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

Re: Yuri Lowell | Tales of Vesperia

[protagerrant]

[Dammit, there it was again: That feeling of being the bad guy. It churned Yuri's stomach unpleasantly.]

Look--You can stay. I don't care. There aren't that many secluded places around.

[As this run-in proved.]

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

Guy restrains his response to a small grin, for Yuri's sake - a scoff would give away whatever he was covering, really -- though his eyes are glittering. We can't possibly be the same, but he's still so full of shit. The amount of comfort and relief that gave him - that this encounter was giving him - he's completely unprepared for it, so he has to just let it happen. Why not? It wasn't like he remembered what the particular happiness of a reunion even felt like, and feeling good was rare these days.

"We'll see if it gets as hot here as it did downtown," he says. It's a stall. People are watching, and they're supposed to be asking questions, aren't they? He comes a little back to reality at that thought -- he didn't know what he'd say, he just knew he had more to say than this, in front of one-way glass.

"You've grown. I'm pretty interested in knowing the answers to these questions."

Re: Yuri Lowell | Tales of Vesperia

[heliokleptic]

[Jerks his head back a bit, obviously genuinely surprised by this offer. He debates still leaving anyway. Not to make Yuri feel bad but... to avoid it, actually. The guy obviously doesn't like him, even if he was nice enough to invite him to stay. But he was honestly exhausted from everything and really needed the breather. So after a moment he hesitantly moves toward the fence, still leaving plenty of room between him and Yuri, and sits next to it, pulling his needs up a bit but leaning back against the chain link.]

...thanks.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

Of course Guy was totally cool and casual, just like always. It's at once something Luke envies and is relieved by. He didn't know if he really wanted Guy here but he couldn't help but feel happy to see him.

If still very very surprised. "What are you doing here??" The more he thought about it the less it made sense. Their friendship had been rocky at best the last few years, and this was... well. It was a place for training jaeger pilots. Granted, not everyone, or even most would become rangers. But Guy had been fast to avoid anything that even reminded him of the massive robots since the accident. Luke hadn't even been able to get him to go see any movies with jaegers in them, which lately nixed a pretty hefty amount of the big block busters.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[protagerrant]

Yuri, for his part, was on the verge of saying Come on, let's blow this place, find something better to do. It would have been what he'd said when they were kids. And the sentiment was more or less the same--suddenly, the pageantry of the whole situation was grating; he wanted to call a time out, tell the shrinks to take a hike because this was real . It felt like the first conversation he'd had in months. Maybe more.

He glances at the clock to see how much longer they have to do this before settling back into the game. "I've grown," he says with heavy irony. "Sure. We'll, let's see, I've got three kids, and I still don't like the color blue. No offense. "

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

"None taken," Guy says sarcastically as if he's obviously offended anyway, cracking a wide smile by now. "You always were too mature for your age. I expect to be introduced to the family. I'll bring my kid and he can get bullied by yours, just like old times."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

"Also enrolling," is Guy's easy, airy reply. From the look on Luke's face, he can tell what he's thinking, and he's definitely not offering that explanation right now. Even if he did feel like coming up with some explanation for Luke, he doesn't have the time.

"In fact, I'm about to have my interviews, and I'd better not be late."

He taps his hand on his shoulder in passing, squeezing it briefly.

"I'll explain later. I'll meet you in the back of the waiting room, so hang around a while longer."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

It's obvious Luke is Very Unsure about this, but he isn't really one to argue with Guy lately, so he just gives him a slow, uncertain nod, and continues on his way. He doesn't really want to hold up anyone any more than that anyway. He'd wait, with an unexpected new bunch of butterflies in his stomach, for Guy to come talk to him after his interviews.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

Guy is grateful he isn't called in right away. As soon as his back is facing Luke, his mask well and truly shatters on the floor, and he needs the time to compose himself. It had been a while since he'd seen someone close to him in anything resembling a military uniform.

After his interviews - which also require composing himself, and really that dance is nothing new, the constant composing himself between interactions - he takes a deep, filling breath when he sees Luke across the room. He's started to take some of Luke's changes for granted, he realizes - here he was sending Luke to wait for him and knowing he would actually stay there, instead of getting impatient and demanding, or storming off entirely.

"Thanks for waiting," he offers when he's close enough - the phrase would be causal with anyone else, but with Luke it was a compliment, really.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

Luke smiles a bit at the praise. "No problem." He was glad to see Guy, he'd decided, if also still worried about him. Particularly if Guy had come here and now was doing something that had to be hard for him on account of Luke. And that thought turns his face into one of worry again. "Guy..." How to start this... "You're kind of the last person I'd expect to see here."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

"I could say the same thing to you," Guy retorts with a mild smile, as if they hadn't already had that conversation back home. A conversation Guy had lost. He hadn't truly understood how serious Luke was.

"It looks like we're both here anyway. If you're really going to put your all into this, then I couldn't very well let you do this alone. How was your flight? You always hate flying. You look like you're holding up alright, though."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

"It was fine." He's not sure how he feels about Guy acting so casual when Luke is pretty sure this isn't a casual thing for him at all. But he wasn't going to push, he guesses... Guy was always really in control of himself, and better at knowing how to... how to be in any given situation than Luke had ever been. So he wouldn't push it.

"I mean, it still took almost as long as getting to Paris but I guess was too nervous to be as bored as usual."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

Even as Guy admits the core of the matter, he's quick to diminish the strength of it with casual, easy things fluffing it up. Maybe it wasn't fair, to insist on doing that. Of course, no matter how easily they talked right now, it wouldn't change that from now on their lives were going to be completely different - so long as they weren't sent home off the bat, but Guy had a feeling that wouldn't happen for either of them. If they weren't suitable, they'd just find something else to do here - anything to help, so Luke had said.

"What's that about? Don't be nervous. Haven't you already made up your mind? So what's the point in doubting yourself already? I followed you across the globe - the least you can do is show the same conviction you had when you left."

[perfectionisms]

"Is `because it's a question that has to be answered` not reason enough?" She massages her forehead with her gloved hand. God, she's surrounded by fools who can't even answer a simple question.

[perfectionisms]

"Opposites. Right." She repeats with a taunt smile. "Isn't that precisely why they clash?" She never takes her eyes off him. If ever he squirms from being in her presence (which is a common reaction, to be honest) she wants to be able to witness it. It's one of the small pleasures in her otherwise stressful life.

Finger on her cheek, she leans a bit towards him. "Do you have children?"

[oversight]

Uhhh... [Blake is distracted by a passing figure and takes a second to reset his attention span, blinking at Becket. He takes the folder and crosses is arms cross over his chest, folder and all, as he feels about three inches tall compared to this larger-than-life figure.]

Y-yeah, checked in, but then this guy was— [A pause.] Know what? Never mind, doesn't matter. Here now, checked in, came with the rest but wasn't able to make this shindig.

You know, just— just need a little direction. Haven't even gotten a room assignment yet. Said there was some kinda mix-up, but didn't exactly say what to do 'bout it. So, uh— [Yeeeeeeah.]

[suicidemission]

[ Chuck won't even pretend that he doesn't enjoy it, because he does. He relishes in the attention he gets because he knows it's deserved, knows that it's something he fucking worked for and earned and he keeps his chin up, jutting into the air as he shakes their hands, other arm curled protectively around his helmet.

(It's not really a shame, Ray, Scott was a douchecanoe and Chuck's a far better choice.) ]

Course ya have, mate. [ His voice is thick with that Australian drawl, filled to the brim with cocky assuredness. ]

Was fine, yeah? Easy goin', no problems.

[crashtestdummy]

Oh. She's. Kind of cute. And she apologized, so he can't really be mad about it - not that he'd be able to get too worked up in this heat anyway.

"What else you got packed, mittens? A coat?" He's holds the scarf out, but as bewildered as he clearly is with her fashion choices, at least he seems good natured enough about it.

[nisemoron]

He did raise an eyebrow at that. He rather liked brown. It was a good, neutral color and pleasantly earthy. But he wasn't about to go breaking script to defend a color.

"Wrench. It's the most difficult tool to improvise. A hammer or a screwdriver may be used more often, but there are plenty of substitutes that would serve the same function in a dire situation. The wrench only serves one function, but it is the only thing that can serve that function and that specificity makes it vital."

There was a pause while he gauged Tachibana's reaction. He'd had a hard time deciding between screwdriver and wrench. There may not be wrong answers, but there are certainly wrong arguments.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

Dammit, that's what he was afraid of. Luke immediately pulls away, distressed and apologetic. "I didn't want you to follow me!"

Wait, that came out wrong, he mentally back peddles. "I mean... I'm happy to see you, but... I can do this. You don't have to help me. I'll... figure it out, even if they fail me here I'll do something. You don't have to do this because of me."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[ganbareist]

"Geez, Luke," Guy mock-chastises him for the rudeness, an expression of feigned disappointment on his face - though it's mild. It was weirdly grounding to hear Luke be accidentally callous. Well, that's what he got for being honest.

"It's not just because of you." He goes on, putting more solemn honesty in his voice. "I have my own reasons. ...This has been a long time coming, for me. Besides, a lot of this isn't something I'll be able to help you with anyway. You won't be able to help me, either."

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[heliokleptic]

Luke frowns, for once not even noticing the chance to be hurt, mock or otherwise, over being chastised, instead fixating more on Guy's attempted reassurance.

"Are you sure...? That, you want to be here, I mean." He almost added 'with me' but held that much back.

Re: Guy Cecil | Tales of the Abyss

[protagerrant]

"Bullied! I just brought you out of your shell. You were way too shy," he says the last part with an unmasked fondness he can't keep down, but he at least cuts himself off from further reminiscing down that line.

"Let's see--the tool kit question's kind of irrelevant for both of us. I can't use any of that stuff, and you'd use it all."

Re: Yuri Lowell | Tales of Vesperia

[protagerrant]

[Yuri just makes a dismissive hand waving gesture, sinking back into his own thoughts for the moment. After a few moments of quiet, he does glance over at Luke, taking in his posture. He has to bite back another sigh--the kid looks run down, not far off form how Yuri feels himself. If he's honest with himself, he doesn't want to add to that, no matter how much he hates everything Luke stands for.]

Re: Yuri Lowell | Tales of Vesperia

[heliokleptic]

[At the very least, Luke seems to be able to keep to himself. It's not like he would know how to talk to Yuri anyway, he's fine being quiet. Hopefully quiet enough that he isn't a bother. Though he's starting to regret sitting... it was hard to stop thinking about the fact that there's no way Yuri actually wanted him to stay and just offered out of some habitual kindness and now no matter what he did he would be intruding.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, he gets up.]