[i]I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet...[/i] - Prof. Ozpin

[center][img=http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130831230716/rwby/images/2/24/RWBY_Panel_Logo.jpg][/center]

Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Team RWBY; an exceptional group of huntresses in training. However, there are always great people being born. Some are wasted and in the end fade into obscurity. Others however stand out like lights in the darkness. Beacons, you could say.

One year before there was RWBY, a few such lights gathered.

- - -

In not so poetic terms, this will be a small RP that takes place one year before the events of RWBY season 1. Players will be in control of first year students at Beacon. I say small because there will only be three openings for players. I will be in control of my own team of OCs, and I will have a co-GM as one member of a second team. The three openings will of course fill in the three slots left over on that team.

What is the rest of the plot? Well that's for you to find out. All I will reveal now is that it will heavily center around Beacon Academy and the Grim. It will be a short story, unfolding over the course of a year, and I hope to see it all the way to the end. I'd love your help in doing so.

My co-gm is my "friend" RyuHll. We've both been RPing for quite some time (many, many sad, pathetic, lonely years) so we've got a good idea of what we're doing (probably...).

This is just an interest check thread, but I will still put down a character sheet in case your mind lights on fire and you want to get your character out there before you forget.

CAUTION: When making a character, please try to avoid names that begin with vowels if you can. Remember, we have to come up with team names, and thus we need four letters that work well together. Mashing together vowels does not work very well. Eiei is just one 'o' away from being a song we sing to children... if you know what I mean. So, maybe even skip giving your character a name, and then we can collab and come up with an awesome team name. The short version is: be careful when you name your character.

NOTE: Since I have given you the option to get started on your characters now, I'll let you know: Beacon is said to be an academy for the best of the best, so feel free to make characters with that in mind. Just try not to go overboard and into the realm of retardedly OP Mary Sue. If Ruby can slice trees in half with one hand at the age of 15, so can you. Since I've given you this leeway, I'm prepared to reign you in if you accidentally go too far. I've given some examples down below (they're the characters I'll be using.). They're meant to be stronger than you, so aim for a little bit below their level. Other than that, feel free to make characters with loads of potential.

[hider=CharSheet]
Name:
Age: (preferably between 16 and 18)
Gender:
Race: (Human / Faunus)

Appearance: (Picture or description. I'm not picky. Having both would be cool. You can include things like weight and height as well if you'd like.)

Personality:

Likes: (You can fold this into personality, or skip it if you can't think of anything super important)
Dislikes: (Ditto)

Strengths: (If you would, look at what people before you have put here and try to work around that a little bit. Same goes for weapons and semblances, so that we don't' have people filling the same role. My characters don't entirely apply to this, since you won't be on a team with them... but please don't copy me.)
Weaknesses: (Ditto)

Weapon(s): (One main, one OPTIONAL secondary. Feel free to go a bit wild here. I'll reign you in if you do end up going too far.) (If you want to make a mage, this is where you'll tell me.)

Semblance: (Like Ruby's speed, etc. You can only have one.)

History: (How did they end up deciding to be to come a hunter? Where were they before Beacon? Anything relevant that you want us know up front. Feel free to keep a few secrets if you want though.)
[/hider]

Here's my characters for examples:
[hider=Felix]Name: Felix Ancel Launce
Age: 17
Gender: M
Race: Human
Weight: 145
Height: 5’11”

Appearance: [img] http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130412225449/anime-arts/images/0/04/Takuma-Onizaki-SEXY-anime-guys-13864122-576-397.jpg[/img]

Personality: He is very quiet, and isn’t good at talking to people, being both shy and nervous. However, when he has his weapon in his hand, he changes completely and finds his courage and ability to speak without stuttering. Otherwise, he is rather kind and protective, though he has a tendency to fail to show this at the right time and he almost never speaks up in his own defense.

Likes: Quiet, music, training.
Dislikes: Any kind of bullying, stealing, feeling trapped, confined spaces, being unarmed, large crowds.

Strengths: Is extremely focused and fearless in combat as long as he has his weapon.
Weaknesses: Has crippling anxiety and is socially awkward, can’t focus without his weapon at hand.

History: When he was a child, his father left him and his mother. They lived in a bad neighborhood, and it wasn’t long before robbers broke into their house. Without his father, there was no one who had a hope of stopping them. His mother hid him in a closet just as they broke into her bedroom, and he watched as they beat her and demanded to know where she kept anything of value.

As the violence escalated, it seemed they would kill his mother. Even with a gun to her head, she sword they had nothing, and it was the truth, but the man didn’t believe her. In the closet, Felix found an old knife and in desperation burst out and surprised the man from behind. When the robber’s partner ran into the room, Felix was in a state of shock from what he’d done, but was saved when his mother took the dead man’s gun and shot the second man.

Felix was heavily traumatized by what had happened, and developed a strange complex. The only time he was responsive was when he had the knife he’d used in his hands. He never felt safe without it. To him, the knife was the reason he and his mother were alive, and without it he felt he could be killed at any moment.

Knowing his father, though absent, had been a hunter, his mother tried something after all forms of therapy failed. She enrolled him in Signal academy where he could learn to be a hunter. She knew that at least in this way, he’d always have a weapon to keep him sane, and hopefully learning to fight would restore his courage until he could live without a weapon constantly in his hand.

While his anxiety never faded, he was good at anything combat related. It also turned out he had a knack for engineering, as with limited help, he designed and built a relatively unique weapon, a shot-voulge that he named Fin de Larmes, (End of Tears). He called it such as when he held it, he felt more secure than he had in years. He also designed a simple gauntlet for his offhand which helped him to channel his semblance.

Weapon: Double-barrel, over-under shot-voulge,“Fin de Larmes” (End of Tears). A unique design based on an old concept, it is a magazine fed, twin-trigger, over-under, double barrel shotgun with a massive bayonet attached to the bottom barrel. It extends into a voulge (a type of spear), while retaining the ability to shoot. In the extended form, the top sight functions as a hook, and the top trigger activates explosive charges in the stock that gives an extra punch for stabbing attacks.
[img] http://imageshack.com/a/img543/8052/eu20.png[/img]
[img] http://imageshack.com/a/img580/2629/y2cm.png [/img]

For his left hand he has a (compared to most weapons) simple, clawed gauntlet. It has no special functions, except that it can retract onto his wrist to reveal his hand when he’s not in combat, and helps him to channel his semblance and mark targets.

Semblance: Hunter’s Mark. Magically marks anything he touches, letting him sense its exact location at all times. Can only mark about three things, and has a limited range of barely a quarter mile, so it isn’t especially useful for long distance tracking. He can then charge his weapon, and if he strikes the mark, it will cut deeper. He can’t charge projectiles however.[/hider]

[hider=Enyo]
Name: Enyo Allaway
Age: 18
Gender: F
Race: Human
Weight: 104lbs
Height: 4’11.75” (5’2.5” in her shoes)

Appearance: [img] http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131209160140/freezing/images/d/d9/699250-bscap0015.jpg[/img]
Her outfit is a white with blues stripes, tight, high collared shirt with no sleeves, a short skirt of the same color scheme over black leggings that protect her dignity, and platform shoes that boost her height by almost three inches.

Personality: She’s cocky, loud, and arrogant with a one-track mind. She’s also a perfectionist and is impatient with everyone, including herself. She’s quick to share her opinion and slow to listen to those of others. She respects people who get results and that’s about it. Once you have her respect, she will warm up quickly, but it can be hard to keep that respect, let alone gain it.

Likes: Machines, engineering, tinkering. 
Dislikes: Interruptions while she’s working, losing at anything, really talkative people, White Fang.
 
Strengths: Long range combat, has great aim, is surprisingly strong for her size.
Weaknesses: Can only hold her own up close for so long, is short (falls infuriatingly shy of 5 feet), easily depressed if she fails at something.

Weapon: Auto-bow, “Ratchet Hydra.” It is a very large bow that mechanically increases the power of a shot. On her back she has a large mechanical quiver with three arrow-head containers. She remotely controls which of her special arrow-heads the quiver will automatically attach to her arrows. Upon drawing an arrow, it will prepare another. The hand grip on the bow can be removed and turned into a dagger, or it can be attached to arrow-heads so she can manually stab the heads into enemies. This is necessary as the bow is heavy and hard to maneuver with in close combat. That said, the weight of all her equipment has led to her having very strong, almost comically so, legs.
The hand grip also remotely activates the special effects of the arrow-heads, and can become a shock-fist weapon for brawling, though this is a desperation tactic as she has little formal training in hand-to-hand. These multiple functions are why she calls it the “Hydra.”
Her three arrow heads are: Explosive drills that drill deeper into an enemy and explode, electric link arrows. Multiple arrows can link together and shock any enemies that walk between them or get shot by them; the more arrows, the more powerful the shock. Lastly are simple incendiary arrows, that light things on fire. The drawback is that arrows without special heads are fairly weak as to allow for the special attachments, the regular arrow heads are fairly small.
[img] http://madassgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Crysis-3-Bow-1080-res.jpg [/img]

Semblance: Compression. She can compress the air around her, usually beneath her feet, to give herself increased mobility. For the most part, she uses it for jumping, and it has limited combat usage.

History: The daughter of a rich family that built heavy machinery, she was being raised to take over the company. She was so interested in the work that she was allowed to learn how to build some of the machines herself. This ended up with her becoming very knowledgeable about machines and engineering at a young age, to the point where her parents acknowledged her as a mechanical genius. She wasn't a master, but her aptitude for her age was impressive.

This all came crashing down when her family became a target for the White Fang and her entire family “disappeared.” Despite having relatives left alive elsewhere, she was sent off to be adopted by another family so that she would hopefully be safe, as it was worried that her family was still in danger. After some time passed, she learned more about hunters and huntresses and begged to be sent to an academy, namely Signal as she knew they required students to build their own weapon, something she was certain she could do.

Her life soon revolved around getting better at anything she could that would make her a better huntress. All that mattered was success and improvement and anyone that got in her way was an annoyance. However, she learned that due to her small size, regular combat wasn’t for her. In fact, she was bad at it. So instead she began planning to construct an almost purely ranged weapon and came up with what she would eventually name “Ratchet Hydra,” a huge bow. She held herself back a year, until she was satisfied with the weapon and her own skills, though she was upset that she felt she had needed to do so.

She just had two problems. She was in her own little world and her frustration with herself led to her developing an even nastier attitude than she already had. She was all alone, as everyone she’d known from her year had gone off ahead, and no one she met could stand her, except one. She met a boy named Felix and for some reason he didn’t mind her. When she was focused, he was quiet, when she was complaining, it didn’t bother him. And yet before long she hated him. Instead of being someone to keep her company, he was someone who outdid her at almost everything despite being a year behind. He couldn’t quite match her engineering skills, but he was good, and he hadn’t even had the advantage of growing up with it like she had. He was a better fighter too. In the end, her jealousy tore the friendship apart almost as soon as it had begun.

When the year ended, she almost felt worse. A mixture of guilt for pushing away Felix and frustration for feeling like she hadn’t improved enough plagued her. However, she graduated anyway, refusing to let anyone else get ahead of her ever again. She was headed for Beacon.

[/hider]

[hider=Amalger]
Name: Amalger Brandt
Age: 17
Gender: M
Race: Human
Weight: 145
Height: 5’10

Appearance: He has a thin face with pronounced cheekbones, and he wears his, black, hair to one side, with the other side of his head shaved. He is tall and lanky, and has a rather rebellious “punkish” appearance. His eyes are green. He wears a dull green sleeveless vest and black pants, and has an oversized pauldron on his left shoulder for armor.

Personality: Calm, quiet, but not too serious. He's laid back to the point where he almost seems indifferent to most things. However, he's fairly friendly, even if he doesn't seem to get excited about... anything.

Likes: Helping people who are injured, loud noises (ironically), and sleeping.
Dislikes: Being around other people who are too quiet, cocky people, people with no humor. 

Strengths: Close range combat, explosives, can deal with larger opponents, has some knowledge of medicine.
Weaknesses: Very little long range ability, can't move or attack very quickly.

Weapon(s): Explosive Hammer-Sword, “Jack-Cannon” – On his right arm he has an arm bracer with a tube containing 8 explosive pucks. These can be attached to the front or back of his main weapon, or thrown. On his left arm is his main weapon, a bladed pile-driver-like weapon that can be used to impale, smash, can be turned into an explosive gauntlet, or lastly can explosively launch the blade as a projectile. He carries five replacement blades on his back, and two reloads for his pucks on his lower back.
[img=http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1365/13/1365132765799.jpg]

Semblance: Repulse - A field of energy forms around his body that bounces things back. Doesn't always work against things that move very fast, like bullets.

History: The son of an accomplished hunter and huntress, he went to a smaller academy known as Flare. It was a special academy that tried to collect especially "gifted" students. Despite this, at Flare Academy, Amalger was deemed average at best. He just didn't seem to put in much effort, though he always did just enough to meet Flare's standards. This was because he was secretly resentful for being forced into Flare by his parents. He wanted to be a hunter, but it felt like he was being forced to go about it a certain way. 

He was nearly expelled when he built his weapon, as it seemed horribly impractical and totally lacking in elegance. However, he was completely unstoppable in sparring events and passed every test he was given -- it was the one time he ever proved himself to be exceptional in any way. In fact, not only was he exceptional, he was bar none the most accomplished student Flare had seen in the last decade.

He'd also taken things one step further. Along with all the basic hunter skills, he'd chosen to simultaneously walk a second path, as a healer. His grandfather had been a doctor, and so inspire by that, Amalger had begun to learn about medicine in his spare time. 

In short, the genius rebel was slated for Beacon academy.[/hider]

[hider=Randy]
Name: Randy Riley
Age: 17
Gender: F
Race: Human
Weight: 125
Height: 5’9.5”

Appearance: [img=http://cdnimg.visualizeus.com/thumbs/e3/b0/anime-e3b0616004766ff7f8e16788d40a0c6a_h.jpg?ts=93246]
She has curly, medium length red-orange hair, and is fairly tall, standing about the same height as most boys her age. While she has potential to come off otherwise, she generally appears to be a fairly plain girl. Because of her armor, she wears a tight fitting red bodysuit, with gold trim. This matches the color scheme of her armor. Her armor is focused in six areas: large plates on her shoulders and upper arms, her chest, her back, her hips, her shins, and her head. The back, chest, and her head are all connected, with the back armor running up the back of her neck and covering the back of her head, but leaving her face and the top of her head exposed. 

Personality: She is a confident and straightforward person, but with a playful side hiding just underneath. It takes a lot to rattle her and carefully chooses when she needs to be serious, and when she can let her guard down and relax. 

Likes: Running and other athletics, high places, candy
Dislikes: Slackers, liars, spicy food of any kind.

Strengths: Medium range combat, can handle multiple enemies, strong defense.
Weaknesses: Has no exceptional long range or short range capabilities.

Weapon(s): Auto-Cannon gauntlets and armor, “Hazard Cutters” – Two, bladed gauntlets that entirely cover her hands and wrists. They can each split apart to reveal dual auto-cannons. The bracers can attach to each other to form a large, quad-barrel anti-aircraft style gun. When the blades are split apart, they can also function like scissors to cut and crush anything they grab. They also have an under barrel launcher for utility purposes, such as grappling hooks or a chain bolas. 

She also has an armored suit that can shift between two modes. Her armor is focused in six areas: large plates on her shoulders and upper arms, her chest, her back, her hips, her shins, and her head. The back, chest, and her head are all connected, with the back armor running up the back of her neck and covering the back of her head, but leaving her face and the top of her head exposed. This is the first mode that has many of the armored plates pulled back, revealing her face and more of her body. This is usually for when she's not fighting, or not in very heavy combat and gives the appearance that she simply has many oversized, disconnected plates of armor strapped to her. The other mode shifts to a full armored mode for increased protection. In this mode, the armor actually appears to be very formfitting and light, but they cover her joints which restricts her range of motion. The only parts of her left exposed are her nose and mouth.

Semblance: Mass Shift - Can reduce or increase the mass of an object. (Lighter or heavier)

History: She went to signal at the same time as Felix, but never interacted with him or Enyo to any great extent, though she knew of them. Before that, her life was exceedingly plain, being the daughter of two shopkeepers who ran a family business. In fact, she knew very little about the Grim or hunters and huntresses for much of her childhood. It was not until her favorite cousin told her a story that her life shifted gears.

She had been in a sort of limbo with no direction for a long time. At her first school, when the teachers asked what she wanted to do when she grew up she just smiled and shrugged. She'd been a happy, carefree child, certain that her parents would always be around and eventually decided she'd just work with them when she grew up. That was when the story came in. Her cousin lived in a town outside of the City of Vale. This town was far less secure than the main city and on occasion Grim made their way in. However, hunters and huntresses kept the town safe and casualties were rare. It was one time when Grim made it farther in than usual and Randy's cousin and her family were nearly killed, but one huntress was able to make it in time, saving her cousin's family single-handedly. 

This story suddenly inspired Randy to steer her life in a different direction. She finally had a goal to aim for. There was just one problem... she was absolutely terrible at everything. She couldn't master her aura, she had no idea what her semblance was, and she lost every fight she got into. This persisted two years into her time at Signal. It was to the point that many teachers were subtly trying to convince her to give up, fearing she would die the second she got into a real fight. 

She took drastic measures. She gave up on attending classes or getting good grades. She studied one thing at a time until she got better at it. She practically kidnapped her classmates that were doing better than her and made them help her, and she would find teachers when they were on break and interrogate them about whatever subject she was currently fixated on. However, she was on the verge of technically failing the academy by the end of her third year. At the last second, the vice principle of the school stepped in, seeing what she'd been up to. He said that he would give her a chance and let her pass the year, and that she would need to pass a series of tests he would put together for her. If she could do it, she would graduate with everyone else. Apparently her initiative and dedication had impressed him.

When the tests came, she struggled with some of the more academic subjects, but managed to scrape by. However, on the practical assessments she proved above average, though still below the top of her class. But she'd done it, she was finally ready for Beacon.[/hider]

If you want to know more, just ask. I'm trying to keep this somewhat light, as I'll just be redoing it all when I make the full thread later. Making a CS now is not necessary. I'll be making my final decisions on the three people I want in the RP when I put up the main OOC/IC thread. In short, chime in if you're interested, and then get to work on your character if you wish. Otherwise, when I've gotten three or four responses, I'll get to work on the main thread. Once that's up I'll give everyone who chimed in a few days to post a character and then I'll pick from those. In other words, this is not first come first serve.