[PP-F2] Be there or be Square (Square One)

[Azide 0]

Out of Character: 

- No strict post order will be enforced in this topic, outside of battles. This is to ensure that the topic will be played out according to each members' own individual paces, while still allowing progress.

- During battles, a player may be skipped if they have not replied within twenty four hours, but keep patience in mind when abiding by this. If this would cause a double post to occur, PM another participant in the topic if they could help you out.

- Come and go at your own pace, just have fun, and enjoy the company of your guild mates!

 

 

To:  Aeternum, Crozeph, Kino, Lucifer, Oikawa, Shinex, XWuZHeAR

 

From: Azide

Subject: Let's all go sleep in the woods instead of in the comfort of our respective inns.

Hey there everyone!
Azide here, as you might've guessed from the name in the header. Anyways, for the time being, it appears S1 is not yet prepared to participate in the upcoming raid. But there's no need for tears- instead, I thought this would be the perfect time to instead organize our own alternative event. Consider this message an invitation to Square One's first ever camping trip, which will be hosted on the second floor. Look forward to hiking, sleeping in makeshift tents, storytelling, and whatever else we come up with! Also, there have been rumors of players going missing around the area, along with a few reports of a large creature in the depths of the forest, but we'll cross that bridge once we get there. Literally- we have to cross a bridge to reach the forest depths. Anyway, for the time being, hope to see you all soon. We'll be meeting in front of Marome village and head from there as a group. Late arrivals are advised to make us of the "friend tracker" feature, and meet up with us wherever we might be. Be there or be square.

Yours truly,
Azide

From Square One to Cloud Nine.

 

After briefly skimming through the message for any errors, Azide sent it off. After a moment of consideration, he forwarded the message to Ariel as well. "Technically, she's with Lessa's Guardians of Aincrad, but it'd be advantageous to reach out to her nonetheless." It was true that he was a bit disappointed about not being able to take on a boss just yet, but the fledgling guild would be served by some time to gather its strength. "Square One will make its contributions to the front-lines before long. In the mean time, we'll leave that burden to the more established guilds. We still have time to enjoy ourselves, at least." He sat down against the wall of the fortress-like town, then pulled out a book and began flipping through its pages. "A shame they're missing out on so many of the classics in this world. Free domain can only take you so far. Still, some of this stuff isn't too shabby..."

[XWuZHeAR 0]

I woke up on a rooftop to the sound of a PM from azide. After I read it I wrote a quick response

To: Azide <you messed up the word "use" and wrote "us"> From: XWuZHeAR

I closed the menu and looked around the rooftop. I decided I should stop by the shop real fast and grab one of the hammocks. So I began my run to the shop. The rooftops seemed a little closer together today or maybe I'm just jumping further. When I finally arrived at the shop I took down the hammock and added it to my inventory. Afterwards I exited the shop and made my way to teleporter in the center of the town.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Ariel was preparing to close the shop for today, it was a little earlier than usual but for some reason she felt tired. After making sure that all its at its place she turned around and started walking towards the front exit. She then received a message from Azide, reading through the message it was something that looked like a team building camp. She was  delighted by the idea, but thought that is was a little inappropriate to go to another guild's meeting like that, so she decided to make up a plausible excuse, seeing how she was one of the few players in Aincrad that had IRL fencing training and participated at tournaments she decided to reply to Azide:

To: Azide

 

From: Ariel

 

Subject:  Camping/ Training Camp

 

It sounds great, I'll join in as well. And if you guys want I can act as a 'teacher' for you guys in regards of swordsmanship. I have fought alongside a couple of your guild members and found their fighting style a bit....wild..or better said untrained. So I can give them basic advices and spar with them a little, If you want any recommendation just ask Oikawa, we've fought against a field boss together a while ago. In any case I'm heading towards the meeting place. 

 

See you there,

Ariel.

 

 

Then she closed the shop making her way towards the teleportation gate.

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa had been strolling through the outskirts of Floor 1 when he received a PM. he skimmed the content and began walk towards the Floor 1 teleportation gate. "Camping trip training eh? Could be fun, or could be a pain."  He then begin typing and sent off his reply.

 

 

To: Azide

From: Oikawa

 

Subject:  Camping & Training

This is either gonna be really fun or a pain haha! Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to it. I'll be at the meeting spot shortly.

 

Arriving at the teleport gate, he stepped on it and murmured "Delilah Village". Sucked into a vortex, he suddenly reemerged on the 2nd floor. "Well lets get this show on the road..."

[Crozeph 0]

Crozeph was on the snowy floor when he heard a faint sound and saw an icon in front of him "what the..." he squinted his eyes and saw that it was a private message from their guild leader "so this time its about..." he opened the mail and read while shivering on shore of the lake. Crozeph then closed his inbox and looked around him, all the same. rocks covered with snow a tree beside him where his brother's name who was killed was carved and the stones he piled up a few days after his death. Crozeph even lost contact with other guild members and the two of them was Kiru and Draterion. "They could be doing well on the frontlines" he said. Crozeph walked out of the safe zone and sighed "this is going to take a while" he said. Crozeph opened his mail and began sending a reply to his guild leader.

 

 

From: Crozeph

To: Azide

   

I'll be there as soo as I can recognize which path leads to somewhere, snow covered paths are not nice and I don't have crystals to teleport now. See you and I'll be using the tracker for the rest of my way.

 

 

Crozeph pressed the send button and pulled his cloak closing it "now let's get down to business" he said. Crozeph began walking leaving footprints on the snow as he goes to a main settlement where he might teleport to Floor 2 "be there or be square..." he made a faint grin "I don't want to look like a brick" he added.

[Aeternum 0]

Aeternum had been sitting in a small clearing surrounded by trees on floor two when he had received the message. Opening it, he smiled and shook his head. There was an error in the message, but he bet someone else would notice. Standing up, he took his eye patch out of his inventory and put it on. He then decided to send a message of his own:

 

 

To: Azide

From: Aeternum

Subject: Camping and Training

 

Yeah man, count me in! I will be there as quickly as possible. Though that large creature may be something I am not ready to face, I am eager to participate and hang out with everyone. Lucky for you, I just happen to be on this very floor.

 

With that, he checked his map and set off towards the village, which was actually quite a ways away. If he ran into X, he would have to explain the eye patch, now that would be a really fun situation. Meh, as long as he wasn't called 3D and made fun of.

[Azide 0]

Within the span of few minutes, Azide heard the message notification sound go off five or so times, leaving him with little choice but to put down his book. He pulled up the notification center and typed up the standard business-like responses to most of his guild mates, but left a slightly more personal reply to one of bunch. He'd pulled up the mass message he'd sent out and read it again, but slower this time around. Shaking his head, he'd exited it and pulled up another message window.

To: XWuZHeAR

From: Azide

Subject: Re: Re: Let's all go sleep in the woods instead of the comfort of our respective inns.

Damn it, X.

Knowing most of his guild mates would take a while to arrive, he set back to reading for a bit longer. Not too long afterwards, however, he heard the sound of footsteps in the distance and looked up.

[Crozeph 0]

Crozeph found the teleporter of Floor 2 quickly by following footprints of some player who made it to the settlement in one piece "now to get to Floor 2" he thought. Crozeph stood in front of the teleporter and was teleported to Floor 2 "camping, I don't think I'll be needing any sleeping bags" he said "trees are quite enough for me" he said. Crozeph then continued on his way while his map is in front of him following the tracker of their guild leader. Crozeph bumped into trees and tripped on some rocks as he keeps his eyes on the tracker. Even a slight change can make him get lost and it seems he's doing well on following the tracker "instead of looking at the map I'll just stare at this red dot and my dot till they're close" he mumbled still walking around the area.

[XWuZHeAR 0]

After reaching the teleport gate I teleported to floor 2. Now on floor two I looked around for azide who wasn't that hard to find because he basically gave off this sent of wine, cigarettes, and la baguettes atleast to me. Anyways after locating him I ran over to get moving on this trip.

"Hey azide weres everyone else?" I asked now realizing how fast I actually got here.

I did think the rooftops were closer today maybe I'm going faster without realizing it. I then slung over my guitar and began to tune it which with the game mechanics was actually pretty easy. The way it basically worked was if the string glowed red it was out of tune and if it glowed green it was ok.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Ariel left the  2nd floor's main city, tracking the coordinates of the meeting place. "Gotta put on my poker face if I'm going to train them..can't have them making random jokes and slack off. I think I'll start with the basic stance for every weapon..that should be pretty easy since its almost the same  for every weapon..depending on its length." She started making all kind of training plans remembering her own basic training she did with her father when she started training. Meanwhile she kept an eye on the map to be sure she doesn't go off the route, and before she knew she could hear a now familiar guitar sound. 

As she got closer to the sound it was like she imagined, Azide was buried deep into his book while listening to X's wild guitar play. She drew closer to then waving at them, when she got closer she greeted them in her usual manner:

"Guess I'm one of the early arrivals" she then turned towards Azide. "Reading time is over! Now, mind sharing some specifics with me about this camping?" she then showed a grin as she continued to address Azide but looked towards X. "I have a few ideas about what to do in this training camp, that I want to share with you."

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa looked at his friend tracker and noticed that Ariel, X, and Azide seemed to already be at the meeting spot. Well at least I won be last. He set off full speed. Arriving on the outskirts of Marome village, he spotted his companions. "Hey guys!" X seemed to be strumming some tune while Azide and Ariel engaged in a conversation. I wonder who all is going to show up. Hmm shouldn't be much longer now. Opening up his inventory he checked to make sure he had allocated all his points and read through all his skills. I wan't to be fully prepared for this.

[Crozeph 0]

Crozeph found the location after successfully following the coordinates on his map without looking at the map. He found his guild leader sitting on a good camp site, probably the most comfortable he could find. Crozeph walked closer and greeted him "camping huh, let's not scare others with our scary campfire stories" he told Azide and Ariel. Crozeph slumped on the ground as if it was a bed already not minding the grass and dust on his clothes "I've already gave up on the comfort of beds and inns, they make my body stiff when I wake up" he said. It's been many months since Crozeph slept inside settlements and inns. The last time he remembered his friends and half-brother left him in the fountain on Floor 1 after drinking to sleep and woke up like he slept on a feather bed. Crozeph then stared at the sky and waited for other guild members make their way to the location.

[Aeternum 0]

(OOC: This is set after the eye patch thread, because Aeternum didn't know who Azide was then.)

Aeternum had navigated across the floor with relative ease, only having to check his map twice, and had quickly arrived at Marome Village. He saw a small cluster of people and made the obvious assumption that they were his guildmates. Approaching, he said in a friendly tone, "Uh, hey guys, and girl, I'm Aeternum. You can call me... um..." he looked at X before finishing, "Joyce."

 

Aeternum recognized the female as the owner of the shop where he had gotten his eye patch, and simply smiled at her, unsure of what to say. Adjusting his eye patch so that it rested a bit more comfortably over his eye, he said, "I'm excited to be here with you all, and I can't wait to get started!"

[Azide 0]

Azide glanced up lazily and was greeted by the appearance of X, who'd come running up to him. He looked back down at the book and licked his finger, then flipped over to the next page. "Beats me," he replied, glancing quickly at the in-game time. "From the looks of it, you got here a bit earlier than I expected. Speedy little guy, aren't you?"

He watched as X took out his guitar and began to tune it, but quickly noticed another figure heading their way. As the player stepped closer, he was able to make her out as Ariel, an ally of theirs from the Guardians of Aincrad. He chuckled and shut his book with one hand, then set it down, but stayed seated.

He'd been about to speak, but heard a familiar voice call out from the distance, with that voice happening to belong to Oikawa. He waved at his friend, who was still a way away from them, and seemed to be messing around with the SAO menu at the moment.

Not too long afterwards, Crozeph appeared from his left, catching him by surprise. His guild mate then promptly laid down right in the grass, falling into a slump seemingly right after greeting him. He laughed, then poked the player playfully in the arm. "I hate to disappoint you, but this isn't quite the camp site- we're still at Marome village."

Finally, to end the sudden stream of guild mate arrivals, a newer face peeked out from around the corner of the village entrance. He recognized the player as Aeternum- one of their more recent recruits, but a friendly one. "Still wearing that eyepatch, I see. Wonder if that thing's a liability for his depth perception? He smiled and gestured for him to come join them, then shouted over at Oikawa to do the same. Once Aeternum came a bit closer, Azide stood up and whispered into his ear. "Well you same pretty excited, Aeternum. I'm going to have to ask you to do your best to keep everyone else just as excited. Helps keep up the morale you know? By the way, the eyepatch thing just might be destroying your depth perception."

He laughed and stepped back to address his guild mates, then sent out party invites to everyone who'd arrived. "Alright, now that everyone who's responded so far has arrived, it's time we get a move on!" said Azide with somewhat uncharacteristic enthusiasm. "We can talk on the way there, but for now," he began, pointing at a trail leading into the woods, "For now, we set off into the woods."

[XWuZHeAR 0]

As we began walking I had finally soaked up what ariel was talking about.

"Training? Count me out... I grew up fighting I have a pretty basic understanding what hurts and what doesn't." I said while focusing on my guitar.

I finally got into tune and decided to play off a little tune I made a version of just now in my head.

"Wanna know why ariel?... Because I'm the best aroooouunnnnddd, nothing's ever gonna keep me down, I'm the best arouuuunnnnddd your never gonna ever bring me down..." I started to sing while performing my usual flips and stuff.

[Shinex 0]

Shinex was walking around the woods of the second floor. I should have arrived a long time ago. God I need to stop sleeping in a lot. Once again my laziness got to me. He unsheathed his sword in case monsters would pop out to attack. Then he heard something strange and looked around. After a while of looking, the sound started to get louder. It was somebody singing. "Oh I know that annoying voice!" He ran towards the location quicker than he thought. After seeing a familiar figure, Shinex climbed a nearby tree and snuck towards the end of a branch. "X! Quiet down you're gonna wake up all the damn animals!" Shinex jumped down and sheathed his sword. "Nice seeing you again. What's with the whole camping thing that Azide sent me?"

[Crozeph 0]

Crozeph rolled over lazily as Azide poked him on the arms "what? then still no scary campfire stories?" he said. Crozeph heard X's singing and play on the guitar. One after another his fellow guild members kept on popping up "looks like the party has grown huge, I suggest we let X lure out the bears twice their normal size and..." Crozeph looked up to see a person perched on a branch then jumped down to talk to Azide "whoa, real life ninja?" he said looking at him in awe. Crozeph stood up and brushed off the grass on his cloak and stretched forward his hand "I'm Crozeph, the guild's wayward member" he told him "nice moves you've got, more refined than X's daredevil stunts" he told him.

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa finished checking his gear and finally joined the others. he noticed quite a few faces. Azide, X, Crozeph, Ariel but there were two unfamiliar ones. Although he knew one's name was Shinex, he hadn't had the pleasure of officially meeting him. He approached him along with Crozeph and outstretched his hand. "Hello there, Name's Oikawa nice to meet you." After shaking hands with the newcomer, he made his way to the second newbie. "Aeternum was it? Nice too meet you. Name's Oikawa." Shaking hands with him, he made his way to Ariel and Azide to more or less chillax and listen in on Azide's announcement.

 

Azide told everyone they were heading out. Oikawa decided to walk in the middle of the group not particularly partnering up with anyone. So a camping trip eh? Well beats sitting around doing nothing. 

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Ariel began walking with the group, in the meanwhile a couple of more S1 members arrived. She was pleased to see that it gotten quite the large guild, and the rest of the arrivals were more or less people she meet before. She nodded politely to all the greetings then she turned towards Aeternum..

"Joyce, huh?" she muttered. She then turned towards Oikawa "Good to see you again, I hope we'll get to fight alongside again." she showed a small grin seeing that. Then she half-turned towards Shinex..Never struck me as the type of guy that would join a guild, but then again here he is. Guess he changed a bit from last time. And lastly she creeped up behind X, not wanting to let his last statement go by..with a grin on her face she started speaking in a slightly arrogant way trying to obstruct his singing:

"The best you say? I won't let that pass by me so easily..you'll have to prove your words, how about a friendly duel?" Ups..I let that slip by without thinking.. She then turned towards Azide to see if he's reaction.

[Aeternum 0]

Aeternum listened as everybody talked, and just walked a bit behind them, enjoying the conversations. As they walked, he approached Azide, saying, "Depth perception, huh? I still see things like normal, just nothing on the left side. But," he brightened as he said this, "I am getting better at not hitting things!" He laughed lightly and continued with the group. When he heard Ariel mention a duel to X, he smirked, that would be interesting. He moved towards them and said with a touch of humor, "Let's not play around guys, this is not a game! I mean, really, let's try to keep our HP as high as possible, right?"