[Flooberoid]

The group approached the ruins as Persimmon took a detour to retrieve the Eye. By the time he had caught up, the group was within the main structure, looking upon the relics they were to retrieve. It seemed as if they had arrived at exactly the right time; light shining through gaps in the canopy at the edge of the clearing came into the building from a large hole in the ceiling and happened to land on the pedestals, highlighting the dazzling jade artifacts.

Up close, however, the relics appeared to be nothing special. There were very apparent and deep scratches on them, the reflective green surface became dull in spots, and the edges were torn to a shape with no rhyme or reason. "Clever of them," Persimmon joked, "to make the relics seem interesting, but not so much of a treasure that I'd want to take them home."

[willow_lark]

Sherwood only shrugs at Persimmon's joke. "Ah suppose... These are what we're here for. One fir each pair right?" Sherwood says. He motions at Persimmon, pointing towards a relic and shrugging again. He grabs it, sticking it in a pocket. "Guess we can head back now."

Sherwood gives the other pair a moment to grab a relic themselves, nods to his partner, and starts back from whence they came.

[MissyMidna]

Noctis sighed finally feeling like he could catch his breath.Walking over to the relics Noctis grabbed the item that looked to be the matching pair to the one Persimmon has in his hand. When he turned around he waved the object in his hand to show his partner that he picked one already and that they were could leave with the other two students.

He hated how much the doctor side of his surfaced. The first thing he says after the battle being over was if anyone had any injuries. It didn't look like anyone was hurt but looks can be deceiving.

"You three alright?" He asked.

[CptSteel]

"My damaged pride has indeed been healed." The tall faunus laughed as his weapon shifted to its neutral form and he attached it to his belt.  Argent looked at the relic that Noctis had picked up, and then to the rest of the relics.

"If we collected them all, I wonder if we'd get a prize. Like socks, or a hoodie." The elephant faunus sighed.

[Flooberoid]

Persimmon eyeballed the relic, a curious look on his face as if noticing something important. Without saying a word, he shrugged and put it away.

He turned to Argent in response to his comment. "Just take one. I can tell you right now these things aren't worth anything beyond our initiation into Beacon." With that thought, a scheme crossed his mind and he took another relic, hiding it under a pile of rocks in the corner. Someone's in for a scare. He then started walking towards the exit.

((Timeskip back to Beacon for another GM post?))

[Flooberoid]

In compliance with a message sent to all first-years, the initiates in the forest gathered back at Beacon for their team assignments. Oddly enough, the Beacon headmaster was absent from this event, as were the two huntsmen who had been at the cliff preceding their initiation. Instead, the students were to receive their assignments from a nondescript middle-aged man who, well, clearly didn't want to be here.

He kept the students' instructions brief: "As some of you may know, we typically group students based on similarities with the relics they pick up. Well, you've probably noticed that these chunks of jade in your pockets seem to have no interesting qualities whatsoever. Within the next half hour, it will be up to you to determine who your teammates are based upon the pieces you each collected. Get to it." The man walked away without even asking if anyone had any questions.

The reactions among the crowd ranged from confusion to outrage as everyone pulled out their relics, examining them for any standout characteristics. Persimmon found the whole thing rather bittersweet. He was pretty sure he had some idea of what the connecting element between these artifacts was, but to find his teammates would mean actually consulting with many of the upbeat weirdos of the Beacon first year class. What it came down to was two options: Either show off how cool he was by solving the puzzle, or play dumb until the crowd thinned down to three plus himself. While he considered, Persimmon simply stared at the chunk of jade in his hand.

[MissyMidna]

Of Course the instructor didn't care about answering questions although he was pretty straight forward as it is.Noctis sighed holding the piece of rock that he had gotten for himself and Argent. He glanced over at Sherwood and Fox boy. He shrugged and went back to his previous standing position with his hands in his pocket and looking at the crowds of students.

[CptSteel]

Argent thought about the strange stone whilst he stood beside his partner. "Maybe..Hm, no. What about..no, that can't be right. Oh, oh, maybe there is a mark on our stone than matches with another one?" At this point Argent was just guessing.

The tall faunus looked down to his partner, wondering. Why does this have to be so vague? He thought. Argent then looked around to the other first years, thinking about how many of them had a semblance of an idea about what to do with the relics.

[willow_lark]

Sherwood watches the rest of the room break off into conversations and stone comparison. As much as he wanted to discover who his teammates would be, finally, this whole thing seemed a bit ridiculous. They had just fought Grimm, been launched into the woods. It all comes down to comparing rocks? Sherwood couldn't help frowning a bit at how mundane it all seems.

Still, Beacon is Beacon Academy. They know what they're doing. Sherwood sighs and rolls his shoulders. He looks over the rock, so he knows what to ask about when he starts talking to people. If he can figure out what so special, at least it should be quick to compare. Finding the teammates he's been waiting for is worth a cheesy icebreaker or two.

[Flooberoid]

Persimmon remembered what had been told to him when they started. The first person he locked eyes with in the forest was to be his partner for the rest of his time at Beacon. That person would be... Sherwood. It seemed strange that the school was always able to put partners on the same team even though the teams were decided by these relics. What if he or Sherwood had decided to pick up a different piece?

Regardless of this line of reasoning, Persimmon went ahead and picked Sherwood out of the crowd. It would at least be easier to start a conversation with him rather than any of the other random students around the place.

"Miss me? We've been apart for a few whole minutes now!" Persimmon mockingly said from in front of Sherwood. Sure he had the lad's attention, Persimmon held out his relic. "Wanna see if we'll be together for the next four years?"

[MissyMidna]

Noctis ended up handing his peice to Argent. "Maybe it's suppose to fit with the corresponding piece? I really don't know. It's just a chunk of Jade. Who make a relic a piece of Jade?"

Absentmindedly Noctis leaned a bit on Argent with his cheek squished against his left arm as he looks at the green gem. Maybe they should go look for the other students, Persimmon and Sherwood, to see if they had figured it out. As he thought quietly he was putting more of his weight on the tall Faunus. He didn't notice until he needed to shift his weight on his other leg. Noctis moved away with a tint of red dwelling on his face.

"I-uh. sorry so I. Ah! Iorry so...No. I mean," Noctis stammered feeling nervous about how Argent would react.

[CptSteel]

"Ah, it's alright. Maybe the other two have this figured out." Argent began to jam Noctis' piece together with his own, trying to not look embarrassed and both Noctis' actions and him looking stupid trying to make a stone with a piece of rock.

While doing this he strode over to Sherwood and Persimmon. "Yo, you two? Wanna see if it fits tog--" The jade fit together. It was only half of the stone, but it fit and Argent was happy.

[willow_lark]

"If ya can figure this thing out be ma guest." Sherwood says, lightly tossing the rock to Persimmon. "Ah'm... not much for puzzles." He says.

When Argent approaches, Sherwood nods to him in greeting. He cocks an eyebrow in surprise as the elephant faunus got the jade stones he held to fit together. So it was possible.

[Flooberoid]

"This really is too simple," Persimmon bragged, not having noticed Argent already blundered his way to the solution. "These scratches, the size and shape of the stones, the pattern in the grooves... it's obvious these things stick together. If we line up our pieces like so..." Persimmon locked the two jade relics together, their scratches lining up to form an imperfect rectangular shape. The image was still clearly cut off at one side, indicating more relics needed to fit in order to show them what they were meant to see.

[MissyMidna]

Noctis stepped up on his toes to see what Persimmon was talking about. There was an engraving in the stone but it was hard to make out since it was only half. The male nudged Argent to hand their half to the fox to see if there's would complete the picture.

"We'll Argent forced our pieces together," Noctis tells the other two students. "So if out pieces complete the picture, we are stuck on a team together for the next four years."