Chapter Text
AREN’S POV
Well, what the fuck do I do? I don't need to find my locker, because my gear is always on me, and I don’t know anyone here. Should I just sit here? I decide to walk over to… nowhere, really. I just start wandering around, listening to conversations going on around me, but not really concerning me at all.
“I know! We should come up with a signal! A secret signal, so nobody figures out we’re working together! Can you imitate a sloth?” An eccentric, to put it mildly, girl with bright orange hair, cut at about neck height, in a short combat skirt, with the main color being white, while the decals and the skirt itself are pink, says to a boy in a green, Mistrali styled garb, don't really know what to call it, who is grabbing and loading his weapons from a locker. A pair of handguns, with blades coming down from beneath the barrel. “Nora.” He says. “Yes Ren?” The girl, going to assume that's Nora, and the boy is Ren, stops bouncing around to say. “I don’t think sloths make a lot of noise.” Ren says, tossing his guns slightly into the air, before some mechanism in his sleeves catches them and slides them down his sleeves. They walk off, with Nora following Ren, who I assume knows where he’s going. I follow them slightly, until they walk past a pair of girls, one having short black hair with red tips in a black and red combat skirt, a bit more decorated than Nora’s, and a blonde in very short shorts, with a tan vest and a yellow undershirt, hair going down to her waist. “You seem awfully chipper today.” the blonde says.. “Yep. No more awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff. Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking.” The girl in red said while cuddling what looked like a bulky sniper rifle. I keep walking, and see a door, opposite where we entered. I go to walk out of it, and as I do, I hear a surprised shout behind me, and as I turn to see what it was from, a boy slams into the wall next to me, carried by a spear through his hood. Jesus that scared me. I keep walking, heading out the door, as I hear an announcement from the overhead. “All first year students, please proceed to Beacon cliffside.” I head out the door, now noticing an exit sign in green above it.
After heading out, I can see Ozpin, an older man with amber eyes and a cane he always carries around with him, standing with a coffee mug with his back to the cliff. Lining the cliffside, about a foot from the edge are platforms with the Vale symbol on it. I step onto the first one, the farthest from Ozpin, assuming that there is some reason they are there. Everyone lines up, stepping into a panel each, like me.
“All of you have shown great promise, but are yet untested. That is what this is for. You will all be brought to the Emerald forest, find the temple, retrieve a relic for each pair. Speaking of which, I'm sure you have all heard rumors of teams. Allow me to put those rumors to rest. You will all receive teams. Today. You will also be paired up with one other person. That person will be by your side for the next four years, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone you get along well with. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner.” Glynda Goodwitch, a professor at Beacon and assistant to Ozpin, explains. “What?!” I hear someone shout from down the line, closer to Ozpin. “Make no mistake. While we will be watching your performance, we will not interfere. Do not hesitate to kill whatever Grimm you encounter, or they will not hesitate to kill you.” Ozpin says, in a neutral tone. I can't tell if he's trying to sound sincere, or serious.
Before I get time to think about that though, I hear clicking beneath the panel I'm on. Suddenly, it springs up, launching me off the cliff and into the Emerald Forest. “Oh you son of a bitch!” I shout to no one in particular. I don't have time to think about it though, because I need to land safely. I sigh, not liking my plan because of how wasteful of an expensive type of Dust it is, but it's that or death. I swing my right leg downward, tumbling me forwards as I approached the ground, before kicking downward with it, triggering some gravity Dust as I do, forcing my descent to slow to a safe speed just before landing and rolling to my feet. I look up to see the last of the students being launched, and unsurprisingly, there is one who doesn't have a landing strategy, and is just tumbling head over heels through the air. Preparing to catch him, I begin to infuse fire Dust into my greaves, before the boy gets shot to the side, a red spear carrying him by the hood. Not unlike the one he was launched into the wall with earlier.
Well, with that out of the way, now I can start searching. I start walking into the forest and encounter… nothing. At all. For ages! After a while though I walk onto a scene that is somewhat amusing. The boy from before, stuck to a tree trunk by a spear through his hood; a girl with a white combat skirt turning around and leaving him dangling; and what appears to be someone's failed landing strategy, which seems to have thrown him through a tree, into the dirt, and deep enough that only one leg is sticking out of the ground. No blood though, so their aura must have held up. Damn that's one tough kid. I walk over to the buried person, or at least start to. The boy on the tree notices me and says “Hey, wait! Can you get me down from here? Please?” “Don't worry, someone is guaranteed to be here pretty quick. Even if it's just to grab their weapon.” I say without looking at him, knowing that whoever pinned him to the tree would be pissed if I made their effort for nothing. “Oh. Um… okay then. Guess I'll just… wait then.” He says. I reach where the person got themself buried and kneel down. I could probably just pull them out. It's not like it'll kill them. I grab onto the leg and start pulling, until the person is pulled out of the hole. Then I roll them over, and take a look at them. It’s definitely a guy, with semi-long blue hair, with dirt in it from his landing. I infuse ice Dust into a crystal in my hand, then trigger it into the air right next to his head, instead of using impact, causing the air to rapidly drop to freezing temperature, shocking him awake in seconds.
“I'm awake! I'm up! I'm up!!!!!!” The boy shouts sitting up and shoving me away, actually managing to shove me a good few feet, and slightly off the ground. He then gets up, jogs around trying to warm back up, then shouts at me “WHY!?”
“Well, you were passed out, half buried, in the middle of an area with confirmed Grimm presence, and in the middle of initiation no less. I'm pretty sure I did you a favor.” I explain to him. “Ok, but did you have to freeze me half to death?” He asks. “No, probably not.” That's just a fun bonus for me.