-grilled fish, roasted sweet potatoes and fresh fruit are on the menu; the shinki will try to accommodate any special dietary requests, and both the new arrivals and more experienced volunteers are welcome to partake.

One of the white-robed shinki has a whole pack of half-grown puppies that she seems to be trying to train. A few have mastered sitting, a few have figured out how to fetch, and all of them are young and excited enough that they're dashing off in all directions at the least provocation. Watch out! Dog incoming! Maybe she needs some help with that?

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
• Play with the dogs
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

[That makes Shun raise a brow a bit, looking somewhat unimpressed, but he just shrugs in the end.] It'll say it if you ever use your phone to post anything, so you'll see it again eventually. Like I said, most people don't care that much outside that side of things.

[Except the old gods, but Shun couldn't really care less about the opinions of the old gods by and large, particularly when it comes to names.]

[rockthemonkey]

I like my own name! It's easy to remember! I've never forgotten it even once!

[Which is more significant than it sounds, he promises. Hell, even when he was a shinki he didn't forget his name and he doesn't remember that anymore.]

It's Goku! Son Goku.

[revolutionfalcon]

I know. [Shun figures the guy's going to figure out he's been here before at some point, even if Hakkai doesn't tell him sometime, and he tends to be pretty upfront about this sort of thing.] You were here once before. We only met once, but I recognised you when I saw you.

[He knows pretty much nothing else about him, though, considering even the part about him being from Hakkai's world was news to him.]

[rockthemonkey]

[Goku freezes on the spot for a couple of seconds.]

... I've never been here before. [He thinks. Sometimes people mention something about him doing something in heaven but he doesn't know what that's about.] I've never seen you before either.

[Would he forget that?]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun nods slightly, like it's not surprising to get an answer like that.] Sometimes people forget. But it'd probably be a better idea to ask Hakkai when you find him. He'd know more about it than me.

[And Shun doesn't exactly feel like he'd do a good job of navigating the "you were a shinki last time" conversation.]

[rockthemonkey]

[He really doesn't look familiar. Nataku had looked familiar. If he's met this guy before, why doesn't he look familiar?]

... I'll ask him.

[revolutionfalcon]

[There's another nod at that, but Shun figures it's probably best to leave the topic there before he opens himself to any further questions. He's diverting that subject to Hakkai for a reason, after all.]

If you want something to do while you're waiting for him to show up, this place has just about every weapon under the sun for practicing with.

[rockthemonkey]

Ah, that's alright, I've already got one.

[Goku holds out his hand and there's a flash of light in it before a red staff appears. He gives it a quick twirl like it's a baton.]

Don't need anythin' else. [Playing with swords does sound like fun but. He's tired. Maybe next time.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's eyes follow the movement of the weapon closely after it appears. It's not the first time he's met someone who could summon a weapon, but at the same time...he's starting to see why Ren got pretty fond of this guy in the short time he was his shinki.]

You look like you've been using that for a while. [Staff weapons aren't a forte of Shun's - he's been training in polearms for a little while since Lavi taught him the basics, but a few months is very little in the grand scheme of things, even if he tries to train a bit almost every day.]

[rockthemonkey]

Mm, a couple of years. [Goku rests the end of his staff on the ground and leans on it like it's a walking stick. He's been fighting all day okay, let him rest.] It's called Nyoi-bo, it's pretty great!

[It's only been a few years, but Goku is annoyingly brilliant at one thing and that one thing is fighting. He picked up fighting with a staff pretty quickly once he started.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That seems like an impressive level of skill for a few years, but then, Shun's heard a couple of times that he himself is surprisingly good at hand-to-hand for someone who was only forced into it a few years ago, so he probably can't talk.]

I haven't had much experience with that kind of weapon. I only started learning about how to use polearms a couple of months ago, so I'm still better at just using my fists.

[Or his legs, as the case frequently is.]

[rockthemonkey]

Punching people is good too! And kicking them!

[It's fun! Right? Yeah!]

If you wanna practice, I don't mind helping! [He's a little beat up right now, but that won't last long.] I had to practice a lot to get good with Nyoi-bo.

[Goku is not a good teacher.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Good teacher or not, if all else fails Shun can offer to spar him. Getting roundly beaten by an opponent better with the weapon is still a learning experience.

As such, Shun shrugs slightly and makes a gesture towards the dojo proper.]

I was heading that way anyway, so I might as well practice with a polearm first if you're offering.

[Shun's been trying to learn a pretty wide variety of weapons since he came here, some with more dedication than others.]