"You have the power to split the world into half. You can destroy buildings, overturn mountains...
But you are still powerless against a human.
Even a human who wants to kill you."
Mica: Apoptosis is an RPG-style Horror game by Soyasushi Productions detailing the experiences of three Unreliable Narrators who are vastly different from one another, yet whose experiences will bring you closer and closer to the core of the story.
One is Princess Micaiah, a pretty young girl who lives with her servants in a castle disconnected from the horrifying outside world, sheltered from her past which comes back to haunt her. Then there's her right-hand man Lenine, a young man quiet about his past. And finally, there is Mika, a broken girl with psychic powers who escapes her confinement one day, only to run into a strange-looking castle for solace...
And in the middle of it all is a conspiracy regarding a Corrupt Church, a growing fear of psychics, and a mysterious child who claims to be The Messiah... by killing everything that stands in His way.
A full demo can be downloaded on the Official Site
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On December 18, 2017 the game's creator announced that they had lost ALL the work that had been done on the series so far due to a catastrophic hardware failure, including almost complete versions of chapters 4 and 5, which have never been released. The game was never cancelled outright, but that unfortunate incident, combined with the author's silence on all of their projects since 2018, does not bode well for Mica's future.
This game provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Gender: The Fallen Angel (before, as well as after the fall) is explicitly stated to be of ambiguous gender and referred to with "they/them" pronouns everywhere.
- Two members of the palace staff - namely, Kanon and Shannon - invoke either this trope or the Wholesome Crossdresser one: if Lenine checks their rooms, he discovers wardrobes filled with "both male and female clothes". Lenine's only reaction is "..." That may actually be yet another reference to their subplot in Umineko: When They Cry.
- Ax-Crazy: All the Things are this, and the one who chases after Lenine at the end of Chapter 1 literally tries to chop him up with an axe. Also, Anyu. Micaiah herself shows tendencies of this when she slashes the Things apart with her psychokinesis.
- Cast Full of Crazy: In chapter 1 (Lenine's POV), we discover that most of the castle staff are... rather peculiar people.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Micaiah is purple, Lenine is green, and Mika is blue. Anyu is red.
- Connected All Along: A book in Lenine's room reveals Dynasty and the Cardinal are the same person. Which puts Tamora's actions in another light.
- Corrupt Church: The Cardinal kidnaps and presumably tortures an innocent teenage girl, and cruelly guns down an innocent man who considered him a friend.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The religion portrayed in the Church shown in this story worships the Goddess.
- Curtains Match the Window: The maid Fleur has golden-brown hair and eyes.
- The Dreaded: Anyu. Even Micaiah, who is capable of eradicating legions of 'Things' at the snap of her fingers with her powers, quakes in fear and can't even speak when he is there... because she has been conditioned not to be able to hurt another person, so no matter how powerful she is, she can't lift a finger.
- Eyeless Face: All of the Things have empty sockets in place of eyes, and a wide, lipless grin.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Church may be evil, but there are a lot of women among their high-ranking priests, and their own holy scripture itself embraces the concept of gender neutral pronouns.
- The Faceless: Anyu. His face is almost completely hidden by a hood.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Micaiah has large baby-blue eyes and seems like The Ingenue. But this may not be the case... The castle doctor also describes Alchemist de Lancastre in this fashion - whether her likeness to the princess is relevant or not remains to be seen.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The game starts off rather confusing, but as you progress through the demo the link between the Micaiah-Lenine and Mika plots begin to converge and fall into place.
- Killing in Self-Defense: In Chapter 3, Mika responds to Tamora strangling her by brutally ripping her apart in anger. She might have used excessive force, but Tamora made an attempt on Mika's life, who lost control of herself and was absolutely terrified of what she'd done once she regained her senses. It doesn't change the fact that Mika killed someone, but this is anything but a case of cold-blooded murder.
- Meido: Fleur is a cute and spunky maid with a French name, but fits more of this archetype rather than French Maid.
- Mind over Matter: Mika, Micaiah and Anyu all have the power of psychokinesis. How they make use of it differs.
- Momma's Boy: Castor does not ever question his mother, even when she's being a clear Jerkass.
- Mystical White Hair: The Goddess (or at least her portrayal in the Scripture) has silvery long hair.
- The Ojou: Micaiah is a kind, beautiful, refined lady with a castle full of servants.
- Only Sane Man: Lenine believes himself to be this, when compared to the rest of the castle staff. It's difficult to disagree.
- Playing with Fire: The Messiah's preferred method of using His powers.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Most notably Rainer, the Manchild. Fleur also has her moments, as well as a few other servants.
- Posthumous Character: Euphony and Tamora.
- Power Limiter: Mika's (and Micaiah's) powers are not capable of harming humans. This is to the extent that they cannot even use ordinary methods to fight off other pepople. That has disastrous effects for both of them, because it means they cannot defend themselves against people who want to kill them.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lenine has red eyes and can be very ruthless when you hurt those dear to him.
- Room Escape Game: You start off the game playing as Mika who has to escape from her cell.
- Science Fiction: Heavily implied by Chapter 3 that magic and religion doesn't actually exist, given that the 'divine punishmnent' is a sort of an induced apoptosis recoil that subconsciously forces Mika to kill herself against her conscious will the moment she recognises that she has killed a person.
- Shout-Out: Two of the castle's servants are named Kanon and Shannon. They also happen to look just like their Umineko counterparts.
- Title Drop: In Chapter 3, it is revealed that the 'divine punishment' is actually scientifically called the Mortal Recoil - a form of induced apoptosis, where cells self-destruct.
- Too Dumb to Live: You can have Lenine be this by looking out of the balcony and when the game asks you if you'd like to jump out, select yes.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The story alternates between three viewpoints (Mika, Lenine and Micaiah) and what appears to be two Plot Threads - the mysterious ongoings in Micaiah's castle, as well as Mika's plight.
- Waistcoat of Style: Lenine wears a sassy waistcoat.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Dynasty claims he's on the run because Tamora poisoned him after he rejected her affections. In truth, they're married and he's playing King Incognito in Mika's village.
