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

[hacker]

[ Another cough has her bones rattle, shoulders heaving. It's a yak, really. All bile and cellulose-oatmeal. Skye dips her head down, leaning with the blow to her pride at the little kid who's come over. She could handle this better than Skye could. Maybe, though, maybe it's not her first time up here.

She drags her hand over her mouth, wiping the ropy threads of saliva away and looking up at the girl. Normally, she has hair to get out of the way, dark and wavy. It still takes some getting used to, not feeling the weight of it shift around. The buzzcut feels as surreal as any of it. ]

Yeah. [ Her smile is tight, shaky at best. She grabs onto one of her crutches and pulls herself back to her feet. ] Overexerted myself. [ Physical inability is easier to swallow than emotional. She's been physically inept before, run only when chased. ] God, they told me they usually only pull kids, but you're— [ Phew. She exhales, staggered a bit by it. ] What's your name?

[punned]

[ Oh, jeez. If Joel was here, he'd tell her to stay back, let the lady sort herself out; probably tell Ellie it ain't any of their concern. But that's simply not in Ellie's nature, doesn't matter how much she deeply mistrusts people she doesn't know. And seeing people struggling, suffering, in pain, vulnerable - it sets Ellie's teeth on edge, makes her want to do something to help them.

What can she do to help, though? It's not like she's got any water on her, hasn't got anything to help the lady wipe the puke and the spit away. And so, she just watches with guarded concern. She lifts a hand, rubs her nose with the back of her knuckles in that unconsciously nervous way of hers when she's anxious or scared.

The tight smile the woman offers makes Ellie feel at least a slight bit of relief. She offers a tight half-smile in return, not quite friendly but not cold, either. ]

Ha. [A muted, humourless 'ha', there. ] Yeah. Happened to me, too, when I first… I dunno, 'woke up'. 'Got unplugged'. Whatever the fuck it's called. [ Hands come up briefly, give a small kind of dismissive wave as much to nonverbally say that she still doesn't understand any of that shit.

And then there's another small rub of her nose with the back of her hand before she drops her arms back to her sides with a small, listless, still nervous swing. She gestures to herself quickly with her hand. ]

Uh. Ellie. And… really? Kids? What, like me? 'Cause… I'm beginning to feel like I'm the only kid around here.

[hacker]

I haven't seen a lot; might be they don't put 'em on ships. [ She glances down towards the door, back inside. The ambivalent shrug says it all: she doesn't know enough to clarify. But she does know that party line she'd heard. ] Something about it being easier for people to accept while they're still young. [ A gesture towards Ellie follows. ] No offense.

[ It's easy to remember when she was a stubborn-as-nails teenager who didn't want anyone telling her that she had a different experience just because of her age. Her natural predisposition toward the nonchalant helped it roll off her back rather than stick in her teeth, but it was exhausting, at the time. ]

I'm Skye.

[punned]

Skye. Okay. Got it. [ And then a look of incredulity crosses Ellie's face. Easier for people to accept while they're still young? ] And, uhh. No offence? But that's total bullshit.

[ When Ellie began coming to her senses in this place, found herself surrounded by people poking her and prodding her, needles being injected into her, people doing tests on her, she'd been scared out of her fucking mind. What made things even worse was the fact that she was too weak to fight back. For what must have been weeks, she could barely muster the coordination and strength to speak, let alone scramble to her feet and defend herself.

And Joel had been nowhere to be seen. Is still nowhere to be seen.

Oookay. A stab of panic is trying to rise up her chest and throat like bile. She swallows hard, shifts on the spot, a tight expression crossing her young face. She throws a glance out towards the wastelands that spreads ahead of her, seems to go on and on and fucking on like a bleak nightmare, then quickly sets her attention back on the woman. ]

How about we, uh. Get the hell outta here. This place gives me the creeps.

[hacker]

Don't have to tell me twice.

[ One quick glance over her shoulder comes accompanied by an involuntary shudder. A moment later, she's limping towards the door on her crutches, ushering Ellie down ahead of her. It's easy to pass off what's indisputably an instinctively protective gesture as practicality when she's limping and Ellie's got more mobility: being stuck behind Skye on the stairs would slow her down. ]

How long have you been awake?

[ She's getting better at telling, the longer she sticks with it. Hair growth. Turns out, everyone comes out bald and naked, so those who don't opt for the deliberate buzzcut are at varying stages of porcupine to straight-up 70's shag. ]