[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][cell] [h2][color=4A7BAA][b]Kaius Arakawa[/b][/color][/h2] [i][b][color=4A7BAA]Team Breakwater | Generalist Trainer[/color][/b][/i] [color=4A7BAA][b]Location:[/b][/color] Academy Grounds [color=4A7BAA][b]Objective:[/b][/color] Morning Training [color=4A7BAA][b]Condition:[/b][/color] Rested | Focused [color=4A7BAA][b]Active Pokémon:[/b][/color] Umbreon, Hex (Gastly), Abra, Rook (Riolu), Wattrel, Aegis (Hisuian Growlithe) [center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7be1-3808-73aa-a6ec-3c9839c83bfc.webp[/img][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7c5d-1160-75bf-8b98-174fbe7fd0d6.webp[/img][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7c58-b472-741d-a211-ffa8125c04f6.webp[/img][/center] [center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7c65-772e-72d9-83f2-bf6dc193accc.webp[/img][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7e90-6ceb-76e9-bc57-8af86f39a370.webp[/img][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7e90-d561-73c6-ac2e-3a8d4f11bf2b.webp[/img][/center] [/cell] [cell] [right] [img]ACTIVE_POKEMON_IMAGE[/img] [/right] [/cell] [/row] [/table] [center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] The training field still carried traces of the night's chill when Kaius arrived. The sun had only just begun climbing above the distant treeline, casting long shadows across the grounds and painting the world in soft gold. Most of the academy still slept. A few lights glowed in distant windows, but the majority of the campus remained quiet. Just the way Kaius liked it. This wasn’t a workout, not yet. He began to move. The sort his father always called, [i]waking the body up before asking anything serious of it.[/i] Slow laps around the field. He focused on controlling his breathing. Then, transitioning to footwork patterns drilled so many times that they no longer required conscious thought. [i]Forward. Pivot. Reset.[/i] [i]Forward. Pivot. Reset.[/i] Years of repetition carried him through the motions while the rest of Team Breakwater slowly assembled around him. He’d released all of them once he’d set foot onto the training field, and let them wake up, wonder about, and then do their own morning routines. Umbreon, his shiny Umbreon, sat near the edge of the field, watching with the calm patience of someone who had witnessed this exact routine hundreds of times before. His tail flicked once as Kaius passed. No greeting was necessary between the two lifelong friends. They had already acknowledged each other. Across the field, Rook moved through her own drills with unwavering focus. The Riolu's Macho Brace rested securely around her limbs as she practiced footwork sequences with almost academic precision. [i]One. Two. Pivot. Reset.[/i] [i]One. Two. Pivot. Reset.[/i] Kaius glanced her way. Rook immediately straightened, [color=#4F86F7][b]"Riolu."[/b][/color] Which meant they were ready. He nodded to them, and they nodded back. Entire conversation complete. Nearby, Aegis was attempting stretches with enough enthusiasm to suggest she believed flexibility could be conquered through sheer determination. The Hisuian Growlithe had somehow transformed a simple warm-up into a personal challenge. Umbreon watched this develop. His expression suggested he had concerns. Several, in fact. Sitting atop a nearby fence post, Wattrel sat and, with a loud squawk, interrupted the morning. As he watched and judged, while pretending to be involved. The fact that his wings occasionally mirrored portions of the stretching routine was clearly unrelated. At least according to Wattrel. A shadow drifted overhead. Kaius didn't bother looking up. "Morning, Hex," came his husky morning voice. A purple cloud drifted lazily into view upside down, [color=#8B5CF6][b]"GASTLY!"[/b][/color] The tone suggested Hex had discovered something extremely entertaining, and nobody asked what it was. Experience had taught them that asking usually made things worse. And as if summoned by the mere mention of chaos, Abra appeared in a brief flash of psychic light several yards away. The Psychic-type sat quietly in the grass. Holding a spoon. Watching. Kaius wasn't entirely convinced Abra had been there five seconds earlier. He wasn't entirely convinced Abra hadn't. The morning continued with footwork, conditioning, and movement. The familiar rhythm settled over the field as naturally as breathing, and for a little while, there was no academy, no tournament, no expectations. Just another sunrise. Just another day of training. Eventually, Kaius slowed to a stop and took a drink from the water bottle he'd left beside the field. The academy grounds were beginning to wake now. More lights were coming on. People began to move about. Students preparing for the day ahead. Kaius rested the bottle against his shoulder and looked toward the distant buildings. A small smile crossed his face, [color=#4A7BAA][b]"Come on,"[/b][/color] he said, glancing toward the team. [color=#4A7BAA][b]"Let's get breakfast before class."[/b][/color] Six different reactions followed immediately. Somehow, against all reasonable expectations, it worked remarkably well.