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]

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.]

[beknights]

[ You can almost see their brain working furiously at the gesture despite their lack of conventional expression. They have no recognition for this gesture at all, so they have to do something inexplicably terrifying: make an actual guess.

After a moment, they curl their hand into a gentle fist, and with painstaking care they give Kingslayer the most precariously delicate of fistbumps. They are practically radiating the impression of someone watching anxiously to understand that they've done it right. ]

[pioailurophobia]

Now that's the way we do it!

[They nod vigorously, that cheerful aura still radiating from them in waves.]

[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 suspect if such a thing would deter any of us, we would still be alive.

[phantasmagorial]

I'm starting to get that impression, yes.

[ Y'ALL RECKLESS AS HELL... ]

[daughterofthemark]

Besides, if we are to be friends, I can hardly leave you to handle this task alone.

[phantasmagorial]

If you're really sure, then...

[seasharp]

Isn't it dangerous for you, too?

[phantasmagorial]

W–well, yes, but...

[ ...

She really doesn't have a good retort for that. ]

[seasharp]

Then, it sounds like you could use some help. After all, you've been doing fighting yourself, right?

Wouldn't it be better if others were fighting too?

[phantasmagorial]

... it... it would help to have more allies...

If you're really sure, then...

[pioailurophobia]

Rei, please. I died once already. Do I look like the kind of idiot who'd make the same mistake twice in a row?

[phantasmagorial]

[ AVERTING HER GAZE AND SAYING NOTHING... ]

[pioailurophobia]

So where do we sign up?

[phantasmagorial]

The thing is... an Executor's power is really meant to be shared. Rather than working alone, it's something we're supposed to do as a group. So, if you're willing to agree... then all I'd have to do is grant you that power.

... I think. This is my first time doing this...

[pioailurophobia]

So we're making an oath to work together in exchange for power?

Man, I don't know if I'd do well in a group...

But I'm willing to give it a shot.

Then how about we start this whole ritual thing!

[mementomoritz]

Ooh, can I document it? For science? [She's been scribbling notes this whole time. She's already covered an entire stack of napkins with information, theories, and doodles.]

I also want to do it, but I can write it down, right?

[daughterofthemark]

[Just takes Rei's hands, nbd.]

I look forward to working together with you.

[crosscutting]

But it's dangerous for you too, right? It can't be easy to fight all on your own like that.

Besides, what else are we gonna do?

[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!