forum The Crimson Lantern Festival | Chinese and Japanese Influenced Roleplay | Closed

Started October 20, 2019 by @CasiCasino group

tune

Koki nodded in response, looking thankful. "Alrighty then! What do I need to do today?" She was cheerful like her mood had done a full 380 turn. Her smile was wide and her eyes were shining with excitement.

The boy could feel his heart skip a beat the moment he felt a hand touch his shoulder. These were supposed to be illusions weren't they? They weren't supposed to be able to touch him, were they? Or was this the creature that created these illusions? Those disembodied floating hands were starting to creep him out. Just what kind of amulet did the judge use on him?

He could feel cold sweat dripping on his back when the young figure appeared, sobbing loudly. It broke his heart not being able to help the poor boy, even if he had been real. He wasnt an onmyoji, he could not exorcise demons even if he wanted to; still he would have wanted to soothe him, to do anything to stop the boy from crying. This trial was really trying to break him

The woman in gray shook her head before smiling.
”Today there’s no work or training, you can explore the place if you’d like to or if you would prefer it, you can head back to the mansion to take a rest” Enenma claimed.

Soon, the image of the sobbing and broken boy disappeared as the blackened room slowly faded as well, transporting Ryuusei back into ‘reality’.
”Alright, you’re done…” the tenth judge stated, setting the amulet down.
”Any questions on what had just happened?”

Ryuusei was still a little shaken by the events but other than that he was ok. He put down the knife and got up from the chair, his body a little stiff.
"Uum, yes, i'd like to know what some of those things meant.."

”Clarify what are those some things?” the tenth judge asked as he touched the knife and slowly picking it up. He fidgeted with the knife a bit whilst waiting for Ryuusei’s answer.

The woman in gray shook her head before smiling.
”Today there’s no work or training, you can explore the place if you’d like to or if you would prefer it, you can head back to the mansion to take a rest” Enenma claimed.

Koki thought for a moment before tsking at herself. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if you were the Judge I was going to be working with. I'm sorry."

The woman in gray shook her with a smile.
”Lord Taishan, the seventh judge, is currently doing some work in heaven and will be back tomorrow morning” Enenma answered. She turned towards the hall.
”A little fun fact, the two female judges; Lord Wuguan and Lord Taishan were the ones who built this place” the woman added.

"Okay! Thank you, ma'am!" Koki hummed in response, giving a thumbs up. "I'm going to explore a little bit if that's alright miss!" It seemed Koki was much more expressive with women than she was with men.

"Who was the sobbing boy?" he asked, feeling the cold sweat on his back. "And the lord who took his own life. Why wasn't he satisfied? And the voices and the hands, who were they? What exactly does that amulet do?"
He knew it was a lot of questions, but he just couldn't help himself.
Normally he would not have paid attention to those things, brushing them off like illusions meant to test him. But the words that were used, and the fact that those ghostly hands had touched him made his skin crawl and also curious about what had happened.

The smoke covered woman nodded and let Koki go her way.
There are four doors deeper into the hallway; one red, one blue, one black, and one white.

(You may into only two after this, meaning you’ll have to choose carefully. Each room will contain different things which can influence what will happen after this story arc)

”If you are talking about the sobbing boy in the last scene, he’s a tortured boy who was taken into prison and forced to believe that he had a demon inside him… this resulted in the boy being afraid of himself… the scene you saw was moments before the boy started cutting himself, wanting to get this false ‘demon’ out of his body… he soon died of blood loss” the judge answered with a sigh. He gestured his index finger a bit.
”I’ll change the topic to the voices and hands first. The voices were from the cult members who tricked the boy while the hands were of the boy’s own father who was a member of the cult. It is said though… that the boy’s brother managed to escape before the cult members caught him and it was said that the bloodline of this poor boy is still running through time…” the judge turned back to face Ryuusei as he sheathed the knife.
”The lord… I don’t know the true identity of that lord but from what I can tell, one’s greed couldn’t be contained and so it came out as sociopathy towards oneself”

The smoke covered woman nodded and let Koki go her way.
There are four doors deeper into the hallway; one red, one blue, one black, and one white.

(You may into only two after this, meaning you’ll have to choose carefully. Each room will contain different things which can influence what will happen after this story arc)

Koki peered at the doors, tapping on each one before going to the white. White was a good color for her, it meant safety, so hopefully, she wouldn't die entering this one.

"Ah… i see…" He truly felt awful for the poor boy and all he's had to endure. Human kind can sometimes be so horrible to its own members, for so many reasons, committing unspeakable acts that no other creature in the world was capable of. Human nature, i suppose.
And that lord. Just as he suspected, the man had been so greedy that taking his own life seemed to be the only solution to stop his longing that could not be satisfied.
But what he could not understand was why had the amulet shown him all of this. Why him?
"But, my lord. What do all of these have to do with me?"

Within the room with the white door stood one coated figure who was working on organizing some papers. The figure was clearly female that was complaining to herself silently about the papers.

The tenth judge turned to Ryuusei with a sharp look before answering plainly…
”Everyone who’ve seen in those images were people who were associated with you in some particular way…” he left the answer open ended, wanting Ryuusei to find more out on his own.
”I’ll go get your friend real quick, you can leave as well” the tenth judge stated before he went out of the room.

"Hello, Miss! Sorry for interrupting your work." Koki called out, surprised someone was actually in the room considering how empty the house seemed. "I'm Koki Popoli, it's nice to meet you!"

"Associated in some way…" he muttered to himself as the lord turned around and left. Were he and those people connected? If yes, then how? He was very confused.
But right now was not the time to ask these questions, Kaito had to complete the trial himself as well, so maybe it was for the best to dig into the matter later. He got up and exited the room, albeit looking a little white but serious

The woman in white turned around, a little shocked that someone had entered her room. Behind her were a pile of papers, a black fountain pen, and most importantly, a prism.
”Uh… h-hello, is there anything I can help you with…?” the woman asked shaking a bit. She slowly slid the prism-like object behind her, clearly not wanting Koki to see it.

As Ryuusei walked out, Kaito gave him a confused look. Was the trial really that bad? The man thought as the door of the room was closed.

It seemed as if the building was empty now, where could the two judges have gone? Were they somewhere outside or perhaps somewhere inside? The walls of this court seemed to be noise canceling.

(You have three choices; all leading to different scenarios and your ‘relationship’ with the characters)
(Go explore outside)
(Explore the left hallway)
(Explore the right hallway)

Ryuusei took a few moments to put away his thoughts regarding what had happened. Kaito was most likely going to face the trial, so until the judges came back, he decided to have a look around.
He decided he'd have a look in the left hallway, not wanting to go outside and leaving the right hallway for later

(Caution : Be extremely careful with your actions from this point on…)

Within the left hall, the eighth judge was the only alive one present. He was breathing heavily and in front of him seemed to be corpses… three of them. The corpses were all wearing officer uniforms which were, at that time, soaked in blood. In the judge’s hand, there was a glowing purple blade. The man’s sharp purple irises locked onto Ryuusei’s reflection before he slowly turned his head, not yet fully facing Ryuusei.

The boy was taken aback by the sight that greeted him. He took a step back from the surprise, adrenaline starting to pump into his system.
"My lord? What is happening?" he asked in a serious yet cautious tone. He didn't want to risk anything in case he was dealing with something dangerous - not even the judge was spared of doubt.

The woman in white turned around, a little shocked that someone had entered her room. Behind her were a pile of papers, a black fountain pen, and most importantly, a prism.
”Uh… h-hello, is there anything I can help you with…?” the woman asked shaking a bit. She slowly slid the prism-like object behind her, clearly not wanting Koki to see it.

Koki shook her head, looking a bit sheepish. "I'm sorry for interrupting. I was just exploring and getting a mental map of the place. I was told I was going to work here for a bit."

The eighth judge turned around completely before he wiped the blood on his face off him. He walked slowly towards Ryuusei… it wasn’t a threatening pace, but the judge was limping from exhaustion.
”We’ve got to move… a ‘Corrupted’ has escaped from the prison” the eighth judge mentioned, coughing out little puddles of blood.
”Explanation will come later, for now, be careful of what could be in the skies” The eighth judge warned as he ran towards the tenth court’s exit.

The woman in white sighed with relief.
”Oh… so you are the girl Enenma told me about… well then, apologies, you can call me Hana, nice to meet you I guess” the researcher said hesitantly with a nervous laugh.

Koki laughed, nodding. "It's nice to meet you too, miss Hana!" She looked down at the papers in the woman's hands. "What'cha working on?"