you know what I'm sayin'?

[growing_pains]

( the test drive meme )

This is for anyone wanting to test out their characters in the setting before applying, and to see if things "click". Multiples will be allowed for this post, and you can generally assume any threads are a self-contained continuity unless you feel like getting creative.

Just post a thread with your CHARACTER NAME and CANON NAME in the title with a prompt and others will reply. Prompts and threads can be action spam or prose or whatever. These threads can be used on the sample section of your application, as well. Go out and have fun! Feel free to consult the institute tour and dorm guide for setting info.

Comments

[absolute_perception]

Elian's work station was on the opposite side of the workshop inside the computer room. His pod was set up specifically for his virtual dives. It was his turn to make the rounds against unseen invaders and invisible cyber terrorists.

He spotted Donatello and stopped. Teal eyes blinked at the sight of a giant turtle mutant. Was he really seeing such a drastic mutation? He thought his own that stunted his growth was weird but...

"Hello." He lifted his hand. The little person mutant that would never age really was at odds in this case.

[techyturtle]

"Hello."

Don't worry. If Elian wants to scream in terror and run, he is more than welcome to. Don won't take offense, honest. Wouldn't be the first time.

In the meantime, however, he's using a can top to slice the banana peel in to very, very thin strings.

[absolute_perception]

Elian decided to watch. He wasn't the type to run or scream. He was much too curious for that. Instead, he stepped closer and watched. He rose to the balls of his feet, his spats that kept him from stepping on his pants squeaked as the canvas rubbed against the leather of his shoes.

"What are going to make with banana peels?"

[techyturtle]

"Hmm?" Donatello's response is almost absent-minded. "Oh, I'm just making outer wire sheaths."

With...banana peels. Yes, Elian did hear that correctly.

[absolute_perception]

"An interesting insulation, but are you not afraid that they would dry out and catch fire?" Then again, he wasn't sure what Donatello was creating. He stepped closer.

[techyturtle]

"Ah, not really. Gelling it in toothpaste should actually stabilize it against heat--" At this, Donatello pauses and pulls up his goggles, his eyes narrowed. "--well, once I get some toothpaste to do that."

At the moment, all Don has is....a pile of stuff. Its not anything yet. But it will be, if the wheels turning in Don's head are turning the right way.

[absolute_perception]

Elian usually carried a small tube with him that was mostly out of habit. He fished in the pockets of his over-sized jacket to produce it and handed it over. "Here." He had several more back in his room so losing one wasn't a big deal.

[techyturtle]

"Woah-!" Who'd have thought Don would actually meet someone who carried toothpaste around with him?! No, seriously, Don's face lights up when he sees it. "Thanks! This will work perfectly!"

And so he quickly and cleanly finishes off the first peel, making a dozen thin yellowish strips from it.

[absolute_perception]

Elian used toothpaste for more than cleaning his teeth which ranged from quick patches to sticking stuff up on the walls to creating a quick caulk until a suitable patch was made. Other times, it made for a great stain remover off whites as long as it was the white kind and not the colored stuff. He preferred the classic just for those reasons alone.

"It has more than one application. What are you trying to build?"

[techyturtle]

"Oh, well..." It couldn't hurt too much to say, right? "I'm actually trying to build an independent low-frequency cell and network modem. One unconnected to the school's telephonic systems. I just want to try and keep in touch with my family without people listening in on my conversations...mainly for my own peace of mind and privacy."

'People' meaning psychics and any potential governmental groups that might have the school's phones on tap. Not that he would say this out loud.

"...Plus, my original cell phone kind of got, er, trashed when I arrived here."

[absolute_perception]

"You are looking at creating a dedicated encryption through your build?" Elian winced internally. He was connected to literally everything that sent out a signal which really didn't seem all that unusual to the technopath.

"I'll leave you to your work. I have duty." It was his turn to monitor cyberspace and once he was inside the pod, everything else was only white noise.

[techyturtle]

"Yeah. Its actually pretty easy once you've done it once." Donatello nodded. "But, yeah, thanks! Hopefully I'll have this done by tonight; I haven't talked to my family in a couple of days."

Which wasn't entirely true - he'd mailed a letter to them through April. But that wasn't really the same, and for all his family knew, he was being held hostage and had been forced to write the letter. Don did initially come to the institute for entirely different reasons than education, after all.

[absolute_perception]

Elian stopped just before he pulled open the door to regard the craftsman. "Understood."

Regardless of their reasons for being there at the school, Elian's purpose was purely professional as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in training. He didn't have a choice but to be at the school or face the Vault. Either way, his life was no longer his own.

It was like this since he was twelve the moment his mother signed his life away to become a government guinea pig under the false pretense that they were going to help him. It was fear that made his mother take such a desperate action. At fourteen, his life was plotted out for him and he couldn't deviate. From start to finish, he had a strict guideline to follow.

Elian wished for that freedom and the only freedom he really had was inside cyberspace where he was a god. He smiled serenely and entered the pod, giving Donatello one last look. "Initiate dive sequence Beta. Ghost transfer to Neuronetsys Zeta-zero-zero-three."

The nodes connected to his head caused his eyes to change from human to the fixed stare that could see through anything. His voice was the combination of organic and machine. "Clarification code active. Divenet Active. Uplink complete. Communication established. System status active. Ghost is online."