Imani and Claire were gathered around a large desk. Claire was reading through some notes on a clipboard and Imani was working on a laptop. Imani typed up something up and waved Orion over.

“Today we’re going to assess a few things to ensure that you’ll be able to tolerate the mission.” Imani started.

“Orion, were you always a woman?” Claire asked looking up from the clipboard.

“I, what?” Orion looked down at himself, his figure was perhaps a lot more feminine than it usually was. Based on her gaze she was probably referring more to his chest than anything else. “Oh, I didn’t even notice.”

“What do you mean you didn’t notice?” Imani questioned him much with the intention of ‘you either put something on or took something off.’

“I woke up like this.” He shrugged.

“You woke up like that?” Imani asked having come to the conclusion it was something non-human related. “Do you prefer being a man?”

“I’m genderfluid. It’s whatever but I guess.” He stated as he began reverting his figure steadily back to its typical Orion-y shape.

“You know people don’t normally mean genderfluid physically.” Claire held back a laugh. “You do realize that, right? Humans don’t normally change their appearance on a whim in that manner.”

“I didn’t think it was too strange. My sister’s a woman, so why can’t I do that sometimes?” He shrugged with a casual tone. “Like, I’d still feel the same way even if I couldn’t do this.”

“I can’t say I know much about the concept of human sex and gender.” Claire said. “But I am almost certain they cannot change their body type that quickly.”

“It's normal enough.” Imani said then clarified when Claire gave her a concerned look, “The genderfluid thing not the shapeshifting.”

“Yeah, Freyaa always says not to do it in front of other people. But you're assessing my abilities, so I figured it doesn't matter either way.” Orion was absentmindedly drawn to the pens sitting on the desk.

“Are you able to shape shift into anything else?” Imani asked with a hint of excitement.

“No. I’m far too young for anything more than mild alterations. Most shadows can’t really develop that level of shapeshifting until they’re at least a hundred years old.” He said as he started playing with one of the pens.

“Damn, that could’ve been useful.” Imani sighed, “Either way that's interesting.”

“You said your light source was the star Orionis Zeta B, is that correct?” Claire continued on with the assessment.

“That's right and Freyaa is my cast.” He answered.

“Cast?” Imani asked.

“Like ‘casting a shadow’ basically the person or object he formed from.” Claire explained.

“I see.” Imani typed a few notes on her laptop.

“Having a star as a light source gives you a lot of potential but you're fairly young for a shadow so you can't utilize it yet. How do you fair on partial intangibility?” Claire asked.

“Not well, I don’t have the degree of concentration required for that specifically.” He admitted.

“That's fine, we have tools to make up for not being able to move through walls.” Claire wrote down some notes of her own on the clipboard. “And for controlling your shadows, how does that fair?”

“Well enough. They protect me unconsciously from lethal injuries and I can use them defensively if necessary.” Orion paused. “I’m not yet at the level of using them offensively.”

“That should be more than enough.” Claire said. “Based on the parameters of your mission, offensive abilities won’t be necessary. Your safety however is a priority here.”

“As for your foresight abilities…” Imani continued.

“I can see into the future up to a few hours under neutral conditions.” Orion put the pen in his pocket.

“Neutral conditions?” Claire asked.

“If no one else is involved and I don’t behave differently than expected. I can only see the future of the area around me or the area around where I would be in the future if I were to plan to move without actually going there.” He said.

“So, you can observe places without being there?” Claire asked.

“Yeah but if it requires too many actions on my part it gets hazy. Picking locks or talking to people can reduce how far I can see, since it takes time.” He started playing with another pen.

“The Lucidian technology we have should reduce the effort on part of lock picking and other sorts of obstacles you might find.” Claire wrote down more notes on her clipboard.

The assessment continued on for another hour or so before they finished, having a decent understanding of Orion’s capabilities and limitations.

“You can’t take any more.” Imani stopped Orion as he was about to snag yet another pen.

“Oh. Sorry.” Orion hadn’t seemed to register he had been doing it and returned the pen to the desk.

“You’re capable of speaking in both Lucidian and Shadow, neither of which are known by humans.” Claire said. “You're a shadow but you grew up with Lucidians so I’m not sure if you're more fluent in one than the other. Use whatever feels the most comfortable for talking to us through the earpiece.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said to test out the earpiece. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, that's perfect.” She said. “Let's get you ready to go.”

Orion received a manner of devices incorporating Lucidian technology. The hidden earpiece, a near invisible camera planted into his glasses, as well as some tool kits disguised as pens among other things.

He was particularly fond of the pens, he couldn’t help but think there was some intention behind the choice to give him pens specifically. Even if he never used them directly, having them in his possession would open his foresight to many different options.

A few days later Orion was dispatched to meet up with the rest of his unit for the mission. They didn’t discuss much directly, in fact they all seemed to keep to themselves. It made sense for them to not appear to be associated with each other on the off chance something happens.