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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( hitagi senjougahara | monogatari series )

[headtilts]

( scenario one )

They're shown into a little box of a room and she takes a second before she moves to her seat. Just a second and a quick glance, not careless or nervous. There simply isn't a lot that she didn't already expect to see. A window (and it could only be a window), a clock and chairs. There are two of them and placed facing each other as if for interrogation, as if for enemies. She sits, waits, tipping her head to the other chair to signal her interview partner to sit as well. Not a gesture of command but not of invitation either, more the courtesy paid at the beginning of a duel. Incongruous with any impression made of her based only on her appearance. Seventeen in a schoolgirl skirt but there is something precise in the way she sits with her crossed ankles, shins in black socks, arms bent at the elbows so that she's all strong lines and angles.

Suddenly she relaxes back into her seat, a softening of her body meant to deceive, to create a false lull so that when she asks "What do you think the Drift is like?", her voice is a knife-slice of sound in the quiet room.

( scenario two: calisthenics, 1-4 mile run )

[ she's used to the summer of an urban city, sunlight reflecting off glass and steel, the noise and the claustrophobic crowd. the Chilean summer is different. The heat is a weight pressing down on her, relentless and without a single cloud or skyscraper to obscure the full glare of the sun. only their instructors seemed unaffected and even seemed inspired by it, sadistically assigning them daily runs although as former track star, this isn't that much of a change to Hitagi. but this is the academy and there's always the Drift to keep in mind so they're assigned to run in pairs.

you run together and if need be, you fall down together. one of you wants to stop, you both stop, rest but don't sit down and then move when you're both ready. no leaving your partner behind and no skiving off somewhere either and pretending you ran the miles.

her partners change daily. some are faster than her, some have more stamina. some are more sensible and know when they're about to hit their limit. hitagi never asks to stop even when her partner decides to extend the run past the initial mile.

she's pinning her hair up as she looks at the partner she's been assigned for today's run ]

I'm not going to ask to stop. Don't mistake this for a challenge though. I'm not concerned about your pride and neither should you worry about mine.

( ooc: eep first post ok the calisthenics instructions are totally made up sorry for taking liberties mods! also please tag in whatever style you prefer. er i know the game preference is for prose but i went in and put a starter in brackets so that there's something for either tagging preference. i can edit it if i misunderstood and it's actually prose-required. uwoooo sorry again! )

Re: ( hitagi senjougahara | monogatari series )

[protagerrant]

[Today, her partner also happens to be putting his hair up when she turns to speak with him. He finishes pulling the bulk of it through his hairtie before glancing over at her, expression neutral as he studies her. He'd done this run himself with so many different people, he'd probably been paired up at least twice with nearly everyone in his old academy before he'd been booted out and re-assigned to Valpraiso. He was good at setting a pace, good at navigating between pushing his partner to excel and staying with their limits. It would be an excellent quality to take into the Drift, they told him--if he could get his attitude in check.

There was always an 'if', when it came to him, it seemed.]

I'm not all that worried about anybody's pride.

[there was nothing in his tone indicating he didn't take her at her word, despite her being both younger and shorter than him. he rolled his shoulder--half a shrug, half a stretch as he leaned forward over his outstretched leg to finish warming up]

You ready?

[headtilts]

[ she answers his question with a nod and slants an assessing look at him ]

If that's so, then can you be counted on to be honest if you're getting tired? How virtuous of you. [ what would sound like a friendly jab from anyone else seems pointedly matter of fact coming from Hitagi]

One more warning then. Live up to that admirable claim of honesty [ never mind that he claimed no such thing ] and speak up if you need to adjust the pace. There's no point in trying to give off a stoic impression especially since it'll be ruined by all the sweat.

[ she takes her position at their starting point as she finishes up with her hair, her hands moving with practiced efficiency in checking for any loose strands. she checks over her shoes, her clothes and the routine is so nostalgic that she almost drops into a starting block position ] Just dismiss it as a product of an overly cautious nature if you feel it doesn't apply. I'm only saying it now to give myself an opening to say "I told you so" later.

[ hitagi senjougahara, leading authority on how to lose friends and alienate people ]

[protagerrant]

[Yuri levered a skeptical eyebrow at her, and then laughed, head tilted back as he finished popping his back. It was an honest, amused laughter. He didn't dislike this girl's style; she certainly didn't sound like she was just putting on bravado. He didn't mind if she was--he was used to that--but all the polite trash talk was making him feel a little competitive.]

I tell you what. If it starts to look like my pace is too much for you, I'll ask to stop--since this isn't about pride. [he flashed her a grin, getting into position next to her. He was looking forward to going all out and seeing if this girl could cash out that confidence]

[headtilts]

[ it really isn't a matter of pride to hitagi or at least not entirely. her words are a sincere albeit roundabout reminder for her partners to communicate with her. of course speaking plainly would be more effective but speaking plainly might not accomplish her secondary purpose: to assess her partner. some laughed her words off. some were insulted. others became overly solicitous. his reaction is different enough to earn a narrow-eyed look from her. his confidence certainly speaks volumes. ]

So it's a verbal contract. Witnessed by anyone eavesdropping. If you try to revise the terms later, I'll have grounds to take you to court.

[ at that frankly outrageous statement, she takes off without so much as a signal to him. she's fast and those first few seconds when she starts to run, she seems like she's throwing herself forward, like she can't move quickly enough. then she settles into a natural rhythm. it's just a run after all and not a race even if her words have put them into a sort of competition.

some laughed her words off, assuming she was speaking out of pure bravado. some were insulted, assuming she was underestimating their abilities. others became overly solicitous, assuming she was just trying to be brave. very few hit upon the truth.

the truth is she never asks to stop to make sure she watches for when her partner would need to and she never asks to stop in order to push herself when her partner doesn't.

the truth is her words aren't a challenge to anyone but herself.

and the truth is sometimes she just likes to run.

still if he really will do as he says and will try to match her, maybe it's worthwhile to change up her usual goal for the runs. ]

scenario one.

[overeducated]

"Do we have to skip to that one? What about getting to know each other first? Come on, more like... something like... ah! Do you have any pets?" Now wait a minute, that hadn't been on the list.

-- As if he'd care - the attentive, expectant look shot toward the other certainly didn't seem to.

Before his response, however, his eyes trained first and foremost to the clock on the wall, the rest of the room dismissed in much the same casualness as she had dismissed it; likewise, he took his seat with the briefest (read: one owlish blink and a nod back) acknowledgement, remaining thereafter - well, until the question - completely distracted from his interview partner. At least talking seemed to rein his focus in a bit.

[headtilts]

Just as his eyes focused on the clock so did hers stray to the window, a tell she's not practiced enough to be able to conceal. It's not that this whole caution-bordering-on-paranoia is new to her. She's had months to train herself in distrust. It's that this situation (they are being watched, she knows they're being watched, her partner probably also knows they're being watched, their observers know that they know that they're being watched but they have to put on a show of only watching each other) is mentally exhausting her as she tries to anticipate the questions and answers and the evaluation of their questions and answers.

The opaque window reflects nothing except her face, schooled into her best approximation of neutrality but for the eyes. She turns back to her interview partner instead, another thing she thinks might prove to be just as exhausting as this exercise.

"Do I have any pets? None. What's my mother's maiden name? She was never a maiden. What city was I born in? I don't remember."

She's not resisting out of sheer contrariness (although there is a small element of that motivating her) but she snapped out her question so quickly for a reason. When she first came in to the testing center, they pointed her to a room and gave her one piece of advice.

There's no point in hiding anything but Hitagi still means to try.

"What's my childhood nickname? Senshougahara. What's the name of my high school? Only someone preying on that age group would want to know." She's rattling off the answers as if she's reciting something in class and not as if she's just accused him of- "Ah that's wrong. Rather than that kind of predator your questions seem more like the kind of things you'd ask for the purposes of identity theft."

Of course, she doesn't actually think that's his aim. She's just not about to give up control of the pace of this interview and doesn't it just say so much about her that she's turning this into a battle.

[overeducated]

Mouth opens, breath draws in - she continues, races past - mouth snaps closed, hand raises, pointer finger held up toward the ceiling as a professor about to lecture - she continues, what's my childhood nickname? - his hand wavers, aborts, reappears, eyes beginning to flit from clock to girl, from precise, clever time management to precise, clever body management.

Well. An exaggeration, that.

That's a rude way to talk about your mother.

"I've no debt simply because I've no connections; an intellectual tramp, a snob might say, despite looking remarkably terrible with a beard. Favorite color? Blue, set not too dark nor too light. Never did fancy turtles. I once ate nothing but celery for three days, a habit broken only because my daughter convinced me my feet would turn purple."

The earlier, more flustered expressions began and ended in silence.

Rattled quick as a can sent spinning down a street-- but, really, it didn't say much about him at all that he rose to the challenge of a biting girl, eyes at last focusing front and center, attention piqued in a keen, if not fragile, way. Not quite question-for-question, titling only one question, and had the mention of a daughter been an intentional retort (otherwise unexpressed) to the preying implication?

With the way he didn't seem to remember his words once they were out of his mouth, no. It couldn't have been.

"That is to say: I'm excessively stubborn, much like you, and I think drift would be positively awful, though not as awful as going it alone, which is... half like you."

-- Except, there, he grasped what he spoke, what should have been a barb turned only-a-teensy-tinsy-bit-questioning statement.

2

[spareheir]

I'm Kou.

[Volunteers Hitagi's partner in response to her odd greeting. He's stretching his calves a bit, and offering her an easy smile. He doesn't make any statements about his thletic abilities or otherwise, but he has a slender, well-toned physique, even if he's a bit on the short side.

His limbs are long in comparison to his body, and when he starts to run -she doesn't seem like she wants to lead, so he does- he sets an even pace at first. Once he realizes she's having no trouble keeping up, he'll mix it up a bit to keep them both on their toes.]