Freyd

"Wait a sec... Knights of Cinnabon?" Something jarred deep in the recesses of Freyd's memories, urging him to ask Vigilon for clarification. "Aren't these the same jokers you picked a fight with back when we first met on Floor 8, or wherever? That time when I walked away from a pointless and unnecessary fight. Please tell me this isn't some sort of persistent personal vendetta you've got against them. We do have a raid to get to, after all." Freyd hoped that highlighting their status as frontliners might give the two mooks pause. Meanwhile, his thoughts drifted to other intruding m

"Trying to make me look bad by actually showing up on time?" "Why would I bother? Your fancy new getup must take hours to put together." Freyd's instantaneous retort to his guild mate was accompanied with widespread teasing grin to match his backward compliment. The 'Cerulean Storm,' as he'd once dubbed her, had certainly grown into her own. His manner left no doubts about his pride in her accomplishments. "Besides, I needed time to find my fish repellant." Returning Nari's nod respectfully, it hadn't surprised him in the slightest to see the invite come from her. The woman was

Furious at Cardinal's flagrant violation of its own rules, Freyd grabbed the butt end of the nearer attacker's halberds as they drew it out of Morningstar's gut, sympathy pains flashing through the back of his mind as he recalled suffering such grievous injuries himself. Fortunately, Morningstar was made of sterner stuff and withstood the treacherous blows where a lesser player might have expired instead. 'Thank goodness,' Freyd sighed silently in relief. Yanking downward and pulling back, the blade on the redcoat's polearm caught the mob in his own abdomen while Morningstar leapt a

Noting the growing fatigue behind Wulfrin's voice and gradual slowing of his motions, Freyd slid forward to deliver a little delayed action aid and lesson in the subtleties of combat in SAO. Tumbling past his companion towards the creatures flank, he gaze it but a grazing touch. Wulfrin would see a sickening purple miasma gather like an ethereal cloud about Freyd's hands as he delivered the blow, dodging gracefully away just as quickly as he'd approached. Mama Boar squealed and shuddered in seemingly disproportionate pain and her joints locked and froze with rictus, her eyes bulging wide at

Watching an entire suite of emotions play out in the subtly shifting features of her face, Freyd's eyes held fast to neutral for reasons Nari would have no ability to know: he simply didn't know what expectations to play to in such situations, and so abandoned any and all pretense. He was just trying to figure her out, and himself in turn. Clearly, his words has struck some deeper chord. Which? How? Strange how he so desperately yearned to know. Maybe because he sensed that they were more alike than either of them could admit to the other. "Not frighten you...I wish I could hold you

Head twisting like a hound's trying to decipher a newfound scent, yet also a familiar one, Freyd listened carefully as the spoke her piece. The echo of the hollowness within her resonated within his own heart. He knew that void himself, all too well. "So, we're actually not that different after all." Gone was the distended form and surreal demeanor. He was but a man again, plain and utterly forgettable, as intended. The plays and guises of an all-too-familiar skill receded into nothingness once more. It came so easily when beckoned, now, than it even did before. His face flashed

"We could ask the local guard, or sheriff - whatever they use around here. Mounties? Wouldn't that be ironic?" Gathering up the remaining coats, Freyd returned to the main thoroughfare, searching for any other matching garments or evidence of local security. "I've seen pocket combat zones within safe zones before," he offered. "They'd not common, but I stumbled into one in the Town of Beginnings, ages ago, when I was just starting out. Some ghoulish thing feigning childrens' cries would lure players into a dead end alley and then ambush them. Noob players would forget or simply not know

"There it is! Keep that up," Freyd offered by way of encouragement, watching Wulfrin manage to do what was required. There was no mockery in his tone. Countless players had died at the tusks of such creatures in the earliest days of Aincrad. Boars still claimed far too large a portion of the names on the Monument of Life. Figuring that the threat was now controlled, his own strikes drawing attention away from his companion, he hoofed the portly piggy on the backside with a gentle tap - just enough to count as a hit without taking away from Wulfrin's efforts. "Are you feeling that d

Freyd's head popped up out the sand like a strange prairie dog, dirt bursting forth and spraying the surround area while also suffusing the tangles mop that was his hair. Static still fizzed through him, the strange denizens of the depths clearly not appreciating his intrusion into their domain. To be fair, he had no idea what he was swinging at, other than its oddly blob-ish shape. Watching Katoka sail overhead with her own blistering zeal and electrocuting strikes, he couldn't help but wonder whether the two might repel each other if similarly charged. Surely, such a thing would end up a

Freyd slowed his unrelenting march, mid-step, twisting and craning his head to look upon his companion. The gesture verged on the uncanny valley in its hyperextension. 'She's a thinker,' he realized. 'How refreshing.' "I suppose that really depends on who you consider to be the monsters." It was a statement, not a counter. Delivered without judgment or apparent prejudice, Freyd's unusual response clearly came from someone who went to great lengths to ensure he was normally difficult to gauge. The scene they'd just shared was rarer than most could ever realize. "You speak as

Freyd smirked, watching Wulfrin stare at the red vial with wonder, then that moment of dawning realization of a massive mother boar barreling down on him. Ah, the good old days... "Persi, be a dear and buy our friend a little time," he spoke aloud to no one in particular. A small amorphous head of inky blackness poked up from the collar on the right side of his neck, opening twin azure orbs adorned with horizontally slotted pupils. The tiny thing's muzzle wrinkled and sniffed, then darted with the speed and silence only a shadow could achieve. Persi closed the distance almost ins

Grabbing both distracted thugs by the scruffs of their respective jackets, Freyd yanked, smashing the questionable contents of their skulls together with a hollow *clack*. As they rebounded off each other, a curt shove to accelerate the motion drove their aching faces into the stone walls on either side of the alley. Both men dropped to their knees, clenching their poor, battered heads, wondering what was happening. They still hadn't clued in that Freyd had vanished from sight, though both were also rather discombobulated. A pair of lightning quick kicks shattered their digital forms and s

"There are limits, but you can skew pretty deep. What you'll come to realize fairly quickly is that any choice in one direction is a trade-off against the benefits of another. Gear counts for a lot, for example, but the math if governed by choices. It's like those guys who excel at crunching all the numbers to tell you how to optimize your build to play in your latest favourite MMO. Put twelve of them in a room and you'll get eleven different reasons why their is the best, and one bitching about how they can't get enough advertisers on their stream and it's all your fault." Freyd blinked.

Freyd listened to Vigilon's recounting, solitary eyebrow raised by the quirky fickleness of fate. "Wait... does all that have anything to do with why we usually meet with you falling out of the sky? Oh, and thank you for offering, but I ate before I came," he added, patting his flat and unassuming stomach. "Standard pre-raid procedure. You know how it is." "I'm afraid what he says is true, Vigilon has no shortage of enemies, including ones that will make war against him upon sight, even monsters with a neutral temperament have had hostile reactions to his presence from time to tim

Oddly enjoying the role of informal sensei, Freyd had never actually pictured it for himself. Yet, truth be told, it was one he'd donned many more times than most would ever consider possible. Offering only a smile at Wulfrin's venting. The life of an appraiser was to make the RNG your nemesis and savor those fleeting moments when fate intervened to give you something that wasn't a complete and total piece of crap. Good times. "I won't pretend to sit here and give you tips to instantly improve your game. Experience and time are the best teachers you could find, though maybe the syste

Watching Nari move was a marvel. He'd never actually fought in heavy armor himself, but every other carapaced veteran of the game he'd ever fought beside couldn't hope to match her speed or flexibility. In a strange way, it was a rare treat of refreshing novelty. But the equally unexpected turn in their continued conversation was what pierced his casual nonchalance about such things. Nari had struck a nerve that he rarely, if ever, allowed to be exposed; multiple, in fact. "Call me naive, but...what are your thoughts on i-" Right. Combat. Eyes on the ball. The treant's siz

"Fishing is about a lot more than just catching fish," he replied coyly, a wistful smirk spreading across his lips. "The rest really needs to be experienced to learn, though we could try it if you wish. Kyu doesn't seem particularly keen, but maybe we could offer some conversation in exchange, at least to pass the time until something else is selected?" Dismissing his bag back to inventory, Freyd wandered out into the water until it rose to the level of his knees, not bothering to remove his footwear. Antiquated rod already in hand, suitable bait was promptly summoned, hooked and cast

Meanwhile, Freyd casually sat casually in a third-hand lawn chair cobbled together from stray bits of refuse and detritus strewn about the sludge fields just beyond the Liminal Blind. Awkwardly functional, yet tastefully macabre, the egregious bit of furniture looked like Frankenstein had taken up carpentry, but used his own parts. Relying mostly on congealed zombie drool as an adhesive, bits of bone, tattered clothing, and fleshy hides whose origins were best left unconsidered, it was perfectly suited to its environs. This was floor thirteen, or the undead-invested, miasmic wasteland that

Freyd's left eye twitched and winced uncontrollably at Nari's description of Persi's owner as 'caring, capable and well-meaning.' These were definitely not traits commonly associated with him or any of the various demeanors he so often donned while about his business. And yet, it had been used by others as well. Were time more permissive, he might have dwelled upon it a while longer. Circumstance dictated otherwise, hurtling them towards yet more conflict. "The things we do in our final hours define who we are..." "Well put." Monologuing had never been his goal, only sharing a sl

"Good," Freyd replied, watching and nodding as Wulfrin dispatched the porcine critter. "I'd say your talents are at least offering you some inherent insight into navigating the mechanics. It gets to be second nature after a while, though also considerably more complex. The closest comparison, I've always found, is the sort of muscle memory demonstrated by practiced gamers. They can fly through wicked combos on a console controller, or navigate the interactions of complex macros through a keyboard without batting an eyelash. Weird as it might sound, those are the skill sets of frontliners.

"Saving face?" One corner of the man's thin slivered lips curled at the unexpected insight. The question was directed at why her thoughts had drifted to that answer, not what was meant by it. "Yes. Very samurai, wouldn't you say? Strange how these elves seem to follow western conventions, and yet... not so much?" Mirth remained, but the fool was gone from his tone and a different glint shone behind his eyes. Could his ramblings have been some sort of a ruse? "I don't think the Lord Commander Utter-Failure over there is very happy about us being here, but teach him to screw up in

"Vancouver? Really?! I grew up in Burnaby, on the edge of Coquitlam! Small world, eh?" Freyd chuckled, shaking his head and somehow seeming to forget or ignore the peril gathering around them. It had been more than a decade since he'd left that life behind, plus whatever time had passed since they'd been trapped in this nightmare. But now wasn't the moment to wistfully reminisce. Mayhem followed the sailing of a severed hand, instantly driving Freyd into a frenzied flurry of action. Fists and feet flung themselves in various directions all at once, the first catching the dismembere

Pulses like lightning began to flash beneath the modest rippling waves on the open lake. Moments later, rumbling shook the sand, like thunder through the ground, or... depth charges? Portions of the lake slumped suddenly, like pockets created by some massive invisible ladle scooping the water away. Before the voids could refill, water erupted upwards in a series of massive jets, like geysers blowing simultaneously or a pod of humpback whales discovering the joys of synchronized swimming. Bits of orange crystal began raining down like fireworks; until Katoka realized that they were actually

"Well he's a charmer," Wulfin grunted, emerging from Lyle's forge and smithy, soot already forming a thin layer of his gear. Freyd laughed heartily in response, that certain twinkle in his eye. "Really? I think so too," he replied, beaming. "Got you to do what he wanted without negotiating terms, though, didn't he?" There was tangible admiration in the Whisper's voice. "Which either means you're a sucker, or they've definitely laced his programming with a few psychology subroutines. And, I don't think you're a sucker, so let's just blame the system and go kill some boars." Whatever

"Congrats. And, I'd be happy to continue helping," Freyd replied to the invitation, having quietly watched from the shadows as Wulfrin had his moment. Every player went through this at some point, it seemed. It was like watching a rookie earn his stripes and be let out into the field for real, except that they were all in the field at all times. At least the man would be better prepared as a result, and Freyd meant what he said about investing in his fellow players. It was the very reason he ran a tab with Ren at the Knight Shift to arm and equip as many new players as possible. Their fut