doingtheuglycry | CAN CRY: FIRST TEST DRIVE

CAN CRY: FIRST TEST DRIVE

CAN CRY: INITIAL TDM
Welcome one and all to the very first test drive meme for Can Cry! If you're unfamiliar with the game, then you can check out the interest check, FAQ, world & setting info page and the powers and abilities page to get up to speed! Since the game is still very much under construction, this is just an initial test drive for people to dip their toes into the water and see which characters they'd like to consider for the game. In order to not spoil the opening of the game for players, the TDM is not canon to Can Cry and will take place in a slightly wonky little AU just over to the left. Characters have awoken in Purgatory after their deaths and been conscripted as Executors by Rei, the sole other Executor in Purgatory. The population of dangerous spirits has gotten out of control and she needs some allies to help her keep things under control. Characters on the TDM will have access to all of their starter powers as outlined on the powers page as well as two unique abiliites to play around with as you please. Some prompts and location details have been provided below for you to play around with but please feel free to go hog wild and have fun!
LIMBO
Limbo is the Executor's main base of operations as it is the top level of Purgatory and the one most populated by non-violent spirits. Distorted by the cognition of all the human souls here, Limbo has taken on the form of a hazy, dream-like recollection of a town. It's full of winding paths that go up, down and all around and the geometries of the town and its surroundings don't always make much sense. Stairs might lead loop back around on themselves or a door to the outside might end up leading right back indoors. It's a bit of a headache, so it's usually best not to think about it too hard. The town is mostly functional, mostly thanks to all the human souls here. Players are free to invent any additions to the town that they would like for their threads, but here are some to get you started: ⚝ Conbini: A seemingly normal Japanese convenience store, full of the sort of fare you'd expect from a cheap 24-7 convenience store. There's only four aisles and everything's a bit clustered together, but it's not overly claustrophobic. Things start getting a bit weird when you try and go to the back of the store, though – no matter how long you look, there is always just one more aisle for you to browse and the further back you go, the stranger and more abstract the items on the shelf will look. If you walk too far or turn around you will suddenly find yourself back at the first aisle in the blink of an eye as if you were rubberbanded back there. ⚝ Hotel: A so-called luxury hotel that towers over the rest of the buildings in the area. Even if you don't have a reservation, all you have to do is approach the desk and the Spectre there will apparently recognize you and hand over a key to one of the rooms. Except... you can't quite read the number? It seems to fluctuate whenever you try. Not that it matters, because the key will open any of the hundreds of doors in the building, though no one door will ever open onto the same room twice. The layout of each room is subtly off in a number of ways, with the dimensions of the room not seeming quite right no matter how you try to work it out. The decor is luxurious through and the extravagant room service is free, so it's a nice place to relax. Be warned, though – if you misplace your key, you'll find yourself lost in the mazelike halls until you eventually stumble out into the reception with no way of knowing how you got there. ⚝ Bathhouse: An enormous Grecio-Roman styled bathhouse for you to relax in after a hard day's work of dealing with Revenants. There don't seem to be any workers here that you can see, so feel free to let yourself in and make yourself at home. Interestingly, even without anyone around, you'll find the water is always adjusted to a temperature and a fragrance that's most appealing to you and drinks, towels and anything else you need will appear within reach by the side of the baths whenever it occurs to you that you might need it. When in doubt: Just get weird with it!
QUESTS
Since it's up to Executors to maintain order in Purgatory, this also means they need to resolve any issues that crop up for the Spectres occupying it. You can come up with any sort of quest you like, but here are some ideas to get you started: ⚝ A lost child will request your help in reuniting with their mother. It's a bit of a struggle for them to communicate with you as they are a freshly-awakened Spectre and it's also not entirely clear if their mother is, in fact, in Purgatory with them. Eventually, careful questioning of the child Spectre and some of the other Spectres around Limbo will lead you to a bookshop where mother and child will be reunited. Happy end! ⚝ Two Spectres are causing a ruckus in town with a screaming-in-each-other's-face tier argument. Calming them both down is going to be a task all on its own, but if you manage to, it turns out the first Spectre is missing a precious object and has accused the other of stealing it. The second Spectre insists the precious object never existed in the first place. Uh... good luck with this. ⚝ A uncommunicative and kind of creepy Spectre is accused by others in the town of being a Revenant in disguise after some of their neighbors disappear in the night. Investigate and uncover the truth! Feel free to NPC Spectres as you need for this TDM!
THE UNDERSIDE OF LIMBO
Though it's the most peaceful level of Purgatory, Limbo is not without its dangers. Directly below Limbo is what's known as the Underside, a darkness cast by the city above where Revenants and malicious spirits linger. It appears as a dark, mirror-reversed version of Limbo, though the geography is much more twisted and confusing. If left unchecked, Revenents from the Underside would attack the town and consume any number of Spectres. It's up to the Executors to head down there and see to them! This is a general prompt for combat-oriented testing, to allow characters to experiment with their new powers as Executors! Because of that, and because combat will function slightly differently in-game, this section is pretty loosey goosey. Like previous posts, you are free to invent locations and NPC Revenants to make things more fun and exciting! Because Revenants will function in a unique way in-game, players are encouraged to invent their own Revenants to fight for this TDM. If you would like some ideas for what sort of Revenants to battle, you can check out this video to see what sort of enemies exist in the original game, but beware that it does contain spoilers for Crystar.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do I look as though I require help?

[Perhaps it's not best to answer one question with another. Chara's tone is haughty, their chin lifted boldly, their gaze cold. The expectation is that this will effectively stymie any offers and attempts to help - that someone would hypothetically take one look at the scythe-wielding child and decide that they probably have a decent handle on things.]

[But this is a person who, when confronted with said armed child, elected to meow at them for reasons clear only to her, so perhaps they ought not to take logic into account, hm?]

Allow me to specify:

Do I look as though I require help from the likes of you?

No.

[A pause, and then she says--]

You look as though you're really angry for some reason.

Gosh. I wonder what that reason could be.

[They continue to deadeye her, coldly.]

It couldn't possibly be that I'm being sidelined by some pointless, inarticulate person who has failed to state what she is doing or why despite taking the time to approach me first.

[... Something about their words rubs her the wrong way. Her sleepy eyes seem to focus now, her own red eyes now properly meeting Chara's.]

No. You spoke to me first while I was passing by. You pointed a weapon at me, so I showed you I wasn't a threat.

[And sure, it was a silly thing to do, but it did technically work, didn't it? For a moment, Chara had stopped thinking of her as a major threat, and thinks she's just some strange girl.

She simply stares at them for a long moment, before her sleepy gaze returns. As if Chara is not actually worth the time to be getting mad at. It's not her fault that this kid didn't like the answers she gave them. Still...]

So... don't blame me for something you started first... it's tiring.

You meowed at me. No part of that suggests that you're not a threat. It only suggests that you lack the requisite brain power to be terribly functional in this place to begin with.

[They snort. Oh, it's tiring to be blamed, is it? It's tiring? Gosh. They're just so sorry about that, aren't they!]

If you find conflict tiresome, I suggest you go elsewhere. The Underside is hardly the place to visit to relax.

... It was a joke.

[The meow, she meant. Gosh, you have no sense of humor, do you. Though, something about that doesn't feel quite right, a strange thought that she did that sort of thing before but she can't remember the context for why she would have done that.

For a moment, her red eyes regard them again at the snort, before she speaks again.]

It's not conflict I find tiresome either.

[The implication that it's Chara she's finding tiresome right now is marked with her gaze sliding away from them, towards the surrounding area for signs of anything that may require their attention instead of this pointless argument. There's a job they are supposed to be doing down here, after all, so is there anything out of the ordinary going on...]

If it's me you find disagreeable, I advise that you do something about it.

[That is a taunt, and a fairly unapologetic one at that. Part of them almost wants her to try doing something about it. Shut them up, violently if possible. It's always going to be violently, is it not? That's the language that they understand. The only language that kids like them ever get.]

[They're smiling, now.]

Why don't you?

[The sudden smile does take her a little by surprise, eyes widening momentarily... before her gaze suddenly slides to something behind and to the left of Chara, which she then quietly lifts a hand and points to.

If Chara chooses to look at what she's pointing at, they'll see why Madotsuki isn't going to do a violence against you here: there's a malicious looking spirit over there that is starting to come their way. Maybe you should direct their hostility towards that instead of her?]

[Chara's eyes narrow at that. They're not so stupid as to turn around and fall for a made you look ploy. What are they, six? But the longer she holds the position, the less they can justify not doing something about it. They angle their body slightly so that they're still facing her, glancing in the direction of - ]

[Ah. A Revenant.]

[It's a good thing they've already got their scythe out, then. They waste little time in lifting it in a sharp, tight arc in front of them to keep the spirit at bay.]

[Madotsuki also brings out her knife again, but makes no move to try to attack or go right at the Revenant as it staggers toward them. Her eyes flicker between it and Chara--frankly, the other child probably stands a better chance than she does with that scythe in comparison to her knife. But at least she hasn't turned tail and run to abandon Chara to deal with it on their own. (Yet)

The Revenant, upon properly noticing the two of them, is definitely not the friendly sort as it starts to circle around them out of the range of Chara's scythe, trying to see if there's an opening where it can slip and attack them, unless one of them decides to try to attack it first...]

[They're not keen on leaving an opening, even as a ploy. Their diminutive size means that they're likely to be caught very easily, and by then, it'll all be over. They narrow their eyes, concentrate, and...]

[A bright flurry of crimson knives erupts into the thin air in front of them. They send the maelstrom of them whirling toward the Revenant with very little regard for if Madotsuki gets caught in the proverbial crossfire.]

[Madotsuki does hold her knife up to block whatever stray ones get too close to her, but otherwise has no vocal complaint to offer from Chara's attack. She can tell that it wasn't intentional and that the Revenant is the intended target.

Speaking of which, the Revenant in question (I'm gonna say... a Bernardus for the purpose of this thread) also seems to have the same idea Madotsuki had, however, as it swings the staff-like object it's holding outward, catching at some of the scattered knives to try to knock as many as it can away from making contact with. Some still strike home, but not as many as Chara probably would have liked.]

[That doesn't matter. Their Executor form cracks into being with a sharp snap of reddish light - triple-winged and seraphic, allowing them the significant illusion of height when they are, in fact, exactly the same size as before aside from their new wingspan.]

[With a powerful beat of those wings, they launch themself halfway up into the air and start to shower yet more knives down upon the Bernardus.]

[Their focus on their foe is singular and all-consuming; they barely pay Madotsuki any heed, at this point.]

[And Madotsuki is perfectly fine for things to stay that way. She's content to let Chara handle most of the work here even though she probably should be helping more than just stepping back and making sure to stay out of Chara's way.

Bernardus does seem to figure out that while Chara is the bigger threat, the other kid isn't really doing anything, so after taking the brunt of some more knives, they decide to go for Madotsuki instead. That at least does cause the girl's eyes to widen again, momentarily startled...

... before she suddenly seems to vanish into thin air. The Revenant stops in apparent confusion. She didn't teleport though--in actuality, she seems to have shrunk somehow for a few seconds, long enough to run out of the way as Chara will see if he looks down and sees the tiny girl run by.

But now the enemy's back is exposed. Perfect opportunity for it to be struck down if there ever was one, right?]

[...interesting.]

[But useful.]

[The Revenant has its back to them, and Chara drops down with their scythe up and whirling for the creature's unprotected back. A stabbing would be more viscerally satisfying, but their weapon is much more useful for slicing, so why not do a little of both?]

[They spin it up and slam the blade point-first into the meat of the Bernardus's back, aiming to impale it like a fish on a hook.]

[It works: the strike hits home and impales them on the blade of Chara's scythe as it makes an unholy sort of noise in response. It looks like it may be a killing blow too: it stops squirming and halts all movement after a few moments.

Madotsuki pops back to regular size after a few more seconds, and finally speaks for the first time since the Revenant first showed up.]

... Good job.

[They know Chara deserves all the credit here for taking it down, so it feels appropriate to say.]

[They slide their scythe free from the creature and let it drop, as it gradually begins to dissolve and break down ~~presumably this is what they do~~]

[Their expression is closed and cold when their eyes flick up to regard the girl warily.]

You left yourself wide open.

[Way to swing things around into being needlessly accusatory, Chara.]

... I did. Sorry.

[She can admit that she should have defended herself a little better, but she does also end up adding, after a moment--]

I would have helped you more, but... I didn't think you would want my help here.

Your "help" could very well have gotten yourself...whatever passes for "killed" here.

[Not that they CARE or anything. God.]

One can only wonder what you might be doing down here, if you've next to no grasp on how to handle yourself in the midst of combat.

... I don't know.

[That is a good question, honestly. Why did she come down here, when even talking seems to exhaust her, let alone getting involved in combat?

She looks at her knife in her hands for a moment, trying to understand the answer here for herself. Despite the feel of knife of her hand somehow sparking a strange thought of familiarity, she just can't recall when or why she would have ever used it for combat before.]

I... just had a feeling that I should look around here for a moment.

[That's all she can come up with for now to explain herself.]

You had a feeling.

[Dry. Cold. Utterly scathing. Like everything else about Chara, honestly. This girl doesn't seem very much like she understands what she's doing here, and they're not terribly inclined to help with that.]

Perhaps you ought to trust common sense, instead. Assuming you have access to such a thing, of course.

Okay.

[She nods, as if she agrees with Chara's statement about trusting common sense instead.

... And then she suddenly turns around, and starts walking away from them. Where is she even going?]

Leaving so soon, are we?

[Not terribly polite, is she? If she wants to take the first step to depart, that's more than fine with them; they're not the sort to turn their back on someone they don't know.]

[She pauses at Chara's words, turning the upper half of her body back momentarily to address them.]

You said that I should trust common sense instead... and I think mine is telling me now that I should leave and go somewhere else.

It's also telling you to turn your back on a complete stranger, is it?

[Not altogether that wise, in their opinion. Especially since said stranger is...well, Chara.]

CAN CRY: FIRST TEST DRIVE

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