Test Drive Meme #1

[proximods]

The sun is shining and the weather is nice and toasty. Overly toasty one might argue, even. It's a great day to be laying around at the beach, so it's a good thing that that's where you've found yourself today, whether you'd made plans to be there or not. Bathing suit and sunscreen ready, you're going to get your tanning time on.

But with heat comes the expected side effects for a place like Proxima Gamma. While the cool water can sometimes slow the effects, the heated beaches and freshly popped flowers seem to have made getting close to someone else just seem like a really great idea. You can try to fight off the side effects much as you want, but the scientists like to believe everyone has a breaking point.

Comments

[leekspins]

Oh, the train is a lot of fun! I know it's a prison, but at least the scenery is nice.

[She grins a little, but not too much. She doesn't think he would appreciate it if she tried to push positivity on him when he's rightfully distressed. As for his question...]

Social experiments, from what I can tell.

[She shrugs a little, staring out at the ocean before she glances at him. He does know about the other stuff, doesn't he...? She'd hate to be the one to inform him, but if he really isn't aware, then it's best he find out from someone she figures would regard her as little more than a platonic friend.]

Has anyone told you about the experiments yet, Rogers-san? It can be a little embarrassing if you're not prepared.

[americanclassic]

[It's less that he's distressed and more that he's just not entirely comfortable with all of this. Or sure of it. He doesn't know enough to really be sure what to make of it. Hence the exploration.]

Social experiments? I'm thinking no, they haven't. Not beyond the creepy doctor when I woke up who wasn't at all forthcoming.

Embarrassing how?

[leekspins]

Er...well...it might be best hearing it from someone you know instead of a person you just met five minutes ago. But I'll give it my best shot!

[And if he's not embarrassed, she'll pick up the slack. She casts her mind back to how she first found out. Not many people had been all that willing to tell her about this particular aspect of the experiments, but she can't really blame them. Who wants to be the bearer of that kind of news?]

Almost all of the experiments are probably going to be sexual. People who go along with it are usually spared, but those who don't kind of get forced into a worse situation, with lots of drugs to ensure compliance.

[She isn't afraid to meet his gaze, since she wants to make sure he's picking up her honesty...even if the discussion is uncomfortable. But she keeps her hands folded on her lap, studying his face to see how he reacts.]

In fact, attendance at the beach isn't usually this high, so there's probably an experiment in place right now. But I can't say for sure. It's just a hunch.

[americanclassic]

I don't know that there's anyone here I do know, Miss. I'd rather hear it at all than wait until someone else might come along to soften the blow.

[Then she actually speaks and he... just looks at her for a minute. He doesn't think she's lying, but the idea of not only being nabbed, but being nabbed and made to--

Which made him look at her a little more closely. She was young. Maybe too young to be here if they were making people do things like that and he found himself scowling.]

They force people to... be intimate? What kind of experiments are we talking about here?

[leekspins]

I've only heard about them secondhand, and I didn't feel right asking for details.

[She can only guess what he's probably thinking about her, and she keeps her hands still on her knees. Maybe she should have resisted more, and showed more defiance. But she'd heard it was much worse for those who openly rebelled, and if she's going to escape, then she knows she has a better chance if she seems docile and compliant...at least for now. Or maybe he thinks she has no sense of modesty, or morals. Orihime doesn't know.]

But that's what they expect. And if you refuse, they use drugs to affect your reactions, and you don't get to choose the person they put you with.