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

[pioailurophobia]

Lion! [As the creature rains its massive fists onto Lion, panic flares in Kingslayer's chest. They are not letting one of the only people in this whole mess who they actually liked get killed! Kingslayer springs into action, aiming to tackle the creature from the side to divert its strike, and-

The monster's attention is taken by a petite girl yelling at the group with fear clear in her eyes. Now that was a trick Kingslayer would like to learn, but more importantly...]

No way am I leaving this thing alone! If it gets loose, it'll attack the populace, and as dumb as the Spectres are they don't deserve to get torn apart by this freak.

Plus Shorty, [Kingslayer has no room to talk here,] has a point. Even with your fancy tricks, taking on an absolute beast like this on your own is a dangerous proposition. And anyways, I'm a fighter. I'm not gonna back down from a challenge!

So why don't you STOP WASTING YOUR TIME ON YELLING AT US AND HELP ME OUT SO WE CAN RIP THIS THING APART! [They say while yelling.]

[crypddyd]

[That... well that hurt! He scurries out of the way thanks to the stranger's save, spitting out.... sparkly black glitter stuff????

Welp, that's... well is it weird? He's not sure if something else is supposed to be coming out, but it does feel Incorrect somehow.]

I'm fine!... and listen to her- we're just distracting her at this point. She'll fight better if we're out of the way!

[She looks so small, but if just one shot could stagger the beast then.... she was clearly above their level. he hates it, but he doesn't doubt it one bit]

[schardynfreude]

We can always close the entrance back up! We're seriously outmatched here, and we don't know what we're doing.

[He books his way back, somewhat uneasily given the perpetual feeling of Which Way Is Up, to the stairs, a few steps up it, before he half-turns to look back at the others.] We need to fall back and regroup.

[phantasmagorial]

[ lmao y'all think she's gonna fight this thing? That's a solid nope.

With a quick wave of her hand, she pelts the creature with more ice, but it's pretty clear now that her trajectory is aimed squarely at the staircase. ]

Just hurry and run! None of us stand a chance down here right now but if we get back to town I can seal the way here back up!

[crosscutting]

[Pariah looks from Rei to YM and back again, and grits her teeth. She hates this, but if there's no fighting it--]

[She bolts and makes a beeline for the stairs, keeping an eye behind her to make sure the others are all keeping up.]

[pioailurophobia]

I'm not backing d-

[And then they notice Lion coughing up that odd glitter, and the sheer force of that thing's blow, and how badly even they got beaten by just one punch, and-

They couldn't let him get hurt even more here. Not when he was one of the only ones to actually respect them at all after they woke up.]

Fine. Let's go.

[They swiftly move to Kingslayer's side, helping him towards the stairs.]

C'mon. We don't have any time to waste.

[crypddyd]

[Once they have him proped he smiles weakly.]

In our defense, I think it was a good plan?

[Let's run... awkwardly, but still running]

[schardynfreude]

[If you can call diving in head first without communicating first a plan, but that's none of his business. At the moment. Please nobody fall off the sides!!! Please!!! He gets up to near the top, doesn't go far enough to get out of sight just to make sure nobody gets left behind.

It's likely he's not the only one with a habit of 'everyone else first me last' so if people are gonna make an issue of him hanging back he'll go, but like, please at least let's get the injured guy out first before he pops back up topside.]

[phantasmagorial]

[ As the group scrambles their way up, the small girl brings up the rear, hurrying everyone along as fast as she can. The instant they're back up in Limbo, she flings herself up onto the fountain and clambers up onto it so she can seal the stairway back up. She yanks the sword out and as she does, the whole fountain groans back to life and shudders jerkily over the stairway again.

... unfortunately for the girl, between pulling out the sword and the fountain jerking into motion, she totters to one side, loses her balance and... plops straight into the water. Kersplash. ]

[pioailurophobia]

[Kingslayer pushes Lion up through the gap first. He's the one who needs medical attention, not them. But after that? Yeah, they're more than happy to leave Your Majesty and Pariah in the dust.

Taking in a deep, rattling breath, Kingslayer enjoys the decidedly stationary sights and sounds of Limbo for a few moments, glad to be out of that (literal?) hellhole.

They walk towards the girl, hand extended as if to help her up...

...and they take the sword instead, testing its weight in their grip.]

I'll be taking this.

[crosscutting]

[...really??]

[Pariah glares at Kingslayer before climbing in to help Rei back up, looking for any obvious wounds.]

Are you okay?

[crypddyd]

Ngh... thank you.

[he lowers himself down to rest against the fountain... but once the keyblade is taken it moves and he just flops over]

...ah.

[phantasmagorial]

N–no, you can't...

[ She sounds thoroughly exhausted, and she has to lean a little on Pariah to climb back to her feet. ]

I'm.... I'm fine, but I don't understand– how did all of you...? W–why were you down there?!

[pioailurophobia]

Because we woke up in a bizarre afterlife with no memory of who we are and only the knowledge that we're dead. What were we supposed to do, NOT investigate the weird stuff and go down the hell stairs?

[schardynfreude]

[There's So Much happening, but if Pariah's got the girl, then he's going for Lion, kneeling by his head to prop his upper body into his lap.] You took a nasty blow there. Are you all right? I don't...know if this place has anything like a hospital.

[He also doesn't know if they can die after already being dead? Hm. He gives a hard look over at the armored one. Gods, do they ever calm down?] He and I were attempting to fix the fountain. And then the stairwell opened up. I think you'll find a number of us are not the mindless souls wandering about up here if you're familiar with the area.

So yes. We found the sword. Which, [addressed to Kingslayer] I very much doubt belongs to you.

[crypddyd]

[He's a little dazed at being propped up a little and blushes from embarrassment]

Don't fret too much- if this is anything to go by-

[He gestures to his eyepatch]

-I must be used to this type of damage... or was used to?

[mementomoritz]

[There's a muffled noise, somewhere off in the distance, rapidly getting louder. Is that the sound of... footsteps?]

Did somebody say there were injuries?! [Medic sprints into the square, skids to a halt, catches herself on the edge of the fountain to keep from falling over, and shouts out her question all in one breath. She doesn't even pause.] Hello yes hi, where's the patient, please show me immediately.

[I'm so fucking sorry about her.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Royal Veil arrives shortly after from the same direction, cheerful as always.]

Good evening.

[Is it evening? Who even knows.]

[crypddyd]

ALl this fuss over me. I'm fine, I promise!

[There's a little glitter on his lips still, but it's fine]

[mementomoritz]

[Wrong thing to say, Medic is now immediately leaning over him to examine the potential injuries.]

Ooh, are you bleeding glitter? That's fascinating! Can I have a sample? Also, please rate your pain on a scale of one to five, five being the worst.

[crypddyd]

This sparkly stuff? Yes, I coughed it up... though I would rather not cough up more. And hm... a 3?

[daughterofthemark]

It's pretty! Did you eat something special to achieve that effect?

[sigh.]

[crypddyd]

I had some fried corn?

[He means popcorn]

[daughterofthemark]

Truly, the corn of the dead is amazing.

[Apparently she's just... like this.]

[mementomoritz]

[Just pulling out a napkin from the coffee bar, using it to wipe off some of the glitterblood, and stowing it away in her pocket.]

I don't think corn does that, but I don't know a lot of things, so who's to say. [Maybe the afterlife has sparklecorn. She'd accept that.] It definitely looks like bleeding, though!

[Sadly, her general knowledge doesn't include the ability to use her healing powers, but it does include a basic understanding of first aid, which is a pleasant surprise to her as much as anyone else.]

[Looking Lion over with a practiced eye, what's she going to find?]