everythingtrulywrongwithsao

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

Title: Boss Room Relationships: Silica/Sinon Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 1289 Summary: It's the first time Keiko is seeing her family since she's started dating Shino. She struggles to tell her family about it. Author Notes: Written for SAO Pride Week 2022 Day 3: Coming Out.

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Keiko's long, frilly dress comes close to dragging against the stone floor with each of her steps towards the door to her parents' house. She doesn't have to, but she bunches some of the fabric between her fingers to avoid getting it dirty, just to be safe.

This dress is one of the many ill-fitting articles of clothing bought for her when she was a few years younger, the purchase done with the expectation she'd grow into it; an assumption that mocks her to this day, littering her wardrobe with dresses a size too big for her 4' 10" of height. As she looks at Shino by her side, clad in a flannel shirt and a jean skirt, Keiko can't help but think that her parents' assumptions about her tend to cause her nothing but trouble.

She sighs.

Seeing as Keiko hesitates to knock on the door, Shino, who's been mostly silent since they left the bullet train, pipes up.

"Whatever happens, it's not like I'll stop being your girlfriend, you know?"

Keiko doesn't look at her, but her hand reaches for Shino's arm. I know, the gesture wordlessly says. 

Keiko has liked girls as far as she could remember, even if she didn't always know . She's gotten a fair lot of attention from boys in her time in SAO, and mostly didn’t dislike it, but something clicked back then when the rare girl would call her cute. It sends a shiver down her spine to have a place place as unpleasant as the death game be the source of her sapphic awakening, but little about SAO was purely pleasant or unpleasant. Allowing her to find herself amidst the strife was perhaps Aincrad's saving grace. 

Now that she knows of her inclinations and has a girlfriend, the idea of opening this door to a family meeting and letting them know feels like a greater challenge than entering a boss room. Silly as it is to compare both, she wonders if that's how the frontliners back in the death game felt before clearing a floor, forced to open a door to what felt like certain doom if they wanted to make any progress.

"I'm not worried about us as much as, just… I told you about my family. They are…" she punctuates her sentence with a vague hand gesture. "I don't live with them because the survivor school is all the way in Tokyo, and they found a way to resent me for that somehow. If they can find a way to get mad at me for having been in a coma , they'll find a way to get mad at… Us. Me." Keiko's teeth clench in a way that makes her jaw squarer. "Me and my dad only just got to speaking terms again, when I finally visited on New Year's. I guess I'm afraid of losing that."

When she stops and thinks, this is how it's always been with her parents; they never understand. Her father calls her insane for daring to use VR again. Her mother would chide her for refusing to go to her aunt’s house, where her cousins would incessantly ask her intrusive questions about her time in the floating castle. Both of them told her that changing her study focus from being a chemist to being a psychologist was a foolish choice, especially with how heartbroken it made her grandpa, who was excited to see her following in his footsteps. 

"I don't know," Keiko says, biting her lip. "I guess I'm being a bit of a coward, haha…”

Truly, she's always been a coward, and she knows it. She couldn't face the front lines in Aincrad, couldn't face her dad head-on until holiday last year, couldn't—

"Hey now," Shino interrupts her train of thought. Her hand reaches for Keiko's. "You’re being too hard on yourself. It’s not weird to be scared when dealing with stuff like that. It’s not like I have much experience with it myself, but…”

Shino’s words feel bittersweet as they leave her own mouth. Shino understands that with her absent parents, distant relatives, and few longtime friends, worries about coming out creating a rift between her and her close ones probably never were on her mind quite as often as they were Keiko’s. She doesn’t know if her mother would even be able to process it if she were to broach the subject, and she isn’t close enough to her aunt to care if she had a negative reaction. She feels a tinge of jealousy at how, despite Keiko’s predicament, at least Keiko gets to have a father to be stuck in said predicament with. 

“... But I think that if we managed to survive literal death games, we can take on your relatives.”

“... Probably,” Keiko responds. 

Shino is right. How is she still scared of anything after the two years she spent in the floating castle, literally fighting for her life? 

Shino had told Keiko before that her original reason for logging in Gun Gale was that she was looking to become a stronger version of herself, to shed away her weakness as Shino, the fragile schoolgirl, by immersing herself in Sinon, the cold sniper of the wastes. And, against all odds, she did in some way. 

As Keiko looks at herself trembling in fear at the idea of uttering the words, “This is my girlfriend,” in front of her parents, she can’t help but wonder if Aincrad made her any stronger. Perhaps unlike her girlfriend, who had toughened herself through steel and grit, her time in Aincrad had her hollowed out like a gourd, and nothing but the plastic image of the cutesy girl with the feathery dragon remained; cute, convenient, and perhaps attractive to some, but lacking in strength to handle things by herself. 

At times, it feels like everybody around her matured from the experiences they faced, but all she got for her trouble were these shaky hands.

“I wish I could be more like you,” Keiko says, after a moment lost in thought. 

“Like me?”

“Yeah! You’re strong. You’re cool. You don’t get cold feet when it matters.”

That draws a chuckle out of Shino. 

“I’m not so sure about that. Come on, you know me. Lots of things still make me nervous. I wish I was more like you , really.” 

“Like me?”

“Yeah, like you. You have a big heart, to the point where you care more about others than you do yourself. I wish I was more like that sometimes, but… I don’t think my brain is there yet, or something.”

A part of Shino doubts herself even as she admits as much. In fact, looking at Keiko, she believes she can think of at least a person she might have a soft spot for.

“Knowing you,” Shino continues, “You’re probably thinking of this as something you’re doing by yourself. That dealing with your parents is your battle, and you shouldn’t burden others with it. But that’s what I’m here for… that’s kind of the point.”

Shino interlaces her fingers with Keiko’s. As she does so, Keiko remembers Shino’s use of we earlier. 

It’s nice to remember that she is not going in there alone. 

“You’re right,” Keiko says. “I just wish this was easier. But if you’re with me, then…”

She squeezes Shino’s hand tighter.

“I don’t have to worry about anything.”

She takes a deep breath. She can still feel her heart beating so loudly in her chest that she can hear it blaring in her ears, but that’s fine.

As she taps her knuckles on the door to her family house, a sense of serenity washes over her as she looks to her side.

I am not entering this boss room alone .

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

... anyway fanatio is trans. thanks for coming to my TED talk

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

I’m curious do you hate SAO or no?

Nah, the blog title is just a reference to an old SAO meme (?) of sorts! SAO is one of my favorites animes and I’m super excited for the new animes coming out for it this year!

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

I don’t play the SAO games but Lis’ GGO outfit for the Fatal Bullet is very cute and very butch, and i’m 100% here for it

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

Wait, could you elaborate on that a bit? That sounds pretty interesting.

The second season of SAO includes themes from Shakespeare’s “A Midnight Summers Dream” AND THATS SO FXCKING COOL

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

This trailer, scheduled for a February 18th release!

the new sao movie trailer implies kirito being out of shape might be somewhat of a plot point so I hope ordinal scale is just two hours of kirito panting through the streets of tokyo while asuna, who’s been doing pilates ever since the end of the death game, drags her boyfriend around town in a fireman’s carry

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Since someone’s gotta do this: SAO DND TABLE AU

Kirito has the most DND experience after Klein and Agil, mostly in weird online text groups. He only DM’d though. This is his first time playing the game with a Player Character, so he ends making the most comically Sappy and Tragic backstory and says his character is a Lone Wolf despite being in a party with half a dozen people. Insists his fighter is a **~~Chaotic Neutral~~** when he is clearly, comically Lawful Good

Asuna had never played DND in her life but she got like the best possible stat rolls. She used to think DND is for loser nerds before playing it but by the end of the first session she is roaring in excitement over NAT20s. Lawful Good Paladin

Lisbeth has played before; more into roleplaying and making hilarious shit happen than in combat. "You roll to seduce the door” is exasperatedly told by her DM at least twice per session. Her character had short-lived romantic subplots with Asuna’s and then Kirito’s but she quickly dropped them because they can’t RP for shit. Chaotic Neutral Rogue

Silica never knows what the hell is going on at the table, but she is having the most fun by far. That One Person Who Dresses Like Her Character. Neutral Good Bard/Ranger (Multiclassed)

Agil can only make it to half the sessions because he has actual responsibilities. DND Veteran. He is the only one who takes this as seriously as he is good at it, That’s The Joke. Lawful Neutral Monk

Klein is that one guy who NEVER sees the NPC's betrayal of the party coming. Like, ever. Kirito helped him figure out the rules for the new DND edition. Tries to score with the NPC ladies despite his low charisma stat. Always pays for the pizza. Everyone thinks he’s the coolest guy at the table, but would never say it to his face. Chaotic Good Fighter

Suguha got interested after seeing her brother’s enthusiasm over DND and joined in their second campaign. Was kinda nervous over being new to a stablished group, but fit in perfectly. Figured she’d get into the combat and made a Cool Warrior Lady but wound up falling in love with her character and before she knew it she had written like 10 pages worth of backstory. Chaotic Good Arcane Warrior

Sinon joins in the middle of their second campaign. Met Kirito previously in a Remarkably Bad online one shot Pathfinder campaign in a modern setting with the edgiest of DMs featuring the edgiest of antagonists. Only thing written in her character’s sheet is “doesn’t talk much”. Does not do a whole lot outside of killing monsters but everyone thinks her character is the absolute coolest anyway. Has actually read the rulebook. True Neutral Ranger

Their first group got together through a really shady DND/homebrew group call. Kayaba was the DM and he was just like, the weirdest guy ever. Dude looks like a hobo but he lives in a pretty fancy house, go figure. Insists the party should take his OP NPC with them and what do you mean he is suspicious guys, trust me, Heathcliff is a Lawful Good Paladin who’d never do anything wrong. He isn’t gonna turn out to be the Big Bad or anything Asuna please stop casting Sense Alignment. Everyone more or less agrees he was the fucking weirdest but they’re really grateful to him for bringing them together

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

very important question: if sinon had a tumblr nowadays would she love or despise the gun meme

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

Kirito is that one guy who plays pokemon competitively and writes Smogon reviews. Every time a new pokemon game comes out he is pulling hairs trying to figure out the new meta. “my mewtwo is fucking useless now asuna”, he explains. “kirito it’s 4AM can you please come back to bed”

Agil and Klein are genwunners who cannot believe that there are like, over 1000 Pokémon in 2025. “Kids did you know that back on my day we only had 150 Pokémon?”, they say, rocking on their chair. “and we were grateful for it kids we were grateful”

Asuna and Sinon never managed to finish a Pokemon game. Sinon likes the cool final evolution designs but she can never get behind the silly plotlines. All Asuna ever did was catch a Butterfree and name it “Lowfat” on Kirito’s file

Suguha only picks Pokémon she finds cute for her team. She names hers after people she cares about and her Honedge is named “Brother”

Lisbeth names hers stuff like “Dongermeister69″ and “egg”. Her team is a mix of Cutesy Pink Pokemon and Giant Beasts of Destruction. She loves every single one of them and will passionately defend her Tropius, humbly named “ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ” from any of Kirito’s shittalking abouts its stats

Silica is pretty casual about most games EXCEPT Pokémon. She is a goddamn beast when it comes to that. Fully shiny, 6 perfect EVs team, pokedex completed in every game she ever played, over 1000 hours logged in any of the titles. She’ll play pokemon while logged in ALO, she doesn’t give a fuck. she has a Salamance named Pina who she says it’s her baby. Kirito runs a cold sweat every time she brings a DS to one of the gang’s meetings

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I like Lisbeth’s character episode but honestly: I still do think it’s kinda lame how “true warmth in that world” was something she only managed to find with Kirito, because we learn right away that she is best friends with Asuna for seemingly months before this event

I don’t necessarily mean that she should have developed feelings for Asuna instead of Kirito or anything, but that I don’t see why Asuna’s warmth, in the form of her words and her kindness and her hugs, were not good enough to be considered “something real for her in that world”. I just don’t see why her platonic feelings and her touch were not enough to reach her in that level if they really meant so much for each other. That’s Ultra Bogus, man

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

Funny enough, she was (at least in the novels). From SAO - Volume 4:

Lisbeth who looked dizzy suddenly shouted as she waved her arm to get my attention. "...That girl, she couldn’t possibly be drunk..." While my eyes were fixed on the huge glass filled with a pink liquid she was holding, I whispered. Hearing me, the outlaw shopkeeper [Agil] wore a straight face and said. "It’s below 1% so it’s fine. Tomorrow is a holiday anyway."

I figure 1% isn’t actually that much, so either Lisbeth is one of those people who are like “MAN I’M REALLY FEELIN’ IT” while drinking things she just thinks are alcoholic, or she's just that much of a lightweight. 

Look at Asuna’s face, I bet Lis was drunk

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

I think that’s a really interesting aspect about Kirisuna - while it’s normal for characters in fiction to fall in love fairly quickly (even though I think two years is a good amount of time for two people to get to know each other), there is also the fact that their situation not only forced them to mature faster, but made them see their lives as incredibly short.

I mean, it’s pretty clear they love each other due to how good and supportive one is for another, but the situation they’re in, with the constant risk of death, does put them in a position where they are much more willing to take huge steps in their relationship. The fact they are willing to marry, move in together, and adopt a child so fast comes off as weird for viewers sometimes - but is it that weird to take such leaps if you think that could be your last day on earth?

It’s really cool to think about how Aincrad affected their romance. They were two kids who were still just starting to live, and just like that, they didn’t know if they’d get to do it. So like many people in Aincrad, they did their best to live the most they could in what little time they thought they had.

Does anyone think about Sword Art Online and the fact that they get married and it’s seen as just this next step in a normal relationship but at the same time it’s really important??? It’s weird because they know they’re in a virtual world but they’re not sure if they’re ever going to wake up and they’re young but I keep on reminding myself that they’ve probably grown up a lot while stuck in the game. It’s just really weird to think about. 

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

I’d remove that one scene in Episode 25 where Silica and Lisbeth talk about their Kirito crush and the SAO Clearing Party. The reasons for that are:

What was the point of establishing Lisbeth is still interested in Kirito, after the climax of her character arc was all about giving up on her feelings for him for the sake of her friend?

Similarly, why establish Silica as interested in Kirito when she explicitly states she sees him like an older brother at the end of her episode?

The entire concept of their weird alliance/truce to flirt on a taken guy,whose girlfriend is Asuna, Lisbeth’s best friend, just makes both of them seem awfully immature.

Nothing comes out of it, but this scene still portrays these two pretty neat characters who didn’t get much screentime as obsessive girls who have no respect for their friends’ relationship, and kinda ignores their character arcs.

If I had to add something to that part, I’d just add the parts of that cafeteria talk that weren’t covered in the anime, such as Lisbeth commenting on her hospital visit to Asuna and Silica and Suguha’s friendship.

SAO Fans: If you could add in or remove one thing from one episode of SAO, what would it be?

I’d probably add in a scene right after Kirito defeats Nicholas the Renegade, letting out a cry of anguish, the image of Sachi flashing in his head, once he sees that the Divine Stone of Returning Soul’s limits on reviving dead players, and ending with him heading back towards Klein’s group with that empty look in his eyes, thinking if there’s any point to continue fighting to survive. I think this could add much more impact to the episode than it already has, especially with Sachi’s final message.

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I have absolutely no idea why but Diabel and Kibaou do this random arm lock/bedroom eyes combo thing in the anime? It’s super cute

kibaou looks like he was made to do it and he was like “dude doesn’t this look… a little weird?” and diabel reassures him they look like total bros. “no homo, man. haha it’s not like this is a married couple thing in some cultures”. 

no wonder Kibaou looked so affected by Diabel’s death. he lost his seme

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We never get to see Kirito and Asuna’s dates throughout the years after they leave the death game and that is honestly an outrage. Like, the first date we ever see Kirito taking Asuna for is the Tokyo Imperial Palace in episode 1 of GGO and it’s amazing

Kirito instantly starts babbling about the palace’s history, its area, its geographical location, its fucking security system and Asuna listens to it like “holy shit that’s the tightest shit I’ve heard in my life”. Her boyfriend is a total nerd and she is absolutely entranced by it

and I honestly want to see more of that? they go see a movie and he talks through the entire thing, they have a date at the aquarium and Kirito is like “good thing I have read up that book in dolphin trivia” and she is like “who the fuck does that” and he just points to himself with a serious face. he does not mess around with his sealife knowledge

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If there is one thing I am really glad for from the SAOII anime is that we were shown the SAO gang’s casual outfits - and half of them are absolutely hilarious. There’s nothing that makes it easier for me to love a character deeply than sticking them in clothes of questionable fashion sense, and SAO got that on the dot

Klein is like almost 30 and he’s wearing a leather jacket and a bandana like a punk rock hobo, Lisbeth folds her pants up to her fucking knees, Sinon wears a jeans jacket and a jeans skirt (but never actual jeans); it becomes clearly apparent those three are nerds who never learned how to dress properly. I bet the only reason Kirito didn’t look like a sentient trash can in Fairy Dance was because Suguha makes him go change like, three times before they leave the house, otherwise he’d be wearing flip flops and a blanket through the entire arc

I love the SAO kids so much and their lack of fashion sense

[everythingtrulywrongwithsao]

after sao ended we have no idea what happened to argo

where did ar go