Alkor

He pushed through the braided bead curtains and blinked rapidly as heavy frankincense hit his senses. Alkor saw the incense still burning at his feet and tread warily along the ornate rugs and up to where the gypsy sat. He'd heard tales about other Players coming to this woman for guidance and strength, and perhaps, he would find some for himself.

"Ah," she spoke with her eyes still closed. "Like all the others. You come to get strong, no?" She asked, but before he could speak, she continued. "Of course you do, all seek strength. Strength is freedom."

How true those words are.

"But strength not easy to find," she opened her eyes, one blue, the other brown. Alkor tilted his head. What a strange thing. "Strength not found alone. Strength mean trusting others as much as self. You must find spirit guide."

Spirit Guides...?

"You take this," the Gypsy held out an item, which revealed itself as <<Familiar Food.>> Alkor immediately understood. A familiar- something many of the strongest Players in Aincrad had. A means by which to gain power as much as a trusted friend.

He should have come here sooner.

You must be into that there ethnic cleansing ruckus.

Alkor cursed as he let the second throw fly and came up short. He was almost sure he had the target in his sights and the coordination to hit it down after the first throw. Things may have been different in a VRMMO, though. The bonuses his equipment gave to accuracy did nothing for tossing discs at snowmen.

"You should try to mingle some," he told Mari. "Get around, show people you're more than an orange cursor. You can't hurt anyone here, so what's the harm? They should know that."

He shifted the subject from quests and throwing the discs to something else, because she seemed adamant on doing things and going places. Right now, he knew she had to focus on things other than him- but that didn't mean she was going to try that for herself.

Alkor knew better than to think Mari would just get over things. He knew that conversation needed to happen, but he also knew it shouldn't happen right here and now.

This was a place for festivities, and for friends. He wanted it to maintain that atmosphere. With a smile, he took a third disc in hand and spun it once more. Even if he wasn't going to get a great item, he would get the best score he could.

He was competitive that way.

"I'm not too worried about quests right this moment," he told her honestly. "I've got some catching up to do before I worry about anything like that. But, if you're interested in helping a friend out, you could put the word on the street that there's a Player looking for a mid-level Curved Sword."

He didn't emphasize the word friend with the intent to sting, rather, he put it gently into conversation so that his meaning and intentions would not be misinterpreted. It was difficult, and he was learning how to deal with it one step at a time.

ID# 132448 results: Battle: 3

There was little more to say. She had no answer for him, and there was nothing for him to go off of. If he made an assumption now, there was a chance he would be wrong. She had already blasted him once for that. So, he would wait for answers. He had already waited literal years. So had she.

They would come with time.

Lessa broke the fragile silence first. The woman he remembered- the friend, who he protected back then- she had always been much more outgoing. She had personality where he did not. And in spite of the gulf between them, she spoke first.

As expected.

"Yeah," he replied softly. "Let's go. I'm sure the next one will be a little more more impressive." He said, as if that were the elephant on the first floor.

They moved in awkward silence back toward the town, and the teleporter that waited there. She did not look back at him, and the entire time, her back was his lone companion. He chewed on his own thoughts, manic as ever.

@Lessa

"Nine more," he muttered thoughtfully. That hardly seemed like coincidence. Somehow, he doubted the gems would all be in the same place. Her second guess was most likely the correct assumption. "I guess that's something we'll have to check more into," he said finally.

When she spoke again, he looked at her. "What?" His head tilted. "Why would I be talking about you? That's not something I'd say if I wanted to be someone's friend."

He seriously intended to do right by Lessa- so why did she think that he meant her? "I'm talking about Daeron. He messaged me out of nowhere to meet him after the Twinfire Phoenix fight, then started getting in my face about-"

Alkor looked back at her like he was piecing together an ancient riddle. "You mean you didn't tell him to threaten me to leave you alone? You didn't tell him I was messing with your head? That I was trying to make you fall for me, and playing with your emotions?"

Well, I was going to wait on that conversation, but I guess it's happening now.

"He told me he'd kill me if I didn't leave you alone," he said, "and he tried to fight me to the death. It didn't make sense. It's never made sense. I got that you were upset about the fight in that tournament, but it still..."

Alkor's eyes fell to the ground.

"..."

@Lessa

Alkor saw the item description and scratched his chin. "You said it was on the tenth floor, right?" he asked. "So, why would the quest send us all the way to the first? There must be something to that," he pondered aloud. Alkor had always been an avid fan of puzzles in roleplaying games, and this was just another labyrinth to solve. "Ah, well. We'll know more soon, I expect."

She had mentioned his return like it was some kind of amazing thing, and perhaps for everyone else, it really was. To him, it was just finally the right time to get back to life and business. He wanted to do it right. He should have been able to do that from the beginning-

And there it was. 

The beginning.

"Ah," he mumbled dumbly. "Yeah. The place we first met." His golden gaze trailed toward the Town of Beginnings and he recalled it. How he said he would protect her, and how he had even done his best to do it. All until that hideous moment, when that pompous ass Player Killer got in his face and destroyed everything.

He bit his tongue. He wanted to ask her, why had Daeron come at him like that? Had she asked him? Had she really said all the things he had told Alkor she did? He didn't want to believe that. "Yeah," he said at last. "Kind of weird, looking back."

They had just started their friendship over, fresh, and he didn't want to hurt that with a question that might make her hostile or defensive. His gaze had become a stare, and the horizon almost magnetic. "Everything got so broken," he spoke, barely above a whisper. "I pushed everyone away, and I almost died. All because of that conceited prick..."

@Lessa

Other than people I already write with.

I wanna meet some other Players and diversify.

She ribbed him about his "friends," and Alkor only offered a stiff grunt. He only had a few of those, and Mari was one of them. "Just making sure everything is peaceful for the festival," he tapped his forehead in a short salute. "Nothing personal about it."

Peacekeeping was only a small part of what he wanted to do. Instead of killing other Players, he would do his best to prevent needless conflict from boiling over into far worse situations. This one hadn't come anywhere close to that- and that was as it should have been.

Unfortunately, Mari got close quickly enough to make his thoughts trail off. "Yeah," he replied, "I'm trying. After Daeron confronted me and kept insisting we fight, I just sort of... stopped trusting people. I distanced myself from virtually everyone. Even when I needed them."

His thoughts moved back to the Hydra, and how close he came to death.

He sighed.

"But enough about that," he said as he caught the ball she had tossed. He spun it in hand, took aim toward the third target, and threw.

The snowman burst into powder.

"You were saying?"

@Mari

Alkor hits Target 3! +4 Points!

"Little and precious, right?" he smirked. There were very few things that caused Alkor to react visibly, but the absolute irony of Lessa attempting to befriend the Dragon took the cake. "Maybe I'll try to be it's friend..."

He brandished the blade and spun it deftly once. It ignited a deeper crimson hue than normal, and in a flurry of motion, he skewered the small dragon five times.

It expired with a pathetic sound- perhaps as cute as Lessa had thought, but only in death. "In Hell, anyway," he shrugged.

He knew the woman thought he was heartless after the whole tournament ordeal. He wondered if that had something to do with how things had happened, and let his mind wander over things briefly before he spoke again.

Alkor looked to Lessa and blinked. "It doesn't hurt, right? You surprised me with that reaction."

"I guess you could try to take it with sleight if hand, or just grab it if you wanted?" Alkor tilted his head. "Doesn't look like it's keen on moving, though." He stood up and jabbed his sword toward the creature, which spat and hissed in defiance. Swirls of smoke and miniscule flame spewed from its diminutive maw.

"...no, yeah, I'm pretty sure we have to kill it." He took the blade tightly in hand and glanced toward Lessa. "That doesn't mean you're getting cold feet about it, right?" He kept her in his gaze over his shoulder for a moment.

It wasn't like before. She wasn't terrified, they weren't facing a massive serpent god. He didn't have to protect her.  If anything, she was more heavily armored, and had plenty of time to get ahead of him.

"She could put you in the ground." [Explitive] that guy. What a ponce.

Alkor stared out lazily over the expansive floor, a pensive expression on his face. "Some rules aren't so easy to break," he replied simply. People often talked about how rules were meant to be broken, or how unjust laws ought not be enforced; but in reality, parameters were set that made the world operate within specific constraints. Those people who sought to operate outside the paradigm were destined to struggle. "It's better to learn to operate within the rules, and how to best exploit them to your advantage. Don't you think that's more feasible?"

He glanced toward the woman as she began to question him. His expression remained soft, gentle, like still water. "During the ninth floor boss fight," he revealed at last. "I tried to rush into things, and I didn't trust my team. I ended up barely teleporting out alive." He shrugged, then looked back out onto the horizon. "I thought I could handle it alone. It doesn't work like that past a certain point. Everything you know becomes invalid. Working together, keeping your allies alive, it's everything."

It is everything.

"I was asleep for several years. Not sure how it happened. I figure there was a glitch in the system, but who could say. I'm no Akihiko Kayaba." He didn't like it. Every time he thought about the time he spent in veritable stasis, his skin crawled. 

Best way to avoid that feeling would be not brushing with death again, I guess.

He wiped away the wetworks just in time to arrive in the second floor settlement. Urbus was abuzz with activity as daylight slowly ebbed from the sky. Lanterns ignited and shed light over the streets. There was much left unsaid, but the day's task, at least, was complete.

Alkor headed toward the teleporter at the center of town with one thing in mind. Rest, relax, come back to it at a later time. There was nothing to be gained from letting the emotional overload tax him to the point where he would be no good to anyone. He headed for floor eleven, where he knew the Inn would be warm and the drinks would be served fresh. 

"I need at least five beers," he muttered to himself. Alkor had never been a heavy drinker, but it felt like the right call given his situation. A temporary escape, perhaps, but a welcome one.

"Grandma... what would you do?"

One day, you're gonna have to do all this without me. I won't be around forever. With those words, his grandmother sighed and took out her car keys, then headed out the door. You have to learn to talk to people. It's not always easy. As an adult, you won't have anyone to bail you out. Watch what I do and listen what I say. Learn how to do this now, because if you have to learn it by yourself, you're going to struggle.

Yet still, he struggled. He's a smart boy, he just hasn't learned everything there is to know. People make mistakes. He's special, see. Things that make sense to us, don't to him. Help him understand what he did wrong, and I promise, he'll do his best to fix it. Please, don't take this opportunity from him.

Words. Emotions. All of it seemed like a grand production playing out in front of him, but Thom never fully grasped how she had done it. The woman understood what people felt. She knew how to talk to them.

Everything she was, he wasn't.

Yet somehow, she had treated him like her own child.

"Grandma," he whispered. Tears threatened at the edges of both his eyes. "I don't know how to do it alone."

What of his other friends? It seemed Evan found his way into the game, but Tobias? What had become of him? Was he fortunate enough to miss Day One of the calamity, or had the Player called Arc dived in headfirst as well? Too many questions started to plague the swordsman as he approached Urbus.

All of his friends were lost to him, in one way or another. Mari... she would be, soon enough. In his haste to do right, he had done much greater wrong. What could he do to amend that?

Again, only the truth seemed to shine any light ahead of him.

That truth, however, would turn her feelings to hate. It was no cause not to afford it to her- he knew that with or without him, she needed that closure. That was his intention when he approached Lessa. Both women had been wronged, both in unique ways.

The burden fell on him to ensure that he found the answer, and walked the right path.

He remembered the conversation, vaguely. Posturing, threats, even the challenge of a fight to the death. Alkor had declined, but he had managed in his aggravation to remove Lessa from his friends. The blanks were not filled in. The questions only begat more questions.

One day, he would ask her.

But no time soon. Their friendship had only just thawed out, frozen for years inside of Aincrad. There was pain and suffering on her end, he was certain of it. She had not gone easy on him with her words. He could not blame her, and despite his anxiety reaching a whole new level, Alkor found himself sympathizing with someone else.

He knew, the answer lay somewhere between them in the unspoken words. There was truth to find, and he would find it.

The irony smacked him across the face.

He told her that he would protect her, only to hurt her worse than any monster had in all her time there.

Numbness crept along his spine as he walked.

Where had it gone wrong?

Before the brutality and raw emotions, before his massive breakdown, before the Hydra- there was Lessa. She was a friend, someone who he could depend on. She was kind, and she wanted to do good for everyone. When he had slain a Player in defense of another, she gave him her ear and heard him out, where she could have turned him away.

He strained to recall what set all of the chaos in motion. Lessa had asked for answers, and at the time, he had none to give. But she seemed as confused as he was. What came to his mind, now made no sense.

Daeron.

The man approached him, bravado out like a knife. He had threatened and flown off the handle at every word Alkor spoke. He told him things...

Lessa didn't seem like she understood why he had acted the way he had. To Alkor, all of it made sense. Between the two of them, something had gone from harmony to chaos. Now what seemed so clear was shrouded in fog.

Alkor walked along the path with a contemplative look on his face. He didn't see if anyone were near, and if they were, he ignored them entirely. He needed answers.

Had Daeron lied?

"Yeah, I'm alright," he replied tilting his head. Both women asked similar questions- well, as similar as Azoda's question could get to "how are you?" He never responded the way people expected, somehow. They always had weird expectations. "I just overheard you guys getting a little stirred up and I came to make sure everything was alright."

He turned and gestured. "It's a party, right?"

Ironic. I never went to parties on the outside. Oh well.

"As long as you're good, that's perfect. I'll leave you to it, then." He started to turn, then stopped. "I hope you can relax some and enjoy yourself," he told the fiery woman, "and you're right," he told Ceres, "in their own way, nobody is useless."

With that, he began the long walk back to Mari and the throwing booth. The season was one of the few times where they could take a break from the harshness of this world. Everyone should have been able to enjoy it.

@Ceres @Azhoda

"Uh, hey, are you good?" Alkor took a step toward her with a hand outstretched, only to realize the woman had stumbled over a small green creature. "For some reason," he started as he crouched low to get a better look, "I don't think we're gonna get quite that much of an exhibition."

He tilted his head, fascinated. It was a smaller version of the more exquisite beasts they had been discussing, but it was still within parameters. "I've never seen anything like this on the first floor before. I think you may have literally stumbled upon our quarry."

It did occur to him that the game might have put something infinitely more dangerous than the dangers they were used to in front of them, but he also didn't think it would just randomly spawn something like that on Players that had not gone quite so far as they had. There were rules within the system that prevented random, unmitigated slaughter of low level Players. If they wandered astray on their own, all bets were off.

"What do you make of it?" he asked her.

@Lessa

He stopped himself short of throwing when he heard the voice. It wasn't like he was trying to avoid her, Alkor had always been bad at responding to mail and texts, even group messages. The dark haired swordsman turned to glance at Mari with a smile. "You came to a festival, huh?" he asked, pleasantly surprised. "That's a great start, Mari. It's important to let people see you trying to get along with others."

He knew that was true, because it was in a way the same struggle he faced. Every chance he got to make a friend or at least gain an ally, he needed to take. Lessa would probably be proud of him for making that effort.

"Soon you'll be able to get along with anybody, right?" his smile turned into a grin, and he tossed the ball to her. "You should give it a shot. I'm pretty bad at games like this, but I'll probably take my chances-"

He blinked when the sound of a familiar voice rose and caught his attention. Is that... oh. Had to be, didn't it?

Alkor had half a mind to step in and say something, but it diffused just as quickly. He caught bits and pieces of the heated outburst, enough to get the gist of what was going on. Oh, it's that girl I met. I wonder how they know each other.

He took a step toward the two, but called back over his shoulder. "I'll be right back, Mari." After that, he moved toward Ceres and Azhoda.

"You guys enjoying the event?" he asked diplomatically.

@Azhoda @Ceres

With the field boss defeated and the quest clear, he had the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely walk back. The faint scent of honeycombs in the distance told the tale of a sweet treat, if the Player wanted to trek off the beaten path and search for it. Lower level Players were wont to wander and explore when given the opportunity.

It was something much more dangerous on the Frontlines. They traveled in groups and worked as teams because the threat of death was very real. It almost felt nice to have a break. 

But his break had already lasted too long. He wanted to grow, to get stronger- but he wanted to do it in a way where people wouldn't have to worry about him, and where he knew he could do the most good.

That was a big difference between then and now. He was at least trying to take people's feelings into consideration. Trying, because he wasn't always sure what those feelings were.

He took a breath and lowered himself, knees bent. It had to work. He had to relax and let everything fall into place. There was a perfect amount of effort he had to put forward, and with the proper mental state, it would be a trivial task.

His sword lit up. In the seconds after that, he began swiping fiercely, and the Wasp Queen came within reach only a step and a half later. The blade tore through pixelated insect, and continued to do so until the image fractured, segmented, and split to pieces.

When he stopped, the blade rested out to one side, and Alkor exhaled. "Okay," he said quietly. "That was a great deal easier than I expected. Good. Good. That means I'm not so terribly far behind that I can't catch up.

I just soloed a low level field boss.

I can do this."

He tucked the weapon away at his side and stood up. Urbus was a short hike away, and he had to make it back before sunset. 

Didn't want to be out too late.

They rushed at each other, blade and stinger bared. Both attacks went wide, perhaps from too much emphasis placed on evasion. Alkor cursed himself for placing a small amount of health- or perhaps less- above finishing the fight.

If he made small concessions, he could attain larger results. That was the sort of thinking he had, at least. Other Players might argue that safety came before all else, but to someone trying to do the most damage possible, it seemed like the wrong decision.

Alkor spun around as quickly as he could manage to face the Wasp Queen, which had already turned to set its sights on him. It had just as much luck as he did in the last exchange, so there was at least that much to celebrate.

"One more good hit," he told himself. "That's all it's gonna take."

He tilted his head when she said she knew about Cardinal. Well... it did make sense. Maybe he said too much in explanation? He had been pretty excited to learn about it when they were interviewing Kayaba Akibhiko in that magazine...

And his mom even told him to shut up about it, at one point. 

Okay, yeah. I overshared. Oops.

"I didn't choose to be asleep," he protested. "I didn't even think that was possible. I must have glitched out."

She shifted gears and talked about the quest again, so he followed suit.

"That would be cool," Alkor admitted, "but I honestly don't think so. If there was a mob in the air anywhere, we would be able to see it at some point when we got close enough. The first floor's pretty small, so..."

He moved his finger around in a circle. "...I do wish, though." 

Watch it swoop down, now.

Alkor had no more reason to wait.

He threw himself toward the boss almost recklessly, and yet, with all the preparation of a skilled Swordsman. It was a perilous balance, a dichotomy achievable only by someone who had undergone intense training. Was this what it felt like, back when the Samurai wandered Japan, and the feudal lords presided over everything?

I'm getting better.

He quickly utilized his sword art at the instant combat was joined. In the instant where the Wasp Queen, which dwarfed him in size and stature attacked, Alkor ripped through her in three even strokes.

The beast almost failed to register his movements as he hit the dirt and skidded. Much faster. Much stronger. Much more likely to leave the opponent devastated.

He loved that about the Curved Sword.