doingtheuglycry | 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

[Having limited movement, Lion has to spend his turn getting his feet back under him]

Ngh... damn you!

What!?

[Obstacle tumbles and skids across the pond, tearing her dress and dropping her axe. She scowls and, pushing herself up on one hand, extends the other to shoot a fireball in Rei's direction.]

[Ugh, dammit.

La Luna keeps her distance for now, letting the tanks tank, and using her movement to direct her shadow goons to charge into Rei as she coils and lashes out with her whip towards her sword arm. Trying to keep any focus off Lion and Obstacle for now, so they can regain their footing.]

Rei hasn't stopped moving this whole time, instead continuing to dart around like a fairy. Thanks to that, she's able to avoid Obstacle's fireball, though the heat of it does melt the ice, removing the hazard for now.

Rei keeps moving though, so she's able to avoid La Luna's whip attack, but still collides with one of the shadow goons, in a glancing blow. With all this dodging, she hasn't been able to attack!

[Finally able to move, Lion goes back on the offensive- but after the last fight he knows just attacking wildly will get them nowhere.

But it IS what people expect of him- so he charges, lance raised- then drops it and goes for a grapple instead when he sees her stumble. Thanks to his higher durability he will just have to eat any retaliation]

[Obstacle, for her part, spends her turn getting up from the ground and retrieving her axe. Hopefully the others have got this.]

[Okay Lion has... tackled her this is fine??? This is fine!!! ~~don't crush the girl~~

At least Obstacle has got time to get her weapon, so with La Luna's shadow goons gone with a cheery giggle, she decides to move in. Her whip missed before, but once more she aims for her sword - hoping to maybe disarm her as Lion goes for the grapple.]

Rei's a petite girl, so when Lion surges forward and just scoops her up and holds her there like a couple of grapes, Rei isn't able to free herself and loses one Movement for this turn. To add to the humiliation, La Luna's whip hits home and wrenches Rei's sword right out of her hand.

"Wha... hey! L–let me down right now!"

... Really, she seems more embarrassed than anything else. She's wriggling around in Lion's grip, and with her sword gone, she instead channels her ice into his armor, trying to freeze his hands. It won't let her free on this turn, but it will count as a glancing blow for Lion.

[Something about being hit with ice magic is familiar, the cold reminding him of a home he doesn't know- and while it hurts instead of dropping her he takes the hit, his durability dropping from 6 to 5 and just grips harder.

If you wanna keep this up Rei you might end up stuck in a stubborn Lion ice statue]

You won't be dancing around so easily this time, Rei...

[He might be enjoying this a bit too much, including the damage- why are you like this]

[Obstacle smirks and runs in Rei's direction and swings her axe.]

You can't escape this time! A plan like this won't fail.

[Okay, she is now de-armed so that's a plus. With her whip she flings the sword away, hopefully out of reach.

Also is Lion freezing, yep he's slowly freezing - ]

You turning into an ice sculpture isn't going to help anyone, Lion. [Despite how quiet she is, her voice actually carries pretty well...

But in that case, time to help Obstacle with the offensive - coiling and launching her whip towards Rei once more. They need their tank!!!]

The Executors have a few moments to see the look of panic on Rei's face as she realizes she's been ganged up on – before it turns into a look of gritted-teeth frustration. That's the only warning any of them get before a rumble under their feet becomes a huge block of ice shooting up and out of the lake to throw everyone off balance and get them out of the way.

All three Executors will be tossed away from Rei, who has gotten free of Lion's grip. In addition, the rough landing back into the water will count as glancing damage for all three Executors.

Rei takes this opportunity to take flight again – though notably, she seems to be abandoning her sword for now.

[Lion certainly got the worst of that, now down to 4 durability.

Like hell that means he's going to stop of course. He practically roars, flinging himself to his feet and using his enhanced strength to jump up onto the pillar. Sadly due to his low Movement he can't do what he clearly has planned right away: jumping after her midair. But he does yell]

Reeeeiiii-!!

[Uh oh, someone miiiight be getting a little too out of control.]

[Obstacle cries out, managing to keep a grip on her axe this time. Lion isn't the only one whose face is twisting in rage.]

Don't mock me so lightly!

[She sends a fireball in the direction Rei's flying with a scream.]

[La Luna winces at the hint, and she only winces even moreso when Obstacle and Lion basically decide to go berserker. The only upside to this is that she can summon her shadow goons again, sending them after Rei once she takes flight.

Now she pushes herself up, moving in closer as she keeps her eyes on Rei.]

Both of you be careful! [She hasn't gone back for her sword, so something is up. And Lion being on ice, that one thing Rei can control, is even more worrying and she's hoping maybe he'll.... just slide off.]

La Luna's right to be cautious. Still on the move, Rei doesn't even slow down to pay attention to Lion or Obstacle. Because she's moving so quick, Obstacle's fireball just misses her.

It becomes clear what her plan is, though, when Rei summons two long, razor-sharp blades of ice to her hands and charges on La Luna. She seems to be taking her cues from the two Berserkers on the crew, because it's a shockingly aggro attack. It comes so fast that La Luna takes a blow and now has to contend with Rei right in melee range!

CAN CRY: FIRST TEST DRIVE

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