checkyourself | THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH

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( admin ) test drive meme

THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH - APRIL

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

SO YOU WANT TO JOIN THE CREEPY HOTEL BRIGADE.

Well, welcome potential apper! Here we have the handy dandy test drive meme so you can get a feel for how your character might react to the game setting. This post can also be used to cultivate some of those required sample threads for the application.

Feel free to play any scenario you so please. However please note that TDM threads cannot be used for Activity Checks (for existing players) and will not be considered game canon unless transposed comment for comment into logs in checkingout. We also recommend avoiding playing the initial arrival, so that the intro log doesn't become repetitive and boring for you. Other than that, go wild.

Here's a few additional useful links:

PREMISE | THE HOTEL
TAKEN | RESERVES | APPLICATION

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

No time for losers, because we — have waffles and pancakes and crepes and delicate bowls of ripe bananas and juicy oranges. We have bacon and oatmeal and cereal and milk; we have coffee (that's really hot and will burn you quite spectacularly) and tea (that, on the other hand, is miserably cold and bland). And we have orange juice (that might just kill you)!

Basically, every component one needs to start the day off right. Which is good, because this is the only meal ever served in the hotel. So come one, come all — get it while it's hot and try to pick among seats amidst the crowded circular tables, or stand along the wall. Bemoan the lack of hashbrowns or fight over the last fork. Mix, mingle. Have "fun".

DON'T YOU LOVE MY TASTE IN MUSIC.

What starts as soft, subtle musical notes wafting out of unseen speakers?

Yeah, that quickly manifests into blaring, loud, aggressively high pitched notes — so distorted, and reverberating so magnificently in the main lobby that even those impenetrable windows rattle in their frames.

And what's more, there doesn't seem to be an off switch anywhere in sight. Good luck finding one.

GOING DOWN.

Right by the stairwell in the lobby is an old timey elevator, the sort that really ought to be manned by staff to insure that it's in decent working condition and won't kill you. But it's usually not. And usually doesn't run.

But today, your ears are treated to an oh-so pleasant ding, and the doors will slide open, offering a ride to the floor of your choosing. Finally, no more calf workouts on the stairs, right?

...well, you probably should have taken the stairs, because three seconds in the entire carriage shudders, screeches to a halt, and refuses to move.

Then the lights begin to flicker.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.

Don't see a scenario that appeals to you here? Make up your own. Get crazy with it! Good luck getting outside.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He knows she means the OJ but it's just as easily applied to the experiment holding the glass and his smile strains to stay. ]

Call me an optimist. [ The rest takes him by actual surprise, but first he has to go and finagle his breakfast somewhere so he can follow the niceties. Only a little bit of coffee spills, and he'll call that a win for the morning. Shaking her hand briefly, he puts the rest of the food down next to it — one table's good as another. ] A fan? Not entirely sure I can believe that.

[ What's he done? Some decade old papers published and... Well. New York. He's not entirely sure he wants fans for what happened there. ]

All right.

[ She relents a step, thinking of Mike Peterson's kid and his Hulk action figure. ]

Biggest may have been overselling it, but if he pees a little when he sees you, you can't say there was no warning.

[ Chewing a bite off her bagel, she arches her eyebrows matter-of-factly at him and then sets about explaining, ] I mean, personally, I always kinda preferred Iron Man, but Fitz made some good points about versatility.

Th- Okay, that's a warning well-received? I guess?

[ How seriously should he be taking this??? He has no idea. And may start investing in just carrying around wipes. As a precautionary thing. ]

Don't ever tell Tony that, his ego's already— [ It's an automatic response after bunking up with the guy a year or so. That Mandarin business was... Well, it was ridiculous enough that Bruce figured staying couldn't (probably) make things worse. But okay, no, he's off Starksitting duty right now, focus on the point, Banner. ] The other guy isn't exactly what I could call... Versatile.

[ It's that limited marketability thing again. ]

"The Other Guy?" Is that what you call it?

[ Must be nice, being able to dissociate from being responsible for all that destruction. Skye's not jealous, not thinking of how many people must have gone down in that quake in San Juan, definitely not thinking about Fitz's doubt about whether they might just be among the casualties (would he hate her, if he knew she was the one who did it?). ]

Whatever. I didn't mean just him. You don't have to be huge and green to be a superhero. I mean, it's kinda Dr. Jekyll, right? Genius scientist by day, giant hulking rage monster by … [ Her nose crinkles. ] Really bad week.

It's. [ He fidgets in embarrassment. ] Isn't like it was me picking what he wanted to call himself, except. ...Not consciously, anyway, and it's. [ This is always a headache. ] It works well enough. Not the point.

[ Nah, it's not that nice putting it in terms of something destructively alien that hijacks your body on occasion. It sort of makes everything that much worse — but. You know. He's working on that. Baby steps toward proper pronouns. He may not ever strut like Tony says he ought, but. ]

Genius is... That might be pushing it a little bit. [ Geniuses would probably have known better than. Than honestly a lot of things he's done oops. ] Never mind superhero. In either aspect.

Edited 2015-03-25 01:11 (UTC)

[ Watching his fumbling is a little like watching a train wreck, and she wonders for a moment if she should interrupt him. But she doesn't. Instead, a squinting sort of smile builds like she's still figuring him out. ]

You don't compliment well, do you?

[ And on that note, she'll invite herself to the table he set his food aside on, dropping into a chair and setting her water bottle down while she tears another bite into her bagel. ]

That—

[ Wow, you can't just bop his neuroses right on the head over breakfast. Buy him dinner first, at least.

It's obvious that he's debating snubbing this and taking his breakfast, oh, anywhere else but. But as much as she is a SHIELD agent and as much as it's very much within his right to be, he doesn't want to be that kind of rude.

Dammit. ]

I'll take a compliment when I've earned it.

[ Flopping into a chair of his own, he continues tearing his pancake to bite-sized pieces. Better than hoovering it all at once. ]

Wow.

[ She puffs out a breath, shaking her head. Immediately, her gaze drops—not because of anything he's done that's truly rude or offensive, because he's thankfully avoided that, but—

Well. Honestly she might have taken that better.

This is a jab that has more precision than he can know. If Banner doesn't believe the pros outweigh the cons with what he can do, then she's truly screwed. She's nowhere near as effective, useful, or together. Pulling her lips between her teeth, Skye mulls that over for a moment. She taps her bagel against a napkin on the table a moment, fidgeting with it, and then looks up at him, a plaster smile pulling across her lips. ]

Harsh. But okay. [ She knows when to stop pushing. ] So is this a good or a bad time to point out that you probably can't, uh, [ She makes an inflating sort of gesture with splayed fingers, starting small and drawing her hands outward. ] In here.

[ For a second, Bruce's eyebrows knit in concern because he's not sure what he's said wrong but can tell that something... Another person might press back but he's too much in the habit of asking no questions and telling no lies, the easiest way to avoid notice. And if he did know, then he'd be sure to show Skye the label attached to his emotional baggage: APPLICABLE ONLY R.B. BANNER, PhD. Everyone else seems to be making an all right go of things as far as he can see; as opposed to his universal screw-up self.

Closing his eyes to avoid rolling them at the impromptu game of charades, he takes a sip to wash down his pancakes. (Radioactive OJ. Maybe he'll be orange next time he changes. Pfft.) ]

I kind of figured that out already. [ He kills a couple moments chewing as he tries to decide what it can hurt to say how. How from the second he woke up here, the white noise growling in the back of his head has halved for the first time in... In a very long time. ] He's quieter? I guess that's a way to put it. Never really figured out the right terminology for...

[ Gesturing at his head, he shrugs. There's still a healthy dose of skepticism for whatever is responsible continuing to hold Hulk in check if he really needs him to come out. Hulk's strongest there is, etc. ]

Yeah, well …

[ She struggles over it, picking pieces off her bagel without actually eating them. Finally dropping it, she sits back and shrugs her shoulders out like she's leagues more comfortable than she actually is. Her body language attempts nonchalance, but there's tension simmering beneath the surface. The kind that never completely goes away. ]

If this is quieter, I don't think I ever wanna see what the real deal's like again.

[ San Juan was the real deal. She killed people, not just Trip, not just Ward. Rolling her eyes helps dispel the upset of emotion, and she grabs her water bottle roughly, pulling it to her and uncapping it. Maybe if she hadn't spent the past month losing it with the ghosts and her total inability to hold back all the emotions she hasn't been dealing with (all of which could be measured on the richter scale), she'd be less ready to crumble. As it stands, she's one good quake from coming apart, and talking obliquely about out-of-control powers isn't helping.

Her eyes flick over him. ]

Sounds like I'm not the only one.

[ If they knew each other better, if Bruce cared enough to know an agent better, he'd tell her that it doesn't get better. It doesn't get easier to carry that kind of guilt — but you do get more used to it. Eventually you figure out how to keep it from drowning you, but some days are harder than others.

Instead he just continues noting the tension he can see as it sours his waffle. He doesn't like having people scared of him, even when he knows it's more than warranted. ]

Course you're not. Pretty sure anyone who knew would agree with you. [ The hotel doesn't need to be the next Harlem, or the next Manhattan. ] ...Uh, speaking of, I mean. Secret government agents don't need to be told to keep some things quiet. Right? Not exactly in a mood to broadcast.

What? No.

[ She sits forward very suddenly, vehement in her insistence. ]

I'm not gonna tell anyone. Hand to god. But— [ That's not what's prompting her to such intensity. ] Dr. Banner, do you even realize how many people's lives you saved in New York? Anyone who knew would be thanking you. [ A beat. She cants her head to the side and nods, giving an inch as she admits, ] Okay, maybe ... from a distance. But you're a hero.

[ It's her own equivalent of 'quieter' that scares her. The lack of control. Knowing that any minute, if they took off whatever was dampening people's abilities, this could be another San Juan because she can't keep it together. Her hands clench into fists, knuckles whitening, crescent-shaped dents digging into her palms. She turns it inward, like May taught her. Locks it down. ]

[ Bruce leans back, eyes widening in mild surprise because okay this is. That was not the reaction he expected. Maybe something more along the lines of well we'll keep your secret until it proves useful. (He's seen a lot of D-list movies in his time. Don't judge.) For a second, he thinks she's up in arms at the insinuation she can't be trusted — which would be really ironic for a secret agent to think — but then she continues and it's...

Oh. That's funny. He shakes his head again, huffs under his breath. ]

That's not the only time I've been to New York, Ms. Skye. [ It's a quiet reminder. Harlem was a year before Manhattan and maybe it wasn't as bad as Loki setting up shop at Grand Central. That doesn't mean it's forgotten, or Rio before that or Culver or the dozens of places in between. ] And if you'll remember what happened before I joined the rest of them on the ground...

[ TL;DR helicarriers don't come cheap. ]

Just because I was lucky enough not to make things worse in Manhattan doesn't make me a hero. It means I don't want to push my luck with a next time.

Edited 2015-03-25 06:08 (UTC)

What are you talking about?

[ Quick shake of her head says that Skye either did not join SHIELD before New York, or did not have the access level for the Avengers Initiative. Her brow furrows, and realizing she doesn't have the full story, she needles him. ]

... What happened before you guys touched down in New York?

[ A long moment passes where he just stares. Partly because A) good lord, is anybody honest in SHIELD or is it all just crazy webs of lying lies and B) the clear discomfort of someone who now has to actually use their words to talk about how he has done fucked up.

Welp.

The pancake is dropped back on the plate so Bruce can just drag both hands down his face. Groaning into his palms, he lets his fingers drop to his lap. No way getting out of this, considering he opened the door himself. ]

A year before the Chitauri, I was— Long story short, I basically broke it. Harlem. [ Captain America goes around jumping planes without parachutes but Bruce tried it once and it sucked. A lot. He winces at the memory. ] And then there was the helicarrier almost crashing. Which, all right, wasn't entirely my fault because there were also explosions but a lot of it. ...Yeah.

Edited 2015-03-25 06:33 (UTC)

Sure, I remember. Harlem was leveled. The Rising Tide was all over the reports, they kept pulling up this— Spined thing, before the government pulled all our footage.

[ She explains it hurriedly, like she's getting her own background information out of the way so she can charge straight to the more important point, which is apparently: ] Did you just say you crashed a helicarrier?

I said "almost," j- I very clearly said almost.

[ It stayed in the air. ...Mostly. Minus a couple jets but who really needs THAT many fighter jets I mean seriously. ]

I don't know how it was covered but. Yeah, that was me. [ Wait, shit, WORDS. ] I m- Not the thing with the... The spiny thing, that wasn't me. Hulk doesn't get spiny. Thank God. [ He rubs absently at his chest, phantom pain remembered from where one of those spines tried to cut him open. Ugh. ] But that other thing wouldn't have been made without my work either, so. I don't know, just that it was partly my fault and I needed to try and... you know. Fix it.

By turning into a giant green rage machine and tearing up Harlem.

[ Just confirming, ok. She seems doubtful, but she's also not in a position to be second-guessing a freaking Avenger. So she takes it at face value and holds up both hands in a pacifying gesture of surrender. ]

Okay. If you say so.

[ Honestly, it's weirdly reassuring. A confession bubbles in the back of her throat, the one she'd wimped out on with Rogers. He didn't understand not being in control, he was a soldier. All about control. He asked for his powers; they were real superpowers. Enhancement. Something he could use.

What she has is just ...

Her hands close, fold on the table in front of her. ]

I ... "broke" [ She lifts her voice on the word to indicate she's using his phrasing, ] San Juan.

I'm not saying it was the most well-thought out plan, all right, it just. Time was a factor and it needed stopping, and nothing else was doing the job. I didn't mean for the rest of it.

[ Okay, wow. That's the lamest excuse in the history of his life and he will take this out. Please and thank you.

Even odds whether it's woolgathering or denial that has Bruce blinking owlishly as long as he does. Because yes, that's a definite phrase and he's somewhere between disbelief that someone else is using that phrasing this way, uncertainty that Skye's talking to him about this, and quiet panic over the fact SHIELD too has people who can "break" things. ]

...Um. [ A breath, he can start over. ] Th-

[ No, not that either. Hrm. ]

Can I assume this wasn't some Fury-sanctioned "breaking?"

Edited 2015-03-25 07:07 (UTC)

Fury's dead.

[ Not as graceful as she would have liked to be in breaking the news, but she's abrupt because it hadn't occurred to her until now that it would be necessary to update him like this. Then again, it's Banner. He falls off the radar as often as he falls onto it—but according to SHIELD's files, he was with Stark now. Maybe that changed, or he'd slipped out.

Either way, not her biggest concern. ]

Nobody in SHIELD ordered it. [ She at least composes herself enough not to drop the Director Totally-Alive-Coulson bomb now. A ripple of tension runs through her jaw. She manipulates her hands in front of her like she's trying to pop a bone and get out of handcuffs that aren't there, all forces and wringing discomfort. ] They think it was an earthquake.

[ It wasn't an earthquake. Her breath shortens, and she shifts her focus downward to try and suppress what she's feeling. Lock it down. Feel it, but don't let it control her. It backchannels her ability up through her instead of outward, not that she realizes precisely what's going on. To Skye, it only means it's not rippling outward. ]

Bullshit. [ He blurts it out without meaning to, but only spares a couple seconds to look sheepish for using Language. ] Sorry, but I've learned not to trust anything Nick Fury says or does. ...Which I suppose now includes dying. But th- Never mind. Not important.

[ Bruce, your paranoia issues re: shadow paramilitary organizations can be shelved. It's got an expiration date of never with the tin foil hats keeping it fresh. He likewise shelves the scientist part of himself that wants to ask a million and one questions about how because good lord, if anyone knows how unattractive being a specimen is—

He still notes reactions, tics, and that ripple for sure, actively cataloging now instead of just idle observation. He stays quiet a long time like that before he glances around the room. ]

You want to move this somewhere else, or. [ Low voices are one thing, but at the same time... ] Pretty sure nobody would mind breakfast to go.

Yeah.

[ She answers quickly, blinking fast. It's a good distraction. She pushes to her feet, grabbing her water bottle and stuffing her bagel between her teeth. Reaching out, she makes a demanding "gimme" gesture for one of his plates. ]

Let me. [ It comes out without hard interdental consonants because of the food stuffed in her mouth, but if she's going to get him to migrate to hammer out superpower talks with her, she's going to help him carry his food. (It also happens to be the only thing keeping her from suggesting the courtyard—it's as rainy as ever out there.) ]

[ Skye earns a smile in spite of himself as he makes to gather up his own food his own way, waving away the offer ]

Got it all here, I can get it out. J- Lead on, that's all. Still getting the hang of this place.

[ (It takes time to map out and test every possible escape route. Remember, kids, it's only paranoid when nobody's out to get you!) ]

Yeah, bad news, I don't think there's a hang to get.

[ But she's already on her way to the door anyway, turning to glance towards him as she talks and keeping a conversational walking pace. ]

They're always finding a way to make things worse just when you think you've got the hang of it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH - APRIL

YEAH but shield agents are g r o s s (also sorry! work+ill = crappy response time)

I THINK U MEAN PRECIOUS (and it's ok i've been generally Slow this week too)

mmmmmmnah precious is more puppies than shadow agencies who stalk people NOT THAT HE'S BITTER OFC

HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT THIS FACE AND NOT THINK PUPPY

EASILY bruce won't be taken in by tiny cute agents again he remembers calcutta

woW THAT IS actually a very fair point touché

see SEE he knows his tin foil hat would come in handy

our one weakness cuRSE YOU

see he's super prepared for this

CRIES OH MY GOD THAT ICON

THE STARS ALIGNED TBH

saves that notif forever and ever

puts it on a pedestal with plaque "dumbest icons to dumb"

um i think you mean best icons to ever best

um false alex i'm gonna take dorky as hell for $400

no too late judgment passed best it is

i demand an appeal

this isn't a democracy this is a shieldocracy

wow shield doesn't even go here anymore HAIL HYDRA wait

THAT WAS WAY HARSH, TAI

i'm sorry would you have preferred the hail hydra hug it out version

no ward tried that and she was dnw /badtumtish

hyrdra friend zoned but that's what you get for being a nazi guy

he wishes he were friendzoned more like bullet in the backzoned