Grancrest oneshots

SAO

3rd pov (SAO AU)

Theo has always enjoyed VRMMO's, playing them in the free time he has, between meetings with friends outside of it and the business he runs, but the one that has the most hype is Sword Art Online. He knows why, since it's an ambitious one and the trailers are interesting in their own right, but he has a lot of meetings and immediate pressing needs to deal with at the company, so he's barely paying much attention to media right now, his friends keeping him plenty updated.

Lassic and Moreno are huge VRMMO nerds, enjoying using swords and other things as weapons, enjoying the feel of them. Priscilla prefers to go there in order to join her church, most of whom like being able to talk to others further out of reach about their religion, and holding the exact same meetings as they do in real life. His other friends are mostly business owners, Villar and his wife Margaret, Marrine and her husband Alexis, the four of them well known for either trying to set him up on dates or embarrass the ever loving shit out of him. He honestly had been looking around recently, trying to get back into the flow, and knows his friends are just trying to help, since Rebecca had not been who he thought, not after everything. He had served the military for a few years, being honorably discharged after a damn bomb went off and shrapnel almost cut his knee off. He still has it, but the scars are pretty bad and they tend to hurt, meaning he has stretches, pain pills and a crutch to help him get around.

Rebecca had been his girlfriend before he joined the military, had urged him to join and follow his dream, and he finds out exactly why when he returns home, a crutch under his arm and his bag over his other shoulder : she's been cheating on him, has been for years, even before he left. He kicked her out, as well as her current boyfriend, one night stand whatever, and then promptly took a night to break down. His friends had never liked her, but he had wanted to trust her, thought he knew her better, but turns out, they were right, and he can see why now. She never went for the hugs, the hand holding, the leaning into each other and she didn't want to snuggle with him either, but she was more than content to kiss him or have sex.

She had also taken quite a good chunk of his self-confidence with her, tearing him down for anything she could : his stamina, his clothes, his work hours, the time he got to see her, claims of cheating on her, anything she felt like, she tore to shreds. He's been avoiding women since then, not gay but certainly not having much of a heart to go right back into dating either. So when his friends encourage him to play SAO on his weekend off. (He's certain now that if they had been aware of the consequences, they would never have encouraged him, but he can not ever regret the time he spent there. Nor does he blame them.)

He gets on a couple hours after it's started, about 3:30 and he decides he'll get off around 7, after all, he gets to sleep in tomorrow barring emergencies and there's nothing he can do about those until another time anyway. It doesn't take him long to understand the mechanics, learning pretty quickly the correct way for a sword skill - he's going one handed, and his shield will be something he can wear comfortably - as well as a shield skill, before heading off into the great area. He's amazed by the visuals, but he also knows this is just as class to real as it can get, since the food isn't actually filling nor is the water, though he's thankful for that. He kills several monsters, never going below yellow, refusing to get so reckless during his first few kills, especially since this is a new game, the mechanics may be similar, but they're still different enough to throw a person off.

It doesn't take him long to take a few quests as well, killing monsters, gathering herbs and just in general doing anything he feels like, leveling up as he goes. It's not until it's about 5:30 ish that he debates getting off for dinner, but he's so used to late dinner's that it won't bother him. The forced teleportation takes him by surprise, but he's as calm as possible, hand on his sword, relaxing once he spots everyone else. The huge form that appears - Akihiko - bears bad news, and he knows the man speaks the truth, so he gives a sigh. However, he's not been a businessman for years to not know something suspicious and so he wonders why Akihiko did not reveal his face - did he perhaps do the stupidest thing and enter the game as well? Theo doesn't know yet, but he certainly keeps that in mind, glad his company knows how to work with him absent, since he has to travel so often for his job.