Joining this particular team is invite only, and it's the kind of thing you don't say no to. Mostly because they'll hound you until you take the test to join, and if you have other commitments it will come out during the test and they'll bid you a fond farewell and let you go about your day. No one says no because half of the other candidates are aliens and who wants to say no to that?
The test is divided into three stages, and once complete, the person is a full member, and receives a bracelet that is essentially a high-tech pager with a few cool additions. While most people keep their membership fairly hidden, it's still an incredible honor and they tend to take precedence in any kind of leadership dispute.
The test itself is a kind of ceremony, and even those who fail have described it as an incredibly powerful sequence of soul searching.
Past
The first stage involves a mind probe, in which the individual is meant to confront those parts of their past that have shaped them. Sometimes this involves living through the moment again, accepting it, and other times moving on requires altering the events in the mindscape to a satisfying conclusion.
This is the most dangerous part of the process, as the memories are meant to be unobserved, so it's difficult to tell when someone might be stuck and unable to break free.
Present
Those still in the running are put through a gauntlet with the rest of the candidates, and they are expected to overcome the challenges of the simulation together, working as a team. There are several psychological waypoints where candidates are allowed to bow out gracefully if they feel unable to continue.
Future
Those who remain are offered the chance to see their future, up to the moment of their death. They are warned from the start that the vision will be incomplete, a crude summary of the life they have left to lead, excluding several key moments and contextual clues, and with the caveat that no vision is ever entirely accurate in the way they might expect.
It is from this vision that the candidate is meant to take the gemstone that will be the centerpiece of their membership bracelet.
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