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

heya

[lazyinlove]

"Sorry but they're gonna keep razzing at me til I clean through here once. Five minutes? I'll totally half ass it, don't worry."

From one of the pockets on his PPDC uniform he pulled out a spritzer full of a cleaning agent, from another pocket a set of disposable gloves and a bio-contaminate towel. Hopefully a clean one. He didn't seem too concerned about it anyway, as he held them up with a shrug. No offense, man. Just business as usual. He did eventually remember to tack on a polite address, though it came as an afterthought. "Sir."

[fieldcommissioned]

"Don't worry about it," Herc said, heading over to a bench to take a seat. "Do it right, then whatever mess happens, they can just blame me." His fingers closed over the neck of a water bottle, spout folding out so he could take a long drink. "I'll sign your checklist so they know."

He knew what it was like to be at the bottom of the ladder. Nobody started out with a decent rank. It was something that had to be worked up to. And nobody at the bottom of the ladder needed flak when somebody higher-ranked did something that could get them chewed out.

[lazyinlove]

"Seriously? Thanks." The kid grinned a little, clearly not used to people cutting slack when they could. Of course if he was looking for a promotion, it probably didn't help matters that he turned and made a face at the nearest security camera before he wandered over to give the punching bag a good, thorough wipe down. Not without pointing out -again playing to the cameras- that it was a somewhat phallic task with a few broad, suggestive sweeps.

After getting that little protest in, however, he cleaned the rest of it to specifications. Hey, if someone was going to check it off for him he'd better make sure it was done right. There were a few unnecessary spins and leaps to liven things up as he made his way through the contact surfaces of the various machines and equipment in the area-almost as if he viewed the area as a big obstacle course instead of an orderly gym.

After frog leaping an exercise bike and polishing the seat and handles, he glanced curiously over at the bench. "You're one of the Hansens, right?"

[fieldcommissioned]

Herc stifled a chuckle at the kid's miming. He could tell just what the kid was doing, what he meant by it - and honestly, he didn't blame the kid at all. There were harmless kinds of rebellion and this was one of them.

While he sat and rested, though, he observed, and he could see that there was definitely some agility to how the boy moved. That could be worked with. That could be translated into jaeger fighting -- if that was even what the kid was interested in.

"Yeah," he answered, looking up when he was addressed. "Name's Herc. How about you?"

[lazyinlove]

"Stanley." The teenager responded, moving on to the next piece of equipment and wiping it down as well. It was a boring task, so having someone in there for once to make small talk with was actually a cool surprise. Half of the time he felt like a ghost wandering the building with a chore sheet and the powers of supreme invisibility. No one ever needed him for anything more important than dishing out soggy noodles or scrubbing the nasty stuck on junk out of the beakers upstairs. Eugh.

"It says Stephan on the badge, but it's Stanley." Which probably highlighted exactly how important he happened to be around there. But he didn't seem too bent out of shape about it, if the easy going shrug was any indication. He just moved on to the next piece of equipment and wiped that down too. He got all of the contact areas, but he didn't bother rushing. If he finished one task, they just gave him a new one anyway. No point in killing himself over sanitizing some stationary bike seats, right? "Bet they got yours right, huh?"

[fieldcommissioned]

He smiled, shaking his head. "Got it right enough. After all, a name like Hercules kind of rings in people's ears. Gimme about three days and you'll have a badge with the right name on it."

People deserved at least that much. Especially in times like this.

"So what do you do around here? In trainin'?" Or, Herc wondered, was he working for the food like so many people did. He didn't blame him if that was the case. Food was a necessity of life and outside certain areas, it was getting harder to find.

[lazyinlove]

"Guess so. Cheater." Stanley chuckled, probably breaking a handful of staff guidelines in all honesty. He had vague recollections of agreeing not to bother the Rangers at all, in fact. Something about not speaking until spoken to and all of that. It was just hard to imagine that they'd bother punting him out for a conversation if no one complained about it. The offer was nice, though. Maybe if they did fire him, they'd even get the right guy. Poor imaginary Stephan could keep on keepin' on. This Herc guy seemed alright.

He grabbed the pullup bar and swung up on it, casually perching his bony rear on one side while he wiped the bar across and considered how to answer that question. "I'm a clipboard guy. Just fill in the cracks, wherever the schedule leaks I guess. Except forklifts. You gotta be 18 for some reason."

[fieldcommissioned]

Herc laughed under his breath. His name had gotten him some grief through school, but he'd gotten used to it in time. Now, jokes about it amused him as well as the person making the joke. But the laugh didn't last as he watched the kid - Stanley, he corrected himself - jump like it was nothing. "Don't let anybody tell you your job's not necessary, but I gotta ask."

He stood, towel thrown over his shoulder as he walked over toward the nimble gopher. "Do they know you can do all this? This jumping, acrobatics, all that?"

[lazyinlove]

The question seemed to surprise Stanley. He considered it for a moment, then glanced over at the cameras. Did they know? Those guys did, yeah. They had to have seen it by now. But so what? He could get the top bars without pulling out the steps. Big whoop. He shrugs, clearly indifferent to it.

"Why'd they have the job if it's not necessary, right?"

[fieldcommissioned]

"Right - but seriously, Stanley." He wasn't going to let this go just yet. "That kind of agility could be damned useful for more than cleaning stuff that high up," Herc said, standing easily with his weight on one foot. "I'm surprised they've not pulled you into kwoon yet."

[lazyinlove]

"Dude I cleaned that one yesterday." Stanley made a face. The Kwoon area was always full of sweat and blood and other bodily fluids. Then he remembered that he probably wasn't allowed to address Rangers as 'dude.' "Sir."

And then, in conclusion to this stunning argument, he tapped one finger to the tip of his nose in a gesture that every American schoolboy knows. "Not it."

[fieldcommissioned]

Herc raised an eyebrow before he realised he'd been misunderstood. "I mean for training," he clarified. "Not for cleaning. That kind of skill would translate into some interesting moves to use against a kaiju."

[lazyinlove]

"Uh. Probably 'cause I don't know how to do anything." Stanley replied after the clarification, giving Herc a confused but amused glance. "I don't even speak Spanish, I just said that to get hired. Totally worked, too. Here I am. Three meals a day and a bed."

He says it as if he's proud of it, the getting hired part at least. Hey, he's taking care of himself, see? He found a place to live and it came with food and everything. So what if he has to mop up the puke in the anti gravity chambers sometimes? He had grilled cheese for lunch today. With actual cheese on it. Nobody at home can say that these days.

[fieldcommissioned]

"If that's all you're wantin', then I'm happy for ya. Your choice - I'm not gonna make you do anything else. But with that kind of skill, you could probably train up pretty quick. Even if you didn't end up piloting, you could teach. Agility like yours isn't something everybody has naturally." And teaching? That wouldn't have as many people breathing down his neck, and he might even have better quarters at the end of the day.

Still, what Herc said was true. He wasn't going to force anybody to do anything they didn't want. If he was content doing the drabs of work nobody else did, that was his choice.