test drive | 1

[unplug]

test drive

Welcome to the first test drive for Systemwide! We are excited to have you. All prospective players are welcome to tag in and test out their characters, be they unplugged or free born. We would like to offer a range of scenarios that can be expected during gameplay, which are also useable prompts for app samples, and of course, if something else about the setting strikes you, feel free to come up with your own!

Please put your character name and canon in your subject line, and indicate which prompt you are launching from.

simulation | maybe this is your first time. perhaps you've been here countless times. it's a room, as confined as a boxing ring, as expansive as a battle field, whatever you need it to be, whatever you're here to train for.

1.

Before you is a city of rooftops, empty of human life. This is a safe place, because while it may hurt you, at least it won't kill you. Perhaps you are practicing your influence over reality, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Are you successful, or are you failing to free your mind? Perhaps you're helping someone else overcome their fear of heights.

And of course, an operator can always load up some Agent-like training programs to make it interesting.

2.

Congratulations, you know kung-fu, or maybe some other system of combat, like crazy parkour archery, cartwheeling with guns, or sword fighting on horse back. Perhaps you're trying out something even more fantastic, a magical skill or a superpower.

Show me. Or a friend.

mission | whether on board a ship or with your mind sunk deep into a Matrix, you will have to join the battle eventually. sometimes things go terribly wrong. what are you gonna do about it?

3.

Something's gone wrong with this extraction.

There's a lot of information to process. Your target's been extracted, and that's the good news -- your ship, in reality, is heading to their location now -- but the bad news is your team has been scattered. You could be anywhere within this Matrix, deep in the jungle, or lost on a subway train, or staggering out of the crashing waves of a night time beach, and the operator needs a minute to figure out your exact location before they can direct you to a port out of here, or send another operative to collect you.

All you have to do is stay alive for that long. Easy, right?

4.

You were warned of this. You've been prepared in endless simulations, with a dozen cautionary tales, training sessions with the EMP. Still, it's nothing like you imagined, when the operator shouts: "Sentinel closing in at seven o' clock. It's gaining."

And then the shriek of metal.

reality | as much as many Matrixes are designed to be a comfort, you have to face the real world sometime. or maybe this is the world you have only ever known.

5.

Annual celebrations are rare to come by, but the anniversary of Neo's Truce is one that always draws in the crowd. The event takes place in a massive cavern in Zion known as the Temple, and there is music, and there is dancing [a little NSFW].

Everyone is there.

Where are you?

6.

The wind on your face, up here on the desolate surface, tastes bitter, different to what it feels like in a simulated reality. It's freezing cold and always dark, but sometimes, you need a reminder about what it is you're fighting for. Or maybe you're seeing the wasteland of Earth for the first time.

Either way, you shouldn't be out here for too long. The machines might find you.

wildcard | choose your own adventure.

7.

Perhaps you're riding with the Dothraki, or sitting under the Sorting Hat for the first time. Maybe the pleather bodysuit is pinching under your armpits as the traffic of the 90's roars by, or the Nova Empire's sprawling city glitters, towering above you. Maybe you're showing someone around the place you called home for your entire fictional life.

Or perhaps it's nothing as fantastical as that: the Council meeting droned on for two hours, and you're just happy to be home, even if it's a tiny enclosure with rust-edged furniture. Maybe someone's coming over for lunch, and there are real greens in the protein slurry today; maybe you're about to ask to join a crew.

There are infinite worlds to explore, but try to remember that only one of them is real.

Comments

[hellbrokeloose]

Well you can’t kill them while I’m in here.

[ He’s talking to Horse’s belly now, still focused down the end of his own nose. Still reading. Immune to static.

An uptick in the silence between them is scuffed through with the end of his pen half a beat later. ]

What would the council say.

[bloodhorse]

[If Horse were any good at redirecting his anger, he probably 1) would not be hackling like his spine is about to wrench out of alignment and 2) would be quite cross with Metzger's stupid papers, who even cares about that.] You were in the shitter with your crossword puzzle, [he says.

Lurches around the edge of the table, but at least his approach has the (debatably) reassuring accompaniment of the bartender's voice, saying:]

That's right, boys. [It's possible that the Irkallans aren't complete morons, or at least that they're sensitive to the quality of reception. There are two or three footfalls underlying Horse's rather noisy stride, diminishing with the beginning of a retreat. Unfortunately, that also means that Horse will be coming up on turned backs and blind sides, the group of four shuffling back toward the narrow doorway. If he keeps coming.]

[hellbrokeloose]

[ A sigh, some fussing of papers and a crisp tap. Metzger caps his pen and snaps to his feet just quickly enough. ]

Horse.

[ Sharp through the silence, he calls round the entire bar’s attention, Irkallans and all. He’s not wearing captain red, but it hardly matters. He folds and tucks the topmost of his papers away into his pocket, rankling, still projecting outward with aim to carry across ancient tables. ]

For gods’ sake, at least have class enough to murder them to their faces.

i feel like this will also be unclear since its 4am just lmk i wont be offendddd

[bloodhorse]

[Metzger's words have multiple effects. It pokes enough Zionites in their consciences that a general murmur goes through the otherwise profoundly uncomfortable, stagnating silence that had been permeating through the crowd. Second, it also makes Horse glance over his shoulder, his face angry but not exactly surprised-- in part because surprise requires some semblence of foresight, heretofore short-circuited.

Third and finally, it makes the erstwhile ('erstwhile') Irkallans turn around and see a giant angry local man standing within reaching distance of them. The pirate bringing up the end of the group reaches automatically for a weapon that he was long since divested of. Surprise blanches the man's face (boy's--) (--but don't look so closely), long enough for Horse's head to whip back around. He springs a kick straight at the interloper's gut, lands on a half-assed blocking maneuver, but there's enough force there that the Irkallan bounces off the doorframe.

Not through the doorway, or into his cohorts. There is no funny domino effect of former murderer thief hovercraft terrorists. This isn't that kind of movie. The bartender starts yelling at Horse; something about the Council, sort of buried under the thunder of moving furniture and growly, sideways conversations.

But nobody comes closer to Horse than Metzger is. That is the way things are here.]