Koga

Koga finished off his tea as he let Kasumi have her turn at talking about her family. The man gently set the cup down beside him on the floor, before returning to tending his soup, satisfied that, at this point, it wouldn't burn him too harshly. When was the last time had actually just sat down with someone and...conversed? Like normal people? Christmas where he and Yukiro had barge in on NIGHT? And even then, questions about the mysterious AI that resided with his friend had plagued him. Had it really been that long since he'd last just sat down with someone and enjoyed a conversation?

Koga watched as the girl took her first bite of the soup, waiting to see what her reaction would be. He could only hope that she didn't hate it, at least. Evidently though, Koga's real concern should have been the temperature of the soup, for as soon the soup was in Kasumi's mouth, she wriggled gently on the bed, a sign of her discomfort. Oddly, it brought a small amused grin to Koga's mouth, obscured by the fact that he leaned down to grab the second of the packages, not that he had his answer. Not bad soup. As Kasumi asked her question, Koga unscrewed the second wood canister. A slightl

Koga listened to solemn story with an expression he figured matched Kyra's. Stories like that were sadly far too common in Aincrad. Every player had one like it. "I'm sorry too," Koga said with a nod to the woman. "It's always rough losing someone you care about." A pointless observation, surely. It was something they pretty much all knew already anyways. "You know Freyd though?" the man said, trying to move the conversation away from sad subjects. "Probably couldn't have been rescued by anyone better. Good guy." Admittedly, Koga had only met the man a handful of times, but each of them h

"Don't make what weird?" The voice's owner appeared in the crack between the door and it's frame as he pushed the door open with his boot, hands occupied with bowls and what appeared to be a couple of wooden thermoses. The man set the two packages on the floor beside Kasumi's bed before dragging over a couple sturdy looking crates and making them into a makeshift seat. "Sorry I took so long," Koga apologized, picking up the first of the packages, the bowls, "I wasn't really sure what they had by way of good food down here, let alone good soup." He handed one of the ceramic bowls to Kasumi

A collapsed tunnel, an abandoned nest and a missing treasure. What, did the dragon hire a U-Haul truck to move all his things out? And what's with the one lone egg? Koga shook his head, he should've known things wouldn't be this easy. The man stole a glance over at NIGHT before looking back towards Tarek. "Look, we'll help you carry the damned egg, but if that dragon tries to eat us, you're first in line," Koga said, pointing an annoyed finger at the man before walking towards the egg, wondering what the best way to carry it would be. "Splendid," Tarek said, with a sly smile. "Well, I'll

Within the first three sentences, this Tarek character had taken Koga's already meager trust in him and thrown it to the wayside. Who the hell announced that they were a bandit in the first place? Judging by NIGHT's sidelong glances, she felt the same way about the brigand as Koga did. Good. As Tarek pointed out Koga's weapon, admittedly the man's pride and joy, NIGHT stepped back to examine the towering nest. Koga stepped in front of Tarek, obscuring his sight of NIGHT. "Whatever gets the job done," he replied dryly, letting the katana sink back into it's scabbard. Koga's hands remained

The sound of dust and rock tumbling down the dune behind him was the only indicator that Koga had that NIGHT had heard him. But that was enough, for in the next moment she was stepping past him and right into the cave. Realizing he was being left behind, Koga scrambled to his feet and started to jog after his companion, "Hey, wait u-" the words caught in his throat as the hairs on the back of Koga's neck began to stand upright. The man paused in his tracks, and turned around, his hands on his weapon. Eyes sweeped back and forth across the mouth of the strange cave's entrance, but nothing but t

The girl sank further into the bed and pulled the covers up even further, covering her flushed face. She only apologized in response to Koga's question, somehow retreating even further into the thing mattress of the cot. Koga just smiled in response, "Don't be. Friends look out for each other, right?" he said before turning to go out the door once more. "Ok, I'll be right back. You just sit and relax, okay?" And with that, he was gone. Koga went out to the front and fished around his inventory for a moment, producing a teleport crystal, disappearing and then reappearing in the nearest set

Koga looked on with concern as the girl not too gently tapped her head with her hand, chastising herself...only to then promptly greet him as if they hadn't just spent the last twenty minutes with each other. "Okay, that's it," Koga said abruptly, taking ahold of Kasumi's hand and gently guiding her back to her shop/house. "If you're coming down with something, you need to lie down and rest," he said, dragging the girl along and pushing open the door to the house before venturing back towards where he'd seen Kasumi disappear to change earlier. The room was a little cramped, but it wa

It wasn't long before the pair were set upon by a sand storm. Their vision quickly obscured, and the light drowned out by the thick clouds of sand that buffeted their skin and clothing. The wind howled in their ears, making it hard to communicate without shouting. They'd have to stay close together if they didn't want to get separated. NIGHT asked a question, just barely heard about the wind's report. "No, he didn't," Koga shouted back over the din of the storm, "the sandstorm's make it hard to keep track of where anyone is, all the others just stumbled across it!" A fact that, in hind-si

Koga audibly scoffed at NIGHT's comment about money. "Look, I'm still trying to pay you back for helping me get my house. Trust me, it's not just 'cause I'm feeling generous today," the man said with a wry smile. Maybe he was feeling a little generous. "I think this is it," he said with a nod, double-checking that the cloak was secure around his neck, and that thread wasn't going to come loose. "Ready when you are," although judging by the way NIGHT was lazily munching on the fruit, she'd been ready for a while. Koga decided to crack open his own fruit with a hunting knife he spawned, alb

Almost like a toy soldier, Kasumi started to walk off, not bothering to wait or lock up behind them, all the while her mouth went off at a mile a minute. Koga had to dash out the door after her all while trying to equip his coat and weapon, shouting after her. "Hey, Kasumi! Wait up!" the swordsman called, sprinting after the girl before finally catching up to her and stopping her with a hand on the shoulder. "Uh, I know I don't live here," he said, a hand on his knee, panting. "But, uh, isn't the settlement that direction?" he asked, removing the hand from her shoulder and thrusting it ov

As Kasumi turned away from Koga and opened up the door, presumably to let the fresh breeze in, he opened up his messenger and sent Alkor a quick message. 'Yo, long time no see. Kasumi (you remember her, right?) and I are gonna go get some lunch in a bit, care to join?' Flicking the messenger closed, Koga looked over to Kasumi, who stood stiffly at the door. "Uh, are you alright?" he asked the girl, stepping towards her with a raised brow. Koga, obliviously, leaned over and around the shorter girl to peer out the doorway, his hand brushing her shoulder as he braced it against the fram

Well, if the woman said it was fine, so it was. Koga leaned back against one of the tables, arms behind him as he watched the artisan at work with...absolutely terrifying speed, geez, what was that? 2, no 1.5 seconds? Christ, he'd never seen speed like that. Actually, no, that was a lie. He'd seen that kind of speed before, the last time he'd seen Kasumi fight. Koga always considered himself to be quick on his feet, but this girl, quite unassuming, made him look like a baby turtle in comparison. Slow, and easy prey for some predatory bird above. Kasumi put what appeared to bet he rin

The two women conversed as if Koga wasn't even there laughing along merrily while he was still struggling to figure out what the hell was going on. Was he being kidnapped or something? Who even were these people? As Koga opened his mouth to voice his question, he, once again, found himself being dragged along by the first woman, his feet stumbling and tripping over themselves as the woman moved with impressive speed. Soon enough the trio were not far outside of the settlement, and the evident Scot finally released her prisoners to go hurl a rock as if she were Mel Gibson in Braveheart. '

Koga watched Kasumi disappear into the back of what he would have guessed to be her shop before quickly glancing around as he flicked his wrist and unequipped his coat and weapons, leaving the man standing his black jeans and dark grey tee. His hands retreated once more to his pockets as he slowly walked a circle in place. The room was a little messier than he'd expected, but not dirty. More like the work of an excitable crafter. As he waited, Koga venture over to one of the workstations and bent over at the waist, examining what looked like a ring mid-way through engraving. The sound of

Koga shrugged at NIGHT's question, unsure of how to answer, being unfamiliar with the fruit himself. Instead the shopkeep had answers. Taking the fruit from NIGHT, he quickly drew his saber to slice open the seed-bearing fruit. Both players twitched at the market owner's sudden movement. Koga's hand, habitually resting on the sheath of his katana, tightening around it and tilting the weapon forward, preparing him to draw it, a small click echoing from within the scabbard. Perhaps the players had spent too much time in battle for everyday affairs. The stall owner offered NIGHT the first ha

"Busy as I can," Koga replied. "Gotta admit though, I've been kinda lazy lately though." In part, that was a lack of motivation in the mornings to get the day going, and equal parts due to the recent changes in the system. It was taking a bit of adjustment. More than Koga cared to admit, but after years of using the previous system, it was to be expected. As Kasumi drifted over to the door of what was apparently her home, Koga paused. There was a dream-like quality to their encounter. The light breeze, the scented air and the flowers swaying all around them, their colors showing brightly

"They're NPCs," Koga reminded NIGHT at her expression of guilt, "bits of code, ones and zeros." Errant thoughts suddenly reminded him of DAY, and Koga realized that perhaps that wasn't the right answer, and suddenly he too felt a measure of guilt. "They're not the same as DAY," he said, voice slightly lower. "They'll respawn..." How had he forgotten about the AI? The discovery itself had given Koga reason enough to toss and turn in bed for nights prior. How had he forgotten so easily? Koga looked towards the direction NIGHT was looking and nodded at her suggestion. "Yeah. I could use a cl

Koga nodded alongside NIGHT. Whatever it was that Cardinal had done...in the end, he supposed it was to the players' benefit. Though what reasoning behind it, he didn't know. Like NIGHT had said...it wasn't exactly like they needed to be entertained further. A morbid thought leapt to mind at that phrase. How many more player's would die due to being thrust into an unfamiliar system? Maybe this was all for Cardinal's entertainment instead. Koga didn't say as much. "Right, dragons," Koga nodded, addressing the manner at hand at NIGHT's behest. "Well, from what little I've gathered, we're no

Koga's eyes were drawn back down to the earth by the din of raucous shouting. At first, Koga thought he was listening to a foreign language, until he finally managed to identify it as simply English with a heavy Scottish or Irish accent to it. He was never quite certain about which was which. So focused he was on trying to decipher the words, however, he hardly realized that the loud woman was suddenly approaching him. "Hey, wait a second!" he began to say, lifting his hands in front of him, only to find himself practically being dragged along by the smaller figure, shouting something abo

"Maybe something got corrupted server-side?" Koga suggested, although he knew that was unlikely, "Cardinal went ahead and hit the reset button, and pushed out an update at the same time?" It didn't quite make sense, however, thinking about it in that manner. It might've explained how all the players woke up, but it still left the update and the event as merely coincidental. And it also raised the question of why would the assumed corruption have manifested itself in the manner that it did. Mysteries that would perhaps never be answered. The Rogue had to squint as NIGHT drew her new weapon

Cheery as ever, the girl seemed, and not the least bit surprised by his presence, despite them only having met once before. Koga's hands retreated to the pockets of his coat as he took another lazy look around at his surroundings the gusts of winds bringing with it the scent of flowered perfume from months past with it. "Yeah, I am," Koga replied, looking back at Kasumi with a gentle smile. "Was just sorta wandering and wound up here," he explained, stopping in front of Kasumi. "I didn't even know this place existed till today, if I'm being honest," he added with a chuckle. "What about you? If

k o g a The sun shone brightly, causing Koga to squint as he stepped through the fields of flowers. How had Koga never visited this place, he wondered to himself. Well, the honest answer was that he was too stupid to realize this place was here. But instead, he told himself that he'd always been too busy leveling to venture into the quiet places of Aincrad. It wasn't completely untrue, at least. The man waded through the grass, and hues of blues, pinks and yellows, his black garb contrasting sharply. His eyes swept over the seemingl

A voice called to him, above the din of the town's goings. The man turned to towards the source of a voice and saw NIGHT beneath an unfamiliar white cloak. He waved towards the woman and gave her smile. "Hey there," he greeted her, "good to see you too, glad you could make it." The swordsman seemed to be in better spirits than he had been in a long time. No longer downcast, and less eager to take his mind off other problems. Still, something about his visage indicated he wasn't entirely returned to his former self. Perhaps it was a smile that didn't seem quite able to reach his eyes, or a spir