Monstrous Compendium Ch 12 Ficbit – Location

~ crossovercreativechaos

SAO had players all over Japan. Who knows where any of us are?

Given he hadn’t heard mass chaos – Klein probably wasn’t here, or that patient shuffling down the hall away from him would be shuffling much faster. Meaning a weretiger paladin had just woken up in the middle of another hospital full of sick, terrified people.

Please let some of Fuurinkazan be with him!

And Asuna… even if some of her guild were there, she’d be alone. The Knights of Blood had just found out their leader was the same accursed red dragon that’d trapped them all in the first place. They were still in shock.

Hell, I’m still in shock. Kirito rested his forehead against cool glass. I knew he had to be a clearer. I knew he had to be someone everyone respected, an ancient red wouldn’t settle for anything less….

And he even wore red armor, when all the other Knights were in white. How long was he laughing up his sleeves at all of us?

Well. He’d bet Beniryuu wasn’t laughing now.

What if he takes it out on the people in ALO… no. No, think. By now Lady Stheno should have scryed him and told him what’s going to happen. No handy curse yanking everyone into Aincrad. No factions, willing youkai against those who were adopted just to survive; fuses ready to light for him to blow the kingdom apart. Everyone who comes, is going to want to come.

Hopefully that’d be enough.

I… want….

He didn’t know. He didn’t know, and that tore his heart in two. Japan was numb and alien, but – his family was here. He never wanted to lose them again.

What do I do?

40 thoughts on “Monstrous Compendium Ch 12 Ficbit – Location”

  1. As much as I want to point out that it isn’t very nice to conclude that a lack of chaos means a lack of Klein… I cannot help but feel like he got a point there. However isn’t Kirito a magnet for Chaos as well? For complete and utter craziness? That said, I love this sequence. How he is desperately trying to find/reach Asuna. While simultaneously worrying about the future. What people would do to them once they knew the truth, what he wants to do when he has the choice.

    Seeing as Kirito seems overly fond of screwing the rules I’d say he should try to go full on Illic Nightspear with his Ranger abilites. Why roam just one world when you can have two? At this point in time I would have little trouble accepting that. Hell he probably deserves his own entry into an encyclopedia.

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    2. In fairness to Kirito, most of the big problems I’ve had started as “Well, why don’t I just talk to them about it?”

      It’s amazing how seldom folks, even those I love, hear what they expect you to say rather than what you actually say.

      For a silly example, my mom thought that I loved cold slaw and hominy in side dishes.

      I’m meh about slaw (and most things with sauce at picnics) and loath hominy, I am just not willing to be rude.

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      1. Communication is incredibly difficult. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been paying attention.

        My family thinks I love dogs. I have explicitly told them otherwise. “But they’re so adorable! Of course you love them.” Arrrrrgh.

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      3. I prefer to think of it as expectation mismatch- “surely, if she thought _____, then she’d say/do/be ________”– but if it gets strong enough and can’t be dispelled without serious cost, quite right. And a mean one, at that!

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      5. I am happy to say that my family understands me fairly well.
        There are the occasional snags, but in those cases I have a fair idea where the confusion arose and I simply never bothered to correct it.

        The ironic part is that I think I am very bad at socializing.
        Specifically I am terrible at small talk and I am perfectly willing to be rude.

        This leads to the obvious conclusion, the biggest barrier to communication is socialization.
        Children are taught from a young age to avoid honesty because nobody wants to hear that.

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      6. Figuring out what is excessive honesty, and what is acceptable, is definitely a learning experience….not helped by folks who desire drama, and accusing someone of bad manners is a great source for that.

        There are the occasional snags, but in those cases I have a fair idea where the confusion arose and I simply never bothered to correct it.

        Basically, it doesn’t matter enough to do the work (and demand the work of others) to fix, right?

        This leads to the obvious conclusion, the biggest barrier to communication is socialization.

        I agree with a sort of variation– small-talk is a means of identifying what kind of social expectations you’re facing. (warning, I haven’t tried to put this in words before, so it is kinda rough)
        It isn’t so much a set pattern as a way of showing “I am in your group” for normal small-talk– and that’s going to change for each social group.
        For an example, the classic “who would win, Batman or _____?” You find out if someone is going to argue in relatively good faith (Calvinball), how they take disagreement, how they have fun with the question– are they deathly serious? Do they HAVE to win? Do they suggest alternatives to make “their” guy lose? Do they admit a lack of knowledge about this or that character, do they sneer at whatever format of fandom they don’t consume?

        If they have nothing else to go off of, they’ll pick something obvious– which is generally either the weather, or your job. (In this instance, “job” includes polite variations on “oh my gosh, you have how many kids?” And no, I still have no polite response to a lot of really boring discussions.)

        I think part of why that bores us to tears is because there’s no good reason for it– and frankly, being the center of attention in the “I am asking you questions that I don’t have a good reason to want answers for” is a huge warning flag for a lot of folks who survived high school social interaction and pray to never return!

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  3. Now, now, Kirito, first things first. Those questions should have some time to be answered, and at the least, its been shown that contact between Eberron and Earth is possible, so decisions need not be irreversible. You should put your efforts to contacting your “birth” family first of all, since that was your core drive.

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  5. It seems he thinks everybody logged out with the youkai changes they got in the game, or at least that was my impression from the snippet.

    *if this impression is correct, is the impression of this being wrong conclusion, with him being the only one, or part of a minority to be so ‘special’?

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    1. He has reason to be worried– if he got a starter-version of what he was in game, and you combine that with guys who were adopted into the clans were OK for the first day or two and THEN hulked out, then it’s quite reasonable.

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      3. That means one of two things: either Kirito’s Astral quest paved the way for him to have more Shadow, or it made Shadow easier to drag through but Shadow is still really rare.

        Also, it may be a bit longer before the youkai ‘hulk out’. Aincrad was a high magic environment, Earth is low. Unfortunately, I’m pretty darn certain that the survivors are bringing magic with them. And the conjunction may allow backwash to flow through, more then normal because they got their magic from Eberron and like calling to like is basic magic.

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  6. -I… want….

    He didn’t know. He didn’t know, and that tore his heart in two. Japan was numb and alien, but – his family was here. He never wanted to lose them again.-
    And here we see the second purpose of ALO (aside from tricking much of the player base as possible into crossing over during the conjunction). Beniryuu would know that thanks to the protections etc that some of the players wouldn’t die even when they were killed in SAO. And said individuals would likely want something that felt normal/familiar to their magic-trained senses.

    Ergo they’d jump at ALO. I mean, take Sachi as an example. You’d expect after her experiences she’d never want to touch a VRMMO again and yet there she was in ALO. In fact I’d bet the vast majority of SAO survivors started playing ALO fairly quickly.

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  7. I try really hard to listen to my family so I don’t have that problem and I still mess it up.
    And just teasing, Crossovercreativechaos, my first reaction to your comment was: how can you not like dogs??? I’m so sorry. My sister is doesnt like them either, in fact she is almost afraid of them. She thinks they are cute, but has no interest in having one or being around one, etc.

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    1. I’m sorry, this was supposed to be a reply to Foxfier’s comment and it posted as a regular comment that makes no sense. 😅

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    2. I don’t like dogs, either– but I can explain why!

      Yes, they are adorable, and often have great personalities…but they have no concept of personal space, or that you might not want them either jumping all over you, or doing the “you are so dominant I am about to pee myself laying at your feet, you noticed me!” thing.

      Have met some cool dogs who were…well, more like cats. “OK, we’ve met, I might sit on the couch or near your feet while you’re reading, and I’ll sometimes do things with you, and yes that ear scritch is lovely, but calm down!”

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    4. Horses and hounds became so useful to humans after domestication because of very compatible body language and social structure.

      Viscerally, I was not really aware of body language growing up, and my social fu was weak.

      I relate to other humans through use of words, mainly. Humans can behave in ways that scare the crud out of me. I particularly dislike emotional displays, and touching is still something I’m not entirely comfortable with.

      Dogs are entirely alien to me. I’ve studied how they work as predators, but other than that, I understand nothing about their behavior. The social aspects of people being ticked at you because their dog tried to kill you, and you hurt the dog are an additional terror.

      I’ve had encounters with dogs that normal people found concerning. Dogs wandering loose that have been known to bite people, or to drive people inside their houses. I don’t remember so well the early encounters that would have been the cause of the phobia.

      I have, or had, a literal phobia of dogs, a strong irrational terror. When a gold lab playing with six year girl has you back against a tree because you only intellectually are able to work out that it just wants to make friends, you have a phobia. There’s a possibility that I’ve gotten better without noticing, but as recently as a few days ago I flinched and made sure they were behind a fence when out walking and dogs barked.

      I had unpleasant experiences with horses, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have a phobia of horses.

      I lived for a time in an area with big cats, and likewise studied them as predators for defensive purposes. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a phobia there either. I was scratched by domestic cats when young.

      I dislike most animals, and avoid them. Add in the allergies to dogs, cats, horses…

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  8. If it makes anyone feel better, I do not understand cats. Dogs I understand, but all dogs are a little bit different.

    Dogs like humans to act and respond in a stereotyped way, so that they can also act and respond in a stereotyped way. These actions and tones of voice, as well as one’s feelings inadvertently expressed by smells and microexpressions, constitute a sort of language. (Same thing with horses, although their “language” is herbivore instead of predator.)

    So what humans are supposed to teach young humans about interacting with dogs is how to perform the actions correctly, and thus, to help the dogs know what you are “saying.”

    Some people expect young or inexperienced humans to pick up the correct “wording” by osmosis. Only some humans can do this; most people know that it takes explicit teaching. It also takes experience, both from you and from the dog.

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    2. When I was very young, and my grandpa had a big rowdy bloodhound puppy, he scared the crud out of me and I ran. And of course he caught me and jumped at me and knocked me over and such, because he was considerably bigger and faster.

      So my parents told me that I had to stand still and not run, and I had to pretend that I was bigger than him, because he was the dog and I was the human. So I did. He was still pretty rowdy, but he calmed down a lot because I was not acting like prey.

      Most of dog communication starts with the human being (or pretending to be) the calm, dominant one. Of course that is not easy when scary things are happening, and of course it does not magically work with every dog. But adopting the correct physical attitude can change not only a dog’s reaction, but also a human’s mental attitude; and it works better with practice.

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      2. Cats… They do not scare me, but I do not get them. I watch those domestic cat nature shows.And actually learn things.

        I still remember the sleepover at a friend’s house where they put me in the spare bedroom — normally where the cats slept. And I woke up coated in cats, kneaded painfully by cats, with at least two sticking their heads in my mouth, watching my uvula or something.

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      5. I never turn my back to a dog and run. On flat ground, I can walk backwards and sideways, and have done to so move away while facing the dog.

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    3. Part of what I miss of the Seattle area is that I had a good walking path I could take with the kids, where I explained to them what dogs were “saying.”

      Part of what made it good is there was a dog that…if he was a human, he would’ve been an ax-wielding, screaming psychopath.

      So the older three all know what ‘I am going to kill you” barks sound like, as opposed to “my place!” (so will only bite if you come and invade it) and “HihihihihiHI!!!!PeoplepeoplepeopleHIHIHI!!!” barks.

      And that they can all hurt you anyways, because they just don’t understand.

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