introductions

[cancrymods]

It comes to you suddenly, at the end of an unravelling thread of thought. A sudden, piercing sense of wrongness stops you in your tracks and sends you tumbling through rapidfire questions that you realize you have no answer for. How long have you been here? How long have you been doing the same things, over and over, blindly going through the motions of a routine? Just who are you, anyway?

Questions beget more questions and answers prove illusive until you arrive at the only things you know for certain: the first is that this place is Purgatory.

The second is that you're here because you're dead.

Oddly, this doesn't feel like a surprise of any sort. You don't remember how or why it happened, but it did and that's that. It feels rather as though you've been slapped awake and everything around you has come into sharp focus. You're in Limbo, where you've been wandering since you arrived here in Purgatory alongside all the other mindless souls who are acting out what little they remember of their original lives.

Still lingering is that horrible sense of something being terribly wrong. It hasn't dissipated with your realization of the truth – if anything, it's intensified. There's no way to tell what it is, but there's something going on here.

Maybe you should investigate – or at least see if there's anyone else here who's had the same realization as you...

[ OOC: Welcome to the very first log of Can Cry! For the first few hours, Executors will be free to explore and mingle among themselves. Mod replies will come in a few hours. If you're planning to investigate, please indicate that you're doing so in the subject line as your comment. ]

Comments

Medic | OTA

[mementomoritz]

[In the crowd of mindless souls, walking aimlessly, one slows and comes gradually to a stop. She looks like a young girl, mid-teens, in what might be the uniform for some fancy private school.]

[And she is dead.]

...so that's what happens? [For countless ages, humanity has wondered: what does happen to you, after death? And now she knows, as certainly as she knows anything.]

[Unfortunately, she doesn't know much of anything else.]

[What's her name? She doesn't know. What killed her? She doesn't know. What was her life like? She doesn't know.]

[In a flurry of motion, she whirls and grabs the nearest spirit, wild-eyed with excitement.]

Hello! I think we're dead! Can you tell me something new?

I want to know everything.

[emberserker]

You think? We are dead!

[Not that the person she just grabbed has any idea of anything else. A redhead with a hint of a German accent and a scowl -- that's about all that stands out thus far. She pulls her arm back to try and shake it out of Medic's grip.]

You aren't the only one who wants to know. Something feels more than out of sorts.

[seasharp]

E-Eh?!

[Hello, fellow teenage girl. Here's another one, who's looking very surprised at suddenly being grabbed like this.

Hi???]

S-Something... Like, anything?

[daughterofthemark]

[Sh...e? That feels like the right pronoun. She's met a... person spirit? A girl who looks younger than she... looks. Hm. She's going to have to start feeling certain about things.]

Advertising is necessary for a business to be successful.

[Has that ever been important knowledge for her? Heck if she knows.]

[alcahest]

[ although there's not much of a reaction in her expression, she goes stiff when this girl grabs her. she's felt very little thus far, and none of this worries her, but that— being touched. some strange, distant part of her seems to register a sense of danger. her breath hitches and she feels cold, though she's not sure what it means. just a warning that says don't touch me!

she pulls her arm free quickly and steps back. what did the girl say? ah, that's right. ]

Something new... [ she appears to be giving it serious thought. after a long silence, she solemnly concludes: ] I don't... think so. I can't think of anything.

[herowalksalone]

[Hope immediately squirms his way out of Medic's grip, but is left blinking at the barrage of questions.] We're dead? [He feels his heart race for a moment, a leftover from some survival instinct, and then it subsides.] Is that why everything is weird now? [Wait.] No, we've been dead.

I'd never noticed it before, but the Hotel is really tall. I don't think I'd ever looked up before now. It's good to see the sky. [Well. A sky.]

[emberserker]

[Wolfsbane seethes. She stalks through the streets, glaring at Spectres until they move out of the way. All the while, she's looking for anyone who looks similarly upset or just disoriented. If she spots you, she'll storm up to you.]

What is the meaning of this?

[beknights]

[ The person Wolfsbane abruptly invades the personal space of is six feet tall and distinctly inhuman, but they make no move to stop her from getting right in there. In fact, it's the opposite; they practically freeze up, staring down at her with clear confusion.

After a moment, they shake their head in the universal sign of I don't know. ]

[daughterofthemark]

I'm not certain! Perhaps we should investigate.

[Arianna is immune to angry people.]

[pioailurophobia]

[Kingslayer drops the Spectre that she had just been "interrogating" (more like yelling at while barely keeping their panic under control) and whirls on Wolfsbane, prepared for a fight. Thankfully, it seems like they've just found a comrade.]

HELL IF I KNOW! I just woke up and none of these assholes are coherent enough to answer any of my questions!

[alcahest]

[ the doll-like young woman isn't at all alarmed by the sudden hostility, her face calm and only marred very slightly by a mild sort of confusion. the meaning...? ]

... Of death?

La Luna | OTA | Investigating the conbini

[crisantemo]

[She's dead. That's the first thing she's fully aware of, certain of, when everything suddenly snaps into crystal clear focus. But something nags at the back of her mind, and so La Luna wanders - she may still seem like one of the Spectres, with how eerily calm she is.

Except when she walks into the store, her attempts to speak to the clerks are in vain - they don't seem to know what she's talking about, instead only mentioning deals or offers going on. So she sighs, stepping back and glancing over at anyone who may have wandered nearby - anyone who, at least, seems a bit more aware.]

Have you had any luck talking to the people here?

[Sure, they're dead, but there must be more of them that are... well, awake. Right?]

[daughterofthemark]

I have! Some of them are quite interesting, even if they seem unaware of their surroundings.

[Royal Veil's ideas of "any luck" and "interesting" may not be the same as everyone else's.]

Seal | OTA

[beknights]

[ It doesn't hit them as hard as they thought it might, the fact that they're dead. They're at peace with it.

But this place is too...crowded. Full of...strangers, with strange looks, strange features. They stand out. They feel like they shouldn't stand out...

They don't know why that is. The uncertainty of it all, the instinct for wrongness, the anxiety, grips their heart like a sudden vice.

They stumble through the crowd, disoriented, feeling acutely alone. It's a feeling so horribly crushing that they have to come to a complete stop, press their back against something solid, some instinct that tells them to guard themselves against...what? Against what?

They feel ill. Their shoulders hunch as they dig their claws into the wall they've backed up against, trying not to look at the crowd, making themselves small. ]

[mementomoritz]

Hello, are you sick? Do you need medical treatment? [Some people aren't six-foot-tall armored bugs, and are thus naturally small.]

[Fortunately(?), pure enthusiasm can make up for that.]

Because I don't know anything, but I'm apparently a medic! [...Case in point.]

[At least this strange, cheery girl peering at them doesn't seem to fit in with the crowd quite well, either.]

ariel | ota

[seasharp]

[It's weird, how being dead doesn't hit as hard as it seems like it should. Maybe she knew, unconsciously? Maybe she was at peace with it? She can't say, really. She can't remember those sort of feelings about herself.

But it seems like the sort of thing she should've known this whole time, right? How did she forget? More importantly, how did she not notice how weird this place looks before? Until a little bit ago, everything seemed normal.

She wants to know more about what's going on. And, at some point, she finds herself chasing Spectres, for exactly that reason!]

Hey! Heeeey, come on, I'm talking to you! [...Very literally chasing. She's running to catch up with one just going about their day. Except she's not looking where she's stepping and at some point, the path she's running down just

stops

and her foot meets air.] A-Ah!

[oh there she goes

Well, not entirely, she's... hanging in there. Hanging onto the edge, that is. You could be here to help or, perhaps, you're just here seeing her scrambling back up.]

I-I've got it! I'm okay!

[does she. is she.]

[beknights]

[ Seal remembers little about themselves or the person they were before they died, but well-trained instincts remain.

As the strange person falls, Seal speeds up, closing the distance in a powerful burst of speed. They're not fast enough to stop her falling, but they're immediately kneeling at the edge to grip one of her hands, serving as an additional anchor she can use to pull herself back up. ]

Kingslayer | OTA

[pioailurophobia]

[They didn't care much about lateness most of the time, but today was special. More than special, it was the most important day of their life, they didn't have time to be polite to a bunch of chumps standing in their way in the street! They muscle through the crowd with a desperate speed, they couldn't be late! Today was... was...

Was...

Today was nothing because Kingslayer was dead.

The knight stands stock still for a few moments, shocked as that information sinks in? What happened? That couldn't be possible, they were unbeatable, but the certainty of that fact settles deep in their soul.

Kingslayer is dead and something is very, very wrong.

The armored knight turns to the nearest Spectre, gauntleted fist flying out to grab them by the throat and pick them up as they futilely struggle.]

OI! TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!

[Granted, choking somebody isn't the best way to get them to talk, but Kingslayer isn't thinking rationally right now. Maybe help that hapless Spectre out?]

[beknights]

[ Seal might be disoriented and confused but they certainly know where they stand on someone throttling someone else, and it's that they Don't Like It.

They can't really respond to Kingslayer's verbal demands, but they do step up to try and stop them from crushing a dead person's windpipe by grabbing their arm. This can only end well. ]

investigating sorta????

[crypddyd]

[The confusion is... oddly familiar, and the large blonde man just stands there in a befuddled daze for a long while before grabbing near by people]

You-! Are you real, answer me-!

[ Later, once he calms a bit, he feels a need to... go somewhere. He doesn't know if it's what he was doing before he "woke" or if it was something he was doing when alive. He just knows he has to Be Somewhere... so he starts walking with implied purpose in a direction. Bye dude?]

[pioailurophobia]

I could ask the same of you, bastard! Let go of me!

[Kingslayer's voice is full of fire and venom, but the intimidation is somewhat reduced considering that they're a full foot shorter than Lion, probably more without the armor.]

[guffawsungraciously]

[There’s a knight in the crowd who, well, mostly fits the romantic image of what one would expect of the elegant pretty boy strain; long, flowing blond hair gathered up into a neat ponytail, a white cape and shiny silver armor with gold trim... though, there are a few idiosyncrasies there. The first would be that while his face is fairly youthful for the most part, there are lines around his eyes that would indicate... well, not an old man, but certainly someone past his twenties. Those are, perhaps, enhanced somewhat by the other idiosyncrasy, which is the somewhat sour expression with which he regards the more mindless souls milling about.]

It would be too much to hope that I was not like that until now, would it not? What a horribly dull existence...

[He’ll at least soften a bit at the sight of anyone who seems self-aware, at least, if he happens to notice them first.]

I see you have your wits about you, then. I imagine you know about as much as I do, which is very little, but I am open to pleasant surprises.

[pioailurophobia]

[Oh no. The armor. The hair. The smirk. Kingslayer doesn't know why, but for some reason, their first instinct when they see White Eagle is to sock him in the face.

Thankfully, they don't. Yet. It depends on how much he pisses them off.

But considering that the other people who so much as remembered that they were all dead and were coherent enough to talk properly were few and far between, Kingslayer has little choice but to talk to White Eagle. Unfortunately.]

I know jack shit, prettyboy. Just that we're all dead and stuck in this place for the foreseeable future.

investigation! and also ota

[schardynfreude]

[Everything changes in an instant, and his entire perception seems to go distinctly sideways.

He is dead. He's been dead for he doesn't know how long, but he's been living(?) some kind of mindless existence in this terribly strange place, his manner of dress seems odd and haphazard and yet seems right and yet not right, the town itself seems to be almost but not at all right at the same time, and he--

--he is relieved.

No. That can't be right. He's alarmed. Confused. Wary. On edge. And relieved. Like he's been waiting to exhale for days, for weeks. Longer? Oh, something is terribly wrong with everything, that he knows for certain. It's about the only thing he does know with any certainty. But the idea of being dead (and being somewhere after being dead) does not alarm him.

Mostly he seems tired. But he soldiers on anyway.]

Ah--well then. I wonder what changed...

[Because clearly something Changed. The man does not go rushing about, taking his time as he feels like he's seeing the town for the very first time, and the people, too. He's a bit wary to actually approach the near-mindless souls(?) wandering about who don't seem to have come to the same sudden conclusion he has. But perhaps someone else has. He acts, in fact, much like he's some kind of outsider looking in, like maybe he can't be seen by these other people, because they just seem so...unenlightened.]

Doesn't anyone see what's going on here?

[...Perhaps not. Somehow he just isn't surprised, and that itself is surprising. Also surprising is if/when he does run into other people who seem to have awakened from a mindless stupor.

Along the way, he is struck in his investigation by the fountain. There's still water in it, and all manner of coins slowly rusting away at the bottom of it, but no water flows. He walks around it, walks along the raised lip of it, peers at where the water should flow out from. There's rust, certainly, and if it's this bad where he can see, it's little wonder the mechanism is all stoppered up. He slips off shoes and rolls up his pant legs to go wading to the mechanism to give it a closer inspection, in case there's something on the outside that seems fixable somehow. He doesn't know why he might be able to do anything about it. Clearly not. And one would likely have to rip up the fountain itself to get to the piping.

At some point he leaves for the conbini only to return with paper and chalk. There's a plaque, and it's hard to read, but he kneels down to rub the chalk overtop the paper, hoping he can lift words from the damn thing to perhaps glean something from it.

He does not take any of the coins. The concept of some kind of place to throw wishes seems familiar enough that he dare not disturb or disrupt that sanctity. (I mean apparently he's fine walking all over it but that's different!!!)]

[emberserker]

See, yes, but I doubt they've the presence of mind to care.

[Says a teenage girl, crossing her arms and leaning against a building, with a German accent. She rolls her eyes.]

They haven't been the slightest bit helpful.

Pariah | OTA

[crosscutting]

[When the realization hits, it's like a whipcrack at her back. The girl stops dead in her tracks, her back stiff before she whips around wildly, as if expecting a perpetrator of some kind to pop out of the woodwork. But...that's stupid, right? She doesn't even know what happened, and what would a normal girl be able to do about it anyway?]

[...for some reason, that thought sits sour in the back of her throat.]

[Regardless, there's a lot of questions at hand and not enough answers. Most of the other spirits are useless, stuck in the same fog of mind that she had been in herself, and the landscape itself is nonsensical at best. She finds herself constantly turned around and cut off by sudden drops, until eventually she finds an old, broken fountain. At the moment she's crouched down at peering at a plaque attached to it, drumming her fingers on her knees as she does.]

Of course it's all the important words that are worn away...

Re: Pariah | OTA

[mementomoritz]

Maybe that's why? [Sure, just come up behind someone and reply to something they clearly weren't addressing to you, Medic. That's fine.] No one I've talked to can remember their names, and people usually think names are really important!

[Just casually tilting her head to examine the worn plaque.] At least, no one so far. Unless you do?

Relic

[iserveeverybody]

[The Relic was helping a family of spectres move from one house to another identical house just down the street. There was no real rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes spectres just felt like moving to a different house. They were all more or less the same anyways.

She was helping another spectre carry a couch when she woke up. She froze for several seconds, much to the annoyance of the other spectre, as a sort of feeling of being awake after an eternity of sleep slapped her in the face. She was dead.

That felt okay though. She didn't mind being dead, and this couch still needed to get moved. The Relic kept on helping the "family" (if such a concept meant anything to the souls of the dead) load their stuff up into a van, because it just felt like the right thing to do. She was keeping an eye out for anyone else who looked like they were a bit more alert than the perpetually confused spectres, though.

When they were finally done, the Relic put her hands on her hips and stared out at the bizarre city surrounding her as if she was seeing it for the first time. Then she picked a random direction and started walking.

First step: get a good idea of where she was. Figure out who to blame for this.
Second step: get angry.]

[schardynfreude]

[His Majesty isn't looking for anyone to blame. If they are, in fact, all dead, and this is some form of Beyond (is that...the name? it comes so readily and yet doesn't seem right to this place of sorts), then is anyone to blame but themselves?

But that's not the point. Blame isn't the point, nor anger--anger will come later, though he doesn't know it yet. No, now is just being aware and alert to the fact that perhaps he isn't the only one to snap out of some stupor of nonsense routine.

He's pretty obvious to spot, given the way he has apparently scampered up a lightpost to get a better vantage point.]

Hello down there! [If there's a Reaction, then it must be someone else who's woken up.] You seem a bit lost.

Brainiac | OTA, Planning to Investigate!

[pride_of_amarcia]

Welp. I bit it. I'm gonzers. And now I'm here. Zorz.

... That didn't quite work.

[A red-and-white haired girl was just kinda stepping along, weirdly casual for someone who's just realized they're dead.]

Of course, that leaves just one very important question: Now what?!

[And off she goes, triapsing around. She has this feeling something else is really wrong about this, beyond that most of the people she saw around here were being all creepy-repeat-their-actions and maybe if she saw someone who wasn't, that'd help! Maybe a lot! Trying to investigate alone was...

... Eh, it'd do! But for now, it was just going off in random directions and trying to talk to people! Also, gawking at the really crazy aesthetic of the place.]

[cancrymods]

[ What sort of topics is she trying to bring up with the other Specters? Anything in particular she's looking to ask? ]

magnum opus | ota, investigation

[alcahest]

[ the moment of realisation disrupts her mind like a stone dropped into a still, placid lake — it breaks the calm, but then it sinks without resistance into the depths, and the surface settles once more, as smooth as glass. her newfound awareness brings with it no feeling at all. even the sense of disquiet is dim and distant, as if it belongs to someone else. she doesn't know who she is, and that's fine. it doesn't feel as though she needs to. her death, too, means nothing other than a general sense of peace. it doesn't seem very different to how she was earlier.

what carries her feet through the town is a sort of blank, mechanical curiosity. there's little else to do. the routine that was disturbed no longer makes sense to her, so she can't return to it; she could simply sit still and wait, but for what? if she explores, at least maybe she'll find something to do with herself. a purpose for being awake.

the girl doesn't look particularly aware of herself, compared to the others who have been startled by a similar realisation. her face is doll-like, her movements reserved. occasionally, she seems as though she wants to approach another person, looking at them with her glassy, melancholy gaze. but she always turns away. there is something in her that warns her not to get close.

what eventually gets her attention is the train station, perhaps the only thing that strikes her as somewhat familiar. she peers in the direction of the tracks while she waits for a train. ]

[cancrymods]

[ She doesn't have to wait long – only a few minutes after she arrives, so does a rickety old steam train, coming from around a sharp turn and rattling into the station before coming to a slow stop. It lets off a huge sigh of steam before all the doors open. No passengers step off, but the train idles patiently for her to climb on. ]

Royal Veil, investigation I guess

[daughterofthemark]

[A very purple and pink girl has been somewhat startled by the same sudden realization as everyone else, but she's not letting it get her down! She's pretty sure, for reasons she doesn't know, that a methodical investigation will reveal what's happening!

Not that... she's really sure what that entails. But if she just walks along the street, that more or less counts, right?

Her "methodical investigation" takes her to other threads with various different people, and then to the library. Aha! This looks like a good place to get information! Time to search for any book that looks like it might have something relevant.

By walking up and down each aisle looking at the spines of the books and seeing if anything jumps out at her. This is very efficient.

She's probably going to end up with a bunch of completely irrelevant books, isn't she? Look, she's already got two sci-fi novels and The Joy of Cooking.]

Re: Royal Veil, investigation I guess

[mementomoritz]

[As Veil turns the corner into the next aisle, she'll encounter what seems to be a... fort?]

[Someone has built up stacks and stack of various books into some kind of small but surprisingly architecturally sound hut, interspaced with cushions and blankets from the sitting area. Slowly, Medic's face peeks up from above the front wall.]

Hello! I unlive here now.

[She's so happy.]

Hope | OTA!

[herowalksalone]

[As soon as cognition returns to him, Hope finds himself blinking a few times, then tilting his head, then getting a good look around. It's not that he's anywhere new -- he's familiar with the scenery, at least -- but something has changed. It's like everything is cast in a new light. Have those buildings always had such ornate windows? Has his clothing always been so different than the others'? He'd never noticed, and it fills him with a mixture of being weirded out and a dull dread.

For now, he will wander the streets, taking in all the details that he'd missed during his stay in Limbo. He'll also be watching for anyone else he spots with unusual clothing, because they might know something too.

Once he sees someone, he'll watch them for a while. If he goes unnoticed, or the observed motions or calls him over, he will approach and ask,] Excuse me. Have you noticed a change recently? [He looks around.] In everything.

[beknights]

[ They've gained enough of their bearings that they can handle being approached by people again. They're easy to watch, at least; they're six foot tall and distinctly inhuman, which makes them stand out. Blending in is a near-impossibility, so they just...don't.

They listen carefully to his words, head tilting, and then give him an affirming nod in answer. Yes, they're aware. There seem to be a lot of people becoming 'aware' in a short period of time, and they wonder why that is. ]

[phantasmagorial]

[ Once the Yell Squad has done their thing and started, well, yelling at folks, the sword girl slinks off, presumably to go find them some seats at the coffee bar.

And as promised, once the group comes swinging by later, they'll find her sat by herself at once of the larger booths, nursing a cup of tea that's long since gone cold. She's looking a little different than she was when she saved your asses down in wherever that place was and she's looking all kinds of nervous, too. ]

... hi. [ She... very clearly has no idea what to do with herself. ] I don't really know where to start, but... if you have any questions then I'll do my best to answer them. Oh, um– I'm Rei, by the way. Or at least I think so.

[ She smiles, but it's a pretty feeble smile. ]

[pioailurophobia]

Aight, I'll start.

What the hell was that monster down there, and how do we kill it?