[EVENT][CLOSED]Launch in five

Glinda and Ozpin stood on the cliff as students came out and stood in front of them. "Welcome students. For this initiation you will be sent into the forest. You will be working in teams to complete your objective. The first person you make eye contact with in the forest will be your parter for the next four years." Glinda paused as the students began to talk amongst themselves.

"Your task," Ozpin began causing all the students to become silent, "Is to make your way to the temple located in the forest. Retrieve one of the relics from there and bring it back." He looked at all of the students "The forest is filled with deadly creatures and you must fight in order to survive. If you don't fight, you will die."

"Now if there are no questions let us begin"

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OOC:
This thread is part of the initiation event. If you are not in the initiations you should not be posting here.

Not sure what's going on with the Initiation? Head here.

Lucius silently nods after the headmaster had provided the instructions for the initiation. Now is the time for him to apply everything that he has learned. He then equips his two shields, Xavier and Valerie, in order to prepare for the initiation. He sits on one of his shields and then places the other on top of his head. He plans on activating his 'Shielter' when he is launched so that he could easily withstand any trees that would be in his way, and safely fall to the ground. It wasn't the most gallant or fashionable way to land, but it was the only thing he could in that situation.

Straudd looks out over the sea of trees in front of him, before looking over the edge of the cliff and gulping theatrically. He takes his place on the launch pad, his mind still scrambling to think of a "Landing Strategy". He considers his arsenal, and realizes that neither Black Judgement nor White Judgement are sufficient to make landing with all of his bones intact. Straudd's eyes light up all of a sudden. He puts White Judgement down, with the back facing up, and straps his foot into the handhold. He then adjusts Black Judgement to use fire dust, intending to use it to change direction while flying, and land on a slope or fallen tree that he can surf down on his shield. 'Can't believe I'm doing this' he mutters to himself.

Markus could barely contain himself. He had made friends with almost all of the new students with the gift of pizza last night. He only hoped his partner wouldn't be Nathaniel. He was as cold as a person could be. Markus' landing strategy consisted of a modification he made to his Switchblade last night. (Albeit an accidental function, but he decided to keep it.) He decided to do a quick trial to make sure it worked. He held out his switchblade, and held down the button for 3 seconds, then let go. The blade extended to almost triple it's original length, and started rotating at immeasurable speeds, actually lifting himself up off the ground.
Hmm. This could be used as means of transportation through the forest.

He reverted the switchblade back to the NFMBFTKS mode, and stepped onto the launch pad. He could always fly straight to the ruins, but that would require knowing the location of the ruins, and he also didn't know how long this new function could keep him off the ground at a time. It may only be a few seconds. Oh well, I can always use my gauntlet to overload and shoot a propulsion blast straight down, slowing my decent. At least this time, it'll be intentional.
The last time that had happened, he had nearly been arrested, as the blast had destroyed an old merchants cart full of cabbages, who then proceeded to scream "My CABBAGES!"

Ah, good times, Markus reminisced

"If you don't fight, you will die." Nathaniel liked the sound of that. Short, aggressive, to the point. Grimm. At least that meant he wouldn't need to spend ten hours wandering through snow freezing his ass off next time he got into a bad mood. In fact, this place might be a good place to go next time that happened. It wouldn't be a day long trip for starters.
They were about to be thrown off of a cliff. That too seemed pretty cool. There was one problem though. The whole landing thing. The other students seemed okay with it, sorting themselves into all variety of positions, but he really was stuck. He was trained in martial arts, man on man combat, not ridiculous scenarios like being flung off cliffs.
He looked down with quiet appreciation at Teres-Aris. If anything it seemed to be in a better condition than before his fight yesterday. Then again, he had been up until 3 am cleaning, oiling and polishing it. Well, he figured, he had to do something with his time. He'd only stopped because he wanted an early night to be ready for initiation.
From what he'd heard a lot of students were able to slow their descents with their weapons. He frowned. That wouldn't work. Teres-Aris had the power, but it was nowhere near rapid firing enough. Course correction maybe, but course correction wouldn't prevent him from splattering on impact. He sighed inwardly. Whatever. He'd probably just wing it and hope for the best. That seemed to be what he'd spent most of his checkered life doing anyway.

Mike grinned at Nathaniel, who's expression never gave anything away. Mike wasn't fazed at all, and was in fact incredibly excited. Although, he was excited all the time. His weapons were designed for this kind of thing. Well, not exactly being flung off cliffs, but it was close enough. He would simply attach it to a branch, and use it to slow his descent.

He looked around at the other initiates, who he would possibly be teamed with. He was sure everyone would make a great team mate, but the two he knew best were Nathaniel and Markus. He recognized a few others that he had spoken to, but anyone other than the former two mostly merged into one in his mind.

The fact that he would have to fight Grimm probably put more worry into him than anything else, though he was pretty confident in his abilities. He never had been the best fighter ever, but he had proved decent at maneuvering forests, so he was pretty sure that if he was outmatched in outright fighting, he would be too fast for them to catch.

Mao sat on his launching back, hands back supporting him, and looking at the sky. One might think he wasn't taking this seriously, but appearances can be deceiving. He wasn't particularly enthralled by the idea of fighting in the forest since manipulating his wires would prove to be difficult. At the same time, however, it did help with maneuvering since he could grapple along to branches like a man, who is also a spider, would do, though it would be a bit more difficult to considering other factors. He would probably be stabbing trees or wrapping up tree branches to help with his landing.

He looked around and wondered who he would end up partners with. The only one he knew of the bunch was Drake, though he did see Kyri once on the cliffs. There was also Lucious, who had been in the snow forest convoy, Matt, and Indigo as well. Mao was actually surprised that he knew even half of the others. He sighed. Well, in truth, it probably doesn't matter who I get partnered with as long as the person isn't crazy...or in a suit of armor. Mao shivered for a second.

Upon hearing the last bit from Ozpin, Mao raised his hand. "Wasn't the first Initiation tournament style? Why has it been changed?"

Drake stands in silence, completely calm, completely at ease despite what the others would have heard from his dreams the night before. Where others would be concerned or even, in some odd sense excited at the prospect of being launched off of a cliff he is completely apathetic. The Talons are worn, ready, crossed across his chest and shoulders in a manner similar to a bat. The face mask is secured, only his eyes truly visible beneath the dark mass of long hair.

Armoured plates clink as he shifts his balance and carefully he glances down at the four armoured canisters that hang from his belt. Hopefully enough for this exercise. Hopefully he'd not have to do a mid-field siphon of one to another. He takes a deep breath and then chooses to glance around at those others present. One of these was likely to end up partnered with him for the next four years. Hopefully they would not be a young, overexcitable fool. That alone could sour a relationship very quickly.

A quick, cursory glance, assessing those present, their moods, their weapons. Almost as though he was eyeing each of them up as potential partners...or prey. Mao he knew. That was the only one who had interacted with him since the arrival. The others were complete strangers. There is no betrayed emotion on his face, no look of disappointment or scowl of irritation as he glances over each in turn.

Then he gets to Indigo. For a moment he stops. For a moment he locks up. No. She looked too familiar. The memory started to surface before he forced himself to look away, tightening his grip within the Talons. That one he needed to be careful around. She could be the death of him. Or others.

He listens, dutifully and then glances over the forest again. The landing would be something. His plans were simple. Manipulation of aura and the Talons to slow his descent with 'wings' of flame, coming to land an impact and tumbling to restore his footing. With this plan in mind he keeps his arms crossed. The forest was dangerous. He was used to that. The silent, sombre boy from the outskirts of society who only decided to become a hunter after a tragedy...he had grown up surrounded by woodland.

And at the mention of fighting or death?

There is perhaps a hint of a smile underneath the crimson scarf-mask. Perhaps a hint as to the sadistic killer that was waiting patiently to be unleashed.

"Soon. Soon she will get her peace..."

Indigo grinned like a child given a giant candy bar. Now this I can get used too. She readied herself on her platform, bending her knees and preparing to jump as far as possible. "Careful not to wet your pants, now!" She said teasingly to the other students.

Matt fingered his blades, wondering what he was going to do. It wasn't the height that bothered him, it was the landing strategy. I did not design my weapons with this in mind.He looks out over the forest, trying to come up with a plan, fast. He decided he would just have to aim for a sturdy branch, stab his blades into it, and hope for the best. Hopefully I'll still be in one piece when I hit the ground. It would really put a damper on this if I died.

Matt looks at all the others taking part in initiation. He recognizes a couple, Indigo, Mao, Markus, and Mike. Also, Nathaniel. I hope I'm not with Nathaniel. I don't think I could handle being with him for four years. Matt didn't recognize any of the others. Might have been a good idea to get to know them. Oh well, hopefully they'll be good teammates. Matt sits down, deciding to use the rest of his time to meditate, to prepare himself for the task ahead.

Kyri rushed over to her pad as instructions where being given out. She had just put her things away keeping only her weapon and six extra clips on her to make sure she was prepared for the fight ahead. Hearing that they where going on an adventure through the woods to retreave something a smile crossed her face. She made sure her weapon was in gun mode and she checked the ammo to make sure it was all dust to make sure that she was ready to move in any direction in the air.

She took in the other students wondering who she was going to be paired up with. She had started to get to know a few of them, but she was spending too much time away from her initial group to really get to know anyone. Indigo, Matt, and Tyler seemed to be the only people she had really met along the way, while she had only seen the others maybe once or twice before. She looked to the forest ahead of her and started to think up her plan to land.

They where going to launch everyone forward off this cliff, and she wanted to continue that momentum by shooting behind her and accelerating her speed and keeping her going through the air for a few minutes before starting to come down and using the dust again to slow her descent to a near walking pace as she came closer to the ground. As she came close to landing she would extend the blades and use the handle to spin around it as she stuck the blades either into a tree or into the ground.

She looked down the row to the others with a great smile on her face and she waved to them, ready to be shot off the cliff at any moment.

Tyler was ready. He stood on his launching pad, feet spread apart as if he were going to jump off of his launching pad, a hand already on black blade, and the other on his back where firedancer hung in gun form, with six clips of regular bullets, and four clips of each kind of dust he could use with it strapped to his back underneath it. His landing strategy was to use his air steps until he could land on a tree and make his way down to the forest floor. Thank god he was decent with his aura, if he wasn't he doubted he'd have been able to do this. But his blue eyes were scanning the area, looking over the few people he knew. Any one of them would make a great partner. But he would have to wait and see who he was paired up with. At any rate he was ready for the initiation to start.

Ozpin took a drink of his coffee as he looked at all the students preparing themselves for the launching. Upon nothing a empty launch pad he took a glance at his watch, that might be an issue. He turned to Gilda for a second and indicated the empty pad with a glance.

"Wasn't the first Initiation tournament style? Why has it been changed?" Mao asked.

Ozpin looked at the student and took another drink of Coffee. He brought the mug down from his lips and replied "Because it wasn't dangerous enough and many of the students weren't wary of the dangers." He looked across the students all ready to go. "Now without further ado we shall begin" He said.

The launch pads the students were standing on flung each of them one after another towards the forest in no particular order.

OOC: Kaliot, if you want an actual answer to the question, it's because it was chaos and would have gone waaaaay too long.

“Wait!”

As the first students were launched through the air, a young man came suddenly into view. The long white coat he wore flared out behind him as he sprinted towards the launch pads, and his glasses sat slightly askew on his nose as though he were too rushed to set them right. It was fairly obvious to anyone that this newcomer was rather flustered.

“Hold on!” Cain shouted as, one after another, the other initiates took to the sky. “Pause! Freeze! Desist! Please wait for me!”

The grey haired boy drew closer, and suddenly his foot seemed to catch on something. With a startled grunt he tumbled forward, rolling twice along the rocky ground before landing with a thud upon the lone empty lunch pad.

“Professor!” He gasped, staring up from where he lay towards Ozpin. “I’m so sorry I’m late. It was not my fault. You see, I was on my way when out of nowhere…”

Cain’s explanation was rapidly cut short as the pad on which he was sprawled sprang suddenly to life. In the span of a second the boy’s words morphed into an unintelligible cry as he was thrown violently from the cliff to fall flailing towards the sprawling forest below.