Lucas Guerrin
Northern Cross Academy, Sublevel 13
Phase: Day
Date: April 11th, 2056
The nature of a Union made the question of your health all the more confusing a labyrinth to navigate, both harmful and supportive, a Union's Crystal was the reason why they were so hard to harm, a combination of an unconscious seithr barrier and physical regeneration in response to negative stimuli both being light benefits of the disease in it's earlier stages.
Of course, the crystal speeding up the regeneration of it's host was also a sign of the disease making an active attempt to progress further throughout the body, and thus it was often accompanied by little sparks of pain as one's nervous system was stimulated by an inside force, but it wasn't particularly troublesome an occurrence for minor things like the unfortunate bashing of limbs into unsurprisingly solid tree trunks.
In essence, by the time you had even made it to your dorm for your shower and nap, your body had already gone back to being completely undamaged, to the point where you weren't even sore from the injuries.
...It never stopped feeling bizarre.
While it wasn't the first time this had happened, and more than likely wouldn't be the last, it continued to feel bizarre each time, the warmth of your crystal, and that warmth fading away quietly once it's work was done, only serving to further bait the trap that often had Unions abusing their 'gifts.'
It all seems positive at first.
Of course, fatigue did not disappear with injuries, and thus it was with drowsy eyes that you found yourself inside of an elevator leading far beneath the school, having only been awoken mere minutes earlier the knock of a certain girl on the door of your (still undecorated) room.
'We should arrive early, at least for this first one.'
Saying something like that without apologizing in the slightest for not only this sudden awakening, but the insanity of her driving from earlier, the young woman had proudly displayed her bike to you outside the dorm, seemingly eager for you to join her on it again, but...
Your sprinting away from the dorms and towards the school had been the best possible answer you could give, and she had given up in the end, joining you with both feet placed thankfully against the earth, standing beside you even now as the elevator lets out a light ding, opening up on a floor that wasn't even an option for those outside of this particular branches S.L.E.I.P.N.I.R unit. The inside of the elevator had held both a scanner for your phone, as well as a key card reader that would be satisfied only by the dark blue ID card you had been given long before entering Tomobiki, and indeed, both keys certainly seemed necessary to send the elevator down to the desired floor, but...
In reality, there was a third and final check.
That being the chip installed within your bodies. The key-card was likely a trap in and of itself, it worked fine for you, but if someone else were to use it without also possessing all of your vitals...
Well.
That sort of thing set off alarms.
It likely wasn't the only defense either. These things tended to have Seithr readers that automatically triggered warnings if suspicious movements or concentrations of Seithr was observed by their sensors, the same sort of tech that was likely guarding the phones and health scanners to keep the students from just trying to 'cloak' themselves in that way.
They hadn't specifically said that these sorts of safe locks were in place, but you knew procedure.
You can't escape Sleipnir's gaze, not without the right combination of insanity, creativity, and pure unadulterated luck anyway. They would make you think you could, certainly people would feel better thinking that they had privacy, but that sort of hope, well...
It was one of the more far-fetched kinds.
While the locked room on the third floor of your dormitory could also serve as a 'meeting ground' between Sleipnirs (at least in a video call sense), this first meeting seemed like the sort that was best to go to in person, to get a feel of your future coworkers, and let them get a feel of you, but...
"Huh? Maybe we're too early..."
Walking into a darkened room of many chairs, a single podium, and a single lit (but blank) screen along the far wall, you note, with some light unamusement...
That Hailey had definitely woken you up too early, by how much you couldn't be sure, it probably wasn't very much if you really thought about it, but even so...
An additional ten or fifteen minutes of nap time... Would have surely been a blessing...
Certainly the thought to complain crosses your mind, even as you note that at least it meant you had her alone to interrogate for awhile, but...
Almost as if in denial of the quiet, or rather, in denial of the two of you being free to harass each other without supervision-
"Oh? I was beaten here today...? You guys are two of the transfers right...? Lucas and Hailey, correct?"
An adult, someone clearly older than the two of you walks in with her head held high, a light smile on her lips.
"Welcome to the sixth branch," surprisingly friendly, especially because her age immediately makes you assume that she outranks you, the woman's smile nevertheless remains completely benevolent in nature,
"Iris Duskin. First Lieutenant, Tomobiki Defense Corps."
And... Just like that...
You seem to have run into someone unexpected...