Welcome to Gaia! ::

spaceOpal stood alone, trying to isolate herself from the continuously forming crowd of her future peers. She watched them as they boarded and silently took them all in. Her choice of word wouldn't be "judgmental," but that's what she was doing, judging. She was thinking of who her potential teammates might be, what kind of weapons everyone used, their fighting styles, their attitudes... Opal stole her secretive glances away from the newest batch of students being picked up, setting it on the scenery outside her window. She leaned into the cold glass, letting her forehead rest against it, as she closed her eyes. Her brain needed a break. She'd spent her entire time on this airship observing other people. What she should have been musing over was how she was going to react to Beacon. While she was determined to be a good teammate, she still had her doubts; what would she do is she wasn't chosen as team captain? She was already rather set on being the leader, but never stopped to consider the possibility that someone else would be chosen. Could she be a team player?

spaceAfter a moment, the ship was in the air again, continuing their journey to Beacon Academy, 'Beacon. I never thought I would see myself doing this...' Opal opened her eyes, then, and watched the clouds as they passed them. The small conversations going on around the ship drifted into her ears. She turned her gaze to the crowd again, wondering if she should try to socialize. It might be in her benefit to make friends. You never knew how they would choose teams, after all. She saw a boy spilling the contents of his backpack on the floor; her brow rose. Hopefully he wasn't usually clumsy. 'That's a rude thought.' She watched the girl he talking to move to help. Opal looked around at a few of the other groups splitting off, silently deciding against her better judgement of socializing. She knew she should get her name out there, make herself known, but what did it matter? She tried telling herself it did matter. In the end, it was just easier to keep to herself. After all, she wasn't here to make friends. She was here to get stronger.

spaceOpal looked down at her left wrist, clad with Andraste in its gauntlet form. It was smaller than standard gauntlets. It almost looked like just a thick glove, with iron plating and a thick band on her wrist, but it packed a heavy hit. Currently, it had two capsules of gravity dust, to pack an even heavier hit. She flexed her fingers then gripped down, forming a fist. Always be ready for anything. During the Fall of Beacon, she was told that Grimm attacked mercilessly, wrecking anything in their path. Opal wouldn't let herself be a victim. She let her arm relax and fall to her side, glancing at the mirror again, catching her own stare in her reflection. "You have to make your own paths in life. Good luck." The words of Raven Branwen echoed in her mind. With a deep breath in, Opal turned to find someone to talk with, but by that time the ship was already landing. Her face turned a little red, embarrassed with herself. She set her hand against the window to steady herself for the rough docking; was this a new pilot or what?

spaceAs she was disembarking, her things were already sent to the school a few days before her arrival, her eyes fell on the boy from before. The one who spilled his backpack. There were two people talking to him, and he did not look too pleased with the interaction. The girl from before and another boy joined them, too, and Opal seemed to resolve her own pride, then. She needed allies. She walked up to the group and offered a small, friendly smile, trying to seem friendly, "Hi there, uh, hope you don't mind if I join your little group? I'm new to this continent altogether. So I figured... why not be weird and just introduce myself?" She rubbed the back of her neck, nervous, and smiled at her fellow students before giving the two suited men a weird look. Why were they even here? Was it normal to escort students around? She looked back to the other three students again, "My name is Opal. Opal Lilla." Being a faunus generally made her nervous to approach people, but most were accepting of her "cute bunny ears." Those tended to work in her favor, though, as they didn't match her personality very much. Opal stood there and waited, then, for the others to respond.

spaceOpal gave the man, Onyx apparently, a side glance when he mentioned that he needed her verification, whatever that meant. The redhead simply nodded at the menacing looking man before disregarding him again, not willing to associate with such a gruff person at the moment. She heard what Carmine said under her breath and smirked lightly at the girl; she was going to like her, "Nice to meet you Carmine, and thanks." Opal looked over the young man that addressed her next. She thought she heard him say his name was Noir? Opal leaned towards Noir when he leaned over to her. Not expecting him to say that, she couldn't help but chuckle lightly, putting her hand over her mouth as she did, "I'm glad I missed that part, then." Finally, she turned to look at and greet Elliot, seemingly amused with Onyx's unhappy demeanor. She smirked back at his misfits comment and nodded, feeling a little more comfortable with forcing herself into their group. Maybe she would fit in with these people. "Thank you, Elliot, I appreciate that. Pleasure to meet you, as well." After their introductions were all through, the group began to move on, walking towards the Academy looming in the distance. Onyx seemed to be in a hurry to get his job done, despite how easy it seemed. She walked steadily, keeping up with the others, but with enough distance to be able to see them all at any given time.

space"You're... a faunus," caught her attention and suddenly she felt out of place again. She could never be sure how someone would react, negatively or positively, and some of the positive ones had more weird ideas than general appreciation. Opal turned her gaze to Elliot and shrugged lightly, "Yes I am, I--" Suddenly, she was cut off by Elliot excitedly asking her question after question. Wearing a small smile, Opal figured this was better than any other outcome. She could appreciate gentle curiosity, "Well, I do have really great hearing. I can pick up on a lot of stuff most people can't. My jumping abilities aren't enhanced any. Although that might be cool. In the winter my fur and hair turns white, but I don't think that's too much of an advantage, unless I need to go undercover or something." She answered his questions with almost a lecture-styled voice, as if her answers were practiced. Again, her new friend fired some more questions at her, asking about where she was from, but Onyx cut him short. Opal raised a brow at the suited man and listened to what he said. She was about to say that Elliot was fine, and she wouldn't answer anything she didn't want, but before she could get the words out, Elliot was back next to her. He seemed to be examining her ears.

spaceA small blush crept on her cheeks, not completely comfortable with how close he was to her, but she simply put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him slightly away from her. "That's a little too close. I'm from Northern Anima, by the way." She smiled politely and patted Elliot's shoulder, "Nope, not a cow faunus. But thanks for thinking its cool, I suppose." She reached up and bent down one of her ears, almost an entire foot in length, so Elliot could get a closer look before answering his next question, "This is my weapon," she held up her gloved hand and took a step back, pressing a button and transforming the small gauntlet into a long spear, "This is Andraste, a javelin that can also be used as a gauntlet, depending on the situation. I'd be interested in your weapon, too, if you want to spar sometime." She gave Elliot a playful smirk before pressing the button again, the spear shrinking down to form a gauntlet on her wrist again.

spaceHer gaze turned to Noir as he asked Elliot a question, or moreso spoke a thought aloud. Opal couldn't say she wasn't interested in the answer, though. She wasn't around to hear any explanation of why Elliot warranted escorts. When the boy answered, though, Opal was a little taken back. Throwing lampposts? Street surfing? What was this kid all about? As the two of them spoke, Opal slowed her pace to walk beside Carmine, who seemed generally uncomfortable with their situation, "What about you? What kind of weapon do you use?" Opal was genuinely curious, of course, but at the same time she hated having all the attention on her.

spaceOpal smiled at Elliot's excitement regarding her weapon, feeling a small burst of pride for having built it herself. Well, she had some help building it, of course, but she wasn't very eager to tell everyone she was affiliated with the Branwen tribe. "Yeah, it took over a year to get everything just right. It almost broke my wrist, once." She mused thoughtfully, "And I look forward to our spar, then! A fellow gauntlet wielder would be exciting." Opal showed a fair amount more enthusiasm now that they were talking about weapons and fighting. Onyx spoke again, seeming to be rather upset that Elliot had his weapons on him. What else did they expect? Huntsmen without their weapons felt naked; surely they understood that.

spaceIt was after their interaction started that she moved to her conversation with Carmine and her weapon. The redhead listened, intrigued, as Carmine explained the status of her weapons. A small "Oh?" fell from her lips at the mention of a hand-cannon. Opal turned her head to look at the other girl's hip, very interested in the fact that Carmine had three separate weapons. She must be rather skilled. Well, she supposed everyone attending the school was skilled in some manner. "That's so interesting. You have so many weapons, how do you keep up with them? Technically mine is still one piece, even if it has more than one use. I might have to take you up on that sparring offer!" Opal was getting excited, now. Why didn't she think that she would find equally as enthused people to connect with? At Carmine's questions, Opal offered a polite smile and answered rather matter-of-factly, trying to hide her obvious pride. "Yes, Andraste. Thank you, and I'm much more comfortable using it as a long distance weapon. I've only had it as a usable gauntlet for a little over a year, now, so I'm still practicing with hand-to-hand." She unconsciously touched the sleight gauntlet decorating her wrist, memories of her training lessons pouring briefly into her thoughts. A warm smile came to her face, then. However difficult and frustrating her training with Raven was, they were some of the best days she's ever experienced.

spaceAt Noir's outburst, Opal swiveled her head in his direction. He was so excited about what he had to say that Opal couldn't help but smile as well. It was infectious. She listened intently to his explanation of his weapon, Heatflake before commenting, "That's so neat that the blade changes colors! I have to see that, sometime." It looked like she found three new sparring partners. She could only hope at least one of them would be on her team, instead of peers she hasn't met yet.

spaceAt Noir's next conversation topic, Oz and "some scary lady," Opal was instantly interested in that conversation. Scary lady? Honestly, that could be a number of people that worked at Beacon. But, she figured it would have been Goodwitch. Raven told Opal many stories about the pair, mostly Ozpin, and they weren't all the best of stories. Opal had her own reservation about Raven's feelings towards Oz, but she chose not to let that effect her schooling. Suddenly, Noir was backing up and hiding behind Carmine and herself, nervously asking Elliot if the woman he described was Elliot's mom. Goodwitch... was his mom? Opal turned her gaze to Elliot, then, and was taken back slightly. He seemed so destructive and sporadic, much different than Ms. Glenda's own demeanor. These thoughts danced around in her head as the group finally approached the Amphitheater for orientation.