Invidia Arrival Log

[cancrymods]

INVIDIA

With the Executors now victorious over the first layer of Purgatory, the only way for them to go is further down. Thanks to the combined efforts of Kingslayer, Ariel and Mona, a path forward has been opened that leads down to the next layer of Purgatory. Rei looks ill at ease about this. If asked, she'll brush off the concern a bit, explaining that she's never gone this far down into Purgatory before and she doesn't know what lays ahead. It might be even more dangerous than the Underside. She's just glad they're all heading down together. So, once everyone's collected themselves... head down they to to the next layer of Purgatory... Welcome to Invidia. Congratulations on unlocking your first major location change in Can Cry! Feel free to use this arrival log to chronicle your initial misadventures in the city of Invidia. Investigation is strongly encouraged here as from here on out, plot progression will moved along by player involvement. If you want to unlock the next Underside, get investigating! All investigations that require mod oversight should be tagged with INVESTIGATION REQUEST in the subject line. Get out there and have fun!

Comments

[discutio]

No, actually...that does ring familiar. We departed from a city not unlike that description—sent off from a spacious throne room of some variety, one of us addressed as a prince and the rest presumably his guards.

[schardynfreude]

...A throne room? Stairs, were there two levels of stairs up to the throne? One grand staircase, and then it branched on either side... And the building, it had...spires, of a sort, reaching up to the heavens.

[discutio]

How did y-? ...yes, that’s exactly what it looked like.

[schardynfreude]

Do you have memory of who sat upon the throne? [Clearly not him. Phoenix would recall such a thing better than a chance meeting. But still...]

[discutio]

Not in the most distinct of detail, and I can’t recall a name. His voice was only familiar in that I must have known him for a very long time.

[sorry, pal, wrong monarch]

[schardynfreude]

...I see. Then... [He makes a sound of frustration, turning and stalking away a few steps. Give him a moment. He turns back, and he'd really like to start pacing, but for the sake of his companion, he does not. Yet.] I do not understand what has come to pass. Or what will come to pass. No, it must be in our histories both for us to be here.

[discutio]

I don’t know that I follow your line of thought. What is it that’s conflicting?

[schardynfreude]

What I remember... The room, the building, the city...all a ruin.

[discutio]

...

[Yet the reports of the invasion are all the same. How could every headline in the kingdom be wrong?]

[Quiet though he abruptly was, Phoenix was less surprised than he wished he had been.]

The morning after I recall us crossing paths with you, we received news the capital had fallen. To who specifically and why, I’m not fully clear upon the details. But such would make what you say a likely outcome.

[schardynfreude]

I'm afraid your king may be dead, for I sat upon the throne.

[discutio]

That was indeed what we were informed of. But that makes little sense; he clearly had a son who I would presume next in line.

[schardynfreude]

Perhaps...perhaps he--

I apologize. You can understand my confusion.

[discutio]

...I assure you, I am just as confused myself.

[there are many possibilities and few of them are good!]

[schardynfreude]

The city was full of monsters, and the throne room had a massive gap in the wall to let in the--not moonlight, no. No light at all, I think.

[discutio]

...That's new. The wildlife we ended up hunting was...'perilous', shall we way, but nothing I would call monstrous. Stranger still is the lack of light you're describing.

[schardynfreude]

Monsters that roamed the streets, large and small, dark in color and a terrible glow about their eyes. They would not harm me, and yet I cannot imagine them to be harmless.

[discutio]

Hm...

[Phoenix frowned, giving only a quietly thoughtful noise and little else at first.]

...It does us little good to form theories on incomplete information.

[schardynfreude]

I...yes. I think I may have seen other people, on rare occasion. But they were stealthy and vanished back from whence they came quickly. The days and nights, as they must have many passed, are only a blur.

[discutio]

Presumably, with time and further recollection things will become a bit clearer.

...Or so I hope.

[schardynfreude]

Yes...hopefully. Though a part of me doesn't truly want to understand. I certainly don't now. It's such a jumble. [It's a blur because all days look the same, right? But how many days?] Awful, really.

[discutio]

...Will you be alright? It's...a lot, to attempt to comprehend.

[schardynfreude]

[He scrubs at his face with a hand, not quite muffling a sigh.] Have I any option but to be alright?

[discutio]

Perhaps, and perhaps not. While we have little choice but to continue onward, I see no fault in admitting to one's own uncertainties.

[schardynfreude]

I can readily confess that I don't...like what I've seen. I do not like the implications. And I don't like being kept in the dark. Was I looking for something, waiting for something...? How long was I there, and why? Did I somehow cause this calamity? Sad little king of a ruin, no, I suspect if you had a distaste for calling me Your Majesty before, it would burn to even consider it now.

[discutio]

True enough that the epithet is...uncomfortable, for reasons I can't yet fully explain. Of that much, we were both already clear.

[Phoenix frowned, bringing a hand to his face in quiet contemplation. What little he knew paired with what little he had just been told painted several strokes of a larger picture that may yet have been dismal, with the shape of events implying a darker truth to his current companion's memories.]

...As it stands now, I would like for us to be able to cooperate. Regardless of what did or did not occur in our respective lives, at the moment we possess a common goal. And I do not want to hinder that goal for myself or others with half-formed suspicions on either side. If we truly are from the same world--all of us, or just the pair--we can piece together the truth of things more efficiently as we each learn more of the circumstance.

[A pause.]

We really do need to think of a better name for you, though.