Koga

A secret smile crept onto Koga's face as he heard Justice's answer. He liked this kid. A bit too much like himself, if he was being honest. And a tad bit edgier. But the desire, the value of simply making an effort, moving forward. Those were things Koga knew, and knew well. Things he'd come to appreciate. "An idea is a good place to start," Koga replied as his eyes panned across the seemingly endless cavern. "And don't call me 'sir'. I doubt I'm much older than you. Just call me Koga." The pair came to what appeared to be a crossroads in the cavern. One branch traveled off to the le

Watching NIGHT momentarily deflate as suddenly all the pieces fit together for NIGHT, Koga wasn't sure if he was relieved or just glad that they weren't shouting at each other like they were going to stab each other anymore. Although, that in an of itself was a relief, due to the fact that if NIGHT stabbed him, he would probably be joining all those mobs she'd spent the better part of thirty minutes blowing up. All the fervor and zeal were gone from her as she quietly, but firmly responded to him. The motion of her blade less frenetic, murderous intent seemingly having sublimated from the

It wasn't anger or annoyance Koga felt at the growing pile of insults and accusations. Instead, it was surprise. It really did seem as if he was a stranger to NIGHT. And likewise, she was just as much a stranger to him. "I can't pretend that I understand half of what you're saying anymore. In fact, I think we're reading different books at this point. And its not pride that keeps me from changing. I'd love to see you try and change your entire outlook on life in a day." Exhaustion crept into his voice, despite the fact that the man had stopped dealing with the witless mobs that kept charging at

"better to have hit you, and now, than anyone else i'd have this talk with." Oh. Lovely. He'd been demoted all the way down to punching bag now. Way to add insult to injury. A small twitch of Koga's jaw was all that hinted at the errant thought, as pointless and off-topic as it could've been. Not that it served as any form of distraction from the immense amount of annoyance as NIGHT just couldn't seem to figure out how to shut up for once. Normally, it was the other way around between the two of them. It was a struggle getting more than two sentences out of NIGHT, but now he was luck

"Oh, sweet fucking baby Jesus Christ," Koga sighed aloud, more exasperated at this point than anything else. "Will you quit it with the name-calling and shit? For someone who keeps calling me a child, you sure do seem to like acting like one too," Koga said, anger just giving way to annoyance. He was tiring of this. "I came here to ask you a question, NIGHT, and get your feedback. Clearly you do not agree with me. I'm not asking you for solutions, or to give me the answers to life. Or god forbid, 'say what I want to hear,' as you put it." Koga crossed his arms and stole a glance behind NI

"Oh, don't fucking patronize me, NIGHT," Koga fired back, turning back around to watch as she dispatched some more stray mobs. "What, do you really think I could just watch on the sidelines, content with some fucking fantasy that I know is just gonna crumble to dust one day while everyone else is trying to fight for each other and get out? I couldn't look myself in the fucking mirror if I did that, what I want be damned." If the whole conversation, if it could even be called that at this point, hadn't made Koga seethe with anger, the last few accusations had. What was supposed to have bee

Everything about Jon seemed to indicate a degree of impatience. The words, the near-blinding speed. Were it not that Jon's impatience actually seemed to be of some benefit to him, Koga would've made some kind of snippy quip. But the opponent's speed surpassed Koga's own, the blitz-like attack hardly giving Koga anytime to move. Attempting to move with the blade, Koga swayed the left. Not quick enough. The wooden blade connected with his shoulder with a dull smack, some paltry padding provided by his shirt. Not that it made the blow hurt any less. Undeterred though, Koga continued wit

There was nothing at first. Just silence. Heated glares. Words hanging between them like a brick wall that neither could breach to get through to the other. That is, until NIGHT shoved her fist through it. The blow came entirely unexpected, just the solid connection of her fist colliding with his jaw. Koga's head whipped to the side as everything span for a moment, no presence of mind to take note of any subtraction from his health gauge. Just the flicker of NIGHT's cursor as it transitioned from green to orange. "...you have to make peace with the fact that we're getting out of here

NIGHT reached out and pulled on Koga's shirt, drawing him down to her as shouted and shook him. "Are you listening to yourself?" Koga shouted back as she finally pushed him away. "You keep saying she's not real, and then you turn around and cry about how you can't do anything for her. If she wasn't real then what the fuck does it matter?" Koga stepped towards NIGHT again, close enough that he could just reach out and touch her. "This isn't about her being some lines of binary or some shit, NIGHT! That...construct, AI, whatever you wanna call her, she's just as alive as you and me, in case you

Without enough room on the couch to sit beside Kasumi (thanks Gaius), Koga elected to sit in the recliner next to the couch as Bacon buried his face in his tasty milk, quick to make a mess of...well, everything. "Down on Floor One," Koga answered her, thinking back to the few weeks earlier when he'd stumbled upon the miniature boar. "NIGHT and I were helping out a couple of new players, and there wasn't really much to do, so I just kinda started to play around with him." The man reached out and gently rubbed the top of the boar's head with his index finger. "He was hostile at first, obviously,

NIGHT's words stung more than Koga cared to admit. Though he'd never considered himself a martyr, the accusation held some truth. He wanted to die in here. To go out in some blaze of glory for the greater good. It had always seemed like a better end than he deserved. As to the who...Koga bit back the names he'd refused to utter for years. Stories he'd not told in ages. Old wounds he thought he'd healed. No one had asked him, but he'd sworn it anyways. He couldn't just sit back and watch others suffer, even if this was a life he'd preferred to live in with blissful ignorance. "You're

k o g a the elder wolf Letting go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Koga's face slowly lit up into a soft smile. All the pent up nervousness he'd felt seemed to melt away as the woman reached out towards the tiny boar, who immediately began to nibble on her sleeve, drawing out a quiet chuckle from Koga. "Yeah, he might be. He likes milk. I think," the man said as Bacon pulled back against Kasumi. "Oh, you don't have to go anywhere, I got some here. Uhm, go ahead and find a seat, I'll be right over." Gently handing Bacon to Kasum

"people who aren't real." "What?!" The man questioned as he grasped the blade in his shoulder and wrenched it out. How could NIGHT, of all people, think that? NIGHT, who had a goddamn NPC living with her. NIGHT, who acted like that woman mattered to her as much as any flesh and blood person. "How in the hell could you say that?" "...it matters despite the fact you don't want it to." And so, what? It mattered that this 'existence' that they were owed was just more suffering? Slower, more drawn out, even more powerless against it? That didn't sound like much of an existence at all

"She's not bad," Koga explained, going into his inventory to dispel his coat, boots and weapon, leaving him in just a shirt and jeans. The man bowed before stepping onto the mat and continuing with what he was saying. "She's just...eccentric as all, can take a moment to get used to her sometimes. I like her well enough otherwise." "Sure, let's do it," Koga replied, cracking his knuckles before shaking them out and taking up a fairly basic stance, his hands held up in a guard. It was noticeably looser than what most would consider appropriate however, not a single tensed muscle in Koga's b

As Koga circled back around to make another strike, the behemoth bellowed in pain, black tendrils spreading across it's frozen body, enveloping it in a viscous liquid. Something about it all seemed familiar to Koga. Was that? Figure out who that is later, focus on the objective first. Eliminate Zero first. The giant's health bar was in the red now, Astreya and Nari rushing in and chipping away at some more of its health as they let loose their battle cries. Calls to end the creature came, and Koga abided by them. All that was needed was a single hit. Coming up from behind the tw

"But we do have agency in here," Koga spat back, feeling a swell of anger rise in his chest. "What does it matter that this place is just ones and zeros?" The man turned to engage the next set of enemies as he spoke, his blade igniting as he struck out at the first of the skeletal beings. Was none of this real to her? Were their actions within Aincrad just figments, doomed to be lost once the servers were finally shut down? "We can act in here. Choices we make matter, but out there?" The first revenant burned to ash behind Koga as his weapon dug into the chest of the next, and then anothe

A part of Koga was tempted to inform the two women who'd trailed behind him that he was, in fact, not stone-cold deaf, and that he could indeed hear them. The rest of Koga, which had enough sanity and societal wherewithal to recognize that that was not likely not a very smart move if he intended to keep his paltry few remaining friendships intact. Besides, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they'd been doing. As soon as the trio were seated, Koga slouched in his chair, crossed his arms and let his head hang back, eyes closed, only opening them again when a server appeared. "C

"If we're being honest," Koga grunted ducking beneath another blade and retaliating, the steel cutting cleanly through the Red Cloak's torso this time, splitting it in two before it disappeared, "if this was all just a figment of my imagination before I died, I wouldn't be too upset." This wasn't the worst thing to see before one died after all. A good friend and a meaningful, if troubling, conversation. The adrenaline and excitement of the fight fell by the wayside for once. "But, to your point," Koga went on, his words punctuated by the act of thrusting his katan through the throat of a

k o g a the elder wolf Koga stepped out of his room rubbing his eyes tiredly, his perpetual exhaustion seemingly unperturbed by the soft bed and relative quiet he'd had the good fortune of enjoying last night. The man wondered if the other two were awake yet (he hoped not, he wasn't ready to deal with people yet, no matter how close he was to them) and turned his gaze down the hall, just in time to watch NIGHT and DAY walk out of the same door together. The same door. Koga squinted for a moment, and then rubbed his eyes, trying to con

The wet bandana slapping against Koga's face lamely slid down and draped itself across the edge of the boat, revealing a clearly displeased look on the man's face before he looked over in the direction that Freyd had indicated. "Yeah, I got it, one sec," the man replied, tossing his sword into the boat, unappreciative of it's added weight in the water, before swimming over to the oar, grabbing it, and swimming back to the boat, tossing the oar in along side Tsuki no Hikari with surprising speed. Perks of being a former surfer. Koga grunted as he pulled himself back into the vessel and sea

NIGHT dispatched each of the Red Cloak's lazily, almost no effort was required on her part to eliminate them in scores. With the next batch gone in a flurry of glowing digital snow, she began their topic of conversation. Her disagreement with days old statement however...it surprised him. The man neglected to answer at first, formulating his response as he engaged the next set of Red Cloaks. The Wolf took a couple steps forward, lifted his sword, and brought it down, biting into the rotten flesh of the four undead. "Because," the man began to answer, as he leapt backwards, avoiding o

"Thanks!" Koga called back to Freyd as he pulled the trigger again, the gun rumbling fiercely as the slug tore into the hull of another vessel. "You're not too bad yourself!" The plan was working. Koga could see the tides of battle begin to turn in their favor as the Landonian vessels fell from the skies, or flew about in the confusion wrought by friendly fire. Hopping off the gun, Koga drew his weapon again, before opening his messenger again and notifying NIGHT that they were making a push to the bridge, before following behind Freyd. -- The fight to the bridge was brief. In f

The blonde haired man was the first to respond to respond to Koga, first explaining that they did not, in fact, all wear traditional garments, and then asking his identity to which, Koga responded with a nod. "Yeah, that's me. Good to meet you guys," he replied looking first at the blonde man, then the woman. Koga held up an open palmed hand when Baldur offered to let him borrow a gi from the tournament. "No, I'm good, thanks though," he said with a shake of his head before eyes drifted over to the lady of the trio at Baldur's behest. "Yeah, it looks great on you," Koga said with a small

A briefest glance was all that was given to the dissipating bodies behind NIGHT, a not uncommon sight. Were they not NPC mobs, that fact would make the woman sound like a serial killer. Maybe that would make them both serial killers. Koga gave little more than a shrug to NIGHT's response. "Alright, sounds good to me, I guess." The man would've been lying if he'd said that he wouldn't mind the seclusion. Preferred it even, a fact NIGHT was sure to know. "As prepared as I could," Koga answered back, opening his stats window to check on his buffs one last time. The man's consumables inv

A broad, but lopsided grin spread across Koga's face as Freyd created a makeshift eyepatch and asked if it was any improvement. "Perfect, now you look the part," he joked in return, finding that he couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a light hearted exchange with someone. Too often Aincrad bored down heavily on it's residents. Freyd was a bit like a breath of fresh air. An admittedly crazy and deadly one, but what wasn't these days? Koga looked over at ... Slim Jim? as Freyd addressed the man, apparently knowing far more about the quest than Koga did. Then man momentarily blinke