Sword Art Online

[CelticHero37]

Name: Miko Hoshi


Gamer Name: Midori Kawa


Age: 20


Gender; Male


Appearance: <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_07/57a8bfecb854f_AnimeWarrior.jpg.22e79cd1f7b292cb63f3ca703cb7969d.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="24935" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_07/57a8bfecb854f_AnimeWarrior.jpg.22e79cd1f7b292cb63f3ca703cb7969d.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>


Personality: In real life, Miko was considered the class nerd. He really loved doing things with other people, but they just never gave him a chance. Thus, he found himself sticking to his room most of the time. His family was caring, but they didn't really understand him. As he got older, the only activity he really partook in other than school was martial arts. He has done MMORPG's before, but never virtual reality games. He just got his first NerveGear and is looking forward to trying it on. 
Miko Hoshi was strewn on his bed, observing his new NerveGear. He had never tried a Virtual Reality game before, so he was excited to see what all the fuss was about. It was two months after the release of the world seed and there weren't many problems popping up any more, so Miko thought it was safe to try his luck. The game he had picked up was Sword Art Online. Not the original, but an apparently safe reboot with all new game modes, abilities, and a fighting system that allowed a player to use some of their real life skill to win. The beta had just closed, so no one had become very advanced. Although the survivors of the previous version were awarded special privileges.


Inserting the disc into the drive, Miko slipped on his NerveGear. For a moment, he was in a vacuum. Then, he was suddenly pulled into a totally different world. The character creation was a lot more complicated than he had hoped, but he was eventually able to construct a character that seemed to look very similar to his real life self. Though, he didn't have blue hair.


Once outside of the character creation, Miko opened his eyes. Slouching a little, he said, "Dammit, I got faulty gear. That's what I get for trying to go cheap. Wait... how did I get outside... oh."


Miko was standing in the central square of floor one. He was lightly buffeted by wind and he could hear footsteps and voices around him. He was frozen. To be honest, he didn't really know where to go from there. He wasn't very comfortable around people accept in video games. But this seemed real.

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

(My skelly)


Name: Yuki Takahashi.





Gamer Name: Kokyo Nokomura.





Age: 20.





Gender: Female.





Appearence:

Personality: In real life, Yuki is a video game junkie. She loves 'em all, but this is her first VR game. She doesn't like hanging out with other girls, prefers hanging with guys, which probably explains why most of her friends are male. She's slightly shy, but you'd never know it talking to her through a game. Games give her confidence she doesn't normaly have, so she might come across as cocky at times.


(First Post IC)


I finally got it, I can't believe I finally saved up enough to get my NerveGear, I thought, doing a little happy dance around the box sitting on the floor in the middle of my bed room. I sat down cross-legged and opened it, ripping most of the packaging in my excitement. I pulled it out and set it up, popped in the game disk and threw myself onto my bed, putting the headset on.


I was sucked into a tube-of-many-colors, kind of like a long portal, and then she was at the character creation stage. It was about what I expected, difficulty-wise. Hard, but the final project was satisfying. It looked a lot like me, but skinyer and a little taller.


And suddenly, I was standing outside, in some kind of square. A large, open area. I could see a few new players appearing sporadically. A girl turning in slow circles trying to take everything in, a few guys, walking over to a group I assumed was their friends.


But the best part, was that I could feel the sun on my skin, the breeze blowing my hair across my face. It was freaking awesome!

 

[CelticHero37]

Miko scanned the striking scene. It was amazing! Yet, the scene was ruined when something unusual caught his eye. Someone must have had a bad link, their character was half stuck in a wall and making sporadic circles. Upon seeing this, Miko relaxed a little. So the game wasn't perfect, they hadn't fixed all of the little bugs. But the scene made Miko laugh, so he didn't mind it.


As he continued to look around, his eyes locked onto another new player. She wasn't that far away from him, and he thought he had made eye contact. Blushing a little, he built up the courage to walk over to her. Besides, it was only a video game right? What's the worst that could happen?


As he walked up, he bowed, as he was used to doing when meeting people during his martial arts training. "H-hi. It looks like you joined the same time I did. My name's Mik... Midori. What's yours?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I was just standing there, enjoying the sun, how real this all felt, when a guy walked up to me and bowed.


"H-Hi. It looks like you joined the same time as I did. My name's Mik...Midori. What's yours?"


"I Kokyo," I said, offering my hand for him to shake. I wonder what made him choose to talk to me?... 
(Hey, just wanted to let you know I'll probably be logging off really soon, but I might be on again tonight, or maybe not until tomorrow, okay.)

 

[CelticHero37]

I smile as I shake the girls hand. Her way of answering was a little strange, but that didn't matter. To be honest, her character was quite beautiful. Whether that's what she looked like in real life was a different story. But that was beside the point. "I'll be honest, I have no idea where I'm supposed to be going. So I was wondering if I could maybe tag along with you for a while. Is that okay?"





(Okay, that's fine. Have a good day xD )

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

"Sure, I love company. The more the merrier, right? Hmm...where should we go. I was thinking of heading for the market. I've heard it's cool there and they sell all kinds of stuff, and I'd like to look, even if neither of us have any credits yet," I said, smiling. "Come on." I started walking the direction I thought led to the market section (from my glancing at the map they'ed provided with the game) with Midori beside me. As we were walking, I glanced at Midori. His character is cute, even with the blue hair, and the flowing cape was a nice touch. His sword was pretty big, and that made me rethink the size of mine a little. It was miniscule in compairasen. But I knew I was better with short swords anyway, so it didn't really matter. I wondered how good he was with his, though.

 

[CelticHero37]

Midori nodded, a little surprised that she had accepted. As he continued to walk with her, he tried to listen to the different conversations going on around him. It was awesome! In a normal video game, you'd have to constantly watch the little chat box, which was extremely annoying. He kept hearing something about a colosseum battle of some sort. That was probably one of the new features. He'd have to check that out.


Looking back to Kokyo, he asked, "So, are you looking for anything in particular?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

The world was much more detailed then I'd expected. I reached out to touch a stone wall as we passed, and I could feel the courseness, how cold it was, being in the shade. There was even grass growing from as crack between stones in the street.


"Not really, I just thought I'd like to explore a little. Maybe find a place to stay, before I go galivanting through the other levels. What about you? Is there anything you want to do before you start trying to beat the game?

 

[CelticHero37]

Midori thought for a second. He really had no idea what he wanted to do. "I honestly don't know. I guess finding a place to stay isn't a bad idea. As for finishing the game, I'm more of an explorer. I always find myself sidetracked on less important missions and such like that. Speaking of which, I've been hearing about this new colosseum feature. Do you want to check it out with me?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I shrugged and smiled. "Okay. Do you want to do it before we go to the market district? Do you know how to get there?"

 

[CelticHero37]

Midori shrugged. "I honestly don't know where anything is right now. I was stupid and didn't read the guide before I came in. But I think they said it held it's own city on the first floor. Colosseum city. We should just be able to check the map and find it. Maybe we can ask somebody about it too. What do you think?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

"Sure. That sounds fun! Hmm, let's ask...him. He looks like he knows his way around." I pointed at an older player in dark green shining metal armour and leather boots, with a black cape.


"Excuse me," I said when we reached the guy, "would you happen to know how to get to Colosseum City from here?"


The guy laughed in my face, and when he calmed he said,


"If you are too stupid to read the map then you shouldn't be playing this game." Then he started laughing again.


You stupid little insignificant pissant! I'm gonna kick you so hard, you taste your balls in your throat!... I probably looked just as pissed on the outside as I did in my head, or at least I hope I did.

 

[CelticHero37]

Grabbing your shoulder and pulling you along, I say, "Yeah, we'll just check the map. Thanks."





After the guy was out of earshot, I let go of your shoulder and sigh, "Let's face it Kokyo, you're not advanced enough to take on somebody like that yet. Let's just play it safe for now and not try to get into fights."





Opening my map, I found the direction for Colosseum City and showed it to you. Let's head there and check it out. I start to walk down the street in the right direction. Looking over to you, I ask, "So, how many of these Virtual Reality games have you played so far?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I was still fuming when Midori led me away.


"None, this is my first one. I just bought it today, finally saved up enough money," I said smiling as we walked.

 

[CelticHero37]

I blinked for a moment before looking back to you. "You're kidding me right? I mean, it's exactly the same for me!"





Narrowing my eyes comically, I ask, "You're not some sort of stalker are you?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I burst out laughing.


"No way! I'm a loner. In fact, this is the first time I've hung out with another player in a game."

 

[CelticHero37]

"Oh... really? Me too," I say, feeling a little more comfortable around you, "Hah, leave it to two loners to randomly create a party. Oh... but if you like working alone... I can get out of your hair. I didn't mean to butt in like that."

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I grinned. "Nah, you're fine. It doesn't bother me, I just never thought about doing it before you asked," I told him.

 

[CelticHero37]

I gave her an accepting smile as we approached the gates to Colosseum City. The entrance was huge, leading to a spacious square filled with all sorts of people. It looked like the marketing and banking sectors were to the east, while artisan shops, vendors, and a few homes filled the western wall. The entire city was a wide circle encompassing a central arena. The main function of the city was to support spectators who would watch whatever went on in the arena. Sword Art Colosseum, I remember reading something about that as a new feature in the game. It seemed like a pretty big deal.


As I approached the wall, I asked one of the guards what the Colosseum was. The NPC guard rolled his eyes as if in surprise that I didn't know. Apparently Colosseum was like a giant PvP duel. Except it wasn't just against one person, it was a free for all among the contestants who joined. The last three surviving members of this would then have to team up against a randomly generated boss. The bosses were created designed by other players and fans of the game, so it was truly random. The only restriction was level caps based on the floors the fight was hosted in. So that meant that this level boss wouldn't be that hard to beat. Upon defeating the beast, the last three contestants would be awarded with a rare item. That was the appeal.


Following the explanation, I look to Kokyo, "Want to give it a sh0t?"

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

(Just going to say I'll probably log off unexpectedly and without warning, when I do.)


"I don't knoooow," I drug out the last word uncertainly. "I think I want to explore a while first before committing myself to anything just yet. We don't know how long this will take--" I guestured to the colosseum, "--and I'd really like to find a place to stay."

 

[CelticHero37]

"Oh, okay. No problem. Sorry, I was jumping into things a little too quickly. So what were you thinking in terms of places to stay? An Inn, an apartment, a small home? Maybe we could be neighbors."

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

"I figure anything cheep enough, so probably an inn. I'll have to get some credits before I can even get a place. I wonder if anyone has an odd job they needed done in the residential section..." I let the sentance fade out and stopped walking. "Do you want to come with me back to the housing quarter? I want to see if there is any type of short-term work to do there?"

 

[CelticHero37]

"Sure, tagging along with you seems to be my best bet anyway. But please do tell me if I'm getting annoying. I don't want to be that."

 

[Kaoru Asuna]

I smiled at how cute he was being as we walked back toward the market/housing area.


"You're adorable," I told him, almost giggling.

 

[CelticHero37]

I blush a little and my brain stops functioning properly. I start to fumble around with my words as I say, "Oh well, yeah. Uh, thanks. Y-you're adorable too."