[X] If they are water striders, then how they interact with the water should be important for their footing. Longsword users take front and attack with Verticals and Diagonals, if they dodge you'd churn the water and sink them, if you hit...you hit. Short blade users follow up with stabs after they lose their footing.
[X] If they are water striders, then how they interact with the water should be important for their footing. Longsword users take front and attack with Verticals and Diagonals, if they dodge you'd churn the water and sink them, if you hit...you hit. Short blade users follow up with stabs after they lose their footing.
That should work, I think? I'm kinda curious how well the water striders maneuver once they lose their footing.
Though, I hope that the water striders can only attack at melee range, and that they won't be able to somehow pull/push the squad into the water.
This quest is dead. This has probably been obvious for a while now, but I wanted to make it clear. A while ago I started working on an update and realized that, for several reasons including poor planning, poor mechanics, and a lack of clear focus this quest is dead in the water.
I enjoyed running this quest a lot, and I want to thank everyone who participated; this quest helped me grow as a writer and as a person. In the future I hope to come back and explore some of the ideas that inspired me to make this quest, but that's years down the line, if ever.
This quest is dead. This has probably been obvious for a while now, but I wanted to make it clear. A while ago I started working on an update and realized that, for several reasons including poor planning, poor mechanics, and a lack of clear focus this quest is dead in the water.
I enjoyed running this quest a lot, and I want to thank everyone who participated; this quest helped me grow as a writer and as a person. In the future I hope to come back and explore some of the ideas that inspired me to make this quest, but that's years down the line, if ever.
And, as I just realized that I forgot to thank everyone who helped beta, allow me to do that now. @TurtleDucks, @veekie, @blindvi1, @BBBence1111, and @kfrar, thank you all for taking the time out of your days to help make this quest better. You made my writing better, helped me plan out mechanics, kept the quest moving along, and gave me both inspiration and motivation. This quest would be far worse off without the effort you put into it, and I am extraordinarily grateful you did.
It's been a while since I last worked on this, and I flew by the seat of my pants for a lot of what was going on. With that said, I do have some vague plans, snippets, and notes that I'll be happy to share, though I don't think it offers much closure. As this will be something of a ramble, please go ahead and ask about any specific plot points you're left still curious about--it's quite possible I've forgotten about them and a question will jog something loose.
I never finished developing a proper backstory for Cascade and Query47. At one point I wrote down that they started dating shortly before SAO happened, but that wasn't set in stone. One fairly solid thing is that they both enjoy swimming and Query47 is pretty good at it. There are some snippets that feature hypothetical future versions of Cascade and Query47, but they never really felt right in terms of character.
I don't have many snippets focusing on Insidious, though there is the omake about him.
I had uncertain plans for the first floor boss fight to go horribly wrong, but that was really inspired by "...Fucking Tinkers" and as time went on I grew less certain of whether I wanted to have that happen. I figured that it would be a while before it happened, and I should wait before making any decisions. I also had vague themes in mind for various floors, but I never really developed them very far. One of the snippets I wrote did have the idea of a floor with "bubble rocks" that were collected as part of a quest to make soda, which was a little detail I rather enjoyed.
Throughout SAO Quest, one persistent theme (one that I probably developed too quickly, given everything) was that something was up with Cardinal. The explanation for it is a bit of a cop out: Kayaba managed to engineer an AI that managed to go on a recursive self-improvement spree and manages to keep Cardinal still interested in running SAO for him. Alternatively, Kayaba was mad enough to let the AI go on a recursive self-improvement spree and lucky enough to have Cardinal still be interested in running SAO Quest afterwards. I never spent a great of time working out the details of that situation, so I can't really say much more. One of the reasons I developed that explanation was that "posthuman AI with inscrutable motives" is a useful justification for any changes to SAO. It also changes up the endgame of the quest so it isn't as predictable--getting out of SAO becomes a matter of dealing with Cardinal, not just Kayaba.
I also have some snippets written as part of a project where I wrote 500 words every night. They're generally just me playing with an idea I found interesting, and not really part of SAO canon itself, but I figure I can include some as a way to give insight into future plans I had.
I have a snippet from the perspective of one of Chiyoko's friends visiting her in the hospital. I planned to eventually start releasing some sidestories about the outside world, both because that interests me and because I wanted to develop those characters for when the quest left SAO.
Wherein Black Meets White
Mugi Swada sits by the side of the hospital bed. She is wearing her usual outfit—slacks and a turtleneck, all in black—but there is a somber note to it. Where once they seemed cheerful and artistic, they now seem the kind of clothes that you would wear to a funeral.
Of course, they are the same clothes as before; it is the person, not the outfit, that is different.
Lying next to Swada in the hospital bed is the reason for her change: Chiyoko Mori. Chiyoko Mori is one of Mugi Swada's closest friends. They met at an early age, and have kept in touch ever since. It was Swada who introduced Chiyoko Mori to gaming.
She feels more than a little bit guilty about that, illogical though it may be. Still... Swada sighs, and strokes Chiyoko's pale hand. She can't help but marvel at how delicate Chiyoko looks—in her mind she compares her to a thin, waifish china cup, or a tiny porcelain doll.
Chiyoko's skin is a pale white, and her hair is dark and tangled underneath the NerveGear. Blue blood veins stand out against the white backdrop, needles and IV feeds sticking out of them.
A jingle sounds, and Swada jumps. It's just her phone ringing, as she discovers to her chagrin. She doesn't want to talk inside the hospital room, and so she declines the call and texts back.
At hospital rn
Visiting Chiyoko
Swada hits send, and moves to put the phone away. The response preempts her.
Oh
We were gonna go to that concert
Tonight?
There is a pause as Swada considers the offer. On the one hand, she knows what Chiyoko would want her to do. On the other hand, she doesn't want to leave the hospital early on one of the few days she can visit her best friend.
You in
?
The offer is repeated. Swada considers for another moment, then types out a response. Her finger lingers over the submit button for a moment. Then her resolve solidifies, and she hits enter.
Yeah
Where
One of the things that I wanted to explore with this quest was what a society trapped inside SAO would actually look like--how people would react, and what customs would evolve. This snippet touches on some of that:
Wherein Nothing is Left
When someone dies in SAO, they leave nothing behind. They don't drop any items, or generate a tombstone. They certainly don't drop a corpse.
This is one of SAO's small tragedies.
There are no funerals in SAO, no long marches and solemn speeches. Just disbelief and quiet acceptance. News of a death isn't carefully delivered by a knock on your doorstep. It's delivered by the gray outline on your contacts bar.
Some people unfriend those who've died, unable to keep staring at the reminder of their loss. Others can't bear to throw that reminder away, however much good it might do.
But even if everyone throws away the gravestone in their menu, there's still one more left.
The Memorial Stone.
Every time someone dies, their name goes up there. Some people wonder as to why the Memorial Stone exists.
...
No one but Kayaba knows, and he isn't telling.
* * *
I lean back into my chair as I stretch my hands above my head. I yawn sleepily, a long, extended motion that is far more of a pleasure than it should be. My knuckles don't crack at all.
I hastily pull them down and sit back up. Sometimes I forget where I am; I think we all do, really.
Aincrad is so beautiful, so amazing, that sometimes we forget that we aren't in real life. That sensation—that environmental disconnect—never lasts long, but I always try to enjoy it while I can.
I frown at the names in front of me. My work is way too morbid. I tug at my sweatshirt self-consciously. It's a list of the newly-dead that I need to write the obituaries for.
Our obituary service comes weekly in the form of a newsletter you can subscribe to. It's a slow and often thankless task to compile all of the research together, but it's always nice to have someone thank me for it.
I drum my fingers against the desk, then stand up. We have a bunch of files we keep on people inside the main shrine; those should be my first stop.
My casual sandals slap against stone cobblestone as I make my way into the interior of the building.
The Memorial Shrine is the natural evolution of the Memorial Stone. At first just a hodgepodge of different players seeking to pay tribute to the dead, it has since grown into something far greater. I quicken my pace.
If you have a last request you want fulfilled, you can tell us and we'll do our best to make it happen. Similarly, if you have messages you want to pass on to your loved ones in the real world in the case of your death, we have you covered.
Of course, donations are a way to make sure that your last request gets taken care of faster.
I reach the archive, and make my way to the information section. We tend to try to compile information on everyone that passes through our walls, on the assumption that it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Hm... which section was it? Ah! G, for Goefrry.
As well as exploring the culture of SAO itself, I was also interested in exploring how things might change once outside of SAO. My notes have the premise of this snippet as "Chiyoko heads to a meetup place to celebrate the one year anniversary of SAO being cleared with the rest of her party." This was one of my favorite snippets to write; I wish I had developed it more.
Wherein An Arrow Points Up
You pull your shoes out of your locker, placing them on the ground and quickly sliding them on before grabbing your book bag and heading for the exit. Normally you would have club activities to deal with, but today you're skipping them—as are most others. Classes have been noticeably empty today, with half or even two-thirds of the class skipping to celebrate; you don't even want to imagine how that's going to translate in terms of club attendance.
Your hands shake slightly as you join the stream of students filing out of the building. You glance down at them irritably; this happens every time you're in a big crowd. The shrinks say that it's a symptom of social anxiety, brought on by a sense of alienation and a fear of ostracization.
You just wish that it didn't happen all the time. Your irritable glance turns into a full on scowl, before you look away, hefting the hand carrying your bookbag over your shoulder. Around you, there's the usual burble of conversation at the end of the school day, but it's quieter than you remember.
Then again, the last time you were in a normal school was a while ago.
Looking around the crowd again, suppressing the shaking of your hands with a force of will, you can see the signs of SAO survivors everywhere. The uniform would be enough all on its own, since this place is specifically for helping catch SAO survivors up to speed, but the other touches almost speak even louder.
A pendant with the symbol of the clearers—a simple arrow pointing upwards, towards the final floor—dangling from a cord necklace. A white glove, proudly displaying the Onward Swords' banner for the world to see. A metal hammer trinket, it's surface etched with the outlines of various weapons, hanging from a belt loop to signify membership in the Redsmith's Guild.
In the time after SAO was cleared, some survivors retreated into themselves, wanting nothing to do with the horrible incident, solely occupied with putting it behind them and never thinking about it again.
Most did not. In the face of a world unable to understand, and often unwilling to even try, the survivors of the death game gathered together and formed a community. A small and loosely organized one yes, but one nonetheless bound by a shared experience few others can understand.
But early on, people encountered a problem: how do you identify another survivor? As harrowing as the death game was, the only physical marks it left were indistinguishable from those inflicted by a comma.
So people started using signs. A bracelet here, a piece of clothing there. Patterns formed, rituals and behaviours that others could recognize. Suddenly you could bump into someone on the train and recognize them as another survivor—an event that, though still unlikely, was impossible before.
But that development wouldn't have been possible without something else: the rise of community patronage. Businesses—mostly cafes, restaurants, and bars—owned by SAO survivors became popular meet up spots for those in the community. A network grew, a physical counterpart to the online presence in forums and social media.
A smile crosses your lips as you finally make it out of the crowd and begin to walk a now-familiar route. Your destination is one of those survivor meetup spots, called the Clearer Cafe. Back in SAO it was one of the hubs of the loosely organized clearer community, and once SAO was cleared, BroadWulf decided to bring it to the real world—literally.
The Clearer Cafe is an almost exact replica of how it used to look in SAO, right down to the timbers, plants, mounted monster heads, and message board. It's a fairly popular cafe, its "Authentic SAO charm" constantly pulling in customers curious about life in SAO.
This one is about a burnt out Chiyoko taking a vacation. I wanted to explore the stress and strain that SAO would put on people, and this is me playing around with those ideas. It's rather clunky--remember, this was written as part of an effort to write 500 words every night; I wasn't exactly thinking deeply at the time--and I have some problems with it, but it helps illustrate some of my thoughts for where the quest could go. I held the opinion that it was a matter of "when" and not "if" Chiyoko and the quest would have to deal with serious mental health issues. Quoting from the notes attached to the snippet: "It isn't a guaranteed future, but the broad strokes are likely if steps aren't taken to avoid it."
Wherein Grass is Played With
You sigh, tangling your fingers in a piece of grass. Your eyes sweep over the hills sprawling out in front of you, lazily tracing the rolling green curves before coming to rest on a small, idyllic city. It sits nestled within the folds of a small valley, golden yellow fields arrayed around it for farmers to tend to. You swing your legs back and forth, the heels of your leather boots colliding against the rocky cliffside you sit upon.
You inhale deeply and fall backwards, ignoring the sound of dislodged stone fragments falling down the cliffside. Grass envelops you, pressing against your clothes and brushing against your skin. You close your eyes, opening your mouth to allow a rush of air out. Slowly, you relax your muscles, allowing your face to smooth out and your limbs to rest.
You don't often get a chance to unwind like this. To lay back and untense, to not be constantly worrying and thinking. It's... unsettling, really.
On a normal day, you'd be out adventuring or training by now. You'd be taking note of quest opportunities, judging difficulty, and estimating consumable consumption. You'd be planning out what you need to buy during after-noon shopping, where you need to go, what deals you can get. You'd be keeping an eye on your party members, making sure they aren't burning out, running out of consumables, or falling behind in terms of levels and skills.
It's a constant battle, and one that—in a very real sense—you enjoy.
Pitting your mind against the game is fun. The strain, the pressure—it's something you find yourself thriving in. When you stretch your awareness to keep track of every little interaction with your party, every consumable used, level-up achieved, and sentence said... it's exhausting. There's no question about that.
But it's satisfying. Every victory you win, every advancement you make... you can look at it and say "I helped make this possible."
When there's a close call, a shock of fear runs down your spine—and a rush of warmth infuses your heart. Fear, because what if you had done less? What if everything hadn't been enough? Warmth, because the worst didn't happen. You didn't do less, and everything was enough.
These feelings... the exhausted collapse into bed wearing a satisfied smile... they dominate your life. Every waking moment, and most of your dreaming ones, are occupied by this struggle.
And it takes a toll. You were close to burning out before you took this vacation. You knew it, and in retrospect, so did everyone else. The signs were obvious; more mistakes, difficulty concentrating... you have trouble picking out just one example from the many clouding your mind.
But even now, three days into your week long vacation, your hands still itch to wrap around your sword. You want the challenge, the adventure, the excitement and the struggle, even though it was destroying you.
By all rights, you should be happy to have this chance to relax and unwind. You should reveal in this freedom, the lifting of this ever present pressure from your shoulders.
You pull yourself up and rest your chin upon a bent knee. Instead you worry, torn by doubts and introspection. The longer you are away from things, the clearer it becomes: this is how you cope. The unhealthy, single minded focus you so embrace... it allows you to suppress everything bothering you. It lets you bottle the pent up emotions—anger, fear, sadness, helplessness—brought on by confinement in SAO and store them away to be ignored for as long as possible.
You frown. You aren't sure that you have a choice though. Your routine may be ruining you, but it's also kept you and party alive so far. It just needs to keep doing so until you beat SAO.
Then... then you can break.
You look down at trembling hands and wonder: if this is what it is like after three days, then what will I be like when I wake up? When we have won?
Victory is something of a taboo subject in your party, but it's one that you've thought about a lot during your vacation. Even if you were to wake up now, the hundredth floor magically reached through some kind of hidden shortcut... your body would still be a withered husk.
What are you going to do when you wake up? Go back to normal life?
Now? When you've fought, struggled, and bled for your life? You killed a man on your fourteenth birthday!
You sigh, and look out at the world again, and at the clouds beyond. It's more than that. Aincrad has grown to be a part of you. This routine, your struggle against a world you must defeat... it defines you. Every action you take, every thought you think, every breath you breathe—it's all in the name of beating Aincrad.
And you don't know what you're going to do without that.
Because in your hatred of Aincrad, you've found purpose. You've found meaning. You've found a drive you never even dreamed yourself capable of before.
And to suddenly be deprived of that...? To lose it all...?
Tears well in the corners of your eyes, and you suck another breath of air in before slowly letting it out. It terrifies you.
But... slowly, you climb to your feet. One of your hands wipes away your tears, and you smile, first shakily, then with true determination.
You won't let that stop you. You will defeat Aincrad.
You nod to yourself. That's all that matters right now. Afterwards can handle itself.
Again, feel free to ask about any specific plot points or elements that I didn't address. Also, if you guys are curious, I can post some of what I had written for the next update.
And, as I just realized that I forgot to thank everyone who helped beta, allow me to do that now. @TurtleDucks, @veekie, @blindvi1, @BBBence1111, and @kfrar, thank you all for taking the time out of your days to help make this quest better. You made my writing better, helped me plan out mechanics, kept the quest moving along, and gave me both inspiration and motivation. This quest would be far worse off without the effort you put into it, and I am extraordinarily grateful you did.
It's been a while since I last worked on this, and I flew by the seat of my pants for a lot of what was going on. With that said, I do have some vague plans, snippets, and notes that I'll be happy to share, though I don't think it offers much closure. As this will be something of a ramble, please go ahead and ask about any specific plot points you're left still curious about--it's quite possible I've forgotten about them and a question will jog something loose.
I never finished developing a proper backstory for Cascade and Query47. At one point I wrote down that they started dating shortly before SAO happened, but that wasn't set in stone. One fairly solid thing is that they both enjoy swimming and Query47 is pretty good at it. There are some snippets that feature hypothetical future versions of Cascade and Query47, but they never really felt right in terms of character.
I don't have many snippets focusing on Insidious, though there is the omake about him.
I had uncertain plans for the first floor boss fight to go horribly wrong, but that was really inspired by "...Fucking Tinkers" and as time went on I grew less certain of whether I wanted to have that happen. I figured that it would be a while before it happened, and I should wait before making any decisions. I also had vague themes in mind for various floors, but I never really developed them very far. One of the snippets I wrote did have the idea of a floor with "bubble rocks" that were collected as part of a quest to make soda, which was a little detail I rather enjoyed.
Throughout SAO Quest, one persistent theme (one that I probably developed too quickly, given everything) was that something was up with Cardinal. The explanation for it is a bit of a cop out: Kayaba managed to engineer an AI that managed to go on a recursive self-improvement spree and manages to keep Cardinal still interested in running SAO for him. Alternatively, Kayaba was mad enough to let the AI go on a recursive self-improvement spree and lucky enough to have Cardinal still be interested in running SAO Quest afterwards. I never spent a great of time working out the details of that situation, so I can't really say much more. One of the reasons I developed that explanation was that "posthuman AI with inscrutable motives" is a useful justification for any changes to SAO. It also changes up the endgame of the quest so it isn't as predictable--getting out of SAO becomes a matter of dealing with Cardinal, not just Kayaba.
I also have some snippets written as part of a project where I wrote 500 words every night. They're generally just me playing with an idea I found interesting, and not really part of SAO canon itself, but I figure I can include some as a way to give insight into future plans I had.
I have a snippet from the perspective of one of Chiyoko's friends visiting her in the hospital. I planned to eventually start releasing some sidestories about the outside world, both because that interests me and because I wanted to develop those characters for when the quest left SAO.
Wherein Black Meets White
Mugi Swada sits by the side of the hospital bed. She is wearing her usual outfit—slacks and a turtleneck, all in black—but there is a somber note to it. Where once they seemed cheerful and artistic, they now seem the kind of clothes that you would wear to a funeral.
Of course, they are the same clothes as before; it is the person, not the outfit, that is different.
Lying next to Swada in the hospital bed is the reason for her change: Chiyoko Mori. Chiyoko Mori is one of Mugi Swada's closest friends. They met at an early age, and have kept in touch ever since. It was Swada who introduced Chiyoko Mori to gaming.
She feels more than a little bit guilty about that, illogical though it may be. Still... Swada sighs, and strokes Chiyoko's pale hand. She can't help but marvel at how delicate Chiyoko looks—in her mind she compares her to a thin, waifish china cup, or a tiny porcelain doll.
Chiyoko's skin is a pale white, and her hair is dark and tangled underneath the NerveGear. Blue blood veins stand out against the white backdrop, needles and IV feeds sticking out of them.
A jingle sounds, and Swada jumps. It's just her phone ringing, as she discovers to her chagrin. She doesn't want to talk inside the hospital room, and so she declines the call and texts back.
At hospital rn
Visiting Chiyoko
Swada hits send, and moves to put the phone away. The response preempts her.
Oh
We were gonna go to that concert
Tonight?
There is a pause as Swada considers the offer. On the one hand, she knows what Chiyoko would want her to do. On the other hand, she doesn't want to leave the hospital early on one of the few days she can visit her best friend.
You in
?
The offer is repeated. Swada considers for another moment, then types out a response. Her finger lingers over the submit button for a moment. Then her resolve solidifies, and she hits enter.
Yeah
Where
One of the things that I wanted to explore with this quest was what a society trapped inside SAO would actually look like--how people would react, and what customs would evolve. This snippet touches on some of that:
Wherein Nothing is Left
When someone dies in SAO, they leave nothing behind. They don't drop any items, or generate a tombstone. They certainly don't drop a corpse.
This is one of SAO's small tragedies.
There are no funerals in SAO, no long marches and solemn speeches. Just disbelief and quiet acceptance. News of a death isn't carefully delivered by a knock on your doorstep. It's delivered by the gray outline on your contacts bar.
Some people unfriend those who've died, unable to keep staring at the reminder of their loss. Others can't bear to throw that reminder away, however much good it might do.
But even if everyone throws away the gravestone in their menu, there's still one more left.
The Memorial Stone.
Every time someone dies, their name goes up there. Some people wonder as to why the Memorial Stone exists.
...
No one but Kayaba knows, and he isn't telling.
* * *
I lean back into my chair as I stretch my hands above my head. I yawn sleepily, a long, extended motion that is far more of a pleasure than it should be. My knuckles don't crack at all.
I hastily pull them down and sit back up. Sometimes I forget where I am; I think we all do, really.
Aincrad is so beautiful, so amazing, that sometimes we forget that we aren't in real life. That sensation—that environmental disconnect—never lasts long, but I always try to enjoy it while I can.
I frown at the names in front of me. My work is way too morbid. I tug at my sweatshirt self-consciously. It's a list of the newly-dead that I need to write the obituaries for.
Our obituary service comes weekly in the form of a newsletter you can subscribe to. It's a slow and often thankless task to compile all of the research together, but it's always nice to have someone thank me for it.
I drum my fingers against the desk, then stand up. We have a bunch of files we keep on people inside the main shrine; those should be my first stop.
My casual sandals slap against stone cobblestone as I make my way into the interior of the building.
The Memorial Shrine is the natural evolution of the Memorial Stone. At first just a hodgepodge of different players seeking to pay tribute to the dead, it has since grown into something far greater. I quicken my pace.
If you have a last request you want fulfilled, you can tell us and we'll do our best to make it happen. Similarly, if you have messages you want to pass on to your loved ones in the real world in the case of your death, we have you covered.
Of course, donations are a way to make sure that your last request gets taken care of faster.
I reach the archive, and make my way to the information section. We tend to try to compile information on everyone that passes through our walls, on the assumption that it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Hm... which section was it? Ah! G, for Goefrry.
As well as exploring the culture of SAO itself, I was also interested in exploring how things might change once outside of SAO. My notes have the premise of this snippet as "Chiyoko heads to a meetup place to celebrate the one year anniversary of SAO being cleared with the rest of her party." This was one of my favorite snippets to write; I wish I had developed it more.
Wherein An Arrow Points Up
You pull your shoes out of your locker, placing them on the ground and quickly sliding them on before grabbing your book bag and heading for the exit. Normally you would have club activities to deal with, but today you're skipping them—as are most others. Classes have been noticeably empty today, with half or even two-thirds of the class skipping to celebrate; you don't even want to imagine how that's going to translate in terms of club attendance.
Your hands shake slightly as you join the stream of students filing out of the building. You glance down at them irritably; this happens every time you're in a big crowd. The shrinks say that it's a symptom of social anxiety, brought on by a sense of alienation and a fear of ostracization.
You just wish that it didn't happen all the time. Your irritable glance turns into a full on scowl, before you look away, hefting the hand carrying your bookbag over your shoulder. Around you, there's the usual burble of conversation at the end of the school day, but it's quieter than you remember.
Then again, the last time you were in a normal school was a while ago.
Looking around the crowd again, suppressing the shaking of your hands with a force of will, you can see the signs of SAO survivors everywhere. The uniform would be enough all on its own, since this place is specifically for helping catch SAO survivors up to speed, but the other touches almost speak even louder.
A pendant with the symbol of the clearers—a simple arrow pointing upwards, towards the final floor—dangling from a cord necklace. A white glove, proudly displaying the Onward Swords' banner for the world to see. A metal hammer trinket, it's surface etched with the outlines of various weapons, hanging from a belt loop to signify membership in the Redsmith's Guild.
In the time after SAO was cleared, some survivors retreated into themselves, wanting nothing to do with the horrible incident, solely occupied with putting it behind them and never thinking about it again.
Most did not. In the face of a world unable to understand, and often unwilling to even try, the survivors of the death game gathered together and formed a community. A small and loosely organized one yes, but one nonetheless bound by a shared experience few others can understand.
But early on, people encountered a problem: how do you identify another survivor? As harrowing as the death game was, the only physical marks it left were indistinguishable from those inflicted by a comma.
So people started using signs. A bracelet here, a piece of clothing there. Patterns formed, rituals and behaviours that others could recognize. Suddenly you could bump into someone on the train and recognize them as another survivor—an event that, though still unlikely, was impossible before.
But that development wouldn't have been possible without something else: the rise of community patronage. Businesses—mostly cafes, restaurants, and bars—owned by SAO survivors became popular meet up spots for those in the community. A network grew, a physical counterpart to the online presence in forums and social media.
A smile crosses your lips as you finally make it out of the crowd and begin to walk a now-familiar route. Your destination is one of those survivor meetup spots, called the Clearer Cafe. Back in SAO it was one of the hubs of the loosely organized clearer community, and once SAO was cleared, BroadWulf decided to bring it to the real world—literally.
The Clearer Cafe is an almost exact replica of how it used to look in SAO, right down to the timbers, plants, mounted monster heads, and message board. It's a fairly popular cafe, its "Authentic SAO charm" constantly pulling in customers curious about life in SAO.
This one is about a burnt out Chiyoko taking a vacation. I wanted to explore the stress and strain that SAO would put on people, and this is me playing around with those ideas. It's rather clunky--remember, this was written as part of an effort to write 500 words every night; I wasn't exactly thinking deeply at the time--and I have some problems with it, but it helps illustrate some of my thoughts for where the quest could go. I held the opinion that it was a matter of "when" and not "if" Chiyoko and the quest would have to deal with serious mental health issues. Quoting from the notes attached to the snippet: "It isn't a guaranteed future, but the broad strokes are likely if steps aren't taken to avoid it."
Wherein Grass is Played With
You sigh, tangling your fingers in a piece of grass. Your eyes sweep over the hills sprawling out in front of you, lazily tracing the rolling green curves before coming to rest on a small, idyllic city. It sits nestled within the folds of a small valley, golden yellow fields arrayed around it for farmers to tend to. You swing your legs back and forth, the heels of your leather boots colliding against the rocky cliffside you sit upon.
You inhale deeply and fall backwards, ignoring the sound of dislodged stone fragments falling down the cliffside. Grass envelops you, pressing against your clothes and brushing against your skin. You close your eyes, opening your mouth to allow a rush of air out. Slowly, you relax your muscles, allowing your face to smooth out and your limbs to rest.
You don't often get a chance to unwind like this. To lay back and untense, to not be constantly worrying and thinking. It's... unsettling, really.
On a normal day, you'd be out adventuring or training by now. You'd be taking note of quest opportunities, judging difficulty, and estimating consumable consumption. You'd be planning out what you need to buy during after-noon shopping, where you need to go, what deals you can get. You'd be keeping an eye on your party members, making sure they aren't burning out, running out of consumables, or falling behind in terms of levels and skills.
It's a constant battle, and one that—in a very real sense—you enjoy.
Pitting your mind against the game is fun. The strain, the pressure—it's something you find yourself thriving in. When you stretch your awareness to keep track of every little interaction with your party, every consumable used, level-up achieved, and sentence said... it's exhausting. There's no question about that.
But it's satisfying. Every victory you win, every advancement you make... you can look at it and say "I helped make this possible."
When there's a close call, a shock of fear runs down your spine—and a rush of warmth infuses your heart. Fear, because what if you had done less? What if everything hadn't been enough? Warmth, because the worst didn't happen. You didn't do less, and everything was enough.
These feelings... the exhausted collapse into bed wearing a satisfied smile... they dominate your life. Every waking moment, and most of your dreaming ones, are occupied by this struggle.
And it takes a toll. You were close to burning out before you took this vacation. You knew it, and in retrospect, so did everyone else. The signs were obvious; more mistakes, difficulty concentrating... you have trouble picking out just one example from the many clouding your mind.
But even now, three days into your week long vacation, your hands still itch to wrap around your sword. You want the challenge, the adventure, the excitement and the struggle, even though it was destroying you.
By all rights, you should be happy to have this chance to relax and unwind. You should reveal in this freedom, the lifting of this ever present pressure from your shoulders.
You pull yourself up and rest your chin upon a bent knee. Instead you worry, torn by doubts and introspection. The longer you are away from things, the clearer it becomes: this is how you cope. The unhealthy, single minded focus you so embrace... it allows you to suppress everything bothering you. It lets you bottle the pent up emotions—anger, fear, sadness, helplessness—brought on by confinement in SAO and store them away to be ignored for as long as possible.
You frown. You aren't sure that you have a choice though. Your routine may be ruining you, but it's also kept you and party alive so far. It just needs to keep doing so until you beat SAO.
Then... then you can break.
You look down at trembling hands and wonder: if this is what it is like after three days, then what will I be like when I wake up? When we have won?
Victory is something of a taboo subject in your party, but it's one that you've thought about a lot during your vacation. Even if you were to wake up now, the hundredth floor magically reached through some kind of hidden shortcut... your body would still be a withered husk.
What are you going to do when you wake up? Go back to normal life?
Now? When you've fought, struggled, and bled for your life? You killed a man on your fourteenth birthday!
You sigh, and look out at the world again, and at the clouds beyond. It's more than that. Aincrad has grown to be a part of you. This routine, your struggle against a world you must defeat... it defines you. Every action you take, every thought you think, every breath you breathe—it's all in the name of beating Aincrad.
And you don't know what you're going to do without that.
Because in your hatred of Aincrad, you've found purpose. You've found meaning. You've found a drive you never even dreamed yourself capable of before.
And to suddenly be deprived of that...? To lose it all...?
Tears well in the corners of your eyes, and you suck another breath of air in before slowly letting it out. It terrifies you.
But... slowly, you climb to your feet. One of your hands wipes away your tears, and you smile, first shakily, then with true determination.
You won't let that stop you. You will defeat Aincrad.
You nod to yourself. That's all that matters right now. Afterwards can handle itself.
Again, feel free to ask about any specific plot points or elements that I didn't address. Also, if you guys are curious, I can post some of what I had written for the next update.
Did you have any specific scenes that you wanted to get to but we never reached. and How were you thinking of handling the later Levels and would they stay relatively grounded or would they get more Fantastical?
Did you have any specific scenes that you wanted to get to but we never reached. and How were you thinking of handling the later Levels and would they stay relatively grounded or would they get more Fantastical?
Not really? I had a vague idea for Cascade and Query47 taking a day off to go swimming and inviting Chiyoko and Insidious along that I was somewhat looking forward to--the idea was inspired by a really beautiful boat trip out onto a lake, and I wanted to try to capture some of that sensation. And I suppose I am disappointed that I never got to write Chiyoko and the rest of the party discussing Chiyoko's real age, though I'm not sure I was looking forward to it exactly.
As for floors, I mostly took notes on the more out-there ideas:
Greek Floor (F?)
One of the middle floors is based on the Grecian mythos. It has a labyrinth that connects all of the dungeons together. The floor boss is inside the labyrinth. The labyrinth shifts over time, making fighting the floor boss especially difficult—you have to have a raid party constantly on standby so that when you next find a route to the boss you can go immediately before the route changes.
Ocean Floor (F?)
One of the floors is covered in water. Everyone lives on giant floating raft cities, and travel in boats and ships. The floor boss would be some kind of sea creature that you would have to track down and fight. There would be gear that allows you to go underwater, and having it would unlock some hidden areas in other floors.
Cave Floor (F?)
A floor that is entirely underground. Towns exist as either manually mined out areas or inside large caverns. Some caverns would have plant life inside. There would be a mineral analogous to mine-craft glowstone that occurs naturally providing lighting in many caverns; however, it is mineable and some enemies can eat it. Further, tunneling and burrowing enemies would be prevalent on the floor, necessitating high sensory skills. There would also possibly be consumable items that would indicate the presence of enemies hiding and give a rough direction, if not necessarily the exact number or position of them.
I never bothered to note down specifics about more mundane themes like jungles and deserts. As we got closer to moving up a floor, I probably would have done so.
On a sidenote, if/when I reboot SAO Quest, it will probably be without the "trapped in a VR game" element. Right now I'm leaning towards a post-scarcity sci-fi setting for the "real" world and my own setting for the virtual reality. Chiyoko will probably re-occur as the main character, though adapted for the new setting.
And I suppose I am disappointed that I never got to write Chiyoko and the rest of the party discussing Chiyoko's real age, though I'm not sure I was looking forward to it exactly.
