Magical Lotus - Episode 1 (Complete)

[Oldmansour]

>"She still exists, I am certain. She is, after all, a part of me."

>Shikako answers, "Yes and no. It's more like, she was a potential you. She was, or is, as much YOU as YOU are. Merely the you that chose to dwell in the darkness, rather than the you that chose to dwell in the light."
>Kogasa: "The you that dwells in this place. It's possible that, had Byakuren chose the darkness, SHE would be the one to leave this place, and neither YOU, nor us, would exist. Unless of course, we'd exist within her."
>Reisen: "On the other hand, the dark is alone, a barren, empty place. If she'd been the one to win, it's a decent bet we wouldn't be here to speculate about it."
>Marissa: "Whereas you've rejected her, but you also accepted her as part of yourself, even if it's only as a part that exists to be conquored."

>Examine the scepter. Are we getting any sort of idea of how to use this power we're supposed to have now? If we don't: "Can anyone here aid me in the use of this power?" If we do: "If there is nothing more to be done here, then I must go now and save my friend. How would I go about leaving this place?"

>Reimu continues, "But of course, that debate can wait. You've got another issue."
>Turning the violet-colored rod over in your hand offers no great insight as to how it's supposed to empower you. Fortunately, you are in the right place to ask for insights, and, fittingly enough, Rin replies to you. "The power of the word is as prime here as it was when you were lost in the dark. There are words you must say, a phrase, a 'charm', if you will, that will give you the power to save the world, and open the way out of this one."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Then I must say these words. Can you tell me what they are, or must I find them on my own?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Then I must say these words. Can you tell me what they are, or must I find them on my own?"

>As if in answer to your question, you feel words in your thoughts, words coming to your lips as though you bid them there yourself. And those words are-

Parser's box: And this is where I give you, the players, a choice in the matter. You can either make your own phrase, or go with the 'default', which is "Lotus Purity Ascension". The choice is yours.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I'm all out of bubblegum"
>"Girl! I wanna take ya to a gay bar!"
>"Goddamnit Lancer"
>The default shall work fine.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Works for me.

>"Lotus Purity Ascention."

[Oldmansour]

>"Lotus Purity Ascention."

>You speak the words, but not alone. Hundreds of voices of the people around you join in, a chorus of sound. Rin, Marissa and Myoren transform into humanoid-shaped figures of multi-hued light, all the colors of the rainbow and more. Without even looking, you know the crowd has done the same. Those lights then elongate and fly towards you, encircling you in a rainbow of light. Ribbons of light reach out from the pillair surrounding you, encircling your torso. Then your wrists, then legs, then feet, then neck. It is a strange sensation, almost like being covered by butterfly wings, a blanket of pure light.
>The lights remain on your person for no more than a handful of seconds, before blinking out in a shower of multihued droplets that fade away around you, leaving a fairly odd by most standards outfit in its place. A magical change in clothes is bizzare enough, but the accompanying surge of power is even odder. You feel like you could juggle cars, and spring to the top of a building with but a hop. You've never felt stronger, more alive!
>From all around you the voices of your heart return, joined this time by others, many others, countless others. Like a chorus of millions of voices raising cheer at the coming of their hero, the ascent of the chosen one, standing forth to face the evil in the name of all that is right and good.

>The curtain of light around you fades suddenly, revealing the schoolyard landscape before you. It seems you've returned to whence you came, somehow. The little doll is still sitting at your feet, but it looks different now. She wears a black dress now, with a red bow, and her hair is long and black with blue streaks now. Her face is still expressionless, but you think can detect a hint of surprise in her voice when she says, "Such light... Such power... More than I expected at this point."
>The yellow-skinned creature, which your counterpart referred to as a Youma, is still present, and has Rin trapped in one of those gold hoops. But that only last about a second after it looks at you, before it throws its hands in front of its face and shreiks, staggering backwards. The ring around Rin's body vanishes, and she drops to the ground with an audible thud.

[Hello Purvis]

>Take a moment to get our bearings, all that light and noise has to have done a number on our senses.
>Does the Youma seem to be doing anything other than cowering?
>Do we still have the spectre scepter?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Get between the Youma and Rin.
>Does it look like it's going to attack, or flee, or anything?
>Do we still have that ring? We dropped it in that vision thing, but that may not have been the actual,, physical ring.

[Oldmansour]

>Take a moment to get our bearings, all that light and noise has to have done a number on our senses.

>Between the light, the noise, the dark, the noise, the.... just about everything that's happened over the past however-long that internal battle was, you decide to take a couple seconds to reorient yourself to the physical world. Everything appears to be in working order. In fact, you feel better than perfect. There appears to be something a little... off, about your vision, but nothing you can put your finger on at the moment.

>Does the Youma seem to be doing anything other than cowering?

>Cowering AND screaming. Its voice is horribly distorted, almost echoing back on itself after every syllable, but you think you can discern "Too bright! Too bright!" over and over.

>Do we still have the spectre scepter?

>Do we still have that ring? We dropped it in that vision thing, but that may not have been the actual,, physical ring.

>The violet-hued staff is indeed still in your hand. However, so is the ring you put on before this sleigh ride began. The gem on it, however, is no longer black, but a beautiful shade of white, and it is no longer cold to the touch.

>Get between the Youma and Rin.
>Does it look like it's going to attack, or flee, or anything?

>You move forward, stepping over the doll on your way. Your body feels strange, somehow. Charged, would be the way you'd describe it. Bristling with energy. This makes the Youma shreik even louder, then she seems to trip over her own feet, falling backwards. Her body makes an echoing metallic sound as it hits the ground, as if she were hollow. There is definately something different about her to your eyes, but you can't make out what, or why. You take this opportunity to place yourself between Rin and the Youma. Rin emits a soft moan as you come nearer to her.

[Hello Purvis]

>Look at the Youma, and say, "What you are doing won't help you."
>Concentrate, see if we can dim the light a little for it. We're not going to learn anything if it's just shrieking.

[Oldmansour]

>Concentrate, see if we can dim the light a little for it. We're not going to learn anything if it's just shrieking.

>You focus, and try to dim the light that causing your enemy such panic. You see no increase nor decrease in the surrounding illumination, so she must be responding to something else, beyond simple sight. Your efforts meet with little success, however, as the creature continues to flail and try to move back from you, alternating whimpers and shreiks.

>Look at the Youma, and say, "What you are doing won't help you."

>Nothing in the creatures' vocalizations seems to indicate a response. Or even that it understands you. The doll behind you, however, offers some advice. "You can't reason with it. I said that a few seconds ago, didn't I? It's an unstable existance, an improvised weapon. It barely has any concept of self, beyond the misery it was in before, and the misery it's in now. You'll have to deal with it more directly."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I do not accept that so easily,"
>If it is trying to get away, see if we can maneuver its back to a wall and cut off any escape.
>To the Youma: "You spoke to  me once. You understood me to a degree. Talk to me again. The light hurts, but that pain means you are not alone or forgotten. I remember you. I won't hurt you, take all the time you need to gather yourself, and speak to me. Speak, and be remembered."

[Oldmansour]

>If it is trying to get away, see if we can maneuver its back to a wall and cut off any escape.

>At the moment, it may be trying to get away, but it's not really going anywhere. It's almost like it doesn't know how to move, now that it's on the ground. It just keeps flailing, barely moving inches.

>"I do not accept that so easily,"
>To the Youma: "You spoke to  me once. You understood me to a degree. Talk to me again. The light hurts, but that pain means you are not alone or forgotten. I remember you. I won't hurt you, take all the time you need to gather yourself, and speak to me. Speak, and be remembered."

>You continue to try and coerce the creature into speaking to you. You're not certain the wretched thing can even hear you over the sound of its own shreiking, at least at first. Then it stops, and with a distinct creaking sound, it turns its head to look at you. A sickly brown liquid flows from her eye sockets, reeking of something you're not quite sure you want to put a name to. "Brightbrightbrightbright" it stammers, over and over, before reaching a creaking hand out towards you. "Hurts... Threw me away.... Wasn't ready for youmeyouheryou."
>"I said you had to deal with it more directly, I didn't say you had to destroy it." the doll chides you. "If this was a better made weapon, that might be necessary. But with this one, you're quite able to purge it, rather than eradicate it. At least I'm fairly sure, if I'm right about you. You'd rather heal it than destroy it, wouldn't you?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.

>"If I remember right, that means 'yes.'" the doll replies. "In that case, you need to remove its dark heart. That's the source of its misery. Although I admit, I'm not certain you can see it. You should be seeing though different eyes, now. Look at it carefully, not just with your eyes. With your heart. See to the core of its suffering."

[Hello Purvis]

>Try to look at it, but not quite at it, but rather through it, as though we were actually looking at something behind it. Don't focus on the details of the Youma.

[Oldmansour]

>Try to look at it, but not quite at it, but rather through it, as though we were actually looking at something behind it. Don't focus on the details of the Youma.

>You closely at the creauture, but also try to unfocus your eyes at the same time, to see beyond the flesh. Or whatever that thing has for flesh. Your vision of the youma changes as you look closer, and you see a visible aura radiating from it, a sickly hue of purple. Within the yellowish outline of the creature you see a tiny sphere of... something, you're not sure what. A translucent loop, but more interesting is the black nodule resting atop it. This ebon pustule pulsates with an ugly light, it almost hurts your eyes to look directly at it, and you have no doubt at all that this is what the doll was talking about by the dark heart.

[Hello Purvis]

>"How do I heal this?"

[Oldmansour]

>"How do I heal this?"

>"Your power is love, and you can externalize that love by focusing your will, your emotion, though that staff of yours. If your desire to purfiy that thing is strong enough, and I suspect it is, then point your scepter at it, call upon the love in your heart, and speak the words to destroy the seed of evil."
>"Oh, right, the words. Think of them as a kind of 'charm', a touchstone for focusing and unleashing your powers. The words themselves are your choice."

Parser's Box: Choice #2, people. Default choice for your healing attack, "Violet Lotus: Karma Purification". But feel free to make up your own, if you see fit..

[Hello Purvis]

>Shit, if we're going Buddhist style, let's go Buddhist style.
>"Realization of the Wandering."

[Oldmansour]

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that term. Would you be so kind as to enlighten me?

[Hello Purvis]

Translation of Samsara. Understanding the concept is a fairly critical step.

[Oldmansour]

Ooh, I like that.
But would you object to prefixing it with 'Violet Lotus'? I had an idea for that to be a common theme in your powers, but that's up to you folks.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Violent Lotus: Realization of the Wandering."

[Oldmansour]

>"Violent Lotus: Realization of the Wandering."

>Giving your scepter a quick twirl, leaving faint trails of pink and purple light in its wake, you point it at the weeping youma and intone your healing charm. The petals of the stylized lotus at the end of the staff glow gently, and a beam of pale lavender light emerges from the flower. This beam strikes the youma in the chest, and suffuses her with its light, her yellow skin turning color to match your power. She stiffens, touches the part of her chest where the beam touches, and then closes her eyes, smiling, the violet light growing brighter around her. "The light.... takes me...." For the first time, she sounds peaceful, almost serene, and then her form vanishes completely amidst the light.
>When the light fades, the youma is gone, and you hear a small metallic tinking sound on the ground, a small gold ring present where the creature once stood. Of the nodule of darkness within her, only a couple very thin wisps of oily substance remain, hanging in the air, circling each other.
>"It actually worked." the doll says from behind you. "Not bad, for your first time."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Examine that ring, with both old and new senses.
>If we can't detect anything dark, pick it up.

[Hello Purvis]

>"What happened to it?"

[Oldmansour]

>Examine that ring, with both old and new senses.
>If we can't detect anything dark, pick it up.

>Neither your 'light vision' nor your 'vision vision' reveal anything beyond the ordinary about the ring. It seems to be a simple loop of gold, plain and unadorned by any jewel. No sense of dark, of life, of anything. Crossing the field, you approach and scoop it off the ground. Once it's in your hand, you get a vague of something at the edge of your 'new' vision as you look at the ring, but you can't quite make it out without focusing.

>"What happened to it?"

>"You're looking at it." the doll answers. "That's it real form. You s-" Her voice cuts off abrubtly as the wisps of darkness emit an odd noise, a kind of pulsing sound. They then accelerate their spinning. "That might be a problem."

[Hello Purvis]

>Observe this darkness with both forms of vision.

[Oldmansour]

>Observe this darkness with both forms of vision.

>Your second sight shows you something interesting about those shards, now that they are free from their physical shell. As impossible as this might sound, they appear to be physical manifestations of grief, of pain made real. And they appear to be in a hurry, because they rocket up into the sky after a couple seconds. Following them, you see a giant bat in the sky above you, must be the size of an eagle up there, colored black and green. You can see its eyes from here are glowing a malevolent greenish color, and you'd swear it was sneering down at you. The wisps of darkness dissapear after they circle the bat once, and it exchanges a look with the doll.
>"Small victories." it calls down at the doll, its voice harsh, like sandpaper on skin.
>"A victory nevertheless." the doll responds, sounding a little more smug that before. The bat snorts derisively, then fixes its evil eyes on you.
>"Just what do you hope to accomplish, little human?"