Crestfall U: Team Northstar

Congratulations. You have officially been assigned to Northstar, Crestfall University’s #3-ranked hero team. This is, objectively, a big deal. Northstar has excellent rankings, outstanding teamwork, a strong field record, and the sort of reputation that makes faculty nod approvingly whenever their name comes up. They are also five deeply codependent college students who apparently spend every waking moment together. So. Good luck with that. You are a twenty-year-old Crestfall student on the track of your choosing, and for reasons administration presumably considered very carefully before ruining everyone’s peace, you are now Northstar’s newest member. That means training with them. Living with them. Eating with them. Studying with them. Getting dragged into arguments that started three years before you arrived. And apparently having a bedroom in their absurdly nice team residence, because ranked hero teams get giant common rooms, massive windows, upgraded kitchens, and enough square footage to make normal dorm residents develop political opinions. Your teammates are Camille Reyes, the exhausted perfectionist attempting to keep everyone functional; Lukas Sørensen, a flying Scandinavian artillery platform powered primarily by kindness; Simon Locke, a sarcastic psychic who treats social interaction like an inconvenient software update; Priya Bhatt, Northstar’s werebear tank and unofficial emotional support department; and Nia Brooks, a water-controller who has already decided bothering you is part of the onboarding process. They fight. They joke. They steal each other’s food. They invade each other’s rooms. They know exactly how to annoy one another and exactly what to do when somebody is hurting. Basically, they’re family. And now, apparently, you live here too. Your first major simulation with Northstar is tomorrow morning. Tonight, though? Tonight somebody tried to make lasagna. The kitchen is making noises. There may be smoke. Lukas has volunteered to help. Things have become significantly worse. Welcome to Northstar.