Sword Art Online

A pre-game status screen dominates your vision, it lists and then confirms the link connection of the five senses: touch, hearing, smell, sight, and taste in the form of individual colorful circles, rotating as each were put under total control of the NerveGear platform. Soon, all five display “Ok” and float off to the right of your vision. Another prompt appears, a login screen. Your NerveGear inputs the required information for you, and the prompt responds with a happy chirp, giving way to another screen that displayed a rather simple “Welcome!”. Said greeting disappeared shortly after in a flash of white, and you find yourself in a room with seemingly endless dimensions. Character creation, you realize.

Three items stand directly in front of you: A mirror, a wardrobe, and a weapon rack. Approaching any of them would bring up a menu, listing options typical with character creation. Hair color, gender, eye color, mane style, coat color… curiously enough, there seemed to be no option of race, your reflection displaying that of an Earth Pony regardless of whom you actually were in the ‘real’ world. It seemed the rumors were true, Sword Art Online had no magic. A rather bold move, you think, for an MMORPG to not have any magic. Regardless, you shrug it off and continue.

Confirming your appearances, selecting your armoring, and choosing your weapon(s), you complete the character creation process. The almost serene blackness of the creation room disappears, and is very suddenly replaced by a town square in the middle of a bright, sunny day. The change in atmosphere would be quickly explained by several ponies materializing all around you in flashes of blue light.

The town square, very much circular in appearance, had two particularly memorable features. One being the clocktower in its center, currently reading 2:34, and the other, a black palace which dwarfed all other structures in sight. The palace itself was situated to the north.

A picture, for reference:

On the top left of your vision lay your health bar and level indicator, currently reading 100/100 and 1 respectively.

---

Right then... as per usual, one post per gm post, unless stated otherwise by me. Let's see those descriptive first posts, yeah?

"Link start!"

Midnight couldn't hold back her excitement! She was itching in the character creation screen, and in her hurry, quickly created herself. After all, no reason not to be her right? She didn't bother to approach the mirror, how she looked originally was imputed in her nervegear, meaning she looked like she normally did. Long dark-blue hair, ice-blue eyes, her darker blue coat, not the dark shade of her mane, but just a few shades lighter. She fidgeted with the hair options, finally selecting one that was straight and long, she could 'feel' it against her back, and she loved it.

Next, her clothing. She quickly searched out and found a blue shirt, a longish silver skirt with black leggings, and a nice black long coat to go over. She looked at herself in the mirror, realizing the coat and the skirt didn't really fit, before shrugging it off and moving to the weapons, quickly finding what appealed to her, a scimitar blade and a medium shield. A duelling tank was her idea of how to create herself, but honestly, she'd figure it as she went!

She closed her eyes as she saw the blackness surround her. She was almost shaking with excitement! It was time! Opening her eyes, she raised her hand in front of her, almost not believing it was as real as it looked. Looking around at the spawning players, she was in the middle of a large town square, or, well, town circle in this case.

She felt her mouth drop open, before she mantually closed it and spun around, trying to get a good feel for her 'new' self. Her eyes caught onto the buildings, the detail, the realism, all of it was absolutely amazing and just what she had imagined it would be like! She make a small squealing noise as she kept looking around, completely enthralled by her surroundings, losing track of the ponies around her and no longer watching where she was walking.

"Link, start!"

Verde looked around and grinned as her field of view followed her gaze. "Eee! It does it! I actually synchronizes!" She giggles in openly unabashed girlish delight and makes for the character creation screen as fast as she can. "Oh, look... I get to play an earth pony!" She says to absolutely no one as she scrolls through her options. "Let's see, let's see... um... well, I've always wanted to have a black coat with... mmm... red mane! And let's see if I can adjust... mmm... yes! Yes! Just the kind of... um... gee, my avatar has a nice plot... and me without hooves just yet. Damn. OK, girl, get a hold of yourself... um... well, how about something stallion. Red with golden blonde, maybe... no... no... black? Naw, looks too Bitalian... uh, perhaps pale blue and slim down? Naw, too effeminate, looks like some poor guy who raises it for something big strong and carrying cock. Golden with auburn...? Naw. Female, powder blue with silver? Nice but a big ostentatious. Lavender with some... no, no, no, no, too familiar. Jet black with... sea green? Mmm, so exotic so... eh hem... um... with blue-violet? NO! No, I'd end up... um... Celestia-dammit, I'm running out of options."

She pauses in thought before her real self grins and she feels her lips stretching invisibly in the game. "Oh, she's gonna kill me SO dead... hehehehehehe... oh, I'm so dead but.... hee hee hee... zebra stripes with scarlet red. Nice silky white mane with blood-red streaks. Lean muscular flanks, athletic carriage, smoking hot everywhere... the mare every mare either wants to be or just wants. Now then, what kinds of things to wear. Well, damn shame to hide all this but there's something so sexy about practical, yanno?"  Onto the avatar, a pair of practical-looking long boots materializes and above them, a high-quality arming jacket with its leather cuffs tucked into the tops of the boots. Over the assembly materializes a hood with a long trailing cape made of reasonably heavy canvas. Verde realizes that the clothing was all show and imparted no armoring value, but it somehow made her feel better anyway.

"All it needs is a good strong mail hauberk, perhaps some good banding and barding... but I'll have to get on that in the future. Let's see what they offer for weaponry..." She gestures with a hoof as the selection spins in her HUD. "OK, tower shield, scutum, bossed round shield, wood, metal... um... oh, look a hoplon." She pauses and looks it over for a minute before shaking her head. "No, too awkward for good combat maneuvering. Looks like I'm going kite for this build, steel, no boss... um... let's see if they let me alter the decoration." She pokes around at the innards and frowns as she finds that it only offers pre-mades. "Well, closest thing they have is the theater masks so... there ya go. Now... I know she would want a blade of some kind but ya gotta make it your own in the end and unless they have my crowbar..." she spins the selection and finds no such thing "...I'm going to have to go with either a military pick or a war... what am I saying? Warhammer... um... forked back, I think." She smiles and nods to the character creation screen as she confirms her selections. "Now here... we..."

"...go!" She opens her eyes and finds herself in the direct middle of a square with all sort of ponies pressing around her and wandering to and fro. "Holy. Bucking. YES." She laughed openly. "Buck yeah, this is it! Look out sow, Zen is coming ta getcha baby." She notices the very blue mare currently squee'ing and looking around wildly and she grins widely, wandering over to her. "Welcome back the front, old top!" She says in a very Trottingham accent as she beams at the excited pony.

Star couldn't say he was...excited...more amused. He wanted to see how this nervegear thing worked and what better way then to wake up when the sun was up and play this new game before his shift started, right? He really didn't bother much with the character creation screen, picking something that was close to what he looked like and going with that. For the clothes he simply thought who the hell wore clothes. Then he remembered that he lived in Canterlot where almost everyone wore clothes. For the weapon he just went with something that he knew, a short sword, and a medium shield.

When all that was over, he waited for himself to spawn into the town square where he shook his head a little bit. He then proceed to look around, smiling. One thing he was glad about, he wasn't getting blinded by the sun. He reached a hoof up and felt his ear for a moment before concluding that it was not as fluffy as his normal ears. He looked onto his back and sighed. Yup, no wings. Oh he's so going to forget he has no wings he just knows it. He scratched the back of his head as he thought of what to do now. "Eh...Might as well look around." He said to himself as he started to walk off in a random direction.

"Link start."
Radiant sighs apathetically as the nervegear does its thing and whisks her away into the world of Sword Art Online. She quickly types in her log in information, and notes with a detached mental nod that all connections are in good order.
She pauses a moment as the three items appear, suddenly unsure. Did she want to make changes? This would be a chance for a fresh start, after all. Maybe she should.... Nah. Better to go with what works for certain. She uses her real life appearance, only in inverted coloration. For her outfit, she selects a grey, hooded duster with a '42' patch on one of the lapels. Several pockets line the interior of the comfy coat, though she was unsure if they had any in game effect.
after that, she selects a broadsword as her starting weapon, and enters the game.
Radiant shuffles uncomfortably at the lose of her wings, but accepts it as part of the price of the game. She looks around, seeing a few other players, many of them dazzled. "Meh. Heaven was more aesthetically pleasing." she mutters.

The stallion laying in his bed with the VR helmet on grinned as he prepared himself. He was comfortable, didn't have to go to the bathroom, and had just eaten. Idly, a hoof pressed the 'play' button on a little devise that sat next to him, and it began to play.
"Link start," the recording begins before starting a constant stream of music that rather quickly dies away when the nervegear actually begins.

Resonance was giddy with excitement at starting up this new game, and when he was shown the three options, he quickly strode over to the mirror first. There he couldn't help but stare at the reflection for a few moments, or at least one particular fact. His left hoof slowly rose to his chin and pulled it down, causing the mouth he now sported to open. "I, I have a mouth again... I, I can talk again!" he exclaimed excitedly and began to jump around a little in his excitement. "Woo! I can SPEAK! Oh man, I gotta hurry, so many conversations to have!" Rez went on as he turned away from the mirror, already satisfied with how he normally looked, and went straight over to the wardrobe. From there he does a little digging until he came across a black shirt with a simple neon blue symbol on it's surface. "Huh, wonder what this means," Rez said to himself as he looked at the symbol but just shrugged and toggled the garment on before moving on to pants which he just went with a simple pair of grey ones and then a grey headband to complete the outfit. Utterly forgetting to bother with any starting armor or even boots, if they were even provided, in his rush and excitement to get into the game.

Finally, Rez went over to the weapon rack. His eyes lingered on the simple shortsword, similar to the one he'd used in real life, but this was a game, and a new one at that. "Perhaps it's time for something a little different," he said to no one in particular before reaching out and picking up a pole weapon he'd not seen before. Something like a slightly curved sword, on the end of a stick. The name 'naginata' was linked to the item, and so he selected that.

Then the bleak selection setting disappeared and Rez went to shield his eyes for a second from the suddenly much brighter setting. Once they adjusted though, he happily looked about the town and the other players materializing in the square with a large and almost goofy grin on his face. "He-hey everyone! Isn't this amazing!" Rez called out to the others that had materialized, and still a little unused to having a speaking mouth again. He ran over to get a little closer to some of the others, just now actually realizing he couldn't hear the music he'd left playing in the real world.

Midnight was very enthralled with the world surrounding her, getting excited over almost everything. It was, so real. Her mind was struggling to admit it wasn't real, it looked to real, felt real! How could it NOT be real? What she would give to live here, shame she would have to leave soonish. Her work had calling after all, but she had a few hours at the very least, so she'd enjoy it till then. That's when she heard someone speak, to her? Midnight turned to face the mare who had spoken.

Midnight had to admit, she was very pretty. Even as a mare, what she was looking at, they were cute, the thing that boys loved while they ignored her. A beautiful White and Red mane, boots, cape. If Midnight could label her, bad-girl was the label. Midnight could resent her, her looks made her feel a small form of shame for who she looked, which was, well, compared to others, not cute. But, Midnight couldn't hold something against her just for that. Plus, maybe she could help her?

"The...front?" Midnight asked confused "and, back...? I..we've, never been here..." Midnight couldn't stop a smile and a small giggle escaping. One of her hands moved to make sure her skirt stayed down while the other went up to her hair, tilting her head slightly. This mare looked as excited as she did, and it didn't surprise her. Everyone should be excited, right? This was like, revolutionary!

"Have..you played something like this before? I've, well, as amazing as this is, I..i really have no idea how play this game" She smiled guilty, if she was honest with herself, she doubted they would be able to help her, but having someone to fight alongside would be nice "It's, umm, Midnight by the way...my name that is."

“Link start!”

It was always a good experience when Frosty lost herself in the word of gaming. Ever since she got a NerveGear, losing herself took on a whole new level. She waits patiently as it goes through the whole startup thing, then looks at the character creation. “Hmm…” She cycled through different looks before just settling on herself. After all, if she was gonna play a game like this, might as well play with a look she likes.

As for clothing, a blue shirt with a matching combat skirt. She was tempted to make her boots blue too, but settled for black instead. She made the shirt and skirt dark blue to match it a bit better. Or maybe it should all be black… Nah, that’s a bad choice. She paused as she caught herself thinking too much about clothing choices. “Screw it. Blue shirt and combat skirt. Black boots. Any more thought on the matter and I’m going rainbows.”

She then went to weapon selection. She looked at the available starter weapons. Longsword, shortsword, etc etc. She thought about using the longsword, as it seemed more her style. She saw there was a warhammer available though and decided to pick that. “Odd for there to be a hammer in a game about swords, but I ain’t complaining. I like hammers more anyway.” She picked a shield to go with the hammer and entered into the starting spawn area.

Frosty looked around at the scenery as she spawned in. It was pretty enough, she supposed. After all, it was a lot more colorful than her shop in Manehatten. Did she remember to close up properly? Yeah, she closed it up good. And she made sure her assistant had the extra keys in case something came up. “Meh, what could go wrong?” She said quietly to herself. Frosty also looked at all the other ponies spawning in for their first time. The excitement and wonder of playing a new game gets to everypony to some degree. She was pretty excited as well. She wanted to get out there and see what this new game had in store. Maybe make some new friends along the way.

"Uh, link start?"

Percival wasn't quite sure what to expect from this strange headset. Some kind of game, sure, but it was a strange game. A "virtual" world, filled with a promise of adventure. It was at least worth a try, he supposed.
Now he was presented with the character creation options, though. Seeing the choices available, he went for something a little different. After all, he'd been using the same body for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. With an opportunity to use a new skin, he'd be crazy not to take it up.
Sure, the form he chose was by no means handsome in the classical sense, but he felt it was appropriately cute, in the nerdiest of ways. Admittedly, he wasn't always up-and-up in what was in-style anyway, but nerds were always nerds. They never really changed. And he would know, he'd dealt with no shortage of reclusive magicians in his long long life. He built himself rather leanly, just slightly on the emancipated side. A white coat and bedraggled red mane drew his attention: not too long, but just unkempt enough for his purposes. Moving on to the clothing choices, he had already envisioned his choice of attire. Most important were the large, thick glasses, with a proper metal frame. Sure, he didn't have any vision troubles, but it really was all about image here. A red jacket to match his mane and tail completed that particular set.

All that was left was weaponry, and for that, Percival was at quite the loss.
There were just so many choices, and nothing in particular stood out to him. He'd used most of these before, at least in some capacity. Except for some of the strange, exotic ones. And he didn't really care for those either. They didn't even stand out against themselves.
Giving up on finding something that called out to him on its own, Percival went for something random, closing his eyes and essentially spinning the wheel, scrolling up and down randomly until poking at a random spot on the selector. Opening his eyes, he saw his new weapon: a cleaver, something one might see in a Griffon butchery.
Huh. This must be an interesting toy. I wonder how to one fights with this.

Confirming his selections, the newly-unwinged pony appeared in the town square, and was immediately deafened by the insane white stallion he spawned in next to. "Well, it's loud, ya know. At least I can tell the game includes pain."

OOG: Alright, as I said, it’s one post per GM post. Another thing to note is that this thread does not have the anthro tag.

After a debate with some of the players, to answer the question of “How the hell am I suppose to effectively use a sword and shield with my mouth and hooves”: Weapons are to be operated via telekinesis with limited range. You’re still fighting with melee weapons.

---

Slowly but surely, the new-player-spawn-area was becoming more and more crowded as new avatars materialized left and right in flashes of blue. Star Sentinel’s random direction happened to be ‘towards the big-black pretty building’, and soon he found himself at the base of the Black Iron Palace. The doors to the palace, sporting intricate designs of earth ponies fighting what seemed to be an extremely armored alicorn, with dozens of equines in mid-dematerialization, were locked shut. Touching the door would trigger a purple hexagonal message reading “Indestructible object’.

The vast majority of ponies who were leaving the town square, did so to the south towards what seemed to be an artificial lake. Those who did not leave, were chatting amongst themselves. Quickly, the square began to sound like a high school cafeteria, with dozens of conversations overlapping.

"Oh, oops, sorry," Rez apologized with a cringe towards the new player he'd been next to and apparently hurt with his exclamation and excitement. Past that though, Rez continued to look about the area and at the many ponies gathered about and chatting. When he noticed a crowd beginning to wander towards the lake though, he opted to follow along. He finally noticed the naginata that rested on his back for the first time, and gave it a little shrug to readjust and make sure it was thoroughly on, and forgetting that it was actually fastened there by game mechanics that wouldn't let the weapon just drop for no reason.

Verde laughs a bit at Midnight's confusion. "I realize we've never met, nor played this game before," she says. "I was being lighthearted and a bit silly. The entire ditty I was reciting in greeting is: welcome back to the front old top. It's been 'ears since I've seen ya, and I'm glad I knows ya'." She winks. "The name I'm using in the game here shows up as 'Zen' although if I had the space, I'd have entered 'Astraylzenika'. I have a younger cousin who looks like this and whom I call 'Zen' and I decided it'd be funny to play the game in her skin." She looks about, noting the immense crowds of ponies all chattering at each other, making the din close to overwhelming as she tries to converse pleasantly with her new companion. "Tell ya what... it's getting a bit stupid around here with all the players jawing at each other. Want to head out of the square towards a greater amount of space?"

Star looked up and down the big-black pretty building. He took in every detail and seemed to be memorizing it. He looked at the doors for a moment before raising an eyebrow at the designs of fighting earth ponies. "Interesting..." He put a hoof on the doors and backed away when the message popped up. He read over the message, tilting his head to the side. "Indestructible object huh? That mean there are destructible ones around?" He said to himself, smiling. He then chuckled to himself as he turned and looked around. Where to now, he thought.

He looked back the way he came and looked over the ponies still in the square. He shrugged to himself a little and continued to look around as he trotted back to the square. He really had no idea where he was going and he really didn't care. Maybe he should be going off and doing what this game intended to be doing. While he was distracted, he ran right into a hot mare. "Ohf!" He shook himself and looked at the mare, his eyes going above his head. 'Zen' was the name above her head. "Ah man...I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention." He said, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof.

Midnight laughed slightly, they were being silly? Midnight felt embarrassed, if only slightly. She'd taken what the other mare had said so seriously, though she did want to know where that quote came from, but it was a question for another time. Because she continued into explains WHY she looked how she did. She was copying her cousin?

"That's, huh, never thought to do anything like that. Well, i'm just, heh, myself. Didn't change, well, much, you know? Didn't really think I needed to"

At the offer of going elsewhere, Midnight nodded her head in agreement. Not only was the courtyard getting more and more crowded with the more players joining, but it was also getting louder, plus it would mean a start with levelling up and exploring the game. If the starting area looked as amazing as this, Midnight couldn't even start to comprehend what the rest of the game looked like, but it filled her with excitement. She was about to start walking when someone walked into Zen.

Looking at him, black mane, grey coat, teal eyes. He didn't look too old either. Midnight had to imagine that he was probably just as enthralled with the world as she had been before, so probably hadn't been watching where he was walking. Still, he hadn't walked into her and, if she had been him, probably didn't want another mare to make a comment on it, opted to silence and watching.

Lacking direction, Gringolet observed the crowd for the moment. Most of the ponies seemed to have a destination in mind already. Perhaps it would be a good idea to follow along, but it would be more prudent, really, to find out where they were going first.
Feeling just a bit adventurous, he trotted towards the large, dark palace that dominated the city square. The doors were certainly curious...if not a bit morbid. Really though, what was he supposed to do here?
I hate these vague games with no plot. The least they could do is point you in the direction of what to do. Or how to play the goddessdamned game. That would be nice. It's like reading a book but someone decided the words should come encoded and they forgot to hand you the decryption key. Like that one time in Zebrica...that was not a fun trip to Zebrica...

The chatter going on in the spawn area was annoying, but Frosty was used to it, being from a rather busy city herself. So while it didn’t bother her much, she decided to move on anyway. After all, there was a whole new game world to explore, and standing around, admiring the town square is not productive. So giving the area one last glance, she decided to head off to the south to explore the game for herself.

Those of you heading south beyond the beginner spawn area would soon be met with a rectangular area slightly larger than the one you spawned in. All around the perimeter of the rectangular plaza was a thick greenery consisting of trees, bushes and grass. The center was for the most part, dedicated to a large pond with three islands at its center. On one of the islands, sat a rather large building resembling a sort of estate. The islands themselves were connected by strands of land wide enough to walk comfortable across, these very same strands formed a 'natural' bridge across the water for those who wished to visit the building at the end.

The only paths away from the plaza itself were to the back to the spawn area to the north, and towards what could be seen to the city's main gates.

Rez wanted to waste no time for the moment as he ducked, weaved, and dodged his way through the thick crowd of other players. Rez didn't have too much interest in going into any of the buildings right yet, not when he was still riding the high of actually having a mouth again. To him, this level of excitement demanded one course of action and that was to begin testing out how to fight in this new world. The movement was like nothing he'd ever tried before and he couldn't wait to see how everything held up under the extra strain of active combat, plus there was the matter of the new weapon that rested across his back that he couldn't wait to try out against some of the new enemies.

When he reached the gates, Rez would pause just long enough to take a deep breath before charging forward, not bravely but rather recklessly. He did however have enough sense to draw his weapon now that he was out in the wilds, but the moment it took to fasten the pole weapon to his side was all the pause Rez experienced before continuing his sprint into the wilds where he began hunting for something to fight.

Fall decided to leave the spawn area. She doubted she would be working with anyone, and as such there was no reason for her to stay. Others were also leaving, but she paid them little mind. They would likely do the same. She heads South. The area she comes to is rather pleasing, though Heaven was still better. The building at the end of the water looked interesting, so she headed towards it.

"I thought that making a blatant copy of my cousin's appearance would annoy her, and what's life if you can't get on your family's nerves?" Verde's reaction to Star running into her is to turn slowly around and raise an eyebrow at him. "Yes, paying attention will be a survival skill in this game, I imagine." She pauses thoughtfully. "I and this lovely young mare are heading towards the gates to have a place to talk and possibly to find something useful to do. Care to come?"
She immediately looks at Midnight after inviting Star along. "Care if he comes?"

"Eehh...True...I'm not gonna play much of this game anyways. Maybe popping in once and a while and looking around. Most of my day is spent asleep and the night is spent at work." Star rolled his eyes a little. "Come with you? Ahh...sure. Got nothing better to do right now so why not. I'm Star as you can probably see above my head somewhere." He waved a hoof somewhere over his head and just chuckled to himself. He looked at Midnight and raised an eyebrow. "Do you care?" He smiled just a little.

"Start Link!"

...? Did it not work? Mechana quickly flips through the users manual, promptly realizing that she'd gotten the order of the words backwards. Of course. Game developers and their silly little features.
"Link, Start!"'

Mechana boredly waits through the initialization process, as her senses were overridden by the device. Excellent! The device she'd spent a large chunk of her paycheck on worked! Her highly-trained engineer senses are quickly alerted to the presence of a rack of tools. Tools for the murdering of many, many creatures, but tools nonetheless. Unfortunately, she was sorely disappointed to find no wrenches. The next check was for a sickle, but the weapons rack had no glorious communist sickles for her perusal. Failing both of those, she simply picked the most tool-looking thing, which happened to be a large hammer. Yes. She could use this hammer. It was from then on, that she vowed to become the best hammerer this game had ever seen, and in a game about swords, there probably wasn't much competition. Glorious. She was certain that her current appearance was good enough for any purpose she may need, and she was excited to spawn in, anyways. She promptly becomes one of the many blue flashes in the middle of noob-land. It was time for her to flex her questing muscle.

Did she care if Star came along with them? Honestly, not really. After all, he and Zen weren't bad to look at. Plus, what was the point of playing a game unless you were doing it with friends right?

"Sure, I ain't gunna stop you. Plus it might be fun" She said smiling. Though, what Star had said grabbed her mind for several moment. Sleep during the day, work at night? Sounded like her own schedule, but somehow she doubted she just managed to run into another guard several minutes into the opening of a brand new game.

"Come on, lets get going" She tilted her head towards the closest exit, which seemed to be headed south from their original starting point. She didn't move however, waiting for the others. No point walking away without them after all, that would just make her look stupid...again.

Back towards the starting area, a player with the user name 'Fall' exploded into a billion little polygons, those around the exploded player looked in shock for a moment, before shrugging it off as someone logging off.

---

OOC: Lolk has decided to leave the thread, and requested that I not allow him back into the thread. He is our first official casualty. RIP in pepperonis.  I'm giving you the go ahead to post again, by the way.

Mechana briefly regards the player who had just exploded by her. Clearly, it was a ploy by capitalists to reduce game-time nothing to worry about. She had quests to do, because that is what you do in MMOs like this. Quest. As such, she starts off in a direction to find some NPC which would give her the glorious quest in which she could get better equipment, armor, and glory.