[AB-F8] About Time

[Miaki 0]

Floor Nine was liberated. And about bloody time too. Miaki and Nikki were away long enough for multiple floors to be cleared and no. They practically made it no where at all and might as well still be where they started before taking leave. This only fueled Miaki's frustration for being summoned back in the first place to offer his steel to the conflict. He need to take charge momentarily to bring some sense of order to things. Zelrius, proving himself once again, found the boss for the tenth floor and wanted to make his report. Miaki called a meeting at the old meeting room high up in the trees of the eigth floor. He was there now staring out the large bay widnow that gave a magnificant view of the rest of the floor. His wife brought the only sense of peace to the atmosphere for him. His being pulled back was rather relucant but he was here and so it was time to take action. He wore a black turtleneck which was his comfortable attire in his humble cabin on the fourth floor. Staring out the window with his hands behind his back he sighed. "I swear to God you'd guys better have not lost your edge while our being gone." He turned around and rubbed his temples. "Nikki and I left for very good reason and I still dont like the idea of being called back like I was." While he knew that the one who called him out of the unknown wasn't even in the room, Miaki wanted to make his point clear. He wasn't happy to have his blissful life interrupted and even more so when he found out that the only progress made was rather lacking at best. He had fought the very boss they had too but a glitch in the game occured and by that point Miaki was ready to leave the fools he had to deal with and their incompetence.

[Kosan 0]

Kosan entered floor 8 .. He recieved a message sent by Miaki , someone from his guild , to meet him at a meeting room.. Kosan , of course accepted the invitation.. He was wearing his normal outfit , meaning his dark coat that covered his black armor entirely , his sword being covered as well.. He walked at a slow pace , he was pretty much bored , but he heard that this meeting was about the next boss fight , so he attended to it.. As he got at the meeting room , he entered slowly , his heart racing a little.. He didn't knew what to expect.. As he entered he saw only one man .. "I guess that's you Miaki.. Am I right ?" Kosan asked the player as he walked closer and said "I am Kosan , member of Azure Brigade , the guild we are in.. I received a pm about a meeting. I came to the right place , I think , but I guess I arrived a little bit to early.." Kosan said as he rubbed the back of his neck.. "What so ever , glad to meet you.." He said as he waited for the others to come..

[Zelrius 0]

Zelrius was more than eager to leave the ninth floor for a while. It was blistering hot up there, which was actually the least of the boy's worries on that floor. The current top worry was the large traffic of low and mid levels passing through to make their way to the caves of floor 10. Zelrius said nothing to them, only shook his head as those poor morons were about to spend countless amount of col on supplies and housing only to reach the caverns and find they cannot see. Being in Aincrad long enough the Blood Buccaneer could already guess the low leveled reactions to limited vision. Most would panic, and run straight into monster traps full of enemies beyond their power. Others would then fear the monsters and run into the towns, only to waste all their col on housing, then being trapped on the cavern floor for a long long time. Now, why was all this a "worry" to the Clash of Blades Champions? Because low levels either attacked the Orange player or ran to a town in fright. Both pissed him off pretty badly.

With all this to take in, and a load to get off his mind along with a few words fueled by anger he had to say, Zelrius made his way to the eighth floor meeting building, the same building that the planning for the eighth floor boss and the first battle of the Hydra was planned. It had been a tie bit of time, but this room had always seemed welcoming to The Blood Buccaneer. He busted in the room, same as he did before the eighth floor boss fight. The familiar arrogance visible on his face and in his way of movement. Though now Zelrius was a tie bit different. More mature, and certainly a hell of a lot stronger. In his left hand the Twinfire sword, blazing in azure and maroon flames. In the right hand, the hallowed skull of one of the heads that belonged to the fallen Hydra. On his back was a cloak, more or less resembling a trench coat, a light blue color, with the Azure Brigade's symbol on it. Under the cloak was the same dark blue and golden color seam tuxedo complimented with the stark white bow tie. Swaggering to his seat Zelrius addressed those currently in the room.

"Aye, salutations and greetings fellow brigadiers. I need not reintroduce myself to old friends, do I?"

[Nikki Styx 0]

Nikki sat at a rather large table watching Miaki . He had been very agitated today. With him it wasn't hard to tell, the way he walked and carried himself was a dead giveaway. But today, his tone was off, his speaking was strained, he was generally put out. She knew that she was part of the reason, having strong armed him into coming out of retirement to take on the lines again. They had fought about it, and eventually come to an understanding on the matter. She couldn't sit by while people died, and he couldn't let her go alone. That's what made them so strong, was how no matter what they stayed together. now though she found little ways to comfort him. She had tried on the trip here to put his mind at ease to little avail. And now, now that other members of the guild were to arrive she was forced to keep her respective distance and treat him the same as she would any officer.

 

The first player to arrive was a shady looking cloaked figure. His name was visible next to his health bar, as he was a guild member, and she read it out loud to herself. "Kosan" He seemed to have taken no notice of her, as he addressed Miaki speaking quickly, almost nervously. He must not be used to these kinds of affairs. To be fair though she was new to the Azure Brigade process. Her previous guild, the Ebon Vanguard had had a different way of passing info. Her commander would speak to her, and she would pass the information to her own Sergeants and troops. Each faction of the guild was governed by its own lieutenant, and that allowed it to run efficiently. 

 

Zelrius arrived second, and Nikki instinctively stood up in the presence of her CO. She had gone to salute, but stopped herself, remembering his previous order of never doing that again. She quietly took her seat again, watching him as if she were waiting for something in particular. In truth she had no idea what to expect. How many more people would come? how many people had been summoned? Miaki had said it was a guild meeting, but did that mean all guild or just the officers? she was a warrant officer herself, though not high on the totem pole it granted her some power and a need to know what was going on.

[Kiru 0]

I arrived outside the meeting place that The Azure Brigade was having a meeting at and stared at the door with tired eyes. I had no stamina to even reply to the message I had been sent. I looked down at my feet, stalled for a few moments, then finally, pressed my hand against the door. 

 

I gave the door a hard push, expecting it to be heavy. Usually doors inside buildings like these were pretty heavy. Except this one wasn't. I was unaware of the lightness of the door. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the door slammed against the wall. Apparently I hadn't paid any mind to the fact that I never actually went inside buildings, thus leading me to assume that the door was heavier than it really was. I didn't care about my mistake though. If anyone gave me a hard time they'd be talking to a wall because I wouldn't listen to them. Besides, anyone in this room was a guild mate of mine, we were supposed to be "friendly" to each other and not pick fights right? 

 

After shutting the door quietly behind me I picked my head up to see two familiar faces out of the four present. Zelrius, who confused me a lot, and Kosan. Kosan made the mistake once of waking me up while I was armed. After awhile I got bored and just walked away from him; haven't really contacted him ever since. The worst part about not staying in contact with everyone was that I couldn't remember if I was a friend of theirs. No matter, I was still apart of The Azure Brigade. I narrowed my eyes at the older woman at the table and the man in a sweater near the window. These two I didn't know, nor have I seen my entire time here. It was a reoccurring event of me meeting people but this was different. I and never attended any of the guild meetings so I was unaware that there were more members besides Keith, Kosan, Zelrius, and I. It was stupid of me to assume that Azure was made up of only five people though so I dismissed the thought as soon as it came. 

 

I took in a deep breath and walked forward to the table. I grabbed a chair from the end of the table and sat down. Upon sitting I let my head fall forward onto the table along with my arms to suffice as a pillow. I sighed and closed my eyes. "Someone, please tell me when the meeting begins." I spoke in a completely exhausted tone. Lately I hadn't been sleeping very well. The causes were the nightmares about a certain Maverick but also my constant worrying over Keith. I felt like if I left him alone everything in my world would change in some weird way. Of course I wouldn't express these feelings ever out loud but I was glad that I had finally been honest enough with myself to figure out why I hadn't gotten sleep for the past week. I knew of course that now was definitely not the time to lose consciousness but right now I literally felt as though I would pass out. So I did the most unusual thing, I didn't insult nor even glare at anyone. I just went to the table and began to sleep. 

[Shanok 0]

Shanok stood in front of the building where the meeting for the ninth floor boss fight was held a few months ago, those months felt like years to him though as during that whole time, only one floor was cleared and nothing of importance happened in Aincrad. He pushed open the doors and went inside, from what he had heard, only a few members of the guild would be present at this meeting and from what he saw when entering the building, he believe that it was true as only Miaki, his wife Nikki, Zelrius, Kosan and a player he had never met before were in the room. His guess was that only Keith was missing and that they were now only waiting on him. 

"Good morning everyone" he told his guildmates as he entered the building, he then looked at Kiru and walked towards her. "I don't think we've ever met, my name's Shanok and I'm part of the Brigade's council, nice to meet you" he said.

[Guest]

"Ah crap ah crap ah crap ah crap!" Keith yelped, running through the floor at top speed. Naturally, Keith lost track of time. A lot. The smallest thing was enough to distract him for just long enough to be late for something important. This time, like many times before, it was the discount on chilidogs. Keith loved those things. But really, 3 col a dog? Of COURSE Keith would blow something off for that. Fresh dogs and buns covered in irresistible chili? The stuff was his Kryptonite. Keith finally arrived at the building and slid to a halt, fixing his hair and adjusting his jacket.

 

Keith then opened the door and stepped in, smiling brightly to everyone. "Hiya guys! Long time no see! Sorry I'm late!" He said, sitting down next to Kiru and seeing she was trying to sleep on the table. May as well poke the bear. "Kiiiruuu... Wakey wakey Kiru..." He whispered, moving his chair so he could give her a little hug from behind, shaking a her a little as if to stir her.