July Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: December 22nd
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 more experienced god and shinki volunteers.




Meeting Hall

God Training

Newly arrived gods are escorted into a small meeting room, with tatami floors and a stage 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. Paper and pens are provided to all the attendees as an unsubtle suggestion to take notes on the information they're given.

The speaker delivers his welcome speech in a rather bored tone, occasionally stumbling and checking his own notecards. He particularly dwells, towards the end of the speech, on the fact that an unauthorized god has recently tried to access the Heavens, and any contact from other gods asking to access the Heavens through their temples should be immediately reported. Newly arrived gods 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. They are allowed to remain in the room as long as they wish, should they want to discuss questions with each other or with more experienced gods who are here to help out.

Shinki Training

Various shinki in the white-and-gold of Amaterasu's hosuehold are stationed around the dojo, passing out informational pamphlets that have been freshly printed. They will be happy to answer any questions or instruct the newcomers in the use of the borderline. They also accompany their answers, or lessons, with 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.

A variety of weapons are available in the dojo for shinki and their gods to practice with, and a row of straw targets are set up along one wall. Outside, in an area carefully roped off with red ribbons, are six animated training dummies, also made of straw and dressed in plain cotton jackets and trousers. They will immediately engage anyone who enters the area marked with the ribbon, but will not pursue opponents outside it. A white-robed shinki nearby keeps a sharp eye on the animated dummies, and will intervene if anyone tries to destroy one.

Physical Training

A race track has been laid out, winding through the gardens to a towering pole, 9 meters in height, planted in the center of a pond with a cluster of pretty ribbons tied at the top. White-robed shinki are standing by with stopwatches: anyone who wants can race their friends along the path, with the first one to return to the starting point with a ribbon winning the challenge, or solitary racers can recruit a shinki to time them and try to beat their own speed. But be careful not to fall off the pole! The pond isn't dangerously deep, but the bottom is very muddy, and in late December, it's also very, very cold.

On the lawn near the dojo, a wide circle has been marked out in white paint, and big baskets set around the circle are filled with sachets full of chalk dust in a rainbow of colors. Pick your color, grab a handful of sachets, and join the fray! Anyone inside the circle is a fair target to have one of the sachets thrown at them, and on impact, they splash out enough brightly colored dust to mark the spot they strike. Head or torso hits are an automatic out, leg hits mean the target isn't allowed to move from their position, and arm hits mean they can't use that arm. Borderlines -- and any other magic -- are allowed, and the game can get intense.

Rest and Refreshments

The weather outside, although not freezing, is quite chilly, and in the middle of the afternoon, the shinki will invite everyone into a prepared banquet hall for food and to warm back up. Charcoal braziers set in the center of square tables radiate warmth, and are covered by grates; other shinki bring trays of fresh ingredients, both meat and vegetable, that can be grilled over the hot coals.

After the meal is finished, one of the white-robed shinki, a middle-aged woman with her hair cut in a fashionable modern bob, enters the room with an expression of great, if restrained, delight, pushing a cart with a portable karaoke machine and speaker on it. She sets up the karaoke machine at one end of the room, and begins encouraging others -- both her fellow shinki and the newcomer guests -- to join in with a song. Whenever there's a break, she puts in music selections of her own; she has a trained, jazzy voice and a great fondness for midcentury enka.

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
• Relax, sing and barbecue
• Have fun~

Comments

B

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Whyyyyyyyyyyy?!"

The agonized cry comes up from, yes, behind, where that satchet slowly slides off the cover of a book floating in midair, leaving the face beneath it coated in bright blue chalk. The blank white eyes water and blink desperately against the grit now coating them, while it coughs violently. Zetta might not have any lungs, but the taste is nothing to be pleased at!

"Treachery! I've been attacked without obvious cause! Have the gods of the Far Shore declared war on me by sneak attack?!"

[chibisu]

That sure is some sort of reaction, and both Ebisu and Takami give a bit of a jump. It's the god in the group who immediately approaches, however, both apologetically but utterly fascinated by a talking book.

"It's part of the training," he says simply, standing on the tips of his shoes to get a better look. "I wasn't aiming for you. Would you like a tissue?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh, attacking me is part of your training, huh?!" the book said, glaring down without any acknowledgement of the offer that would slightly compromise his indignation and egocentrism. "Training for the day when I finally conquer the Far Shore! That's more canny than I'd expected from this place!

"Hyaaaha ha ha ha ha! At last you realize the threat I'll eventually pose! You should be grateful to your luck, since I've been forced to maintain peace for now!"

[chibisu]

The good news, if there's anything good about this whole mess, is that Takami is not longer startled, but so confused that no other emotion can break through. Unmi just pats his shoulder with an amused huff.

The Far Shore is full of complete and utter weirdos.

...Which Ebisu now gets to deal with, blinking blankly throughout this whole thing. "No..." He points, helpfully, towards the circle. "I was helping the people train in there."

No comment on the 'rule the Far Shore' thing.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Right, you were helping them train by showing them how to assault the Overlord!" Zetta was glad they'd come to this mutual understanding and all secret motivations and plots were out in the open. "But sneak attacks are useless again--" One eye twitched shut, and the book lolled slightly sideways, before it snapped its mouth shut. "Pfeh, zhock shuzt," he squeezed out of one corner of its mouth as it tried to get the saliva going again.

[chibisu]

"But I wasn't aiming at you." Perhaps he needs to be more clear? This is certainly an interesting situation he's found himself in, and Ebisu raises one hand to his chin thoughtfully. "In fact, if it makes you feel better, I've never heard of you at all before this encounter."

Helpful, right?

But in the meantime, he'll take a spare tissue he has in his pocket and offer it up to the floating book. So far it's just been completely bizarre, after all, and not necessarily antagonistic. No need to be rude.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

A minion crashed violently to the ground as if from an impossible height, landing right next to the Overlord. Said minions promptly accepted the tissue on the book's behalf, and gave the cover a quick scrub.

"You only haven't heard of me because my plans to conquer you all are on hold till we can deal with that damn renegade god or whatever the hell." Zetta was not polite around children.

[chibisu]

Fortunately for Zetta, the only two people who could care about language are Ebisu's two shinki, and they're a little preoccupied. Preoccupied as in Unmi is holding Takami's hand from when he'd startled at the sudden minion landing and almost flung a borderline his way.

Oblivious to what's happening behind him, Ebisu stares with intense interest at the minion. The world domination thing can be put on hold; his curiosity has been snagged. "What is that?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh, that? That's a minion. Basically a semiautanomous extension of my mana power with a kicker of ambient spiritual energy bound to whatever stuff I could find lying around for the purpose."

The minion turned to offer a bright if somewhat vapid smile and wave to Ebisu.

"They're embarrassing to use, but hey, I'm a book, I'm not exactly flush with options here."

[chibisu]

Hey, a greeting is a greeting, and it's rude not to reciprocate. Ebisu waves back, still burning with curiosity as ever even if his shinki seem a little wary. After all, if he was going to get hurt, doesn't it seem like it would have happened a lot sooner than this? As it is, giving away something like this almost seems like dropping an ace out of your sleeve.

So, instead, he asks, "Is it alright if I touch you, Minion-san?"

Because he needs to. For science. Is it a solid entity like his shinki are? Will it fall apart if he presses too hard? All these questions and more bubble inside his head.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Sure!" the minion said brightly, squatting down to be more on Ebisu's level. "You're such a cutie! I'll see if the Overlord can kidnap you someday so I can put you in a cat-ear hoodie!"

Zetta let out a low, strangled sigh.

"I mentioned they were idiots, right?"

[chibisu]

OKAY, STRANGER DANGER IS ON HIGH ALERT. Not for Ebisu, of course, who just blinks up at the minion blankly, but rather for Takami, who immediately steps forward to press a hand onto Ebisu's shoulder. You know. Just in case he has to yank his god back for the worst case scenario. He tries to glare threateningly, but the effect is more akin to a small dog that's been harassed and has an anxiety disorder now.

"I suppose you did." Reaching over, he starts to poke and prod the minion, still curious. "You said that your mana needs to be bound to an object, right?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"For this purpose, yeah. It provides a core, basically, something I can fix the mana power on so I can shape it and give it a semi-independent life." Zetta knew a thing or two about his own abilities, despite being Zetta. "I'm surprised you don't know much mana power yourselves, being gods and all. Though I think you derive it in a different way than we demons do."

[chibisu]

"Does the difference of the core cause any notable difference within the minion?" Speaking of which, excuse him, Mr. Minon. Ebisu starts to circle around the curious creature, with Takami anxiously following close behind. You know. Just in case.

"For example, personality, or even only appearance..."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Stats," Zetta said, cheerfully assuming that this makes perfect sense. "Rocks are more defensive, flowers have better SP, weapons are stronger in attack power..."

[chibisu]

What do you mean, this makes perfect sense. At least, it seems to make perfect sense to Ebisu, who gives a simple nod to the explanation. Unmi is just slowly raising his eyebrows in the background for lowkey judgment, and Takami has the kind of confusion spread across his face that says he's quietly worried about the mental stability of the thing his god is talking to.

"So it decides what traits they have, which determines what role to put them in," Ebisu says. "Does this go to things like talents as well?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh, I can make any minion out of any item," Zetta said. "I could make a mage out of a rock. That's just bad optimization, though! There's no real point in it. But past that, the item I confine them in is really minor. Everything else is determined by their class, or species if they're non-demon."

[chibisu]

"You can turn items into things that aren't demons?" Fascinating. "Like what?" Maybe he should write this down... Oh, but he doesn't have anything on him besides his phone, which isn't the best for this kind of thing. That's fine, he guesses. He'll just write everything down when he gets back home.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hyaaaha ha ha ha ha! Behold! The most pathetic creature in the cosmos!"

With a thunderous crash, a strange creature descended from the heavens to land next to them -- a penguin, apparently stitched-together, with two peg-legs and a belt pouch.

It cheerfully lifted a flipper to wave to Ebisu and the others. "How's it going, dood? I'm here to serve as Exhibit B! It's everything I could have hoped for out of life."

[chibisu]

...Well. He did say 'most pathetic creature'.

While Takami and Unmi both twitch, ready for borderlines at the thunder crash, Ebisu waits for the light to clear and nods his head politely to the penguin. "You're doing a very good job," he says seriously, reaching over to pat him on the head.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Man, those two were jumpy. Didn't they realize that if Zetta were actually going to do something nefarious, he'd just do it? Sheesh!

Thanks very much, dood! Your thanks and the extra fish head this overtime job will earn me have made me the richest Prinny in the Far Shore."

[chibisu]

Listen, sometimes paranoia gets the best of any shinki, once the live long enough. At least Unmi calms down soon enough. Takami.... Well, he's not panicking outright. That's something. Ebisu just nods, pleased.

"That's very good! If you need advice on your wages, please let me know." He's a god of commerce. He never thought that would apply to penguins but, if anything that just makes him more interested in offering.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I'll keep that under advisement, dood!"

Zetta made a mental note to beat the entrepreneurial fires out. Possibly literally.

"Anyway, you get the impression I assume."

[chibisu]

"Yes, quite." Looking away from the penguin, Ebisu nods.

"I'd be very interested in learning more about it. Have you ever considered writing a book about this sort of magic?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh ha ha," said the book with the scowl. "First of all, it's not magic. Mana power is something different. Think of it like prayers. The more worshippers you get, the more powerful you are as a god, right? Mana power's like that except it comes from within, for the most part."