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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Shindou tilts his head into a slight, affirmative nod and musters up a vague smile.

"It is. My father took me to Rio de Janeiro once when I was younger, but that's the closest I've been before now."

That had been before the first Kaiju attacks, of course. Afterwards, there'd been so much less time for family vacations, and certainly no thought of traveling anywhere not set firmly away from the Pacific. And then there'd been the Onibaba Incident...

He shrugs.

"Sorry, are you part of the cadet class, too?" The age-range of accepted students was still a bit perplexing. It made it hard to tell which of his fellow passengers would be classmates and which were more like chaperones. "Or are you already with the PPDC?"

Aww, how cute! It warms Cherche's heart to know that she still passes for a student somehow.

"You can think of me as your school nurse." Since that's what she will be doing in the Shatterdome most of the time. Her full job description would be a bit more intimidating. "I'm here to make sure that none of you get any major injuries during training." But she won't be there to stop people from getting hurt. Trainings are supposed to hurt.

She pulls a plastic container from her bag and opens it. "Would you want an orange slice?" she asks, offering it to him. "It's chilled. Or at least it's supposed to."

"Oh, that makes more sense. Thank you for looking out for us."

He can't really bow, seated next to the window on this cramped bus, but it's still more or less reflex for Shindou to dip his head into a rough approximation of one after that answer. (Just because it had been a long day didn't excuse letting his manners slip. Especially not with school staff!)

When he raises his eyes back up, though, there's not even a second thought about refusing one of the nurse's oranges. He reaches over, takes one delicately between two fingers, and pops it in his mouth. It's more lukewarm than anything by now, but the sweet juice is a relief either way.

"Thanks for that, too. I didn't think to get anything for the ride up..."

"You're very welcome but you really should have eaten something before the trip. Nothing too heavy. When I was home, I made sure that my son would have at least a sandwich..."

She catches herself and tries to laugh it out. "I'm sorry, I guess even adults can feel a bit homesick too."

She takes an orange slice and pushes it in her mouth. She should have put it somewhere that would have kept it cold.

"Ah, I had something on the flight over - " Since it took up the better part of a day. "But after we touched down here I was too distracted."

There's a gently rueful touch to Shindou's smile there. Traveling on his own felt so much more hectic and pressing than the trips his family had taken or even going on out-of-town games with the soccer club. Maybe it was just from knowing what was waiting for him.

His expression softens at the mention of homesickness, then.

"Of course. It has to be hard for everyone coming here, leaving family back home."

"Isn't that why we're here? To protect the people we go home to?" At least, that's why Cherche's here. And that's how she attempts to ask him why he enrolled without outright doing so.

Because she's sure that that's not the only reason the cadets have for coming here. Some would be here for revenge. Some would be here for the fame. And some would be here for unsavory reasons that she would rather not think about. But she has to get to know this children if she was going to treat their injuries.

"Mn."

The small, affirmative hum he gives in answer is simple but perfectly serious, backed up by a quiet nod. That sums it up well enough for him, too...even if the 'family' he has to stand up for stretches past just his parents back home, now. Leaving behind everyone at Raimon and its football club was almost harder, as much as they'd all worked to keep each other together.

"My mother and father are still in Tokyo. And all of my classmates and teammates."

Shindou's solemn in saying as much, eyes drifting down towards his hands in his lap. It's hard not to get emotional thinking about it. He can't even quite bring himself to call them his "former teammates" yet.

"I don't know if I'd have the confidence to do this, if they weren't all counting on us."

test drive meme

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gosh this is so late sorry sorry