Traveling to The Crystal Sea: Day 1 [Plot]

"Probably not the smartest thing to do, don't 'cha think?" Declan says to the girl poking the ice with a slight waver in his voice. 'Why don't you just cut a hole and push me in while you're at it?'

"If it can support an airship and a bunch of students, I don't think a small sword will do anything."  Regardless, she stopped poking it and put the sword away.  Looking around, she didn't see anything particularly spectacular.  "What now?"

"What's next is excitement, Miss Kyoto!" Liam bellows from inside the airship.

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" 'Excitement'." Declan says as he stands up to take a look around now that he had regained his senses. directly forward from the exit of the air ship the ice was flat and clear, far in the distance is what appeared to be the liquid ocean. He walked around the airship to the other side and looked off into the distance. He could see the flat, smooth surface gradually become more and more rough, several large frozen waves stood far away. along with the waves were several hills of frozen snow ranging from small bumps to hill half the size of a mountain. "I guess that's what's next." Declan says to himself.

"If you say so."  Isabelle had a hard time believing that.  Autunno was supposed to be exciting too, and that didn't exactly go as planned.  Her thoughts wandered to the Grimm.  What kinds of them lived in these areas?  She somewhat hoped that they would encounter Beowolves so that she could practice against them.  The most common type of Grimm just happened to be the ones that she was the worst against in battle.

"I don't really know what I expected, to be honest." Arthur states to no one in particular, after looking across the vast expanse of ice. "Why did we have to drop here in the middle of nowhere? This is literally the middle of nowhere." he calls back into the airship where Grinsley was situated.

Stahl walked off the airship and looked around. Well, to be more precise, he was looking at the other students and gauging their reactions; to Shard's impatience to Isabelle's idle curiosity. Not exactly the most encouraging band of rag-tag students, but it could be worse.

"The reason we landed here Mr. King is so you can become accustomed to the view." Grinsley said as he stepped off the airship after Stahl. "Most students need some time to get used to walking on what appears to be nothing. We used to land nearer to the research site but due to distortion that the curves in the frozen waves cause many students became nauseous." He said before banging on the side of the airship, the signal for it to take off.

Grinsley turned and watched the vehicle disappear into the distance. "Now..." He turned back to his students "... As you all know this place is know as The Crystal Sea, due to the ice that formed here in ancient times appearing as clear as glass. The research site that we will be lodging at is just past those snow hills." He points past Declan and toward the hills. "Now, this trip is about Grimm adaptations so remember to keep an eye out for any movement, as you learned in class the Beowolves and ursas have grown white fur here helping them blend in, making them more dangerous than the species back in Vale." He looked at the sun, halfway up the sky. "And remember we are near the northern pole which means the days are much shorter. So if there are no further question I say we move out post-haste! " He finished with a hearty laugh.

IC:

"Because white blends in with nothing..." I mumbled sarcastically.

"Become accustomed to the view? What view? I see no view!" Arthur says, gesturing to most of the nothingness they were situated in. "And it's ruddy damn cold." He goes on, more quietly this time.

"I guess you'll see when we get to the caves, Mr. King. Now, if everyone's finished complaining, we should get moving." Mr. Grinsley says gruffly, he looks around the group for a moment before turning and begins walking toward the ice hills.

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Declan looks at Mr. Grinsley walking away then back at the rest of the group. "Well, an indoor research building does sound nice right about now..." He picked up his duffel bag off of the floor, in doing so he looked down once more. The endless deep dark depths of the sea stared back at him. From the black depths several fish and other creatures can be seen swimming around aimlessly and.........a small movement at the blackest depth of the water. He shook off the feeling and began following his professor.

Stahl rolled his eyes, honestly. It made tactical sense, if the pale white hid everything, then getting accustomed to it was paramount to living for five more seconds.

Still, it was freaking cold, and really, really, white.

Which brought to mind a song Stahl heard once,

"White is cold and always yearning..." He sang to himself, following the professor.

Shard, without waiting for instruction, walks in the direction Grinsley pointed at.

((OOC, sorry for crappy post, but there really wasn't much for Shard to do))

How could anything even stand living out here, it's ridiculously cold...   Isabelle began following the others, staying close behind the professor.

IC:

I stood at the back of the group, trudging alongside the other students, who I took the time to think about now.

First there was Shard. I didn't know what he thought about all this, although I'm pretty sure this is his natural environment. I still couldn't seem to be able to get through all that hate around him; whether that was my fault of Shard's, I didn't know, but I hope he doesn't do anything dumb on this trip.

Then there was Arthur. As far as I knew, he was loud, a bit intimidating, but possibly annoying. I had no idea how I could maintain a conversation with him; I didn't know or have anything to say to him, and he'd just...say stuff. Which would be awkward.

Then there was Isabelle. From what I hear (Not from her) she, like me, was a quiet person who usually stayed away from socializing. That might either mean we got along like brother and sister from different parents, or it'd be even worse than any of the pitiful and pathetic attempt's I've made at talking to Shard.

Then there was Stahl, who I think might have been one of the most normal students on this trip. But....that's really all I knew about him. Same with Declan, I guess.

I stared down. Unlike some of the others, I didn't feel nauseous, or....'different' in any way. Walking on this clear ice only felt weird simply because it was ice.


Man.....this was bulls##t.

As the group of students approached the snow hills a low guttural growl could be heard emitting from somewhere over the hills. Soon after a beowolf with fur white as the snow that it stood on appeared from behind the hill, the pack alpha. It let out an intense roar and looked toward the group, not moving a muscle

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Liam stopped an looked toward the sun. 'Almost night...' He put his hand on Jury, which hung from his hip "Ah, a first hand look at adaptation, amazing isn't it?" He said, still cheerful.

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Declan looked up at the top of the hill at the snow white beowolf. He extended the blades on his gauntlets but let the remain at his side for the time being. "You weren't kidding about the whole...blending in huh?" He asks hesitantly and mostly to himself.

Stahl rolled his eyes at Declan's comment, and unslung Eisen Blatt. Shifting it into rifle mode, he aimed at the snow-white Beowolf.

"Be careful, this thing might be tougher then the usual ones." He warned, taking step forward.

Arthur draws his sword with a hiss from its sheath. "This might actually be fun!" He says to Ginsley. "Have you got anything else to add about it's adaptation? Or is it basically the same as all other beowolves we've fought, but.. white?"

"The ability to survive in a harsh climate such as this doesn't come from fur alone..." Grinsley said without taking his eyes off of the beast. "Surviving this kind of cold takes durability and stamina...and that's the alpha, which means there are more already around..."

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Against the snow covered hill eleven sets of red eyes stand out against the white. The eyes were pacing back and forth on the hill, seemingly waiting for their prey to step forward.

It's always Beowolves first, why not something like an Ursa or two?  After she heard Shard firing off a shot, Isabelle drew her blade again.  That attack would probably end up provoking the Grimm, or at least make them extremely pissed at the group of students.  "Should we wait for them to come here, or should we go after them?"

Stahl wheeled around at Shard, giving him a sharp glare for acting so damn impulsively. Hearing Isabelle's comment, Stahl voiced his thoughts: "We need to stay here. If we go after them, we'll be walking straight into a trap."

The bolt found bits marking the alpha's shoulder. It let out a loud howl before four of the Beowolves shot forward from the hill towards the students, heading for Mr. Grinsley, Lan, Shard, and Arthur.

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As the Beowolf is mere feet away from him Liam grabs Jury, flicks the switch to open the shotgun compartment, and aims it at the Beowolf 's head, all in one fluid motion. He pulls the trigger and sends the beast back into one of the other Beowolves.

IC:

In the corner of my eye, I watched as Shard raised Armbrust and stick the Alpha of the pack. Unfortunately, not only did the grimm not know pain, but they were eaaaasily prone to anger. The biggest thing glue might've done to these monsters when in a large coverless area like this probably would've been to give it digestive issues if eaten - and even then, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't swallow the goo.

"AAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The wolf let loose a blood rippling cry, and like their minds were linked, 4 others shot forwards, with a speed that none of us could rival. Why?

"Grimm Adaptations, of course!" Mr. Grinsley's voice echoed in my mind.

"Thanks, Shard. That was useful," I muttered under my breath as I took a second to look at the group that burst across the transparent ground with inhuman speed. There were 4 of them, each looking at slightly different angles. One stared right at me with a ravenous look as if I was about to be the number one meal it'd had since the beginning of time - and it couldn't wait to start.

I dropped my pack onto the ground as I pulled out my sword, channeling my energies through the extending blade. A white-blue glow emanated, from the blade as I raised it, pointing towards the enemy. For a second, the air filled with the familiar smell of ozone, and then with a snap all the light condensed into a spiral converging at the twin channelers of my sword, and then blasted forwards as a bolt of lightning, tearing the Beowolf into two halves, both of which flew backwards to land on the ice.

Stahl's tactics for this battle were a little less flashy, stepping forward for a better shot, he opened fire at the Beowolves. He aimed for suppression rather then actually hitting any of them so his...allies could get a better hit in.

Not being terribly proactive when it came to fighting, Arthur would just wait for a Beowolf to get to him, rather than wasting his energy getting to them. In the mean time he draws his sword and readies himself with a more defensive stance.