academyooc | test drive meme (#2)

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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Lucy's about to stand up for a handshake, but thinks better of it and clutches the pen instead. Maybe it looks odd, a setup wherein she won't be speaking, and maybe it's problematic that she's up against a current cadet, but she'll play it cool as she can.

The question is simple enough.

I used to have a cat and horses. None now.

The paper should have been a giveaway that this woman was mute. But it didn't really matter as long as they had someway to communicate. Writing and talking works just as well as two people talking.

Huh, horses. Lucy's probably from somewhere with more room than New York. Assuming those horses had enough room to walk around anyway. "Where did you live?"

Oh right, she should probably introduce herself. "Kate Bishop, current cadet."

Communication was easy enough if people spoke ASL, but most didn't. So she does what she has to do with writing and typing. It works ninety percent of the time, so she'll rely on it as much as possible at the Academy. She'll work hard, perhaps harder than some, just to get attention and claw her way up the ladder.

Kate's curiosity sets Lucy a bit more at ease, though she never fully trusts anyone unless they give her good reason to. At least she can ty to smile and feel comforted by having shared politeness.

Setting the pen down, she raises a hand and signs her name, then writes it on the paper.

Lucy Blackwater. Nice to meet you.

I lived in Lexington, Kentucky. It was nice. You?

Maybe there's an ASL language course, she'll have to ask around. At least being able to understand it would help. That's for later, for now she has to go through the interview.

"Nice to meet you too. I grew up in New York." Which means they both grew up pretty damn far away from the Pacific Ocean. "I had a dog, but a friend of mine's taking care of him right now." Since she couldn't exactly bring the dog with her.

If there isn't one, Lucy might push for one. It's easy enough to learn, in her opinion. But that's not her job to push through, not yet, not until she has an ounce of respect around the place. Right now, her job is to be the best candidate she can be, no less than perfect.

What's his name?

She's genuinely curious. Her family's whole property had been taken from her when she became a ward of the state upon her family's death, so she longed in some ways for that idyllic life.

She smiles at the question. "Lucky." It hasn't always been his name, but he's a rescue dog. And Arrow was a little too on the nose considering her favorite set of weapons.

"He's a mutt we adopted." And he's the best dog she's ever had. Technically the only dog, but he's a brave little mutt. She can't imagine having another one.

Our cat adopted us.

Lucy seems a little somber, but she manages a bit of a smile. They're communicating. It's a conversation, not an interrogation, and she's glad enough of that. But she still thinks back to her family and her home, the home she hasn't seen for years now. To be honest, she misses the horses as much as she misses the people she was surrounded by. She's learned that the people around her might judge her harshly and lose faith, but the horses never did. Nor did the cat.

His name was Maximus.

It's an interview and Kate had been in the same place only a few weeks ago. An interrogation is the last thing she wants to do. There's a small amused smile on her face.

"Cats seem to do that. Definitely pets that do whatever they'd like."

A nod, as Lucy agrees on all fronts. The cat had just shown up and adopted her family. Willful things, they were. She honestly wonders what happened to him, and to the horses, and to the house. Those few years are a blur.

But this is a new start, something fresh she can work with, something she's worked toward and will forever fight for until they turn her away or make her a fully-fledged Ranger. Therefore, these questions are--for now--something she'll take very seriously.

Alright well it seems like the first question's done with. Kate makes a face at it. When was the last time she's even seen an arcade? Well, it's on the list. Why is it on the list? Who even wrote these?

"What game do you gravitate toward first in an arcade? Or whatever games you play." Because home systems and handhelds have definitely taken over back home.

test drive meme (#2)

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