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

[kokuyoyo]

It's also easy enough to just talk....

[So he doesn't view it as anything special. Whether he's right or wrong about that is up in the air.]

It's up to you in the end.

[blizzardrock]

[That gets a bit of a laugh out of him.]

Talking...won't solve the problems that I'd need a line for. [And it won't help the..."condition" that's stopping him from training properly, either.]

[But then he sighs.] I know. [He knows it's up to him. It just...the discomfort reared its head sooner than he thought it would, that's all.]

[kokuyoyo]

....If you know then you should probably throw up.. or whatever... somewhere away from people.

[Friendly (??) advice.]

[blizzardrock]

Like I said...I am away from people...

[He can't help it if someone who, in his own words was "staying away from people," found him.]

But if you really think I'm going to throw up, then why are you still here? [He's amused outright now.]

[kokuyoyo]

This place is never away from people..

[That is its curse, as far as Chikusa is concerned. With all the new arrivals alone....]

[Still, he doesn't like that amusement, and blinks down at Fubuki.]

...Morbid curiosity. [Fight him on it]

[blizzardrock]

It was far enough... [That is, anyone who happened to see him attacking this shrubbery would just assume he was playing around rather than an accurate measure of what he's capable of. ...And anyway, he hadn't actually wanted to talk to anyone today.]

"Morbid," huh... [He raises a hand and slowly rubs his eyes.] That's one way of putting it...

...You wouldn't happen to have any water, would you? [He kind of needs it now.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Good news: Chikusa has a bottle of water on him, in his bag.]

[Bad news: he takes it out and just kind of... tosses it at Fubuki's head.]

[blizzardrock]

[Conk.]

...Ow.

[Thankfully it hit only his head and not his fingers too, which would probably have hurt more...]

[He catches it as it drops from his head, though.]

...Thanks.

[Lightly dented water is still water. He takes a swig.] Did you get this from the refreshments table?

[kokuyoyo]

No.

[He just makes it a habit to carry his own water around, both for drinking and for dealing with ayakashi or blight. It's the sensible thing, really.]

[blizzardrock]

[...Is he drinking blessed water.]

[He holds the water out to look at it, tilts his head slightly.] Have you ever? [Had water from the refreshments table, that is.]

[kokuyoyo]

[No.]

[....Probably.]

[Chikusa's shoulder sort of twitches.] Sometimes.... free food is free food.

[blizzardrock]

[He lightly snort-laughs.] That was my reasoning too, at first.

[Looks like this possibly blessed water isn’t doing anything painful to him, so he downs the rest of it.]

...Have you ever drank blessed water?

[kokuyoyo]

...No, but I made someone else, once.

[A faint one-shouldered shrug.]

[blizzardrock]

[...He feels like he should be surprised.]

Did anything happen?

[He needs to know. For science reasons.]

[kokuyoyo]

It got rid of his blight.

[...Right, clarification-]

He'd been biting bugs.

[blizzardrock]

...Ah.

[So...nothing harmful. And it was for someone else's sake, which was...way better than what Fubuki'd assumed Chikusa had done that for.]

[...His brain is going to the weirdest places right now, and if he's honest with himself, he doesn't know what to do about it.]

...That was...pretty inventive. Thought it up on the spot?

[kokuyoyo]

...It's not like I could shove his whole face into the water...

[There's a pause just long enough for one to mistakenly assume Chikusa might be done- ]

I only had bottles, not a well.

[He would have done it, if he could have, and if Ken had calmed down enough for it to happen.]

[blizzardrock]

Bottles can be upended, you know...

[But that's...probably beside the point. Especially after the fact.]

Is he okay?

[kokuyoyo]

...But then it would ruin his clothes...

[They used a lot of time for that yukata, dammit- ]

Anyway... He went on to help kill a serial killer.... so...

[blizzardrock]

...I didn't think you were the type to care about that.

[...And...the follow-up...]

Did he ruin his clothes anyway, helping the serial killer? [Is that what he's supposed to be getting here.]

[kokuyoyo]

It was for Axel-sama.

[So. It mattered.]

And no.... But he felt better....

[blizzardrock]

That was...your god?

...It made who feel better? [The one wearing the thing or the god...]

[kokuyoyo]

Yes. And Ken.

He needed to murder someone. [Fubuki needed to hear that, right... And, well, it's not entirely true, in that it was more that Ken needed to feel useful and have something to be proud of that only he could do. But Chikuksa doesn't share that kind of information freely.]

[blizzardrock]

...Oh. [He might worryingly be getting used to such statements from Chikusa.]

...An urge from his past, or...?

[kokuyoyo]

[Reconsider your life choices, Fubuki.]

No, it was just good for him.