test drive meme (#2)

[supportadmin]

Test Drive Meme The Pan Pacific Defense Corps was usually offered any of a variety of local buildings to set up their testing centers. For reasons of access and availability, most testing clinics were set up in central areas for any given community. Those of the PPDC staff on hand vary in their personal intensity. Some of the men and women wearing Strike Group insignia seemed overly serious, to the point of frowning with intensity at some of the youngest checking in for this testing round. Those from the K-Science division are tight with nervous energy as they direct prospective cadets through various activities. Everything was meant to measure potential, looking for that spark that meant they had somebody who was Drift Compatible. The majority of people were turned away after the first series of seemingly random tests, officials looking in eyes, placing odd looking contraptions over heads, asking for people to play a series of short games, one even in a virtual reality set-up.
	( SCENARIO ONE ) If you are still here now, you've made it past the first cut. You'll be sat down in a room with the rest who have made it this far, then systematically led into smaller interview rooms as pairs. If you came with a partner, they're your first interview candidate. If you came on your own, all your interviews are random assignment. All who have been asked to stay are required to sit through and conduct a series of short peer to peer interviews. The questions are straightforward. What kind of pets would you like to own? What game do you gravitate toward first in an arcade? What does the fox say? Where do you squeeze your toothpaste tube to get toothpaste on your toothbrush? What do you believe the Drift is like? Peer to peer interviews last for half an hour to an hour, and each person is asked to participate in at least three peer-to-peer interviews. There is no punishment for going off script. There is a one-way mirror looking into each interview area, and one door leading into the room with a small panel of glass located on the door. There is a clock on the wall in each room. The time they report is odd when examined. These are not digital clocks, but timers, counting up time since the last Kaiju attack.
	( SCENARIO TWO ) You've been accepted into the Jaeger Academy. You've been assigned to your barracks, issued your uniform and necessities, shown the overall layout of the Shatterdome, and told the wake up call is at 0530. You're settling in to the Academy schedule, and for many, it may be brutal indeed. When you're brought into the indoor swimming pool, it's to an overwhelming stench of chlorine. Your swimsuits are all the same for the men, simple swim-trunks, one uniform blue. Women wear a blue and white racer style swimsuit, in the same cut across the board. Uniformity doesn't disappear for swimming lessons. Lessons start out basic, teaching each Cadet to rely on themselves and each other to keep them afloat. From there, maneuvers get more complicated. Learning safe diving techniques, practicing proper holds to keep an unconscious or panicked partner afloat. Speed, agility, and endurance: all will be in demand. Then you start hearing rumors about full uniform swims coming up the next session.
Please set up your own scenarios as you like. The above two scenarios are suggestions. Anything goes! If you want to stop by and see about doing some communal AU Worldbuilding, check out the new AU Worldbuilding Meme!

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Yosuke Hanamura || Persona 4

[junestunes]

((Just a heads up, his English isn't as good as he thinks it is!))

The swim lessons were easy so far. Not just easy, boring. Yosuke had been swimming for most of his life already, so the simple exercises they started out with he could do with his eyes closed. He was almost tempted to. The jetlag was really starting to hit him, and anyway he was still baffled over some of those interview questions.

He happened to know a fox personally, and the damn thing still hadn't cleared up that question...

[boomerangarrow]

Kate's been swimming for as long as she can remember. This is hardly anything difficult. But it did seem like these particle lessons were going to get a bit more difficult in the future. Full suit swims? Those are going to take a whole lot more strength to pull off.

She'll swim over to the new guy. "You look confused." Which is strange. This exercise is straightforward enough.

rory williams ( doctor who )

[expect]

SCENARIO THREE??

He supposes he shouldn't complain too much. So far as canteen food goes, Rory's had worse, and really, he's not sure he's a good enough cook to do much better, as far as eggs go. So maybe he's not being fair to whoever cooked these breakfast options. They probably worked really hard.

The tea though… Rory sits alone at the end of one of the cafeteria tables, staring at a mug ponderously (his eggs eaten and plate pushed aside). What would be better, exactly? If he takes the tea bag out now, it'll just taste like hot water. But if he leaves it in to steep, then it'll taste like awful tea. Can he drown out the taste with milk? But then won't it just be disappointing watery milk? He rests his chin in one hand, clearly deeply absorbed by this entire situation.

The things you wonder at seven in the morning.

[secondtry]

"I have never seen somebody look more worried over tea," Mike said as he sat down, tray settled down before him. "I didn't even know we had tea."

Not much of an introduction, maybe, but it was at least words to maybe break this guy out of his tea-induced trance. Breakfast was one of those times where Mike took the chance to wind down from the morning's exercise while his hair finished drying from his shower. It was also one of the few times for actual socialisation amongst the cadets, and it wasn't that Mike was a social butterfly, but getting to know people was a good idea.

Hanji Zoe | Attack on Titan

[observationalhazard]

Scenario 1 (kind of)

Entrance day was exciting. Seeing the knots of candidates moving from one activity to the next, some nervously, some with excitement, always brought a smile to Hanji's face. Whether they eventually made it into the Academy or not, just knowing that there were so many people out there interested in beating the kaiju was reassuring. Hanji herself is dressed in a labcoat draped over a rather utilitarian and beat-up pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that simply reads "Cal" in flowing script. Her job is just to ask a few questions (at least for today) and then pass them off to the next person in the chain.

She settles her hands on her hips with a grin as the next group approaches her and gestures at the blank whiteboard she has set up behind her, "Alright - who here can tell me some of the basics of kaiju biology?"

A subject near and dear to her heart.

and then I had to do some research

[counterattacked]

Interested in beating the kaiju is an understatement. They're dedicated to it. That's why they're here. But the small crowd of recruits is mostly quiet, once Hange poses the question. Shifting uncomfortably, waiting for someone else to be the first to speak. One in particular is frowning intently at the whiteboard, at Hange, until he finally opens his mouth.

"They're poison, right?" he asks. Everyone knows at least a little about the kaiju, even if the specifics are a little beyond him. "That's why the Jaegers have weapons that will cauterize the wounds."

The blue blood that had spilled from Trespasser had left the Bay Area a toxic wreck. They call it Kaiju blue, nowadays.

8)

[prioritized]

It's an uncomfortable silence among the group for the minute before a girl on the side raises a hand politely, as if in school, before answering.

"While much about a kaiju is a mystery, we know that kaiju have two brains that control their bodies and their bodies are capable of adapting to live on-land and in the water. We categorized them by-" She prattles on about a few more facts; properly memorized textbook answers but lacking anything resembling enthusiasm for the topic. Unlike certain adopted brothers of hers, she's not so passionate about the creatures that destroyed her home.

Lucy | Halo

[reengineered]

Scenario 1

Hair cropped short, an intense look in her eyes, Lucy sits facing her partner. On her lap sits a small notebook, and she clutches a pen in one hand. There's an unusual sort of aura about her, a heaviness and alertness that make her seem like she might bolt at any second. But she waits patiently for the questions to begin.

Whoever it is may already have figured out that she doesn't speak, but that she has no problem communicating when needed. Sure, she'd prefer using sign language, but as the others here probably don't know it, she's fine with writing.

Though the room is odd and makes her uneasy, she still keeps her head on straight and her usual insecurity held back. This is what she wants to do and needs to do to make her way in life. She'll do it.

[suicidemission]

Chuck's pretty sure he got on someone's shitlist for this duty, because he's not here to go to the actual Academy, he's here to protect it, make sure all the wannabes don't get eaten by a kaiju before they ever set foot in a Jaeger.

He's pretty sure this is Herc's doing, actually, and Chuck - sixteen going on forty-five - is the lucky one who gets stuck as a fill in partner for the newbies because they're one short and someone's gotta do it.

"Right so," he leans back, props an ankle on his opposite knee and stretches his arms behind his head. "Pets. What kind?"

Re: Lucy | Halo

[boomerangarrow]

Kate's back in the interview room. She thought she was done with this when she got in. But it seems whoever runs the place decided that the cadets who already managed to get in are the best people to interview the potential candidates. She won't complain about it.

Kate just takes the seat across from her. Glancing down at the list of questions she starts with the first. "What kind of pets do you own?"

Tom-B292 | Halo

[chosethewar]

Scenario One

The serious young man sat stock-still in the uncomfortable chair they'd provided for him. There was a slight shortness on the forward left arm that made the entire structure slightly off kilter and it would rock the chair with even the barest of movements. Tom wondered if it was deliberately set up that way to make any entrants uneasy and incapable of becoming comfortable thanks to the fact that every sound seemed to echo in the sterile and tiny interview room.

He refused to let any nervousness show but instead spent the time till his interviewer showed up counting the tiles on the wall in front of him. There were thirty-two rows down and almost twenty-six rows of stark white subway tile inlaid into the wall. To keep himself mental stimulated, Tom spent the time calculating how many tiles that would be and how many square feet the wall comprised. Unfortunately, time seemed to stretch on forever without any sight of his interviewer and the longer it took, the more anxious he became.

Were they doing this deliberately to see what he'd do? Was this another one of their tests to see how long he'd wait before taking a proactive role to see what was going on? Or was he just being paranoid? Tom couldn't tell and settled for reaching up to loosen the collar of his shirt so he could breathe more easily. The chair rocked treacherously and creaked something awful.

[reengineered]

She kicked herself for being so late. Another interview with someone else had run long; they'd had too much to discuss in the end, and neither party had noticed when they ran over time. Now she was rushing to the next room, flipping through pages in her notebook to find something blank. Hastily, as she walked, she scribbled her name and an apology in large letters.

Then she threw open the door, eyes wide and apologetic. And there he was, looking somehow awkward enough to make her want to turn right back around and leave. She was no stranger to her own intensity and standoffishness, so this guy didn't seem intimidating to her at first glance. Stiff, too ready for anything... Yes, that was it. So maybe he was as nervous as she was. Maybe he was about to bolt.

But she silently took her seat and turned the notebook toward him.

Lucy. Sorry I'm late.

Jacob Keyes | Halo

[keyes]

Scenario 2

Standing off to the side of the pool is a taller man, posture straight like every other instructor in the room and his hair cut in the exact same way. His arms are crossed over his chest and he's just down into a pair of swimming trunks, he's fully expecting someone to need a hand and he's not about to get his uniform wet if he can help it.

However unlike everyone else he's not quick to jump into the pool, and is instead just watching everyone with a critical eye while trying to look friendly. Which is difficult enough and probably utterly fails to anyone who can be bothered to look at him long enough, though Jacob is hoping no one really is.

[charliehotel]

And standing a few feet from him and pointedly looking everywhere but at him is a rather severe-looking woman. Her hair is almost completely gray, and there's not a hint of a smile on her face. She's here to observe and to document, not to have fun, and god forbid anyone makes her teach right now. Swimming is for people who care.

She doesn't care.

After a moment, she spies a struggling Cadet, and moves a foot or so closer.

"You're not going to go play hero? I'm surprised."

Hilda | Pokémon

[realady]

Scenario 1.5?!? (New to the barracks edition --)

Keeping a pig (even one as small as Pigsy Danger!) was becoming much, much more of a challenge than she'd expected. It didn't help that he hadn't taken as well as her to the new scenery. In fact, in predictable piggy fashion, he'd taken to being a total asshole about it the second he woke up.

Mostly by running between the barracks' beds the second she lifts him out of her duffel bag. He'd been fine on the plane -- he'd been even better on the bus -- but no, the second he sees tile, cotton, and new people, he takes off. At least he doesn't have anywhere else but back to her to go when he hits the closed door.

"Gotcha!" she crows, grabbing him the second he tries to dart past her on his way to the back of the barracks. He squeals and wiggles in her arms, and Hilda sets her chin on his head with a grunt. "You're so going to get me in trouble if you keep carryin' on like this, Pigsy."

Her admonishment and reveal of this incredibly secretive thing doesn't make him squirm and squeal any less, though...

[idealord]

Maybe someone seeing the scene will. Hilbert, freshly come in himself, couldn't stop staring at the pig. They weren't allowed pets. Right? Right. That was basic ruling, common knowledge. So she'd snuck it in?

... One of the rules was to make sure your fellow cadets wasn't breaking rules too, but. A pig shouldn't be too hard to take care of. Or to hide. Maybe.

"You'll get in trouble for talking so loudly about it too, you know. I could hear you from outside the door." Hopefully, Hilbert's sly grin and relaxed leaning against the now open door wouldn't give him too much credit.

Hilbert | Pokémon

[idealord]

Scenario 1

Hilbert hadn't done too well on the stress tests, getting just the minimum required at the end of hard work, and while this wasn't a stressful situation it was kind of nerve wracking to wait for his interviewer. He fiddles with his clothes and taps out a rhythm on his leg, turns it into a small concert with hums and foot drumming, and doesn't even notice when his partner comes in - no matter how noisy they are. He is way too into his own "music" from home.


Scenario 2

Unfortunately, even as a Long Island's boy, Hilbert never learned to swim. He was always too busy being inside, dreaming about the Jaegers and what made them tick, drawing up his own designs and researching all he could about them. The teen knows how to ride a bike, sure, but to swim?

Nah.

Though they're supposed to be learning to float, Hilbert is gripping to the edge of the pool a little too much and is very clearly uncertain of it. What if he can't float? What if he drowns right here, right now, not even a week into training? He could even see it now:

Here lies Hilbert, at the bottom of the pool. He was a nerd and couldn't swim.

Maybe he should ask for help. But they were supposed to do it on their own, right? Desperate, Hilbert looks around to see if there's someone who seems like they can help him and probably wouldn't mind holding his hand through this.

[like95percent]

There's a well dressed woman observing the pool from a few feet away. She's not the instructor for this class, but she is holding a clipboard and eyeing the cadets. Once her eyes land on Hilbert there's a slight raise of her brow and her pen marking something down.

"Having trouble, cadet?"

Cherche | Fire Emblem: Awakening

[wyvernraiser]

I.

She's watching from the one-way mirror, with clipboard on hand and a box of first aid supplies on her seat. She stops to jot down notes every once in a while on the physical states of the cadets. She wasn't tasked to look after their psychological needs. That might break them.

"What does the fox say?" she asks, repeating the interview question. "That's a strange question, isn't it, Minerva?"

A monitor lizard licks at her heels, and she nods back at it as if it were a reply.

II.

She's sitting on a bench by the pool in her lab coat and nurse's uniform. So she's in no condition to be swimming after people. But she does have some medicine for those who need it and a word of advice for those who seem nervous about this exercise.

"Don't worry," she says with the kindest of smiles. "Someone will save you just before you asphyxiate so do your best!"

II

[charliehotel]

"Hopefully."

Catherine is dressed simply in her lab coat and uniform as well, unhappy to be here, but doing her best for the students as she's been so kindly asked. She isn't going to cheerlead--let's leave this up to the nurse--and she's not really going to encourage. However, she will provide a snarky remark or two, as needed.

Rygart Arrow | Broken Blade

[giantsword]

1

He's not really all that sure what the questions have to do with anything, and frankly all he's here for is the room and food that he'll get. Though really, Rygart is horrible at anything that involves taking it seriously unless he has to, so that may explain why the sheet with the interview questions was now full of doodles of owls and lizards and the last few people he's had to interview. His cheek resting heavily on his fist he only gives the person entering the room the briefest of glances.

"You just get here too?"

[idealord]

Hilbert pauses at the door, not really expecting such a bored person as his partner, and nods as he takes a seat. Compared to Rygart, this teen's the picture of joy and excitement at being here.

"Yup! How about you? Or have you been at this a bit?" Because, taking a quick glance at the clipboard, it seemed like the latter.

Catherine Halsey | Halo

[charliehotel]

Post-I

It's bad enough that they're new recruits, but some of them are just... uncouth and too rough around the edges. Catherine is looking forward to seeing how the program shapes them, though, weeds some of them out and makes the rest into Rangers, potential heroes, the hope of all humanity.

She's been watching the interviews, observing and noting the quirks and strengths of each student's personality, making sure she'll be able to give strong and valuable input to each one. After all, part of her job is making suggestions on their training, little adjustments and broad views of what they need to succeed, to become viable candidates who aren't just kids or greenhorns.

Each cadet she observed, she'll walk up to in turn and address by their name--how does she know them already? And she looks mildly disappointed. "What does the fox say?" got precisely zero answers that gave her any faith in them whatsoever. Correct answers were, in fact, the worst choice, in her mind.

"I'm Dr. Catherine Halsey. I'll be one of your teachers as well as an assistant in your training. If you have any questions, now is precisely the time to ask. Otherwise, I'll be unavailable except during specified hours."

[giantsword]

That's partly what you get for letting in farm boys practically, uncouth, rough around the edges kids that are here for a variety of reasons, not all of which are to save humanity. Rygart for example, is really only here for the food and board, which probably isn't what Halsey would like.

Rygart turns towards her when she's talking, arms behind his head and looking just the slightest bit bored at everything around him. But he can't stop a quip at her, not when she's like that. So he sticks his hand up, waving it around as if he's trying to get her attention.

"Yo doc!"

Dante | DmC: Devil May Cry

[fuckchild]

SCENARIO 2

In all honesty, Dante had little to lose. He figured, why the hell not? If something happened, he'd at least be doing something instead of trying to survive the streets and making it to the next day half-starved and mostly drunk. He could finally do something about the Kaijus that destroyed his life.

Finally.

He wasn't fan of the interview room, though, once the whole process started. It reminded him too much of when he'd been taken in multiple times, interrogating him about the stupidest shit. Not that it mattered, no one ever believed him when he'd tell them the truth. They made him take off his coat, too, for "security reasons."

They never gave it back to him either. Such bullshit.

Fuck uniforms.

Dante was never a good sleeper. He's something of an insomniac, and a paranoid one too. It's closer to 4:45, and he's roaming the Shatterdome until the 5:30 alarm. He hasn't even bothered to properly put on his uniform either. He hangs out with a few engineers, tries to suss them out for shit about the Kaiju and the weapons equipped on the current Jaegers, before moving on to explore the rest of the place.

Re: Dante | DmC: Devil May Cry

[charliehotel]

Well, he'd find a kindred spirit in one respect in the good doctor, here. A workaholic, she finds herself bothering the engineers in the earlier hours of the morning, and working by herself near the doors out of the bay when she's done with that. She's a bit of a mess, coffee in one hand, clipboard folio in the other as she tries to juggle notes and walk and drink at the same time. It's relatively successful for a moment, but then she jostles the folio a bit too much and loses its attached notepad on the floor.

Cursing mildly, she leans down to retrieve the thing, in the process almost spilling her coffee. So the coffee is settled on the ground as she reorganizes things. She kind of forgets it when she walks off. Then it's back toward her lab (glorified little dungeon that it is).

Herc Hansen | Pacific Rim

[fieldcommissioned]

Scenario One:
Being in the shatterdome meant doing your part. It was on all the signs, anyway, and after a life spent in the military, he was used to picking up tasks that needed doing and getting them done, even if they weren't strictly in his orders. That included days like today.

He'd picked up one of the many clipboards with today's interview questions and had looked over them, having to suppress a snort of a laugh when he saw number three. The first one just made him think of his son's jowly bulldog and the second one made him nostalgic for his youth. The Drift question, he didn't have to wonder about. He knew that answer backward and forward.

The fourth, though, made him shake his head. "These questions just get weirder," he muttered to himself before pushing open an interview room door to step inside.

"Mornin'," Herc started, pleasantly enough, offering his hand for a handshake. "Name's Herc Hansen. And you?"

Scenario Three:
Valparaiso wasn't so different from Sydney - at least in a few ways. It was still warm this time of year, even if the sun rose over land instead of over ocean. Most importantly, the work was the same, and he still needed to keep himself in fighting form.

With his knuckles taped, Herc was putting in some time on the heavy bag, and those who have paid attention may see some of the signature moves of Lucky Seven. It was almost meditative to Herc, though, movements that were so much a part of him that he didn't even have to think to go through them.

1 for the hilarity

[doubleshot]

Andy looked up as she took his hand, giving it a firm shake in return. She didn't bother disguising the amusement that flashed across her face.

"Andy. Looks like a few wires got crossed. Have they been drafting you into these all day?"

Sure why not

[lazyinlove]

1. When you walk into the room you'll be greeted by a kid cracking his knuckles. A teenager, really. Tall and lanky, not much meat on his bones. His long hair is falling in his face, but he doesn't seem to care about it. He might blow it out of his eyes once in a while, but doesn't make any effort to secure it back or anything, in spite of having a tie looped around one bony wrist.

He taps his foot and his pen rhythmically, and yep, that's probably an ear bud in one of his ears, just barely hidden under all that hair. He doesn't acknowledge it, just gestures to the seat across from him in a bored but friendly way. He's probably been conducting interviews all morning, if the handful of empty coffee cups sitting around are any sort of hint.

"Sup? I'm Stan. Here's your list. Pick a number, any number. Or make shit up, they don't really care what I ask you, anyway."

2.
There's a bored looking teenager sitting at the pool's edge in PPDC issue shorts. There's a whistle around his neck, but he hasn't actually blown it at anyone during the drills yet. In fact, he's ignoring the swimmers for the most part, squinting up into the high rafters instead for some reason.

Hopefully you're not planning to drown. For one thing, he's a little on the scrawny side. Tall, but no real bulk at all. For another thing, he's probably not going to notice. Saving people seems to be about the last thing on his mind. Whatever is on the ceiling is apparently taking precedence this fine afternoon.

Serena | Pokemon

[ychan]

Scenario 1 : Pets!

There was no helping it, really. Serena’s family consisted of more pets than actual people, and they loved her every bit as much as she loved them. So there was no helping her bringing two of them along, the two easiest to hide. A young fennekin fox named Paprika and a robin named Yako. It was at least easy to keep Yako quiet and in place. As long as he was nesting underneath Serena’s hat she was compliant. Paprika, on the other hand, could not be so calm about finding himself in the new environment of the barracks.

Serena sat on the floor by her assigned bed with just the slightest worry building up, while Paprika darted around every inch of the barracks, sniffing at and taking at least one bite of everything. He would return to her every couple of seconds but refused to be actually touched or picked up by her. Trying to even pet him resulted in him trying to nibbling at her fingers. It was nothing too violent, more playful than anything else, but she didn’t even bother trying to grab hold of him. He would rub against her arms and jump into her lap and rest for a couple of seconds before jumping away and returning to his little explorer’s adventure. She could only really smile, even if she was also trying her best to listen for anyone approaching on the other side of the closed door.

If she did hear anyone trying to come in, she’d probably shout something like “Hey! I’m changing, could you wait a moment please?” She was fluent in English, even if her voice was French accented.


Scenario 2: Out on a balcony

Things were so very different in Valparaíso than in France. Between all the being-a-cadet work and taking care of her pets, there wasn’t as much time to just get used to everything as she would have liked. Every night when she can manage to trick Paprika into going to sleep and get Yako nestled somewhere, too, Serena always went out for a walk. She never went very far from the Shatterdome, not wanting to get lost and get stuck outside past curfew.

On that particular night, Serena took a break from her usual walk to just stand out on some balcony of the Shatterdome. For the time, Serena was ignorant to the world around her, distracted by lights in the distance that glowed like stars above the sparse canopies of trees.