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<br/>​</div>Akena was able to keep pace with Robin, even with his obvious advantage of stride length. She focused on keeping her breathing level, and slowly lengthened her own stride, ensuring her arm and leg movements were smooth.<i>Optimal</i>was the key word Akena strove for when it came to any measurable endeavor. Today had been filled with far too unknowns, but a simple run was something she could rely on, relax with, and focus on without worrying about other things. Still, it was fun to have partner - a parent, a friend, a coach, rival, whatever the case may be. She gave Robin a teasing whistle as he took off his shirt.<br/><br/>"If you're hoping to distract me, you're sorely overestimating yourself!" She spared enough breath for an enthusiastic burst of snark. Akena wasn't one to trash talk or boast normally, but something about competing and exerting herself always drew out some fire and excitement. It was moments like this that she could really have fun. She hadn't planned on it being a race, but Akena wasn't one to turn down a competition. She grinned and picked up the pace, almost passing him, only to reach the dorms at just the same time as him. "Well..." she caught her breath, her breathing calming quickly. This wasn't too bad. Normally it'd be the beginning of a larger workout, but the rain meant she'd need to make it up in the morning. "We'll call it a draw, Mr. Farber."<br/><br/>She gave a raspy chuckle and began walking inside, up to the dorm room. Nekro was sound asleep, murmuring and whimpering in his sleep. Calling him a puppy was perhaps not so inaccurate. He had taken the bed above Robin, which gave her some pause, but the two would hopefully be mature about it despite their disagreements. Shiro was awake and raptly studying, and Akena left him to his work. She would hate being distracted if she was like that, and Shiro seemed like he would have zero patience for diversions while studying. He gave her a brief nod of acknowledgment, which Akena returned. Which left Karmyne the bed above Akena. Speaking of whom, she wasn't back yet. Akena thought about sending a message, but thought better of it. She wanted to be alone, a mentality Akena understood all too well.<br/><br/>She began digging into her pajamas, stripping off her shorts and hoodie, seeing what she had packed. Akena didn't have much in the way of embarrassment anymore. This was going to happen plenty often for everyone to get used to each other. The usual - shirts, pants, all comfy and warm. And near the bottom...well, that was a surprise. Akena could only roll her eyes and give an embarrassed smile as she took out a green lizard-styled onesie. She'd owned it since childhood, and it still somehow fit. Must've been Dad - Mr. Maris - who packed it in there for her. But after a tumultuous day, perhaps some simple comfort was needed. She slid it on, fully knowing how ridiculous it must look, but not caring much. She pulled the hood over her head - in the shape of a lizard head, with soft cotton "teeth" lining the hood itself. She yawned and clambered into bed, setting her glasses on the bedside table. She took a look out at the dark clouds quickly rolling in, and turned to her awake teammates. "Night y'all." And she was out.<br/><br/>-------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>Akena's eyes almost slammed open as the first light of the sun began brightening the sky. It was beneath the horizon, but...given the time of year and and brightness of the dawn, she had obviously missed her usual wake time. She grabbed her glasses and scroll, and kept herself from cursing out loud. 5:45 am?! Her routine was to get up at 4:30 and work out for an hour to ensure she had enough time to relax and do some studying before her classes. Now she probably didn't even have time for that. Akena would be damned if she missed out on her workout however, and she quickly - and as silently as she could manage - got out of bed and changed from her sleepwear into a spandex shirt and a pair of martial arts gi pants. Karmyne wasn't here, but it looked like she had slept here at least - she probably had a morning workout routine too. Akena grabbed her bag containing Nyx Astra, and went outside into a wider courtyard area. She'd need to do the streamlined routine today. Akena tried to push the distress of waking late out of her head as she took out the orb and transformed it into it's clawed gauntlets. It wouldn't do much good to go through this with a noisy mind, and that would only throw her off the rest of her day. Akena only had a few routines, but she relied on them to keep herself grounded.<br/><br/>As the sun rose higher, Akena went through a few basic martial arts forms and steps. Her style was largely based around Akido, with a heavy dash of boxing. But mostly, she morphed and shaped it constantly to suit how she fought with Nyx Astra, and it was a constant work in progress. These days, she found herself focusing more on footwork above all else. As she came to the end of her routine, Akena thought through it in her mind and self-assessed. Sloppy. Her knees weren't bent right, her hands and elbows failed to follow the proper lines, and frankly half of her stances were just unstable. So it was going to be that sort of day, hmm? She stored her weapon away in it's bag again, and dropped it off in her room before grabbing her towel and heading to the bath.<br/><br/>Akena took a quick shower, cognizant of how much time she didn't have. She noted, with some amusement, that the bathrooms were most definitely co-ed. Very funny, and yet another strange housing decision by the Beacon staff. She spent a good amount of time drying off her hair and setting it with various hairpins. There didn't seem to be a rush of other students in the bathrooms yet, which Akena appreciated. Said appreciation evaporated when she stepped outside into the incredibly noisy and busy hallway. She felt a bit anxious - this many people making this much noise? If this was the state of affairs every morning, then perhaps it was best to head to a quieter place in the morning instead of studying in her room - the library, perhaps. Akena walked into the room, noticing Karmyne was already ready to go, and Nekro was hauling himself out of bed. Akena chose to give them a quick nod and walk, very quickly, over to her weardrobe. She<i>hated</i>running late on her schedule. Sub-optimal.<br/><br/>"Karmyne, glad to see you. Nekro, good to see you're up. I'm uh..running kinda late so sorry if I don't do the pleasantry stuff and.." She trailed off, waving a hand in the air as if to wave away the words she had just spoken, her tone harried. Wrapped in a towel, she went to her wardrobe and picked out the uniform, her nose crinkling a bit. Blouse, skirt, blazer was standard enough, but very much not Akena's style. She'd have to improvise. Akena buttoned on the plain white blouse, and then put on some gray leggings before sliding on the skirt. There was a brown sort of corset-looking thing, which Akena immediately threw back with a roll of the eyes. She looked at the blazer, then traded it with a larger jacket with the Beacon logo, this one looking like it came off the men's uniform. It went down past Akena's hips and almost to her knees, and she left it open instead of buttoning it. Non-standard? Yes. But there was no way she would wear the standard girl's uniform all day. Though, as she turned to regard her teammates, Akena noted that it definitely looked good on others. Akena smoothed down her skirt, muttered something like "..not even any goddamn decent pockets..", and grabbed her pack.<br/><br/>"Anyway, morning y'all. Yeah, I think we need our weapons for the first class?" Akena looked over her schedule on her scroll. "We can wait for everyone if you'd all like, or head down, or..I dunno, just do whatever?" Akena blinked and remembered she was supposed to be the<i>leader</i>of this team, and not some half-hearted, unenthusiastic introvert. "Right. We'll just wait for everyone. Probably won't be too long, I think we're about ready to go."