Magical Lotus - Episode 1 (Complete)

[Oldmansour]

>Oh crap, are we hearing voices?

>If they are, you at least have a sense of the source of this one. Despite your blurred vision, you can clearly see a little doll on the ground in front of you. You're not certain how you know, but you're almost certain it was the one speaking to you.

[Hello Purvis]

>"What?"

[Oldmansour]

>"What?"

>"Ah, good, you can hear me. That was quite a blow you sustained, I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait. But as I said, you won't be able to talk to that creature. You're going to need power to fight it. And I can give you that power."

[Hello Purvis]

>Does it look like the one we touched before.
>"What?"

[Oldmansour]

>Does it look like the one we touched before.

>It looks indentical to the one you touched before.

>"What?"

>The little doll moves its little arm, reaching into its dress and pulling out a purple-colored ring. A ring that looks about large enough to fit on your finger.
>"I can give you the power you need to save your friend. Save the world, even."

[Hello Purvis]

>On one hand, we have exactly negative reason to trust this doll. On the other, we also don't have time.
>How are Rin and the stranger doing?

[Oldmansour]

>On one hand, we have exactly negative reason to trust this doll. On the other, we also don't have time.
>How are Rin and the stranger doing?

>Time certainly does seem to be something you have precious little of. You still cannot see all that clearly (except, oddly, for the doll in front of you and her ring) but as nearly as you can determine, the yellow skinned woman has Rin trapped in another of those rings, and whatever it was doing to Kyouko, it is currently doing to your helpless friend.

[Hello Purvis]

>Well, worse comes to worse, it would get us and not Rin, and we've already kind of made peace with that idea when we started.
>"Give it to me."

[Oldmansour]

>Well, worse comes to worse, it would get us and not Rin, and we've already kind of made peace with that idea when we started.

>Your courage and nobility are to be admired.

>"Give it to me."

>Although the expression on the doll's face does not change, you swear you canhear it smile happily when it replies, "Thank you, Byakuren Hijiri. I knew you would be the hope of the world." The doll extends the ring to you. "Place it upon your finger, and know power beyond even the Youkai and the Oni. Power to save the people and the world you love."

[Hello Purvis]

>Follow these directions. Try not to think too hard about how frightening those kinds of words actually are.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Does the voice sound like 'Marisa''s?

Why did nobody think to ask that?

[Hello Purvis]

It wouldn't be IC at this immediate point and time?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

You don't think that in this situation, Byakuren would recognize the voice of the person who told her she'd have to fight creatures like this one?

[Hello Purvis]

No? Given it's a life or death situation, as far as we can tell, she's been knocked around, and so on, she's not really going to be doing vocal analysis of something she heard in a dream. She's not a computer, she's going to be worrying about other things in this kind of situation.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

I'm not thinking of any sort of 'analysis', just her recognizing a voice she recently heard. But, well, it's not really important at this moment, so let's just move on with the quest, shall we?

[Oldmansour]

>Does the voice sound like 'Marisa''s?

>The two sound quite distinct from each other.

>Follow these directions. Try not to think too hard about how frightening those kinds of words actually are.

>You take the ring from the little doll. It's a pale lavender, quite a pretty shade, with a single white cut stone set in. You also not not to think too hard about the ominious undertone you can detect in the words. The ring fits perfectly on the index finger of your right hand, and you slip in on.
>The instant you do, an inky blackness swims within the stone, blotting it out. You have a strange sensation of falling, of lurching backwards, as if the wall behind you had vanished. In fact, everything around you has vanished, swallowed by blackness. There is no ground, no sky, no scent, no sight. Only empty blackness surrounding you.

>Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 1.

[Hello Purvis]

>Don't panic.
>Don't panic!
>Try to see something, anything?
>Are we actually aware of this corruption thinger?

[Oldmansour]

>Don't panic.
>Don't panic!
>Try to see something, anything?

>You do your best to keep a lid on your mounting alarm, and manage to have some success. You look about you in any direction, and see nothing but darkness everywhere you look. It seems more than merely an absence of light, but almost a physical thing, surrounding you like a bleak curtain. You can, however, see yourself perfectly, but nothing else. Only blackness.

>Are we actually aware of this corruption thinger?

>At the moment, you feel nothing out of the ordinary about yourself. Well, nothing beyond a sense of fear, but that can easily be explained by your current situation.

>Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 2.

[Hello Purvis]

>Take a few steadying breaths. There is air here, right?
>"I can't be here right now. I assume someone has done this, and I need to go back. Afterward, we can do this again."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>If that doesn't get a response: If the darkness seems like it's a physical thing surrounding us, try to walk through it.

[Oldmansour]

>Take a few steadying breaths. There is air here, right?

>There does appear to be air here, and you take several inhalations to stready yourself. It does help calm your nerves, but the air seems odd here, somehow. Too thick, somehow, as though you were drinking the air rather than breathing it, could almost taste the darkness itself.

>"I can't be here right now. I assume someone has done this, and I need to go back. Afterward, we can do this again."

>You send your words out into the darkness, hoping that someone, something, will hear you. But your voice sounds hollow, your words swallowed by the blackness around you. You sense a strange sensation coming back at you after you speak, but the descripition of this sense defies your best efforts.

>If that doesn't get a response: If the darkness seems like it's a physical thing surrounding us, try to walk through it.

>You decide to set this sensation to one side for the moment, and rise to your feet. There does appear to be ground here, or at least, your feet are upon something solid. You take an experimental step forward. You feel a wispy sensation on your face and arms, almost like touching cobwebs.

>Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 3.

[Hello Purvis]

>Ponder if this is another illusion of the doll's, and try to will it away. Try to see through the darkness, to the proper world that is presumably being cloaked by it.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Keep moving forward while doing so.
>Can we feel any of the power the ring is supposed to be giving us?

[Oldmansour]

>Ponder if this is another illusion of the doll's, and try to will it away. Try to see through the darkness, to the proper world that is presumably being cloaked by it.

>You consider the possibilty that this is another vision given to you by the doll, and attempt to force it away, to get back to reality. To your surprise, the blackness around you almost seems to ripple for a moment at the act, and a hissing sound assaults your ear. You squint your eyes and try to see through the veil of darkness to the world beyond. Although you can see no sign of the schoolyard, you have the distinctly uncomfortable sensation that something in the darkness is looking back at you.

>Keep moving forward while doing so.
>Can we feel any of the power the ring is supposed to be giving us?

>You continue on through the darkness, the sensation of moving through cobwebs getting more and more pronounced as you go. You swear you can almost see visible wisps of black.... stuff falling off your arms. Your feet make no sound upon the ground as you walk, if indeed it is ground beneath your feet. You feel no sense of power at all, from the ring or otherwise. In fact, just the opposite, you feel almost powerless. Thus far today, you've had a disturbing vision of a world not your own, an extended conversation with an otherworldly being who posed dire warnings about the future of your world, and who almost seemed to be judging your people, then a yellow-skinned creature attacks your schoolmate, your friend and yourself, and you could do nothing to her. And now, here you are. Engulfed by a black sea, with no escape, no sound, nothing but you. Alone. In the dark.

>Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 5
>You feel a cold tingle run down your spine.

[Hello Purvis]

Fight smarter, not harder.

>Can we tell anything about that presence that was looking at us? Either way, continue to try to part the black sea, to speak. There's no time for this.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>And fight those feelings of despair. No giving up.
>Look at the ring; does it seem to be doing anything?

[Oldmansour]

>And fight those feelings of despair. No giving up.

>You call upon your reserves on inner strength to ward off the darkening thoughts surfacing within. Sure, you've had one monstroudly bizzarre day, but you're not about to crawl into a corner and take it lying down! Assuming this place even has corners...

>Look at the ring; does it seem to be doing anything?

>You glance at the violet band upon your finger, and the currently black stone set therein. The stone seems somehow to blend into the darkness around you, as though the two were connected somehow. It's strange, though, seeing it sitting on your finger. Like a hole, almost. A fathomless void resting on your tiny little hand, a little sliver of this place you've made your own.... You tear your eyes away from the stone as that thought creeps into your mind, but you find them drifting almost unconsciouslessly back to it now and again.

>Can we tell anything about that presence that was looking at us? Either way, continue to try to part the black sea, to speak. There's no time for this.

>You continue moving forward, if such a term can be used in a place like this, and try to ascertain something about the being observed feeling you're experiencing. But there is nothing to be seen, in any direction, no eyes, no people, no animals, only a murky darkness surrounding you, despite the increasing sense of haste you feel.
>Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Perhaps it's a trick of your eyes, or perhaps they are becoming adjusted to the dark, but you think, for a moment, you can almost make out ripples in the darkness before you, behind you, around you, as though there were figures moving behind a great curtain surrounding you.

> Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 7.

[Hello Purvis]

>I meant in the sense of resisting the illusion rather than accepting it ;_;
>Can we tell if those figures seem to correspond to Rin and the Stranger's positions, or motions?

[Oldmansour]

>I meant in the sense of resisting the illusion rather than accepting it ;_;

>Are you so certain this is illusion?

>Can we tell if those figures seem to correspond to Rin and the Stranger's positions, or motions?

>They seem to be coming from all around you, so there has to be more than simply those two, if indeed Rin and the stranger are even out there at all. The sense of being observed is stronger, now, as though more eyes are upon you. And more than just eyes. Sounds now come at you from the murky blackness, strange sounds. Almost like a chorus of whispers, hundreds, thousands of voices, speaking to each other in hushed tones. They surround you, circle you, persistant whispers, the breath of the blackness itself.
>And yet, despite the ominousness of this noise around you, the whispers in the darkness, you swear you can hear Rin's voice among them. You catch snatches of her voice, something like "...ank you en.... id you wan...."

>Byakuren Hijiri Corruption Score: 8.

[Hello Purvis]

>"There is no time for this. My friend needs me, right now. Please let me go, we can discuss whatever you need later tonight. Right now is too important, I am sorry."