academyooc | 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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"I guess you're right." It was easy to imagine what sort of answers Kamina would have had to these questions. "Something like how if two people are compatible, they can talk about nothing for hours?"

That really was nostalgic. He smiles, and slams the paper back down on the table, suddenly more electric, though the rest of his posture remains relaxed. "Okay! So let's do it. What's your least favorite color?"

"I don't know if there's any particular one that has no redeeming qualities," she said, knowing she was going to have to come up with some specific for the sake of not sounding evasive. "Black?"

Conversing on about nothing for hours? She supposed she'd been that way before, when she was younger, with at least some of her peers. Before the competitive edge of everything made that sort of leisurely activity a thing of the past.

"Mmm." Simon mumbles to himself, stalling for time while he tries to come up with an answer. Definitely couldn't be red or blue. Maybe it was something neutral? But those drab colors reminded him of the shatterdomes he'd spent several years of his life in, and some of the best memories. "Hmmm." Or it could be something really bright and obnoxious? But neon greens and blues and even pinks just made him think of the lights on a terminal, monitoring Helix Plunge's status.

After a long moment he sighed, sounding defeated. "Nope. I can't do it. I have good memories of all of them."

She laughs in spite of herself, pushing her lips together and trying to swallow the sound. She more or less succeeds, feeling the nervous edge to her own actions.

Be calm.

"All colors have their merits. What colors have the warmest memories for you?" She finds herself curious, in spite of feeling rude for asking so forthrightly.

"Red." It comes out before he's actually thought about the answer, though it's easy enough to guess why. Kamina was always in red. He'd been particularly fond of a dramatic red cloak. It was a look that would have seemed ridiculous and out of place if anyone else had tried to wear it, but Kamina made it a part of himself.

"Ah..." He reaches up and runs a hand through his own hair, realizing he'd gone silent for a long moment there. He was glad he could finally remember his brother and feel something other than misery, but those feelings were still an easy way to derail him. "Because that was his color." He didn't clarify who 'his' was, if she knew him, she knew Kamina ten times better, probably.

His is a silence she shares, eyes downcast. She knows who it is he means, making a sound of assent in response to his words. Losing someone so close, with whom such an intense bond was shared, is unfathomable to Sakura. One day she might understand, but for now, she can only empathize from the limited scope of her own experiences.

She's lost her Grandparents, but she doesn't feel it equates to the same thing, only a recognition of grief and the non-linear nature of the mourning cycle.

"He had always seemed as warm as the sun." Red as it was on her country's flag, she hopes Simon understands her allusion. "It is a fitting color to have warm thoughts for."

"The sun might just be warm enough." He understands. That other people at once do and don't understand. He wasn't foolish enough to think that he was the only one that lost a loved one, or the only one that lost Kamina. He'd been a precious source of hope and courage to thousands. Kamina had believed in everyone's potential, and in doing so, shown them how to believe in themselves. For a long time he hadn't quite realized that, and had hidden alone in his grief. But it was strangely a relief to know that others shared it.

But he couldn't spend this entire interview thinking wishfully about his dead 'aniki'. He glances down at the next question on the paper. "This is one isn't bad... What's the most useful tool in a toolbox?"

It's the same answer she's given time after time, to the point where by now it's automatic. "Nails," she says, feeling that, too, might make sense to Simon in a way it hasn't across other cultural divides. She glances down to the paper, really dreading the last question on the list. There was no way not to sound a fool in front of someone who knew the reality.

Please let us be interrupted before then!

"Which one is most useful to you?"

"A drill." He hadn't thought about this question before but the answer came easily enough. There was really no other option. "With a drill and some perseverance even a normally weak person can break through any obstacle."

Since that answer came easily he could direct some thought to the puzzle of Haruno-san's. His first thought when it came to nails was that they were piercing and could make a good weapon, if used with precision. But if she was interested in a weapon, there were still better options. The same with a drill, certainly it could hurt someone, but that sounded like a really shallow objective. So maybe that meant... "Could it be... Are you the type that likes to make sure things hold together?"

Edited 2014-02-18 05:42 (UTC)

A drill? Certainly useful for boring through objects, but more than anything, it fit Simon and Kamina, in a way she didn't know fully how to articulate. She says nothing about his choice, smiling and nodding her head in agreement with his analysis. Correct or incorrect, she'd agree either way.

"Yes, I do like to help things hold together. They're also useful, a basic in many kinds of construction. To build well, and evenly, to a better future, I would like that."

Rebuilding or reconstructing as was necessary, and all of it as building blocks toward dreams involving a medical career, if not one in Jaeger piloting.

test drive meme

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