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test drive meme

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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"That did not stop that girl in my class in Year 11," Amelia sighs, shaking her head. "But I guess in today's world kids are more careful."

At least, she hopes kids are more careful. Kids shouldn't be having kids in the first place as far as she's concerned, but even with the alert system and the Jaegers, Amelia worries about her parents living in a coastal city; it must be worse for people you're actually responsible for.

"Mmm," Yancy agreed, taking another sip of coffee. It's the only way he'd have ever said mmm with his mouth full of that stuff, but he nods, and swallows it after a brief struggle with his gag reflex. "Yeah, we all did. That's why we're here, actually. The program here is cutting edge, trying to get strangers to drift together. This place is making a big noise, and it's been quiet up north."

"Yeah, I remember," Mike said, shaking his head a little. "I was in Alaska for a while. Glad I'm down here now. Those kind of temperatures are hell for a California kid like me. I'd sooner deal with humidity than freezing off anything that dangles."

But he wasn't embarrassing himself! If he was making a scene or being unreasonable, then he would be out of line but it would be more of an embarrassment to sit back and let someone call him a liar without standing up for himself. Still, he sat back down so as not to cause more of a scene now that he'd made his point.

"That was my answer. It's your turn."

Kate doesn't seem nervous to be in the smallest room. She never really looked nervous. There's an expression of quiet determination as she takes a seat across from the stranger. Interviews with peers? These she can do.

As she waits she looks up at the digital "clocks," noting that they obviously weren't the time. A countdown, maybe. She hadn't memorized how many days the last Kaiju attack was from right now.

Once her peer takes their seat she starts with the question she's most curious about. "What do you think the Drift is like?"

SCENARIO ONE

Sara is upside down, her legs anchored over the top of her chair, swinging freely. The crinkled rings of her long golden hair cascade downwards, brushing the floor, and she stares questioningly at the person seated across from her. Her skirt miraculously hasn't fallen down enough to expose anything, even though her legs idly kick in the air. She has the sheet with the questions clutched in her hands. First she peers at the upside down image of the person across from her, then she twists the sheet so she can see it.

"I'll start," she volunteers. "What do you think the Drift is like?"

She has her own ideas, but she wants to hear theirs first.

In the back of her mind, she's painfully aware of the clocks and the sparse amount of time they note it's been since the last attack. Only a few days. But she doesn't want to think about them right now. They need to finish this first.

SCENARIO TWO

Sara boards the bus with a confidence that seems out of place for such a young, small girl, and a grin that borders on almost cocky. But when she speaks, it's with a sweet voice. "Isn't this exciting?" she says, to the person behind her in line as they're waiting for the bus. "I can't wait!"

The heat and humidity are almost oppressive, making her hair cling to her shoulders and neck. She keeps playing with it, grabbing it to keep it off her skin and keep herself even a little bit cooler. Eventually she digs a hair band out of the small bag she's carrying with her and begins winding her hair into a long, messy braid.

"What do you think it's going to be like there?"

Sakura looks startled. She'd been awaiting her next partner, having to resist the urge to reach up and play with the ends of her recently dyed hair. Kate's question throws her off, despite knowing it was on the list. It wasn't even her first interview.

Sakura felt heat start to rise to her cheeks, firmly placing her hands in her lap as she reached for an answer and pulled herself under control. "I don't know," she says at first. "I hear it's like many things. From all of them, I think..."

She looks up to Kate, an apologetic and polite smile on her lips. "Most the stories I read say it's very intimate. Being so close to another person's self unable to hide, in a way that isn't physical. I think it's very frightening."

Honesty over theory. "What do you believe?"

Kate crosses her arms over her chest as she considers it. "That's what I've heard too."

She's not the kind of person who'd let just anybody in. Tests before trying to pilot with somebody are excellent ideas. "I think you'd really have to know somebody before sharing your mind. I'm sure plenty of people have stuff they'd rather not share."

Sakura's agreement is reflex, a nod of her head forward and a simple, "Yes." She does find it exciting, and frightening, and wonderfully overwhelming. She's never been far outside of her own town, let alone outside of her country.

South America feels so far removed from Japan. Even the weather feels alien, for all she's had muggy summers in her town growing up. "The bus will be here soon."

She glances down the road, watching the other girl from her peripheral vision. "Hard work. I don't know what I expect beyond hard work." She shifts from foot to foot, bending her knees and playing with the name-tag on her duffel. It's weight on her shoulders feels heavier than the contents of the bag merit. "What about you?" Sakura turns to face Sara, smile polite, eyes curious.

She wants to introduce herself, trying to decide between the automatic bow she turns into an abortive bob, and the hand-shake that's so far been used with her time and again. She settles on neither, frozen into inaction with a polite smile on her face.

"My name's Sakura Haruno. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She nods in agreement, knowing the things she'd rather not have anyone know. Sakura is well aware none of them are particularly heavy, but they're hers, and she doesn't feel comfortable allowing just anyone in to see her unfiltered thoughts. They weren't polite ones.

"Yes. It must be difficult to be that honest with friends, or family, or anything else." She's heard stories about how it can break people, or relationships. She can't say she's surprised.

"Do you have a least favorite color?"

Kate's thoughts have always been private and hers alone. Sharing all of them isn't an experience she's looking forward to. But that's far in the future, maybe she'll meet somebody she's that comfortable with. She doesn't expect it soon, but she has the time.

"Not really, but I don't like green much." That's a much lighter question, and Kate can appreciate it. "What's yours?"

"Yes, green can be a bit much," she agrees, again out of habit. With green eyes and a name that can carry connotations of spring, it's an amusing statement. "Though I find yellow to be even more displeasing."

She hides her grimace well, limiting it to a slight narrowing of her eyes. Being able to assess people with these sorts of questions is a fascinating process. She's not sure she's appreciating it all that much.

"Have you been through many of these interviews today?"

"Too bright?" She doesn't have an issue with yellow in general. But too much of it can be blinding. Purple's a much nicer color, and a lot less loud.

"No, this is my first one. How man of these have you been through?"

"It's very vivid." Easier than parsing out the extent of why yellow, among all colors, could lend itself to this sort of questionnaire.

"Ah, this is my third one. I'd thought the questions might be random for each interview, but the list stays the same. They're setting up basic standards. Psychological profiling is a difficult business."

As if that explains the questions chosen. "For example, why ask if someone has children? What about answering that question yes or no say about us? They make interesting choices. I'm still surprised no one is asking for us to count backward from one hundred in sevens."

Her smile gains an amused tilt. She wouldn't have minded the mathematical interlude.

Kate has to laugh at that. "Probably because that's not really answering a question. Though I'm sure it'll tells them something." There's a reason they're doing these interviews with the fairly strange questions.

She wouldn't really mind that question. But she can see why it wouldn't pop up in this interview.

[ Setsuna tried to keep his gaze from straying too far above his sister's dangling blond hair, almost the exact same shade of his own. So wild and yet soft to the touch. Just like her—No! He couldn't let himself get caught up again. Argh, she wasn't even supposed to be here! She said she was going to London. He'd told her it was safer for her there. And yet, here she was, in what was probably the most dangerous position possible. And she was acting as if she was asking about the latest popcorn flick.

To be fair, he didn't find that questions all that interesting either. What did time of the day have to with anything? And did he even have a favorite color? (Maybe brown... like her eyes... )

Focus, Setsuna! All he had to do was make it through this crap and then he'd have enough money to do whatever he wanted. He'd just have to try to make this as easy as possible for the both of them.

He gave the barest of shrugs, tossing his hands behind his head in his characteristic lackadaisical gesture. ]

"Who knows? I figure it depends on who you're with. The wrong person and it's probably a nightmare."

Edited 2014-02-15 05:06 (UTC)

That gets a little snort out of Yancy. He can sort of relate, except for him this place is the painful adjustment. The heat and humidity are murder to an Anchorage boy. They're lucky he's not asleep right now. Seriously. "Insulation layers go a long way."

Heat, on the other hand, you can do jack all about. That's just going to take some getting used to.

But Mike chuckled, shaking his head a little out of amusement more than anything else. "But you can only put on so many layers and still move. Down here, I can probably just hang out in some shorts. It'd be nice. I'll get to work on my tan."

Except he knew, thanks to scheduling, he'd never get that kind of time. But he could live with that when it came down to it.

Yancy quirked an eyebrow, but refrained from pointing out how unlikely it was for a pilot trainee to have spare time like that. He'd been through the program himself, he knew better. But what was the harm in a nice daydream like soaking up some sun? Let the guy have it for now.

"Do they start you from scratch when you transfer?" He asked instead. It's a protocol he'd never had to deal with personally, having come in with a strong drift partner and all. Relocating them wouldn't have made any sense. But for single pilot hopefuls, there was a big difference in tactics. Maybe the guy hadn't made a good match with anyone in Alaska but had good potential. That seemed like something that could happen, right?

"Not really sure, honestly." He sniffed the coffee one more time before shaking his head and taking a few steps away to throw it away. "I've been out of the picture for a few years. I figure I'll probably have to do some catch-up work, more testing, and I'll definitely have to add some more Spanish to my vocabulary. Right now, I'm waiting to find out what's going to happen."

"A lot of travel, huh," Guy says - it's a little cheap to just repeat him, but he has to take the time to digest it. He wonders if that's going to be a common trait among them, but it can't be - most people don't really have the chance.

"Me too. Mostly when I was younger. Ever been to Chile before?" He certainly hadn't - it was going to take some getting used to, and a lot of scoping out. Mulling by himself in his room wasn't going to be a good option, as far as life-turning-around was concerned. "Sounds like we'll be pretty settled down here."

Chile, huh... Soujirou laughs a little and ducks his head. It's almost a bashful motion, really.

"No, I've never been. Have you? I imagine that some kinds of travel would be fairly limited.... " Despite the small implication there for himself, he breezed through the question.

Sara lifted her eyes from the paper to watch him intently. Even upside down, Setsuna was still utterly Setsuna. It would have melted Sara's heart completely if she wasn't still more than a little upset with him. Maybe he was upset with her, too - she had lied to him, after all - but for now, at least, he wasn't showing it. That didn't surprise her, though. Setsuna was determined. He always had been. Of course he could focus on what he'd set out to do.

Well, Sara could focus too.

It was something she had always admired about Setsuna, even right now. The way he could seem so casual and so intent at the same time. That was something utterly unique to him, and Sara knew he had to know the effect it had on her. He had to know, because she'd told him right before she came here. But she didn't expect him to change anything; Setsuna could never be anyone but himself.

"I don't think they'd let any of us go in with the wrong person," she said. "Would they? Isn't the whole point of this to find out if we're compatible?" In the air, her legs kicked idly as she thought. "Who knows. It might even bring you closer together with someone."

Her face took on a worried cast. "But I guess you're right. There's a lot of potential for things to go wrong. You might find out something you don't want to know. So you have to be prepared for anything. Or you have to understand someone, and know them completely already, going in. It's kind of scary, in a way, but so is anything worth doing, isn't it?"

Edited 2014-02-15 05:58 (UTC)

Sara guesses at what she was trying to do, and gives Sakura full bow, once she's got her hair under control. "It's nice to meet you, too," she says. "My name is Sara Mudou." It's a Japanese name, she notes to herself. That's good! That means there's at least one person here, besides her and Setsuna, who is kind of, sort of from their home.

She feels her stomach start to fold in on itself as she answers Sakura's question, but it's excitement more than nerves. That's what she tells herself, anyway, reminding herself she knew what she was signing up for when she came here.

"Hard work sounds about right," she admits, with a small laugh. "I think it's going to be scary, and hard, but worth it. Maybe even kind of fun, too! Maybe." She sounds a little dubious about that. "I hope nobody does anything stupid trying to show off, though."

Her moves to stand out near the edge of the road, leaning over to peer as far as she can down the street, backpack hanging lopsidedly off one shoulder. When she sees the bus rolling into view, she wonders if she's hallucinating before she turns to Sakura, smiling. "It's coming!"

"Nope, never have been," Guy says, with a cheery tone of his own. "And you're right, it got a lot harder than it already was in the first place." That was True, or so he heard. He had coincidentally lost all interest in travels around the same time they became difficult, for the same reasons.

"Guess we're in for all kinds of new experiences."

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test drive meme

as am I, oh wow :c

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Kate Bishop | Marvel 616

sara mudou ][ angel sanctuary

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scenario two!

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Scenario 1

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Sorry for the slowness!

Sorry for being slow!

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