[IC] Beacon: Before the Fall

[LemonZest1337]

Sarah returns Bizz's smile and nods. "I hope we do meet again Bizz. Good luck!" Sarah waves as she watches the little girl vanish into the crowd. She seemed nice. Sarah gradually made her way off the transport and soaked in the sight that was the Beacon academy campus. She was here finally she could actually touch the ground that the academy was built on, and soon she would be in the buildings. This was all so exciting! Tho sadly she had no friends to talk with about the whole thing.

She shook the feeling of loneliness from her head and pushed forward towards the academy, sure these other people had nice weapons. But nothing could really compare to Sarah's minigun, well to her at least. Her love for that gun was only surpassed by her love for her friends, family and fighting. She took one last look back at the transport before smiling and heading for the academy.

[Azure Flame]

Lucas noticed people starting to pile in, and followed them into an amphitheater, where it seemed everyone was looking towards the stage. He wondered if there was supposed to be some sort of presentation or something.

[AlternateMan]

People seemed to be heading for a certain direction. As always in cases like this, following the crowd was the best decision. Byzantine did so, and had to look up with all the effort to see where she was going. 'Seems like some kind of an amphitheater.' She thought. People were flooding towards the structure.
"Oof, come on-"
She went through the crowd to move to a spot where she had a better view at the stage. Finally she settled down in a point where she had no problem seeing the stage.

[Azure Flame]

"Having trouble?" Lucas asked, watching the slightly shorter girl push through the crowd and end up next to him.

[LemonZest1337]

Sarah walks into the building everyone else is flooding into, she is extra careful not to bump into anyone again. She looks up at the massive doorway as she passes under it, she wasn't used to doors being this big. She liked it. After she filed into the the amphitheatre she made sure to stand up the back as to avoid getting in the way of peoples view. She crossed her arms and looked at the stage. She rolled her shoulders after a while then let her arms fall to her sides, she then crossed her arms again. Her excitement was making her fairly impatient.

[AlternateMan]

Byzantine looked next to her. A cat faunus stood there, looking back at her. Byzantine returned the look with another.
"Not now, I've got a much better view now."
She said, looking at the stage.'At least it's not blocked by a flood of students.' She thought. Now that she was away from the entrance, which had a constant supply of more students, she didn't have to worry about them blocking her view.

[Azure Flame]

He nodded and looked forward, wondering what was going to happen. "My name's Lucas." he said.

[AlternateMan]

Byzantine looked at the stage following Lucas' eyes.
"I'm Byzantine."
Byzantine answered shortly. Maybe this boy wasn't much of a talker, unlike Sarah, who she met a few moments ago. Whatever was supposed to happen wasn't happening now, and Byzantine was started to get bored.

[Azure Flame]

"Nice to meet you." he said.

[HereComesTheSnow]

@Crimmy

Conall Linumbienne

With Luin Celtchear at rest upon his shoulder, the blue man of the Emerald Isles sat in a pondering silence. As his crimson eyes stared a fair hole into the curtains of the stage central to the ampitheatre, quickly filling up with more students than Conall could count, he instead considered something more important than the answer to the inevitable question of "Who all's there?" that would come over the phone from his Mum.

It was a subtle thing.

Not the school, of course— Beacon Academy was the very opposite of subtle. With spires that scraped the heavens themselves, and elegant arches carved into high stone walls of a grey that almost appeared white, the crown jewel of Vale was absolutely impossible to miss. It damn near dwarfed Conall's hometown, for God's sake! A culchie lad like himself couldn't even begin to miss it— In fact, the size and grandeur inspired nothing but awe.

Beacon Academy was fecking gargantuan, see? Go way outta that, of course it's not subtle. In fact, seeing one place so huge nearly put his heart crossways— Schools the size of a village? Like hen's teeth.

Utterly ridiculous.

No, what he'd been mulling over was more metaphorical, more philosophical.

Mainly, what this enormous school represented. The emotion it carried— Not quite like the raw manic frenzy a good fight left in him, but something that lurked beneath the surface, lingering in the atmosphere more than the blood.

It was all around them— A rarefied, almost electric air that you never felt for donkey's years. The kind that only existed when you had a bunch of blow-ins from all 'round the kingdom in one spot, waiting for the biggest changes of their lives—

Or very well the beginning of new ones. Sure, many were happy out about it, many were a few screws short, and many were scared enough to want to head on arseways, but that dose of raw excitement was goin' round.

He liked the feeling, he decided, and it drew out one of his signature smirks that he tossed the way of one purple-haired lass he'd sat next to— Marsail Cirsium, who had the closest thing to a familiar face around.

"So they like making sure we all have a whale of a time getting oriented, huh?"

[Crimmy]

@HereComesTheSnow

Marsail Cirsium

Approximately sixty percent of the potential hunters were Signal students.

It had initially started as little more than a mere curiosity after sighting one of her former classmates in the crowds, but at some point her eyes had begun to seek out every graduate of her combat school she could find. Marsail Cirsium was not, and had never been, somebody who subscribed to the belief that it was better to sit idle than work for nothing, and the activity of identifying her friends and acquaintances amongst the throng of youths that had filtered into the beautiful stone amphitheatre provided her with a way to pass the time while she waited for something to occur upon the empty wooden stage at the building's centre.

One example of those identified acquaintances being the easygoing Conall Linumbienne sitting by her side.

"I don't believe muckledom of excitement is a virtue here," was her reply, glancing at the smirking visage of her fellow Signal attendee through her black-rimmed glasses. "It's not on purpose. I hope."

There was no need to inflame the vigour of youth any further. Of all the individuals present, she was absolutely, one hundred percent certain that none of them were anything but full of excitement and anxious energy, waiting for the change that Beacon would wash over them, hoping that it wouldn't leave them worse for wear. It was clear in the air, a jittery apprehension that was so thick that she could almost taste it. Conall could taste it. Everyone could taste it. The combined restlessness of every youth in the room, even her. It was why she hoped that Beacon was not attempting to rouse those emotions beyond what they currently were. Marsail Cirsium was far from someone who would transform into a mad rocket because of something like that, but ...

She shifted in her seat, linking the fingers of her hands together on her lap.

This was Beacon Academy. One of the four great Huntsmen Academies of Remnant.

A cauldron from which heroes emerged.

She would be off her head if she said she wasn't excited.

[HereComesTheSnow]

@Crimmy

Conall Linumbienne

"Aw, sure look it." he responded amiably. Sure, he couldn't fault her logic in that driving the whole of them barking mad would serve no purpose, but at the same time, a little tension and nerves heightened the instincts— and who knew when you'd need them?

"Maybe they wanna keep us sharp and on our toes— Quare way to catch the attention, too, once you make your entrance after getting us all waiting with bated breath."

[Crimmy]

@HereComesTheSnow

Marsail Cirsium

"It's working," she admitted, letting out a quiet sigh. Everyone was waiting with bated breaths for something to happen. If the faculty of Beacon were intending for such a result, then it was an utter success. "But if they wanted to nab our attention, they should enter before someone boils their head."

Somebody could easily lose their nerves in a place like this.

[HereComesTheSnow]

@Crimmy

Conall Linumbienne

"Heh."

So she was feeling it too. Good on the girl to admit it so readily, even if it meant acknowledging she wasn't unshakable. He hadn't known Marsail all that long or all that well, in truth— She was more an acquaintance than anything else.

But, he couldn't deny that he had a pretty good feeling about her character— especially now that her diligence and work-yourself-to-the-bone mentality was confirmed to have not turned her into some calculating superhuman. Having something beneath all that goal-mindedness was crucial in his eyes— the difference between a professional and an automaton was simply that the professional chose to rein himself in.

"So then it falls to us to be the cool-headed examples for them to turn to in the meantime," he ventured, leaning back in a more loungeful position. "Sure, it's workin' on everyone, but at least you and I have a leg up—"

His eyes played across the ampitheatre once more, taking subtle measure of those that had entered at his side.

"We know the game."

[LemonZest1337]

Sarah looks over a fair amount of the other people's heads scanning the room to see if she could spot Bizz. She liked Bizz, Bizz was cute. She didn't really think she was going to be able to find her considering her stature but she wanted to give it a try anyway. It might have been only one or two minutes but the wait felt like it was forever. She looked over the room at least three times before giving in.

She talked to herself out loud. "Eh. you gave it a shot." She started twiddling her thumbs, maybe there were some hotties she could distract herself with. No I can't do that... She slumped slightly, this made her minigun show itself from behind her head. She went back to twiddling her thumbs.

[Crimmy]

@HereComesTheSnow

Marsail Cirsium

"And winning is not getting too skittled?"

If that was the victory condition, then she was completely sure in her ability to remain as unfrazzled as possible before the faculty finally made their appearance. The wait was a restless one, and Marsail Cirsium could not say that she was unaffected by the growing anticipation, but she was not so anxious as to act out because of something so small.

She doubted her companion would either.

Marsail didn't know Conall particularly well, despite having attended Signal alongside him. However, she was familiar with her fellow graduate's reputation, and the easygoing demeanour he was displaying was nothing that ran counter to what she had heard during her time in the academy. She was very much doubtful that he could be inflamed from that lounging - she quirked an eyebrow up at how comfortable he seemed in the amphitheatre seating - position by merely waiting on something to happen on the stage.

She supposed that was being cool-headed.

[HereComesTheSnow]

@Crimmy

Conall Linumbienne

"Sure is. Or at the very least, we gotta keep it under wraps." he mused, leaning back. "Can't lose it on anyone. Nobody wants to be the first to crack. Bet you your bottom lien that a lot of these kids are eyein' everyone else up, yeah?"

There were, of course, some subtle tells of the restless energy beneath his relaxed exterior.

Tapping of the feet on the floor.

His continuing shifts in position.

He was keeping himself collected under the mounting pressure, sure, but you'd have to be barking mad to not feel the jitters a little, and he was no different.

"Aaaah, that's a fret." he groused genially after a time, looking back towards the glasses and jumper-clad beside him. "Nice little chats like ours are probably all over the place. So, while we're keepin' eachother calm and all: What's the craic, Cirsium?"

No reason to not get a chance to properly meet, of course. A cheeky distraction.

Learning a bit more about the mysterious highlander that had seemed so distant in the heights of Signal's academia could never hurt.

[Azure Flame]

Once everyone had gathered in the amphitheater, they were greeted by a man with white hair and glasses, wearing all green, holding a cane and standing in front of a microphone. This was Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, standing with Glynda Goodwitch at his side. "Ahem... I'll keep this brief." he began, pushing up his glasses. "You have travelled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that, he stepped off the stage and Glynda Goodwitch took his place, saying "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed!" With that, she too left the stage and the new students started to disperse.

(Up to you guys if you want to keep tonight going with talking to eachother, or move on to the next day, where we do the initiation test)

[LemonZest1337]

Sarah stopped twiddling her thumbs as Ozpin takes the stage, she knew who he was and was excited to see him in the flesh. You could practically feel the awe spilling off her, living off on a farm meant she never really saw much. But now she was here seeing things with her own two eyes, it was so much better than the news or a television show.

She listened to his speech intently and a look of determination made its way onto her face. Ozpin was everything she'd expected and some. She couldn't help but feel motivated and inspired by his words. Sure she was there so she could fight monsters, but she had a feeling Beacon was going to give her a lot more then just fighting skills. She looked down at her feet as Ozpin said "It is up to you to take the first step." she nodded then watched Glynda take his place. Oh the ballroom. She rolled her shoulders and started to leave the amphitheatre.

[Azure Flame]

As Lucas began to leave, he saw someone in the crowd (Sarah) who stood literally a head taller than everyone else, as he could see her head popping out of the sea of people. Wow. he thought to himself. She's really tall.