thecooler | Days 8-11 - Test 1: Aptitude

Entry tags:

Days 8-11 - Test 1: Aptitude

Who: All Initiates
What: LACUNA begins her testing phases
When: Days 8-11
Where: Area 2 - Testing Grounds
Warnings: To be updated, but as this is a testing regimen, it will most likely contain language, violence, mentions of sensitive topics (up to and including pondering the murder of children)

At 06:00 hours on the morning of Day 8, every terminal, be it the one in the living quarters or one of the personal terminals within the rooms, begins broadcasting the sound of a klaxon. This sound, loud enough to reverberate, continues for 30 seconds before it ends as abruptly as it began. The lights raise and after they are fully illuminating whatever area your character may have been rudely awoken in, LACUNA's cold voice fills the silence.

"Good Morning, Initiates. Today will begin Testing. Our first Test Round will be for Aptitude measurement only. As such, blows that would otherwise be fatal will spare you. You have one hour to prepare. Afterwards, proceed to the cryopod chamber for further instruction. Thank you."

As incredibly forthcoming as she's been previously, any attempts to question her further are met with cold silence.

(OOC: The Test will be divided by day and function, and for more information, check out the sweet prompts below, also organized by date! You're not required to use this post, but it may be easier if you haven't found a partner! Feel free to make your own posts, either as actions or network posts as well! Remember, it isn't 100% necessary to obey her commands...)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Exactly one hour after her announcement, the familiar path of lights that originally led you to the Residential area leads you back to the cryopod area, but those who follow will notice once there, a large door on the opposing end of the chamber is now illuminated. Any initiate who approaches this door will prompt it to slide open revealing a long corridor narrower than the one leading back to the residential area. At regular intervals, there are doors off this corridor that appear to have terminals outside each. Just inside the door is a room filled with several of the same terminals, all at the login screen for initiates.

"Welcome, Initiates, to Day 1 of Aptitude Testing. Please proceed to one of the terminals and complete the Written Aptitude test. There are no wrong answers, but participation is appreciated. After your written is complete, you are free for the day. Tomorrow will commence the Practical Aptitude Exam."

After her vague explanation, LACUNA goes silent once again. Do you proceed into the room and take this "written" aptitude test? Do you refuse and try to head back to the Residential area? It...might be a little cold there right now...

(OOC: If you'd like to take a written aptitude test for your own records and in character, check out this one! Feel free to discuss results in character, or just meander about, or discuss what this all means now that things are actually happening! You've got the day to yourselves, after all!)

The next day, initiates are awoken in an identical manner as the previous day, given an hour to eat and do whatever else they would do in the morning, and then lead by way of lighting back to the testing grounds. Unlike the previous day, though, LACUNA greets them almost cheerfully...at least for LACUNA.

"Good morning, Initiates. Today, you will proceed with your practical Aptitude Exam. You will be given 30 minutes, beginning now, to choose a partner from those gathered. You are then to proceed to one of the room along this hallway. On the terminal beside each entrance, you are to select a time period, environment, and a weapon. When the door opens, you will enter a virtual environment suited to the time period you have selected. You are to make your way across the course and retrieve the token. There are enemies and they will be hostile, but how you choose to tackle this task is up to you and your partner. As this is a method of aptitude testing, wounds will not be fatal."

(OOC: The sky is the limit as far as what sort of environment they encounter and how they choose to tackle it! Have fun! Remember, you don't have to use this log, but it's available. You can also do top levels initially to find a partner.)

Edited 2018-09-16 16:12 (UTC)

The day proceeds like the previous two, only this time LACUNA actually does sound cheerful.

"Good morning, Initiates. Today marks the final round of aptitude testing. There are no restrictions on group size. Select your fellow participants and log in to the terminal outside your selected Virtual Reality Chamber. Within, you will face a series of randomized scenarios while attempting to retrieve an item. These scenarios are engineered to test the limits of your cause to achieve a goal. They are designed to be 'difficult' decisions. I look forward to reviewing your results."

(OOC: And she means random. There is a goal in mind in these scenarios, but what essentially amounts to 'npcs' in the virtual environment will provide clues to that goal. These can range from a simple 'fetch quest' or defeating an ancient evil, and can happen in any environment or scenario. There will be decisions along the way: people are injured in different places and can't all be saved, etc, but you can make this as mundane or as drastic as you like! Remember, you can use the OOC comm for plotting!)

Edited 2018-09-16 16:44 (UTC)

While Anakin has no intention of taking any tests, he follows the line of lights towards one of the terminals and quietly glares at the screen in front of him for a few moments.

Then, without any warning, he proceeds to punch his mechanical fist right through that very same screen and into the wiring and mechanical parts within. For a moment he reaches out with the Force, trying to decipher and understand these unknown electronics.

When he pulls his hand back after another moment, Anakin's expression has shifted a little. He's no longer plain glaring, but much rather seems a little confused.

Obi-Wan had awoken to the announcement with a groan and a sarcastic comment before getting himself up and ready. He followed along like a good little initiate, interested in seeing what was expected of them.

A written exam? Apparently they needed more information on their captives. All right.

Logic? High.

Management? High.

People: interaction with others, ability to train and council...

And then Obi-Wan heard a loud smash. Looking up with a blink, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Anakin was the cause.

The Jedi sighed and shook his head.

“That was unnecessary.”

He then marked his answer as average.

Anakin snapped out of his brief confusion and quickly turned his head towards the Jedi, scowling again.

"Then I shall do something necessary next."

With those words he made to move towards Obi-Wan, raising his hand and reaching out with the Force to use that invisible grip and grasp the other by his throat once more.

Well that feeling sure felt familiar.

Obi-Wan grimaced at the tightening pressure around his throat and gasped, his hands gripping the console in front of him. His eyes turning to his former Jedi brother, he managed to get a few words out.

“Anakin... this will only end poorly for you.”

Not taking another step forward, Anakin snarled at the older man, eyes narrowing darkly as he raised his hand slowly, keeping his fingers in just the right position to not fully crush Obi-Wan's windpipe. Instead, he slowly attempted to raise to other into the air before him.

"Right now it seems to be ending poorly for you, Obi-Wan."

He put a good amount of disdain into the other's name.

Feeling his feet leave the ground, Obi-Wan gagged and dangled in the air at the mercy of his former student. A memory flashing through his mind at the last time this had happened to him. When they had fought Dooku. Together. The last time they had been together on the same side.

The memory pained his heart along with that of the tight grip around his neck.

There was little he could do. Some help sure would be nice right now.

Grace was just coming out of the testing, and her mouth was set into a firm line of annoyance already. This testing was stupid and she knew what she was good at and she was just too damn old for this. After all, she had her job, she did it well and she was important back home. This was absurd, because if she had actually had signed up for this, then she would have actually been vetted. Grace knew how things like this worked; she'd been at the Pentagon for years.

The frustration of this whole thing is evident in the line of her shoulders, and the sharpness of her steps. If she was allowed heels? They definitely would have been clacking. So, when she comes onto a scene where one man is magically choking the other. Again. Jesus.

With her hands on her hips, the petite redhead just called out in her most authoritative political/mom voice. Because honestly what the hell. "That's enough! You're both adults and you need to act like it!"

Having Obi-Wan at his mercy like this was a nice change of things. Especially the lack of scolding and just overall silence form the other man. Aside from the gagging and choking noises, of course. But those only added to that slight satisfaction Anakin came to enjoy.

Until another voice cut in and drew his attention away from Obi-wan and towards an unfamiliar woman.

Anakin just glared at her for a moment "You will not tell me what to do." he snarled, then flicked the hand that was holding Obi-Wan with the Force around to hurl the Jedi Master right at the intruder "But you can die as well!"

Hearing someone's voice, Obi-Wan's eyes turned to look at the woman and he just tried to shake as head at her. It was best if she didn't get involved.

It was a bit late for that though, and Obi-Wan found himself flung in her direction. Sorry Grace! He can't help where he's being thrown! Hopefully she gets out of the way. Whether or not she does, it will be a painful landing. But now there was someone else involved. Someone who had nothing to do with their quarrel. It was one thing if Anakin wanted to pick on him, but he wouldn't allow him to hurt an innocent person.

Thus Obi-Wan pushed himself up to thrust his hand forward, sending a Force push with intent to knock Anakin back.

Grace Barrows was never good at not getting involved. Really, she was quite bad at it, so of course she needed to interfere here. Or try to anyway, despite the shaking of the head of the man who was being magic choked. Which seriously what the hell. Somehow being here made it all the worse with magic added.

But one thing that Grace had going for her was her self-defense training. Her father did wetwork for the CIA and Grace herself had worked for the Pentagon before moving to the White House. The dodge wasn't totally successful, and she still took some of the man's body weight onto her own, falling backwards and forcing herself to go boneless with it. Still, the wind was knocked out of her, and she was going to have a hell of a bruise.

Laying on the floor gasping for a minute, Grace just gasped at last, catching sight of the man using more magic to push the man back. "Jesus Christ, stop this. Are you adults or are you children? Fighting among ourselves isn't going to do a goddamn thing. You want to fight, do it against something productive." Like trying to find a way out of here and all of that. She moved to struggle to her feet, holding onto the wall as she did it.

Obi-Wan finally going on the offensive himself wasn't really surprising, now that another person was involved. Anakin was indeed pushed back somewhat, but that didn't change much about his intention to end the Jedi Master.

"All of this is the Jedi's fault." he said, stubbornly.

"And that's why he will die!"

That and, of course, he still had orders to kill the Jedi.

A mechanical finger was pointed in Grace's direction before Anakin's glare settled on her "Unless you want to die as well, leave!"

“Now would be a good time, Lacuna,” Obi-Wan muttered to himself as he got to his feet. Glancing over at this lady he hadn’t really gotten to know yet. She seemed to be all right, which was a good thing.

And again Anakin was pointing the accusation at him and he sighed.

“I recommend you do as he says,” he said to Grace. “This is something between us and I don’t want you to get hurt because of it.”

The word Jedi didn't mean anything to Grace of course, so she just looked at the man who had been the victim when they started all of this. What the hell was a Jedi anyway. Blinking at the mechanical hand (another wtf moment honestly) Grace just squared her chin up and met his stare, because honestly, she wasn't going to take death threats from one of the few people who were here.

"Okay but," Grace began, her hands in front of her, palms up, one extended towards the younger man and one towards the older one. "How do you even know that you can kill people here? With all of the things going on, he could just come back. We all could. Lacuna wants subjects and we're a small enough pool that all of us are important. You can't just try and spend every day attempting to kill one another. There's six of us here. Six. Are you seriously going to keep trying to kill everyone? Because that doesn't seem like a good long term goal to me." She kept her voice very calm, every inch the diplomat that she was and had been, like when she went to Russia and druggedly stared down a Russian general.

At least the possibility of dying wasn't a new one to her. Probably a good thing, right?

(A. In the test)

The whole thing was idiotic, but he could understand where it was coming from - technically speaking. If you were going to have a controlled experiment, you needed to understand the general mindset of your subject pool.

A series of basic testing would give you that sort of data. Which, was, as stated, what LACUNA was doing. Her programmers were rather understandable in that way. At least to another scientist.

To be honest, all of this made perfect sense to Darius. A controlled environment, basic reward/punishment system, and giving the test subjects a reason to want a reward. They were being treated just like any rat in a psychological experiment; and sadly, they were going to have to suffer through it for now. Especially since there were so few of them (not that he expected it to stay that way).

The test itself was rudimentary, but that also made sense. Some of the subject pool wasn't as educated as others, and between their worlds, there were differences as vast as chasms. There needed to be something basic. It was the results that confused him, and that fact was evident on his face.

"Politician?" His tone incredulous, as if the thing had told him he should be the next H.H. Holmes or Moriarty (the second one wasn't that far off from being a politician). "I'm fairly certain I have more sense than that. "There has to be some mistake. Me, a politician? Noooo."

(B. Outside testing)

Leaving the testing chamber was rather anticlimactic, and Darius was still confused about his result. Rockstar he could handle, even something as benign as a grocery clerk, but a politician was just wrong. He had far too much heart for that and he was far too apt to wear his heart on his sleeve and tell the truth. He tried always to tell the truth where he could, actually.

So he wasn't exactly paying attention, instead, running through the questions in his head to see where the test would have gotten the answer from. It was important to him, especially since LACUNA would probably base any testing that she did (specifically with him) on that assessment. Which, wasn't the worst of things. The idea of scientist and tech genius not being at the forefront of her memory banks meant that there was a whole raft of things he could do that she wouldn't see coming.

Edited 2018-09-19 11:08 (UTC)

(I: Morning, before the tests:)

There's a new face in the common areas, and he is a bit confused.

Wesley's awakening was rude enough, but he very quickly determined that the artificial voice on the intercom, this LACUNA, was in control. He did as suggested, complied with her orders, got dressed as quickly as possible, and began trying to orient himself. He's having minimal luck, and he looks like he's less frightened or angry and more... distracted by his thoughts.

(II: After the tests:)

Having been informed that the testing was Not Required for new arrivals, Wesley took the hint an decided not to try to push the matter. However, he is still intrigued by the testing process, so he can be found haunting the outer hall of the testing grounds, trying to see and hear as much as he can get away with while avoiding the displeasure of their AI host.

He's definitely examining his fellow... guests... as they emerge from the tests, since actually examining the testing process for himself seems likely to earn reprisal.

Since their arrival and the rather abrupt end to the information from LACUNA, Darius had been constantly moving around and tinkering. He'd been looking for flaws in the system, ways to bypass the door locks and anything else that could be useful.

There hadn't been much in the end, but he did manage to memorize the faces of the other six initiates. Something that was coming in handy now.

The man sitting in the common area was one he didn't remember from those initial days of orientation. Which only meant that he was a new face for, whatever reason. There were two possibilities to this. The first, that the man was a plant. That he was put in this situation to gather information that LACUNA's tests couldn't. It was a viable and likely scenario, but one that couldn't be confirmed unless the man somehow slipped up and offered some form of information that no one but someone working with LACUNA could.

The second option was far more likely, but also a bit terrifying. That this man was a new addition. That those running this facility could bring people in here at their own will; that they might have unknowing people waiting in the wings that they didn't wake up yet. That they could put any one of them into a deep freeze at any time.

He made his way over, sitting across from the man with his hands linked, staying silent for a few moments before speaking. "You look, pensive." Non-committal, not judgemental, just observant.

Wesley has assumed that the other people here are all fellow prisoners, but he was the only one spared the testing- the newest, it would seem. Lucky him.

He could only guess at how long the others had been here, but it was probably not too long, if they were only now being tested for... aptitude, was it? Which means they may still be off-balance. Suspicious. Might regard newcomers as threats.

And wouldn't that be a fun psychological experience.

The other man's approach gets a slightly awkward smile from Wesley, but he doesn't directly acknowledge Darius until he's addressed.

"Sorry. Trying to get my bearings."

After a moment of looking over his new conversation partner, he manages a more genuine chuckle.

"I suppose I can at least be reassured of one thing; you don't look like a lawyer."

The first answer is expected and doesn't really require any sort of response. Of course, he was trying to get his bearings if he were truly new, anyone would be. Unless they'd been through this sort of thing before or were quick to downshift to a new reality. Darius was thankful that he was of the second variety.

The comment elicits a soft puff of a chuckle from him. After the politician debacle on the written portion of the test, lawyer seemed a step up; if still incorrect.

"A scientist, actually." Which was probably giving something away, but it wasn't as if LACUNA couldn't discern that much from his actions. She could do that for quite a bit of him, which was upsetting, but couldn't be helped. "I assume you've had quite a bit of experience with lawyers then?" After all, it seemed an odd comment to make upon first meeting.

A scientist.

Wesley actually frowns a bit at that, though he catches himself quickly and reverts to a politely pleasant face.

He's had some, ah, baggage. With scientists. Being imprisoned in what appeared to be some sort of experimental laboratory setting hadn't done much to help him suss that out, either.

"You might say that. I initially suspected that a law firm might be responsible for this, which sounds a bit extreme when I say it out loud."

He laughs quietly again at his own observation and extends a hand.

"Wesley. Or, Initiate Wyndam-Pryce, I suppose. It's good to meet you."

Grace had been keeping an eye out for Darius' testing to be over. Hers was happening later in the afternoon, and she was a little bit nervous about it, because she couldn't not be. Yeah, they'd had the week to understand that this wasn't some sort of collective breakdown, but knowing that they were about to be tested still bothered Grace because there was the giant question of what they were going to end up expecting with all of this. And of course LACUNA had been rather characteristically mum about the nature of it when she asked.

Still, she had almost missed him when he bristled past her, and she knew Darius enough to know that whatever had happened in there had bothered him. Scooting to her feet, she called out after him: "Hey, Darius, wait up." That seemed familiar somehow and it made her grin before she caught up with him and placed a hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"

Darius noticed the frown and cover. While it wasn't specific as to which specific part of his comment seemed to upset him, it seemed likely it was the profession, which made no sense to him; then again, Darius Tanz was often referred to as insane.

The concept of a law firm is responsible for something like this, a testing ground isolated from the outside world that could bring people in from other realities ... that seemed like an odd law firm indeed, and it made Darius wonder just what kind of law firms Wesley was used to. He, however, chose not to comment on it for now.

"Darius Tanz, and I'd prefer not to be referred to as an initiate." He offered Wesley his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Westley."

It wasn't normal for Darius not to notice Grace as soon as she was in the room. Generally, his eyes and attention were immediately drawn to her, but the revelation that this test seemed to think that he ought to be a politician, it was acutely upsetting. Politicians were people like Harris, people who were rigid and cold in the face of new information or cherry-picked the knowledge that they wanted to be true. People who would lock up someone who had managed to risk everything to bring two warring countries together for the sake of saving the world.

Darius was far from that. He wasn't a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but he tried to be. Grace, Liam, Gillian, they made him want to try to be a better man than he had been before, and he thought he was doing a decent job of it.

It was Grace's voice that pulled him back. Reminded him that he was in 'The Cooler' with a rather frustrating AI named LACUNA, and being tested for aptitude so she could better 'test' them in the future.

His footsteps slowed to a stop so she could catch up, and when she did, his hand immediately moves to take hers. They weren't able to do even simple gestures like this in their world, he was going to take advantage of that small luxury for as long as he could. "Nothing, it's just -" It took him a moment to actually say it, and when it did come out he sounded nothing but incredulous about it. It still annoyed him. "They said I should be a politician."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 7

Days 8-11 - Test 1: Aptitude

DAY 1 - THE WRITTEN

DAY 2 - PRACTICAL APTITUDE EXAM

DAY 3 - MORALITY TESTING

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject