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

[swordofzero]

[She is fast and she clearly knows what she is doing in a fight. Not that Suzaku had expected anything else from their borderline spar when he had first arrived.

As she fights he marks where she hits so that he can measure. He makes sure to do so quickly and to not get in her way. The actual measuring can come when she is finished hitting]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia fires off a few more fast attacks to the torso and head before taking a step back. Her hand falls to her side, quickly checking to make sure she hasn't pulled her cut open and begun bleeding. Nope, all good.]

How's that for a starting place?

[swordofzero]

[He is busy taking measurements but he does notice her hand go to her side and he frowns] Are you hurt?

[He doubted she had hurt herself from the practice, even though she was moving fast. It was clear she was skilled and could train without injury.]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia shakes her head before pausing. Technically yes, but not because of this. She adds in a shrug of her shoulders as she types.]

I picked up some injuries in the city a week ago, but they're all mostly healed now. Still trying to be careful though.

[swordofzero]

In the city? The fight against the Ayakashi? [He's heard bits and pieces but he had been asleep at the time, his strange three days of sleeping]

[unlucky7]

Correct. Were you out there? [She doesn't remember seeing Suzaku at the meeting, but it was fairly crowded. The city itself was also fairly hectic.

Sorry, Suzaku, she missed your post about your prolonged nap.]

[swordofzero]

No [He shook his head] I fell asleep for three days... apparently it's not that unusual.

[unlucky7]

[Oh! Ginia's eyes widen as she looks over him. She's heard of people sleeping for a long period of time, but it doesn't make the idea any less strange.]

Are you okay? Any side-effects or anything?

[swordofzero]

[He shook his head] No nothing like that. If I hadn't missed the meeting I might have not even realised I'd slept that long.

[Which was strange. But so much was strange and he was mostly just accepting that it was a thing that happened sometimes. No one understood it so there was no real point in worrying]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia glances over him again, but if he says he's fine, then she'll take his word for it.]

As long as you're okay. Want to know anything about the meeting or what happened in the city?

[swordofzero]

[He nods with another smile] I don't know much about it, only that there were some Ayakashi and spells that drained people. [So that would be a yes, he'd like to know.]

[unlucky7]

Give me a moment to write things up.

[If it's details Suzaku wants, details he'll get. Ginia takes her time typing up a message, choosing the most relevant things from that night to point out. Once she's done, she'll hand her phone over to Suzaku so he can read the message.]

Meeting: Good food, mostly a chance for gods and shinki to mingle. There was fortune weaving; an activity to weave together fortunate connections for mortals or personal connections alike. The big announcements were Nekhbet (Shun Kurosaki) as the most popular of the new gods and the reinstatement of Orihime as a god.

City: Around midnight, a large area of blight covered a residential area, killing anything living in the area and attracting ayakashi. Anyone pulled out of the blighted area seemed to recover pretty quickly, but it was still a mess. Ebisu (one of the old gods) and his shinki were helping in the area.

[swordofzero]

[He is fine with waiting, he lets her type and doesn't interrupt. When she is done he takes the phone and reads through the message.

He doesn't know who Shun Kurosaki is, or Orihime but the information was interesting nonetheless. The most popular of the new gods, how was that decided?

But the attack was what he had been concerned about. Blight that killed anything living.] It sounds like a mess [He handed the phone back] Do they know what caused it yet?

[unlucky7]

[Ginia shakes her head. Not out of lack of effort either. Amaterasu's shinki are simply cagey as usual, or truly unaware of any information. What she really needs is taking a trip back to that area of the city.

Text dump over with, Ginia changes back to audio.]

Nothing yet, annoyingly, but it was big and sudden. Here's hoping a cause is identified so it'll never happen again.

[swordofzero]

I hope so. [It was worrying especially as Hakkai had said that there had been similar things elsewhere, hopefully a cause and a solution would be found soon.] I'm sorry I was not able to help.

[unlucky7]

Nothing to apologize for, it couldn't be helped.

[Wasn't like he fell asleep on purpose. Even if he did or purposefully avoided things, Ginia wouldn't fault him.]

If you hear anything about the city, let me know?

[swordofzero]

[He knows, but it still feels wrong. That those he had come to know here had put themselves in danger, that people had been hurt and even killed and he hadn't been able to help]

I will.

[unlucky7]

Thanks. Back to getting measurements on the dummy for the shinki or do you want to grab a snack or something?

[swordofzero]

I should get back to this. [He's almost done, but he doesn't want to leave work unfinished] Thank you for helping me though.

[unlucky7]

Welcome. I'm going to get some water and see who else is around. Take care.

[swordofzero]

You too. I am sure I'll see you again soon.