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test drive | 1
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?
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.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.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.
no subject
We're from the same one. The same "matrix".
[ No bunny fingers, but the dubious quotation marks are audible anyway. She isn't supposed to know that, but she got the information out of some native operator that couldn't stop staring at her tits. Natasha had thought it was just her and Steve, but instead there's this guy. Who the fuck is he?
So maybe she wasn't dancing up on him because she was interested in his musculature. ]
What's your name?
no subject
Peter seems entirely convinced she's brought him up here for the obvious reasons that lead to feeling up his chest and pulling him close. There's no reactive tension when she speaks, eyebrows raising in curiosity — it isn't what he was expecting, but it's still interesting. He's had worse surprises, anyway.
Besides, it could mean a lot of things. A lot of planets, a lot of aliens — they'd look human here, right? Be human. ]
That's funny, because you don't look familiar.
[ No name, even if his tone's friendly. ]
You first.
no subject
[ No reaction. Which is unusual in and of itself: after the debacle at the Triskelion, everyone knows about her. Her entire history was pored over by the international media. ]
Of SHIELD.
[ She adds, flicking up an eyebrow, because surely that will get her somewhere. ]
no subject
Quill.
Of— [ Improv. A very slight pause, then, confidently: ] The Jackson Five.
no subject
Little pale for that, aren't you?
[ Running a thumb over the skin showing above the neckline of his clothes for emphasis. ]
no subject
[ Very gotcha, as if he's the one with the clever lines instead of her. ]
So you're Terran.
[ Oops. He corrects himself, bowing his head very slightly to make it seem like a patronizing translation rather than a mistake. ] From Earth.
no subject
Yeah. Expecting something else?
[ He sure doesn't talk like an Asgardian, but she doesn't know what else is out there. Still. That would explain why he doesn't know her. Every person on Earth might have heard of SHIELD, but maybe he wasn't from Earth.
Just how big was their Matrix, anyway? ]
no subject
[ Which is almost true. He'd assumed she was from Earth, which is kind of a dumb assumption given that everyone looks human, here — it'd been a belated choice to confirm it.
And there's such a thing as a subtle approach to this. The thing is, after you've been yanked out of a pod full of snot and told nothing you remember matters, it's difficult to take the subtle approach to anything. ]
How much do you know about aliens?
no subject
[ Which implies more than she actually does, but also explains why she isn't exactly boggling at the concept of aliens. Her fingers play idly up his neck as she considers him. ]
So were you an alien, MJ?
[ That sounds like even more of an adjustment than Steve had to make, which is saying something. ]
no subject
Instead he smiles lightly in response to the slide of her fingers up his neck, entertained by the attention whether it's a ruse or not. Or because it's a ruse, probably. ]
I'm as human as you are, sweetheart.
[ Here. That's the qualifier. Peter almost leaves it there, but after a second thought: ] But yeah, I'm from Earth. And only half-alien, if you want to get technical about it.
no subject
[ Still smiling, still flirting, now with a deliberate drop of her gaze down and then a flick back up again. ]
no subject
[ Which means absolutely nothing. And is a little cagey, joke aside, if only because he a) has no actual idea and b) doesn't even know what the other half is, aside from "old as balls", apparently.
But she's no stranger to aliens, at least. That helps sell the 'same matrix' story. ]
What year?
no subject
no subject
Same. [ Another pause, trying to play stoic, but curiosity gets the better of him. ] You said SHIELD defends against alien threats, right? Does that mean you've gotten off Earth?
no subject
[ Though once she's qualified to get back into her Matrix she fully intends to find a way. Which is why she wants to know what's out there. Natasha likes to be informed. ]
But the focus is mainly on visitors. Turns out alien tech can be pretty disruptive.
[ She strokes a thumb over his pulse point, listening carefully to the tick of it. ]
How long have you been off-planet?
no subject
[ Disruptive's a charming understatement. Peter does a great job of ignoring her hand on his pulse point, but he isn't shying away from the proximity or the attention, even going so far as to look a little smug.
But that's kind of the baseline, so. ]
Twenty.... five years.
[ Math. ]
Did I miss anything good? You know, other than the alien invasions.
no subject
[ Natasha sounds wry about it, but she can't help it. Everyone with an internet connection or access to Fox News knows who she is, after the debacle with SHIELD and HYDRA. Everyone except this guy. ]
[ She pulls back, all of her at once, two easy steps and she's back against the railing, breathing in the dry, metallic air. Trying to think about the last twenty-five years, coming up with nothing but her own personal history. ]
Michael Jackson died.
[ Is what she comes up with, dispassionate. ]
no subject
There's a stilted pause while he moves past it, voice relaxed when he answers. ]
Or maybe they just pulled him early. Maybe he's down at that party, right now. You ever think of that?
[ That isn't how it works. He's aware. He's saying it just to be contrary, stepping forward in one long easy stride to lean his elbows onto the railing right beside her, close. ]