Travis/Synopsis

#### Pre-Episode 14

Travis was one of the roleplayers who flocked to ALfheim Online, a children's edutainment VRMMO set in a land of fairies, where he played as a Sylph character named Cazmer. Cazmer had fun playing ALO, and he became close friends with some of the original roleplayers that found the game, Brian, Becky, and Ted. He particularly became close with Ted, who played under the name Kirito, to the point that he considered Ted's race, the Spriggans, his brothers.

After a while, the players began to wonder what was at the top of the World Tree, a massive tree in the center of the game, as it was heavily guarded. As they speculated what kind of prizes awaited beyond such a quest, a rumor began to spread that whoever got to the top of the tree first would get their wish granted by the Fairy King, Oberon. With this incentive, the players divided themselves into nine factions and began fighting in a "war" to see who could do this first, dubbing this competition the "Race War".

However, at some point, Brian and Becky broke up, and the fallout was so messy that the two of them ended up stealing each other's characters. With Brian now in control of Sakuya, the Queen of the Sylphs, he decided to use the Race War as an excuse to get the players to pick a side in his fight against Becky, which Becky, now in control of the Salamander King, Eugene, perpetuated.

As the Race War continued, the players got more and more violent towards each other, to the point that the Sylphs would hunt the Cait Sith like foxes and eat them. Eventually, Ted tried get Brian and Becky to talk things out and stop the violence, to which Sakuya and Eugene responded by committing genocide against the Spriggans. As a result of this, the entire Spriggan race was viewed as "filthy" pests that needed to be killed on sight and they essentially became the punching bags of the game, to the point that none of them wanted to play anymore.

This was the last straw for Cazmer and he sparked a civil war in the Sylph Kingdom of Sylvaine, in an attempt to take the throne for himself and end the fighting. To appease Cazmer, Sakuya deemed that the only solution to end the civil war was to have her adoptive daughter, Leafa, marry Cazmer, earning him the title of Prince. With no decent excuse to deny such an offer without breaking character, Cazmer accepted the proposal.

However, Cazmer didn't give up on his dreams for peace and made contact with a Salamander General named PantySmasher, who was played by a man named Jonathan, Becky's new boyfriend. Jonathan was tired of Becky always complaining about Brian, and the two teamed up to try and get the two exes to talk. Cazmer came to the conclusion that the best way to accomplish their goal was to assassinate Leafa and spark a war between their two races, as that was the only way to get the two leaders in the same room. PantySmasher then sent numerous Salamanders to try and kill Leafa, but she always managed to escape.

Eventually, the Sylphs and the Cait Sith arranged to have a peace conference in an unknown location, and Sakuya left to attend it, leaving Leafa to fulfil the arrangement with Cazmer. To make sure that Leafa was alone for PantySmasher's next ambush, and to give himself an alibi, Cazmer arranged an engagement party for himself and Leafa in his abode, with gifts and a band that played songs from Leafa's favorite band, knowing that Leafa wouldn't attend it.

#### Episode 14

The day of the engagement party finally came and just as expected, Leafa did not show up. After waiting for five hours, Cazmer, pretending to be annoyed, orders a player named Recon to go find Leafa, threatening to hunt him "like a common Cait Sith" if he failed. As he waited for Recon to return, he warns the exhausted band that, if they stop playing Leafa's entrance music, he'll have their nuts crushed in his vice.

#### Post-Episode 14

Recon eventually returned and explained that Leafa was not coming to the party. Hearing this, Cazmer was furious that Leafa managed to survive yet again. However, trying to stay in character, he pretended that he was mad at Recon for failing him. He then took his out his frustrations on Recon by tying his hands together, preventing him from logging out, and crushed his nuts with his vice, all while the band were forced to play their music.

#### Episode 15

The next day, Cazmer and two Sylph bodyguards find Leafa in the Fairport, discovering that she's with a Spriggan. Staying in character, Cazmer confronts Leafa for failing to attend their engagement party and chastises her for gallivanting with "detestable Spriggan trash", much to the Spriggan's annoyance. Finally caught, Leafa bluntly tells Cazmer that she doesn't want to fake marry him, having only agreed to it because Sakuya, her fake mom, told her to in order to end the civil war, something Cazmer needs to remind her of. She then tells Cazmer that she has become bored with the ordeal, opting to hang out with the Spriggan for a while instead. Cazmer tries to insist that Leafa should reconsider the engagement, but the Spriggan interjects, reinforcing Leafa's decision. He then tells the Sylph Prince to have some self-respect, stating that a respectable gentleman like Cazmer must have plenty of cousins that could replace Leafa as his wife.

Pretending to be offended by this comment, Cazmer draws his sword and tells the Spriggan to know his place. He then states that, while he doesn't know how the Spriggan managed to seduce Leafa, events have been set in motion that are beyond the Spriggan's comprehension. The Spriggan isn't fazed by such a vague statement, however, and continues to poke fun of Cazmer's storyline, referencing the movie Stardust in the process. Cazmer, who catches the reference, tells the Spriggan that he doesn't have time to explain his motivations to him, claiming that all that the Spriggan needs to understand is that his actions are for the good of everyone.

One of Cazmer's bodyguards then recommends that they should have this conversation somewhere private, as they are drawing the attention of bystanders, such as the pretzel guy. Cazmer blames this on Leafa, telling her that she's making a scene. Angered by this, Leafa threatens to tell Sakuya about Cazmer's actions once she's back from the peace conference at Butterfly Valley, which would result in Cazmer getting banished. Hearing this, Cazmer suddenly gets an idea, as now he knows where Sakuya is. He then sheaths his sword, claiming that he has been intimidated by the threat, and leaves along with his bodyguards, telling Leafa to "enjoy slumming it".

#### Episode 16

With the knowledge of Sakuya's location in hand, Cazmer contacted two of his Salamander co-conspirators, named DeezGunz and Keith, and told them to meet him in the sewers of Sylvaine. Cazmer then lead his bodyguards into the sewers with invisibility cloaks on. This delighted the bodyguards, and they started loudly humming the Harry Potter theme, much to Cazmer's annoyance. Cazmer and his bodyguards then meet up with DeezGunz and Keith, who Cazmer berates for failing to kill Princess Leafa like he ordered them to. The Salamanders try to explain that they were fought off by a very powerful Spriggan, but Cazmer couldn't understand what they were talking about due to their southern dialect.

Despite being annoyed with their failure, Cazmer resigns his frustrations and tell the two that Leafa's death will no longer be necessary, informing them that the Sylph Queen will be in Butterfly Valley to sign a peace treaty with the Cait Sith. He then tells the two to let their King know that, if his army hurries, they can hunt a few Cait Sith as bonus if he wishes. DeezGunz tells Cazmer that he wishes he told them sooner, as they just sent thirty Salamanders to kill Leafa. Just as he says that, a Salamander named RamRod calls DeezGunz to inform him that, not only are they about to enter the tunnel, but their pet bat Squeaker's wife just had her babies. He then told DeezGunz not to tell Squeaker, as they want to surprise him after the mission. Just then, Recon, who was secretly listening to the conversation, gets scared by something and lets out a scream of terror. With his cover blown, Recon is shot with several poisoned arrows, leaving his avatar paralyzed, face down in the sewer with a few dollops of mayo thrown onto his butt.

With his plans finally seeming to come to fruition, Cazmer resigns himself to his office and waited for Sakuya and Eugene to talk things out. He wishes that he didn't need to resort to such "drastic measures", but tells himself the players will see the necessity of them in time. However, he's then caught off guard when Sakuya uses a Moon Mirror to contact him. He tries greeting her to hide his suspiciousness, but Sakuya confronts him on his actions, revealing that she figured out his plan, a revelation that confuses the Spriggan Cazmer met earlier that day, who is there with Sakuya.

Having to been caught, Travis breaks character to tell Brian that ALO used to be fun, but ever since he and Becky broke up, they've been forcing the others to choose sides and fight a proxy war just to spend time with them. This annoys Sakuya, stating that he sounds just like Kirito Prime, who was "an embarrassment to the name". However, Travis states that Ted had the right idea, and that they didn't need to wipe out his entire race. This shocks the Spriggan, but he's still relieved that his race weren't eaten. Travis then tearfully admits that regrets not standing by the Spriggans' side when they needed him the most. He then apologizes to the Spriggan for how he treated him, stating that he had to keep the ruse that he was still on Brian's side, and that he only wanted peace between the races. Despite his good intentions, Sakuya tells Travis that his "mad dreams" have come to an end, before banishing him from ALO.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Episode 14
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Episode 16
3. ↑ Episode 13
4. ↑ The Spriggan genocide
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Cazmer's motivation
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Episode 15
7. ↑ Cazmer and PantySmasher's plot