Sword Art Online
Recurrence/Rebirth
Recurrence/Rebirth
Our party walked through the town together like it was a regular thing. I walked alongside Viola while she did her shopping and we made casual conversation and laughed, nothing eccentric like earlier. Crod went about gazing at armor like he was child in a candy store... or a pervert in a candy store. I don't know, I was beginning to think he liked armor better than women, maybe he wasn't a threat after all.
It was interesting, I looked back on this past day and couldn't believe everything that had happened to us had happened within the time span of a few hours. I was on a quest chasing a Den, and Viola took the kill right from under my nose. While I felt disappointment at first, she struck me as a very interesting person, and I used my smooth samurai charm to work my way into a party with her. I vowed to protect her, and she replied with... something about me doing crossword puzzles for her.
Shortly after we partied up, Crod appeared before us, and he just let off a super-perv kind of aura. I could've sworn he was going to try and take advantage of Viola! So I stepped in and initiated battle with him. Honestly, he didn't really seem like that bad of a guy, just a little awkward. But I was having too much fun to say it to anybody else, so I just rolled with it.
In the end, Viola snapped us both back into reality before either of us actually killed each other, and she settled things up. It was decided that the three of us would party together to work towards defeating the Floor 30 boss, which leads us to where we are now.
Viola brought up the fact that she thought we should maybe have a larger party to take on the boss, and Crod concurred right before he let us know he was logging off for the night and said his goodbyes. After that, it was just Viola and I sitting at the town fountain.
"Don't worry Pumpkin Pie," I said to Viola with a smile on my face as I looked up at the virtual sunset in the sky, "Even if we don't find another party member, I think the 3 of us could probably handle the boss. We'll see what happens. I stood up and stretched before letting out a heavy sigh. "Well my lady, I need to be logging off too, I have to work in the morning (sorry for talking about Real Life while I'm in character, it happens)," I whispered as I finished up.
I opened up my menu and brought my finger to Log Out button, and turned to Viola before pressing it. "I had fun today. I'll see you tomorrow, okay Viola?"
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July 1, 2034
"Sir, I'm not going to give you a refund for this coffee," I said to the stubborn old man.
He let out what sounded like a little growl. "But why not?! It didn't have two squirts of vanilla, it only had one!"
"It did have two squirts of vanilla, I made it myself! And even if it didn't, you drank the whole thing, so I'm sorry but I can't refund you!"
The old man stormed off out of the café. This happens every Tuesday.
The coffee shop I work at is simply called Ned's Café. Ned's father named it after him, and it was passed down to him when he got older. Ned was an average looking man who appeared to be in his early 40's, and he was a really nice guy. He was always smiling, and very sociable. And I was his go-to guy for covering shifts and taking care of things when he wasn't around.
I set up a bagle-rack by the door that could be seen from the outside window, and then I wiped off the counter as I listened to the sweet music filling the place. The café had a stage built into it, so we had people performing quite frequently. Ned's favorites, as well as most everybody else's, was a duo that came in all the time and played Violin and Piano. Ned told me to make a tip-jar special for when they came in, and I left it on the counter so that people coming in and leaving would pass by it. It simply read "The Talent", and had a couple of musical notes on it.
The girl who played violin was Zoey. She was an interesting girl indeed. She typically wore bright colored clothing, and she had long brown hair that she let run wild and free.
"Excuse me, I was um... Wow, this is kind of embarrassing, did you want to do something when you got off of work?" A woman's voice pulled my attention away from the duo's music, and I turned to face a pretty young girl, maybe in her 20's. She had on red lipstick and had some dark eye-liner. Her blonde hair was very wavy and shaped around her face perfectly. She wore a blue dress with a black cardigan over-top of it.
"I'm sorry," I replied to her. "I, uh-"
"Don't worry about it," she cut me off, "Your attention seemed to be elsewhere anyway." She walked off without another word. I felt a little bad, but it happens. I've been rejected on several occasions. You see, this girl was pretty, sure, but she hid behind all of that make up, and she looked looked like she may have spent 40 minutes on her hair. While I enjoy the company of women, I truly appreciate the ones who are... Natural. I shifted my gaze back to Zoey. She probably didn't spend any time on her hair. When you were near her, you could see the faintest freckles on her face. You could tell she wore what she wanted, what made her comfortable. She was real. She was also a bit ditzy sometimes, but you never had to wonder if she was bullshitting you when you talked to her. Viola kind of reminded me of her. I've never really talked to Zoey outside of work, but she was always pleasant and talkative.
Was I a hypocrite? The things I enjoyed most about women like this were the total opposite of me. I was like two completely different people online and offline. Which one was the real me?
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