Freyd

Note: Post deleted as player has become inactive. It would be nice to have the 1 demonic shard and 1 gleaming scale sent to Zenshu returned to Freyd.

"Humanity's worst enemy is itself, more often than not. Just look at Kayaba. He's got every other PKer's kill count beat by the hundreds, if not more." Freyd grimaced at the thought, the image of those countless names carved into the Monument of Life flashing through his mind's eye. "I regret to say that we have to be careful about who we trust, most certainly out in the wilds. Steer within safe zones whenever you can, and try not to travel alone. That's when you'll be most vulnerable. They're like any other predators, you see. Some will travel in packs, and most will seek wounded or i

Freyd claims: Dagan Crystal-B | (Tierless/Consumable - Instant (during healing effect)/Re-usable) | Once per thread, as a free action: Add an additional +5% to any post action healing effect. This value exceeds normal maximum HP, and will become temporary HP. This effect is applied before Life Mending is calculated and benefits from it. (This item must be present in battle ready inventory to be used.) ID Tag: 218298 Ordsea Crystal-B | (Tierless/Consumable - Instant (during any action that generates hatred)/Re-usable) | Once per thread, as a free action: Add an additional +5 hatred

"Oh, right! That's why it always sounded so familiar. I grew up near Coquitlam as a kid. Not really the same, but the cadence is similar." Shrugging off the woman's dour demeanor, he crumpled her note and let it fall to the broken flagstone street beneath their feet. "He'll be the easy one to find. They next won't be found the same way. Yet another opportunity for you to shine, Vice-Commander," he added, beaming a grin at Hirru. "I'm equally glad to see that the curse has yet to claim you. Let's keep it that way." Crouching on bended knee, Freyd dipped his gaze to the ground. At

Eying his Wristwrap's Luck of the Sea suspiciously, Freyd was very skeptical that the wet burlap would amount to much of anything. He was right. Weaving and bobbing around the mob, as if to pacing of some unsung sea chanty tune, he simply couldn't get close enough for a strike. "How the hell is he moving that fast on a peg leg?! Is it spring-loaded? Maybe a pogo or something?" Verbal barbs were about as close as the Whisper managed to get, though the effect was mutual. Swinging his cutless as crazily as he was, Burlock wasn't likely to ever hit much of anything himself. "Have at

Reading the message, Freyd had forgotten that the recently added next episode in the Arabian saga had been planted in his own backyard. Perhaps not literally, the monastery ruins being a more factual boundary, but so few players chose to make their home in the zombie-infested wastelands of floor 13 that it was easy to think of the whole thing as his own overgrown lawn. It had been ages since the two of them had worked together, other than the recently completed raid. Event the last Arabian quest they'd completed seemed like ages ago. Hirru was also good people. There were few in Aincrad t

He was grateful to Katoka for ending 'herself.' The toll of taking out another friend might have proven too much. So many familiar faces cut down out of necessity. When was it going to be enough? Memories drifted to his mind's eye of a manhunt in the woods: he hunting down his own dark essence that had literally clawed out of his mouth to wreak havoc on the world. The effigy had spawned dozens of copies of itself, each in the shape of a friend. Each had been felled in turn, without mercy. They were not real. But what was real anymore? Trapped in a digital world where your own face was

Each of the three poll questions had various strong points and shakier elements. Rather than skew either way, I’ll just skip the poll and offer the following as creative feedback. It’s also worth acknowledging how hard it can be to plan for raids when the designer doesn’t yet know who will be participating while creating the boss. Mad respect for those of you who put in the effort. Hopefully, some of what follows is useful. 1. Narrative Honestly, this raid’s narrative struggled a bit regarding engagement. The text itself was great, but was often so heavy with internal monolog

"Cardinal..." Katoka had never before heard him speak a word with such utter vitriol and contempt. The hatred was visceral and came from Freyd's very core, as if speaking to the very antithesis of his own being. Regaining his footing while true Katoka held the newcomers at bay, her frantic calls cut through the haze and din ringing like a fog over his senses. 'System static,' he told himself, not really knowing why. Where is Takeshi when I need him? Oh. Right. I killed him... again. Fingers pressed against wetness on his face. Blood? Stained tips drew back black with some so

"Busy? Dude. This is just about as not-busy as I ever get. My name's Freyd, by the way. Nice to meet you. And you may want to avoid assuming that floor level determines difficulty. There are things here on floor one that could challenge a frontliner. Along the same lines, the areas around the teleportation portals on most upper floors are perfectly safe." A grimace crossed his face as he spoke. "Honestly, your biggest threat won't even come from mobs, but from other players. PKers come in all shapes, sizes, and even icon colours. Just because it's green, doesn't mean they can't be s

"So, how did you manage to find a place like this Freyd?" Kat asked between mouthfuls, "Another once of you many grinding adventures I assume?" "I make it a point to get to know all the nooks and crannies of the floors we unlock - all the secrets and hidey-holes. There are always more to be found. This?" He waved his hand towards the incoming surf. "This was one of the most pleasant surprises I've yet to find, and one that needed to be shared." Uncharacteristic serenity found the Whisper in that moment, his features actually relaxing for once to take in the scenery as well as the com

Standing back up and stretching his arms high with a twist of his lanky torso, such actions should be completely unnecessary within the confines of the game. And yet, they granted a sense of realism and normalcy that could also other wise be lacking; it just felt right. From each high-held hand dangled a skinned with of gamey rabbit in looted form and prized particularly by players. "Oh, sweet! Bonus loot drop. That helps make up for all the time I spent chasing this damned thing." Both sets of meat strips vanished with a flash, vacuum sealed in whatever elsewhere space played host

Freyd dropped suddenly from a treetop smashing a fist into the ground with a satisfying thump that spooked and scattered all of the remaining wildlife within a hundred feet from the force of the blow. Darkly clad in traveling leathers with a charcoal-coloured cowl over his head, he might easily be confused for a scout or possibly even an assassin. Both might also be accurate, depending on the circumstance, but in this particular case the motive was lunch. The ragou rabbit lurking in the low green foliage had been trying to give him the slip for an hour, with some limited degree of success.

"Uurk!" Freyd's back suddenly bulged, folding him awkwardly in half like his insides were threatening to become his outsides. Inky black ooze spewed forth from his mouth, eyes and ears, spraying and staining the dingy grey sand with a slick, oily finish. Montjoy stood separately off to the side, tilting his head in silence while watching in morbid curiosity. Somehow, he didn't seem surprised by any of it, but who knew the expectations of shadows? Even as he wretched, the glossy clumps of sodden soil around him started to writhe and undulate, as if something was prodding them from behi

"I'm going to live to regret saying that aren't I?" Freyd shrugged noncommittally, which for him was tantamount to absolute agreement. Notably, his usual grin was missing. Whatever all this was had truly managed to get under his skin and continued to fester. Like pinning Jell-o to a wall, the curse of feeling had done the impossible and touched the untouchable nerve. Speaking of untouchable, Katoka's ever-impressive technique spontaneously fell prey to SAO's equivalent of plot armor as the system interfered and veered her katana into some poor already-dead mob instead. The mook, bare

Was there such a thing as tanking-guilt? Freyd felt ridiculous for still having so much fuel in the... reservoir, but the job simply didn't require it in the same gas-guzzling ways as his usual wood chipper-shredder approach to combat. It was all rather new. At least he'd had the good sense not to go with his original plan to nerf his damage output completely. Watching paint peel might have proven more appealing than endless chasing aggro in circles. How did Shield ever endure it?! New respect dawned instantly for the absent raid veteran, along with so many others who'd taken on the mant

"Heh... clever system. Good for you, little sister." His bin opened and the corresponding order already collected, Freyd had been tempted to try to collect the entire wall if only to dissect its inner workings. But, friends didn't do that to friends... and it was also bad business. Having already surveyed her shop, its condition since his last visit was dramatically improved. It was yet another sign that Kat was... no, had... come into her own. A loose sheaf of brilliant white paper materialized on the desk at his urging, as did the quill and ink to be used for his note. It was antiquat

"I'm not a fool Freyd." You've never struck me as one. 'Courageous' far more often came to mind as her defining quality, but he stayed silent. Katoka had long since earned the right to scold him and speak her mind, not that she'd ever really been shy about it. He'd born the brunt of her barrage of elbow ribbings to prove it, but also had too much respect for her to interfere. Meanwhile, the machine turning the wheels behind the Whisper's eyes kept chugging along, doing its thing. Patterned, predictable responses repeated in each and every occurrence. He'd tried to tell them all s

Watching his friend approach, Freyd instantly read the tension in her shoulder and set of her jaw. He knew what was coming, yet couldn't decide how he should react to it. What was expected? Should his ire rise in return? Apologize? For what? The threat had been ended, at least from the mob. If his conclusions were correct, his presence would place her in greater danger than remaining. Was this another of those 'feeling' things? They were proving to be quite bothersome, and therein lay the rub. "That's all you have to say to me? You fly into a rage and beat that boss thing to a pu

Freyd sat on a dusky outcropping of rock, charcoal in colour and texture, his own clothing blending in perfectly with the local decor and his demeanor a matching blend of terrible. Legs contorted into some semi-meditative lotus pose, he looked more like he'd tried to untangle a particularly pesky knot, failed miserably and given up. On the black river's edge, below, in water so still that it failed to ripple in the wake of its passage, the Leeching Lich prowled in search of souls upon which to feed. Spider fingers splayed against each other, very little of the Whisper was left to see save a

"To be fair, I'm pretty sure that most people outside of this digital hellscape already carry some excessive share of crazy. People are just naturally messed up. Can you even remember the last person you truly considered 'normal'?" He pondered wistfully himself for a moment, coming up empty before Violet cried out at the loving affection of the field of grabby hands cluttering their path. "Ease up, boys. I'm pretty sure that she's already taken." An eyebrow flicked at the most observation of mild disappointment in the wilting of the hands. Not what I expected... and also: weird. "B

So the slightly-less-huge-than-it-was-a-moment-ago spoop noodle did notice them after all? As a professional prodder, Freyd felt elated at having finally prompted some sort of actual response from the thing. A sneer and glare triggered its icy partitioning party trick again, but their group was getting accustomed to the pattern. A few terse instructions and the others went to work: Elora, Katoka, Morningstar and Mina. They were the fab four of this raid, at least in his eyes, each having dished out consistent and potent hurt for the entirety of the fight. "Have at'em!" Carve his big-

"Buddy, I didn't call you a murder hobo." she interjected, "I said I was worried about how you were feeling after shanking people to help Mr. Man with a plan. But that's besides the point, I already know you're more than that. Why else would I keep hanging out with your crazy ass!" Freyd could practically hear the metaphorical record player needle scratching across the surface of the disk. Far beneath the surface of the cowl, his eyes twisted together as he struggled to process how the inference didn't lead to his very same conclusion. "Hey! My jackass is not crazy," he replied, pausin

"Sorry, Mina. It's a package deal. You don't want me to be a relentless murder hobo? This is what you get. Should have read the fine print, I guess?" Freyd kept fiddling with the blasted contraption, aligning various doo-dads and making certain to duplicate everything that had worked last time. "I think Ronbaru's all elemental-themed. Read a few reports about it. Some sort of dissent in the ranks going on in the background, perhaps in their past. It's a 'trouble in paradise' type scenario. Actually, when you think about it, it's probably perfect for a pair of dysfunctional..." S

Twisting and sweeping his leg wide, Freyd laid the hulking golem flat. Spinning himself upright in a whirlwind maneuver that ultimately drove his elbow hard against its few remaining faces. What had once been a tree was now mostly pulp pasted all over the badly marred grove, orange sap-like splatter covering most of the ground and nearly all of Freyd from head to toe - the down side of being a close range, hands-on combatant. Crashing crystal sounds filled the clearing as the sum total of the mob's being shattered at once to signal its demise. Freyd fell unceremoniously the short distance t