Hi everyone! You might have seen this coming by now.
Despite Enma's words, unfortunately, I'm here to announce that Lotus Underground is coming to an end today. We've decided that this is for the best--none of the planned beats later on in the story will hit right at the pace the rp is going.
Just want to make it clear that there are no heavy feelings here! Life happens to everyone, and this is, ultimately, just an rp. It's just better to formally put this at a close. The main and rp servers will remain up for everyone's access.
I want to thank everyone for their interest in the game and your participation! If you've made it this far, I'd especially like to thank you. And a lot of love and thanks as well to my comods, Ash and Mae.
Creating Lotus and its world was a lot of fun--just writing those areas was basically just going through tourism page. I enjoyed my time with it, and would still love to play with everyone somewhere else, someday.
As for myself, I'll be taking a break from main modding for a while, but I'm far from discouraged and am already cooking some things. I hope that you'll take a look in the future!
It seems like the violence continues, even as the void fades and you are brought back into reality by the train coming to a stop.
Enma's in your sight, biting into a konpeito. "Expected it to taste worse," she raises her brows before smiling at all of you. "Good job, chumps," the nun praises you.
"What was the reward again?" she asks, crushing the candy in her mouth. "Ah, right! A single Change Appearance Coupon," the mentioned coupon appears in her hand--well, it would, if you were wearing your virtual glasses. She looks like she's just waving her hand around. But it's there! Her hand stops as she seems to realize that.
"Uh, this is legit, by the way. More than a virtual thing. I can change your actual appearance," she smiles brightly. "Text me who wants it!" Enma waves good bye, and steps out the train. "See ya later~"
You're back in Shibuya station.
That's the end of chapter 3! Another post will follow.
The lights go dark, and Kaichirou vanishes alongside the rest of the train. What reappears next is a wooden stage with velvet red drapes and bright lights shining down on it from above. The curtains are pulled after only a short moment of building tension to reveal Kaichirou standing behind.
cw: body horror, gore
The stage sits far above a void stretching infinitely below, the audience watching from a platform a small distance away. Kaichirou carries an intricate sword in white that he inspects with confusion. He twists it around to examine the details in careful curiosity- despite standing on the very stage of his execution, he seems rather relaxed. Then, the music starts.
An orchestra begins, building tension with an intense and emotional piece. Kaichirou lights up immediately, having recognized the song in question. He puts the pieces together- a beloved orchestral piece, a stage, and himself- and comes to the conclusion that here, now, he was meant to do what he did best: perform. He beams in a glittery smile while spreading his colorful wings in preparation for the swelling introduction of the piece’s main melody. But without a part to play on an instrumental piece, how would Kaichirou perform?
His answer is presented near immediately, as he hears a metallic shwing from behind him. Turning around, Kaichirou sees a grey, unidentifiable person bearing a sword pointed directly at him. His smile turns into a boastful smirk and Kaichirou readies his own sword for the performance of a lifetime.
Kaichirou moved far too fast for the featureless enemy. They barely had time to react before Kaichirou lunged forward and pierced through their grey chest with the white blade. They die immediately without fanfare, simply slumping over without a struggle. Kaichirou pushes his victim off of his sword, regarding their lifeless body with a growing grin until he’s interrupted by another metallic noise. Behind him, two more featureless grey people threaten him with swords.
The music swells with tension, and Kaichirou’s footwork matches its energy. Gracefully, Kaichirou carves through the two people, and as three more appear, Kaichirou effortlessly slashes them to pieces as well. Blood coated the stage and Kaichirou’s shoes left bloodied footprints left and right, but not a drop of blood dirtied Kaichirou’s clothes and face. He was unstained, unharmed, and unaffected by the gore and violence.
Four more enemies appear, creating another metallic noise from the swing of their blades, one by one. Kaichirou doesn’t wait for them to raise their swords before he charges at them. Extras, background characters, enemies made to be killed- Kaichirou was enjoying the violent show if only because he was the star of it, and everyone else in it didn’t matter.
More and more enemies appear, and Kaichirou would behead them just as they came into existence. But as Kaichirou continues to get carried away, laughing in glee as the blood splatters across the now-soaked wood, he fails to notice the murdered bodies moving.
Distracted by a group of enemies at stage left, on stage right the bodies begin to morph and contort together as a terrifying amalgamation of limbs and hands and feet and flesh and blood. It grows higher and higher with every body absorbed, towering over Kaichirou behind him. Kaichirou is distracted by the enemies for only a short moment as he deals his final blow when the growing shadow above him catches his attention.
It’s a monster unlike anything he’s ever seen. The smile on his face vanishes in place of a disgusted horror that builds in his stomach and begs for his lungs to shriek in terror. But Kaichirou considers himself brave, courageous, fearless- he does not scream. Instead, he readies his weapon.
He slices through the midsection of the amalgamation. It shrieks in many voices, in pain, in misery, in agony, in horror, but it does not die. Instead, it reforms in front of his eyes. Kaichirou attempts to keep his breath even, but he cannot mask the panic he feels any longer. Frantically, Kaichirou slices and dices what he can reach of the amalgamation, but it does not die. It only howls in pain.
The bodies behind him form together as he attacks the larger amalgamation, creating a mess of arms and hands that reach at him while his back is turned. All at once, they lunge at Kaichirou to restrict him from behind and hold him in place. The larger amalgamation bends towards Kaichirou while its many mouths whimper and cry, reaching a single, small arm out to him. It grabs hold of his throat and claws into his skin. Kaichirou yells in pain, but as he yells, his voice suddenly falls silent.
The hand now drifts away, holding a glowing white orb. Kaichirou breaks free from the amalgamation behind him, using his sword to cut the arms apart. Reorienting himself on the stage, Kaichirou faces both amalgamations with his sword drawn as one slowly is absorbed into the other. But as Kaichirou attempts to curse them both, he quickly realizes his voice is gone. His eyes peer at the glowing orb, which sings to him… In his own voice.
The amalgamation holds the orb above Kaichirou for only a moment before tossing it away from the stage, towards the audience. If left to fall, it would drift into the endless void below, never to be found again. But the amalgamation is an immediate danger- its arms are scarily fast and stronger than Kaichirou could overpower by his hands alone. He needs to defend himself with his sword if he has any hope of survival, but that would mean throwing away his voice. Weighing the options required careful consideration between what Kaichirou valued more: his voice or his life.
For Kaichirou, the decision would take less than a second.
Kaichirou lunged into the air off of the stage. His colorful wings spread as he attempts to fly out towards the void to catch the floating light, and for a moment he glides through the air to chase the shining radiance of his voice.
He is offered only a small moment of relief in retrieving his voice once more before the hands catch him from behind. His returned voice’s last use is screaming in agony as he is torn limb from limb.
The bell’s ring overtakes the sounds of the running train.
“The shape of the crime: Narumi’s murder of Kino Raion. The truth of the crime: Narumi tried to make use of the game's mechanics, but failed at this and had to use his own two hands to commit the murder. The reason…”
Enma snaps her fingers and points at the dagger in her hand, “Narumi's attempt to keep his beauty in a bid for vanity!” A final ring to affirm Enma’s correct answer. But it's weak. Enma furrows her brows and shakes the dagger in her hand. "What do you mean, it's probably more than that? It's good enough, right?"
The weapon unsheathes, regardless, and Enma's expression brightens. Everything disappears. The train disappears. The others disappear. You disappear. All that remains is a vision of what’s about to happen, playing out before your eyes.
The solemn ring of a bell sounds out as Enma boisterously stands up from where she is, twirling to the center of the train.
“Let’s finish up!” she waves the weapon around, “it’s time to reveal the culprit!” The train’s lights disappear, and as before, a film runs outside the windows.
3… 2… 1…
In the middle of the day, Kino is just trying to have a good time out of the situation. Perhaps he tries to do this by grinding some levels in the slime cave. But the slime cave has some insane acoustics, and he hears some oddly comforting singing. The voice is anything but beautiful, but any form of comfort is very high on Kino’s priorities right now, so he follows it deeper into the cave.
He comes across an area where there are an incredible amount of big stalactites. There, the singing phantom reveals itself. The song changes–rather than calm, it now isolates sound. Before Kino can gather himself to realize what’s happening, the phantom uses bombs crafted from Rockbombs–throws them at the ceiling directly above Kino to drop them on him.
Kino looks up and sees huge stone spikes falling on him–he activates his ability and summons a shield to block them. But they were too heavy and powerful--while he avoids any fatalities, the weight of it all injures his jaw. The moment the rain of spikes stops, the shield disappears and Kino bolts away somewhere.
In his frantic stepping around, Kino’s footsteps accidentally reveal something–a hidden path. There’s a button that activates the door to slide open. Seeing his opportunity, Kino dives into this hidden cave path in his desperate scramble for cover. The phantom, noticing that his plan failed, gives chase.
The hidden path leads pretty far away from the caves. In the hidden path, Kino tosses his shield at the persistent phantom, slowing it down somewhat. Eventually, Kino follows the path to a lever that opens part of the cave wall before him–a shelf leading into the castle library. There, he chooses to hide behind some bookshelves, also in an effort to catch his breath.
The phantom bursts into the library and starts searching for Kino. Perhaps because of Kino’s frantic and nervous actions, he makes a noise somewhere–probably drops a book. The phantom notices, and attacks. It pushes down some shelves in an effort to get Kino to reveal himself, making a massive mess of the place.
Kino does, and he dashes out of the library. The phantom swooshes after him. In the castle halls outside, they have a moment “fighting” each other. Here, Kino tosses his sword at the phantom to no avail, missing entirely. The fight ends with Kino being shoved strongly–he crashes through one of the castle’s windows.
Kino, falling fast to the ground, attempts to catch himself with his shield to somewhat cushion his fall. The moment it impacts the ground, the force is too much for his jaw, and it breaks along with his shield. Kino dies from the fall damage.
Kaichirou Narumi, confident that Kino had died from the fall, decides to just leave and keep to himself. Kino’s body would be discovered hours later, come evening.
The movie disappears, and light returns to the train. Enma twirls the weapon in her hand, and points the pommel towards him.
Well, that was that. Zenji had been lost in thought for a lot of the trial – it was fine, he’d put his two cents in, but the drama unfolding in his head had turned out be inaccurate, so he’d gotten distracted. He’d been doing that a lot, lately. Thinking, that is. A little unusual for him, but there’s way too much time to think. It makes him feel like he’s…
There he is, getting distracted again, even as Kaichirou is fessing up! He blinks, and then, as the others start reaching for their phones, he does too, fumbling his way to the voting app.
But then he stops, and looks up at Kaichirou. He leans forward toward him, leans so far in his ribs touch his knees, and he tilts his head. His red eyes go wide, glinting in the subway lights. “Really? Just like that? How pointless it is of you to hide yourself indeed!” He mimics Kaichirou’s tone well. “Too beautiful to hide? Too vain to think up some kind of defense? The heat is barely on! Come on, Narumi-kun, you can do better than that! Or do you put your own vanity above your life, too?” He sounds accusatory, almost upset. He doesn’t blink the entire time.
Then he sits up, and scoffs. “You know what’s going to happen to you, right? Too late for that now.” Then he laughs. “Don’t think this means I care so much about you that I don’t want to see you get chopped up or whatever. I just thought people would have more fight in them.”
Finally, he slouches back, his butt sliding in his seat, and goes back to poking at his phone, typing one character at a time with one finger. Softly, he mutters, “I really don’t get it.”
Rei tucks a strand of blonde hair behind his ear with a placid sort of expression- all the anxiety of the trial washing away now that he had what was most important. An answer. Even if it was a thoroughly unsatisfying one.
"Senseless. You know, vanity's not so bad. I wouldn't spend so much money on my skincare routine if I wasn't pretty vain, myself! Needless to say, I wasn't exactly happy with the... appearance I was given, either. But it never, ever crossed my mind to kill someone."
There's a ghost of a smile in there somewhere, a small and sympathetic one. But it only goes so far. The expression, quickly and thoroughly, turns to pure ice.
"Because, what good is beauty... if it's all rotten underneath?"
"Haaaah," responds Hiori, looking up at Kaichirou as he reveals himself, her usual lazy grin on her face. "Don't let me steal the credit, bro, that was all you. You definitely shoulda tried poison like I said, though." She throws him a peace sign as she keys in her vote for Kaichirou.
