3559/Redeem the Christmas Renegade

Redeem the Christmas Renegade
Date of Scene:	22 December 2015
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Rudolph the red nosed reindeer has a very important quest.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, Staren, Theo Morrison, 649

---

Kirito has posed:
    It was HELL, that mess in Blight Town. Kirito's not been that disgusted for quite some time. Were he there in reality he'd probably be losing his lunch to that smell. All that yuck. Who knows what else.

    Well, whatever the case, he made it clear once it was all over that he was going to go relax in Aincrad afterwards.

    This apparently entailed taking a short bath after cleaning his clothes. They are, oddly enough for an MMORPG, currently drying by the fireplace in the living room while Kirito's reclining on his chair in ordinary black casual clothing. Black. Always black.

    His menu's open though, and he's poking through it idly. Checking various things, probably. Only one question really stands out...

    Why is he actually... DRYING OUT CLOTHING in a VRMMO?

    Old habits die hard really.

    Either way, the place is open for anyone who wants to unwind! There's plenty of Asuna's spectacular food in the storage-fridge and, awesomely, when materialized it is hot or cold or etc as it should be. It doesn't go bad in Alfheim Online! Or lose that fresh taste!

Staren has posed:
    Kirito can hear the sound of a large dog running up to the cabin and panting for a bit before Staren says, "Aemai, return!" and then knocks on the door, even if there is an open invitation. "Heya Kirito. So, after killing a bunch of monsters, you came back to an MMO to..." his joking tone becomes confused, "dry... your... clothes...?"

Tomoe has posed:
It Was hell, but a hell Tomoe knew well and she knew that place /used/ to be worse she was thankful kirito had let her drop by his place. Given her's was still locked behind an score or two of floors yet. She'd been cleaning herself up she got the gunk off and had changed out of her gear which was outside frying along side kirito's. She was wearing casual clothing though her sowrd arm was bear up to the shoulder showing she still had the tattoos from SAO there and she just looks over at her long time friend.

"What we had to clean up Staren, geeze wouldn't you do the same? honestly this place is more of a home to us than some places beyond it."

Kirito has posed:
    "Come in!" There's a quirk of ALO. If someone knocks and the owner invites someone in, the door is unlocked automatically for them! And that's what happens for Staren. Or would. he's already on the 'whitelist' of people who can come in whenever!

    Though Kirito gives Staren a very confused look himself. It lasts for several seconds... then he claps a hand to his forehead. "Old habits die hard, I guess. I forgot ALO has an option to clean and dry clothes more easily!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren gives Tomoe the look that someone who lives in a cushy awesome city and sometimes goes to fight monsters while equipped with the most advanced gear he can find, gives to someone who was just some girl who one day suddenly had to fight for her life every day for two years. "..." He then looks back to Kirito. "I meant why didn't you just log out, but..." He looks around the cabin. "I guess this /is/ more of a home, huh." He slips his hands into his coat pockets. "Well... yeah, sure let's hang! What, um, what /do/ you do for fun in an MMO besides... y'know, questing and killing monsters?"

Theo Morrison has posed:
Oh god, someone's coming, and they're /singing/. Who would do that in general chat on an MMO?!

    "Born underground, grown inside a rocky womb!
    The earth is our cradle; the mountain shall become our tomb!
    Face us on the battlefield; you will meet your doom!
    We do not fear what lies beneath --
    We can never dig too deep!"

The heavy tread of 'Theodotus' touching down and clomping and clanking his way towards the front door is pretty obvious. Even in a game with Norse roots, player characters wearing armor that heavy and doing more with it than complain it slows down their anime-esque swordsmanship is something of a rarity. Theo takes pride in his heavy armor and heavier weapon.

"Mining and crafting," he yells. "Are the other goons in residence?" Theo asks Staren, seeing his back through the doorframe and not much else. He says 'goons' with such a friendly inflection; he must be having a good night. "I've got to brag about this haul to /someone/."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks at Staren for a moment and seems confused for a moment.

"Oh, I sometimes forget this isn't me."

She gestures to her self a little bit but doesn't seem insulted t honesly. Well there's various vents and given this is full imersion there's things like an actual acting troup that puts on plays once and aa while. there's even a few singers I suspect a few might actually be famous back home and are just having some fun in ALO. You'd be shocked about the things that get going on..."

Then comes the singing of Theo she laughs and gets up.

"I got no issue with you telling us about this, Kirito let him in it's been a while since we seen Theo."

Kirito has posed:
    "Hmmmmmmm... well, the fighting's always exciting! But I like kicking back and relaxing. You can eat whatever you want and not take in any calories, so finding rare and interesting food ingredients for Asuna's always been great back in SAO." Kirito belts out smoothly. "You can live like a King if you want, I guess, with the right VR program besides an MMORPG, but I'm happy with relaxing. There's been a lot of improvements to ALO too! You can run some programs like web browsers and word processors from within Alfheim so a lot of people use it to do homework and research!"

    Kirito sits up properly now, hearing... someone... SINGING. A very odd sort of song that sounds like Gnome territory, big time. "Yo! Theodotus... you've been scarce. Back from hunting?"

    Oddly enough, Theodotus might find that he has been followed. Or rather, he was in the way of something following him. There's a scuffling noise, albeit a quiet one, and a very, VERY faint red glow illuminates the snow behind him. And there's a voice. A young, slightly rough but very emphatic young boy's voice. Speaking japanese of course, because that's the server's default.

    "Oops, hope I'm not interrupting something. Hello mister! Nice singing!" Presumably it's referring to Theodotus, because... the FOUR LEGGED CRITTER, a red-nosed reindeer. Oddly, it doesn't have a status cursor of any kind, or even a name showing up. Although... its identity should be pretty obvious. "Staren! Are you around? I thought I saw him come this way..."

    Rudolph(??? !! ?!?!?!?!) promptly rears up on his hind legs and looks in through one of the windows into the living room, lighting up EVERYTHING with nose glow.

    He seems to be in a hurry...

Staren has posed:
    Staren's ears perk up at the singing -- his tail sways to the and he looks around for the source. It's Theo! He smiles, "Hey, haven't seen you in awhile! Sure, what's your haul? Man, I forget about that stuff sometimes, all I took is Leatherworking and I only use it for basic repairs..." He steps aside to let Theo in.

    Staren gives Tomoe that look again, with a touch more confusion, as she admits she forgets it isn't her real body. Then he looks to Kirito, smiling as Kirito describes Asuna's culinary experiments. And listens with interest about the new features. "Really now? So it's really becoming a practical hangout spot..." Staren starts to think about the societal implications of this when...

    Rudolph.

    Staren can't help but stare. Not because of a talking ungulate, he's pretty used to that, but because an NPC he met once in Aincrad is displaying unusual behavior by /seeking someone out/.

    The implications of this get a gasp and he claps his hands to his mouth, hurrying to the door. "Oh my gosh. You're another... real-person-NPC, aren't you? Created by the real CARDINAL, and you've been waiting all this time..." Staren glances from Rudolph to Kirito and Tomoe. "Alfheim NPCs don't /do/ this, right?"

    While this might be confusing, he figures if Rudolph is a person, he should welcome the recognition. And if he's not, well, then his code is incapable of minding waiting while Staren completely breaks character.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo isn't particularly big, but he's definitely... way-blocking. The hammer he's got slung over his shoulder looks like it could and should be jet-propelled. It goes with the overall aesthetic of his armor, though it's the kind of thing you'd assume came from a version of Creation instead of ALO. It's not super-quest-artifact-level, but it's definitely big and impressive.

And way-blocking. Hence the comment.

"Hunting and gathering, like the peoples of old." He taps a menu as he steps in, holding out a hand. A chunk of ore, glimmering with metallic points jutting out, materializes in his hand. Theo grins, tossing it up and down. "Inventory full of it. Gotta bring it back and get this stuff processed -- hey Rudolph, thanks -- for the next big project. Oh man, you should've seen the... the..."

Theo turns, double-taking before he settles on the, um, red-nosed reindeer. "Uh," he says, eloquent as usual.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito, too, is stupified by what he's seeing. Although he did SEE Rudolph as an NPC in a quest once before, it wasn't so... close up. "Y... Yui?"

    The little Navigation Fairy does indeed respond to all of the ruckus! By flying out of a nearby room while carrying a rather large banana that she's having trouble hauling in fairy form, no less. Well, half of a banana... "What is it, papa-- oh. Oh wow!" She, too, is stunned by seeing Rudolph... although she waves the banana back and forth as a sort of effort to wave at Theodotus in greeting!

    Once Theodotus is inside, Rudolph wastes little time following.

    Kirito shifts his attention to Theo briefly. "Ooooooh. I know exactly who'll love to look that stuff over. Have you met Liz yet? Lisbeth... uhm." Kirito, too, is stumped by the fact that...

    Rudolph is hurriedly taking a stance in the room to address everyone. "Of course I'm real!" The reindeer asserts defensively. "And I'm glad you remembered me. It's been longer than I intended... I'd worried you might have forgotten me when you reincarnated as a fairy, swordsman."

    As usual, NPCs seem to ignore anything that isn't related to the in-character aspects.

    In fact, Rudolph looks around the room. He sees Tomoe, and Kirito, rather clearly. "Hey... things have gotten a lot worse since we last met, if you can believe that. Will you guys listen to my story? Christmas could really use fairy help right now."

    Rudolph waits patiently for a response, but he does also look around.

    Yui speaks up, answering Staren! "This is an unusual quest NPC! This one's connected directly to CARDINAL's most advanced dialogue generation! I haven't seen an NPC like this since Sword Art Online." She sounds just as confused as Staren.

    Rudolph seems to ignore Yui's speech just as he did Staren's commentary about CARDINAL though.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe gets up and is heading to get some food, Kirito's right. She can have all the food she wants here and not have to worry about it at all. She returns with some food in hand it looks like a submrine sandwhich of some sort. She looks back to Staren for a moment.

"It really is. People who are inferm or too old to do certain things can still do so here. It's curious to think abou...."

she pause at Rudoph for a momenbt blinking.

"You know Theo, Prendagon would help you with wait.... what are you doing here? This isn't the floating castle?! Err yes I'll hear what you have to say."

Staren has posed:
    Staren takes Rudolph's response as acknowledgement, and continues to stare at him... until the red-nosed reindeer says that things have gotten /worse/. Then he looks serious. It's the same as any other person asking for help, after all. Even if it was all just a story CARDINAL made up, if it brought the characters to life... It's real now, isn't it? "Of course we'll listen." Staren leans forward, then pulls one hand out of his pockets to beckon Rudolph. "Come in, come in, have a seat, or, stand, whatever's more convenient for you." Staren waits for Rudolph to either get settled in or start expositing, then takes a seat himself, leaning forward with elbows on knees and chin resting on folded hands.

    If the subject of Nicholas comes up, Staren can't help butting in with "Can we still save him?"

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo would make some remark or other about Liz being his sorta-competitor, or that he's a hard one to bargain with, but he's more flummoxed by an NPC acting this way. He /does/ have the presence of mind to wave to the, er... banana. He's met Yui before, of course, but... banana. It is entirely likely the player of the Leprechaun is in fact as stunned as his avatar suggests.

"F... fairy help?" His brain kicks into gear again after a rough start. Theo blinks. "Uh, right, sure! What d'you need? Should we assemble some kind of fellowship?" Theo has always wanted to call a big group that. Nobody ever goes for it.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    It's at this precise moment that Sinon walks in. She was apparently already in the house? Go figure. Well, you know how it is, practically everyone in the harem gets a key to this place. Or at least that's what she'd say if you asked her. She's also holding a spatula and a paper bag full of coffee, the reasons for which you'll never know.

    She puts the coffee in a cupboard.

    "I overheard interesting things. Are interesting things happening?"

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theodotus, while appropriately bishounen as per the stringent requirements of playing this game in the first place, is not a member of the harem. He has to bribe his way past the door guard like most everyone else.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is whitelisted and possibly has that 'touch fluffy tail' allure of being nonhuman, but is also most definately not a member of any harems.

Kirito has posed:
    Interesting things are indeed happening, Sinon. Rudolph is right there in the living room. Nose a-glow. Kind of hard to miss really.

    What.

    "Thanks. This is fine though. Can't stay long, I need to stay on the move or this whole plan goes out the window. So, a few of you remember when Nick- er, I mean, Nicholas was going berserk every year in Aincrad here, right? It all started when a letter arrived. I haven't seen the letter, so I don't know who it's from or what it's about, but this whole trouble started with it. For most of the year everything was fine... but around winter solstice and the following week or two... you saw what happened. It's some kind of curse, that's all I've been able to figure out."

    The Reindeer Guide shakes his head frantically. "They locked me up last time because I didn't want to cooperate with their plan to ransack towns in Aincrad... all of the other reindeer are affected by this curse too. And some of the people back home, too! Now the entire area's flooded with this strange darkness, like a fog. I don't know WHAT it is... but someone's got to stop it. Break this curse, make everyone normal again! I had to run away because monsters started showing up at the workshops and village. I think.... hope... that whatever's behind this curse will be there. If you can just break it...!"

    Wait.

    Nicholas the Renegade is an event boss who's charging around in the skies right now, right?

    A QUEST WINDOW POPS UP in front of everybody present.

    Title: 'A Storm in Winterland: Redeem the Christmas Renegade'

    [O] Accept / [X] Decline

    For Staren, it's different. His quest menu pops up. The entry of 'Redeem the Christmas Renegade' that's been there since Sword Art Online - somehow - blinks and changes to 'A Storm in Winterland: Redeem the Christmas Renegade'

Staren has posed:
    Staren was already planning to save Santa anyway, so he doesn't find anything odd about the quest changing. He's more focused on going over what Rudolph said, trying to figure out where to approach this problem. "You know, a lot of other NPCs are out there asking people to /kill/ Santa. I wonder if that will cause us problems..." He has a sudden realization. "Wait, so...we need to go to Santa's workshop and investigate? Can you mark where it is on our maps?"

    And another part of his mind can't help but imagine...

    Several thousand souls trapped in Sword Art Online, who've watched thousands die...

    With one impossible wish for Santa Claus: Return.

    Or worse, one terribly possible one: Escape.

    Could either have driven the man insane? It didn't really /happen/, of course, but the narrative that the NPCs remember will matter as much as if it did...

    He doesn't talk about this speculation here and now, though.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe does not blink too hard as their guest pops in. She nods for a moment.

"I do, I'd be dead if not for what was aquired from that quest so thank you."

She seems to mean it, is to the NPC? Cardinal? It's hard to know but she is thankful. She pause at the mention of the letter, takes a bite of her food and seems to be thinking. She looks at the quest poip up and hits the accept button like she's working for the Gutsy Galaxcy Guard.

"All right I'm in. If this ends up PVP then so be it. It could be pretty much fun and I want to put this to rest too."

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "There is a reindeer in your lounge, Kirito." Excellent observation skills there, Sinon.

    She should have known, really, shouldn't she? Sinon wanted to investigate this holiday questline, and naturally someone in the Gatecrashers would have an inroad on some sort of special aspect of it. She stands there with one hand on her hip, and a wry but impressed look on her face as she listens to the rest of things develop.

    Naturally, Sinon can't share in the thoughts of the Death Game, and she can't hope to imagine what it was like for the others, but that doesn't devalue anything she's experienced alongside this odd bunch either...

    What an interesting life she leads now.

    Naturally, she accepts the quest.

Staren has posed:
    Staren thinks of something to add: "Also, before you go... is it possible there might be spells or items we could use to /hide/ you? I mean, I know invisibility spells, but they don't last very--" he gasps and looks to Kirito. "Kirito! You're a Spriggan! The best illusionists in the game! Is there a way to hide Rudolph so all of the other reindeer and Nicholas can't find him?"

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo finds himself reflexively accepting the quest while listening to the whole explanation. He's an old hat at regular MMOs, the kind where you pick up a half-dozen, clean a hub and move on. He wasn't involved in the death game thing and has few qualms about being a total bastard about things like PvP, too, so gamer-habits rather than living-habits are what he goes by.

"Yeah, he followed me in," 'Theodotus' asides to Sinon.

"A PvP quest sounds like a hell of a lot of fun," he remarks. "I love it when there's some kind of actual plot attached to it, too... er." He stops himself from going down that path. Theo is vaguely aware that the SAO survivors (what a word) are uncomfortable when he tries to game the, uh, game. "...what I mean is, you have my hammer."

C'mon guys. Fellowship of the Nose.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito's expression throughout all of this is... odd. Even with Sinon walking in and the others joking, HIS expression has taken a turn for the worse.

    And a few people here may know really just why his gut's sinking into the depths of the lowest layer of hell when anything regarding 'Nicholas the Renegade' comes up.

    Rudolph seems oblivious to his changing emotions though. Only the fact that, a good ten seconds or so after the others accept... so does he with a reluctant press.

    Right after Tomoe's words shake him down!

    Of course a few people like Sinon may have to really wonder just WHY Kirito looks as down in the dumps and like he's on the verge of flipping out into either tears or rage as it gets.

    "Great! You don't know how much this means to me. Hey... about where it is, yeah. It's not a part of Alfheim or Aincrad directly. I'll have to take you there with a spell. Here though..." Everyone's map gets a marker update!

    Somewhere on the outskirts of the great forest outside Sylvain in Sylph territory it looks. An area with lots of pine trees, if anyone's really familiar with it.

    Rudolph also rears up on his hind legs and gestures, nose glowing brightly!

    ... Colored logs drop onto the floor in front of Staren. "You guys will need all the help you can get. As many strong fairies as you can get. When you're ready, just light up these logs at that spot. I'll see the smoke and head right on over."

    The reindeer exhales a sigh, as if this is a huge load off his chest. One major relief! It's a very convincing act, for anyone thinking it's just some random NPC.

    Kirito's jarred out of his funk by Staren too. "E-eh? How would I know? I hardly use magic! Swordsmen don't need it!" Yui frowns though... "I doubt the quest could account for that." She sounds unsure though. CARDINAL can be unpredictable.

    Rudolph then adds, "And... yeah. I know. There's a lot of people in the towns being menaced by the Wild Hunt, so Nicholas is getting a lot of violent people after him! It's... it's not a DISASTER if he's defeated. Spirits like him don't stay down. But both times it happened this... curse, or whatever it is, has gotten stronger. That might be the cause! And... if you can help all of us make sure Christmas goes right this year... even if it's a few days late, that's fine... well, it's Christmas. One good turn deserves another! ... Oh yeah. You've gotta get this taken care of before New Years Day."

    Meaning, be good, and you'll get presents.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Naturally Sinon picks up on that massively pensive Kirito, and it's his expression that causes her to realize that what Tomoe was saying probably has far more to it than she first gave it credit... she's clearly going to have to try and pry into both of them later.

    "Looks like someone needs to diversify their build," is all she says for now though, giving Kirito a playful poke on the shoulder.

    Clearly, with holiday dinners, parties, and helping Kirito grind magic EXP, she's going to have a busy week.

Staren has posed:
    Geeze, Kirito looks /really/ put off about this business specifically. Staren wonders if maybe there's more to it than the story about the girl who sent him a christmas carol after she died...

    Man, if Staren ever catches Kayaba, he's going in a /small/ box, although, if he helps Yuuki live that'll certainly be worth a few points as possible interest in redemption.

    Staren nods. "I see. So we just bring people and fight our way through Santa's corrupted workers and try to find a way to break the curse, huh..." His eyes widen as he notices the quest changing -- he still has it open in another window. "Holy cow, 49 people?" Well, Gatecrashers aside, he's sure there are plenty of people playing the game to be heroes. Maybe he isn't the best to recruit them, but he's sure the Gatecrashers can find some! Staren stands and walks over to Rudolph, crouching in front of him slightly. "You got a deal." Staren then holds out his fist for a hoof-bump, since Rudolph obviously can't shake hands.

    Staren doesn't get the hint about presents. But if Rudolph, Nicholas, and possibly even other Christmas event NPCs are really people...

    Well, isn't freeing them enough? Making a better future. Proving that his continued involvement is helping the Multiverse, rather than harming it...

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe seems serious but sullen and she looks really concerned about Kitiro. She listens to the plan and it sounds like a raid she tries to not think about that winter, the stories she heard.

"A full out raid just like back in SAO, funny feels like something I'd expect more out of Avclanche Games MMORPGs."

Staren has posed:
    "If these were common in Sword Art Online, why is it strange?" Staren observes. "This quest is /from/ SAO."

Theo Morrison has posed:
"Is that supposed to be a thing?" Theo asks. He's claimed a seat, or the edge of it anyway. "I mean, I know SAO is the sort of father of modern VRMMOs, but it's kind of like saying that I should expect people to play straight flushes in Magic."

Staren has posed:
    Staren considers this for a moment. "...I think maybe even if you're playing Magic, you should expect things to not be playing by normal rules when, uh, the Jack of Hearts shows up and asks you for help."

Kirito has posed:
    Yui decides to point out, "A Quest NPC like this showing up means CARDINAL is using the full capabilities of dynamic quest generation! I'll tell you more about it later if you like."

    Rudolph nods in response to Staren. "Y-yeah. You could put it like that. ... Thanks again, all of you!" The offered fist is bumped with a hoof! Quite earnestly! "I've gotta get moving again before the Wild Hunt figures out where I am. Can't have all of you getting caught up in this before we get our plan working. Remember, burn the logs at the spot on your maps when you're ready. And be ready for anything. I don't KNOW what's been happening since I left or what's lurking in that fog. Even my nose can't see through it..."

    Oh dear indeed.

    Rudolph hurries over to a window and looks out...then decides to vamoose through the door!

    QUEST ACCEPTED.

    "Well." Kirito states, eyes about as wide as they get, "That was a thing." He's still VERY rattled, by the look of it.

Staren has posed:
    "Best of luck, man." Staren says. Wild Hunt... the name makes him wonder if CARDINAL has been hearing things about other worlds... Staren shrugs. "Ready for anything is... business as usual for us, I guess." He watches Rudolph go, then collapses back into his chair. "Whoof. Yeah. That, uh..." he shrugs. "If CARDINAL /did/ make real people again, we've gotta help them. But... I'm not a great people person. Do you think the other Gatecrashers will be able to recruit some heroic players to fill out the raid? I think the only people I'm gonna be able to persuade are, like, my parents and Twilight. Although, she only just started so I guess her character wouldn't be very strong... I wonder if we should try going on this one for real... Then more Union members could come... although, if I've read this all wrong and it /is/ just CARDINAL doing all this without making real people for NPCs, we'll feel kinda silly after... then again, if lives /are/ in the balance and we limit ourselves to game abilities..."

Theo Morrison has posed:
"Just post on community boards about it. You don't need 'heroic' players to fill ranks," Theo points out, "you just need ones who are in it for either the achievement of doing it this way or the reward of not getting put on the naughty list. For most people, this /is/ just a game. The personhood or non-personhood of an NPC isn't actually important to get the bodies to fill a raid out."

Practicality, thy name is Theodotus. Sometimes it helps to have someone around who doesn't live here.