[F02- PP] When All Other Lights Go Out «Let There Be Light» w/ Katagawa & Dustin

[Cosi 0]

Log Entry Eleven

I think of home.

(O.O.C kinda... dried tear drops dot this page in Cosi's log book)

A wind, light and faint but definitely there, sweeps through Alec's platinum blonde hair. He lays back on the hill a little ways outside his family's house his eyes closed. The breeze carried the scent of spruce and fir on it as it blew through the forest behind Alec's house. His smile deepens in a peaceful way. The scene shifts as his mother comes out of the door of the house, holding his baby brother ryan. She asks him to go find his little sister Sara. Alec stands and nods. The scene shifts again like ripples across a pond. He's in the forest behind his house but as he moves deeper the forest changes becoming darker and denser. It changes into That Forest. Alec moves quickly through the forest shouting for Sara as tendrils begin to reach for him. He hears a call back. "Brother! Brother!" Alec can't find his sister. "Brother! Alec!" The vines catch him and pull him down. Thorns bite into his flesh.  They begin to drag him into the earth. "Alec! Cosi!" Sara never called him cosi. 

Cosi! Cosi! Cosi feels a strong hand on his shoulder shaking him out of his reverie turned nightmare. Cosi scrambles into a seated position, frantically grabbing at his sword. Then he notices it's just Katagawa. They are sitting outside of the Town, on a green hill just after finishing the third lesson quest. Cosi is breathing heavily, and beneath his armor his clothes are soaked with sweat. 

@Katagawa @Dustin

[Katagawa 0]

The two of them having just recently finished another quest, Hokori had accepted the offer to relax on the green hills for a bit. She wasn't one to take that much time off, but perhaps it would be a good idea to rest for a bit. She was laying there on the grass, letting the virtual clouds go by. As much as she hoped the world would be immersive, the threat of death kept breaking her out of that spell. She looked over to see Cosi happily staring into the distance. "Speaking of spells." She went to wake him, but decided to let him dream a little bit longer. There wasn't much of a rush, and he seemed to be happy. That's when he went slack. Without warning, the smile dropped from his face, eyes rolling into the back of his head. He shook a little while not giving any sign of waking from his stupor. Hokori knew a little about seizures, having once been through a medical facility, but didn't know how to treat them. Especially being in a game, she had no clue what to do. She quickly began to shake him. "Cosi! Cosi!" He woke up. She could feel how slick his armor was becoming from his sweat, then let go when she realized she was still holding onto his shoulder. She stayed silent, not wanting to pry into his affairs. If he wanted to tell her, that was his decision to make.

@Dustin

[Dustin 0]

Dustin walks around on the first floor, having gotten lost on his way to the third. “Oh, some people.” He says, walking up to the two strangers. “Hi, I’m Dustin. I was wondering if y’all knew...” He stops mid sentence and looks around. He turns back to them and smiles, “Sorry, what was I saying?” His mind had wandered and he was confused about where he was. His brown hair, hiding under his hood, falls over his eye. “I forgot what I was saying.” He continues. He wasn’t lying, the boy truly had no idea what his original train of thought was. He had no idea where he was, nor did he know where he’s going. Having spoken to new people, Dustin turns to walk away, as he had no idea what he intruded on. He stops quickly and turn around and asks if either of them need help with anything.

@Cosi

Edited September 6, 2018 by Dustin

[Cosi 0]

Cosi looks straight into Katagawa's eyes and holds the stare for a split second. Then he breaks the eye contact, looking down to at his right hand gripping his sword handle so tightly his knuckles hurt. He quickly lets go and stands up. The dream had been so vivid. Cosi shook his head, then looked back to Katagawa, "Katagawa, I wanna te-" At that exact moment, another player strolled up and introduced himself. Cosi first instinct was to grab at his sword again but he stopped himself- why am I so jumpy?- and turned to the new comer. "Dustin is it? Nice to meet you." Cosi extends his left hand oddly enough- his right hovers by his sword- and smiles at Dustin but there isn't the same mirth it there usually is. "We just finished a break so I think we'll go questing again. You want to come with? I'm Al- Cosi. My name is Cosi and this is Katagawa" Cosi stumbles over then words a little as he introduces the two of them to Dustin.

@Katagawa

[Katagawa 0]

Hokori had held the stare for a bit longer than she had intended to, and quickly broke it as Cosi did. It seemed he was about to tell her something when they were interrupted by someone walking over to them. As the introductions went around, Hokori gave a slight bow at the mention of her name. "A pleasure to meet you." Even if this game was not the real world, she didn't want to sully her reputation while in it. Perhaps she could use connections in here to help reintegrate herself and others when they would finally be free. Getting ahead of herself, Hokori decided it would be best to stay in the moment. "If we have such a large group, ,we may want to consider going up a floor or two if we want to do a quest together. We should be able to take something on of a higher difficulty between the three of us."

@Dustin

 

[Dustin 0]

“A fight? Sure, where?” He asks. Dustin loves to fight, it’s his favorite thing to do. It was his only thing to do. Dustin turns to the players and grins, drawing his sword. “This here is Fury’s hand.” He says. He always introduces his sword. He says, “You can’t really trust someone until you know their sword.” And that’s how he saw it. He was taught from a young age to believe that. Though his father would not be happy with Dustin’s choice to play Sword Art Online, Dustin still tried to stick to his father’s beliefs. The first is a sword is an extension of one’s soul, you can’t have a sword without a warrior and you can’t have a warrior without a sword. The boy always found this to be true, he believed it was the essence of a great warrior. He always wanted to be a great warrior so he tried to do as much fighting as possible. “Let’s go fight something.” He smiles, talking to the two players sitting on the green hill.

@Cosi

Edited September 6, 2018 by Dustin

[Cosi 0]

Cosi nods a little distractedly but then he shakes himself and actually listens to the conversation. "I haven't done too much exploring up on floor two so how about we all head there?" Then after hearing Dustin's comment about trust he draws his own sword. "This is Rasierklinge. It actually means shaving razor in german." Cosi smiles sheepishly then starts to chuckle, "Its really sharp so I thought it was a funny name.." Cosi trails off at this point and lets Katagawa or Dustin lead the way to floor two. He seems lost in thought to those who look at him and he is. Cosi thinks of home. I wish I was back there, in the real world, with my family. I miss them so much and I hope they miss me. Cosi thinks back to that waterfall, the world inside his mind and what he faced there. Cosi shudders slightly but keeps moving. He still has his razor sharp sword in his hand.

@Katagawa

Edited September 6, 2018 by Cosi

[Katagawa 0]

"As Cosi said, my name is Katagawa. My sword currently has no name, as it has no need for one." She found it a little strange to be naming a blade that was not only a virtual construct but also not going to be used for that long. Perhaps it was a male thing. Regardless, there was no harm in being honest and playing along with it. At the very least, it shed light upon the character of the person she was facing. If they were so inclined to name their sword, it would be likely they followed some sort of code. Though not necessarily a samurai code, it could be something much more personal. "Let's get to the teleporters then" She led the way back towards the Town of Beginnings. It was nearby, so she didn't look behind her to make sure others were keeping up like she normally would.

@Dustin

[Dustin 0]

“Yay, adventure.” Dustin says, following close behind. He started humming his favorite song, because he thought it was going to be a long walk to the teleport gate. He walks up on the gate and teleports to the main town of the second floor. “Man, I forgot this wasn’t the third floor.” He says, sighing. He loved the third floor, because he loved knights and fairytales, and the third floor reminded him of those stories. Those stories he would read to his brother, or his father would read to him. After his father died, Dustin only read those stories alone, for the pain would get to him if he didn’t. So when he found out a floor on a game with 10,000 people might look like a fairytale, it was his goal to look for that floor. Luckily they found it quickly. Coincidentally, the second floor ended up being his second favorite. It came to be the place where he hunts the most. The floor was a forest, which is where Dustin felt most comfortable fighting, so he fought there a lot. It’s a reason he agreed to do a quest on the second floor. “At least this isn’t the stupid fourth floor.” He mumbles under his breath, slightly louder than he thought.

@Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi continues walking, almost sulking, behind the other two players. He even misses Dustin's comment about not liking the fourth floor, which is odd since Cosi lives and loves the fourth floor. It snow reminds him of home, which is exactly what he's thinking about right now. Or at least he wants to be. I can hardly remember home anymore. I've been away too long. I can only visualize the outside the outside of the house, nothing inside of it. Cosi shakes himself out of his thoughts as he hear's the cries and pleas of a woman. Cosi quickly turns towards the sound and sees and NPC women pushing through the crowd toward Cosi, Katagawa, and Dustin. When she reaches them she stops practically hyper ventilating. "Please, adventurers! M-my child, my little g-girl, she's been taken by m-monsters! She w-was playing by the caves with a friend and the m-monsters a-attacked and took her into the caves. P-please you have to save her! She's my little daughter." At this point the mother broke into hysterical sobbing and fell to her knees, her hands gripping Cosi's arms life a life preserver. 

@Katagawa

[Katagawa 0]

The twip to the second floor felt shorter than Hokori thought it would be. She hadn't really done much of any traveling between floors yet, but had figured out the system rather quickly. A quick shout of your destination would take you wherever there was a transport pad nearby. Though she was usually quite wary of voice commands, it seemed that this game did them rather smoothly. It certainly beat out the horrid menus that they had decided to implement. Shortly after making it there, a woman ran up to the small group of adventurers. After hearing her out, Hokori spoke for the group, though without the intention of doing so. "We'll look for her the best as we can. Just point us in the direction and we'll take it from there." With no sense in denying how little information there was to go off of, Hokori didn't wish to raise the lady's spirits up. If Dustin would accept her coming along with her and Cosi, who she figured would tag along, she would send a party invite to him so that this was an actual group and not a random meeting of players with similar objectives.

@Dustin

[Dustin 0]

“Screw trying our best. Even if I die, your daughter will be back by your side.” Dustin says, glaring at the girl. He didn’t care if he died, he just wanted to help. She’s an NPC but Dustin would still die to help anyone. He opens his menu and sends a party invite to the two other players. “This way you’ll know if I die.” He winks. “Also, If I do, make sure you keep my promise. And you’re going to take my sword And give it to the weakest player.” He says, looking down at his sword. He wanted this so that way, even if he dies, he’ll still be helping people. It’s his reason for living. He looks at the crying NPC. “Even if she has already died, we’ll bring something back.” He says, putting his hand on her shoulder. Dustin knew the pain of losing someone, especially family. So he did his best to console the crying woman and stood up. “On my brother’s grave, I swear you will see your daughter again.” He says, clenching his fists.

@Cosi

[Cosi 0]

The mother's words hit Cosi like a truck. A missing child, a daughter. I wonder if that little girl has a brother. Cosi patted the mother's arm. "We will find your daughter and bring her back. Don't worry at one bit." Cosi then detached himself from the woman, sputtering her thank yous, and began to walk out of the city. There wasn't a ghost of a smile on his face. Only pure determination and fury. Cosi looked at Dustin, who he had just met, and Katagawa, a good friend. "Let's go find this girl." What would I do if this woman's daughter was Sara? Cos thought to himself. He clenched his fists then realized he was still holding his sword. Cosi nods grimly. I would do anything. I would to everything to save her. To see here again. Cosi had to get back to his family. Two years- such a long time- and the front liners had only reached floor 23. Cosi's frown deepened. Not fast enough. If the strongest here don't want to get back to the real world, then someone has to do it. Cosi strode out of the city.

@Katagawa

[Katagawa 0]

Hokori didn't like that the others gave the woman a promise that it wasn't certain they could keep, but understood why they felt that way. She noticed it more often in men then women, but people always wanted to give false hope to raise morale. She knew better. It was far more important not to give hope that shouldn't be there. Though it was likely the three of them could clear out that entire cave, who knew if there wasn't some overly powered beast lurking in its depths. She did her customary checks of her gear before following the other two outside of the city. "Neither of you had to give her false hope. She may be an NPC but that is no reason to give the chance of crushing her virtual soul should we fail." She knew she would be met with negative responses here, but needed to voice her opinion. "As likely as it is we will succeed we can't give out guarantees on a situation we know next to nothing about!" Hokori drew her sword out of frustration. She wasn't going to swing at either of the players, but she would take point. If they were going to give a guarantee then she was going to do her best to make sure they could follow through on it.

@Dustin

[Dustin 0]

"It's not misplaced hope. No hope is misplaced. Hope is the one driving force in this world." He draws his sword too, always ready for combat. The player walks behind the girl as he knew that she was taking point. Dustin likes to attack first, but that's not up to him. "Yes, I'm sure our failure would be a let down. But I'm sure she'd understand if we died in that cave. She wouldn't be able to blame us. She could only blame herself, for killing so many children. So I said I'd die to get the child and I'm sticking to it." He continues. The player wanted to help people. "You can't save people if you don't have hope." Dustin keeps rambling on. This is important to this player. "Hope doesn't mean it's going to come true. Hope means you want it too, and you believe it will." He slams his fist into a tree. Hope is what has kept Dustin going. He had one hope, to be like his brother. To help people, even if it costs you your life. "Helping people inspires hope. Hope drives people to help. Why not give out as much of it as possible?" His voice heavy. The player was talking about hope. At this point, Dustin had no idea what hopes he had, other than to inspire hope.

@Cosi

Edited September 8, 2018 by Dustin

[Cosi 0]

"You've got to remember that this is a game Katagawa. A death game nonetheless but a game. And I've played enough games to know that when it comes to kids you will always find them alive. Even this game wouldn't be that cruel." Cosi kept moving, walking past Katagawa to lead. He headed outside the city and to where the quest marker marked where the caves would be. This quest wouldn't be too hard at all. With Katagawa and this new player, Dustin, Cosi knew they could handle anything. He would finish this quest and then he would train, reaching the front liners- surpassing them if needed- and then he would make it home. He wouldn't be away from his family any longer. He wouldn't let his mother worry like that mother had to. He wouldn't let his little brother grow up not knowing he had an older brother. He wanted to see Sara again. 

@Katagawa

[Katagawa 0]

Hokori mostly tuned out the men's arguments. She knew that they would hold some substance, but wasn't in the mood for a proper debate right now. If she was, she would probably try to search up some psychiatry journals or something. There wasn't much that she could do, but it was in her best interest to just focus on the task at hand. As the group closed in on the cave they were being directed towards, she stopped and turned back towards her party members. She thought about giving a rousing speech, but decided that would be quite wasted on the minuscule scale of the situation. She instead decided to be quick and informative. "Let's get in, take out whatever beasts are inevitably guarding the girl, and get out. I can take the first swing with my AoE if needed, though I don't think they'll be able to stand against us for that long. Just try not to hit each other while in the dark, as that would certainly not help any of us." Hopefully, they would actually listen to her, even if they had been arguing earlier.

@Dustin

[Dustin 0]

Dustin looks at the girl. No point in arguing anymore. We need to work together, or we'll die. "I'm sorry for flipping out, it's just I feel hope is important." He says, resting his sword on his shoulder. He stands and looks into the cave. "Wow, that is really frickin dark. Why were those kids playing here?" He asks, listening for any noises coming from the cave. He wasn't the most tactical thinker in Aincrad, but he knew his way around a battle. "That kid is just like I was. Heh, we have to save her now." He steps into the cave, with his sword down at his side. He wasn't prepared for any combat just yet, not even being in the cave for a second before walking back out. "It is REALLY dark in there." He points into the cave and smiles. "Guess will just have to guess where they are." A grin crosses his face as he looks at his sword. "Fury's Hand will make sure I don't die." He hugs his blade and smiles. "Alright, let's go." He turns and walks in.

@Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi strode into the cave along with Dustin, pulling out his sword and Rose Gold as well. Whatever monsters had taken that girl would find that they had a lot to deal with. Cosi wasted no time and charged into the cavern with reckless abandon. He would get that girl back to her mother. I'll get back to Sara. Cosi face was etched with grim determination. No point in waiting, no point in slowing down, no point in stopping. So why does everyone else.  Cosi strode deeper into the pitch black cave only pausing when he heard the flap of wings in the darkness. Cosi pressed forward until the noise came again, closer this time. The tank stopped and stood his ground. There were definitely mobs in with him know. Cosi peered into the darkness hoping that his eyes would adjust soon so he could maybe glimpse his foes. it only took another minute and then he could see the vague outline of four shapes. They were bats.

Quote

Enemies:

Giant Bat A- Hp: 50/50- DMG: 20

Giant Bat B- Hp: 50/50- DMG: 20

Giant Bat C- Hp: 50/50- DMG: 20

Giant Bat D- Hp: 50/50- DMG: 20

@Katagawa

Edited October 3, 2018 by Cosi

[Katagawa 0]

It wasn't long after walking into the cave before the sound of flapping was being heard by the group. Cosi seemed to notice them first, but Hokori quickly made her way in front of him to take her swing. Though she and Cosi could probably tank both of them just as easily, she wanted to try and get a swing it at each of them before others could get hit by her own blade. She had still yet to find out if people could be hurt unintentionally by a sword art, but she wasn't about to find out. Once she landed a couple of her strikes, light from her sword art temporarily lighting the room and illuminating the bats, she backed up a bit to let the bats that wanted to come at her. "I can hold off some of them, go for the ones that aren't weakened yet Cosi!" She didn't know how to direct Dustin, so she just did her best to make sure they weren't hurt.

Spoiler

Roll ID: #106573
BD: 8 + 1 - 1 = 8 - hit (7 * 2 = 14 damage)
BD: 2 + 1 - 1 = 2 - miss
BD: 6 + 1 - 1 = 6 - hit (7 * 2 = 14 damage)
BD: 3 + 1 - 1 = 3 - miss

[H: 1/0/1/0] Katagawa: 160/160 HP | 10/16 EN (-6 sword art) | 7 DMG | 18 THN | 17 MIT | 1 ACC | 9-10 PARA
[H: 0/0/0/0] @Dustin: ???
[H: 0/0/0/0] Cosi: ???

Flying Bat A: 36/50 HP | 20 DMG
Flying Bat B: 50/50 HP | 20 DMG
Flying Bat C: 36/50 HP | 20 DMG
Flying Bat D: 50/50 HP | 20 DMG

((OOC: try to remember what level and gear you guys had then, know it's been a while since this thread started)