Name: Jose Aldo Blanco; "Pepe"
Age: 17
Country:
born in: Honduras
resides in: Spain
Appearance:
Pepe is extremely fit, as he is a professional soccer player. He is approximately 5'10", and weighs about 160 lbs. He has black hair that he buzzes short, and he keeps his face clean-shaven. He has olive skin and dark eyes, and he has a scar on his right temple from when he ran into a piano as a young kid.
In Aincrad, he wears a custom armor made for him by a guy named Quique, who was the resident smith of his previous guild. It is a light armor made out of a crimson undercloth, and yellowish metal plates; it has a large plate on his stomach with a chest plate on top, as well as several smaller discs protecting the arms and legs, as well as a metal hat with a spike on top. According to Quique, this armor is a perfect replica of what Spanish missionaries used to wear, but Pepe has no way of double-checking the fact.
Personality:
In the real world, Pepe is a very determined person. You need to be determined, after all, if you're going to dedicate yourself to a sport and torture your body everyday in order to try and become as good as Pelé, Messi or Ronaldinho. He's gone ahead and sacrificed his family, his home, his girlfriend and more in order to follow this dream, which shows his mental fortitude and his ability to move on.
In Aincrad, however, Pepe finds himself in a weird world, and doubt plagues his mind at every turn. A SAO player gets to choose whether to stay in Starter Town and deal with depression every day, or move on to other villages and deal with the possibility of death every day, which puts Pepe between a rock and a hard place… literally. Therefore, he's lost a lot of his drive and determination, and replaced it with caution and a heavy desire to remain alive.
Life before SAO:
Pepe is a Honduran soccer player who was discovered by scouts of the club Real Madrid. He runs a mile five times a day, he swims and trains with his teammates, when he has free times he practices his free shots, and on a rare occasion or two, he will pick up his PlayStation 5v2.3 and play a match of FIFA 22. However, when he dislocated his knee joint in a friendly match that turned violent against Barcelona's B squad, he was compelled - convinced actually - to try out the new VRMMORPG Sword Art Online. Pepe went ahead and bought the game along with a friend of his the first day it came out on sale… and now, here he is.
To say that Pepe feels out of place in Aincrad might be an exaggeration, but to be honest, should such a situation ever arise, he is the last person you'd expect to be stuck in the virtual reality world. He grew up in extreme poverty, having to drink bottled water rather than reverse-osmosis filtered water, and owning only a 20-inch plasma TV and an ancient GameCube. He had to do his laundry by hand (by which I mean pressing buttons on the laundry machine) rather than automatically, and had no choice but to entertain himself through sports and physical activity (so archaic!).
Current Level: 7
Weapon: Shield and Spear
Non-Combat Skills: Hiding, Taming
Summary of first month in Aincrad:
- Day 1: At first enamored by the beauty of Aincrad, Pepe's feelings toward SAO quickly turned completely over once he realized that he wouldn't go back to playing soccer anytime soon. During the commotion, he became separated from his friend.
- Day 2-6: At first hesitant to try to beat the game (because of the whole "if you die here, you die IRL" thing LOL), he decided to stay in Starter City.
- Day 7: Finally tired of the wailing and helpless aura of Starter City, Pepe decided to try his luck going to the next town.
- Day 8: Once in Celedona, he met a member of 'La Furia Roja', which was an all-Spanish SAO players' guild. Expecting his friend to be part of said guild, he accepted to travel to Blues Village with the member, despite being only at level 2.
- Day 9-12: Pepe arrived at Blues Village without much problems, he didn't find his friend there, but he decided to stay due to the guild's promise to help him raise his level. Here, Pepe picked up the skill Hiding.
- Day 13: 'La Furia Roja' is too overzealous, Pepe discovers. They want to clear a high level dungeon in Dysthaven despite the fact that only their leader and second-in-command are the right level, but most players aren't willing to go.
- Day 14-19: Pepe waited along with two guildmembers for five days for the rest of the members to arrive…
- Day 20: Finally losing hope, Pepe leaves, and 'La Furia Roja' is disbanded.
- Day 21-23: Pepe decides to make his way back to Celedona, but he barely makes it back after being ambushed by a PK guild. By driving them in circles around a forest, Pepe is able to find a Hiding spot where he stays for two days.
- Day 24: Pepe settles in Celedona. He is tired of the whole playing hero thing.
- Day 25-29: Pepe meets a young girl carrying around some sort of blue toad, and he learns of Taming from her. Finding a new hobby, he decides to dedicate himself to that for a while.
- Day 30: Unconvinced by the creatures available to Tamers by Celedona, Pepe takes off in an adventure to find the perfect companion creature. Meanwhile, elsewhere, someone's friend finds himself at the front lines of battle…
Roleplay Sample:
"But I was so close…" Pepe thought. "I could've made it to the first team, I could've been famous; I could've been great!"
"We're gonna die here." A stranger suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
"I'm going to die." Pepe repeated, unthinking, like a parrot. Suddenly, chaos; people were running, stampeding. Some were toppled over and stepped on, and whether they felt the pain or not due to this being a virtual reality world was a question that Pepe wasn't willing to debate at that point.
"Mi amor?" he asked suddenly realizing that a certain someone wasn't next to him anymore. "Nena? Mi amor!" he screamed as the crowds ran in panick, some to look for cover, others to look for people, others to be the first to the next village. Pepe, however, didn't see the point of running; he stayed.
~ ~ ~
Having walked around Starter Town all night, Pepe walked up to "his corner" once dawn had broken, and sat down, exhausted. Despite having lived in Aincrad for almost a week now, he didn't seem to be able to get used to the Japanese Time Zone; he would walk around Starter Town at night, when he was the least tired looking for someone, and come back to his corner at the marketplace, hoping to see her there.
He never did.
Not once since arriving in Aincrad had he touched a food item, it was unnecessary. Not once had he killed a monster, or even received loot of some kind. Pepe had no interest in melding into his environment… and it was messing with his mind.
For now, however, Pepe's eyelids felt heavy, his neck felt weak, and despite the fact that the sun still had not come out, he was so… close… to fall…
"Let go of me!" a sudden girl's shrieks brought Pepe back from the brink of sleep.
"Are you crazy? You can't go out there! Not now!" a man responded as he held the girl by her arms.
The girl was weeping. Probably a deceased relative or loved one… The man, on the other hand, seemed older, more composed yet self-conscious at being put in this awkward position. Pepe couldn't even blame the guy who walked over from assuming… well, over assuming.
"Hey! You heard the lady, let her go!" he demanded in an almost gallant tone.
When the first man ignored him, he came up and released the man's hold from the young girl. That's when Pepe was able to get the best view of her.
She was Asiatic, probably Japanese, or Korean. In either case Pepe wouldn't be able to tell the difference. She was crying; the rays from the rising sun refracted off of her tears as she ran, leaving behind a glittery trail of helplessness. Her hair, long and light shone against the sun in an almost blue hue, trailed behind her, waving from one side to the other as she brought her hands up to cover her face.
Although there were no monsters in Starter City, they did roam in the lands surrounding the city, and although the stronger monsters only came out at night, they always got dangerously close to the city. Usually, however, they were gone as soon as the morning sun could be seen, which is why Pepe never understood: "why were they right there, right then?"
As soon as the girl stepped outside the city's border, she was attacked by a wolf pack. The second man who'd showed up ran behind her to try and save her from the monsters, but despite being able to kill them, he was too late to try and save the girl, who's body shattered, signaling not only a cease to her existence in Aincrad, but the end of her life… her real world… life.
The first man fell to his knees, sobbing, so Pepe, dumbfounded, tired and desperate, simply got up, walked down the same path which had gotten the girl killed, and kept going… all the way to Celedona.