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

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. ]

[pioailurophobia]

Oi, get off of me!

[The good news is that Kingslayer lets go of the Spectre, who mindlessly goes back to mingling with the huge crowd. The bad news is that they're still scared angry and looking for an outlet, and the crazed feeling coming off them only intensified.]

[beknights]

[ The further good (???) news is that Seal is a finely tuned anxiety machine who reacts near-instantly to any sort of feeling they perceive as negative, up to and especially including anger.

(Anger is dangerous. It's a warning that echoes in their chest, makes their scars ache.)

They let go of Kingslayer immediately, like they've been burned, backing away despite the height difference. Their stance has changed, somewhere between fight and flight, apparently incapable of settling on either. ]

[pioailurophobia]

[Fear is good. Fear means that Kingslayer is in a position of power, and they can use that.]

YOU! Tell me where we are, right... now...

[They look closer. Something about that stance, that position, it's... familiar. Kingslayer trails off, staring at Seal oddly as they try to place the feeling.]

[seasharp]

Hey!

[Here's one small teenage girl just striding up to you, Kingslayer, not at all happy with what you're doing to that Spectre there.]

Leave them alone!

[pioailurophobia]

[Kingslayer drops the Spectre.

Then turns on Sayaka.]

What the hell is your problem? I'm just trying to find out what's going on here!

[Kingslayer's voice lacks some of their characteristic bite. They don't hurt kids. Period.]

[seasharp]

You don't have to hurt them to do that! What did they ever do to you?

[pioailurophobia]

It wasn't like I started with choking them out, sheesh!

[Kingslayer crosses their arms and huffs, like a teenager who's being scolded.]

I tried interrogating these idiots without getting violent first, but they just! Won't! Respond! I could kick them in the shin and they'd keep walking!

...honestly, grabbing that one guy was more out of frustration than anything else.

Re: Kingslayer | OTA

[pride_of_amarcia]

H-hold on, I don't think that person has any more idea what's up than you or I do!

[And a girl in shorts, a t-shirt, and a scarf, is walking up to the large suit of angry-sounding armor.]

Which isn't much, I'm well aware!

[pioailurophobia]

[Mordred looks at Pascal, looks at their captive, looks at Pascal again, sighs, and drops the Spectre.]

Yeah, I figured.

This is the fourth one I've held up and the fourth one that hasn't reacted at all.

This sucks.

[pride_of_amarcia]

Yeaaaah, they're sorta. Spaced out or something? I've only seen a few people who aren't totally zoned out and just moving all creepy-like.

... Kinda like zombies or something, actually!

[pioailurophobia]

...

Aren't we zombies, if you think about it?

[Kingslayer looks legitimately concerned now.]

[alcahest]

[ there is no sense of fear or self-preservation that rises up in her at the sight of the armoured figure, at their violence and their raised voice. she isn't even aware that she's lacking something that she should feel. there is simply a faint compulsion to intervene, a gentle hand on her back that pushes her towards the situation even though she otherwise feels nothing for it.

she doesn't touch the knight. something in the back of her mind warns her that that would be bad — not for her, but for them. instead she stands there, a few inches shorter than them, her blank expression just a little determined. her voice comes out gentle, steadied not by confidence but by emptiness. ]

... They can't tell you if you're hurting them. You need to let go.

[pioailurophobia]

...

You have a point.

[Something about the Magnum Opus... it gets Kingslayer to listen. (It's the blank expression, the just-barely-not-monotone voice.) At least for a little while. They drop the Spectre, who scurries off into the crowd, and turns to face Cardia. Kingslayer folds their arms in an attempt to look intimidating. Considering their height, it probably isn't effective.]

And who the Hell are you?

[alcahest]

[ her answer is prompt and simple: ] I don't know.

[ it doesn't bother her very much, not knowing. there is an emptiness, but it just seems... ordinary. it's not a feeling of something being missing; she doesn't feel as though there was ever anything there in the first place. it makes sense that she doesn't have an answer to that question. she tilts her head to the side, guileless. apparently she's either unaffected by the intimidation attempt, or she's totally oblivious to it. ]

Why? Who are you?

1/2

[daughterofthemark]

[A knight in action! How exciting!]

2/2

[daughterofthemark]

[Wait wait no that shouldn't be her reaction here.]

Wait! Can this truly only be settled with violence?

[I mean this isn't a fight so much as an interrogation but surely she earns points for trying?]

[pioailurophobia]

...isn't that how most things are settled?

[Kingslayer seems genuinely confused.]

Re: Kingslayer | OTA

[crosscutting]

HEY!

[BALLISTIC CHILD MISSILE AIMED AND PRIMED--Pariah jumps and grabs onto Kingslayer's back, grabbing the collar guard of their armor to stay in place.]

What's wrong with you, let go of them!

[pioailurophobia]

[Good news is that Kingslayer stops choking the Spectre when Pariah tackles them, and letting them go.

Bad news is that they immediately attempt to reverse suplex Pariah into the ground, only letting up on the force when they realize that it's a kid.]

Oh, fuck-

[crosscutting]

[Good(?) news! Pariah is, for some insane reason, only slightly fazed by this! After a startled yelp, she takes that moment of pause to kick against their back, attempting to flip her body out from under the bone-shattering crunch. It...doesn't really work, but the expected crunch on impact doesn't...actually...happen? Like that hurt to be sure, but shouldn't her ribs be paste or something?]

[No time to question that, she's gonna bang on their helmet now.]

Get off!!!

[herowalksalone]

[Hope had been wandering around observing Limbo when he heard a shout. Spectres don't shout, so he finds himself running towards the crowd that has gathered around a large armored figure choking an innocent Spectre.

Innocent. The word reverberates in Hope's head as he seemingly fearlessly steps in front of the knight and looks up at them with a most serious expression.] Let that Spectre go! It can't answer you, but I can!

[His fight-or-flight instinct is screaming back and forth in his head, especially since he has no way to fight the knight. He instead stares them down and tries to be as intimidating as a teenaged boy can be, but his heart is racing.]

[pioailurophobia]

...

[Kingslayer drops the Spectre, staring at Hope with an unreadable expression.

(Which may be because they're wearing a helmet, but still.)

Then they start laughing. Guffawing ungraciously, with full-on knee-slapping and doubling over.]

Oh, man! You're really something, aren'tcha? Damn, you have BALLS!

So, alright. Okay.

I can feel your intent from here, and if you want a fight so bad...

I CAN GIVE IT TO YOU!

[Hope has a few seconds to defuse this bomb before he's caught in the blast radius.]

[herowalksalone]

[Hope furrows his brow and grits his teeth as Kingslayer mocks him. At least the Spectre is out of harm's way.

He wasn't looking for a fight, but he shouldn't be surprised at their reaction. Even so, he's gone too far to back down now. The fight-or-flight response clicks into "fight" at full gear -- he takes a defensive stance, as he has no weaponry to use, nor the strength to use his fists against such a foe. The way his body instinctively reacts surprises him a little, implying that this isn't his first battle, but he has no time to think about it.

From his position, standing tall, he still tries his hardest to seem fearless as he gives a clear reply.] No, I was only stating the truth. That Spectre has no answers for you, but I might!