Tourney Spectator Lounge

Duke wandered back into the spectator lounge and sat down, yawning. "Coffee's starting to wear off already," he grumbled. He looked up to see if he could try to take a nap between rounds, only to see...the other match had ended long before his.

"Great," he muttered, waiting for the announcement of the final round.

"Well, that didn't take long at all," he said after all of ten seconds. Pushing himself to his feet again, he wandered back into the lobby to sign in.
The instant her Navi returned to her PET, Sabrina put the electronic device in its holder on her side, and started racing down the street, waving back at Steve for a sec. "Sorry, but there's something I gotta take care of! See ya!"

However, unbeknownest to her, a small ball of light shot forth from the PET holder, headed straight for her former busting partner's terminal. It was nothing harmful, however; just a small piece of data with Sabrina's e-mail address in it...

(BACK TO ELECTOPIA, NAMELY SCILAB)
"Right, well, I think I'm out too." Steve said, gathering up his possessions, "The final will probably be televised, anyway."

As he turned to leave, however, he reembered something. "Oh, right, Rose. I'm still up for an interview or whatever. Here's my email." he said, busting out his PET to transfer it to her, and taking note of the new address in his contacts.

"Anyways, peace."
Rose began to reply to Aelieth after a pause to watch the end of the match. She was rather depressed by the result.

It also wasn't long before people came and left, with the net result of the lounge containing only herself and Aelieth, in addition to Zeo off busting in a corner.

She had waved quickly to her friends as they left and accepted the contact transfer with Steve. "Thanks." She added quickly, hoping he'd catch it before leaving.

"Well, " she said, "I guess Mill lost then." Rose obviously wasn't incredibly satisfied with this development. "So much for my finalist picks."

SummonerMan was rather disinclined to comment. He hadn't felt particularly attached to either of her picks, and he wasn't incredibly let down by their losses.

"Oh, after the tournament." Rose said, getting back on track. "Assuming it ends at some point."

"Well, after all this work and all the paper producing work, I'll probably be relaxing for a bit. You know, it's been a long day." And indeed it had. Rose had been so busy and seen and met so many new people the mere hours the tournament had spanned seemed to her like weeks.

She had considered it, but decided not to read further into his question, as Aelieth had been relatively straightforward and friendly so far, so she had no reason to believe he was trying to pick her up. Especially considering how long they had none each other, in addition to the variation in their respective ages.

She awaited a response patiently as she watched the final round of the tournament, hooking her PeT back up to download the whole match and the ones she had missed from afar.
"I hear ya..." Aelieth concurred, hidden relief that Rose either didn't catch or decided not to question the accidental double meaning behind his earlier question safely covered behind a thoughtful expression. "So... Pianissimo versus Red.... Didn't see that coming," he mused. "Well... the Pianissimo part, maybe," he added a moment later, "but death by falling candle was definitely not the note I expected Valkyrie's match to end- or start- on." Once again it seemed that Aelieth defaulted on the tournament to maintain the conversation.

He left the statement open ended, allowing for Rose to comment if she wanted to, or to just be an independent statement and hope that something else to talk about would present itself.


Zeo's head shot up from staring at his PET. He glanced around and saw that only Rose and Aelieth remained standing several yards away from him. ViralMan was busy fighting for his digital life, so why not try and make more conversation? Several reasons why not. Regardless, he heard Aelieth's comment about the tournament which drew his attention to the monitors. "Oh, looks like that powerful looking Navi won the other semi-final," he said to himself. And he was facing...the little red Navi. This was going to be awesome, he was sure.

Figuring he could probably talk to his new acquaintances here and still operate his Navi (which only amounted to sending chip data at this point), Zeo strolled back over to Rose and Aelieth. "Sorry about that. Had something to take care of in the Net," the boy apologized. "I'm kinda surprised that red Navi managed to make it to the finals, but considering what she's been doing the last few rounds I guess it could be expected. She was more of the dark horse last round though." Zeo took another glance at the situation in his PET before wiping all traces of the new frown off his face and saying, "So, now the obvious question: who do you think's going to win?"
Rose noted the conversations focus on the tournament again and thought over it. "Well like I said I was betting Anyis and Valkyrie for the finals, so obviously this surprised me."

"And I probably wouldn't expect a lot of matches to end the way they did. " She noted with a smile. "It seemed like a good deal of deus ex machina, huh?"

At this point Zeo walked in, so she responded to his question too. "That's fine." she said to his apology. "Oh, the winner?" she asked rhetorically.

She hadn't thought about it yet, so she decided to try that. She thought back to the brackets. After considering who each one had faced, she decided to speak. "Well, it looks to me like even though Pianissimo is the more serious competitor, literally, Red went though some rough fights and her record is looking a bit more impressive than his."

She then turned to Aelieth and awaited his response with a "How about you?" directed at him first.
"Well," he began, "though Pianissimo does look like he was made for this kind of thing, the one-on-one fighting that is, Red has definitely pulled out of situations that looked un-winnable before."

He shifted his weight some before continuing. "I mean, her last 'victory' aside, Red has had to deal with the likes of Druidman, who was not only a lot sturdier than her, but had an active Cross going as well, which only increased his fighting abilities," he commented with a tone that conveyed more insight on the previous site than he actually had. "And after almost losing several times, she and her operator still managed to win the match."

He looked at the screen displaying the current airborne battle that was taking place for a moment before looking back to Rose and Zeo. "So yeah... I pretty much agree with you, Rose," he rather lamely ended. "So, how about you, Zeo?" he turned the focus to the question's origin. "Who do you expect to win slash are rooting for this go round?" He asked, noting that the teen hadn't explicitly stated his pick.
"Who do I expect to win?" Zeo responded with a little surprise. He realized that he hadn't actually taken a side in the final round. Taking a moment to glance back at the monitors and the battle, he quickly looked at Pianissimo, then at Red. In his opinion, Red winning would be a bit more fun. Then again, Pianissimo seemed to indeed be the more serious competitor, like he deserved to win more. Of course, replying that he hadn't been rooting for either would be pretty stupid.

The boy took a quick look at his PET before running a hand through his hair. "Well, as cool as Pianissimo is, I can't help but agree with you two." Zeo smiled sheepishly. "It seems like it'd be a bit more fun if a little albeit powerful girl Navi managed to defeat a Navi clearly designed for combat." His eyes moved downward to his PET again and stayed there for a few seconds. Zeo's head then shot up like he'd forgotten he was supposed to be talking to people. "Ah, yes. Sorry about that, I guess it's kind of boring when everyone roots for the same side." Realizing that that was essentially the end of that conversation, Zeo tried to come up with a new one. "I guess you guys have been here for a while, but when was the last time you went busting? Anything interesting happen?" He stopped and awaited an answer, or even a better topic if someone provided it.
"Well, glad we're all on the same page," Rose couldn't help to think that it was odd that everyone was rooting for the same person. "It cuts down on conflict, though. Just makes it a bit more boring."

Then Zeo, after oddly pausing in thew middle of conversation, asked a new question, which she felt obliged to answer. "Oh, the last time I went busting?" She attempted to remember what had happened the last time she went busting. "Let's see, " she thought as she reeled through her memory.

"God, so many interesting things have happened since then that it feels like it's been months." She replied with a smile, clearly exaggerating. "But the last time I went busting nothing too important happened. It was a pretty normal busting run."

Rose waited for a response as she glanced at the screens and watched the battle play out passively. It was a rather interesting field, and the combat wasn't too boring either.

Also of note, the preferred combatant of the entire lounge was winning.
After listening to Rose's comments, Aelieth turned to answer Zeo. He didn't even have to remember that far back to recall when the last time He and Holo went virusbusting was; heck, it was the very reason he was nearly late to his final match.

"Let's see..." he said, only making a little bit of a show of checking his watch. "Last time Holo and I went virusbusting was about two matches ago." The watch checking was entirely pointless, but he was now almost fully relaxed amongst the group and a little bit of his dorky side was showing.

Holoß gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, validating his Operator's statement as best he could.

"Nothing really interesting happened, though, aside from the fact that I was participating in my own battle at the time. A battle of wits and strategy. One for glory! One for the future of those brave plastic soldiers, many of whom sacrificed themselves to protect their monarchs," he joked, a mock serious expression on his face. "In fact, Rose was my competitor, and a fine one at that," Aelieth continued, giving a little nod to the teen. "But aside from the slotting of random chips during a chess match, nothing overly exciting happened during the busting run itself, right Holo?" Aelieth turned to look at the Navi perched upon his shoulder. Holo nodded.

"How about you, Zeo?" he asked, once again turning the original speaker's question back upon him.
Once again called upon to speak, Zeo smiled uneasily and glanced down at his PET. "Well..." he wondered whether they would find it odd that his Navi was currently in a battle. They might find it even more odd if he described how the battle was going. Oh whatever, I'm probably just being paranoid, he thought.

"My Navi is just now...finishing off a battle with a presumably evil chain using Navi. I say presumably because I have no idea who the guy even is, but yeah..." Zeo rubbed the back of his head. "And a while before that, my Navi and I faced some farmer HeelNavis and a giant shredding machine," he added.

A second after saying that he realized it was probably weirder than the first part. "Um, I guess we haven't had the most normal time busting recently. On the bright side, we did pick up a cool chip for destroying that shredder..." He looked downward. Well, that was a great move... he berated himself mentally. "On top of that, my Navi will probably be returning soon, so you'll get to hear his abundance of smart remarks about my bad social skills." Laughing nervously, he brought his PET closer to his face to see what was going on inside. Zeo took a breath before continuing. "Sorry about that, it probably sounded really weird," he said to Rose and Aelieth. Understatement of the century, his mind remarked.
Rose was about to respond when the action in battle began to heat up. The final battle reached its climax.

As a result a silence fell over the lounge for a bit while, Rose at least, watched the end of the final match of the tournament they had all come to observe. And finally, it was over.

"Wow, that was. . ." Rose began, looking at the screens and replays available to her. "Well, it was a good fight." She said neutrally.

"And it looks like we all picked the winner. Nice guessing." She continued. She quickly linked her PeT back up to the chairs via Wifi and downloaded the remaining replay footage. "So, I guess that's it then, huh?" she asked, rhetorically. She was looking more for a response from the others than a answer to her question.
"No worries, Zeo," Aelieth said, an automatic response issuing from his mouth at the teen's apology for seemingly having 'bad social skills'. He was about to ask another question to keep the conversation going when the match reached it's final confrontation. Watching intently, he witnessed the final exchange of blows between the competitors before the statue in the middle of the arena declared the winner.

Responding to Rose's comment on the match, he nodded his head, adding: "Yeah, it was a pretty exciting finish to the tournament. I don't think we could've asked for a finish that down to the wire."

"Yeah... I guess so..." he responded to Roses last statement. "Still, it was fun... I-- hold on a sec..." His PeT's phone was ringing, which wasn't a normal occurrence. He excused himself for a moment, answered the call, then returned to the group. "Crap... I've gotta go. Just got a call reminding me of a major programming project that needs to be finished tonight... Sorry about cutting out so fast." he apologized to his two friends. "Rose, I'll send an email once I get mine fixed and we can work out something with an interview for the paper then if you want to, or if you ever want to hang out."

He began to shift towards the door. "Later guys." he said, waiting long enough for them to bid their goodbyes before heading out to the sudden mountain of work he found before him.
"Later, Aelieth," Zeo replied. He wondered if he'd ever see him again. And then there were two. What now? he asked himself. Start a new conversation? First he had to respond to Rose. "The end of the whole tournament, huh..." Zeo frowned. "I wonder if we could get in on the action next time, ViralMan." His arm raised, bringing his PET closer to his face. ViralMan appeared inside with his arms lightly crossed. "Maybe we'd have a chance. I don't know about getting into the finals though. There's some pretty tough competition, I see."

Zeo wasn't sure whether that was a shot at Red or a shot at Pianissimo.

"Oh come on, they were both spectacular. And they certainly didn't slack off in getting to the finals," Zeo defended the combatants. His Navi looked downward in thought. The boy turned to Rose. "I know it only took a little while, but that tournament seemed like it took forever. How long have you been watching it?" He glanced at the monitors, some of which had shut down. Oh well. "You think that we're supposed to leave or something? I don't want to get in trouble," Zeo added, eying the lounge's exit. "Then again, it's not like the Colosseum employs ushers or anything..."

He trailed off, curious as to what Rose intended to do.
"Bye Aelieth! Good Luck!" She called after the man who ran off. They seemed to run off a lot without waiting for goodbyes.

Rose thought back quickly to the tournament, but it was more of a reflective inward turning than an attempt at memory. "I've been here since the start." She said, listing off the fact without much intonation, "Which was a good deal earlier this morning."

And then she looked around the startlingly empty room. "You're right, Zeo, there's almost no one here." She thought for a moment before continuing, while reaching into her pocket. "We should probably go."

She had long since finished downloading and pulled her keys out of her pocket with the hand she had just shoved in the pocket. Darting her eyes from the keys to the boy, she decided to be nice. "Besides, he's just a kid. Hasn't shown any signs of insanity. As long as he doesn't live in like, NetFrica it's not much of an issue." She rationalized quickly.

"You need a ride home?" she offered, as she took a few steps to the door, but remained facing him.
"Huh? A ride home?" Zeo said, a little surprised. That was an offer he hadn't been expecting. Then again, his extra money for travel expenses was running a bit low. He turned to his Navi inside the PET. "Well, ViralMan? Any objections?" he asked. ViralMan shrugged. "She doesn't look like a homicidal maniac, and if you die I'll be just fine in here. Go for it." Zeo didn't seem amused as he looked up at Rose again and ran a hand through his hair for what seemed like the twentieth time that day.

Besides, she's what-my age? No sign that she's insane. And even getting part of the way back would help. It's not like I live in Netfrica... Zeo rationalized in his head. He finally focused on Rose. "Um, okay. Sure." The boy flipped his PET in his hand and slid it into his arm holster, turning it off in the progress. Looking around, he made sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Then again, he hadn't really brought anything. With one final glance around the room, he turned to the door.

In a slightly nervous voice, he said "I guess that's that," indicating the end of the tournament.
Rose looked at the PeT of her friend and raised an eyebrow at the comment he made. It was a very impolite thing to say. Aloud.

But seeing Zeo's embaressment and being the incredible person that she was, Rose decided to let that one slide. She led the way out of the room and looked over at Zeo. "That settles it then. My car's out in the parking lot; try to keep up." she said, with a smile and a quick giggle, as she started swiftly making her way out of the building, at what would be an uncomfortably fast pace to walk at, forcing the boy to either join in the fun and run after her, or lose her.

And with that she rounded the corner down the hall and headed out.

((OOC: Rose will drive Zeo home and they shall exchange contact information before he leaves her company))
And out the door Rose went. Zeo wondered whether someone would stop him for running in the halls. Then again, this wasn't school. But then again, school wasn't the only place you couldn't run. Something else to consider; a ride with a girl? He hoped that would be able to remain coherent on the way home. Hey, hold on a sec...would she have a pink car or something? He would probably feel awkward riding in a pink car. And maybe then...

Oh wait, he was supposed to be following Rose.

"W-wait! Right behind you!" he called out. Shaking his head almost violently to clear it, he took off through the door. His footsteps echoed through the hall as he practically sprinted to catch up to the girl.

((*agrees to the above OOC bit*))
((FXP Rewards:
Summ/DNR: 8
Splash/DNR: 12
Splash/Summ: 15
Voulge/Splash: 4
Voulge/Summ: 3
Summ/Exxy: 3
Exxy/DNR: 1
Exxy/Splash: 1
Anyis/Exxy: 3
Anyis/Summ: 9
Anyis/Splash: 4
Enigma/Splash: 5
Enigma/Summ: 5
Viral/Splash: 6
Viral/Enigma: 5
Enigma/Sound: 2
DNR/Sound: 1
Viral/Summ: 5
Summ/Void: 1
Druid/DNR: 7
Splash/Druid: 6
Void/DNR: 1
Exxy/Djinni: 2
Enigma/Druid: 4
Exxy/Void: 1
Splash/Djinni: 2
Volt/Splash: 2
DNR/Volt: 3
Summ/Volt: 3
Volt/Druid: 1
Holoβ/Summ: 18
Anyis/Holoβ: 4
Gear/Summ: 3
Rhea/Summ: 5
Gear/Rhea: 1
Holoβ/Rhea: 1
Holoβ/Gear: 1
Splash/Holoβ: 3
Viral/Holoβ: 6
Viral/Anyis: 1
Druid/Holoβ: 1
Druid/Summ: 3
Sound/Splash: 2
Sound/Summ: 3
Void/DNR: 1
Djinni/Summ: 1
Big/Druid: 1 ))