AN: Hey! This is my new story, The Others. Hope you enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.

Crystal

Crystal was so very excited. Being a huge gamer (typically with the FPS games, and RPGs, with a soft spot for Zelda and story-orientated games), of course she bought NerveGear, and of course she set it up almost right away, even if she didn't have a game to play yet. And she played the games for it. For a long time, she thought it would be awesome if she could play the games, but really play, move with it. Kinect and the Wii got close, but NerveGear hit the nail on the head. When Sword Art Online was announced, she immediately went for the beta, but wasn't chosen. The day it was released, she was a lucky person to snag a copy. She didn't leave that store without some insults and begging to buy it from her. She was used to the insults, because even in this day and age, girls were not taken seriously as gamers. She hated it. But oh boy was she effing excited for this. A new RPG where it could feel like you were moving, fighting, swinging around a weapon?! TALK ABOUT AWESOME! There wasn't magic, which was strange to her, and also a slight disappointment, as she was partial to magic in these types of games, but it would still be so amazing. She hurried home after her purchase, ate some food, and plugged into NerveGear.

Ohhhh Character Creation. The beautiful ability to make her appear however she wanted. Logging on, and using her name Crystal as it was her favorite name, she set about making a tall, pretty character, with long pink hair and green eyes. Her starting weapon was a rapier. Everything she truly wasn't. Then... She entered Aincrad.

Her first impressions were that it was beautiful. The graphics were incredible, and it was so cool moving, and it felt like moving. Immediately, she went out to begin a quest or start killing monsters and creatures and gather Col. She felt giddy, this was so awesome. And she couldn't wait to meet new people! She loved playing these types of games. Sometimes she'd try to pull of an evil character, but it just didn't fit her. As much as she'd love to be dark and mysterious, she just wasn't. So instead, she stayed mostly true to herself. Today, though... She decided today she would go solo. Make friends later.

She found herself far off into a field, fighting low-level creatures, when she felt the sensation of being teleported, into the plaza at the Town of Beginnings.

Kitty

Katrina felt sneaky as shit. Her brother came home, with this brand-new game for his NerveGear. Sword Art Online. He wouldn't ever let her near his NerveGear, and got called out for work after getting the game. So, she stole it. And the game. And zipped to her room. Plugged it in, did all the calibration stuff, and started the game. Just one hour of play, she would delete the profile, and he would never know. Right? Right. And so, she made a character to her liking, with the name Kitty. Tall, with short white hair, and purple eyes! A simple sword as a starter. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the world she had jumped right into. It was impressive. She didn't have too much experience with the way these sort of games worked, but she had played one once or twice. And really, her brother telling her she couldn't play it just made her want to play it out of spite.

She got starting armor, chatted with some players and admitted that she was new to this type of game, and got pointed into the right direction to start a quest for quest ended with a nice Col payout and a free new outfit. A cute, white dress. She wasn't much for cutesy things, but she liked it.

That dress, and the starting armor, is what she was wearing when she was teleported to the plaza in the Town of Beginnings.

Elvina

Elvina scoffed at the game. She had NerveGear, everyone had NerveGear these days. She didn't much play video games. Wasn't her thing. A friend, however, ended up with a copy of the new game for it. Sword Art Online. And this friend didn't have NerveGear, so they gave it to Elvina, as a gift. She figured it would be rude to not play, especially since the game was completely sold out within seconds online, and hours in stores. Plugging in the ridiculous helmet, and starting up the game, she couldn't help but grin a little. Maybe it would be fun.

In Character Creation, her character was similar to herself, with her own name too. Tall, slim, with fiery red hair and piercing orange eyes. A rapier was her starting choice, but that would change. The world itself was impressive to her, of course it was. The amount of detail put into this, and thus time it took to make, made it something to behold. It was strange to her, to feel as if she was moving, when she wasn't. She wandered the market in the Town of Beginnings, and hadn't even gone out into the fields to kill monsters or gather Col yet when she was also teleported to the plaza in the Town of Beginnings. She was irritated, as she was about to seriously get started, and tried to leave, but found she couldn't.

With only a rapier and no Col to speak of, she stood in the plaza in the Town of Beginnings.

Katashi

Katashi really, really didn't care for video games like Sword Art Online. But, he indulged his friends and waiting in lines for ages with them for the game's release, and even bought a copy, all at the insistence of his friends. His friends were kind of assholes. Borrowing one of his friend's brothers NerveGear to play, because he really didn't do video games, and logged in. His name in game? Katashi. This would be a one time thing, after all. He didn't put too much thought into the Character Creation, choosing something pretty simple, but different than how he really looked. On the shorter side, with messy brown hair and normal blue eyes.

His stupid, asshole friends just up and left him with his starter mace in the market. "We'll be right back!" They said. "Buy some armor with this Col!" They said. Now, he seemed to have gotten lost. He found a field full of monsters, and was able to get some battling in. But he couldn't find his friends anymore. He swiped his hand in the air with a grumble. He did this only for his friends. If they were just gonna leave him, he was just gonna leave. He flipped through the settings to log out, but... The button was gone?!

His face held a look of confusion when he, too, was teleported to the Town of Beginnings.

Ryou

Ryou was excited to get back into the game again. He was a beta tester, and it was some of the best months of his life to play this game. It was like second nature now, to log in and start up. His avatar had white, short, messy hair, and he was average height, with brown eyes. Of course, on launch day, his stats reset. But now, he could build them back up again, and it would be just as fun the second time around. He jumped right in in the fields, and noticed players scattered throughout the fields as well. All doing what he was: gaining stats and Col and, sometimes, items. He wandered to the market, to see if anything had been added or changed since the beta.

He noticed people opening their menus and examining something, and some looked worried. Before he had a chance to check it himself, he was teleported.

He was standing in the market, holding a food he wanted to buy, when he was teleported to the plaza in the Town of Beginnings.