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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.
B
What—is this, like, your first rave? [ Dropping her hands to her sides, she straightens her legs out, tipping her head to the side. Then again, some people are thinking they're coming out of the Dark Ages, so maybe she shouldn't judge by appearances. She nods behind him for the nearest exit from the main cave area, squeezing out after him. ] So what's your idea of good music? Barry Manilow?
why not madonna
Hey, there's nothing wrong with a little—
[ Not that muted, though. Too loud. He stops, adjusts for a slightly more inside voice. ]
There's nothing wrong with a little Manilow.
[ He gives her a curious look as he speaks, but he hasn't actually stopped — he's still navigating through the tunnels, looking for any stairs he can get to. Saying he's got this place mapped out in his head would be a serious overstatement. ]
because madonna is too close to rave sounding ok
[ As they move, Skye's eyes scan the tunnels in a telling way: she's still new to this. New enough that her hair's still barely beyond a buzzcut, skin prickling now that they're putting distance between themselves and the pulsing heat coming off the bodies of a cavern full of dancers. Sweat sticks to her, cooling her off more quickly. ]
oh ok
[ Manilow's a classic. Not that he knows that, technically, but give it time. He hops up a flight of uneven stairs while he speaks, and it's been long enough that it doesn't wind him — still, he goes quiet for a second, waiting until he hits the next flat plateau to turn around and look at her, walking backwards as he continues. ]
You're Skye, right? I heard you're some kind of petite, lady James Bond.
[ The grapevine. Super inefficient. ]
no subject
[ She skips up beside him, but lags behind about halfway up the steps. Winded, she stops to rest one hand on the side of the wall, shaking her head. If there were ever a way to punctuate that she is so not James Bond-y in the real world, here it is. ]
But aren't we all just … bald, naked babies here? Or recently graduated from it, at least.
no subject
[ He rubs a hand over the scruff on his jaw to make the point, even if his hair's still shorter than he'd like it. As soon as he notes the way she's catching her breath, he leans against the wall at the top of the stairs, nonchalant and unhurried. ]
And it still counts, right? Same way that being really good at Nintendo counts.
[ Still a skill. Of some kind. ]
no subject
[ She'll play. That gets a nod because it's the first passable justification for the previous world mattering she's heard. ]
Well, yeah, I'd kick your ass at Goldeneye. [ As for the rest, well … It goes unmentioned. She makes it up to the top of the stairs with him, releasing a shallow sort of wheeze that scratches in her lungs. One hand reaches up to absently rub over the short, prickly hairs atop her head. ] What about you: what's your story?
no subject
The way she idly rubs her scalp earns a small smile; it's an absent tick most people around here have for a while, him included. It's a little endearing, in that 'we've all been there' kind of way. ]
Oh, you know. The usual. Alien abductions, interplanetary grudge matches, saving the galaxy. [ A beat, mockingly thoughtful. ] Barry Manilow. Although I'm more of a David Bowie guy, if you want to get technical.
no subject
Quill, right?
[ Because now she wants to make sure she remembers it. ]
So what, Roswell? Little green men with spindly arms and probes? No wonder you're into Bowie.
no subject
[ More of an offer than a correction. ]
And no, actually. Not that there aren't green men, they just aren't so little. [ And there's probably a probe joke waiting to be made, here, but he decides to pass on it after that clarification. ]
Abductions aren't really a thing, I just got lucky. What about you, did you sign up for James Bond school?
no subject
[ Which is more of a general statement than SHIELD-specific, so it comes accompanied with a loose shrug as she starts to walk up the next flight of stairs alongside him. ]
Jumped right into the getting shot at portion of the job. I know, I know, "why wasn't that your first clue it was fake," but you don't really stop to think about how weird it is to become a spy without spy school when you're dealing with all of it.
no subject
Hey, you're talking to the guy who had a talking raccoon for a friend. This is a judgement free zone.
[ Peter's good at not taking things seriously. It's kind of a lifestyle, or a terrible coping mechanism — but he's got enough practice that there's no tell as to whether he misses said talking raccoon or not. ]
no subject
[ She's trying so hard to be equally nonjudgmental, but clearly struggles, pressing her lips together with no small degree of strain to hide her smile. Steadily, she builds up to a nod, eyebrows raising because she doesn't trust herself to give feedback in actual speech yet. ]
That's … That's really sad. [ Though amusement still twines with it, she does have some chagrined sympathy for him worming in there, and she stops her nod. ] God, what's the protocol on that? I mean, do you think he's, like, a person in a pod somewhere who just thinks he's a raccoon or is that just a program?
[ So sensitive and understanding. ]
no subject
I mean, he's gotta be real, right? He was pretty convincing. And not the weirdest thing out there, actually— his best friend was a talking tree.
[ Well. ]
Sort of talking. Definitely sentient.
[ Getting sadder by the minute?? ]
no subject
It only takes one beat of hesitation to establish Skye's bluff before she ever makes it. She balks, surprise blanching her face, and she's simply not fast enough on her recovery to disguise her obvious assumption: neither Rocket nor Groot are real humans, and the thought never occurred to Peter to doubt them.
The hardest lies to parse are the ones people tell to themselves. ]
Weird. [ She blinks quickly, shaking her head and putting on an affect that finds the notion realistically bizarre. ] But hey, aliens, right? Pretty sure the real world is way crazier than anything dreamed up and packed into my matrix.
no subject
It's more guarded than before, same as his voice, entirely civil. Without the direct comparison of how open he'd been a moment ago, it'd probably look outright friendly. ]
Yeah, weird. And for the record, I thought aliens were off the menu until they up and grabbed me. Your matrix could be a lot bigger than you think.
no subject
[ Months of training tell her to hold back more and leave it at that. SHIELD is all about holding back the secrets that other people don't need to know because those secrets would endanger them. But SHIELD was never even real, and neither was the secret alien go-juice that it studied. Besides, even if it were real, wouldn't they benefit from telling a guy who had a whole bunch of alien friends that they needed to know more about it?
So a moment later, she lets the stonewalling drop, shrugging one shoulder as she reluctantly acknowledges. ]
We ... had aliens, okay. I mean I never saw one, but I saw their stuff. [ Her hands shoot up defensively. ] Artifacts. And—and writing, not. Anything else, god.