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

switchin tag order w cage

[hellbrokeloose]

[ Silence. Then: ]

Tell him we understand that he couldn’t have known what was in the boxes.

[ Metzger addresses Cage in (German) aside, speaking quickly and quietly, his attitude flat on the fence. Outwardly, he’s clearly in need of additional convincing. He encompasses the whole of Quill with a dismissive gesture of his near hand, with particular attention paid to the groin. ]

'We’re not after him, but we have no use for him if he won’t tell us who gave him the product.' [ etc etc] Be more sympathetic.

[ With his far hand, he loosens up the knife on his belt. ]

[onyourfeet]

[ Cage doesn't look over at Simon at quiet German aside -- even though his eyes lose slight focus in concentration -- but he does when the knife is being loosened, a drop of a glance down that bounces right back to Quill's gentle pendulum above the vat of heat far below.

The presence of laugh lines aren't mirth, but as requested, sympathetic. ]

We get it, you didn't want to be that guy. Lucky for you, you don't have to be that guy. The one with the paint job.

[ The phrasing meanders, but the words are clipped. Efficient. Everyone's on a deadline. ]

We understand you couldn't have known what was in the boxes [ it's a heavy handed hint, slanted in tone, seeing as upside down communication steals nuance out of partially raised eyebrows, and he has no literal olive branches on him ] and as far as everyone here is concerned, it would be far more helpful to know who's doing the supplying in the first place.

Let's start there, before all the blood finishes rushing into your skull.

SORRY gonna pick up on the pace on this !!

[retrofire]

[ Luckily, Peter's pretty good at looking for olive branches. He's found them on far worse people than Cage, and so the message is received loud and clear; his own brow lifts in a look of acknowledgment as he follows the trail of bread crumbs back to source.

Then goes off-script anyway, of course. ]

I'd need protection. The guy — [ A beat, then very diplomatically: ] Or lady. Who set up the job, they've got a few lights out. I mean, obviously.

[ Because who crosses Metzger on purpose, right. It's stated like it's completely reasonable instead of a bargaining chip, or kind of like a kid trying to convince his parents that having ice cream for dinner is totally their idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. ]

[hellbrokeloose]

Naturally, [ Metzger agrees in close proximity; a single step has taken him in close enough to smell, if it weren’t for the stifling stench of oil and hot metal that fills the level. There’s a catch at the tail of Peter’s shirt where the tip of Metzger’s knife snicks in like a cat’s claw. A flick of his wrist sees the shirt felled downward (upward?) from the waistband, exposing Quill’s bare belly to the heat.

The steel of his blade touches cold up (down) the younger man’s midline. ]

Are you seeing this? [ He’s back to speaking German, in plain address to Cage, who he apparently very much wants to look at “Starlord’s” hairy man abs. Harder to see from Quill’s angle, Simon has his knife tilted out like a professor with a pointer, brow furrowed down into a steep drop off. ] My god, [ poke ] he’s like a marble statue. [ So sculpted. All of the rumors are true.

It’s a dangerous sort of look that he gives Cage to convey as much in that moment, private across the catwalk, but his next move is away, and he takes his knife with him. ]

If you want protection, Mister Starlord, you’re going to have to work for it.

We only invest in long-term assets.

[onyourfeet]

[ Cage is not too awfully worried when Metzger approaches their caught smuggler-fish with a knife, even though he watches the path said knife takes, a wrinkle stamping subtly at his brow. Eyebrows raise when Metzger hooks a look back at him, blandly tolerant. ]

Sehr gut.

[ He's not doing extra crunches, Simon. ]

I think Mister Starlord would prefer to be a long term asset over a long term problem. Gentlemen, can we shake on it?

i knew this icon would have its day

[retrofire]

Sh— [ —it. He cuts the thought off midway, keeping quiet as the cool edge of the knife trickles over his stomach. If his muscles weren't already tense from being strung up for so long, that would've done the trick.

Predictably, Peter has no idea what the hell Metzger's saying. And yet, somehow, this still isn't the least comfortable situation he's ever been in, so any signs of impending panic are kept to a minimum. His heartbeat ticks up a few paces and a more serious expression flickers over his face, just for one intake of breath. Then the tells are gone, eyebrows raising and features shifting back to appeasing and just shy of whimsical. Enthusiastically: ]

Yeah, exactly. What he said.

[ THANKS, CAGE. ]

:)/ touch

[hellbrokeloose]

Wise decision.

I don’t abide long-term problems, [ Simon explains to Peter in helpful aside as he seats his knife back onto his belt. That’s the joke. ] Cut him down. [ Crank him down, whatever. Metzger gestures, half-hearted, to pullies and chains. Having gotten what he was after, he has all the markings of being on his way out, content to leave any actual shaking in Cage’s capable hands. ]

If he speaks German next time we string him up, we’ll know he’s a keeper, [ he says, and then pauses halfway past, turning back to reassess at a second thought. It’s a look Cage will have seen before: one that involves math. This many kilograms of Peter Quill vs this many kilograms of his First Mate, long drops vs sudden stops, etc.

He squares the rest of the way back around, a hand turned out in (unenthusiastic) allowance for the fact that not having to promote Seoraj is worth the extra ten minutes of his time. ]

I’ll supervise.

[onyourfeet]

[ He's not doing extra crunches, Simon.

But he is going to let Quill down, no particular sadistic desire to stretch the moment out any longer; an efficient step forward towards the chains and pulleys to grip onto one of the former two-handed, heaving it down in such a way that makes the structure from which Quill is hanging shudder alarmingly before drawing him horizontally in.

(Look, he lifts.) ]

If he manages to get strung up again, we'll know he's not.

[ Once Quill is out of danger, the next motion sends him on a quick, if still controlled drop onto the walkway, feet still tangled up in the chains, but easier to get out of now that gravity isn't a factor.

Cage steps back, letting the other man sort himself out. ]

It's been a pleasure doing business with you.

[ Cage sounds sincere, which is probably somehow worse than being straight up sassy. ]