[PP-F7] Inside Kane's Room (Seld/Angel)

[Kane 0]

Kane unlocked his door and looked inside his room. It was spartan in decoration, with only a few of Kane's personal effects on the desk and table. He was making enough from doing mercenary work that he could afford a slightly larger room than most Players, able to host a meeting comfortably.

Smoke meowed softly as he padded in behind Kane, and went to the corner, knowing that feeding time was nigh. Kane poured the <> in a small dish, and watched in amusement as the Umbra lapped it up. He then arranged the desk and chairs so that he could face his brothers in arms. They needed to discuss this business with Grim, quickly.

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar knocks before entering, his black haired fox Shadow at his side. He takes a seat, and Shadow hops up into his lap, where Seld proceeds to scratch behind his ears.

[Razmor 0]

Angel followed Kane into the room with Seld close behind. As he looked around the room, he couldn't help but whistle. "Nice pad man. I wish I could afford something like this." He knew he had some funds stashed away for safe keeping until he managed to get to the upper floors where they provided housing. His mind wandered for a moment, thinking about his future home, but he quickly returned attention to Kane. Taking a seat, he looked at his guildmate. "So, why'd you call us here?"

[Kane 0]

Kane smiles and nods as Seldentar enters, appreciating his Guild-brother's quiet, but strong presence. His own familiar, Smoke, blinked its gold cat eyes at the fox in Seld's lap, licking his paw in faux haughtiness. Seeing Angel enter as well, Kane gestured for him to shut the door. As his two Guild-brothers sat across from his desk, Kane sighed at the discussion that had to happen now.

"Thanks for coming, gentlemen. I couldn't discuss this in front of Grim, but I think we all need to talk about what we're going to be doing in the near future. We have a few options." Kane held up his fingers, gesturing as he rattled his points off. "We could take Grim's mission, which would be a lengthy process in which we hunt enough Gillmen to make helmets that let us breathe water, then go underwater to hunt the Gillmen Brood Mother. I honestly don't know what the point of all that combat would be, but it would be a job that would net us some experience and money, as well as equipment for future aquatic missions. Could be useful." He held up another finger as a counterpoint. "Or, we could decline the mission, and seek other jobs. I have a few leads, and could provide some jobs for the Guild in the near future."

Kane shifted in his seat, obviously uncomfortable at this next bit. "Now, as you probably already know, Grim's behavior has been... odd. It's definitely not the same as when I first met the man, and he obviously had some issues when he was glitching up. He's requested membership in our Guild, and I wanted to ask your opinion before I make a decision."

He sighed as he leaned forward, looking his allies in the eye. "My gut is telling me no, until he's shown clear signs of mental stability. I don't know what that business was back there, but it's worrisome. Still, I felt like your input would be valuable. So, thoughts, gentlemen?"

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar stays quiet through the talking, paying attention but deep in thought. He had some concerns, and maybe now would be a good time to bring them up. Still he hesitated, if he was right, they could all be in danger. Still, better to get these things out in the open.

"We know that the Nerve Gears safety protocols were overridden, otherwise we'd be able to log out, or at least people could free us from the outside. What if in the process, the NerveGear has become dangerous. With the safety protocols disabled, and it running nonstop, who knows what effects it could have on us long term. He might be the first to show signs, and maybe his equipment is just malfunctioning. But there is a real and present danger that this instability could happen to any of us. The Nerve Gear wasn't made to function nonstop every day. Things break down, malfunction, glitch out. We need to be careful too. If he has a psychotic episode, who knows what might happen. For now, I would recommend no to joining the guild. We need to see if he stabilizes or his situation deteriorates. Also, it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on people in general, to see if anyone else starts to have any issues."

He goes back to being quiet after that. A worried look clearly on his face at the prospect all of their fighting could be for nothing if the Nerve Gear malfunctions on everyone.

[Razmor 0]

Angel bit his cheek. It was a tough call on both accounts. The mission would be really useful with a healthy amount of danger in the mix. But other missions could lead to more connections, loot, and experience. But the question that really hit him was whether or not to allow Grim into the guild. After hearing Seld's concerns, he sat back in the chair and sighed. "I... I really don't know what to say. The mission looks promising and I can make the helmets don't worry about that. But we still don't know exactly what we're looking for. He saw a shadow at the bottom of the lake with Gillmen in it. That doesn't exactly translate to Brood Mother HQ. Nothing could be down there and we could all get hurt or worse for nothing. As for allowing Grim into the guild, I don't see a reason to say no. Just because there might be a chance that the Nerve Gear isn't working right, doesn't mean we just say no to the guy. He could be a huge help to the guild." Angel knew people in the real world who were like Grim without the Nerve Gear on and he learned to accept them as good people. They weren't bad, they were just different. Angel felt that Grim was just like this.

[Kane 0]

Kane felt conflicted, and his furrowed brow gave it away to his Guild-brothers. "Hmm. One yes, one no. Seeing as how we're not all in agreement here, I'd like to propose a compromise: What if we offer Grim a trial period? If he accompanies us on the mission to craft the underwater gear, and he doesn't do anything crazy or endanger us up to that point, he'll be a probationary member, and come with us on our mission to hunt whatever it is that lives in the lake. Perhaps there's a dungeon down there with loot that's never been touched before, just waiting for the right Players to dare to sieze it...If he doesn't work out as a stable member of the Guild, we can always take him on as a client and do the mission ourselves, though I'd like to have as much muscle down there as possible. Any thoughts, or does this work for everyone?"

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar had continued to think Grims mission through even as he voiced his opinion, now it was time to bring up another unpleasant matter.

"How will underwater combat work? Breathing aside, will the water slow down our movements? Wearing armor might be impossible, and we will be fighting them in their own territory, they will have a huge advantage on us."

[Kane 0]

At that moment, Kane's HUD alerted him that he had a message. Opening it, he saw that it was from Grim. "Well, speak of the devil. Wonder what he wants?" Rising, all in the room heard a knock at the door. Undoubtedly, it was Grim, having some news to tell them. Kane opened the door to let whoever was knocking come inside. (Enter Grim)

[Guest]

With his normal tone of voice he greets Kane and the others, "Hello everyone, now that im here, I have somethings to say to you, that should clear up what's been happeing to me." As Grim gathers his thoughts together, he walked over to the wall closest to the window leaning against it, he says, "You know how a NerveGear has a <> and <> saftey program or paramiter." "Well when Akihiko Kayaba disable the saftey protocol on our NerveGear rigs, I believe they to were dissabled or temperally shut down, but came back on, thats what I believe to be the case." As Grim shifts his head turning it toward his friends, he looks at Kane with his yellow-green eyes, his hair out of its ponytail slowly swaying hehind him, as he says " Kane don't you remeber when I went offline, didn't you notice that I was acting much different then before we met." "I think the system diagnosis caused a flaw or bug in my <> and <> programing, I had no control over that, or the emotions I had, for example." "When Kane came into my room, you noticed that my anger came out of no where, I've always been a leveled headed guy but I do tend to get flushered sometimes, but anyway, I think it's due to a faulty system program within the NerveGear rig." As Grim said all this, trying to piece together the dream he had. Not sure if he had a dream, or had a lesson from his conscience, but he was still thinking it over, and was still puzzled.

As Grim looks at everyone he pats himself on the chest and says, "Look at me now, I feel much better, and I feel no anger or anything." Grim turns to Kane again "Kane do you remember when i told you that me and Ichiro went to the lake on Floor one, the reason being is before I got stuck in SAO, I was a captian of my high schools swim commitee, I wanted to feel the rush of water on me again, when that Gillmen attacked me, thats when I got emotionally tramatized, I felt like I would never be able to swim again, and seeing how it made me fear it and caused me to loss my sainty slowly, causing my paramiters to fluxuate. Grim scratches his head and says with uncomfortness, but still calm and collective "This all changed just a few minutes ago, I went offline again, but it seems my system settings have reverted back to when I first started SAO." "Im back to normal guys." Grim clears his throat and then begins to start again "That's where it comes down to my second part, the misson to the lake, forget about it, I don't anyone here to die on my account, because I was too weak to fight them."

Grim shifted his stance moving over to the table and snatching up the empty chair and spinnig it around so the back of the chairs spine faced in front of Grim, and proceeded to sit down,"Along with that, the NerveGear performs a daily system check on peoples <> and <> to re-adjust their setting, allowing people to revert back to their normal personalities, the network always does this check as well when it detects a flaw in the systems firewall, and plugs it up with a special anti-spam ware and virus protection code writing, this is turn keeps the system from making fatal errors in it core programming code." "Thats what keeps the <> and <> system programming in check, so if your wondering if this will happen again, then mostly likley yes, but it can be resolved by letting the system do a scan on your avatars settings." Grim pulled out his hair and began to style it into a braid, while waiting for his friends reaction his answer.

[Razmor 0]

As everyone spoke, Angel remained silent. His hands were folded together and his head was hanging, casting a shadow over his face and hiding his emotions. He stared at the ground, his mind wandering to different thoughts. "How does underwater combat work? For that matter how does anything underwater work? It's a complicated system on it's own, but tossing water physics, water based activities, and possible combat was quite the order." Angel's mind drifted further and further away from the current conversation. It managed to make it's way to his real life. He thought of everyone he knew who was waiting for him to get out of this. He thought of his family; his brothers, sister, and parents all crowding next to his bed. He thought of his girlfriend standing next to them, her eyes in tears and telling him what an idiot he was for playing this game. Angel smiled as he thought about his life IRL. It was something he wanted to get back to desperately. After a few minutes of silence he stood up and walked to the window. He observed Nimbus in it's nightly glory, the bright lights everywhere, the shops and vendors selling their wears. He smiled. "Maybe." he said to himself, but just loud enough to be heard by his guildmates.

[Guest]

As Grim was fidelding with his hair, he notices Angel getting up and walking to the window, confused and worried, Grim walks over to him about to put his hand on his shoulder, when he hears Angel say "maybe". "Maybe what Angel, is something the matter? Is something wrong, you don't seem like your-self." Grim says in concern for his friend. "Youv'e been like this ever since I got here, whats on your mind?" as Grim go next to Angel and leans on the wall one more time.

[Razmor 0]

Angel was brought back to reality by Grim saying his name. He glanced back at him and smiled half heartily. "Oh, it's nothing really. Just thinking about my life back in the real world. I was wondering what my family was doing right about now. I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, I could get out of here before my little brother's birthday. It'd be a hell of a present and the kid means a lot to me. And I was also thinking about this Gillman mission. I agree, it would be to dangerous for something we doesn't even exist. But I'd still be happy making the water breathing helmets, for future missions of course." He said with his back to his guildmates. It was a small lie, but it was for their own good. Angel knew exactly what was in that cave. He had heard about this cave during the beta and went to check it out himself. He had a crystal for breathing underwater and he went exploring the cave, by himself. At that point he had been at least a level 28 and had plenty of confidence that he'd be able to beat something on the first floor. But that wasn't the case. Yeah there was loot in the cave, but for every horde of loot, there was a monster guarding it. It was a mini boss called Gillman Goliath. Angel didn't stand a chance. But then again, he could die during the beta without consequences. He wasn't going to risk his friends lives over anything. "Let's just forget about the cave, alright?" He said, a slight tone of fear in his voice.

[Guest]

Grim raised a brow at Angels tone of voice, when talking about the tunnel, but shrugged it off and saided, "A brother you say, well I have two of those and two sisters, my youngest will be turning 11 next year, the very same day I turn 20, she's soo adorable." "I have a picture of her and the rest of my family, you see I uploaded everything into my local memory bank so I could open it in any game i played." Grim opened his memory menu and pulled out a digital picture of his entire family, the picture was a family portrait, there was a large sofa, that held three people on it, Grim sat in the middle, his hair ever as long back then, his father whos golden hair was always pulled back to his right, and mother who had her jet black hair in a japanese pony tail, to his left, and his baby sister, her golden locks as long as her body, in his lap, along with his two brothers one having golden hair, and the other with a dirty blonde hair and eldest sister behind with her jet black hair as well in a pony tail. The entire family had fancy dress clothing on. "My grandfather couldn't be in the photo, he was taking the picture."

[Razmor 0]

Angel saw the picture and thought back to his own family portrait that hung above his dining room table. It depicted him, his two brothers, and his father each dress in a black suit with a black button up shirt and a blood red tie. They stood with the tallest in the back and the shortest in the front, causing Angel to be in between his older brother and his father. Next to them stood his mother and sister, each one wearing a black dress that went down to their feet. They looked alike in so many ways but the thing that stood out for most people was their red hair. It looked like it was on fire in the right light.

Angel came from a respectable family but that didn't mean everything was serious. He remembered that in the picture, everyone was barefoot. It was a sign of how his family operated; business first, party after. It made him smile thinking about the picture. "They look nice." He commented towards Grim's family. It was the honest truth.

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar sits back, his initial worries a bit at ease. If the Nerve Gear did malfunction, apparently the system could detect and fix it. Thats good at least. Grim definitely needed to be kept an eye on, but at least he seemed more stable now then he did earlier. A hallucination like that in an Inn is one thing, but something like that in the field could cost someone their life. To be safe, it was probably best to avoid leaving safe areas if you weren't feeling at 100%.

[Guest]

Grim smiled "Really appresiate it, maybe we can talk later Angel, would like to get to know you more." Grim's eye caught something in the corner of his HUD a message, "Hold on i got a message frim the info-broaker I talked to when i was crazy, ill tell him to refund my Col, I don't need the info." As Grim opens his icon, he suddenly stops, seeing a picture of something he can't explain. He then closes his icon and goes back to his chair. With a blank look on his face.

[Razmor 0]

Angel grinned, considering talking to Grim when they had more time. But then Grim froze after reading the message from his info broker. "Hey, what up?" He asked Grim while also taking a step back in case he freaked out.

[Guest]

Grim looked up at Angel and said, "Angel, can we talk in the hallway?" Asks politely, as he gets up and walks to the door, signaling Angel to come with him. "It's important, and I wish not to speak of it in front of the others." As Grims eyes show that he is scared and wishes to speak with him urgently.

(Another topic- [PP-F7] In the hall outside of Kanes room)

[Razmor 0]

Angel took notice of Grim's fear and nodded. He looked at Seld and Kane. "This'll be just a minute.Carry on without me and fill me in once I come back." He said calmly as he exited the room.