Canon: Chitin
The sound of the alarm clock was the first thing Malina heard in the morning, it was the first thing she heard every morning. Its unending low-pitch beeping that could rip her from the comfort of sleep like a gunshot was sudden, loud, and pointedly not enjoyable to listen to. She hated the sound, hated waking up in the morning and especially hated getting out of bed. She imagined most people did, that she wasn't anything special, who would want to leave the comfort of a heavy comforter and fluffy pillows after all?
That was probably why it worked though, she thought as she reached out, slapped the night stand once before finding the offending alarm clock and tapping the snooze button, resetting the alarm to go off in another five minutes. Then, what felt like five seconds later, the electronic beeping resumed. It only took her one slap to hit the off button this time followed by a loud, drawn out groan as she picked herself up off her stomach and sat up onto her knees.
The low light of the room still managed to make her flinch as she opened her eyes but after a few tough attempts to rub the sleep from them, she opened her eyes and looked around the room, trying to do anything that might delay moving from the bed. It wasn't a well kept living space, that much was certain.
On her nightstand, next to the old fashioned digital alarm clock, was a small paper plate with the remnants of a turkey and cheese sandwich that Malina had picked at as her midnight snack two nights ago, leaning against a tall but thin locker on the far end of the room, next to the door, was her staff and beneath it, curled in a heap, was Manticore. A few papers were strewn on the floor next to a nice looking wooden desk on the left wall while on the right, the door to the bathroom beckoned with its promise of warm water and a fresh face.
With one last rub of her eyes, Malina slid over and hopped down off of the bed, her bare feet meeting the cold wooden floor with a bit of hesitancy before firmly planting themselves and allowing Malina to stand up, stretching her arms up above her head as she sleepily walked through the threshold into the bathroom. She lifted off the oversized and baggy “I <3 Vacuo” shirt with two palm trees forming the heart and tossed it into a small hamper next to the sink as her reflection caught her eye.
She took a step toward the sink and leaned in toward the mirror as she pulled down the skin under her eyes, trying to get them under the right light. She sighed and quietly resigned herself to the dark circles under her eyes that felt like they were becoming more apparent every week as she slipped out of the comfortable pajama pants and tossed them into the hamper as well.
A small frown crossed her face as she looked at the shower. It wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't nice either. It was almost as if someone had taken a shower from a locker room and replaced the curtain with a foggy glass door that didn't even reach all the way down, letting water splash out onto the bathroom floor almost every time she used it.
As was routine, she moved to pick up two towels off of the rack near the entrance to the bathroom and set one on a hook just to the side of the shower door and laid the other out flat on the floor in front of it before stepping in and turning the knob almost all the way to the left.
Malina shuddered from the initial blast of cold water but quickly found comfort in a rapidly increasing warm stream, perks of the job at least. She splashed the water on her face and let it run through her shoulder length hair, pushing it back against her scalp and down her body. Not wasting any time, she began to rub shampoo through her hair, followed by conditioner after she'd washed it out, and rounding it out by washing the rest of her body and face with soap. As she finished cleaning herself she hung her head beneath the steady stream of water to let the suds flow off of her and down the drain, allowing the streams if water to take the suds from her body instead if standing directly under it. She stayed there for a moment, hands pressed against the wall supporting her and watching the water flow down into the black hollow of the drain.
Malina took a deep breath in and a long exhale as she closed her eyes and focused on the water hitting her body, paying attention to a single stream of water out of dozens as it made its way from her shoulder, down her back, onto her side, along her hip, down her thigh and the rest of her leg, off of her ankle and finally to the side of the arch of her foot where it joined the rest of the water and washed away. She did this again and again, focusing on the water first and her own body as simply an object that the water was traveling across. Several moments passed before she very slowly pushed out with her aura.
Though her eyes were closed, she knew what the sight looked like. A faint raspberry glow emanated from her and mere centimeters from her skin, the water droplets splashed against some invisible barrier, rolling down the contours of Malina's body but offset from it just slightly. Despite the water no longer touching her, she could still feel the water, feel the heat in each drop and the sensation of watching a single stream make its way from shoulder to foot, all through her aura. She pushed further with her aura, sending it inches off of her body, a foot, a foot and a quarter. It wasn't so different from her semblance, just slower and more controlled.
She pushed further, spreading her aura thinner and thinner until the boundaries of her aura pressed against the edges of the shower, causing the water to spill down the walls and out onto the floor in front of the door, soaking the towel. She felt the coldness of the tiled walls, the moisture that had been built up then was dispersed by her aura. It felt, in a weird, roundabout way, like a hug. All the walls pressing against her but not in a claustrophobic sense, in a comfortable, but cold, sense.
As she maintained the aura pressing against the walls around her, she could feel two distinct shifts inside her. First, the loss of a part of her, part of her personality.
Comfort.
She mentally groaned. It wasn't the most common loss or the worse whenever she went through the process, but it still felt like a punch to the gut to know she was giving it up for eight hours. It wasn't just the loss of feeling comfort, if it was as simple as that she might be able to deal with it better. It was the loss of being able to comfort others, feeling safe under blankets, being able to comprehend comforting others or others comforting her. To her, for the next eight hours, the entire idea of comfort was going to be an alien idea.
As she felt it slipping away, bit by bit, she could feel the second shift, more pronounced now. With the idea of comfort removed from her, aura was almost immediately sent outward at a slow and steady pace to replace it and join the rest in pressing against the walls. Malina didn't feel that it was like the rest of her aura though, it felt like a mockery, artificial. It rose to the front lines of the aura, pushing the natural aura back to be saved from any harm by the artificial. It was a strange feeling to undergo the process, it was almost like covering a warm sweater with a thin, plastic raincoat. It was comfortable but it was undercut by knowing the comfort was only a barrier.
Malina's focus slipped for barely a fraction of a second and she relapsed back into thinking of comfort.
Malina sat on one of the many metallic benches that littered Beacon’s campus. She had to sit with her back toward the arm of the bench to allow her tail to slip through the gap between arm and bench so it was far from the most comfortable position but it was still leagues above sitting on the ground or standing up. She had her eyes closed and rested her head on the lip of the backrest as Carmine and Aurelia sat to her right, chatting about some class or another while Candida stood behind them, her arms folded against the lip of the bench next to Malina's head.
Usually, Malina would be hounding them to focus on studying for the upcoming third year exam but they had all just returned from a mission the day before and, despite successfully completing it, it had taken a lot out of all of them. They could all use some time to relax.
Malina let out a content sigh as she opened her eyes and looked at her teammates as they chatted away. Maybe the bench didn't feel very nice but everything else about the moment did. Here, with her looking toward her friends, as a far off sunset framed the sky behind them a bright pinkish purple, she felt…
That fraction of a second of thought was enough to break her from her trance and she felt her aura snap back to her, clinging to her body as tightly as a diving suit before fading away.
As the water droplets hit Malina's now dry body, once again sending a small shock through her, she swore under her breath and slammed a fist against the tiled wall. It was always like this, she got closer and closer every day, every week, and every time one stray thought would make it all come crashing down.
She pushed out with her aura once more, only reaching a couple centimeters off of her skin but now much more dense. She paused for a moment, focusing on the aura. If she was being generous, it was probably about a quarter-or-so thicker, meaning a quarter-or-so drop in her ability to understand… that nice feeling… Maybe she was underestimating herself.
She pursed her lips and tried not to utter a string of swears. It wasn't as good as the day prior, she didn't think, but it was as good as two days ago and better than a month ago. It was progress, sure, but it felt like she spent every morning pounding against a brick wall with her bare fists and only coming away with broken, bloodied knuckles and a single chip of brick.
She tilted her head back and let the water run down her face, trying and failing to visualize the stream washing away her stress before shutting off the shower and shaking the water from her hair.
Malina shuddered as she stepped out of the shower onto the now damp towel and comparatively chilly air of the bathroom, quickly wrapping the towel she had placed on the hook around her body, the normally soft fabric now feeling as though it was grating against her skin. She took a moment to find a dry spot on the towel on the floor and dry her feet before walking to the sink and grabbing the blow dryer. She blinked quickly as the hot air kicked on and started to blow through her wet hair, sending a couple drops running down her forehead and into her eyes. Her mouth bent into a frown as the condensation was gradually fading from the mirror in front of her, revealing the continued existence of the dark circles under her eyes. She had hoped the shower would freshen her face up enough to get rid of them but apparently that wasn't the case.
With a sigh, Malina finished drying her hair and set down the blow dryer, replacing it with a dull red toothbrush with a swirling blue and white spritz of toothpaste. She never really liked brushing her teeth, the feeling of the bristles constantly moving back and forth against her teeth and gums always made her squirm just a little bit. She did it anyway, though, it was important not to miss a day. You miss one day and the next day it's harder to pick back up.
As she began to brush her teeth, she thought forward to the coming day with a dejected sigh. It was the last day under Titania as the combat class assistant. Starting today until the end of the spring semester she'd be studying under Dr. Sophos as the aura class’ teacher assistant.
Truth be told, this is what Malina really wanted when she became a TA. To study under Dust and Aura professors and learn more about the craft and, hopefully, be able to keep studying under the acclaimed Professor Neelabadri at Shade had been her goal since being more or less coerced into becoming a huntress. This was her element, after all. As accomplished as she was in combat, study was where she felt most at home, most herself.
She supposed it made sense, as she spit out her toothpaste into the sink and replaced it was a cup of water, being a scholar was always what she wanted to be, it's why she's at Beacon now and not off hunting Grimm. It wasn't really in the cards for her though, she'd already been set on the path of a huntress for seven years, the most she could do now was transition to a studying position and do her best to keep out of strictly combat classes.
She spit the water from her mouth and looked up into the mirror, meeting her own eyes briefly before looking away and moving back into the main room of the renovated dorm to get dressed. She was still a huntress, underneath it all. That would never be stripped or taken from her, even if she ever wanted it to be. At the end of the day, even if what she wanted was to learn, she still had to protect the world from Grimm. It was a blessing, then, that she could convince herself that teaching the hunters of tomorrow could count for that.