[center][color=880085]Cyra Zylven - Beacon Cliff - Tuesday Morning[/color][/center]

Cyra knelt on her platform, eyes closed, her breath’s deep and even through her nose. Her shields rested on the ground at her sides, hiding her tightly clenched fists. The headmaster’s words were a low drone in her ears, bits and pieces coming through now and again, but for the most part Cyra just tuned out the world, focusing instead on the ground beneath her. 

It was a state she went into often, when her worries and nerves were getting the better of her. It was a useful side effect of her Semblance; when she connected with the ground, she genuinely felt a part of it, her small body merging with the vastness of the planet. It made all that fear seem smaller than what she had been previously, and her thoughts reached a place of calm. [color=880085][i]By the end of today, I will have a partner. A team. It will happen. Whomever they may be, I will deal with it as it comes.[/i][/color]

A loud ka-thunk startled her out of her meditation, causing her to look around. The student at the end to her right was missing. [color=880085][i]What! Where did-[/i][/color] A second ka-thunk broke the silence, and the second student was thrown into the air by the platform beneath him. [color=880085][i]They're launchpads?[/i][/color] She looked down at her platform, panic closing off her throat. [color=880085][i]No, no, nonononono. This isn't good, this isn't good![/i][/color] Her Semblance only worked if she was touching the ground, if she was launched into the air then she would lose that connection. She would be small again.

A third launch. Two more and it would be her turn. If she tried, she might be able to anchor herself to the plate, holding herself secure. Of course, even if it worked, which it probably wouldn't, she would just end up having her face driven into the dirt, which would break her concentration (not to mention her neck) and then send her rolling over the cliff. Failing spectacularly on the first day; everyone would be talking about her for weeks.

Fourth launch. One more. [color=880085][i]Wait, Ozpin said something about finding crystals? Obviously that is where we're being launched towards. It is part of the exercise. So preventing the launch would be a failure.[/i][/color] Fifth launch. She was next. There was no other choice but to accept that, for at least a brief time, she would be airborne. Taking another breath through her nose, she relaxed her hold on the earth and rose, keeping her knees bent in preparation. [color=880085][i]If nothing else, at least the ground will always be there to catch me.[/i][/color]

[center][color=880085]Emerald Forest[/color][/center]

She was airborne. The wind howled in her ears, screaming for dominance. She would not give it. She was Cyra Zylvan, she would endure. So long as she had her shields and the earth beneath her feet, she would endure. She opened her eyes and smiled behind her bandanna.

A smile that quickly vanished. Trees. There was nothing but trees stretching out beneath her. How could she have forgotten about the fucking trees! They would not be as welcoming to her arrival as the earth would be. She might have avoided faceplanting on the first day, but instead had traded it in for the possibility of being impaled. Because apparently that was much more preferable. [color=880085][i]No, no, stop it! Obviously this is part of the exercise. You never know how you might need to be deployed or what situations you might find yourself in while fighting Grimm. All I have to do is make it through the trees to the ground, and I’ll be fine. Enduring things is something I can do.[/i][/color] Curling her legs into her chest, she locked her shields in front of her and prayed for the ground to meet her quickly.

One by one, the trees snapped and splintered before her, sending her into a tumble. One caught the edge of her shield, spinning her sideways, and she was flung about by two more until at last her momentum was spent and gravity fully asserted itself. Unlocking her shields as she fell, Cyra desperately scrabbled to grab hold of a branch, but nothing firm would hold her. When she finally came to a stop, she hung upside down, arms hanging past her head as she glared at the ground five feet below her. [color=880085]"You didn't catch me."[/color]

She looked up her body and groaned. It wasn't breaking her neck from faceplanting off a launchpad, or being impaled on a tree. No, instead it would be her shoelaces tangled around a branch that would do her in today.