December Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: March 8, 2017
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 brought into small one-on-one meeting rooms as they appear, with a white-robed shinki offering them an explanation of their current role, the name of the god they will represent or the god they will serve, and directions to the temple that will be their new home.

They are cordially invited to a training session beginning in midafternoon, once they've had the chance to return to their homes, meet their new partners, and have their questions answered.



Morning/On the Road

New gods and shinki are being packed off to their new temples for the morning to settle in and meet their partners -- this is also a good time to visit with new neighbors or explore the area! What does your new temple look like? Are you headed straight there, or taking the scenic route to get a better sense of your new surroundings? The Western District is still scarred from the aftereffects of a recent volcanic eruption and earthquake, with fissures in some of the roads and burn scars in the wild landscape. The volcanic ash, though, seems to be serving as fertilizer for vast swaths of unfamiliar and colorful wildflowers, which are spreading out even further with the onset of Spring. Strangely, there are many fewer flowering trees than might be expected.

Shinki Training

A well-appointed dojo has been prepared for newcomers to practice the physical or magical arts. Outside, there are two impromptu target practice areas: one is for long-range weapons, with targets set up against hay bales at the other side of a wide, grassy area and a line drawn for the weapons' wielders to stand behind. The other is for borderlines, and a number of young children wearing short coats marked with Amaterasu's golden chrysanthemum on white are dashing around practicing their own borderlines against what look like old clothes and sheets rescued from the rag pile and hung from trees or stuffed with straw to serve as targets. Some of the children are trapping their straw-stuffed targets by dancing in circles around them, hands held as they sing the Kagome song; others are using cutting borderlines to bring sheets fluttering down.

Inside the dojo, there's room for several pairs to spar, and weapons are set up all along one wall, everything from polearms to rifles, chakrams to broadswords. They're all meant for practice, with edges dulled or padded to avoid any accidental deaths, but sparring partners will still have to be careful to avoid injury. Although there are many fewer white-robed shinki here than usual, except for the children, there is one adult shinki keeping an eye on things inside the dojo and one keeping an eye on things in the yard. They are willing to answer questions, help with borderlines or teach shinki new spells on request. Comment to the NPC REQUEST form to interact with one of them or if you have any questions about handwaving an interaction.

Physical Training

The cherry blossoms that had begun to bloom across the Meeting Hall grounds seem to have experienced a mysterious mishap. Buds and half-opened blossoms alike have rained down from the branches, carpeting the fresh spring grass below with soggy brown and black rot. Several gardener shinki, with their sleeves tied back and sensible heavy aprons to protect their white uniforms, are raking up the fallen blossoms and trying to coax the trees back to health with powders and straw wraps to protect the trees' trunks from nightly chill. They need help: climb the trees and sprinkle the knots along the branches with invigorating powders to encourage fresh buds, or help the gardeners hold the straw in place around the tree trunks while it's wrapped with cloth, or just help rake up the dead flowers.

Besides the cherry problems, the gardens are beautiful and just beginning to burst into spring bloom. Tulips, crocuses and daffodils are sprouting everywhere, and once the borderline game is done, the child shinki are quickly organizing a garden-wide game of hide-and-go-seek. Find the best hiding spot you can, and make a break for home base as soon as you're sure the seeker is too far away to catch you! But don't run into anyone on the way.

Rest and Refreshments

Gods and shinki who are finished with their training can step into a large room in the Meeting Hall that has been set up with comfortable cushions and low tables. A fresh springtime menu is available: lightly flower-scented teas, plum wine, and a variety of little savory or sweet snacks to nibble on while waiting for dinner. Dinner turns out to be okonomiyaki: bowls with mixed batter and a plate full of tasty add-ins are brought out, and griddles at the center of the table heated to let every guest set out their own favorite add-ins, pour batter over, and make a savory pancake. It's a little tricky to flip with the tiny spatulas provided, but it should only take a few pancake disasters to get the hang of it, probably!

After eating, a few doves will flutter into the room, dropping off scrolls to certain people, and the frazzled-looking adult shinki from the earlier training session dashes to the front of the room to try to keep everyone occupied. He's reading from a handful of printouts with corporate icebreaker ideas: pin a secret card to the back of everyone's shirt and ask whoever you meet for clues to figure out what it says! Fill out a bingo card with different skills or experiences your fellow gods and shinki have! Figure out how to stack every piece of furniture in the room onto just one table... play a game where you're only allowed to reply with questions... switch tables every five minutes and see how well you can get to know the other person there before your five minutes are up. Wait, isn't that speed dating? He seems to be running out of ideas.

In Summary:

• Get all the information you can handle
• Veteran new gods and shinki are welcome to volunteer showing the ropes
• Practice sparring or shinki magic
• Enjoy a buffet dinner and some icebreakers
• Have fun~

Comments

[cloakedinruins]

Shen Wei was not very good at social interactions. What he had been trying to do was give her a head's up without going into details, but instead she was crying, Zhao Yunlan was tense, and Shen Wei was feeling the upset in the bond he shared with Yunlan. He glanced over at Yunlan, looked back at Hong and felt the urge to just summon a teleport ring and get the hell out of sight.

Instead Shen Wei took a deep breath and set the handkerchief down and closed his eyes. Would a partial truth help here? He had managed to tell Zhao Yunlan a little about himself before.

"Oh, yes, that," he said, his hand going for his neck before he remembered and turned the motion to adjusting his glasses. "Before I started working with them, I was investigating a series of murders that were by the hands of a criminal from my homeland. Unknown by me at the time, so were Hong and her colleagues, so when I came upon a woman screaming for help, I accidentally found myself stumbling into their investigation as well. I spent a few hours being interrogated by them as a suspect until the Chief let me go.

"The Chief later became my lover."

Shen Wei looked over at Zhu Hong, seeing a portion of his misery in her face. It was different; she had been a co-worker and a friend in Zhao Yunlan's eyes. She might have wanted more, but Zhao Yunlan's heart only started beating when he had met Shen Wei. Shen Wei should have felt terrible about it, and in a way he did, but not as much to stop loving Yunlan.

"I'm not betraying him even now."

He fixed Zhu Hong with a stare that was one step from icy, hoping that it would keep her from saying anything more about the past in front of Yunlan. They need to talk so that none of Yunlan's true past could come to light. Shen Wei refused to lose him again for a third time and he was willing to use whatever tools he had on hand to prevent that.

"Yes, the alien thing. Zhu Hong is a member of one of the other groups. In my homeland, I'm an enforcer, I guess you can call it? She is a princess. Of sorts."

[fierceredlips]

The person giving her the rundown about this place had mentioned very specifically that shinki weren't supposed to learn about their previous lives. And yet, listening to Shen Wei, it seems like he's gotten much closer to the truth than Zhu Hong would have thought safe.

She snorts at the memory. "Yes, I was one of the ones doing the interrogating. I thought he'd be a push-over." And he certainly hadn't been. If she'd known that she was interviewing the Black Cloak Envoy, maybe she would have done something differently. She doesn't know what. How does one detain and interrogate the most powerful person in Dixing?

Hong closes her eyes as Shen Wei recounts more of his past with the SID. The Chief later became my lover. How very passive, the way those words gloss over the weeks the Chief had spent pursuing the enigmatic professor.

She looks up in surprise when they both begin to mention "the alien thing."

"He told you about that? And--princess? No, that's..."

[wildguardian]

The idea he'd been trying not to think about abruptly shifts form into one he can, and doesn't want to. Zhao Yunlan's smile disappears. So she had been calling Shen Wei easy, and it's because he'd showed up and been very obvious about their relationship, when the last thing Zhu Hong had known was that Shen Wei'd been sleeping with her Chief.

He wonders if Shen Wei's insisting he's not betraying that other guy because they've been separated by death, or if it was supposed to be short for "don't worry, I'm not serious about this one."

Clearing his throat, he says in a cheerful voice that probably only sounds convincing to the person within earshot who's killed most of a bottle of liquor, "Sure, he told me. You should see his temple, Zhu Hong, it's out of this world. You'll have to explain what you are to me if it's not a princess, but I won't butt into your reunion any more. Later, right?"

There's a certain cachet to the idea of chatting with an alien princess, but honestly, right now, he just wants to get out of the conversation. With an effort, he forces a smile back onto his face, and makes a a gesture towards fading back into the crowd.

[cloakedinruins]

"Fourth Uncle is the leader of your clan and you're his only relative," he said lightly, even though he knew that the Yashou Tribes don't follow that logic. He was trying to deflect here, and not go back to the whole 'dating the Chief who just happens to look a lot like you' topic.

"It's... If you're sure, Yunlan," he said softly, looking up at him and trying to very hard not to show how much this hurts.

If he was the kind of man who showed a lot of emotions, Shen Wei would be tearing his hair out about now. He can still feel the hurt and confusion over the bond with Zhao Yunlan and he knew that most of it was because he just wasn't saying things right. He probably wouldn't actually be able to fix this either, given the fact that Yunlan was escaping back into the crowd before sitting there watching both him and Zhu Hong talk around the huge elephant in the room.

Stupid Heavens. Stupid rules. He wanted Zhao Yunlan safe and at his side and with all his memories, not the way he was now. He wanted to not feel like he was treading close to an explosion in which he may lose him again. Shen Wei wished he didn't feel like crying again.

[fierceredlips]

Zhao Yunlan beats an abrupt and awkward retreat and Zhu Hong glares blearily up at Shen Wei. "Well, that's fucking great," she snaps at him. "Well done, Professor."

Then it slowly dawns on her that Shen Wei is trying very valiantly to hide how hurt he looks, and her tone softens.

"This is so fucked," she sighs.

[cloakedinruins]

"I have no idea what to tell him about anything," he said, his voice low and echoing the hurt that he couldn't hide. Silently, he eyed the bottles of wine, warring with the idea of passing out and the very logical reasoning that he will wake up the next morning in an even worse mood than before.

"Do you know I tried to stay away from him the first time he asked me my name? I wanted to stay away so much because of the rules and instead I just talked about home and him and then this whole thing happened."

Screw it. He'll deal with his moods when he wakes up the way he always does - by finding a way to keep busy. Maybe he will go after some ayakashi. Shen Wei reached over for a bottle of wine and takes a cautious sip.

His nose wrinkles, he eyes the bottle, and tries another sip. "This doesn't taste like alcohol."

[fierceredlips]

Zhu Hong shifts over and makes room next to her, inviting Shen Wei to sit. Misery loves company, and she's plenty miserable. So is he, it seems.

She looks down at her drink and tells the wine: "He died, Shen Wei. We found him on the stairs, in Dixing, and took his body back to Headquarters before the worlds separated. Now he's back, but not really. It hurts." Shen Wei had already died. He didn't have to see how Zhao Yunlan had looked when they found him, still warm but laying there like a marionette with its strings cut. "I was so mad at him for going off on his own and doing that." She still is. Anger, mixed with grief.

"And we can't tell him a damn thing."

She listens sympathetically as Shen Wei tells of his own struggles, realizing, for a moment, how selfish she's being. She already lost this contest; Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan fit so well together and even without his memories, she had seen the easy way he and Yunlan fit together. "I'm sorry. It must be very hard for you." She means it.

An eyebrow raises when he starts in on the wine. "You sure about that, Professor? I remember what happened the last time you drank, and I don't have an IV lying around this time."

[cloakedinruins]

"I know." The memory of it will always be fresh, of Zhao Yunlan picking up the Guardian's Lamp and using his very soul to set it ablaze. It won't ever leave him, and Shen Wei didn't like the idea that the gods' treasure was a memory of death.

"According to the rules of this place, a god's greatest treasure is the memory of their shinki's death. When we make a contract with them, we see that death."

He glanced up at her and then went back to studying the bottle. There was a slight smirk on his lips as he takes another drink.

"It shouldn't be that bad. Last time it that other wine. The stronger one? Anyways, I'll stop now."

And he does attempt to do so, to put the bottle down but since he misjudged where he was putting the bottle, it ended up getting set on a bowl and tips over. Shen Wei blinked at it, pushed up his glasses and then tried to set the bottle upright.

[fierceredlips]

"Oh." So he'd seen it? Part of Zhu Hong is almost jealous--though jealous doesn't feel like the right word. None of them had been there to see Zhao Yunlan die; they'd just arrived in time for the aftermath, too late to change anything. "That's our Chief. Went out as the big hero."

She's happy when the conversation moves to less painful memories. "Baiju," she reminds him. It was the grain alcohol that had been his undoing. "But this--hey!"

Shen Wei tips the bottle straight into her lap, drenching her in sticky wine. "Watch it!" She stands up, her billowy trousers clinging uncomfortably to her thighs, momentarily forgetting how drunk she is. A mistake. The world tilts alarmingly and she claps her hand over her mouth, no longer confident that the contents of her stomach will stay there.