Tourney Spectator Lounge

"I've had SummonerMan for a short while." Rose responded. "He's a little new, but not as new as you two, I assume. He came into my possession a while after the Net War in electown, so probably a couple months old."

Rose was rather concerned, however, about the current developements on the field. "He's going to kill my queen. He's going to kill my queen. That damn black knight's going to kill my elegant lady queen." She thought, as she examined the board. She was almost ready to admit the loss when she calmed down enough to spot a minor alternative.

"Which may mean I won't lose my queen for free. Her sacrifice may be a noble one yet." she thought, as she slid a pawn from C3 to B4, taking the knight. "And that balances our warring nations' power in terms of superior officers." She said, removing the knight from the field.

And, bluff time. "And now it looks like your man of the robes and that lovely queen of yours are just as periled as my own royal family." She commented, continuing upon the theme.

To be fair, she was still losing, both in terms of piece captures and positioning. But it looked a little better now.

"I see..." said Mill absentmindedly, a little thrown off by Aelith's bad joke and how into the chess game Rose was. Having been on his feet this entire time, Mill took the opportunity to walk off for a moment and grab a loose chair to take back with him. After he had made himself more comfortable, Mill gave his time to just staring at the chess board and the pieces on top of it.

"... Mmph!" grunted a noise from Mill's pocket. Knowing what, or who, it was, Mill pulled his PET out and up to his face to see Anyis staring at him. "What now?" he sighed.

"I was restless. It was too quiet." complained Anyis bluntly.

"... It was too quiet... to sleep." Mill just shook his head. "Well, whatever. Entertain yourself somehow." said the irritated Operator as he put the PET on one of his chair's arms and hit the button for the holo-projector.

The miniature Anyis popped out of the PET's screen, giving Aelith and Rose a good view of her. "... Hmm? Am I the only Navi here?" she asked curiously, completely ignoring whatever might've been going on before she came out.

"Ah, but unfortunately the royal family of the ebon order seek only glory in battle." He said, retaliating to Rose's comment in kind. His queen descended upon Rose's, removing her from the board as she moved from E4 to D3. "Check again, my worthy opponent."

He was about to turn and ask something of Mill when Anyis appeared. "Well, hello." he greeted her, not wanting to be rude. My Navi's on the 'Net right now, but maybe I can introduce him before the next round starts." After addressing Anyis, he looked up at Mill. "So," he asked, "what brings you two to the tournament?"

It was for Anyis that SummonerMan finally made an appearance. After her inquiry, he appeared in holographic form with a quick answer. "Yes, in fact, you are. And you weren't invited, either." He said with a smug shrug. "A pity, isn't it, that you end up alone and unwanted at this gathering." This conversation continued in the same condescending and sarcastic tone as before. And after he had stood around long enough to say that and acknowledge the look on her face in reaction, he politely bowed. Though one could assume the formality was meant to be ironic.

"Summ, must you? It's constant with you, isn't it?" Rose asked rhetorically, shaking her head in exasperation. "Hello Anyis. Welcome to the party." She said, now rather flat due to the previous emotion directed at SummonerMan.

"Whatever could you mean, Ma'am." SummonerMan shot back at Rose, the mock offense vaguely obvious. "I do believe I was being perfectly polite, and pointing out a true enough fact." With that, he turned back. "But I relent, you have an army to direct, don't you?"

"Right." Replied his operator, turning her attention back to the chess game at hand, a far more pleasant matter. "My fair lady has been slain." Rose said, still in character. "But she shall soon be avenged by a loyal soldier." Her pawn took out the black queen, moving from E2 to D3.

Rose was equally interested in why Mill had shown up, so she turned to face him, while extending the question to Aelieth, as well. "And you, too, Aelieth. Why are you here?"

Deciding it would be best to answer her own question, she did so. "I could go first, I suppose. I obviously wanted to cover it, so I had to attend. In addition, it looked like good fun, so I figured we'd enter, too. It gives me a better perspective for the paper. An inside thing, you know? Besides, I thought we were pretty decent at the whole NetBattling thing." She said with a shrug.

SummonerMan took a moment to size up the other navi, which, if she was painfully observant, consisted of a brief up and down glance, but didn't say anything yet. He figured he needed a bit more time around her before he could say much more.

Rather than the enraged face he wanted, what SummonerMan got from Anyis was nothing but a crooked little smile. "Awww, how cute... All this barking, and you probably have no bite. Why doesn't the noisy little boy come over here and learn how to speak properly to a woman? Hmm?" teased Anyis shamelessly, patting her hands against her thighs and talking to SummonerMan like he was some sort of pet.

"Don't you start too..." groaned Mill frustratedly. It was pretty clear from the start that SummonerMan himself was a snob, but if he butted head's with Anyis's ego... Mill could only shudder at the prospects.

"What? He just wanted to play, is all." stated Anyis matter-of-factly as he gave a curteous little bow to Rose and Aelith.

"Whatever..." said Mill as he shook his head, knowing there was no use trying to fix the situation. "Why I joined the tournament... I'm not sure if I had any real driving motivation." answered the Operator after some thought. "I had actually signed up for the challenge with my previous Navi, but the sudden switch to Anyis happened during the processing period. In the confusion, I actually almost missed the deadline..." laughed Mill at his own mistake. Interestingly, Anyis had fallen silent for just a moment at mention of Mill's previous Navi. "Alright, Aelieth, your turn to share."

"Me?" Aelieth asked, slightly surprised. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to him that he'd have to answer, even though that's how the majority of the conversation had played out so far. "I'm not really sure why I joined. Not too long ago I wasn't completely sure I would have a Navi to compete with; When I said Holoß was relatively new, I mean that the last lines of his code were written within the past 24 hours." He absently moved his bishop from A5 to B4.

"I guess the main reason I've entered is to try and better my ability to interact with people." Stated Aelieth, his voice somewhat quieter than normal. "I'm typically pretty introverted, never really talk with people past introductions. I guess that by thrusting myself into a public setting I hoped to come out of my shell a bit." He smiled sheepishly.

"Whatever." SummonerMan said with a dismissive air. "And don't worry, I'm not afraid to test my bark against yours. You've got quite the bite there too. But I'm fairly certain you have a match you have to get to soon, don't you?" he commented, as he shrugged his cloak into cape positioning, revealing his body.

"And I'm confident enough that our match wouldn't be ending soon enough in your favor for you to make it to the match on time and in fighting condition." He continued. "I'll admit, though, that's a nasty punch you pack there." SummonerMan was now nonchalantly glancing over his fingernails, which was a strange habit for a navi wearing gloves.

Rose nodded when Mill told his reasons, but had more of a reaction to Aelieth's. "Wait, really?" She asked, as she moved a pawn from A2 to A3. "You only finished him today? That's. . .incredible." She said, with a shrug. Her's was more from an almost speechless feeling she got when she thought of the implications of what he just said.

"And you seem to be doing fine by me." Rose replied to Aelieth's cold turkey approach to socializing.

"So, you two planned anything out for your next round's opponents yet?" She asked absently, trying to keep the conversation rolling.

Anyis cracked her knuckles at SummonerMan's mention of her punch, only furthering the cloaked/caped Navi's point. "There are already two guys on their way home thanks to my fist, and I have plans to make it three." bragged Anyis shamelessly, completely disregarding whatever threat her opponent posed.

"Haha, yeah... That'd be great if it came true." chuckled Mill sadly, having no faith whatsoever in that promise. "My plan is to hope that MachMan doesn't show up. I saw the end of his last match, and it was totally crazy..."

"Oh don't be a wimp, Mill. That match proved that MachMan is a total glass cannon. Just give me one good shot at him and it'll be over." laughed Anyis haughtily, throwing her hands forward in a one-two punch.

"And of course that hard part goes to me..." sighed Mill heavily. "Whatever. Aelieth, how are you going to deal with that Valkyrie Navi? She looks really fearsome..."

"Hope for a miracle?" He offered, only half joking. "I honestly don't know what to do against someone that can tear Holo apart in one blow aside from just staying mobile and hoping that some glancing blows will start to whittle her down bit by bit." A halfhearted shrug played off of his shoulders before he backed his Bishop out of harms way, moving it from B4 to C5.

"Any tips?" He asked the both of them, hoping that their Netbattling skills were a little less passive than his were.

Steve stood up, stretched, and groaned loudly. Then he picked up his PET and slid it back onto his armband.

"Hey, they're done." he said as he started to walk to the door. "You two are still in the game, right? Shall we?" he waved a hand, indicating the door as he paused at the threshold.

"What? Oh... That was sudden." said Mill in surprise, having not realized the second round's completion, nor that Steve was even in the lounge the whole time. "I guess that means it's time to go. Later Rose, and good luck Aelieth." said Mill hastily as he grabbed his PET and turned off Anyis's hologram. He didn't mean to be so curt, but the realization that the next round was starting set Mill's nerves off again.

"Come on Mill, just relax! It's not like you're the one who's going to get shot at here." commented Anyis, who was getting tired of Mill's nervousness as of late.

"Yeah, yeah..." muttered Mill as he walked past Steve. He waved his hand in thanks to the other Operator, but his mind was elsewhere. This guy probably has one of the better chances to win... thought Mill, knowing things would get ugly if he ever had to fight DruidMan. Still, that was a pretty unlikely scenario, and his focus had to be on MachMan for now. So, with that, Mill left the lounge to go sign in.

"They've finished?" He asked, entirely diverted from his previous question. "Well... I guess that means that our match is called in your favor, Rose." He shrugged, standing as he surrendered the game. Pulling his PET to speaking distance, he addressed Holo.

"Time to jack out, Holo. Our match is about to start."

Clipping the PET back to his belt, he turned back to Rose. "Would you like a hand packing this up?" he asked as he waited for Holo to come back.

"Have fun..." SummonerMan said, trailing off as he disappeared back into the PeT.

"Good Luck Mill. And Anyis too, remember, I'm expecting a win from you too!" She called to them as they left.

"Well, a win by forfeit isn't what I was hoping for, but I suppose it will have to do." She said, in response to Aelieth.

"I'd like that very much, Aelieth." She replied to his offer to help clean up. "But let's do it quickly; I don't want you to forfeit that match, too." She said with a smile.

She left her PeT on the chair where it was as she began sliding some of her peices off and placing them back where they belonged.

Aelieth chuckled in response to the last statement. "Thanks for the concern." he said, smiling. Crouching down, he scooped up his pieces before depositing them in the box. Once Rose had collected all of hers, he folded up the board and replaced it in its container.

Placing the lid on the box, he returned it to the shelf he had retrieved it from before crossing the room back to Rose.

"Well..." he said, a lot less nervous than he should be considering what he and Holo were about to face. "Wish me luck..."

Rose stood up and walked over to the door. "Good Luck, Aelieth." She said. "I'll be rooting for you."

She reached into her pocket and scribbled some info onto a piece of paper. "Oh, and incase we don't meet up back here, here's my contact info. Feel free to drop me a line if you have anything for the paper, want an interview, or want to have a chess rematch or something." She said as she jotted her name, e-mail address, the URL for Gazette.Net, and her PeT's phone number. She had smiled in a good natured fashion when she said chess rematch, attempting to say it in a more light hearted and less creepy way.

She held the paper out to him, and said "I'm sure you'll do fine, but just in case, good luck."

Steve walked out after his peers.

...Two fights and I already used all of my chips... gees, I wonder how the next one will go. Shamus mused watching his PET screen. While every now and then his eyes glazed at portions of the room, he mostly stayed glued to watching Gear. He just can't help by feel interested in what kind of destruction his navi can cause on viruses. But still, these lowly 5 chips are all that makes up Gear's arsenal, not even his buster does any real damage and this 'sig' system or whatnot only helps Gear with targeting at the moment. So he would either have to take Gear out of the net for a bit until until he can sell some more things for chips, or let Gear on his merry way and hope he doesn't get in over his head.

While trying to figure that out, the phrase "Good Luck, Aelieth. I'll be rooting for you!" ended up distracting him a bit. His eyes moved from his pet to his side, where he spotted some girl talking to, whom Shamus guesses is probably, Aelieth. He didn't really pay much attection to what she was saying as he turned his glaze back to the PET, but in a way he kind of wanted atleast someone to talk to, even for a little bit....Probably won't hurt to try and start a conversation with a complete stranger. He tells himself, waiting a little bit before asking a single question.

"I take it he has a match or something now?"

"Thanks. My e-mail is down, so it'll be a bit before I get back to you, but once it's up I'll send you a line." He said, taking a corner of the paper and writing his PET's number on it before tearing it off, returning the courtesy of exchanging information. As he handed it to her, a curt BEEP told him that Holo had returned to the PET.

As Shamus asked his question, Aelieth turned to him. "Yeah, and I'm probably cutting it close. Later Rose." He said, waving as he backed out of the door. For some reason he didn't feel that nervous... maybe he could do this... Those thoughts comforted him as he made his way to the arena room marked "Sieg and Aelieth"

"So it begins," Duke said, standing up and stretching. "And I...got no sleep. Damn it."

Yawning, he walked out of the lounge to sign back in.

First, surprised, Rose heard a young man ask a question from behind, as Aelieth chatted with her and gave her his number. Before she could answer, and as she was placing that number into her pocket, Aelieth did the honors of answering the man.

Then he ran off, leaving Rose again. "Later Aelieth!" she called after him. "At least he had the courtesy to say godbye, unlike some people I know." She thought, half kidding. And then she said for the third time, because she didn't know what else to say, "Good Luck!".

And now, before she could turn to face this new young man, she noticed another young man (though he was larger and silver haired, which was strange) climb up out of a chair and leave the room, presumably to a battle.

She began to wonder where all these people had come from, and why she hadn't seen them before. "Must not have seen them. I was busy, or too focused talking and playing chess" She assumed.

She didn't really know what the man would do next, as he had only asked a single question, but she decided to introduce herself anyway. "Hello. I guess I didn't notice you there." She said with a half self-conscious smile. "My name's Rose Dunrae. How are you doing so far?" She began. "Enjoying the tournament?"

They were very general questions, and a very easy way for her to initiate small talk, so that was what she did.