test drive meme

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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 is your least favorite color? Which tool in a standard toolbox is most useful to you? What time of day do you accomplish the most? Do you have children? 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 ) Congratulations! You have been judged Drift Compatible, and sent home to pack after giving a definite yes to the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. The next thing you face down is the flight into Santiago, Chile, and the subsequent drive in to Valparaíso's Shatterdome. You and the rest of the crowd of soon to be PPDC Ranger Cadets have been gathered together to wait for the old bus scheduled to take you to the Shatterdome. While waiting in the open air, those from any Northern Hemisphere countries may find the summer weather strange. Today's high is going to be in the upper 80's, and there's not a cloud to be seen that's not clinging to the distant mountains. Welcome to Chile. When the bus arrives, it's another hour ride out toward the coastline to get to the Shatterdome. Even better? The bus Air Conditioner is broken. Safe travels, Cadets!
Please set up your own scenarios as you like. The above two scenarios are suggestions. Anything goes!

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Comments

[bushidork]

"Understood, sir."

Sugane wanted to point out that it wasn't some sort of Japanese cultural obligation to watch Dragonball or read Shounen Jump, but he'd never speak in such a way to superior officer, especially not to one in a position to drop a tank of Kaiju bits on his head. He'd long since given up, anyway. Saying he'd been raised on tokusatsu usually just drew blank stares and when someone actually did know what he meant, it was like they attached like barnacles that wouldn't detach until they knew his exact opinion on Showa versus Heisei.

Considering the toxic materials he was going to have to be dodging, that really wasn't a conversation he wanted to having at the moment. Instead he just watched the sample warily, not really certain what else to do unless pieces fell off.

[bushidork]

To be honest, Sugane wasn't looking forward to the question, either. It was something he'd given a lot of thought to, of course, but it wasn't something easy to wrap his brain around. After much debate, he'd just decided to give the most honest answer he could, figuring that would be better than fabricating something that might sound better to an observer.

"I don't know. I don't think I'll be able to know unless I've experienced it myself."

It was an answer he was satisfied with, but he didn't know if anyone else would be.

[europeanunion]

Leila blinks once, twice, the laughter taking her aback for a moment. She doesn't understand at first what the laughter was for, if she had said or asked anything funny without her knowing her (and her mouth does have this tendency to do this once in a while). Confused, she opens her mouth to ask him what's funny when she notices him shake his head ... and only after hearing his response did she smile back. She covers her mouth with the back of her fingers to stifle her own laughter, shaking her head as well.

"I'm not sure if that counts as children." The question does sound amusing now, especially when it came from her and directed at him. "By age, perhaps."

[counterattacked]

"Eren," he returns the favor in turn. Eren "enthusiastic" Jaeger. Possibly someday to be Eren "who-decided-to-let-this-guy-in-a" Jaeger if he makes it through to be a Ranger. He manages to rock himself back dangerously again before she distracts him from watching the door. His balance, if nothing else, is actually pretty good. He leans forward, and the feet of the chair make a staccato noise against the hard floors that echoes through the room.

"Thrown out?" Expression creased in concentration, he frowns over at her stack of books, "Has that happened to you before?"

[counterattacked]

Eren's walking around with a chip on his shoulder the size of a wrecked city. He's young, he's idealistic, he's really pretty short on temper—but it turns out he's not actually big on petty grudges. They're all here to stop the kaiju, aren't they? He tips his head away from the aisle of the bus to study the guy next to him for a while, then exhales in a huff.

"Yeah, sure," he says, extending a hand for Mike to shake. Truce. "Eren Jaeger."

[spareheir]

"We'll just say I have great babysitting skills." He decides, shooting her another amused grin.

[europeanunion]

"A notable skill to have, surely." Not that Leila would know. She's never really taken care of kids before. "I don't have children as well. Not even younger siblings."

She imagines it's a different experience, having young children at home than having none. Lots of running and yelling, full of endless games and high energy. She imagines it to be exhausting but she thinks the house wouldn't have felt so imposing if she had company other than her grandfather.

"How old is she?"

[europeanunion]

The noise forces her pen to stop its movement again, this time for a long while. She gives it a few minutes to see if someone decides to reproach them on that matter. When all they get is a few glances and stares from the other Cadets, Leila lets out a quiet sigh under her breath, smiles at Eren then resumes her work once more. Perhaps she's just being oversensitive and too cautious.

"No, not yet." And she doesn't intend to. While admittedly the internet can be useful in terms of data gathering, she still prefers having a book in hand. And she's always been comfortable that resembles the study back at home.

She has no idea why the library assistant seems to nitpick on her whenever she's around lately though. She can't remember doing anything to offend the person other than hoarding a few (but seemingly unused!) books. "I don't suppose they actually would but I've never gone through it and they're not exactly ..."

Leila stops herself and shakes her head, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth. Enough. She's exhausted the topic already.

1

[areyoustupid]

"Yeah, right!"

So what if she's got the majority of the seat to herself? In this oppressive heat, three quarters is just not enough. It would have been better to sit by herself, of course -- but try as she might, Asuka couldn't find a seat with no one occupying it. So of course, she had to make due.

"And squish myself up against the window? As if I wasn't hot already."

She pushes her hair over her shoulder -- squished as they are, Asuka wouldn't be surprised at all if it hit her seatmate in the shoulder. Then again, it was his own fault for not picking somewhere else to sit, in her opinion.

[secondtry]

Mike took her hand and gave it a firm shake, a smile on his face. He felt more confident, this discussion having happened. Funny how that worked out sometimes. "Sounds great to me," he said, "and I'm hoping to see you down south, too. And maybe sneak a look at that jaeger of yours. It'd be a hell of a thing to see in person instead of just on a TV screen."

That was the most he was going to say about her position. He'd recognised her, sure. Who wouldn't? But he also knew that, if he was going to someday pilot a jaeger, there was no use in being starstruck. They were all just people, and that was the important thing to remember.

[secondtry]

Mike took the hand, giving it a confident shake. "Nice to meet you, ma-- ...Are you serious?"

The name hit a little delayed, but without even thinking, he'd blurted his question. "Jaeger? Man, it's like the universe freaking knew. Mike Traceur."

[sparklyrichbastard]

In a flash, Tamaki had moved to the corner of the room and curled up into a little ball.

Seriously.

[suicidemission]

[ That's better. If Chuck were privy to this strange internal-but-not monologue, his hackles would be lowering.

Raleigh's right. There's a reason Striker has as many kills as he does and there's a reason that Chuck's in the connpod instead of anyone else. Herc's a Mark I pilot - the best of the best. Chuck wasn't the only 'applicant', but he was the one that made it. ]

Y'damn right it is. Striker's a beaut, make no mistake.

[ Course, Gipsy's fucking gorgeous, and every so often, Chuck's eyes stray in that direction. ]

How long y'been here, mate?

[counterattacked]

The way she cuts herself off doesn't go unnoticed, and it doesn't sit right with him. Eren's always suffered from a particularly stubborn sense of personal justice. It's not at all hard to push him into righteous indignation on behalf of others, and it's gotten him into more than a few fistfights over the years. Her hesitation puts a spark to the embers of it burning low in his chest. His brows draw together, and his jaw goes a little tight before he opens his mouth again.

"Not exactly what?" he presses. Not particularly gentle, but not exactly unkind, either. The question comes in earnest, and he is—mercifully—still and quiet as he waits, watching her carefully for an answer. Once he's really sunk his teeth into something, deterring him will take more than a cut-off sentence.

Sorry for the delay, life happened

[prioritized]

He doesn't hold it out for long before she snatches it back from him, giving the impression that there'd probably be trouble for him if he decided to withhold it from her for whatever reason. He doesn't, and she holds it tightly to her chest, not looking the least bit ashamed of her strange choice in accessories.

At the comment about the coat and mittens, she shakes her head, "It's important to me." She's lucky Eren hadn't given her a winter coat all those years ago or she'd probably be carrying that around instead.

[secondtry]

Mike blinked slowly. That was both fast and kind of disturbing. Had he just broken the guy?

"...Uh."

Sorry about the delay!

[prioritized]

That question manages to get a surprised look from Mikasa, more at the absurdity of it than anything. She shakes her head too quickly, her expression guarded, "I'm only sixteen." As if it was out of the question.

She can't remember the last time she even considered the idea of starting a family that way. When she was little her mother spoke of it, about passing on their family's traditions to her future kids but that was before a botched robbery stole her family from her, and the Kaiju took another. There's too much baggage and she's devoted herself entirely to protecting the family she has left.

[sparklyrichbastard]

Still in his corner, he whipped out a cell phone and started chattering into it in rapidfire Japanese.

[secondtry]

Mike knew a few words of Japanese. Enough to say he didn't speak much Japanese, that he needed to find a taxi, or that he was looking for a bathroom, so this? This was way out of his comfort zone to say the least.

He'd expected some 'eww gross' reactions, or a freakout that he could laugh at a little before calming the guy down, but this was...

"...Dude... uh. Are you having a panic attack or something?"

[sparklyrichbastard]

If Mike knew the word for "meat" or the names of various animals, he'd find those two things comprised a large chunk of the conversation.

Once Tamaki finished his call, his gloom dissipated almost instantly. Ignoring Mike's question— and indeed, acting as if the entire affair had never happened— Tamaki sprang back to his feet and grinned.

"All right! It's all taken care of. We should have fresh meat by tomorrow."

[secondtry]

Mike blinked slowly, his mind trying to reconcile what he'd just seen. The change in personality, the sudden cheer--

"Uh," he managed, yet again. "I was joking."

[sparklyrichbastard]

Cheer gave way to confusion, and Tamaki blinked slowly.

"Excuse me?"

[secondtry]

"I was pranking you," Mike clarified. "The PPDC might be running on tight rations, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't use horse or guinea pig. Most mystery meat is just the bits off the better cuts of meat that they can't sell separately, not anything terrible..."

!

[crashtestdummy]

Some of it hits his shoulder. Some hits his face, which he is even less pleased about. Who does this girl think she is, anyway?

"C'mon!" He turns his body a little to face her, one arm slung over the back of the seat to keep himself from falling into the aisle. He's coming close. "At least keep your butt to your side!"

Exactly

[righthemisphere]

"Ichijo.." He lets it roll around in his mouth. His Japanese isn't amazing, but it's enough to get by, picked up when he was young during a long stint in Katori while his father oversaw building works along the Tone River.

He's about to answer with in the other's native tongue but is knocked off guard by the doll comment.

Raleigh laughs. "You know those things look nothing like us." But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a set as well.