Survive the Swordland - [IC]

[Sara Boo]

Survive the Swordland
A Sword Art Online Roleplay

IC Thread

> {OOC Thread Here} <

Plot

In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.

On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world.

Our characters have just arrived in the world of Aincrad, and are looking forward to a day's worth of exploring and excitement. But what turns out to be an innocent day of gaming quickly turns into the battle to survive.


Rules

• No godmodding/Mary Sues/Gary Stus. This will be strictly enforced.
• On that note, open discussion is vital. I don't want drama OOC, but I want us to be able to communicate effectively if there's a problem.
• Drama IC is encouraged to whatever extent we'd like. Again, communication with each other OOC is key.
• Spell-checking and grammar editing is highly encouraged.
• No one-liners. Give a decent amount of description and interaction.
• If you have to have an extended leave of absence (~2 days or more) or need to leave the RP, LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We can make arrangements.
• (Others to come as this is updated)

Current Members - [Characters]

• Sara Boo - [Lena]
• Kazzy - [Orion]
• Lennon79 - [Alyxaine]
• NoxxHollow - [Zyra]
• Sora1297 - [Mercanor]
• drewccapp - [Aegis]
• KalasAlseif - [Rin]

Status for additional members: CLOSED

[Sora1297]

((Hope this is okay, sorry if it's a bit shorter then what I usually do))

Marcus sat down on his bed, and began to open the cardboard box that had arrived in the mail for him. It had just been another long and exhausting day of school and work. It was hard, being a 21 year old living alone for the first time in his life. He had virtually nothing of value, except a few possessions such as his computer and some life essentials, because he had sold the rest of his stuff to pay for rent. The truth was, Marcus was in-between jobs, and by that, he was looking for a job but wouldn't find any. He was working part-time as a server at a run-down Taco joint, but it barely paid enough for him to eat for the night, and pay his bills. The only thing that Marcus enjoyed about his life, were video games. He loved to play all kinds of video games, ever since he was 5, he played then non-stop. Marcus had recently discovered a new game, a VRMMORPG called Sword Art Online. He thought it might be fun to try it out, seeing as how he was always looking for a new game and I had been massively hyped by his friends. Luckily, Marcus Pre-ordered the game, and the same with his helmet (which cost him two months rent all together). However, Marcus was oblivious to the fact that anything strange was going on with the game, or what it's true intent was. He just thought it was a super cool Virtual Reality game that was gonna have a HUGE multiplayer aspect to it. So, he plugged the helmet in, and threw it on his head, shrugging his shoulders. Suddenly, he saw a dark room and was floating in oblivion, but he managed to make out two brightly lit letters floating right next to him: "Welcome to Sword Art Online. Please Press Enter"

Marcus touched the area with the lights, and a screen suddenly lit up before him, asking him to register or log in with a Pre-existing account. Marcus entered his information he had used when he played the Beta, and proceeded to the character creation screen. In total, he must've spent a good half-hour making his character totally unique to himself, creating him in an almost exact image. He entered his class details, and suddenly, he saw the words "Thank you. Loading Terrain..." And all of a sudden, a blinding white light overtook him and when it faded, he was standing in a brilliant marble town square, looking at new players walking around and chatting with each other, people trying to sell their unwanted items, and many things one would expect to find in a VRMMORPG. He sighed, and looked in the water of a nearby fountain, noticing that his reflection was that of his avatar.

"Oh yeah.." Marcus, now know as "Mercanor" said, unsheathing the large silver sword he kept on his belt and stared at the blade, after swinging it around for a bit. "This is gonna rock"

[Lennon79]

The Sean Bean look? Or perhaps the Faramir… Nah, the Bean sounds good.
More… manly.

A dark haired young man sat lounging on a computer chair, staring listlessly into the visor of his brand new Nerve Gear helmet. His eyes strayed over to a still sealed copy of Sword Art Online, the game which he had spent twelve hours camping outside of a shop to buy. Thoughts swam lazily through his mind, occasionally sparking interest. The whole two-handed swords thing sounds fun… and there’s apparently a pet system…

A loud knock at his door broke him out of his reverie. An elderly voice called in broken English. ‘Kurisu-kun, it issu time for your went?’ Chris stood up with a heavy sigh, reaching for his wallet. As he opened the door to his small apartment, the young man replied in dry Japanese, ‘Sakaoka-san… Please don’t try to speak English again. It hurts my nationality. Here you go, fifty-five thousand yen.’ Waving the wad of bills in his landlord’s face, Chris couldn’t help but sigh once more, as Sakaoka Souichirou gave him a maddeningly indulgent smile. ‘You are aways such a nice boya, Kurisu-kun. Thanku you and goodo day.’

Trying desperately to control the sudden tic in his eye, Chris smiled politely and waved the old man off, grumbling quietly. ‘Daft old bugger…’ With the distraction dealt with, he strode over to the shiny new helmet and set about figuring out how to set it up. After an hour of cursing, rereading the manual and further cursing, the hardware was rigged and the software ready to go. Disregarding the instruction to lay down when playing in favour of his favourite armchair, the bespeckled young man booted up the game, feeling mildly rebellious as he did so. It took him a minute to muster the courage to utter the patently ridiculous startup phrase. ‘… Li… Link Start. What the fu-‘

Cut off mid-curse by a chromatic shower, his mind finally started settling into gaming mode, cycling through the intended character creation choices. A trickle of excitement flowed as the bootup checklist flew past his eyes and he filled in the login screen, choosing to play the game in English. The character creation screen itself was a marvel, with dozens of customisations and tweaks he had never even considered.

‘Right then. The Sean Bean look it is.’ Ten minutes later, Chris marvelled at his ruggedly manly new persona. Long dark blonde hair streamed down to his broad shoulders and a sparse growth sprouted from his chiselled chin. Standing at six foot five, his new body was a good foot taller than his real one. About time I had an actual presence, he thought with a self-depreciating mental grin. After choosing basic medium armour and a two-handed sword for his starter equipment, Chris, no… Alyxaine (a name which he was rather proud of) proceeded into the game amid an explosion of cerulean light.

Alex, as he now decided to call himself, found himself in the centre of a bustling market, surrounded by NPCs with their drab clothes and other players in basic armour of various colours. Taking a second to orientate himself, the newest player in Sword Art Online found that he was hopelessly, terribly lost.

[drewccapp]

Alicia stared at the unopened case of Sword Art Online. Excitement pumped through her veins. She had worked so hard and so long just to get this. Now she'd be able to play the game that everyone wanted and only 10000 people had. She felt so lucky. None of her other friends managed to get it, so she promised that she'd let them try later. It took her about ten minutes to stop ogling the game and begin to set it up and get her Nerve Gear on. She quickly set up her account information and then the character creation page. She chose a character name that she had always loved and felt lucky that it was still available: Aegis.

It wasn't long after she logged on and entered the Starting City. She noticed quite a few people logging on and smiled. This was going to be fun.

[Sara Boo]

Yes! A thousand times yes! Of course I'll be Mrs. Josh Hutchers--

A knock at the door suddenly and painfully woke Amy from her fitful sleep, and she had to adjust for a few moments to realize that she was in her own bed at home. She groaned, rolling over onto her stomach. Reaching a listless hand over to the nightstand, she squinted against the bright light of her phone to check the time - 7:32 AM?

Amy rolled onto her back once more. "What is it?" She said in her hoarse morning voice, tossing her arm over her eyes.

"Miss, a package arrived for you. It's from your father," Clara, her father's maid, called through the door. Amy thought for a moment.

Her eyes flew open. It was here!

Rushing to her feet, Lena threw open the door, beaming at the package in the woman's hands. "Thank you so much, Clara!" The older woman, someone Amy had known since she was a child, shook her head with a small laugh, handing Amy the box before wandering off down the hall, calling out reminders such as her cleaning inspection of Amy's room later in the day. Amy hardly heard a word. Her game was finally here!

Closing her door, Amy made quick work with setting up the NerveGear system; she'd watched all of the tutorials in preparation, from the setup down to the very intricate systems within the game. It was only a few minutes by the time the NerveGear was fully set up and beeping quietly, ready to be played. Amy glanced around her room for a brief moment, wondering if she should clean up the small disaster that was her room. No, that would wait. Once she got settled in to the game for a bit, she would clean her room, with plenty of time before Clara's inspection.

Settling the NerveGear onto her head, she followed the pre-immersion prompts before the screen she'd been waiting for appeared. "Press Start" appeared on the screen, and in a short flash, she could feel her senses overtaken and brought into the game. Soon she was brought to register, which she did quickly with the same information in just about every other game she used. Her registered name was Lena, her mother's middle name. She was then taken to character creation, and she spent a decent amount of time trying to look fairly similar to her real-life form. However, instead of the dullness of her auburn hair and brown eyes, she opted for shining, dark brown hair and dazzling blue eyes. She admired her work for a small time before finally entering the game.

With a bright flash, Lena was suddenly in the main square of what she assumed was the starting city. Her eyes lit up with excitement. The large marble buildings around her shone in the bright sunlight, which she realized with surprise felt incredibly warm. Warm smells wafted across the newcomers from some of the food shops that lined the square, while the tinkering of the blacksmiths' shops hummed beneath the loud chatter of the crowd.

Lena immediately wove her way through the crowd, excited to buy a few items with the starting money she had. She was already equipped with a light sword and shield from her starting weapons preferences, but she still had a few things she'd prefer to buy. The first of which was a dark purple cloak, which was fairly cheap because of its beginner, non-protective abilities, but she still enjoyed the look. She then quickly made her way to one of the bakeries, buying a few of the sweet rolls that she had heard so much about in the reviews. Putting two away into her inventory, she picked happily at a third as she decided to meander through the square for a bit. Perhaps she'd find a party to join up with, or even practice on her own. When was Clara's inspection again? Lena didn't care anymore.

[KalasAlseif]

As soon as he heard to door opening, Zachary was already clambering over himself to greet his father. Bursting from his room, he spotted his older brother, Jake, already at the top of the stairs and beginning his crazed descent. Jumping halfway down the staircase, Zach finally stood in front of his father who was smiling from ear to ear. He held two copies of Sword Art Online, one for Jake and one for him. "Now boys, I don't know what fully awaits you within this game but I know this, this is far from your usual MMO. You won't be able to make the same reckless mistakes. Play smart and most of all, have fun." The two brothers nodded simultaneously then grabbed their own copy, racing each other back up the stairs in the same crazed fashion that they'd descended them.

Zach didn't wait after closing the door to his room. With his continued haste, he rushedly setup his NerveGear and inserted the game. Playing on the helmet and laying back onto his bed, his mind tingled slightly as the NerveGear cycled through it's calibration process. It didn't take long but Zachary willed it to be quicker. Once the setup was complete and he could wait no longer, Zach finally uttered the words, "Link Start!"
Instantly, he was thrust into a digital world of virtual bliss. He stood in a cylinder room and a console appeared before him. He entered his usual online name Rin. He'd played many other MMOs that his father had worked on and had used this name in each one of them. Sword Art Online would be no different.

As his feet first touched the grassy plains of Aincrad, Rin never felt more at home. Even though they were only his first few seconds within the game, Rin already knew that this world was more his own home than the one he'd just left behind. Looking around, the plains seemed barren, he was one of the very first players. Clearly it must have been some kind of developer bonus along side partaking in the beta testing months prior. He wondered where his brother, who'd be going by the name of Ivan, was. He was sure to know where all of the best monster spawns were to start off with. That was one of the perks of having a professional gamer for a brother, though Rin didn't like to announce that fact.

Taking his first steps within the virtual world was easier than he expected and killing his first monster was almost a terrifying experience, but he soon got the hang of it and began grinding away in the Grassy Plains.

"Oii! Rin-Kun!" Came a voice from behind him, distracting him from defending an attack against an enraged boar. The boar struck him in the center of the chest and Rin was lifted off of his feet and thrown to the floor, feeling as if he'd had the wind knocked out of him. "If you keep getting distracted like that, then you won't last long." Stood above him was his brother, Ivan. He was laughing whilst drawing his sword.

"Psh! Maybe you shouldn't shout my name whilst I was in the middle of a battle!" Rin retorted, slowly regathering himself.

"Ahaa! Excuses, excuses, little brother. Watch. I'll show you how it's done." As the boar began to circle around for another attack, Ivan charged toward it, his sword held beside him, ready to pierce through his target. In a single flashy leap, Ivan brought his blade down upon the confused boar and ended it's digital life. It shattered into pieces, rewarding Ivan with a small amount of EXP, a few Col and even a Hunk of Meat. "Well I know what I'm having for dinner." He laughed.

"Hmph! I could have taken it myself. I didn't need your interference." Rin said, nonchalantly.

"Sure you could have." Ivan teased. "Look, now that I've found you, lets add each other as friends. That way you can message me if there happens to be another lowly boar that you're having a hard time to handle." Ivan smiled then walked over to his younger brother. He handed Rin the Hunk of Meat item. "Here, you'll need it more than I will. I'm already headed for the next village."

"What?! Already? But we've not been playing for an hour." Rin exclaimed.

"Hahaha! You're so slow little brother, besides, I get sponsorship bonuses remember? The more things I discover first means the more money I receive in real life. Basically, I'm working right now, so I can't afford to enjoy this game just yet." Ivan looked a little disheartened for a second before instantly brightening back up. "Well Rin, I've got to get going, I'll see you again soon. Maybe we can meet up again before the first Boss?"

Before he could even begin to respond, Ivan was gone, already blazing his way through the game. Rin sighed deeply. I'm never going to be as good as him at this rate...

[Kazzy]

The box sat gleaming in front of Terry’s monitor. The games title seemed to entrance him as he stared at it. It was time. Finally time to play a virtual reality game. Terry grinned. He had been waiting years for this. Years to immerse himself in such a wonderful experience. With shaking hands Terry inserted the disk. Terry looked toward his new NerveGear. “Time to play Sword Are Online,” Terry said breathlessly. He breathed deeply and put the NerveGear on. Terry moved to his futon and lay down. It was time to play. “Link Start,” Terry said quietly. The flash of colors was amazing. Terry felt a surge of happiness as he was thrust into the virtual world.

What greeted him was a small command console. Terry moved toward it and was surprised at how natural it all felt to him. He touched the screen and a prompt appeared. He was to decide how he looked. Of course Terry had an idea already. A tall, lean man. With black hair, green eyes, and a face that would win the heart of any woman. The figure appeared in front of him and Terry nodded in satisfaction. It would do quite nicely. Another prompt appeared. It was to be his character’s name. ‘Orion’ Terry thought. Without a moment’s hesitation he typed it in. After all, Terry was the hunter of rare items and monsters. Why not name himself after the constellation of the hunter? The last bit of work was the tedious process of choosing was basic equipment. Terry moved through it quickly, eager to play. With the last bit done, Terry was thrust into the game.

Terry’s new body was shockingly handsome. It was tall, muscular, and graceful. Terry experimentally flexed his new muscle and was pleased with the feeling. There was hardly a difference in his surroundings compared to the real world. The hustle of players and the calls of merchant NPC’s were exhilarating. Terry’s body shook with excitement and he grinned. Orion he would be called here. He would have to remember that. After thinking about what he should do, Orion decided to stroll through the city. He would take a few hours to experience the game, and then the real fun would start.

[NoxxHollow]

The very second Kagoma bought her copy of sword art online she ran to her home as fast as she could taking every known shortcut along the way. Finally it was out her gateway, her sanctuary the only known escape from her boring mundane existence where the days seemed to blur together into a shade of bland gray that just sits there on a canvas with no form of bright colors to bring excitement. Today was the day the gray painting of her life got a fresh coat of rainbow all over both sides of the canvas! She practically kicked down the door would have awoken her parents but luckily she lived alone the only person who came of every so often was her brother but he wasn’t around much these days.

Closing her door just in case her brother dose come home locking herself inside, laying down in her best she put the Nerve gear on and amerced herself in with the magical words “Link Start” blazing past the character selection using the exact same name as the beta Zyra. She didn’t get the regular starting stuff instead she got a single sword and an item called taming chains that are a lot like parasites you feed it a percentage of your health to make it stronger and longer each twenty percent is a single stack and the max is twenty five stacks the only catch is it has to worn on your character at all times and limits there movements, the other item she picked up was called sealing charms used to seal a very large monster in some cases it is very rare however for a tamer to seal there monster insider themselves as it links your life with the monsters.

[Lennon79]

After a good hour of exploring the Starting Town, Alex thought he may finally be getting a handle on things. Reviewing his starting funds and the cost of most items in NPC shops, he decided a cosmetic change was in order. Something cloakish and green perhaps. Might also be a good idea to see if SAO has ingame tobacco… I need a cigarette already… He slowly wandered through the main market place, prodding and poking at different stalls until he found what he sought. A particularly drab grey-green hooded cloak stood out to him, partially due to its mediocrity but mainly because it was a steal at thirty Col. No stat bonuses to speak of, but it looked pretty swag. He also bought a starter cooking kit, consisting of a few wooden logs, a ‘training knife’ (basically a sharpened spoon…) and a set of basic utensils, for seventy Col. In real life, Chris was something of a connoisseur of fine foods, so he saw no reason for Alex to have to eat whatever random offal he picked up in the field. Besides, production skills are where the money is at.

And with that, his starting funds were pretty much exhausted. After talking with several NPCs and those few players who seemed to know what they were doing, Alex took off in the general direction of the low-level hunting grounds, aiming for some pork. Along the way, he observed a number of players hunting, some successfully, others not so much. The soon-to-be swordsman stopped on the edge of town, observing a rather cute young woman duking it out with a boar. She didn’t seem to be doing all that well, apparently had not yet grasped the combat system in SAO. Alex took a look left, right… realised that no one was coming to give her a hand and opted to try being a hero.

Drawing his sword in a single fluid movement (to his pleasant surprise, since he had expected to drop it), Alex took off at a run, his weapon held low and to one side. The girl saw him coming and gave him an expression of conflicting gratitude and irritation. In the moment she looked away, the boar lunged, catching her under the ribcage with its jagged tusks. The girl choked, fell to the ground and groaned plaintively as her HP gauge dropped to zero… She had just enough time to call, ‘Thanks for trying…’ before exploding into slivers of blue light. Without knowing the gravity of what had just happened, Alex shrugged and waded in, swinging his sword down in a glowing green arc. The already-crippled boar didn’t stand much of a chance and also exploded into light.

His reward was a handful of experience points, a dozen Col and a feeling that he had missed something very important… Shrugging the sensation off, Alex took off to grind a few more boars, confident that he’d come across other players out here in the fields.

He might even see that cute girl again, once she respawned…

[drewccapp]

Aegis spent the time to reacquaint herself with Starting City. She enjoyed the environment thoroughly. It was one of her favorite things in any game, well most of them anyway. She noticed very little changes with the locations of vendors and such. They even made the inn bigger. If she wanted her character to spend the night at the inn, she'd have to start earning some Col.

She found the first quest giver pretty easily. The simple NPC looked at her and smiled. "Can you help me, please?" It was the standard quest-giver greeting. After that question was asked a quest accept/decline prompt popped up. It was a simple quest: Kill ten boars. The reward was experience which combined with the killing of the swine would get her up a level and 200 Col which would pay for two days at the inn. She smiled as she accepted the quest and walked to the hunting grounds. There were a lot of people there, but the fields were huge so sometimes it didn't feel like there were too many people. Normally, she'd group up with as many people as she could for a quest, but it felt kind of silly to do for such a simple quest.

She turned her attention to a boar and initiated combat with a natural ease.