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

[phantasmagorial]

No, I won't let you.

[ And it's as simple as that, going by her no-nonsense tone. ]

If you went down there by yourself, even if you were prepared to fight, there's no way you'd be able to protect yourself from all the Revenants. If you defeated one of them, there'd be another in its place ready to take you apart.

The only reason I'm able to fight them is because I'm an Executor. ... and even then, I wasn't strong enough...

[pioailurophobia]

...

[Even Kingslayer isn't arrogant enough to think they can take on Rei in their current state.

Emphasis on "current."]

Fine. How do I become an Executor?

[phantasmagorial]

Well, you–

[ Then, as if catching up to what they've said, Rei stumbles across her words in surprise. ]

You'd– want to become an Executor?

[mementomoritz]

Why wouldn't we? I'd like to!

[phantasmagorial]

[ SOUNDING IMMENSELY DISTRESSED: ]

You don't even know what an Executor is...!

[mementomoritz]

Yes, please tell me! I really, really want to know! [Totally oblivious to the distress here, she needs knowledge. Please. She needs it to unlive.]

[phantasmagorial]

You're way too excited about this...

[ But she sighs and acquiesces. ]

Executors... we exist to maintain peace and order here in Purgatory. That means protecting the Specters here so they can go on to their next lives safely and making sure Revenants don't end up hurting people, or even destroying them. ... At least, that's what I remember, anyway.

[mementomoritz]

People tell me that a lot! [Not even remotely concerned about this, apparently...]

That sounds nice, I'd like to do that.

[schardynfreude]

Some people, [with a Glance to the rowdy person in armor] seem to have an impulse for fighting. But so long as the stairway is closed, there's no need to fight, is there?

[phantasmagorial]

... I really wish that was the case, but...

I have to make my way further down, no matter what.

[schardynfreude]

Ah...? That sounds like quite the undertaking. You mean it goes even further down than that? Whatever for?

[phantasmagorial]

Because there's something wrong here. You can all feel it too, can't you? Even if you don't really understand what it is.

But it's because the Cogs of Renewal have stopped working.

[crosscutting]

So everything is...stalled?

[mementomoritz]

Renewal... [Something clicks in her mind.] Like reincarnation? You said Spectres that don't move on become monsters, can they not move on anymore?

[daughterofthemark]

Do you suppose that could be related to what happened to us as well? Because the machine is not functioning properly?

[phantasmagorial]

That's right. Usually, as soon as we arrived here, we all should've been making our way down through the different layers of Purgatory, letting go of our sins from our past lives... then, once we reaches the Cogs of Renewal, we'd be reborn into our new lives.

... but as you can see, that hasn't happened.

[pioailurophobia]

Fighting monsters seems way better than just sitting on my ass all day and waiting to "move on," whatever that even means.

Plus...

If a couple of dumbasses like us could do it, there's a chance one of the Spectres could solve that puzzle again, go down there, and get themselves killed. If we left all this alone, that would be on us.

[phantasmagorial]

It's dangerous, though. We wouldn't just be fighting that one Revenant... there'd be plenty more, and who knows what else the further down we go.

[pioailurophobia]

So?

I died in this armor, as far as I can tell. I'm a fighter, so let me fight! Hell, if I'm outnumbered, that's even better. Gives me more of a chance to show off.

[beknights]

[ Seal hasn't moved much since they came in. Mostly they've been listening, attentively.

Rei expresses her problem, and there is a response for that problem, and Seal tilts their head to the side, and they remember something said to them very recently.

They gesture to Kingslayer, and then to everyone else, including themselves, in a motion that would be sweeping if it wasn't Seal trying to take up as little space as possible with it.

Then, one word. This one is new, something they're not used to communicating. ]

« Allies? »

[pioailurophobia]

[Kingslayer pauses for a moment, then turns to Seal. Although their faceplate is expressionless (just like the bug's), Seal gets the impression that their face would be split wide with a smile if they could see it right now.]

Hell yes. Allies.

[They hold their fist up for Seal to bump, careful to hold it back to make it clear that they're not about to punch them.]

[mementomoritz]

Allies it is! [Medic looks absolutely delighted.]

[phantasmagorial]

[ For a moment, Rei just looks speechless. Letting them all in on what she knew was one thing but having them suddenly jump to wanting to help was quite another. ]

B–but it... it's dangerous. I don't know what's further down. I can't guarantee any of you would be safe.

[daughterofthemark]

I agree. I feel this is something I cannot leave alone, especially if my friends are involved.

[seasharp]

Yeah, allies! I like the sound of that!