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

fighting simulation!

[punned]

[ Who ever knew that swords could be so fucking heavy.

Ellie is a scrawny, short little kid. She's strong for her petite size, and agile, and she knows how to handle pistols, rifles, bow and arrows, pocket knives and homemade explosives. But a sword? A sword that's over half the size of her in length, no less?

It's pretty fucking cool that the guy standing in front of her is a pirate, though. A real fucking pirate! But he's also a real fucking pirate who's holding a sword that's as sharp and probably as heavy as hers, and he seems to be wielding it with far more ease than she is. Means he proooobably knows how to handle that thing far better than Ellie does. ]

Unngh… [ She grunts quietly as she tries to hold it as steadily as the pirate is holding it. She shifts her hold on the hilt. Finds a point of balance with the sword in her hands. Okay. Okay, she's got this. All she has to do is just swing it, right? Swing it like she'd swing a machete, and that's all there is to it. Right? ]

Oh, shit-- [She gasps this in sudden surprise, eyes widening, as the pirate comes suddenly charging towards her, and Ellie takes a huge, overcompensating swing of the sword just as he's approaching - and finds herself unable to stop as the heavy inertia of the sword takes over and makes her lose balance. Causes her whole body to go swinging ungainly off to the left in a wide, stumbling arc. ]

Fuck.

[pistolproof]

[ Jack doesn't do anything to help her. He doesn't reach out to help her steady her balance, doesn't even stop fighting as she stumbles on her feet. The only thing he does to is shoot out to her right, whacking her nice and hard on the right side of her body.

If this was a real fight, not a simulation, if they were fighting for their lives, chances are Jack Sparrow just won on one slice. If he'd stabbed her in the gut instead of whacking her side, that'd be a pretty fucking lethal hit. But it is a simulation, and it's just training and he's taking a pretty decent amount of care to ensure he doesn't murder his fighting opponent.

Even if she is terrible at fighting with a sword.

He gives her a smirk as he re-positions himself. First to three points wins, and it's Jack:1 Ellie: 0. ] First time using a sword, eh, luv?

[punned]

Ow, motherfucker--!

[ The whack to her side is what does it: she goes sprawling onto the ground with a hard grunt, sword clattering from her hands with a loud, clanking metallic noise. Ellie's a tough kid, but that? That kinda fucking hurt.

She heaves herself up onto her hands and knees, lets out a winded breath, plants one foot on the ground and braces her hand on her knee to start pushing herself onto her feet. She snaps her head up, gives the guy a kinda wary glare at that smirk on his face.

She climbs to her feet and sets her shoulders with an indignantly stubborn look on her face. ]

Jeez, how about, I dunno, showing me how to do this before you start charging at me with your whole... pirate swashbuckling... [ Hands waving a little furiously in the air like she's trying to find the right word. ] ...thing.