FujiwaraPhoenix

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Fujiwara

Sighing, Fujiwara got up from his seat and left the table. Minako's statement had put him on edge for the moment; though she did have a point in trying to balance out the party, the way that person conducted himself was about as suspicious as suspicious got.
...
Well, to be fair, it's not like he was much better. But at this point, it was much more efficient to just sleep it off and ignore the issue until it became relevant again. He had more pressing matters at hand, like getting enough sleep so he wouldn't get fatigued for the day's grind tomorrow.

"A beta tester... Why the heck isn't he off with other betas, though? And flaunting the fact that he was one... It seems too... Unnatural. Desperate, even..." he muttered to himself as he walked off to the inn where the two female party members were staying at. Shelling out some col for a room of his own, Fujiwara walked up the stairs to the second floor of the inn and, entering his room, switched to some more comfortable not-armor clothes and fell back on the bed to fiddle around with the menus on his interface. Maybe he could find some sort of hidden options or something...
Well, at the very least he could make equipment switching and item usage a lot less time consuming now than if he decided to put it off to later, and the monotony of the action would probably put him to sleep faster than anything else...

@KoL@Asuna Yuuki@Aerandir

Ayame

Ayame struggled to lift Lao's body, but without any qualifications to do so it felt like she was trying to lift a sack of bricks without any sort of leverage. Before she could steel herself and possibly try dragging him up the stairs, though, another person came over and offered her some help with the unconscious Lao. She was in no position to reject, so Ayame accepted the offer with open arms.

"Thanks for the help, Umichi. I'm Ayame. It's a pleasure to meet you." she said as Rey came stumbling into the area like a drunkard. Ayame had to try her hardest to hold back a laugh before beckoning her companion over. "Lao decided it was a good idea to pass out in the middle of the floor here, so it'd be nice if we could get some help bringing him upstairs."

Turning back to Umichi, Ayame looked at him for a moment, then at the party he came from. He seemed... Familiar.
"Have we... Met before somewhere?"

@little_ninja@Caits@ItsToppyTippers@LokiLeo789

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Have to finish a paper for my English class, so that currently takes priority at the moment. Hopefully, Aerandir will have posted by the time I do.

A Certain Academic City

Kyouma stared at Torako as she mentioned the idea of him bending light to see behind him, massaging his forehead at the thought that someone would even think that would be simple to do. That sort of manipulation was about as disorienting as it gets, and with so little payout there was no reason to do such a thing. But at least that issue was resolved for the girl's friends... As long as they didn't come up with any other strange theories about him, at least.

Torako's sudden tugging of his arm, though, caught him off guard as he was about to process what she had just said. Knocked out first? That seemed shady to unreasonable levels... But that could wait. Food. Must. Have. Food.

"That first part sounds about as suspicious as these rumors get, but sign me up if we're headed to a restaurant!" Kyouma said, walking along so his kouhai couldn't keep tugging at his arm like a dog would a chew toy. "Lead the way!"

SAO: Living in Aincrad

I'll probably post after Aerandir does or tomorrow... Ish, whichever comes first.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Fujiwara

"Can't say you're wrong there, but it'd be bad if we went around mindlessly following orders without at least some form of consent..." Fujiwara stated, shaking his head at Asuna. "And there's no need for introductions; our names are right up there."

Motioning towards the general location of the party listing on his HUD (and, by extension, everyone else's), Fujiwara stopped his snarky actions to drink some of the water that was given to him. Definitely better than alcohol.

The entrance of a new person and Asuna's subsequent reaction were... Well, contrary to what he would've wished. A 3-man squad was much more mobile and much easier to work with, but past experiences with anything more were purely business related. That being said, though, trying to monopolize a future blacksmith was pretty greedy to begin with. Oh well, the issue was probably best left to Minako... Or something. Even so, he was still a beta tester...

Which meant he might try to gimp them later on to tag along with a better party. Not worth.

"Fujiwara. As our friend here has said, it's up to the leader to decide on that issue. That being said, though, I'm not sure if someone with prior knowledge of the game should be tagging along with us. After all, you probably have some friends that you made during the beta floating around waiting for you somewhere, right?"

Yes, that comment sounded way more dickish than it should have been, but to Fujiwara it seemed like the truth. Especially given the man's demeanor so far...

@KoL@Asuna Yuuki@Aerandir

Ayame

Ayame looked at Rey, then at the minimap, before shrugging. She seemed to be a bit to occupied with something else (maybe the exhaustion after running?), and since they were in a safe zone it was probably okay to let her catch her breath for the moment.

"Well, in any case, I'll see you later. Gonna make sure that we both have a room for the night, then." Ayame said joyfully as she walked off into the town.

After a half an hour or so of exploration, Ayame found herself staring at the door to the tavern/inn that Lao seemed to be in on the minimap. Given that she had promised Rey to do so before her little bout of exploring, Ayame entered the building...

Only to see Lao passed out on the floor. Ayame sighed, a slight smile on her face as she casually paid for two rooms- one for herself and one for Rey to use whenever she arrived. With that completed, Ayame walked over to the now-unconscious Jax and attempted to lift him up. He wouldn't budge. Great. From what she had heard from the receptionist at the desk, he already had his own room...

The question now, though, was how to get him there.
@ItsToppyTippers@LokiLeo789@Little_Ninja@Caits@Ebil Bunny

SAO: Living in Aincrad

I'll prob wait until KoL posts before I drop mine, then.

A Certain Academic City

Kyouma stared at Torako for a moment before sighing, her hand still outstretched in front of his face.

"No, I am not an alien- I cannot see behind me... Wait, is that why you tackled me to the ground? Talk about stupid reasons..." he trailed off before taking the girl's hand and pulling himself to his feet.

Torako's mention of a power up, though, piqued his interest. Though he had no intention of trying to strengthen himself (he was fine as he was now), the fact that another interesting incident was occurring in the city was certainly something to look into. Better than staring at a textbook all day, at least.

"Wait, a power up? I was just walking down the streets looking for a place to eat. I've got no interest in making myself stronger. Not in the least, you know?" he said before looking around at the alleyways that were in between the buildings here and there. "But... This sounds interesting. I'll probably look into it after I get some food or something."

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Well, if Top's unable to post then Leo and I are kinda stuck for a bit.

I'll probably continue of Fujiwara side post-sleep timeskip and probably him alone until top comes back (and assuming we can't just drag Rey around or leave her at the inn lol).

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Fujiwara

Fujiwara glanced at the townscape, making note of how the area was designed. The elevated location seemed to be a reasonable location to build a town, which at the very least meant that the designers had at least put some degree of thought into level design...

Just as he began going off on his own mental tangent, though, Minako and Asuna seemed to slip off and do their own things for the moment. Exploring the town didn't seem like a bad idea at all...

Taking the moment of reprieve to repair his equipment and update his stats, Fujiwara noticed the two other party members slipping off into the tavern. Well, there was no point in not following...

Sitting down near the table Minako and Asuna were at, Fujiwara quietly listened in on the conversation that seemed to be bouncing about between the two girls. So the wannabe blacksmith was a greenhorn at MMOs, huh? Great.

As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, though, a mug of ale was delivered the the table for each of the three party members. He grimaced, shaking his head at the drink. Alcohol and him... They didn't get along.

"Sorry, but I'm fine with a cup of water or some tea. I don't... Like alcohol." He stated as Minako began to switch topics. Well, she did have a point with that, though...

"I think money's evenly distributed anyhow, so there's no issues with that. As for items... Armor should go to the frontline, lighter equips to the assassins and such. Item drops... Should be fine if you keep a hold on them, given that we haven't a clue what will or won't be useful in the future. That sound about right?" he asked the group as he flagged down a waitress for some water and a meal. "And don't worry about paying for me; just give me priority in future deals and I'll be fine."

His ears perked up, though, when Asuna mentioned katanas. Shoot. They were in this game?

"On the note of weapons... You can have first dibs, sure. I'll only need a katana when I can use 'em, so."

@KoL@Asuna Yuuki

Ayame

Ayame nodded at Lao's response-it seemed reasonable enough, given that nobody wanted to be risking their lives in this death game. But from what she had heard and researched, it seemed logical to assume that whatever Lao had in mind was at least a few times more difficult than simply killing pigs.

As she began to speak, though, Rey immediately goaded everyone into running after her towards Geniku. Ayame smirked; being on the track team meant that running this distance would be snap.

Well, as least if it was flat. She had never really gotten into cross-country running.

Putting all of her effort into the run, Ayame dashed towards her companion, catching up in no time at all before running side by side with Rey as they reached the gates of Geniku, at which point Ayame sprinted into the town, smiling triumphantly back at Rey.

"Well, that was fun. Tiring, but fun." Ayame said, waiting for Rey to reach the inner gates as well. Lao immediately went off on his own, but that wasn't worrisome at all; for now, the two of them had a town to explore.

"There anywhere you want to check out first?" she asked, shifting the mood away from the somber atmosphere that floated around them only minutes ago.

@LokiLeo789@ItsToppyTippers

SAO: Living in Aincrad

As usual, chilling back to wait for Leo atm. Hopefully Fujiwara's group doesn't run off with the plot until then lol.