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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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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.

"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."

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.

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.

Edited 2014-02-02 09:13 (UTC)

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."

"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."

"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."

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."

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."

"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."

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.

An unsettled ache swells in Guy's chest, a reaction he didn't expect or want, and he smiles a little less. It was getting harder to remember, but there was a long time when Luke practically didn't know the meaning of doubt, and certainly wouldn't think to take Guy's answers at more than face value.

But a lot had happened between them, hadn't it?

"Listen when I tell you something the first time," he replies. "You don't have to be that disappointed to see me."

"I. I'm not." It comes out a familiar whine, and he sighs.

"I just don't want..." The words trail off. He's not sure what he wants, or how to phrase it. It's probably not important, anyway. What he wants doesn't matter. "...Sorry." He pauses, trying to think of what the right response would be in this situation, if he hadn't gotten stupidly distracted with his own feelings instead. In the end he offers, a bit hesitantly, "Thanks for coming."

Edited 2014-02-02 22:08 (UTC)

Guy doesn't reply for a moment, just looking at him, his expression going briefly unreadable. Maybe that's an honest reflection of how he feels anyway - he isn't sure what to feel.

But he does feel a bit better.

He reaches over to mess up Luke's hair - not exactly something he'd done for a while, but it was a habit for a few years. A mean-spirited one, to start, but it had slid to something kinder sometime he couldn't place.

"Thanks," he says. "And look. Even if I can't help you be the person you want to be, I can watch over you and be there for you when you need a friend. I'll hold you accountable, okay? Don't think about doing something else, focus on succeeding."

The ruffle that Luke used to brush off with an eye roll or a dismissive whine now causes his cheeks to quietly color while he makes no noise of protest at all, just letting Guy get away with it without comment.

"That's easy to say, but the more I think about it..." So far everyone most of the people he'd interviewed with had know him, at least one had sworn to never let him pilot. "There's no way they're going to let me in. I guess going to Chile wasn't far enough. "

So he'd already been recognized. Well, that was to be expected.

"You had to know there would be other Americans here," he shrugs. He himself would be spotted too, eventually-- he wasn't even fooling himself on that one. Someone that wasn't a childhood friend would get wind of it.

"Wait until you're turned down for that kind of talk. It won't do you any good, alright? Focus."

"I know."

He takes a deep breath, cutting himself off from any more spineless whining. He forces a smile. "Sorry. I'll do my best."

Good. At least Luke was getting better at feeling out when enough was enough.

He smiles back. "Besides, Drift Compatibility has nothing to do with what you're worried about."

It was true. Itn't as if he could promise him he'd manage it - Drift Compatibility had so many elements. Not kindness, not determination, not strength. But that only leveled the field. Now that he was done with his own interviews, he honestly didn't know how he himself would be judged.

"Pretty sure you can't drift with someone who hates your guts." Which, might not be everyone, but it sure felt like it. Still, Luke's tone came out more wry than sulky. He'd been dealing with his unpopularity for a while now. In a lot of ways he could take it in stride.

"Alright, we both know that's not everyone. I thought you were done complaining."

It's blunt and scolding - he really was done hearing about it for now. God help them if Luke wasn't Drift Compatible; Guy would never hear the end of it. He levels a steady, opaque look at Luke, pressing his lips together.

Should he stop there? Change the subject? Did he even have something else to say on that subject - or really, did he have anything he had the guts to say? All he knew how to do with Luke right now was coast, on easy ground, but doing that for too long was already getting harder. There were so many loose strings with half-burned edges. He didn't know where he stood... and he was sure Luke didn't, either.

It wasn't as if he'd been sending him mixed signals, or anything.

"You're not your father, Luke," he says. The words are heavy in his mouth, and they seem far away after he says them. "I'm here for a lot of reasons. But if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be."

Luke winces at the rebuke, looking away. He hadn't meant to sound like he was complaining... Just...

Well, it didn't matter. Guy wanted him to shut up about it so he would.

It used to be he felt like he'd always know what the next word coming out of Guy's mouth would be. Lately he was never really sure. But he couldn't blame Guy for being sick of dealing with him, which is part of why he didn't understand why he'd come.

He still isn't fully meeting Guy's eyes when the other continues to speak, and feels only more distant as the 'reassurances' land. He wasn't worried that he was his father. Guy hadn't ever really understood that part, though maybe Luke hadn't helped. He wasn't really the best at explaining.

But he was done complaining so he just forces another smile, not the most convincing, but he's not the skilled liar here. "Sorry... I mean. Thanks, Guy."

Edited 2014-02-03 04:51 (UTC)

Guy studies him a long moment, hesitating... that hadn't quite had an effect he expected. Think, Guy rebuked himself. Think about what you've never told him, how could he know what you're admitting?

"Hey, Luke. Look at me."

He's not sure what to do, or say. They'd fought, for a long time, but it wasn't just about everything. This kind of conflict - one that's just between the two of them - he has to admit he's not sure how to approach it. What does Luke need right now? What does he need?

When Luke looks up, he looks him in the eyes, and smiles.

"Don't apologize. What I mean is... I thought a lot, after you left. You making this decision, and taking the steps to accomplish it. Even if you're scared or doubtful, you're trying to be someone who changes things -- who helps people. It was inspiring. I thought it was time I did too. I'd been dragging my feet, but I can't ignore what I have to do anymore."

He takes a deep breath, the smile waning off, but - his eyes have a look to them that Luke's rarely seen, raw and tired, but clear.

"So... thank you, Luke."

It takes some effort to look Guy in the eyes... he'd gotten really bad at that lately. Making eye contact with just about anyone he had the feeling was mad at him. With Guy it was a little different. They're relationship had gotten... unpredictable. He knew it was his own fault. Honestly, he was surprised Guy hadn't abandoned him entirely once what his father had done come out.

And then since his father had died, things had just been kind of weird. Luke got the feeling Guy wanted to still be his friend, but was struggling to deal with the sort of person he'd revealed himself to be, and he couldn't really say much in his own defense there. He'd said some pretty awful things.

But he does as he's told, though kind of wishes he could stop and maybe disappear into the ground when Guy keeps talking. He can definitely feel his cheeks on fire.

"I. I haven't even done anything."

He finds himself looking between Guy and the exit behind him. It's not that he didn't appreciate the kindness, or think it was genuine, but... He didn't deserve it. What was the right response? Accept something that wasn't right or turn away a gift from a friend...? He couldn't run away, maybe he could explain without having to do any of those things.

"I mean. You're the one who always... Always did things to help others. That's why I gave you the money. You've been helping people for as long as I've known you. I wouldn't have even had the idea if you weren't around."

He wants to add that chances were he would get kicked out, or get some low end job where he couldn't really help anyone, while Guy went on to become a great pilot, but he had at least learned that would just get him scolded again.

Guy watches and listens as Luke struggles and flounders beneath digesting his compliment and thanks, and his stomach knots a bit again. Was he going to have to get used to that?

Well, he's a little encouraged anyway. Maybe this could still do them both some good. Luke needed looking out for, still. He was deeply lonely too, no mater what he thought he deserved - Guy knew that very well. Anyone not desperate wouldn't have tolerated under how harsh Guy had been to him.

And as for Guy... apart from a chance reunion with an old friend from a lifetime ago, Luke was all he had left.

"It isn't about if I've helped people or not," Guy admits. "... Since my family died... I've just been keeping myself busy. Trying to feel like I was doing what I should, or-- trying to fill a void, I guess. It never really worked," he goes on, light, like it's funny, ha-ha, that he'd be so silly to think it would work. His strained face isn't quite up to speed with his voice. "... None of it worked. And it's because I should have been here. But I couldn't even face it."

Edited 2014-02-03 06:57 (UTC)

Luke pauses, genuinely listening, if still not really able to fully understand. It sounded to him like Guy was being too hard on himself. So what if he had just been keeping busy? He still did more that way than most people did.

"Guy..."

He comes up short on words again, looks away, tries to think.

"You're way too hard on yourself." That about sums it up. "But... if this is what you think you should be doing, then... I really am glad you came."

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