Souls Of Shade

Main Hall

Thankfully, the girl who was sharpening her swords ceased doing so, so Kou just sighed instead of admonishing her. There would be enough time for that later, assuming that girl would pass the initiation.
She considered leaving the room altogether — her presence wasn't required any more — when she picked up an interesting conversation. So she promptly sat down near the group of students, cross-legged. "Magic, you say," she said quietly. "What is it that you mean when you say 'magic'? That which you cannot explain? Something else altogether?"

Mainhall

"Chain lightning?" Forrest looks up at Regina briefly before looking back down at Naia's trident. His visors starts recording and he makes sure to get a good look at the Great White. Yes, that's a great deal simpler than the lightning wave I was thinking about. Actually, no, but it circumvents the problem of the medium the electricity will be travelling, using the Grimm instead of the air.

"Would it need a guidance system to keep it going? Not to mention friend fire, albeit that's a bigger problem with the thunder wave idea."

Mother is still working on getting it right, Naia replied. She said not to try that option until she sends the upgraded version.

She regretted it, seeing as none of them understood her. So Naia finished by shaking her head and retracting Great White’s shaft before she put it back in her bag.

With a cursory Good night, she laid down and drifted off to sleep.

edited 1st Feb '18 5:20:28 PM by emilyorthoclase

Mainhall

"Hmmm." Politely, Forrest scooted away from Naia and turned to his peer. He held his hand out to Regina. "Hello, my name is Forrest. What's your weapon?"

No, wait, I think I forgot something in there.

Main Hall

Sini's wide grin faded as quicjly as it had appeared when Lina mentioned that she wasn't quite the believer Sini though she was.

"O-Oh...well, that's true enough, I guess..."

She settled back down on her bedroll, crestfallen. When one of (what was most likely) the professors came up and asked what she meant, she shrugged.

"You know, magic. Like in fairy tales, y'know, the Four Maidens and the wizard?"

When the conversation turned to magic, fairy tales and the like, Joe tuned out. He took out his greatsword from its sheath, a number of locks and mechanisms releasing as he took out the impressive looking blade to perform upkeep on it before bed. He knew from the rumors that most likely there would be some early morning test.

He did admit even he felt a bit of sympathy for Sini for the mention of that ambush. He did not doubt it was traumatic, and definitely influenced her decision.

The blond young man handled the greatsword with both ease and care - showing his musculature and strength was not just for show just as well as it showed familiarity with the weapon he wielded. He couldn't very well check on its modes without people freaking out, but he hoped that there would be no jams tomorrow in the event of a flying Grimm.

He breathed and then set to work putting the giant weapon back in its sheath, the locks and mechanisms re-engaging.

Main Hall

Yet another student drew a weapon to perform maintenance; and this time the weapon was larger than Kou was tall. She felt her eyebrow twitch. Weren't those children taught anything back at home?
"Excuse me," she told Sini, then turned to Joellen. "This is not the place for weapon maintenance," she told him. "Especially not the maintenance of such a large weapon. Please put that away, mister...?"

"Whatever," Lina said, pulling her headphones over both of her ears and strumming away again.

Regina watched Naia go, stripping off her goggles and blinking twice with mild confusion. She looked down at the goggles in her hands and back up at Naia. Hmm. She shrugged.

Regina momentarily turned her attention back to Forrest, still somewhat wary. Instead of shaking Forrest's hand, though, she just latched on to it and started walking backwards. Gradually, the ribbon-like coil that connected Regulus's shoulder to its hand unraveled. Regina backed all the way to her bedroll. Then, even several feet away from Forrest, she shook Forrest's hand with her elongated ribbon arm.

When she let go, the arm snapped back to her shoulder like a spring. She yawned and dropped onto the bedroll with a soft thud.

"Guess."

Main Hall

A red-haired man wearing a Doctor’s coat leaned against a wall, watching over the students. The night before initiation was usually injury-free, meaning that he had no reason to remain in the infirmary instead of helping oversee the students.

Then again, there’s no such thing as “Hazard Free” in this career. Kaito thought dryly as he saw Kou walk over to a student finishing maintenance on his sword. Knowing that his colleague was dealing with the situation, Kaito chose to remain in his spot for the time being.

"Oh! How about wrestling throws on Grimm?" Verina suggested enthusiastically, bouncing on her unrolled bedroll with excitement. "Now that sounds amazing."

There was a lot of happening, surprisingly, which made it difficult to follow the disscusions. "Oh, that's a neat weapon!" She praised Naia's trident with a nod. "I'd show mine, but it could get me in trouble with the teachers." There seemed to be quite a few faculty members around the sleeping room, oddly enough. "But let me tell you that it's amazing! I won't say it'd blow your socks off, but you might just like it~"

"I ain't scared of no Grimm, in any case." When the jock from earlier commented that this might be their first time meeting the monsters, Verina brushed him off confidently. "Junbi O.K. da!" Then she reached over to where Sini sat and offered a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "And you now have an opportunity to show those Grimm you mean business! Then you can study them too, if there's anything left to pick up."

edited 2nd Feb '18 1:12:38 PM by FergardStratoavis

Joellen finished putting the greatsword back into its sheath and then looked at the teacher telling him to put his weapon away and that this was not the place to conduct weapon maintenance. He sighed and just gestured to the sword - in its sheath - and the fact he had already been putting it away when she came over.

He guessed some people were just obsessive about having the last word.

"Whatever. It's away now..." And with that he started to get into his bedroll.

Isidora watched from her office as the students talked and began to settle, with a smile. In time, she herself retired to sleep. It was certainly going to be an interesting year.

The students stood ready. Hopefully they had slept well, Isidora thought, watching them. "I could," she said, "make a huge speech about how this decides your future, etc, etc, etc. But that isn't the point of today. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to find your way to the end of the course, where you will find a pool. Please bring back some water from that pool. Good luck."

With those words, the ground crumbled out from under the group of students and they were plunged into the unknown darkness.

All Faunus had a single trait that caused them to look different from a human. Sometimes it was something minor, like cat ears. Sometimes it was something very noticeable, like fins or a tail. In Lina's case, she had a pair of - in her opinion at least - pretty cool horns that were super awesome.

What she lacked, however, was a pair of wings.

"I'm not a bird you crazy bitch!" she managed to shout at the Headmistress before she started to fall into the unknown.

Initiation

Down The Rabbit Hole

You what mate!?

With his mask on, one could not see the look of shocked incredulity on his face. No, no, Forrest looked as cool as a cucumber. Yes, he was screaming internally but you didn't hear it because he couldn't even manage to get it out.

He seemed unperturbed though and that's what mattered.

Thinking quickly- like a moment later after his first completely internal screams, least as far as he could tell, and he reached for his pack. He pulled out The Olive Branch and allowed the weapon to unfurl and metal plating slide into place as it changed into its rocket launcher mode.

Rocket jumping time!

edited 3rd Feb '18 10:29:22 PM by God_of_Awesome

Cliff

Kaito had an amused smirk as he heard one or the Initiates vocalize their displeasure. “Sounds like a spitfire, that one.” He chuckled, glancing down the hole in the ground. They’ll be fine. Aura will keep them alive and kicking.

Pulling out his scroll, Kaito began skimming the cameras around the course, keeping an eye on the students as they progressed.

edited 3rd Feb '18 10:48:05 PM by svenorzokarkoff

Initiation, Cliff

Sini stood at attention, Will 'o Wisps socketed on her arms, as the Headmistress addressed them, telling them their task of...fetching water from a pool? Some of the excitement that had been bubbling inside her died down. This sounded a lot less exciting than Kha mentioned Beacon's being.

Fetching some water? Sounds easy enough...

At that moment, the ground gave way beneath their feet, and they fell. She could hear Lina swearing, rolling her eyes as she smirks knowingly. The ground giving way didn't surprise her as much. After all, Kha had told her what Ozpin had done for their initiation.

Let's see...three should be enough.

With a wave of her hands, she sends three Wisps beneath her, the other three beneath Lina. All 6 start to glow purple as they rapidly spin around, Gravity Dust sending waves upward to slow down their fall, hopefully giving Lina more time to react.

edited 4th Feb '18 12:32:41 AM by UndyingPhoenix

"Haaaaa... thanks," Lina said to Sini, spinning wildly for a moment on the strange floating... ball things. She yanked the strap along her torso in order to whip her guitar out in front, and grabbed the fretboard in one hand while the other tooled with some knobs and started to finger at the strings. The neck widened and extended, turning into a barrel. "I'll get us some air!"

Banging her head, she struck a chord, the metal strings causing white and green dust to build up in the firing chamber. After a few moments of this, she hit a high note and slammed on the whammy bar, causing a grenade shell to clap itself over the dust and then fire out the explosive round straight towards the ground. Filled with wind dust, the backblast would be able to cushion their fall when it hits. In theory. This was all very sudden.

edited 4th Feb '18 10:53:57 AM by nman

Initiation

Regina woke up in a pretty lousy mood that morning. The bedroll had been rather uncomfortable, even though she was used to sleeping in rough conditions. She showed up at the designated location, not happy to be up early, arms folded, thinking Isidora was too light on details. And then the ground collapsed under her.

"Son of a bitch!! I shoulda seen that coming!"

Regina fired off Regulus, the hand attached to helical ribbon reaching for the edge of the cliff, but there was no edge to grab. Regina slipped down, deeper down into the depths of the chasm, hand scraping against the cliff face until it found purchase on the jagged rocks half-way down.

Regina clung to the rock face, silently fuming. It wouldn't have been hard to go back up and give the instructors a piece of her mind. Regulus was partly built for climbing and rappelling—both skills useful in a Dust mining operation—after all. But, well...

"Aw, screw it," Regina said. "This ain't so different from what I'm used it."

She looked up, at the light from above, looking for anyone not prepared for a landing without warning in case they needed help.

edited 4th Feb '18 6:59:05 AM by opnerf

When the ground collapsed under them, Verina - now in a more sporty outfit of a gray tracksuit and black sneakers - didn't let it deter her. If anything, it was a perfect opportunity to show off a little.

"HENSHIN!" Spinning into a sommersault, the blonde tapped the back of her neck. In a blink, the outfit began coming out, expanding upon her body in quick, fluid motions. Little by little, her form was covered in an outfit reminiscent of a type of hero present in many a Mistralian shows; a masked vigilante who transformed to fight evil. The helmet came in and covered her face, then the scarf showed up as well, just in time for Verina to give a perfect landing, slamming into the ground on one knee, not worse for wear.

Slowly, she rose up. The new outfit was pretty flattering, all things considering, but she didn't seem to mind much. "Fear not. The fantabulous Ginkishi is now here!" Her voice slightly altered by the helmet, Verina struck a pose. In a show, this would be a moment where the background explodes for a dramatic effect. Then, she looked up, eager to see if there was anyone she could help with the landing. "Will you be okay up there?!" She called over to Lina and Sini, currently whirlwinding down to the ground at a slowed pace. Regina seemed to be having the same idea, though slightly higher in the fall.

edited 4th Feb '18 3:39:41 AM by FergardStratoavis

Falling

"I'll be fine! This is my go-to landing strategy!"

She gave a thumbs up, looking around in case any more people needed help. One of the other girls seemed to be struggling to find an edge for her grappling hook to latch on to to let her rappel down.

"Here! Latch on to these!"

Sini briefly stops slowing her own fall with the three Wisps, whirling them around her as they gain a red glow. With several sharp swipes of her hand, the spheres crash together in front of her, firing several molten blasts towards the walls in a downwards arc, blasting several holes into it.

"That might help!"

edited 4th Feb '18 6:37:49 AM by UndyingPhoenix

Naia, for her part, was falling with a delighted expression on her face as she raced towards the ground. This was so exciting!

She extended her trident and pointed it at the ground. If she played this right, it would hopefully break her fall. If not...well, at least Shade had a medic on staff.

Initiation

Down The Rabbit Hole

Forrest improvised with the wind and gravity dust in his armor, jury-rigging some small amount of maneuverability with it to glide towards the sheer wall. With The Olive Branch, rocket form, in hand, he hefted the weapon, pointing it at the wall and slightly down. He did a quick perimeter scan for his peers, no one to his left, no one to his right.

Forrest suddenly made his momentum go from down to going to the side as he rocketed himself in an arc via explosion. Before he landed from *that*, The Olive Branch switched into chain gun mode. Then he started firing that thing straight down at the ground, overclocking it at full bore, rigging it make even more kickback and turning off the features in his armor that prevented the same.

There goes... so much ammo.

It did deaden his downward moment but he wasn't going to be flying via a downward spray of bullets any time soon. Instead, it got him close to the ground and within meters he stopped firing. His armor flared brightly, black and green, as the warping power of gravity and buffeting winds sent him into a relatively gentle roll as he hit the ground. It wasn't precisely graceful, but he was undamaged if lying in a heap.

Initiation

Regina looked down, spotting Sina in a gradual descent giving her footholds just below.

"I didn't need it, but thanks, that'll help!" Regina said. "I do this all the time!"

Regina dug her prosthetic leg into the wall. She lowered her goggles and grinned confidently, maybe even a little crazily. She almost missed Naia rocketing past with her trident pointed down. Without even so much as a warning that the cliff was going to collapse beneath them, Regina didn't blame her for hoping such a stunt would reduce the damage.

Regina fired Regulus off again, this time reaching out to try to grab Naia by the shoulder and slow her descent down with the dampening effect of her springy arm. If she couldn't stop Naia's rapid descent outright, Regina hoped that'd at least improve her chances with the pogo stunt.

"Rrgh..." The force transferred to Regina's grip on the wall. She found herself falling back onto one of the sturdy grips Sina had created. "I gotcha! I think."

edited 4th Feb '18 11:04:03 AM by opnerf

INITIATION

The samurai quietly stomped her wooden sandal on the floor...hollow. She frowned slightly, tightening the strap on her straw hat. The last thing she needed was someone seeing her face. She quietly shook her hands, as her kama fell into her hands as she backed towards, a wall, when he ground fell out from uynder her, she rammed her blades into the wall, sliding down as she closed her eye for a brief second.