Baldur

KerSPLASH! Baldur laughed at the situation they found themselves in as Snow jumped into the water, spear in hand, to save their catched. As she drove herself and the spear into the water where the fish was, the pole finally gave, and shattered into luminous polygons swept up by the gentle breeze of the first floor. Water drenched the gaijin samurai, but his good humor could not be quenched. He wasn't sure if the water was deeper or more shallow than she had expected, but the look on Alyssa's face as she looked up at him sent the man into another fit of laughter. He moved slowly b

He had expected feel something different when she finally said his name, but instead the tone was different. She wasn't admonishing him, she was reminding him. She was right. Jason never did go anywhere, he grew, he blossomed in the adversity he had found here. He had lost branches along the way, and become different than who he was. They were all shaped by the circumstances they found themselves in. To not change was to die. He wasn't lesser, he was just different. Her hand slipped from his shoulder, and with it the warmth her hand brought. He appreciated her words. A pole and

The gaijin samurai smiled up at Snow as she sat down beside him and opened his mouth to speak, when she pointed out he got a bite. The line tugged at his pole, causing the tip to bend towards the water, and he gave a delighted laugh. "Alright, here you go!" Baldur held out the fishing pole to the suddenly surprised girl. She said some words of protest, but Baldur held the rod, more than a bit awkwardly at this angle, in front of her until she took the pole from him. He made sure she had a good hand on it before he let go. "So the system takes care of most of the hard work, but i

Baldur stood to the side, silent and unaffected by the display of grief the young NPC had shown. It may have been a compelling script, but it was no more of a display of real grief than that of what he had seen in a movie, and unfortunately, he had seen enough real grief here in Aincrad to last him a lifetime. The puzzle was what engaged him here. How things were changing, and what that meant not just for him, here now, attempting this quest, but how it would effect things going forward for the future of the humans of Aincrad. He would learn, he would scrape together knowledge, and he would us

Baldur laughed as Snow looked back at him, half covered in mud and wet with the water she had kicked up in her haste to get to the fish with her spear. The fish flopped a moment on the tip before going still, though the woman's expression shifted from surprise, to triumph, to embarrassment as her face flushed prettily. "Well done!" He cheered for her success. Baldur stood there, no small amount of water and mud strewn across his garb from her enthusiastic spear fishing. A soft laugh in his eyes, not at the antics, but at the rapid change in her emotions written plainly on her face

Baldur smiled at his old friend as he enquired about the morning walk. It had been a good walk. He leaned back against one of the posts along the Engawa where he sat as Hirru fished. The sun was fully in the sky now, the blues of his haori filling the horizon. When the wind wasn't blowing, you could see Koi fish and others swimming about. Little pockets of fish that were the game's way of telling you your odds were better to cast your line there than elsewhere. All of Baldur's ponds were well stocked by the system, since he had paid for them as an upgrade to the island. He let Hirru's que

Baldur was surprised to get the message, but it brought a smile to his face. He had dabbled at fishing, even picked up the skill and dropped it when they had the event which actually spawned Jacob's Ladder. Perhaps it would be good to pick it back up again. He would need lots of materials to continue to arm the Frontline, and this was a good way to go about it. Plus, having cooks to make the food they'd need would be helpful. He would be able to help supply Snow and Cord this way. Pushing himself up from the cushion where he had been reclining, watching over the water of his estate, he we

Baldur took up position in one of the more central spots of the grounds, where his voice would carry over the water and reach everyone more easily. With the conclusion of the second round of fighting, it was on to one of the more friendly events. A feast for the guests. A luau of sorts. A much needed reprieve for everyone together. "Attention everyone!" He called out, his voice dropping a little deeper in tone to help it carry. He could, when he wanted to, have a fairly deep commanding tone. A stage voice. "Thank you all for your competition and support of it." His voice returned to

Baldur looked at his companions as they drank down the potions he gave them, and then Mac confirmed he would tank and scarfed down more food. The gaijin samurai then turned his steel blue eyes towards the mountain. The monster was truly massive. While he had not thought Tanos, Mac had. It seemed this monster was even larger. "Are you both ready for this?" When his eyes focused on the creature it felt like the red diamond that hung above it's head was even larger than all the of them combined. "Remember why we're here men. Between us and a natural hot spring getaway lay this gian

Baldur walked slowly through the grounds and back to his room, he needed to change back into his signature haori before facing the rest of the day. He loved his shelter in the storm, floating in the sky high above the danger. It was a paradise hiding in the blue of sky and ocean. Not just safe from the monsters in the world below, but a retreat for his heart. It was a place of healing. He parted ways with Snow as she made her way to the kitchen, he caught a brief glimmer of Hirru setting up to fish for his breakfast as was becoming their ritual. It brought the gaijin samurai peace in heart to

It had been a while since Baldur had been to a stables. The wide flat expanse around them, the fields, and the smell of the horses brought back memories of riding lessons from when he was a kid. It had been, outside of SAO, years since he had ridden, even though he had used a horse inside the game a few times, it was a very different experience. But he also knew how important horses were to Lessa. So when he arrived early for their meet-up, it only made sense that he would find her here, already looking like she had spent most of the day on the farm. "Something something cliche can take t

Baldur was trying his best not to toss his team around too much as he wove through the city, avoiding clothes lines, chimneys, and balconies. So far he had been... mostly successful. The airship they were in was a little beat up, definitely needed some new paint, but it still flew at full throttle. He had not let up on it since they left. They were leaving the fighting behind somehow, even though they were flying towards it. The cannon attacks were all hypotenuse and parabolas. No one was firing a canon straight down because it would mean tipping the ship sideways, and they did not have artifi

With the pole in deep waters, Baldur slowly guided the craft towards the small wooden docks that looked up the hill towards the gate of his home, his refuge, his zen. The calm waters rippled around the boat, as red leaves floated about them, almost perfectly reflecting the sky and the canopy of trees around them like a perfect mirror. For a moment, it was as if sky and water and land were one, and just the two of them in it. "Baldur..." The name left her lips softly "Thank you." He looked down at her, no longer sure what their relationship was. Nothing had changed, but everything did

"The self is not something ready-made." A voice came out from the direction of the tournament as a new presence was felt among @Oji, @Nari-Lanreth, and @Xena. "but something in continuous formation through choice of action." Baldur stood tall, given the added benefit of being uphill, his ever present blue and white haori hung about him, sky blue save for the white flames along the hem, and the colors of sunset making up the rest of his kimono even as the sun set over the edge of his island. The tournament had finished, and while he had seen Night and Koga come this way, they appear to hav

Jason watched Snow as she repeated his ritual silently and perfectly. In spite of appearances, Baldur was not a hard line traditionalist. He didn't rigidly adhere to tradition for tradition's sake, but in moments like this, tradition kept him moving forward. It gave him the steps to take when he didn't know what to do. He had created this tradition to help him with his grief. He had avoided the wall for a while, then visited intermittently, sometimes unprepared. The reverence of his pilgrimage performed in this way gave it a weight the others had not. Funerals, and this ceremony, were more for

Scalabis was still waking up when they got there. It wasn't a far trip from the dock on the other end of their journey and into town. Baldur had bought this island specifically for that purpose. The island itself gave them the peace and serenity he was looking for, but the needs of Jacob's Ladder to be approachable meant getting the one closest and safest to town. From there, it was a short walk along a bridge between islands until they were in the main settlement. The clicking of Snow's geta against the wood of the bridge provided an almost calming rhythm. There was always a silence to his wa

Time: Dawn After Floor 26 boss fight Before the Tournament The sun was barely peaking over the low horizon of the 24th floor. Water stretched out ot the edge of the floor here, and with his island rising into the sky like a heron perched on one slender leg, he was one of the first to see the sun. It filtered through the trees, almost feeling lazy due to the wam light. It tinted the colors of the trees, backlit, and warmed the normally cool and refreshing water of the ponds. He could see it from where he was perched, the shoji panels of his room spread fully open to the ponds in front

"Alright team, let's join the fray." Baldur gestured to the lollygaggers around him, seeing as how Hirru had already run forward to deal with the action that was going. They followed behind the others, while Hirru had run ahead and was speaking with some kid and then with Freyd. He would look back to Freyd, Baldur, Shield, and Calrex. "We should hurry! What do you think we should do? I don't know anything about these things." Baldur looked around at what was going on, and started to make the big problem smaller. They were a target here, so the peasantry and combatants ali

Baldur sat and watched as... whatever round 2 had become. While several of those gathered here were having friendly duels, the bookends of the tournament seemed to be fighting a bigger fight. Nari and Night on one side, Lessa and Alkor on the other. The fight between Nari and Night seemed to draw his attention first, there was an anger and ferocity in the fight that almost made Baldur get up to intervene several times, but he stopped himself. They couldn't hurt each other. He shouldn't interfere. This could perhaps be the only way they could work through a catharsis. Should either of them swit

The dead were rising here, it seemed. He saw it coming of course. Winter. Dead body with a sword sticking out. No tracks. There was going to be an ambush of some kind when they got here if this was going to be a combat quest. Then the boy charged forward, Lessa was screaming, Freyd hot on their heals and almost eradicating the monster in a single blow. He didn't have a good feel for Freyd's damage, so he had no idea what was left of the monster based on its remaining health gauge. He would need to go all out on it to prevent it from getting back up. Freyd's familiar landed a stun attack o

Round 2 Bracket Baldur Stats: Rules: (Nothing Different from Previous Thread) Round 2 Observation Thread: https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/21291-op-f24-valentines-tournament-arc-round-2-observer-thread/ Once the participants had all come over to gather around Baldur having partaken in any snacks or refreshments they had chosen, the Gaijin Samurai informed them of how round 2 would be slightly different. Due to the odd number of players, some drop outs and corrections the tournament needed to make, Baldur was pulling in a pinch hitter to even up the round in the form of

Thread Complete Please continue your shenanigans here:

OOC: With a swish of his quill, Baldur marked out the last results of round one into his book. He flipped through, writing down the names of all the winners in a nice easy list so that he could make his announcement. Suddenly, he noted @Snow was next to him, handing him another cup of tea and he gave her a bewildered, exhausted smile as he raised it to his lips and took a sip. "Thank you, Snow-chan, I don't know what I'd do without you." Slowly, Baldur pushed himself up from the small table and shook his legs out to get the imaginary blood flow moving again. Sitting like that

Baldur winced as they came out of the sewers and back into the bounding light of day. At least they were out... Baldur hated being underground. Dungeons didn't bother him much because they tended to be short and to the point. Instead the underground floors, or this boss fight, seemed to drag on forever. "Keep together everyone." Baldur told the raid in general but it was mostly for his team. "Until we have a better idea of what to expect, be on your guard and watch each other's backs." He felt more tired then he was. There was a certain amount of performance to fatigue in

Round 1 Bracket Baldur Info: Dojo Pictures: Rules: The shoji panel walls of the dojo were flung open wide, letting fresh air and sunlight stream into the room. Just beyond the shoji panel walls, was the engawa which ran all the way around the dojo. It was sprinkled with cushions for people to sit on while they watched the matches taking place inside. Just across the water were other rooms Baldur had opened up for sitting, so that people could sit in separate areas if they wished for more or less privacy. Not everyone enjoyed a crowd. He had the brack