test drive meme (#2)

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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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Comments

[secondtry]

Mike gave him a good-humoured smile as he cut into his breakfast sausage. He wasn't a huge fan of grease for breakfast, but you ate what you got. "Seems like that's the consensus of all of the caffeinated drinks around here. The coffee is sludge, the tea is... Well, is it safe to say it's sex in a canoe?" He wouldn't know. He wasn't a tea person.

[expect]

"Sex in a canoe?" Rory raises an eyebrow incredulously. That is definitely not an expression he's ever heard before. He spends a second considering it, and then removes the bag from his tea, placing it on the edge of his plate and pouring a bit of milk from a cup into the mug before stirring.

[secondtry]

He stifled a laugh before answering, "Fucking close to water." Mike had a glass of likely-fake fruit juice for himself which he took a long drink of before really tucking in. Nothing like that fun run in the mornings to work up an appetite.

[expect]

"I feel like I might regret asking, but are you speaking from experience?" Rory asks, torn between incredulous and deeply uncertain. This isn't usually the vein his conversations with strangers go, and frankly, he's not sure how much further he'd like it to. On the other hand, it's a little ridiculous, and so he can't quite keep his mouth shut.

[secondtry]

Looking at the other man blankly, Mike suffered a few moments of surprise that the joke was completely missed. Explaining wasn't exactly his strong point; that was for people smarter than him, or at least with more patience, but he'd started it so he owed this guy at least a token effort. "It's... It's a saying. As in, the tea is practically water? Fucking close to water? I... Okay, y'know, nevermind. Hi, I'm Mike. What's your name?"

[expect]

He takes a drink of his tea — really, Mike isn't wrong at all about the taste — and takes in the explanation and following rambling with a little bit of obvious confusion. But, you know, that works for him. He takes another sip of tea, then moves his mug from one hand to another to offer Mike is right over the table. "Rory. Nice to meet you."

[secondtry]

"Nice to meet you, too," he said and took the offered handshake. "What're you in for?" Everybody came for some reason or other. So far, he'd met people hoping to be jumphawk pilots, other people, like him, hoping to be jaeger pilots - but there were more than a few options within the PPDC.

[expect]

"Medical staff," he replies easily, settling back down on the bench. He abandons his mug for the time being. He's unselfconscious about it, but he knows that most people around here do have slightly higher aspirations than 'glorified school nurse,' and it causes him to add, "You know, making sure that everyone lives long enough to save the world."

[secondtry]

Mike's brows rose and he nodded. "Hey, awesome. We need people like that. Smarter brains than those of us who just come to punch things." Even if he was one of the people who punched things, he knew how much went into these operations that most people didn't think about.

[expect]

His shoulders rise and back straightens, just a tiny bit, at the flattery, just as he nearly smiles. He shrugs. "I don't about smarter," he says modestly. For all that he's pleased by the small praise, it's still embarrassing to be complimented. "I think it's more that even you punching types can catch colds."

[secondtry]

With a laugh, Mike shook his head. "I doubt you'll get me in for a cold. More likely you'll get me in because I manage to make one stupid step and fall off something. Or I manage to piss somebody off and end up with a fist in my face and decide to return the favour."

[expect]

"You're really inspiring a lot of confidence," Rory says dryly, his eyebrows steadily creeping up towards his hairline. Sufficient time has passed that he feels ready to risk the tea again: he takes a sip, and grimaces as he remembers why he'd given up in the first place.

[secondtry]

He couldn't stifle his amusement the same way he'd stifled his laugh. "You might have to give it up, man. Being caffeinated around here seems impossible. At least the powdered eggs seem to reconstitute okay."

[expect]

"They're powdered?" Rory says, his face falling. It's too late now, he's already eaten them, but he'd at least hoped they were real food. He sighs, mournfully taking another sip of tea.

[secondtry]

"Pretty sure everything around here's powdered," Mike said, "except the meat. The meat's probably flavoured soy. Or maybe I'm jaded from living on what managed to creep out to Vegas. Ever seen a buffet town try to survive on rations? Yeah, it's not pretty." He laughed as he said it. "A thousand gourmet chefs out of work."

[expect]

He smiles vaguely at the image, but he's never been anywhere near Las Vegas. "It's not so bad back in England," he says, glancing down at his mug, "but I was in the Philippines for a few years and… well, if you like plain rice…"

[secondtry]

That got an outright laugh. "Oh yeah. Rice and Atlantic fish. I'm still not convinced it was fish half the time. Potatoes in about a hundred different ways, sometimes tomatoes. I admit, I miss oranges..."