October Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: February 6th, 2017
Where: Outside the Meeting Hall, the Far Shore (and optionally, the slopes of a recently erupting volcano)
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 her welcome speech in the monotone of someone who's practiced it far too often. Hopefully no one's feeling sleepy! She adds that gods should be cautious of anyone on the Near Shore who might ask to use their shrines to visit the Heavens, and should instruct their shinki to be cautious as well. There is at least one unrecognized god who the Heavens believe to be attacking them, and another recent incursion by an unrecognized god ended in his defeat and the extinguishing of the volcano he had caused to erupt. 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

There are stacks of informational pamphlets sitting out on tables around the dojo. There are five or six white-robed shinki present, who will willingly answer any questions or instruct newcomers in the use of the borderline. They accompany their answers, or their 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. Each of the shinki is wearing a brightly-colored sticky name tag reading HELLO, MY NAME IS ________, and all of their names appear to end with the syllable "mei."

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. Both Sabimei and his animated straw training dummies are absent from this training session, but standard, inanimate straw targets have been lined up outside, and a few rings are laid out on the frozen ground for friendly sparring matches. (Shinki characters who are interested in learning more about the borderlines or want to learn new shinki spells or songs may approach any of the training shinki for advice or instruction. Please remember to comment on the Shinki Spells page when your character begins to learn a new spell, excluding the borderline.)

Physical Training

There is still clean-up left to work on from the volcano's eruption. Two tengu (one of whom characters might recognize as the hot springs' proprietor) have volunteered to help transport any gods or shinki who are willing to help clear trees, dig or wash away ash on roads and roofs, and repair damage to occupied temples. The abandoned temples that were damaged by the earthquake and volcano are being left to decay, although anyone who's curious about them could take the offer of a free ride to explore some of those abandoned and damaged buildings as well. Some might contain old books or mementos of the long-vanished owners; others have nothing left inside but dust, mold, and curious spirits.

Back at the training ground, characters who aren't helping clean up the Western district have the option of playing sparring games to test their reflexes. The white-robed shinki are organizing them into pairs in the marked circles and explaining the rules: each participant is given 10 seconds on offense to score a hit with any weapon of their choice, from bare hands to sparring weaponry to shinki magic, while their partner is only allowed to dodge or defend. After five rounds, the person with more points gets to declare a penalty for their partner: drawing on their face with a marker, ordering them to do something silly or embarrassing, making them fetch tea... it's up to the winner!

Rest and Refreshments

After the gods' training lecture is finished, a few of the white-robed shinki bustle back in to set up craft tables and a buffet area. This time, the theme seems to be a sweet English tea: little cakes, scones, jams, cookies, tiny finger sandwiches and a vast array of chocolates are available, as well as many different teapots, with hot water dispensers and loose tea available to let everyone brew to their own tastes as they venture in to rest or talk to their new partners.

Over on the craft tables, there's all kinds of art and craft supplies available, from construction paper to calligraphy brushes, glitter to gouache. Signs on the tables encourage gods and shinki to show their appreciation for each other with a valentine letter or card. It's a bonding exercise! There is a lot of glitter. And glue. Hopefully, no one's wearing their nice clothes.

In Summary:

• Get all the information you can handle
• Veteran new gods and shinki are welcome to volunteer showing the ropes
• Explore damaged temples or practice sparring
• Enjoy a tea and make some valentines
• Have fun~

Comments

[nopixiedust]

Oooh... I've had buns before, here. They're pretty tasty.

[Very warm and easy to eat while on the streets. Wendy leans towards that in particular.]

So what's in it instead of pork?

[smilingbullet]

[ He points out each kind as he mentions them ]

Beef, chicken, purple yam. I need to experiment more with other kinds of fillings with this method and dough later.

[ It is fun to do that. He can alter fillings from various other recipes he knows, or try to make up unfamiliar things. ]

Technically the name specifies it as containing pork, but it's more used for most any kind of filling made with this dough these days.

[nopixiedust]

Hmm... Purple ham seems pretty adventurous.

[At least, it sure stands out in contrast to all the meat. Wendy is already reaching for one curiously.]

Have you tried each kind yet?

[smilingbullet]

Does it? It's not an unpopular filling in some areas.

[ She's welcome to try all three if she wants to. ]

Hm? Each kind of..?

[ The numerous number of fillings that's possible? ]

[nopixiedust]

Yeah, but it stands out next to all the others.

[So she'll start with that one first, just for fun. She already knows she'll definitely like the meat first, after all. Accepting one of them, she glances up at him at his confusion.]

Your cooking, I mean. Have you tried out what you've cooked?

[smilingbullet]

Ah? Aah.. I suppose that it does. I hadn't thought about it that way.

[ He just thinks about what might work and what won't and sometimes he tries anyway. ]

Oh, yeah, I have. If I didn't know it taste good I wouldn't share it like this.

[nopixiedust]

Good. I can never tell with some people around here. Some are just outright terrible at cooking, but others who don't do it a lot might not think to try it, right?

[She takes a bite, testing out the flavor. If D2 has tried it himself, then it definitely can't be that bad.]

[smilingbullet]

[ That makes D2 let out a little laugh. ]

I suppose that that's true. Though I don't see how one would forget to ensure the taste. Maybe if they have killed their taste buds or have an eccentric taste th should notice if something's off by a lot.

[ Also D2's food is always good, he's a very good cook. So long as yam doesn't disagree with her, she probably won't be disappointed. ]

By the way will you be busy late February early March or thereabout?

[nopixiedust]

No... Some people are just dumb. [...Okay, she'll be a little gracious.] Or they haven't been raised with people who regularly cook, or are just oblivious.

[And you can never tell who's what in the Far Shore, as far as she's concerned. She pauses at his question, going through her head.]

Mm.... I don't think so. Why?

[smilingbullet]

[ D2's hands slows on his origami for a few short moments. ]

Yeah, I guess so.

[ But no thinking about that- he's got more positive things to think about. ]

I've been looking at routes up Italy to Germany, they'd take us away for a bit and I'm just guessing but I figured Hibiki might be keeping people busy around valentine's and white day, so between those might be open maybe...Was what I was thinking.

[ They haven't gone on their beer tour yet, after all. And Forrest has a temple in Naples, and the Italian peninsula isn't impossibly far away from the rest of the continent. ]

[nopixiedust]

Oh!

[So it's about this! Wendy perks up, immediately interested and grinning.]

It doesn't matter! Hibiki can take care of herself for just a day, and there are other people who would check up on her too! [Like Natsuru, or even Chinatsu now that they're getting along alright.] It'd be great if we could go somewhere!

White Day might be better, just in case, but, still.

[smilingbullet]

[ It's been not happening for too long, and he's been thinking about it together with so many other things. ]

It may take a little more than a day, depending, or at least be very early and very late.

[ Road trips through Europe was usually not taken for the sake of beer, though, so well. And there was the no driving under the influence thing. ]

But I guess that she can. It's not good to spoil her too much either. So on or around white day in specific?

[nopixiedust]

So two whole days to get completely sloshed.

[Sounds fun. Wendy grins a little.]

I'll be sure to dress appropriately for it. [Nothing nice, in other words.] Besides, you don't have to worry about Hibiki, because it's far too late for that. She's already so spoiled that nothing would change her.

[smilingbullet]

It could be needed once in a while.

[ It definitely is fun, and this has been put off for long enough. They could use some time off from time to time. ]

Make sure you do. [ Nice clothes are more for wine than beer. ] That is true. She's young and impressionable but perhaps not impressionable enough to mellow her out.

[nopixiedust]

Unless I got the right movie on the tv, but even then...

[It would have to be a work of true art to get Hibiki to pay any attention to it, let alone have the message sink in. Well, whatever. A night out won't kill Hibiki.]

Should I bring anything in particular, do you think?

[smilingbullet]

That would probably take a lot of research on your part.

[ Or just drag Hibiki into any movie that seems good and look at her with big, pleading puppy eyes. It might work for Wendy. ]

If you have any travel games you like, you could bring those.

[nopixiedust]

I'll just see what I can get on my phone. It's probably not a good idea to get too much stuff around when there's alcohol involved.

[That's just begging for stuff to end up in the lost and found, at the very best end of the spectrum. Weird stuff can happen when people get drunk.]

[smilingbullet]

Yeah, beyond the risk of losing things it can be a hassle to carry stuff around. It's fine if you've got a car but it we rented one to go across borders we'd have to deal with a lot of tolls, so we'll just use them up to the first border and at parts in Germany.

[nopixiedust]

Wow, so it would be that much of a pain, huh? I didn't realize there were so many tolls in Europe... [But she guesses countries have to make money somehow, and if no one is stopping in, well, at least you can charge them a passing fee.] It shouldn't be too hard to get a car, right?

[smilingbullet]

There are a whole lot of countries in Europe, and they wanna at least know what happens with the people flow at some level. [ For various reasons. ] No generally you just need like a license and stuff so they know who rents the car and so they know the person can drive, it's not that complicated to get around though.

[nopixiedust]

It should just be a whole country itself if that's how it is.

[What do you mean that's not how it works and would be a clusterfuck... Listen. She's never studied geography. Or history.]

And I hope it wouldn't be that complicated. I don't think the dead exactly have paperwork.

[smilingbullet]

But one of the great things about there being different countries is all the different interesting cultures.. Also it's not really workable. Some countries has tried at various points in time and it never stuck.

[ How about she starts to study a few basic school subjects? Everybody could learn from some history and geography and other stuff. ]

We could get hold of fake documents to a degree, but they'll easily overlook us if we're not in a car so we won't have to deal with travel papers.

[nopixiedust]

[Yeah, school is probably a thing she should pay more attention to instead of all of Hibiki's schemes... Maybe one day. For now, she leans forward, nibbling on food.]

Huh. I see. So, know how to forge papers?

[smilingbullet]

Partly, but being shinki we'll get by for the most part anyway. It's the purchasing of alcohol that we need to get around most of all, we'll need passable IDs. That I can arrange.

[ His past as a special operations agent has been..slightly dubious. But yes, he can fix that. ]

How old do you want yours to say you are?

[ He knows his actual age, but he's not sure she does. But even if she is as young as she looks (which he doubts, she's got the capabilities to be way more mature than that) they're dead and all that jazz. ]

[nopixiedust]

Great! Then I'll trust you on that front.

[Now she just has to figure out her own details... Wendy crosses her arms after getting another malasada. How old would she want to be? Frankly, she doesn't even know what the drinking age in Japan is, let alone the entire world. Maybe she should just go as high as she can get away with...]

Think I could lie about 30?

[She knows she can't, but, still. Maybe if she has a large hat and they don't look too close, or something.]