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

[chibisu]

Oh....

[Well, it's disappointing, but he guesses that's just how it is. Still, if not there...]

[While Ebisu ponders, Unmi only nods. "That should be fine enough. We'll see if it works in the end anyway, won't we?" He chuckles a little to himself. "Anyway, while you write down your name, it'll take a moment for me to get mine." With that said, he begins to roll up one of his sleeves until he can show off, on the inside of his right elbow, "iki".]

[...Except then, instead of stopping there, he kneels down on one knee, rolling up his right pants leg. There, along the curve there, is another name: 輪, wa. He has to pause for a moment there, finger tapping on the second name, before he makes a small noise of remembrance. "Ah, that's right. It would be a bit too much to go that far, but you can rest assured that there is a third on my shoulder. It's 'ito', for 'thread'."]

[Takami is still a lowkey bundle of nerves, watching Davesprite carefully from the corner of his eye. Ebisu, in the meanwhile, is a lot more open and relaxed. His head stays tilted back, watching the younger shinki with the wide eyed intensity of any child.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, I wouldn't exactly be able to fuck you over for very long, would I. [It'd go down the drain as soon as he didn't even blink at the first spell thrown at him. But with permission given, Davesprite takes out his phone, types in the appropriate letters, and then...scrolls through the kanji options it tries to correct to until he finds the right one.

He glances up from his work to read Unmi's first name, goes back to his phone again...and then has to look up once more when Unmi rolls up his pants leg. While he'd been under the impression old gods frowned on nora, he's also friends with people like Chikusa, so the actual notion that Unmi is a nora gets absolutely zero reaction out of him.

He turns his phone around to reveal his own name kanji - 遺, yui - and gives a slight shrug at the same time.]

You're the first old god and shinki crew I've met who aren't total uptight shitheads about nora, so that's bonus points in my book. I have to say all three of the names before the spell if I want to cast on you, right.

[chibisu]

[Almost immediately, Takami heaves out a huge sigh of relief with his hand over where his heart would be, and Unmi just laughs. "That's right!" he says, rolling down both pants leg and sleeve so that he can sit up. "So it's a bit of an advantage on a nora's part, since we can usually just say one name in comparison to someone else having to say two or more."]

Most of my shinki are nora. [Ebisu adds in his own two cents.] Most of Heaven already knows, probably.... So it's not as if it's too much of a secret if you just asked.

[He's pretty sure of that, even with how he's not been a part of Heaven's usual circles for some time now.]

[redotiertwo]

[That's pretty telling as to the kind of reception these guys generally expect to get, and it's somewhat sobering even if Davesprite doesn't show it. Most of the newcomers don't really care about the nora thing, but then, they rarely interact meaningfully with the old gods, so he hasn't seen the true impact it has.]

I mean, the multiple names for spells thing is kind of an advantage. But yeah, I know a couple of nora anyway, so I couldn't really give half a fuck about that whole deal even if I've never done it myself.

[He might consider it if the right situation arose, but that hasn't really happened yet.]

[chibisu]

Mm, that's not surprising. [Ebisu shakes his head a bit.] Nora are always going to exist, no matter how much Heaven looks down on them. Well, let them know to come to my temple if anything happens, alright? We're always open.

["And having the advantage against someone casting spells against you come with a disadvantage," Unmi adds, "in that you'll have a harder time finding someone who will train you in them... Or, in my case, who will want to learn from you." He huffs out a faint laugh. "It's why I was surprised that you'd asked!"]

We thought for sure that someone might have said something, especially with the recognition I got at the Gods Meeting or with me getting more involved again... [Because he really doubts that there wouldn't be gossip.]

[redotiertwo]

Noted, but the newcomers are usually pretty decent about that sort of thing anyway. We don't have the whole deeply ingrained centuries of loathing deal going for us. [Most of the nora he knows either consider it an advantage or something like a contingency in case one god disappears. But he's definitely only rarely seen anyone frown on it among them.]

I hadn't heard about it, but to be fair, the only old god I really talk to other than you is Orihime, and she's chill. But yeah, as far as I'm concerned, if other people don't want to learn from you because you're a nora, that's their loss and my gain, right.

[It seems like Unmi's pretty skilled, or at least skilled enough to make for a solid teacher, so he'll roll with it regardless.]

[chibisu]

Yes, you're all very different. It's part of the reason why I find your generation so interesting.

[The differences between their personalities and the Heavens, how differently they reincarnate as god and shinki both... There are so many questions to ask about them, Ebisu almost doesn't think he'd have the time to pursue all of it. But so long as his followers continue to believe in him strongly... he'll be around forever.]

[Unmi, at least, seems to find this acceptable. "Well, then I think we should be able to get along fine. By 'more spells', that means you already know at least one or two, isn't that right? What are they?"]

[redotiertwo]

Kind of wish more of the old gods thought we were interesting instead of just avoiding us like the plague. [But hey, that's a can of extremely bitter worms for another time, preferably if he ever gets the chance to talk to one of the more assholish old gods.

At Unmi's question, Davesprite extends two taloned fingers.] Bind and Umbra. I know a lot of the newcomers know Truth and Silence as well, but I was kinda wondering what others were around, since those are pretty much the only ones that library wants to cough up.

[And it doesn't even cough up Umbra to his knowledge, he just happened to learn it off someone who learnt off an old shinki.]

[chibisu]

Not everyone is avoiding you on purpose. Some of us are just bad at socializing.

[Reassurance...??]

[Still, they're here to talk about spells, and Unmi decides to take the conversation from here. "Then... Bakufu and Rakusui seem like they would be on the same level as those two spells. Have you heard of them?"]

[redotiertwo]

I mean, at least you're honest, but that's only like. Slightly reassuring. [Sort of. In the idea that more than about two of the old gods might want to interact with them.

This is the kind of juicy spell info he came here for, though, so he turns his attention to Unmi quickly enough.] I have not, but now that I have, I'd sure like to know more about what they do.

[chibisu]

["Well, they're very handy spells, so you should." Unmi grins a little bit. "Bakufu is a spell that combines the effects of Silence and Bind- you'll keep someone trapped and quiet until you decide otherwise. Rakusui is a sleeping spell. Both of those can last you ten minutes, once you're confident with them, although I've seen Rakusui last up to an hour if you don't disturb the target."]

[redotiertwo]

[...Those both sound useful, honestly, especially considering the former kind of voids the need to learn Silence, and Davesprite holds his talons up to his chin in a moment of genuine indecision.]

...I don't suppose learning more than one spell at once is an option, is it, or is that going to cause me some kind of horrendous brain overload the likes of which has not been seen by immortal man.

[chibisu]

["You could," Unmi says easily enough. "But it would take more effort, and you might go slower trying to balance both lessons. It depends on how well you multitask."]

[Ebisu just grins widely.]

And you'd have to work very hard, too.

[redotiertwo]

I mean, to be fair, do I really have much else to do with my time here than work hard to learn shit that's probably useful. It's not like I can really keep myself super busy on the Near Shore or anything.

[He makes a rather general gesture to himself, feeling like he probably doesn't need to explain why he might have an abundance of free time not necessarily taken up by doing normal person things.]

[chibisu]

[Hey. Davesprite. Can you. Can you not do so much casual swearing. Asking for a friend. Or, you know, Ebisu's shinki, who keeps stealing uncertain little glances Davesprite's way. Unmi just huffs out a laugh, and Ebisu?]

[Ebisu beams up widely at Davesprite.]

Oh, we'll definitely give you all sorts of things to be busy on the Near Shore with!

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite has been here way too long to take that at face value.] Okay, yeah, that definitely didn't at all sound like a line that should have been followed by dramatic cymbals and/or a scare chord, depending on what style of horror we're going for here.

[Considering how often the Heavens' idea of putting the newcomers to good use has been cleaning duty, he's kind of expecting some bullshit when it comes to whatever he has to do to make this up to Ebisu.]

[chibisu]

You can decide which is most appropriate when you come to work at the temple!

[No better way about it, right?]

[Unmi draws a business card out from his pocket, and offers it to Davesprite. "Whenever you have a free afternoon, or morning if you prefer things that way, please feel free to contact me. We can have you jump in whenever, and it'll better let me assess the best time to take a break so I can start on your lessons. Think carefully on if you really want to work on two at the same time."]

[redotiertwo]

You know, I should probably be more concerned that you're not even trying to argue against that, but at least you're honest.

[Davesprite takes the business card, skimming it briefly before tucking it away...somewhere on his person. It's hard to tell whether it's somewhere in his ruff or in the collar of his shirt.]

Yeah, I'll think about it, see what's going on in my afterlife that might get in the way or whatever. Thanks for the opportunity, anyway.

[chibisu]

It's only right to let you know what to expect. [What kind of businesschild do you take him for, sir.] Anyway, we'll see you soon, then!

[Unmi nods his head to Davesprite. "It'll be nice to go through the basic again myself. I'll look forward to your visit." With that done, he lets Ebisu take both his and Takami's hands, tugging his shinki away.]

I'm going to see if I can throw something correctly, this time!

[redotiertwo]

I'll make sure to bring my horror movie survival kit. [Because hey, clearly if there's a horror movie happening he needs to be the one to live through it. Even if being genre savvy is another guaranteed way to die in those.

Davesprite gives a casual two-fingered salute as they go, slowly rising into the sky again.] I suggest not throwing it backwards this time, but you know, good luck.