So admittedly the main reason I'm uncomfortable with the "Tell Argo to get lost" vote here is because on the philosophical side of things I think I'm one of the more sympathetic to the VR side of things in the VR v Reality in the thread and I'm sympathetic to Argo's plight here. But also it just rubs me the wrong way because it doesn't sound to me like something Hiyori would say. I could 100% buy this from pre-merge Shadow Hiyori and maybe even from current Shadow Hiyori... but Hiyori herself? "Hurt the innocent?" Hiyori doesn't see the SAO PKers as innocent. Her own guilt was such that it caused an identity crisis that created Shadow Hiyori! If I'm being honest this feels like the kind of response that would reverse or break the link to me. (Or maybe the Great Seal is still protecting future Persona protagonists from that so that mechanic isn't in play here.)
I like the punitive v restorative justice angle and I think that's a big part of what's going on here - Argo's view of justice. I don't think we have the pull with Argo to directly confront her on her own trauma but that's where I'd like for this to end up later. I get that Argo might bristle at "This isn't you" from us but that's why I have Hiyori offer up the concrete example of something Argo herself did just two months ago - opt to instead put Hiyori on "Community Service" for SAO victims. Like I have Hiyori argue - Argo didn't really like the arrangement but the result was we helped free (almost) all of the remaining SAO victims. I think appealing to Argo saying she's doing this for the victims and then pointing out that her actions here seem more geared to her personal satisfaction of her view of justice versus her previous model where she swallowed her preference and instead had Hiyori assist in the ALO effort and that yielded undeniable benefit and comfort to many victim's families by bringing back their loved ones... well, I'd hope Argo could see that.
Still not sure if this qualifies as a hedge though because it doesn't address the "well, that's great, but what if Rosalia says no" hypothetical. I would assume she goes through with the dox then and honestly the way I have Hiyori present the argument that's honestly the logical conclusion. I would just hope it was a good enough idea that it isn't treated negatively and the argument sticks with Argo for the future but that's why I asked.
And then what? Worry about retribution from disgruntled family members? Watch as you get dragged through the mud and ostracized? See your father lose his job, and your mom turned into a pariah?
What comes next is pure ice. It's like a switch is flipped, and in an instant Hosaka switches from pure vitriol to a practiced, professional attitude. "Hanako Akazawa. I've looked into ya— a cousin up in Hokkaido. A mom in the nearby nursing home. Your dad recently died from overwork, and ya inherited the family business. Kinda lucky, huh? Landin' on your feet."
Akazawa frowns, tensing, catching on to the unspoken threat.
"I'm not sure how many ya killed. But you should've been more thorough, cause you left the leader of the «Silver Flags» alive to tell us all about your crimes." Hosaka says, in a dry monotone.
"Hah! Is this the part where the «Black Swordsman» barges through the front door and arrests me? Get real, Rat."
"Nah, no-one's coming. Yet."
There's a sharp intake of breath as Akazawa sits up straight. "What are you—"
Hosaka slams a slip of paper onto the desk.
"I'd like to request a special delivery. Your ass, to these addresses, within the next week. They're brothers, sisters, parents, and children of the people you killed. Go to each of them and apologize until ya run out of breath! Do you understand me!? You're going to confess your crimes with your own filthy mouth! That, Hanako Akazawa, is the only redemption you're gonna get."
"Why the fuck would I ever—"
Hosaka snarls, practically spitting on Akazawa. "Because if you don't I'm telling everyone— your clients, your family, the clerk at conbii! Everything about ya, Rosalia. Ya know who I am. Ya know what I can do. If I want it, I can get your address, your ID, the names of every blood relation going back 9 generations, your fuckin' LINE password! And I promise, that I will not stop shouting until the world knows your name. Do ya understand!? I will ensure you will never have another sound night's sleep in your pathetic, miserable life."
Since the killers in SAO can be duly processed Argo has taken a vicious glee in using Japanese criminal association cultural norms to club people into confessing. Hiyori's main concern about Argo doxxing here is how her mom and dad will be slandered by the association and even lose their livelihood for something Hiyori did.
Even more so was her threat to Rosalia. She's prepared to doxx her entire family and her workers to socially destroy them just to feel better about herself.
And for Hiyori flipping out she started this exercise to tell Argo to leave her alone, she's now stressed to hell and back, being told that her work in stopping VR psychosis is nothing compared to whatever Argo's doing while working four jobs to make ends meet because society also doesn't care about the VR addiction problem plaguing the world now on top of gaining a lot more confidence in herself and her decisions and has had to deal with Argo sanctimouniously proselytizing to her while she's also been putting in a lot of work for atoning for her mistakes.
For Hiyori's Shadow problems, this is also from where my interpretation of Hiyori is different than yours. I don't think Hiyori is just guilt-stricken over her murders in Laughing Coffin like with Sinon she's also secretly proud of her time in Laughing Coffin because she was forced into an impossible situation and beat the odds and survived under pressure despite having no special advantages like Kirito or Asuna did.
But Hiyori doesn't really care about the VR psychosis though? She was specifically noted by MAXWELL to be chosen because it's an opportunity to strike back at what tortured her. The entire bit of how Hiyori moralizes on how she is more Just than Hosaka because she is working to stop the VR psychosis rings false because her motivations are entirely rooted in selfishness (taking revenge on Sugou, Kayaba etc). Your point about Hiyori being selfish and feeling proud at surviving also means that she also cares about the SEED stuff only insofar it affects her and the people she cares about, the entire bit at the end of phase 1 of the Oberon fight is that Hiyori wants to transition away from being selfish, but consequently it also means that she has to give a shit about people outside her monkey-sphere.
Also on a baser note, I'm not sure what that speech is meant to achieve apart from bashing Hosaka and dropping stopping the S. Link. Alcor's plan tries to nudge her into a more favorable to Hiyori viewpoint, your plan just bashes her so that ????. What's the endpoint?
But Hiyori doesn't really care about the VR psychosis though? She was specifically noted by MAXWELL to be chosen because it's an opportunity to strike back at what tortured her. The entire bit of how Hiyori moralizes on how she is more Just than Hosaka because she is working to stop the VR psychosis rings false because her motivations are entirely rooted in selfishness (taking revenge on Sugou, Kayaba etc). Your point about Hiyori being selfish and feeling proud at surviving also means that she also cares about the SEED stuff only insofar it affects her and the people she cares about, the entire bit at the end of phase 1 of the Oberon fight is that Hiyori wants to transition away from being selfish, but consequently it also means that she has to give a shit about people outside her monkey-sphere.
Also on a baser note, I'm not sure what that speech is meant to achieve apart from bashing Hosaka and dropping stopping the S. Link. Alcor's plan tries to nudge her into a more favorable to Hiyori viewpoint, your plan just bashes her so that ????. What's the endpoint?
My desire wasn't to show how superior to Argo Hiyori is. A major reoccuring theme in the quest is that we can't just weasel our way into a perfect option we're we win everything forever and everyone likes us. We can't take half-measures and Argo is so draconian she won't accept anything like that either and will only view us better if we just agree with everything and say she's right. But the core of the ending is that for once Argo is being real with us and wants to know what we believe. For the future of the Social Link I don't think it will break. Argo is also asking us these questions so she can tailor her arguments to convert Hiyori saying these things to her gives her the information she wants to better form an argument to convince us of her next target.
My desire wasn't to show how superior to Argo Hiyori is. A major reoccuring theme in the quest is that we can't just weasel our way into a perfect option we're we win everything forever and everyone likes us. We can't take half-measures and Argo is so draconian she won't accept anything like that either and will only view us better if we just agree with everything and say she's right. But the core of the ending is that for once Argo is being real with us and wants to know what we believe. For the future of the Social Link I don't think it will break. Argo is also asking us these questions so she can tailor her arguments to convert Hiyori saying these things to her gives her the information she wants to better form an argument to convince us of her next target.
I'm not sure I agree, Hiyori approaches Social Links with the understanding that she gains power from doing so, which is what drives her in a couple of cases even if she'd rather not interact with those people (Subaru for example, Ainz is almost certainly going to be one of those). We can't win over everyone, but we can use and be used by others (this also goes for our patron).
My problem with your plan is that it reads like just a big slap Hosaka's face about how she doesn't really want justice as opposed to Hiyori which pursues a more meaningful goal. The positions it espouses are also weird because Hiyori isn't shutting down VRRMOs because she cares about the state of human spirit, it's because its the road for eventual goal of fucking up Kayaba; saying that people are running from reality and preferring zeros and ones over tangible stuff is also clashing with Hiyori's outburst at being bowled over by XeXeeD and how she feels like she actually matters in virtual space.
Since the killers in SAO can be duly processed Argo has taken a vicious glee in using Japanese criminal association cultural norms to club people into confessing. Hiyori's main concern about Argo doxxing here is how her mom and dad will be slandered by the association and even lose their livelihood for something Hiyori did.
Even more so was her threat to Rosalia. She's prepared to doxx her entire family and her workers to socially destroy them just to feel better about herself.
That's a societal scale problem beyond the scope of "Should the Laughing Coffin members/PKers feel guilt and/or be considered responsible for their actions." or even the whole VRMMO/ETTEILLA/PHILEMON stuff. What I mean is, take the thought experiment that Rosalia wasn't a SAO PK'er but, well, committed a real world hit-and-run like the analogy used in the update and managed to "get away" with it - but Argo knows she did it and while she didn't exactly film it she has enough circumstantial evidence that even if the justice system might not move on her, it establishes her guilt to pretty much everyone else. Your argument that Argo acting on this would harm Rosalia's (presumably innocent) relatives because of the guilty-by-association norms would still hold true. That that guilt-by-association norm exists is terrible and a problem but that's going to be true regardless of the nature of the crime. In Argo's mind she sees a murderer and you'd basically be telling her "Yeah, but she got away with it and if you expose her now it's just going to cause trouble for people who don't deserve it like her family and employees." Which is true! It will! It shouldn't, but it definitely will! And I'm just not super comfortable with that argument. It's essentially the argument that the justice system took by going, "It was 100% Kayaba, no one else is responsible for their actions there." And I can understand why the state would take that stance because it's a thorny issue but ethically I'm not exactly a fan. Argo is running into that problem herself right now and trying to Phantom Thief vigilante it up.
For Hiyori's Shadow problems, this is also from where my interpretation of Hiyori is different than yours. I don't think Hiyori is just guilt-stricken over her murders in Laughing Coffin like with Sinon she's also secretly proud of her time in Laughing Coffin because she was forced into an impossible situation and beat the odds and survived under pressure despite having no special advantages like Kirito or Asuna did.
I don't entirely disagree with you... it's just that the part of her that thinks that way quite literally split into a Shadow. Admittedly, I'm a bit chagrined here because when I explicitly noted in the discussion phase for the week plan that I did not want Shadow Hiyori in front for this social link for character reasons it was precisely because I could foresee that she might make an argument along these lines and I wanted to avoid that. I actually think this goes a bit further than I would have thought too - like I mentioned, I feel this is more pre-merge Shadow Hiyori talking and not the should-be-a-bit-more-chill Shadow after they reconciled. But that's on me, the flipside of them being more merged is that it's probably easier for them to switch up like that so I accept that it could happen here.
A major reoccuring theme in the quest is that we can't just weasel our way into a perfect option we're we win everything forever and everyone likes us. We can't take half-measures and Argo is so draconian she won't accept anything like that either and will only view us better if we just agree with everything and say she's right. But the core of the ending is that for once Argo is being real with us and wants to know what we believe
I don't think this is such a perfect option. We're essentially telling Argo that her I'm-genuinely-not-sure-it's-legal blackmailing/extorting people with this info is okay if it's in the service of a greater good. That's a very iffy message.
The way I saw it was this is Hiyori approaching Argo with her actual feelings. In the update she repeatedly notes to herself how worn down Argo is from carrying this burden by herself. The approach I'm taking is - and I think we actually agree on this part - is that the effect this has had on Argo has warped her sense of justice (though you can perhaps argue she was always like this, but I don't think it matters) to the point where she's acting on punitive/restorative justice more for herself while claiming it's for the SAO victims. Maybe she only arrived there after the government/Kikouka repeatedly denied her attempts to at least try to bring the worse LC members to account for their actions, maybe this is simply where her moral compass always started but either way I think this approach is a way to begin to get her to introspect and realize she's using the victims as an excuse to pursue her own sense of justice to hurt the perpetrators (in her mind) rather than look to how she can genuinely help the victims (hence the reference that in a dox here all she's doing is changing the name the family can blame. Maybe Argo derives satisfaction from getting a more personal answer than Kayaba but it's not going to bring anyone back, the family is still going to grieve.)
It's Rank 2, I don't expect this to truly solve anything - rather I'm hoping it can chart the course moving forward to get her to process her own grief and guilt she feels in a healthier way.
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "You want to know what I think, Argo. I don't think you care about accepting responsibility or justice at all since all I've seen you do is threaten to drag everyone associated with your targets down with them. Hurt the innocent more than you hurt the wicked."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't pissing away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "So you want to know what side I'm on. I'm on the side of reality, whoever can stop people from signing away their agency to the next shiny VRMMO right now. Not what they did in the past."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "You want to know what I think, Argo. I don't think you care about accepting responsibility or justice at all since all I've seen you do is threaten to drag everyone associated with your targets down with them. Hurt the innocent more than you hurt the wicked."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't pissing away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "So you want to know what side I'm on. I'm on the side of reality, whoever can stop people from signing away their agency to the next shiny VRMMO right now. Not what they did in the past."
Hm, I suppose because of how straight to the point and realistic it is, I say.
From what I gather, Argo has a very idealized version of justice. She wants all of those evil to be punished, regardless of their feelings in the matter or any other circumstances. A very Black and White view. You either did or did not, no middle road. This is fair to a few people, but then you have figures like Rosaria, who is not exactly sympathetic, but who, at the end of the day, is not a true monster.
Argo wants to be like one of the Phantom Thieves. But she, of course, has no context on what they undergo with their big targets over learning about them, and their deeds, until reaching a point where, yes, they are irredeemable - and even that's not an absolute, because there's Futaba, Sae, and Maruki as examples of Palaces that are not owned by bad people, but have lots of negative feelings associated to them.
In short, it relates to the theme of this quest. We are grounding Hosako. We are pulling her down from her fantasies of what justice should be, and showing what it is, de facto.
I feel like part of why Argo is so dead set on punishing former PKers is because Kayaba got away. In Argo's view, the ending of the SAO incident is inherently tied to retribution being given to its architect, and she can't feel closure until the villain pays for his crimes. The incident ended with a whimper rather than a bang, nothing but broken hearts and ruined lives, and she struggled with that fact. She's yearning for a moment where the bad guy looses and the heroes celebrate, rather than "You survived, now get to dealing with the fact you've been in a coma for 2 years." Argo's constantly pursuing justice because without some sort of punchline, SAO doesn't feel like it's over.
There's no perfect answer, but I think we can still get our way while still letting her down somewhat softly. Tell her that going after lesser evils isn't going to save anyone, and that Kayaba can't run forever.
I feel like part of why Argo is so dead set on punishing former PKers is because Kayaba got away. In Argo's view, the ending of the SAO incident is inherently tied to retribution being given to its architect, and she can't feel closure until the villain pays for his crimes. The incident ended with a whimper rather than a bang, nothing but broken hearts and ruined lives, and she struggled with that fact. She's yearning for a moment where the bad guy looses and the heroes celebrate, rather than "You survived, now get to dealing with the fact you've been in a coma for 2 years." Argo's constantly pursuing justice because without some sort of punchline, SAO doesn't feel like it's over.
There's no perfect answer, but I think we can still get our way while still letting her down somewhat softly. Tell her that going after lesser evils isn't going to save anyone, and that Kayaba can't run forever.
I agree with this. This is why I think telling her that we spoke with Kabaya recently and that one of the things he said to us was "Did you enjoy my game?" will likely cause her to focus primarily on stopping Kabaya's ISEKAI project instead of going after minor guild leaders.
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
Okay I thought over what @Alcor, @SITB, @RolePatrol, and @Phoenix_Ride said and altered my write-in. I made Hiyori less of an ass, focused on her being pro-reality, and framed how ironically Rosalia is actually taking more responsibility than a lot of people that were involved with SAO.
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
…we really ought to come up with an abbreviation for this.
@Kutenaiabi, @Hypate, @veekie, @Vanguard_D, @Emanyzal, @riptide, sorry about the mass ping, but The Zog adjusted his argument at specific points so your no voting for the same plan as him, figured I should let you know, so if you want to change your votes to match him before voting closes you can.
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
>Titan Movers Part Time job will give you a raise.
>You may write in an argument, but all "Amnesty" arguments will be collated together. Write-in arguments may shape how Hosaka approaches future SL ranks.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
We'll close it here. Write in is very long so I will paraphrase.
Adhoc vote count started by afreaknamedpete on Feb 13, 2024 at 5:16 PM, finished with 44 posts and 20 votes.
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
-- [X] "You want to know what I think, Argo. I don't think you care about accepting responsibility or justice at all since all I've seen you do is threaten to drag everyone associated with your targets down with them. Hurt the innocent more than you hurt the wicked."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't pissing away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "So you want to know what side I'm on. I'm on the side of reality, whoever can stop people from signing away their agency to the next shiny VRMMO right now. Not what they did in the past."
[X] Write-In: Community Service
-[X] "This isn't you, Argo."
-[X] "Every SAO Survivor knows about the dissonance between how they were in the game and how they are now, in real life. For most, it's physical therapy and missing years. But you? This? This isn't the Argo from SAO that the players relied on and that Laughing Coffin - I - feared. Hell, it's not even the girl who sent me a letter two months ago."
-[X] "You said this isn't about me? Or Rosalia? Justice isn't about you either, Hosaka. You dox Rosalia and what? You feel satisfied and the family just trades the name "Kayaba Akihiko" for "Hanako Akazawa" for the person they direct their anger and grief at."
-[X] "It's rich coming from me, but I think you had the better idea when it came to me. Maybe you're not satisfied with how our 'deal' worked out - I sure as hell don't know what to make of it - but that was more like the Argo I knew. You put me to work to help SAO Survivors. You can put Akazawa to work for them too."
-[X] "Far as I can tell, she's already hiring SAO Survivors who can't find work elsewhere. We don't have to debate whether that's her way of remorse or whatever, like you said, it's not about her. Instead of doxxing her, send any SAO Survivors you know who haven't been able to get on their feet and find a job yet but need one and make sure she hires them. You probably won't like it, she's not going to like it, but maybe like our twisted deal we can help some people who may not have gotten it otherwise."
[X] Write-in: World of Gray
-[X] Tell Hosaka what Akazawa told you. Confess that you feel conflicted about the entire thing.
-[X] Tell Hosaka that as much as she wants to believe it, the world can't be neatly sorted into black and white.
-[X] Try to encourage Hosaka to tackle PKers on a case by case basis; if a PKer truly doesn't express any remorse, put them through hell. Otherwise, maybe something can be worked out?
-[X] Make allusions to ETTEILA and PHILEMON without giving away anything if that will help.
-[X] In the case of Akazawa, maybe firing a proverbial 'warning shot' without completely doxing her will suffice?
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
-[X] "Hosaka. Do you remember when you asked me what our purpose was?"
-[X] "It was to save the victims of SAO. That means you, too."
-[X] "I know you feel guilty. That you feel as if the blame for the deaths of others falls upon your shoulders. I've been there."
-[X] "I can see how hard you've been pushing yourself to obtain justice. But, I don't think that's why you've really been doing this."
-[X] "You want to punish those you believe responsible and make them feel the hurt they inflicted - Punitive justice. And to obtain it, you're punishing yourself by running yourself into the ground. Don't you see that you are trying to punish yourself for a crime you did not commit?"
-[X] "I know this is bitter medicine, but it needs to be said - punitive justice is not what you, Hosaka Carina Tomo, need."
-[X] "You need restorative justice. You need to heal, and forgive yourself. For your own sake, and the sake of those you wish to help."
-[X] "We are going to save the victims to SAO. That means saving you, too."
[X] Let Hanako Akazawa go.
-- [X] "...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
-- [X] "And I'm not gonna claim the moral high ground here. I need this job. I need it to make money I need to pay to win an overhyped kusoge that's scamming obnoxious edgelords out of their money. I need the job to get back into shape so I can run around and do Kikouka's job for him."
-- [X] "I need this job to keep me solvent so I can crash every VRMMO that wants to be the next SAO. Like my work in GGO that you call 'small fry'.
-- [X] "At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. "
-- [X] And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it."
-- [X] But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
-- [X] "Sad as it is to say. Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality. She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. Without her job I wouldn't have been able to sneak into RECT to crash ALO and finish saving Kayaba's victims from Sugou."
-- [X] "If you want to look at it more altruistically you can say she's doing more to atone now than she would if you doxx here. Her entire hiring practice is built around hiring VR victims who couldn't function in society after being freed."
-- [X] "You think these people accepting responsibility will fix the problem? Because it won't. They're just a symptom of a society that is doing nothing but running away from reality. Preferring ones and zeroes they don't actually own to something more tangible, like collecting model guns or something."
-- [X] "So I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
WEDNESDAY - May 28, 2025
Evening
It is, perhaps, your one chance to connect to her.
Because you can see what she's doing right now. You see it staring back at you in the mirror every morning.
Hosaka is a boulder rolling downhill, too caught up in doing what she thinks is necessary to ever stop and consider what she should choose. Your support of Laughing Coffin was always for survival, that sick word you used to justify every sin ever committed. Too busy trying to solve your short-term problems to even begin to think of permanent solutions.
Hosaka is the same, only the thing chasing her was this... responsibility.
"...I think Akazawa is doing more to accept responsibility right now than a lot of people right now."
You sit down next to her, grabbing the discarded umbrella. It's an impossible situation, one that should never have been foisted onto Hosaka's shoulders.
She doesn't respond, burying her head into her knees.
"At the end of ALO I met Kayaba. And he made it clear that SAO was just phase one of his plans. He wants to give everyone a way to make their own SAO through the SEED. And in ALO, GGO, I've met so many people who would buy what he's selling even if they knew he was the one selling it. But if you offered Akazawa the same deal...I don't think she'd take it."
The mention of Kayaba Akihiko rouses her a little, and she turns her head to face you, the promise of juicy intelligence triggering some deep instinct in the back of her soul.
"...Ya really bringing up Kayaba now?" she asks, incredulously.
"Yeah. I am. I just want to tell you that he's still out there, still plotting. All I know is that the SEED is involved, which is why I'm investigating GGO. Because I want to move on from SAO— it's all I really want. I think Akazawa is the same. And I think you should do the same, Hosaka. You don't have to be... Argo the Rat anymore."
The two of you sit there in silence for a while, listening to the rhythmic pitter patter of rain against your umbrella.
"Gopher-chan. I don't know much about Kayaba Akihiko's current whereabouts, nobody does. If he talked to ya in ALO, well, just another problem to add to the pile. But I know somethin' you don't. I know... knew... Heathcliff." Her voice is flat, but what she says can't help but make you jolt. Kayaba Akihiko's avatar, one he used to pull strings in the flesh.
"Hell of a raid leader, but a piss poor guildmaster. Asuna did all the work keepin' the Knights of the Blood a functional unit. See with Heathcliff it was all about the scales— risks and benefits, rational risk takin', the greater good. That's just the sorta' guy he was. Outside of floor bosses and PKers' ya know what really gets high-levels killed?"
She looks at you, finally lifting her head. "It's rescues. Some stupid player stumbles onto a new dungeon and gets trapped in, uses some messagin' item to call out for help. And invariably? People go. And they die. Seen it happen time and again, chargin' in with no information to an early grave. But the Knights of Blood? They were different. Heathcliff was different. Didn't think the guy had a charitable bone in his body. A cold and malignant fuckin' calculator."
She exhales.
"But while other guilds kept bleeding lives the Knights of Blood kept growin'. No dumb risks, no heroics and no stupid deaths. If you bled it was in service of reachin' or clearin' the boss. Most of the good guilds? They'd walk through fire to save a downed player. But Heathcliff? He made sure you'll never have to. That's just the kind of guy he was. All about optimizin' and protectin' assets— startin' to sound familiar?"
She's not trying to antagonize you, per se. It's an acknowledgment from her to you that she thinks you're operating in good faith. But the comparison to Kayaba is scathing. And there's a note of bitterness to her voice that hints at her dissatisfaction.
"Akazawa is someone who has actual value in reality," you argue. "She isn't locking people up in her mad power fantasies to feel special. She isn't wasting away her life in an Amusphere to pretend that she's important. She's contributing to the world. The hypothetical opinion of Kayaba has no bearing on this."
Hosaka takes a second to herself to mull over your words.
"...ya know, gopher-chan, you've got a real utilitarian bent when it's not ya skin on the line. Not like I can't see where you're comin from'. It's a convenient thought, isn't it? That you can wash away blood with good deeds. That if the scale's balanced and life's winnin' then everythin's okay."
Hosaka is re-energized. She rises from the gutter and starts shaking off the mud from her raincoat, forcing you to shield yourself with your umbrella as the rain spatters in your face. "Ya know what? I don't disagree in principle. So that's it then, Rosalia is doin' some community service?"
"I think Titan's Mover represents more good for the world than bad. Because it helps people live in reality. It stops people from becoming the next Laughing Coffin."
"Preventing the next Laughing Coffin eh...? Heh... hahaha...." She chuckles to herself. It starts off as just breathy laughter, and it becomes full-on giggles.
"What are you so amused about?"
"Hahahaha...it's just... sometimes it's hard to remember... but then ya say something like that and it reminds me you're nothin' but a coffin in the end." Hosaka's laughter doesn't stop, and she speaks between gulps of air. "Just, hah... ironic! Hahaha... cause y-you... you really have no idea do you? Gopher-chan, you want to talk about the scales? The greater good? Preventing the next Laughing Coffin?"
She points a finger towards you, playfulness dying from her features as her speech begins to slow and her words gain weight, rising higher in intensity and anger.
"Cause you... you have no fuckin' clue what you're talkin' about. Screw VR Psychosis, screw whatever Kayaba may or may not be doing. How's this for a counterweight? Depression? PTSD? Suicide? Human suffering? You think the next Laughing Coffin is gonna come from the SAO Survivors?"
"W-what are you-"
Hosaka's rant is building up, something she's been wanting to say for a while. "You think only 4000 people died in SAO!? Ya wanna know what's on the other side of those scales? Lives frozen in time. Lost souls. Lonely, confused and hurting people! Lives that cannot move on because of the lies we perpetuate! Cause that's what you're doin'. By protectin' scum like Rosalia you are lyin' to the true victims. But sure, whatever. You've got your side of the scales and I've got my own. Hell, I'll even humor you. We'll set aside Rosalia for now."
It's the same as always. No matter what you and Hosaka just cannot get along. "You're not going to let this go, are you? Are you going to keep hounding the SAO survivors!?"
Hosaka starts walking. "Gopher-chan. Everybody believes they're serving the greater good. Ya aren't unique. Let Rosalia go cause she's helping people. Tally up the good and bad on your cosmic balance sheet. It sounds so simple, just a little lie for the sake of everybody's convenience."
Hosaka is walking away, and you call out to her receding form, "Hosaka, wait!"
"Save it gopher-chan. I'll leave little Rosalia alone, but since you seem to be so concerned with the good of the world, why don't and ya go take a walk on my side of the scales next time eh? If you're not chicken to stare your hypocrisy in the face."
She turns her head ever so slightly, just to let you see the derisive smile playing across her lips as she walks out of the alley.
"Oh, one last thing. Ya little argument— I've heard it before. You should watch TV sometimes, cause with every new invention from the SEED, every new game from the Amusphere, every grand VR revolution, it just chips away at Kayaba Akihiko's supposed guilt. So? How many lives does Kayaba need to save before you'll forgive him too?"
THURSDAY - 204 CYCLES POST STARFALL
1600 Glocken Standard Time
"Wow. Argo's a real dickweed. Lu— Kuro, god that's confusing, you should just ignore her. You've already got like, what, a dozen different Personas now? Screw her."
The advice, well-meaning as it is, has an entirely different effect when it's coming from the howling winds of the desert's infinite dust storm.
"I need all the help I can get! Argo is useful, even if she's unpleasant!" you call out into the winds, huddling yourself into as small a form as possible while you run full tilt through the empty sands.
"Boo. You've already got the best help in the world!"
Another gust of wind kicks up, and you spin on a dime, the X-Calibur blazing an ethereal beam in the direction you hear the voice. But the only response you get is your own wince as a bullet smashes into your hip, causing you to dive down behind a nearby dune. You fiddle through your arsenal of weapons, choosing a pistol that you blind fire from behind cover, hoping to expose your opponent for even a second.
"Sorry, you're like... half a barn away? C'mon, I'm not even trying that hard to hide!"
Dammit. The NerveGear was supposed to give you increased awareness, but you're trying to track a single player in a goddamn sandstorm! You weren't superhuman!
"Rosalia says hi!" you shout out, focusing deeply on your hearing and other senses. Now where was she...
"Oh? That's a blast from the past."
To the left? No, she was moving when she said that. Urgh, you can't track her! The best bet is to wait for her to take another shot and counterattack, you know that you can take more punishment than her, it's simply a matter of exploiting that difference in durability.
"Is this your idea of roleplaying a ninja? Cause it's kinda unfair!" you call out, pulling out the laser magnum. You get one shot at this, you have to counter at the moment of the attack...
"Let's just say I like cheating."
You jump. The voice was whispered straight into your ear, the feeling of air blowing into your ear canal causing an electric shiver to run up your spine. You grip the pistol and whirl around just to meet—
"Bang! And you're dead~!"
...
You collapse to your knees in mock agony, leaving Gwen grinning silly as she crows her victory to the empty desert. "Four to zero! We haven't dueled since SAO so I forgot how much you sucked at this!"
"Quiet... it's so unfair..." you say, immediately regretting the sheer hypocrisy of your complaint. You lift your head only to find nothing more than empty desert, Gwen once again nowhere to be seen. "And can you stop doing that? It's getting annoying!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, is me being permanently invisible giving you some trouble Kuro?" a voice calls out from behind you, and this time you're too tired to turn around and give her the satisfaction of being surprised.
"Shut up. I've got like... five Personas that can counter that," you grumble, but you can't exactly blame Gwen for calling you out. You asked for a duel without Personas, trying to gauge the mechanics of proper GGO combat, only to run headlong into Gwen's blindingly unfair «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle». Just because you didn't have ¥300,000 to drop on a video game item doesn't mean Gwen didn't...
With a distortion effect that you've started to become immensely familiar with, she pops back into existence with a hearty weave. She's much chipper than the last time you saw her, and you're glad to see that the retail therapy has done her some good, even if it's completely ruining the point of your sparring session.
When you called earlier and asked Gwen what kind of build she decided on, she told you she wanted to surprise you.
Then you learned she dropped like ¥200,000 to buy out an account with her exact appearance specifications— blonde hair, pink eyes, and a small enough stature to not cause significant VR nonconformity with her real-life body. Unlike ALO she didn't bother with the pigtails, something about how they clashed with GGO's style. When you saw what she was wearing you were flattered— a black cloak, clearly patterned after your own, worn on top of some kind of tactical ninja garb, you thought she was just trying to match! Like a team uniform!
And then she turned invisible and threw a knife at your head.
"Kuro, I don't really get your logic. You've got like... 6 guns? Why buy so many when you could instead be saving up to become permanently invisible?"
"I had short-term goals—"
"Permanently Invisible!"
It's readily apparent to you that becoming invisible was some kind of deep-seated fantasy of Gwen's. And you don't mean that in a metaphorical sense, Gwen just apparently found ninjas really cool.
But still... permanently invisible... that has a nice ring to it.
"Can I try it?"
"Nope! Sorry, it's account locked," Gwen says, flashing in and out of visibility like some kind of sci-fi strobe light.
"Can't you buy—"
In lieu of actually showing any embarrassment she just goes invisible again. Another unlisted perk of being permanently invisible. "Ehehe, about that... my butler found out I dropped half a million on this game and uh... looks like I've been cut off..."
You cross your arms at that. "We could've at least coordinated builds!"
"Wha? My build is being permanently invisible! How do you even win against something like this? This is obviously the optimal strategy! With me on your side, the bad guys will never see me coming, literally!"
"Which means all the bullets will be headed my way," you glibly point out. From how Gwen explains it she had to invest heavily in INT, typically a dump stat in GGO, just to be able to equip the item. It limited her offensive options but that was the price one pays to become permanently invisible. Between Lugh and Gwen, you just had to roll up the slow-moving VIT-focused tank build.
You take a second to take stock of the weapons you have available. GGO was a world that resisted Personas, and it was only by tying your powers to firearms that you were able to call them upon. When you focus you can make out hazy shapes cloaking your body, but if XeXeeD's fight was any indication your opponents saw no direct invocation of the Persona.
It raises more questions about the nature of the Persona. For all its mysteries the inalienable truth was that it could only manifest in a virtual space— and only in a matter permitted by the logic of the world. As far as magic powers went, it was surprisingly pedestrian.
"Hey, Gwen. Are you still able to call on Daji?"
Gwen blinks back into existence. Her previous good mood has soured somewhat at the reminder of her Persona. You're not sure how she feels about the power, given the baggage associated with it. Outside of Sugou you and Gwen were the only users of the strange power and you've noticed that despite the surface-level similarities the ways your power manifested were quite distinct.
"...This will be the first time calling upon her since... Sugou." Gwen mumbles, lying on the sand next to you.
Unlike you, who cycled through Personas like napkins, Gwen was stuck with her first pick of a Persona. Or rather, had it forced on her. Daji was strong, flexible, and more importantly it was... Gwen. A villain, a notorious monster who used her beauty to slake her boundless hunger for power and flesh— someone who would never be controlled, would never fall in love, and would never pine after the affection of an uncaring master. Daji was the Persona Gwen needed to fight OBERON, a source of strength and defiance when she needed her.
But now that OBERON was well and truly defeated... what did that leave?
"I've been thinking about my Persona. My... other self." Gwen says, almost absentmindedly as she thinks about the experience. "You've mentioned that... ghost mask guy a few times to me, your patron god thingy? It makes sense that the Personas you're calling are gifted to you— I don't know if you've noticed but every time you call one on you... change. Something other is entering you. It's like you become possessed or something."
And here Gwen lays out her theory as you listen intently. A power you've depended on for so long and yet you know very little of it.
"But when I call upon Daji I don't feel any different. It's not her words filling me, there's not a voice screaming out at me from the heavens or a spirit animating my soul. When I call on Daji I just simply am her. Like... another self. Like I know she'll always be there, and that no one will be able to take that away from me. Daji is me, and I am her."
Gwen takes a breath and finally shoots you a meaningful look.
"Don't take this the wrong way Kuro, it's just a theory. But you can't summon your Persona without a NerveGear, and you've got all these voices talking to you in your head, right? So I think... outside of the name, our powers might be fundamentally different. That what I have is a Persona and what you have... something else."
Something broken. Something that arises... outside of yourself.
You pull out your cheap Procyon optical pistol, looking virtually identical to a toy light gun. With a brief pulse of effort, you infuse Undine into the frame of the weapon, feeling your soul settle around you like a cloak of water.
If there was any Persona you could point to as yours it was this one. Yet you still needed a gun, you were still dependent on the NerveGear—still dependent on outside forces.
Was the Persona your power? Or simply a borrowed one?
"I don't know what this is, Gwen. But it's useful to me. I can't afford to not use it."
Gwen hums her acknowledgment, "No, I get it. If anything I'm jealous— not only are your Personas strong, but it also means you can just use them like masks. Having a Persona change, gaining a new Persona, that doesn't truly change who you are. Your Personas are a mirror of the world, not of yourself..."
She hugs herself, closing her eyes, "After everything, after OBERON... I can feel it you know? Daji is me and I am Daji. And she's... different. Changed. I've changed. Not much but... enough. And I'm scared to see what that means..."
You banish Undine, letting the power coalesce back into your mental domain. "Change isn't a bad thing. Sometimes it's even... necessary."
"Yeah. I won, Kuro. I challenged OBERON and he could not break me. He has no more hold on me anymore, I am over him," she says quietly, almost to herself. "It's what I keep telling myself. That I don't care what happens to OBERON, he was just a villain to be blasted through, just..."
The Persona is a reflection of the self. The fact that Daji changed in the wake of OBERON's defeat means that despite her wishes to the contrary, OBERON was still important to her. The simple memory of his defeat was enough to drive her growth. It matters not that Gwen overcame OBERON. What matters is that it was because of OBERON that her Persona is changing.
Daji would not even permit Gwen to hide that fact from herself.
"A Persona is... your very self..." you say, half to yourself and half to Gwen. "But we should never turn away from ourselves... no matter what we see in the reflection."
Gwen exhales for a long second, "Yeah. I guess it's time to rip off the bandage. Sugou was just a symptom, we've still got to nail the true mastermind."
A brilliant blue light encompasses Gwen. She doesn't direct it through her weapons or cloak, rather the power builds up around her, enveloping her in a shining aura no different than that of ALO.
"C'mon out Daji. The feast isn't over yet. System call..."
Gwen
World of Origin: Aincrad
Current World: Post Starfall
Race: Human
Persona: Daji (DEVIL Arcana)
Derived Statistics (how the quest calculates success and failure)
HP: 14/14
SP: 10/10
STR: Rank B (4 Dice)
MAG: Rank D (2 Dice)
AGI: Rank B (4 Dice)
VIT: Rank D (2 Dice)
CHT: Rank C + 2 (5 Dice)
Weak: Slash, Elec, Ice
Resist: Wind, Fire
Equipment Passives:
[Refraction 1]: Reduces damage from OPTICAL weapons and MAGIC by 1.
[Optical Camo]: The wearer is invisible. You can never be denied your AGI dice, provided you are not narratively immobilized. Your location will not be marked on the BULLET LINE (ie, enemy has to guess where you are, though enemies can begin to intuit your location once you start attacking).
CHT +2 when active.
[Fragile]: If your weakness is struck, your Mantle breaks and you must spend 1 TURN repairing it.
Actions:
Ballistic Knife [MELEE/SLASH]
Accuracy: 3 + STR
Range: [X][X][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
[Surprise!]: If an enemy is unaware of this knife's gimmick, and you are not in MELEE range, make an attack with ADVANTAGE!
Devour [MELEE/BLUNT] [1 SP]
Accuracy: 3 + STR
Range: [X][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
Blunt melee strike that heals based on damage done.
Distract!
Gwen can abuse her invisibility to taunt and disorient the enemy, or throw small objects as a distraction.
Narratively you can 'distract' foes, providing circumstantial -2 bonuses to enemy accuracy.
ENHANCE ARMAMENT Thus being stripped and chained fully against a burning pillar, a single
deathly scream rang against the royal halls as Mei Bo's flesh and bones were
turned to ashes.
Bronze Toaster [MELEE/BLUNT/FIRE] [5 SP]
Accuracy: 6 + STR
Range: [X][X][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
[Shatter]: Enemy develops a one-time weakness to BLUNT.
[Visible]: Lose [Optical Camo] passive until your next turn.
[ ] Remember your RESISTANCE.
>VIT + 1
>Gain Null Charm >Gain 2 Skills!
Patra: Remove all mind-altering status ailments on an ally you can move towards. [2 SP]
RELEASE RECOLLECTION: With the pit being essentially filled completely with snakes following the
passage of five days, Daji told the king that the maidens should be stripped
completely before being thrown alive into the pit to be devoured.
Snake Pit: Attempts to inflict POISON on all enemies, attempts to remove enemy ARMOR and attempts to remove enemy OPTICAL BARRIER. Gwen rolls CHT once, and each opponent rolls three times to resist each effect individually. [5 SP]
[Visible]: Lose [Optical Camo] passive until your next turn.
THURSDAY - 204 CYCLES POST STARFALL
1800 Glocken Standard Time
It's getting late. In the world of GGO, the fallout-tainted sun even at its brightest could do little more than paint the world a hazy orange, and even that is starting to recede into the horizon. But as with most MMOs, when the world went to bed, the gamers went online.
The chatter was constant and enthusiastic. Raucous with the occasional punctuation of a six-cylinder salute. You're sitting on a bench, munching on ice cream floating in an ocean of chocolate sauce, a delectable virtual treat that makes about as much sense in a post-apocalyptic hellscape as an ocean on Mars.
Your honest opinion of GGO's worldbuilding? It was that nobody cared.
In ALO every fruit had some weird fictional names and even in-universe groves where they were sourced from. GGO sold pineapples because people liked shooting fruit.
In ALO the respawning «Beast Gods» had a lore and purpose for being in Jotunheim. GGO has 30 palette swaps of the same robot scorpion.
In ALO every weapon has a blacksmith or history attached to it. GGO gave you a gun with a keyboard glued on it.
You've even looked into the lore of GGO on the internet. You were playing as humans returning to a blasted Earth thousands of years after an apocalyptic event caused by a world war. It was two paragraphs of flavor text on the ZASKAR website— and that's pretty much the entirety of GGO's lore. No books, no history, not an audio log in sight. Not even an explanation of how a spaceship ended up as the hub town. You'll be shocked if the SBC Flügel's backstory turns out to be more complicated than 'ZASKAR likes android girls'.
"Ah, hello?"
Was someone calling out to you? You glance above your ice cream sundae— still cold through the magic of VR— and see no-one. You've gotten a bit used to being recognized, even had a few people wave to you as you were walking around town. Gwen had to log out to go to her lessons, leaving you with little to do but wait for your contact to show up.
"Hey! Hey, over here!"
Another voice. One you can't pinpoint. You were a bit anxious about messaging Karen, but the idea of getting a... normal GGO experience was a good place to start your investigation. Your relationship was barely past acquaintance, but the simple fact that you knew her name made her a safer bet in your eyes— safer than asking XeXeeD or Itsuki. The guy hunted you down in town— twice just today— to ask to go hunting. At this rate, it might be faster to just start from scratch...
"Yaaaah!"
Ow! Something solid smacks into your shin, and you release your grip on the sundae out of sheer surprise. The confection goes sailing through the air, where it finds its final resting place: on the head of a small girl, shouting up at you from beneath a pink beret.
Your jaw hangs open. Years of ingrained manners knock your mouth into autopilot mode. "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking! I just didn't see you and..."
"O-oh! Hehe, it's alright, I'm super hard to see 'cause I'm just—" The girl is starting to blush and giggle to herself, and you start to realize what she's dressed in: pink, head to toe. It's almost painful to look at, the solid wall of color broken up by specs of ice cream on her hat."—So tiny and adorable!"
You suppress your initial response, equal odds this was some Lugh situation where the girl before you was much older than she seemed. But she's dressed in all pink which means she has to be a kid— no adult would be caught dead in that sort of thing. Right?
"Are you okay? Uh, are you sure you should be playing this game?" You vaguely recall skipping past a Terms of Service with an age restriction.
"Hmph. You kept ignoring me!" The girl puffs out her cheeks like a ball of mochi, and you find yourself clasping your hands together to keep from pinching her. "Even after you invited me!"
"Wait," you say, as understanding finally dawns on you....
"Karen!?"
THURSDAY - 204 CYCLES POST STARFALL
1900 Glocken Standard Time
"Rule number 1! No doxxing, no real names! It's very rude!"
Karen, or rather LLENN, points a finger in your face. Considering the sheer difference in heights she has to stand on her tiptoes to issue the proclamation. She's dragged you to «Solitary Sands» to give you what she calls an 'impromptu tutorial' into the basics of GGO, and mentioned introducing you to a friend of hers. So far it's mostly rephrasing what you learned in the tutorial.
"Rule number 5! Don't depend on the Bullet Line! It only appears if you're aiming down sights or holding your finger on the trigger. In close quarters you can get a shot or two off without getting any warning!"
You nod, watching the small girl march through the sands alongside you. Despite having the stubbiest legs imaginable, she still manages to keep in step— you're rather getting the sense that she's slowing down for you.
"Rule number 6! It's always faster to reach for a sidearm than to re—"
You cough, interrupting her latest lecture. "Er... Kar—LLENN. How are you moving in that avatar? What about VR nonconformity?"
From the way she interacts with Shizuka, you suspect Karen is jealous of her classmate's petite physique— especially when Karen stands out so much in the crowd. It doesn't strike you as odd that someone may want to inhabit a different body in VR. But this was ridiculous. She's like half her original size!
LLENN just turns around, walking backward at the same speed you were walking forward, and gives you a big double thumbs up. "VR Nonconformity? What are you talking about? My soul is only 120cm tall!"
There's no rational response to that statement so you just nod quickly to end this line of inquiry.
She starts to pick up the pace, causing you to have to jog a bit to keep up. "Say, LLENN, how long have you been playing?"
The girl in pink pauses for a moment, thinking. "Uh... I started a few weeks after launch?"
Did that make her a high-level player like XeXeeD? "How was it at the start?"
"Hmm, nothing special? I don't play in the tournaments, I'm just here to have fun and go fast!" She's walking a bit more slowly now, letting you match her pace.
Fun. A strange thing to hear, considering how Shino treated GGO. You strongly doubt your neighbor logged in day after day to have fun. "So... have you noticed anyone acting odd in GGO?" you ask, trying to be circumspect.
She tilts her head in thought. "Odd... how? I know a guy who likes being whipped."
Okay, maybe you need to be more specific. "Well, someone acting a bit out of character? Treating GGO like... reality?"
Her nose wrinkles a bit. "Like VR Psychosis and all that scary ALO stuff? Nah, that kind of stuff isn't in GGO. I mean, I hear about a few cases here and there, but nobody I really know..." You sense her hesitate. She's not trying to deceive you, but she's just unsure about something.
"But you don't have to worry about that Kuro, you're just starting! Take it from me, you'll have a lot more fun just playing around GGO and avoiding all that high-stakes tournament stuff! I played in one and now I've got strangers asking me to sign their glocks! And the only thing I won was some dumb light novel boxset!"
You get the general gist of LLENN's situation as you walk through the sands. She's not a household name like XeXeeD nor does she even approach the sheer notoriety of『 』. She won a minor tournament called «Squad Jam» which focuses on team play — giving her a minimum of name recognition. From what you hear GGO has dozens of different tournaments all with different rulesets. If you have a decent chunk of cash you can just email ZASKAR and set up a tournament of your own, no questions asked. There were already a few notable examples you've caught peripheral discussion about.
«Counter Shrike» which sets all players to a default stat near-human stat spread and a standard weapon list.
«BJOOM!» which was a battle royale tournament fought solely with grenades.
«Squad Jam» which was recently delisted after the funder pulled out of the 2nd Squad Jam.
And of course the crown jewel of all the tournaments.
The «Bullet of Bullets».
"So LLENN... where are you taking me?" you say, suddenly conscious of just how far away you are from town. GGO had a similar draconian drop system as ALO, so long as you weren't in a protected zone, every piece of equipment was subject to dropping on death. LLENN wants to introduce you to her friend, which might just be a euphemism for getting mugged out in the desert.
"Don't worry, we're not going very far! There's a good PKing spot just up ahead..."
The word stops you dead in your tracks. "PK...?"
LLENN hops onto a large rock, looking around. "Yeah! This is the spot, there's this worm monster with a lot of health that spawns around here. It drops a core crafting material. Good, there's no one around..."
You... don't like the sound of that.
In less than a second, a strange compact rifle materializes in her hands— painted the same pink shade of her clothing, so that the metal and the polymer all seem to have one big coat of paint slapped on them.
"Are we hunting the worm?" you ask, despite knowing the answer to your own question.
LLENN just chambers a round and gives you a smile that looks all the more evil because of how doll-like her avatar is. "Kuro, don't be silly! You're playing GGO now!"
She leans against the rock, tipping her head towards you. The muzzle of her rifle follows the line of sight, and she grins, the red light of the bullet line saturating your face in bloody hues.
Your eyes dilate and you immediately backpedal, hand reaching behind you for your pistol— a pressure builds in your mind and you feel a Persona settle around your weapon...
Only to hear a click as a pistol is pressed into the back of your head. A new voice joins that of LLENN, low, smooth, and filled with the bloody anticipation of violence.
"Rule Number 7! GGO is a game where you kill to get what you want!"
THURSDAY - 204 CYCLES POST STARFALL
1930 Glocken Standard Time
You know where you made your first mistake.
It was assuming that just because you knew someone IRL, it meant they would behave the same way online.
The second mistake?
It was not insisting on having your permanently invisible teammate guard you on this excursion.
"Oh, the look on your face! Haha, you really are a newbie! XeXeeD got his ass handed to him by you?"
"Pito... you should be nicer..."
LLENN admonishes her friend, despite being in your eyes the main culprit behind this disaster. You've been surrounded— LLENN perched atop the boulder, and the newcomer, Pitohui, behind you, forcing you to remain between the two.
Your various weapons are spread out on the desert floor, the strange woman in front of you laughing as she takes potshots with your X-Calibur at some nearby crabs.
The two are an exercise in opposites, where LLENN is cute and bubbly, Pitohui is tall and intense, with a sort of build that reminds you of an athlete. But appearances aside you know without a shadow of a doubt that they're two peas in a pod.
"Pito! I want to try it next, stop hogging it!" LLENN complains, failing to hide her excitement at your keyboard rifle. "It looks so cute!"
You're sitting down on the desert sands, wondering how you got here. As LLENN explains it, her friend was familiar with your exploits against XeXeeD and wanted to meet you— the whole ambush was just her way of giving you a patented GGO greeting. Of course, you couldn't refuse their 'invitation' at gunpoint.
"Don't you worry, Kuro-chan! I don't kill on first dates!" says Pitohui, laughing as she finally finishes off the last of the crabs in the area with your weapon. She's dressed in a form-fitting black wetsuit, her lean body accented by twin tattoos of thorns along her cheeks. Her short long hair, tied back in a ponytail, gives you the distinct impression of a mercenary from a bad anime.
The two girls were long-time online friends, with a degree of casualness between them that only comes from familiarity. You were the outsider here, and despite technically sparing you, the brief scare was enough to get your heart pounding.
"You've gotten rather popular in your short amount of time here, Kuro. Already making a name for yourself— I like it! Say, wanna team up sometime? You can judge someone's character by their taste in guns, and you've got some sexy pieces. Especially this one..."
Pitohui brandishes your keyboard rifle. "Never even seen anything like it, and I make it my business to know every single gun they release. Is it some kinda of custom piece? You don't strike me as a DEX Build though..."
"I glitched out in character gen. The gun came with it," you explain. You're strongly considering having it tattooed to your forehead, considering how often you have to explain that complication.
"Ooooh! The whole ArFa thing? Ah, I couldn't log in when that event was released so I missed all the fun! I want a cute little android girl to take care of! I'll name her Pochi-chan! How about it Kuro? You wanna be my Pochi-chan?"
LLENN's in the background making a giant X with her arms, waving at you frantically to turn down the offer.
"Ah... no thank you?"
Pitohui pouts, clearly disappointed. "A shame. I'm bored with my pet already..."
"So uh, why are we here?"
LLENN and Pitohui look at each other, before nodding. You sense that some sort of signal has been communicated between the two, and you don't like it. "Well... there's so few girls playing in GGO, and LLENN-chan says you know each other IRL. Any friend of LLENN is a friend of mine, and no friend of mine is going to be playing this game with a subpar build! We're here to get you geared up!"
The so-called build. It was the same issue XeXeeD raised when you met. Picking a build in GGO was treated with the same weight as choosing a race in ALO, a fundamental choice that shaped your playstyle and fighting potential.
"Go full AGI!" LLENN offers. "It's great, you can just dance around the enemy and when their guard is down go like hiiii yah!" She punches at the air, demonstrating a combo that would make a karate expert wince in embarrassment.
Pitohui on the other hand seems to have a completely different mindset. "Eh, the problem with full AGI is if you're not a freak like LLENN-chan here it's really hard to control. The movement can throw off your aim, not to mention running fast doesn't make you a smaller target. You can't outrun a bullet. I like a nice clean balance so I can use as many guns as I want! Hard to specialize but I'm never locked out of a new weapon by some dumb stat pre-requisite."
"Pito's just a jack of all guns and a master of none! That's no fun, you gotta go all in!"
"Yeah, yeah, you cheating little midget. Not everyone can be so lucky. Anyways just warning you to not throw all your numbers around randomly, you get me? But don't just copy paste some dumb crap you find on XeXeeD's guides, you gotta find what speaks to you! Like, what do you enjoy shooting?"
"Um... I kinda like... the lasers?" Your avatar seems more drawn to the more sci-fi weapons, but it seems a flimsy concept to center a build around.
"Ah... you know, it's a sexy gun and all that but I'm just not feeling it..." Pitohu complains, fiddling with your optical weapons. "There's no feedback, no kick!"
"I don't consider that a bad thing," you say, brusquely retrieving your main weapon. "I mean, it's a gun with no recoil and it even reloads itself. What's not to love?"
Pitohui spins around, grinning ear to ear. "No, that's the problem! It feels like waving a wand or something— without that boom... that satisfaction... I don't feel like I'm really killing something."
"If it works, what's the problem? I mean... who doesn't like lasers?"
The intense woman nods along, laughing to herself. "No, no I get it! I love all guns, the big ones, the small ones, even the fake ones! Lasers have got more personality than all the meta-slave assault rifles! Ah, but there's just something so timeless about a good rattle rattle..."
Pitohui leans forward though, as if telling you a secret. In the background you see LLENN roll her eyes. "But if you're a true connoisseur of the arts... I've got something that I know you're gonna love..." you feel her press something heavy into your hand.
You give Pitohui the side eye, taking the offered sidearm. You note LLENN casually drinking from her thermos bottle, looking every bit like a grade school girl enjoying a picnic. "Kuro, be careful. Pito loves getting people to fire that gun..." LLENN warns, looking like she's expecting some kind of show.
"C'mon, don't spoil the surprise! Well? Consider it as thanks for letting me try your keyboard rifle~! Trust me there's nothing like firing this weapon."
You glance down at the weapon you're holding in your hands.
It's... wow.
It's beautiful.
A pearlescent grip feeds into a silver frame so polished you can see your face in it, the entire surface glistening with a prismatic shine. Just holding it makes you tremble— this wasn't a simple pistol. This was luxury.
You want this gun.
"Ah, you get it Kuro, the beauty of this gun! The one-of-a-kind Cosmo Dragoon, the jewel of my collection!" Pitohui sings behind you but you have little time for her shenanigans.
It's not just you, all your Personas are almost clamoring over themselves in your head to be allowed to manifest through this work of art. You're not foolish enough to show your cards this early, but the gun was just so... pretty...
You hold it out before you, carefully adjusting your stance. You pull back on the hammer, itself more of a rod than a lever, and hold the weapon up in front of your eye. You glance towards Pitohui, but she just grinning. She's expecting something to happen. "One shot. I promise it's indescribable."
Well, you've gone this far.
"Go for it, Kuro!" LLENN yells, having finished her snack. "Grit your teeth and go for it!"
Just holding it, you can sense the weight of this pistol— you take careful aim at a small cactus on the horizon.
You pull the trigger.
And you go flying.
The recoil hits you like a truck, lifting you off your feet in a fraction of a second. You feel like your shoulder has dislocated, and you are launched backward several meters, skidding against the sand. You come to rest on your back, staring at the sky as you hold onto the weapon, dazed, looking up at the face of LLENN who gives you an embarrassed wave. "Sorry, Pito loves showing that one off. When I fired it I went airborne!"
Pitohui walks over you, grinning as she looks down. "See? That's a real gun right there."
You pull yourself to a sitting position, wincing at the numbness in your arm. It feels like it's just been rung like a gong— you're sure that if you were in a human body you would've broken something.
"I want another shot." It's the first thing out of your mouth. You can't just fire this gun once.
Pitohui raises an eyebrow, before smiling widely, "Oh, a kindred spirit~! Alright, go nuts!"
This time you're ready. You surrender to the urge of your Persona, calling forth Putana to hold the gun steady in your hand. If Pitohui and LLENN notice anything they don't mention it— you weren't intending on invoking any abilities, just borrowing the strength of your Persona to hold onto the gun.
You aim at a nearby rock and fire.
The gun roars as a pulse of coherent force blasts out in a flash of light that overwhelms your vision. It strikes the boulder, turning the whole thing into nothing more than a pile of slag and pebbles— the light continues on ever farther, leaving a trail of glass stretching far into the desert.
"Haha!" Pitohui cackles, throwing her arm around you, "A true warrior's pistol! How's the real deal feel?"
It feels good. "Where can I buy one?"
"Haha, that's a silly question." Pitohui leans close, whispering into your ear as she retrieves her prize. "This is GGO sweetie. If you want something you've got to take it~♪"
...
"Pito! Quiet, they're here! Kuro, get behind that rock!"
You snap out of your trance and quickly crouch behind a convenient boulder, your hand still wrapped around Pitohui's weapon. The older girl whoops and materializes the most heavily modified assault rifle you've ever seen, leaning out behind cover to get a look at the situation.
LLENN was crouched next to you, holding up the gun Pitohui helpfully informed you was a P90 SMG. Now that you're closer you realize between the orange sun and the maroon sands LLENN's pink outfit seems to blend right in, while you feel very much like a giant black target.
"Crap, they're all spread out, and that one in the back has an HMG." LLENN sighs. "If we charge they'll shred us..."
Pitohui whistles. "Let the worm wear them down first, we got better odds if we go during the harvest. Think you can bumrush the heavy and get him to waste some bullets on you?"
You look out yourself and see the sand worms Pitohui was talking about— and the half dozen group of hunters currently blasting the giant creature. "Hold on, you want me to partake in Player Killing!?"
"Well, what were you expecting to do in this game, play house?" Pitohui looks at you in open confusion. "You want credits, weapons and cool stuff right? This is the way you get it in GGO."
"Like, PvE or tournaments, things like that! I don't want to kill people!" you say through gritted teeth, lest you draw the attention of the worm hunters.
LLENN looks back at you in surprise. "Uh, it's just a game, Kuro. Kill or be killed, no hard feelings!"
Pitohui nods at this. "Exactly. You can do whatever you want here! So let yourself go! Besides, it's so much more fun than spending 10 hours a day killing robot bugs in a dungeon."
You messaged LLENN wanting to get a sense of the normal GGO play experience. And in a way, that's exactly what you got— just in a much more violent package than you were expecting.
It still hasn't hit you. This didn't feel like the PKing that you knew.
In SAO every PK attempt was organized and prepared. You would spend days stalking a potential target, communicating with spies, and trying to understand the target's habits and quirks. Every SAO player past the starter floors knew that the most important tool in their arsenal was paranoia. Getting someone to travel alone was a near impossibility, and everyone had escape items and emergency crystals practically embedded in their flesh.
For every successful PK attempt, there were a dozen rejected out of hand because they were judged to be simply too risky.
It's not just... casually setting up a half-assed trap next to a monster and hoping for the best.
This... this is different from SAO. This is harmless, this is just... a game... right?
Pitohui and LLENN finger their weapons, glancing out over the dunes as the battle between the giant worm and the hunters continues.
"Kuro just pick off the stragglers, leave the heavy to LLENN. Now, ready? On the count of three." Pitohui begins, staring intensely at the machine gunner in the group. "One..."
LLENN nods. "I'm ready!"
GGO is a game where you have to kill to get what you want. It's a game about showing your strength to your foes. This is what GGO expects out of you— the core of its fantasy.
"Two..."
You are here to investigate GGO, and that means you need power. Killing these strangers... would do little more than annoy them. This was safe. You are doing nothing wrong.
This is not SAO.
You take a deep breath, your heart hammering in your chest as your finger finds the trigger of Pitohui's weapon, muttering the line to yourself over and over again.
"Three!"
[ ] Stay Behind.
>Cower behind the rock and let the ambush happen.
>Gain nothing of value.
>Affects LLENN and Pitohui's disposition of you.
[ ] Sabotage the Raid. >Fire your gun into the air and completely botch the ambush.
>You'll feel pretty good about it.
>Gain nothing of value.
>Affects LLENN and Pitohui's disposition of you.
[ ] Engage in Player Killing.
>Do your part and slaughter the hunting party.
>Stress increases by 1 Point.
>Gain ¥15000 in assorted monster drops
>Roll for MISTCOIN drop
>33% chance of gaining a heavy machine gun drop. >Affects LLENN and Pitohui's disposition of you.
[ ] Engage in... Player Killer Killing? [10 DETERMINATION] >Vaporize LLENN and Pitohui with the Cosmo Dragoon.
>Roll for MISTCOIN drop twice.
>33% chance of gaining LLENN's P90 SMG -P-Chan II-.
>100% chance of gaining Pitohui's Cosmo Dragoon -Maetal- >Affects LLENN and Pitohui's disposition of you.
[ ] Write-In
AN: Gwen's Upgrade Path and your response to LLENN's welcoming party are two separate votes.
So no need for a PLAN format.
Yeah, unfortunately for Kuro that this may just hit to close to home in a way (I guess the ambush and nature of the act in this case), but GGO is not SAO since in normal circunstances the most you are taking away from your victims are their time and money. Also, is not like we haven't killed any player before, shoutout to the Seven concert.
