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.

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[A laugh, high and humorless and altogether too brisk to be sincere.]

My, your logic there is quite a reach. But if you want to play that game, very well. By your own warped reasoning, dead children cannot be rude, either.

[Warped? Was it? He didn't see how but he also knew his mind was a rocky pockmarked mess with little purpose beyond clearing the Gears. Even a child likely had a better understanding of "logic" than him. So he shrugs]

Indeed. Do as you will.

[Not the resistance they'd expected. Most don't react very well to having their intelligence thoroughly insulted. Chara stalks forward - only a little, so that it does not appear that they are willfully prolonging this conversation out of choice.]

[But they're never one to allow another party to have the last word.]

And if what I "will" involves mincing you into pieces so small that one would have to carry you back into the Limbo in a shopping bag?

[That crooked smile returns, his stance wavering like a drunk man]

I can not recall the truth of it, but I doubt you would be the first child I've killed. I wonder if crushing your tiny neck between my hands would be 'rude'?

[They are all the same in death- if he ever once cared about not hurting children that is long gone. They are the same.]

[Laughter.]

[High, bright, stuttering laughter. It slips out from them uncontrolled, in an erratic burst that they then streamline into something more distinct, more deliberate.]

If I might interject - you're absolutely abysmal at issuing threats with any gravitas, sir!

[he stares- no insult visible in in that one eye... though there is a slight warning of what's to come when it seems to pinch with a smile.

Then he throws the lance he was carrying with him right at Chara. No warning or hesitation. It's fast and with massive physical power behind it. No warning shots here- if they don't counter they will die.]

[They step to the side.]

[What? Did you think they were just going to stand there and take it?]

Try again! [Their scythe hums with a pulsing red light, sickly and soaked with menace. Perfect for them, then. They spin it deftly between their hands as they don their Executor form with a snap of unfurling wings - three of them, rather on the smaller side, but feathered dark and lustrous. Their head is heavy with a pair of curled horns.]

I dare you.

[he's moving the moment it's clear they won't just sit and take the hit. He doesn't go for his weapon, or pull another one. Instead he leaps right at them, his inhanced strength making his jump better then even most of their fellow Exexutors- though lacking in the mobility of wings. The feral madness on his face makes it clear: he will do his best to tear them apart with his bare hands, just as threatened.]

Gladly!

[Chara's laughter is high and cherry-bright, peals of something only barely controlled.]

[They don't lash out in turn. Not yet. They mostly focus on him: on his motions, his actions, where his attacks aim and where he intends to land.]

[For all their almost hysterical demeanor, there's a definite sense of control to how they move, and how they watch him in combat. One beat of their triple-pair of wings and they're strafing in the air in skating retreat.]

[They're observing him. What kind of cooldowns he requires. What his tactics are. He doesn't look very much like one who favors planning. So far, he's engaged in brute force attack.]

Disappointing, sir.

[They wouldn't be wrong- the more wound up he gets the more like an animal the man fights. He's strong, certainly. But it seems to be hard for him to plan more than an attack or so ahead of what he does.

Plenty of Violence, but not much in the way of tactics. When he lands from his most recent attempts he steps towards his lance, still buried in the earth. His cloak covers it as he yanks it free from the ground with a grunt, pulling up chunks of stone and debris with it due to how deeply it was buried.]

Do you intend to fight me or simply dart around like a fly forever? If that is the case I will continue to hunt for revenants instead.

Edited 2020-02-21 01:50 (UTC)

That depends. Are you a coward, sir?

[They venture this question politely. It's a double-edged deal - meant to incentivize him into further violence, and meant to fish for further information as to who their opponent might be. He hasn't even given them his name. Rude.]

You seem like the sort to know better than to turn your back on a fight.

[His eyes narrow at that- more of a response than any of their other insults. Though he finds their constant mocking use of 'sir' almost as aggrivating]

If I turned and you stuck my back I would only be heading to the Gears sooner then expected. Nothing more.

We're already dead, sir. I don't expect there's much further down to go.

[Unless by "Gears" he means "hell." They have no idea, actually, not that it matters.]

Yes, but I expect we would end up much the same as the revenants we kill. Little bits of soul stuff trapped here forever. Unless we just come back. You seem the type that would enjoy killing the same man twice.

[It's a guess, and not one he cares enough about to wait for an answer as he hefts his weapon again.]

Maybe I am.

[They smile thinly, and then for half a second, their eyes flick to something just over his shoulder.]

[Then they open a hand, and a red-tinted blade manifests in thin air just above their palm, lit up with a crackling nimbus of seething, crimson light. They raise their hand, wind back, aim, and then fling it - ]

[ - directly past him.]

[It slams into a Revenant that's decided to manifest a little ways back from the impromptu scuffle. The blade punches easily into its face, and the creature stumbles.]

[Too bad it's not alone. It brought friends.]

[Chara smiles thinly.]

If you will, I suppose we'll have to table this discussion for later. Something rather more pressing has just come up.

[He jerks his head away from the "attack", ready for a counter for the expected rush down-

- only for it to be revenats. He curses at the beasts with a snarl. Excuse you he was busy.]

Fine. But this is not done.

[and all that throwing himself at a target he used on them? Much more effective on his fellow beasts. Especially when he gets his bare hands on one and sets to work twisting their head off.]

If you insist.

[Droll. They're not paying full attention to him anymore. They're dividing their focus upon the groups of Revenants keen on taking them both apart.]

[He really is an unrestrained beast in combat, is he not? Nothing terribly refined there. Perhaps this is why he is dead, and why he assumes that he will die again so very, very soon.]

[Not the case, currently. Chara has their priorities in line, make no mistake. A flurry of crimson knives carves ribbons out of one of their targets, and a curt sweep of their scythe decapitates another.]

[They're a tad more elegant than he is, but the end result is the same. They make a rather good murderer.]

[It's not a bad guess- Dimitri doesn't remember pressing a losing fight just to get his hands on that woman- on being taken down by dozens of spears like an actual boar. Screaming and cursing and dying because of his own mad stubbornness. But he doesn't NEED to remember, his nature is still the same

He sees the head they cut off roll by and grins]

Heh, very good.

[Look he may be intending to kill them still, but he can still praise good work.]

Save your approval.

[They don't want it from him, much less anyone else. The condescension inherent to offering praise to them makes their skin crawl, though that could be the adrenaline and the burning of their blood in their veins.]

[Could be. Probably isn't. They're not going to think about that.]

[They don't waste a strike. They're not graceful or refined, but they're cutthroat and ruthless and they're not opposed to fighting dirty - to catching a Revenant's strike with the haft of their scythe so they can run it through with one of their knives, underhanded.]

[He grunts at that- not insulted, just accepting it. He's too focused on the fight. Spearing one and slamming it into the other. Swinging his weapon in long arcs to hold them back.

The longer the fight goes the more he makes sure to cover any opening Chara leaves rather than just fighting randomly at least? It's not much but it is a slight show of a brain.]

[Well, at least he's not a hopelessly inept combatant. It's a small mercy, in the grander scheme of things, to the point where it barely qualifies as a mercy at all.]

[Revenants are not an unlimited resource, however, and gradually they begin to thin out. Chara dispatches of one of the last of their number with another flurry of their blades, then steps back to breathe out the buzz of adrenaline.]

[Dimitri lingers, as if unsure what to do for a moment without an enemy to kill. So he turns, weapon raised like he intends to continue the fight with Chara...

... then lowers it with a grunt. His fire against them is dulled by the fight against the beasts]

My. You do have some lingering brain cells in there after all.

[The droll tone is somewhat spoiled by the fact that they're still breathing a little heavily. A prepubescent child is hardly the ideal combatant, magic powers or no.]

[Perhaps not wise to seek to end this exchange with an insult, but that's how they roll.]

If it's all the same to you, perhaps we ought to be on our separate ways.

[Meanwhile Dimitri, while flushed red with the lust of battle, is barely even breathing hard. He was having more trouble with them then the beasts for sure]

... so be it. Let's both hope we never see each other again.

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inconsequence - 2020-02-24 03:00 (UTC) - Expand

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CAN CRY: FIRST TEST DRIVE

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