Post by Kaito on Mar 2, 2016 11:18:16 GMT
"I'm no hero. I can't save my own life, let alone another. I was never a "Sapphire Samurai." Just a ronin fighting for ideals I can only hope to aspire to."
Kaito Lv1 | "A-Ah! Mah cane! By golly, I'd recognize dat ebonwood crook anywares!" The old man said with wide glazed eyes and bushy white eyebrows that seemed to sprout in every direction, running a frail hand through what was left of his snow white hair in surprise before looking the young man over, "Wh-Where did ya find th' ol' beaut?" Kaito smiled warmly as he handed over the dark handcrafted cane back to "Old Man Hazaren" as he had been bound to his house it would seem for most of the day with one soft old hand on rail of his front porch and the other cradling his back. "Where do you think you sly fox? Mrs. MacLanister wanted to make sure you got it back to her, since the two of you had dinner last night." The dark haired male replied back with a knowing wink. "Hehe, guess when ah left her home, I was feelin' a skip in me step and didn't need it! But she's just MISS MacLanister these days sonny, since 'er husband pasted five years ago. But I knew her when she was just Elena Bannis ages past." He exposited, tapping his brow with his newly found cane thinking back, "Prettiest girl in th' village that one, and still is ta me! Carlyle was a braver man than I was so many years ago and quicker on the draw. If I knew I had such a chance with her back then, I would have grabbed life by the horns!... What about you, 'venturer, you have someone with a love in their eyes waitin' for ya back home?" The question caught Kaito a little off-guard, because of how personal it was. But at that age, one doesn't have time anymore to be subtle. Still, he seemed sincere enough, "Well... no, not really..." He admitted, absentmindedly scratching his neck as he realized he never got around to making a connection like that with a girl, or anyone really but got the tip of said cane suddenly shot up to press against his chest, jolting a little. "Well don't just diddle-dally! This is th' prime of yer life! Cuz you sure as shootin' don't want to end up like me, do ye?" He gently scolded, ending with a smile before bringing his cane back down to earth as he dug around in his string purse, "Now, ah can't leave ya empty handed like. Here's a little walkin' 'round money fer yer troubles." Kaito accepted the coins of Col in different denominations in his open palm and nodded to Old Man Hazaren, "It was no trouble at all. Just remember to take everything with you on your dinner dates from now on!" He said that as he was making his way from the country house, Hazaren waving him off with a shake of his head and going back inside. That was a fun little distraction and felt rather nice afterwards to boot... and it was a pretty convincing NPC too. In fact, when done correctly, sometimes these quest NPCs were down right frighteningly real, in a good way. Hazaren, Miss MacLanister, the pub owner down the street where the old man had picked up some evening snacks, the flower shop before then and everywhere else in Horunka village had been a pleasant divergence. Maybe THIS was what he was wanting out of the Nerve Gear experience, not epic battles or fantastical worlds but seeing how far their AI had come. Because as amazing as a world was, if you didn't feel involved in it, a part of it, then it might as well be cute window dressing to some sort of E-Sport... and that's when he realized something. I'm trapped in this place, with danger outside of any town in the area, and I'm still thinking about game design... What am I even doing? He thought to himself as he hugged his body a little, looking out across the town, at a world so unimaginably real that couldn't have been possible only a couple of years ago, How could I possibly help make something like this? I don't have the tools or the knowledge... well... would anyone even WANT to still use this thing after SAO?... Oh who am I kidding? Only 10,000 of us will know this hell, someone's still going to use it. What do I have to look for when I get out of here... IF I get out of here? Jesus, I could ju- Kaito dark eyes were closed tightly, head leaning back with his hair across his face when he realized what he was hearing. Crying, soft and gentle with occasional little hiccups from someone young, or at least playing a young person. It wasn't real crying though, not the kind you usually hear children have but that idealized kind where they're barely holding it in as if ashamed they were in need of help. It was an adorable kind of sobbing that you couldn't hear outside of media and he looked around to find it's location, which wasn't that difficult to find. The one house on the... block, he guessed as this town was barely big enough to accommodate one, had a hide-bound hula-hoop and kick ball of sorts with signs of chalk artwork adorning the cobblestones leading up to the wooden home, home to a child. And with the bright light red hair poking a little from behind the picket fence where the kid was at, with her name hovering above as "Little Lylika" it was an NPC with probably a quest... but what he saw left him frozen momentarily. Lylika couldn't have been either year or two away from the double digits, or perhaps she had already reached it, but because of her pink and white outfit and the way she sat there in the grass with her legs tucked to the sides, she looked and acted like she was a good 5 years younger than she appeared to be. Her adorable dress looked a hint too far up and pared with the thigh-highs and her leather Mary Janes... his mind had trouble processing what his heart was beating uncontrollably for. This was obviously an adult male's idea of what a "little girl" must be to them, or what they pictured in their minds. But through the template of Moe and Kawaii culture with her little buttons and criss-crossing hair pins. She was the perfect image of a little girl... and it left him breathless with his heart in his throat. "Ah... Um... H-hey, are you... are you alright?" He said softly to her, subconsciously finding himself glancing around to make sure no one was seeing him approaching a young girl by herself before squatting down low to her level when she didn't reply, "Hey sweetheart, what's wrong?" It was then that she released he was there, looking up with big emerald eyes all watery, little lines of moistness on cherub cheeks as she quickly rubbed them away with delicate fingers, "H-Huh? I-I can't *sniff* I can't find Mr. Bun-Bun! *hup* I-I've looked and looked and can't find him anywhere! H-He's lost out here a-and it gets really scary at night so-so...!" She tried to explain herself between sharp breaths of air and the little sniffles of her button nose. "Hey, it's alright, calm down. Let's slow things down and tell me where you last saw him, okay?" He said gently to her, a part of him wanting to reach out and comfort her with a caress across her bare shoulders but restraining himself. He was a complete stranger after all and it might be taken the wrong way. "I-I know where he was! H-He was with Danzy and Bartle, they said- they said they were gonna teach him t-to fly b-but I wouldn't give him to them. B-But when I went back outside a-after lunch, he was gone! They had to take them, the meanies!" Kaito pondered what he figured must have been two little boys playing mischief as she sat there with a scrunched up angry pout as she was probably thinking of giving them a knocking around the head. But what did they mean about "teaching him to fly" he wondered? He had to get to the bottom of this. "Tell you what? Maybe you need a good boy to think like one of these meanies and find where they took Mr. Bun-Bun, right? I promise to get him back as soon as I can, okay?" He told her, kneeling by her side as he reached down and found his hand touching hers on her knee. This... this was okay, right? She was just an NPC and he was trying to show her he meant well. "Y-You mean it?" She asked, star eyed as she finally stopped crying and let a wide smile through those misty eyes to cross her pink lips, "T-Thank you! Um, um, Danzy and Bartle live on the other street down and around near the big hill. Maybe you'll find them there?" She suggested, giving his hand a return squeeze to help her stand up as the little redhead asked, "I'm Lylika, what's your name?" Lylika was practically two heads shorter than he was as the scruffy, dark haired male found his hand a little hesitant to leave hers as he replied with a warm smile, "Kaito, my name's Kaito... I'll be back before you know it." He told her as he finally let go, turning around and waving to her as she jumped and waved back with an ecstatic "Bye-bye!" But as he turned back around from the NPC (the NPC, the NPC, he kept repeated that word in his head) to try not to get attached, his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and his mouth dry as a desert. He knew this was wrong, felt it in his heart but just holding that little girl's hand stirred up affections in him that made his gut turn in equal measure. The butterflies in his stomach only really elevated themselves once he had turned the corner and she was no longer in sight. He knew it was a fabrication, a designer modeled version to capture his heartstrings in a second but he couldn't get away from it: that small, cute tenderness... he was attracted to it. He wiped the sweat from his brow, thankful he had gloves on as he was sure they were too, even in this springtime breeze as he reasoned with himself, It's fine, it's okay... I'm fine. I'm safe. I'm doing this because she's in need, that's all. I'm a good person, doing a good thing. Thank god it's not real. Someone like her doesn't exist in real life. Girls just don't act like that. |
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS