Tourney Spectator Lounge

<What was that?> Imp's voice came from the PET on damian's belt.

"Huh?" Damian said in a dazed voice, snapping out of his 'people watching'.

<That jerk!> Imp said, materializing on Void's shoulder, pointing a fat finger at Burt's back as the OP sat down by himself, <He said that you were being darkness-and-gloom-man.exe to be cool!>

<I'm pretty sure he didn't say that...> Void muttered, knowing what was going to happen next.

<He doesn't understand that just because someone looks a certain way that he doesn't have to live up to the stereotype. He's... He's... Species-ist!>

"Actually when he said that, he was saying the opposite of what you just said..." Damian rolled his eyes.

<Well that doesn't change anything, I'm gonna march right over there and give them a piece of my mind!> Imp said, Busting into a small amount of flame and reappearing behind the navi of the "species-ist" Net-op team.

<I better stop him,> Void muttered, <If he gives them a piece of his mind, there won't be anything left...>

"Fine whatever..." Damian muttered, Watching the other Net-ops and wondering who would be good to team up with... Maybe that Djinni, although she's probably way higher than us...

---

<Alright, listen here and listen good, Miss 'holier than thou...'> Imp said sternly as he popped up in a burst of flame, trying to look as menacing as a 1 foot tall imp can look, <Just because something doesn't look evil doesn't mean it isn't, and I really don't like that you guys said that us demon style navis and progs look all 'darky Mc darkson' just to be cool. Just because we look bad doesn't mean we do it to look cool. Our OP's name is Damian, and you probably know the religious implication of that particular name, so he didn't have a lot of themes to choose from. Plus he rescued us, so he never made us look this way to begin with, it was somebody else. So why don't you take that and put it in yo-->

Void quickly covered Imp's mouth in an attempt to block then vulgar insult, <Your... memory! So you can remember it when you... see another demon based navi...> Void struggled with the flailing ball of lard and extended a hand towards Exorsist, <Sorry about that. He get's a little hyper from time to time. I'm Void, and this is Imp.>

"You speak your words with ease and yet there's a lot of chaos in them..." Na'im said peacefully, saying to himself that he might've made an error in judging one's character. Turning his eyes away from Burt, he glanced at Exorcist again and looked her over again as she spoke at him. Immediately after she ended he could hear Burt speak again about the training they had started. "Yoka, huh? Djinni shouldn't have any trouble with that," Na'im said and glanced upwards, "Wait..."

"Hey, I've got a visitor!" Djinni shouted as she looked down at Na'im and pointed excitedly at SplashWoman, instead of shaking her hand politely first, who had entered the area that was Na'im's bald head, "Can I keep her? She's a MERMAID!"

"Keep her, what kind of nonsense is this? First a giant robot, now a fish?" Na'im muttered and rubbed his forehead, causing his fingers to get dangerously close to Djinni's location. "Eh, dear..." Na'im continued with his eyes shut while rubbing his forehead softly, "Could you please ask the Navi not to use my head as a meeting point? Get her name and e-mail so we can ask her sometime once we're not occupied with other things..."

"Well..." Djinni muttered, pouting slightly and turned to SplashWoman. "I'm sorry... But my Operator," she started and attempted to hit Na'im's skull with her fist after saying the first few words, only to regain her composure to finish her sentence, "is busy... So please leave a message after the beep. Eh-I mean... Please give your contact information to Na'im so he can contact you and your Operator some other time. Only if you want to though... I'm Djinni.EXE. My Operator is Na'im bin Shaitan." Afterwards she muttered softly and slid off of Na'im's head and onto his right hand he had opened for her to land in.

"So Yoka it is," Na'im said as he walked over to the couch Burt had positioned himself on. As he sat down, he heard Burt whispering to him and raised one of his eyebrows. "The world is full of strange people, I guess... Humanity is a giant mess. But that's what makes it so fun. Interesting things wherever you run," Na'im said as he looked at the diversity of people in the room, but then turned to his PET as he placed it on top of his lap. Going across the keys of the keyboard section, he moved his fingers to the PET's screen and inserted the command to enter the Net.

Djinni waved happily and disabled her holographic image, appearing in the PET's screen before disappearing again to enter the internet.

Rose got somewhat overwhelmed in her observing of people, and didn't interject much. She did watch, though, and observe, as did SummonerMan.

Rose noticed the new purple clad entrant, the crowd that swarmed him, and decided against also swarming him. After it had at least lightened slightly, she called out to him. "Oh, I'm Rose Dunrae, by the way, nice to meet you."

She also noticed Burt reappear from a coach. She had to make an effort not to be visibly surprised by his presence. "HE WAS HERE THE WHOLE TIME!?" She thought, in shock. Blinking a couple times, she smiled and waved to him, too. "And hello again, 'Welcome back', I guess I should say."

SummonerMan tuned into and out of the conversation between DNR and Splashlady, and then into and out of Djinni and Na'im's arriving. He noted their names and remembered that they would be DNR's partners, but didn't take much interest in it beyond that. He almost made a comment on Ceres' netbattling comment, but then it almost escalated into a fight, "Fights are far more interesting to watch. Besides, watching them duke it out in the real world would be interesting." he mused.

Sadly it never escalated that far. Or hadn't yet, at least.

Rose noted the argument somewhat, too, and was somewhat prepared to try and mediate should it become necessary. But at the moment it didn't seem to be so.

She noted with a similar interest to that which she had held towards Counterinfectionalism, Ceres' anti-NP feelings, and Sabrina's father's occupation, the mystery shrouding Steve and Druidman.

She also noticed the vague illegality of Steve banging his way into two free sodas. "That reminds me, I haven't had anything to drink in a while. I am somehwat thirsty.." Rose thought, looking towards the machine.

She made her way over too it and looked at the price before reaching into her pockets. She noticed with alarm a serious lack of zenny. She dug deeper, a look implying that she was somewhat thrown off by this development spreading to her face. After a few more moments without any results, Rose was disheartened. "Aw, I guess I don't have any money on me..." She mentioned aloud, pulling her hands out of her pockets and crossing them under her chest. She turned and leaned her head back against the Soda machine, allowing it to support her body which now faced away from it, which continued to tease her with it's presence. "I was really hoping to grab a soda, too..." she trailed off, quietly.

SummonerMan grinned as his operator found herself out of luck and minorly inconvenienced. He was paying more attention to the game, though, than to most of the new developments around her.

Rose noted the developments with Damian (and the contradictions involved), and Djinni's disappearance into the net at Na'im's insistence. She also noticed with mild interest the fact that they now had two musicians in the room. This didn't make her any less thirsty, though.

"Good, it's settled then! I can't wait to see our two navis interacting together. Won't it be fun to watch, ha ha ha? Sometimes, I think of netbattling like watching a movie. It's so entertaining and you're right, there's so many exciting people to meet. The life of a netbattler is a wonderful thing indeed," Burt mused whistfully, resting his head on his fist and letting his mind wonder. As his vision came back to focus, he happened to spot Rose Dunrae giving him a polite smile and wave. Having no idea as to why, he waved back with a floppy palm, then turned to Na'im excitedly. "Dude, did you see that? She's checking me out!" he whispered giddily, clamping his hands at his scarf and wringing it tightly.

"She's just being polite. I commend her; it's nice to be courteous even in the face of an unfavorable situation," Exorcist smiled, nodding thoughtfully.

Burt let out a loud raspberry with his lips, then crossed one leg over the other with a casual shrug. "Unfavorable? She's probably dying for some teacher-student romance," he laughed confidently.

"You're a college professor, not a high-school teacher," Exorcist reminded him with a disgruntled glare. Sighing, the operator went to musing about the beautiful romance that could spring up between him and the dark-haired young girl. Meanwhile, Exorcist did her best to address the newcomer, Imp's, questions regarding their appraisal of a generically named "SuperDarknessEvilMan.EXE" who apparently coincidentally coincided with the motif of one of the navis in the room. "Oh, uh, s-sorry, we didn't mean to offend anyone! Well, I didn't, anyways, and I'm sure Burt meant no offense either. He just... gets a little tongue-tied some times.... Anyways, I have someone to meet, so please accept my apologies," she finished with another bow, then scampered off to meet Djinni further into Yoka.

...Keep her? That wasn't quite what she had in mind...fortunately, a definite no came from her operator, as well as a request to exit his head. "Oh, sorry...here!" SplashLady quickly created a text data file and transferred it to Na'im's PET. "That's my operator's and my e-mail address! Feel free to send us mail or something whenever! Nice to meet you two!" And with that, she reappeared on her operator's shoulder. "I'm back!"

"Uh-huh...wait, what?" Oh hey, her Navi was back. "Have fun?"

"Yeah, though for a split second I felt kinda...weird. Like there was algae growing on me or something..."

"Huh...he must've seen you or something. Kinda odd he'd only notice you for a split second..." Sabrina took a good look at her Navi's present form...and the reasoning suddenly became clear. And it involved what was under the seashells on her chest...or lack thereof. "...Or not."

"...What are you talking about, Sabrina?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, just talking to myself. So, finished talking to everyone?"

"For now, I guess. So, how're the matches going?"

"No one else has won yet. You know...I'm actually getting kinda thirsty, come to think of it." With that decided, she suddenly bolted for that soda machine that was apparently very generous when it came to free drinks. Rose was there, and seemed a bit short on cash. "Cash, huh? No problem...it just needs a little convincing!" And with that, Sabrina performed the ever intelligent act of punching a soda machine. ...Nothing happened aside from pain to her fist. "Ow! Uh...wrong hand, maybe?" A second punch later, both her hands hurt, and no soda for it. "Gah...how'd he do it, again?"

"Um...I think he bumped it with his hip the second time, but-"

"Oh, right! Thanks, SplashLady!" Okay, third time was the charm! After taking a moment to figure out the precise angle at which she should hit it, as well as other things that had nothing to do with the action, and then...

BAM!

The force of Sabrina's hip was too much for the machine, causing it to drop not one, but two sodas into its compartment, which she quickly grabbed. One was orange, which she kept for herself, and the other...well, she had no idea, but handed it to Rose anyway. "Here! You wanted one, right?" She then cracked open the can, and took a sip. Mmm, orange soda...

"The trick is to hit it with enough force to jostle them, but not enough for it to lock up." Steve called across the room, chuckling slightly at what his minor civil disobedience had caused. "It helps that that machine is about ten years old, too. Like the one I used to get stuff out of as a kid." he added. "Newer ones have better security progs."

Shigeru strolled into the room, gaping at the crowd that had gathered. Looking at the bracket on the wall, he saw that most of the battles were already finished from Round 1.
Looks like we arrived just in time.
Voltman's hologram appeared on Shigeru's shoulder, glancing at the bracket. No kidding. Those jocks really held us up. Spotting an empty spot on one of the couches nearby, he plopped down, Voltman's hologram staying near him all the while.

Returning his attention from a brooding sulk to that of the lounge once more as Voltman walked in, Ceres nodded to him. Hey. I'm Ceres.

And Enigma, added the navi from the side, changing back to his usual, nondescript form to distinguish himself from Druidman. Dunno why you came in here, not much interesting stuff going on.

Pretty much everyone who won came in here, Ceres chuckled. Myself and Enigma included.

Everyone that won, eh? Any chance I could get a playback of those battles? Eh, probably not. Shigeru determined, chuckling and looking around. And why not come in here, really? I mean, might as well size up what might be future competition, right? Another chuckle.
The name's Voltman. And that's Shigeru. Round 2 combatants... that was a surprise announcement, let me tell you. Voltman explained from his operator's shoulder, talking to Enigma and the room in general.

Shigeru looked around. Just from what he could see, there was quite a variety in the grouping of navis here. He thought he spotted a familiar blue shape over talking to one of the operators, but he shrugged. If he was wrong, he wasn't about to show it.

Checking his opponent, the name triggered some response deep within the recesses of both navi and operator's memories. They both looked at each other, and Shigeru pulled out his PET, searching for some recognition of just where they might know "Pianissimo" from.

"I recognize that Navi from someplace." Steve mumbled, looking at the VoltMan hologram, "But I can't remember where."

"Alllright...." DNR said as he cracked his knuckles his eyebrow twitching above his red eyes. He appeared right before SplashLady as he finally said "That's it! I've tried implying my feelings long enough! I know it's alright for waiting in a diagnosis but still... This is love! Splashlady..." he said as he pouted his lips. Anyone nearby the two could see his produced sparkles of love, made by DNR to pronounce his appearance. "You are the strong, capable river that fuels my hydroelectric generator... the capacitor that allows my heart to continue! I can't even speak such heart filled words anymore because of your radiance! I wish to court you my dear Splashlady!" DNR said as he extended his hands out.

Meanwhile, Polonius received a soda from the nearby machine as he listened to DNR's heartfelt exclamation. Unfortunately, he didn't have the advantage to have drunk the soda as he dropped it. The can hit the floor as it blew open, spraying the med student with nice, cold Wily Cola...

Druidman was still lost in thought. That SplashLady Navi was odd, and Druidman could not for the life of him figure out what was odd about her. He continued to puzzle over it, playing through scenarios and tossing ideas around in his head, then, it struck him like crate of lead to the face. How that metaphor worked out he had no idea, but he was now pretty sure he knew what was up, and it was for one simple reason:

Druidman knew a thing or two about the natural way of things. He was more in tune to the way the real world worked than most Navis were, and a good portion of NetOps, these days. Even in an artificial world, Druidman could sense when something was out of whack.

Now that he figured it out, he slammed his hand into his palm, and stood up, and outstretched a finger pointing towards SplashLady. "I'VE GOT IT, DUDE!" Druidman roared loudly. "YOU'RE A DUDE, MAN!" he finished happily as he sat back down on the ground. He was glad that he figured out that puzz...

Wait.

WHAT did DNR just say?

Oh. Shit.

Voltman and Shigeru both went pale, recognizing (with some help from Steve and DNR) the navi that DNR had just confessed to.
Both turned to each other, putting their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter.

Zeo surveyed the new arrivals. May have to go if things get too crowded here, he thought. Lots of interesting navis, and some interesting operators. "You doing okay, ViralMan?" he said to the navi in the network machine. ViralMan gave him a thumbs up and stretched a bit. Reaching into his jacket pocket, Zeo produced a small bag of colourful candies. He tossed a handful into his mouth and sat down again.

Continuing to eat, he listened to a heartfelt (or at least it seemed heartfelt) confession by DNR to SplashLady. He then heard DruidMan. And started choking. Staggering to the vending machine, he tried violence in desperation. It was probably broken by now anyway, so he brought his fist down on the machine where it had been hit previously. Zeo grabbed the soda which thankfully popped out, then opened it and guzzled. He took one final gulp before breathing deeply. He'd been lucky, because if he hadn't choked, he wouldn't have been able to keep from laughing. "Sorry, vending machine. It was an emergency." He patted the machine. How much more abuse could it take?

Quietly returning to his seat, Zeo stuffed the candy back in his pocket.

"Smooth," remarked ViralMan.

Well, aside from the fact her operator just stole a pair of sodas, things were going quite well. Now to just hang in there until the match started...

...And then VoltMan showed up. "Uh-oh..."

...And then DNR professed his love for her. "Ack!"

...And THEN DruidMan somehow figured out the truth. "Huh?!"

"Mmph!" All these things happening in rapid succession made Sabrina nearly gag on her soda, causing her to stumble back to the wall, which managed to knock her out of it. "Whew..." She placed her hand on her hip, preparing to come up with some way to knock some of those remarks out of the way...

...However, she brushed her finger against her PET, hitting a button whose current function was...'Restore previous configuration'. And thus, SplashLady glowed for a moment, becoming more black and less green, less spear and more cannons, and slightly shorter and MUCH wider. ...Crud. "...Um...I think your cover's blown...SplashMan."

"Huh?" The Aqua Navi put his forearm in front of his eyes...and while a bit distorted, he could still everything through his water filled arms. ...Double crud. "...Yeah...if you feel like trying to see if you can compete from Sharo, I think we've got a good reason..."

"...No! What are you talking about? We've got nothing to hide! I mean, it's a total fluke that's even what you looked like!" ...And now she had to explain the convolutedness to everyone. ...Triple crud.

"Well...if you wanna try to explain it, go ahead. I think I need to just hear it to make sure I didn't just go crazy..."

"Uh...okay...ahem!" Sabrina cleared her throat before stepping forward. "Yeah, it's true...SplashMan's original form...is just that, a man. But lemme explain how he got that, er, other form. You see, I was walking over here to the Colosseum, minding my own business. Then I get a call all of a sudden, and it's from my older brother. He had created a patch for SplashMan, which he sent over."

"Patch? Maybe you should tell everyone what it's for..."

"Oh, good idea. You see, SplashMan was made by my dad. He's a great Navi, but...my Dad used older generation Navi technology to make it. So while he can do almost everything, more recent technology stuff, like GMOs and Crosses, won't work. If I ever tried, it'd cause his water source to leak, and flood the Net! At least that's what my dad told me...anyway, my brother sent me a patch, but said there were two catches. First off, it had to be attached to a blank GMO file. With the patch attached, it wouldn't cause any leaking, and he'd get a new body shape. Which led to the second catch...while the patch and GMO file fused with his core program, he would be in a semi-unconscious state. And I couldn't do anything to the file while it was being used. Which meant that GMO would reach into his memory banks, and pull out something that could be used as a template for his appearance. And, well...of all the things it could picked...it picked the 'Princess of the Sea'."

"Yep, all the neat stuff I've seen on the Net, and it turned me into the total opposite of myself!"

"Yeah...most of you wouldn't know, but Princess of the Sea was a popular cartoon here in Netopia several years ago, especially among girls. I loved it back then! But SplashMan's only about a year old...so he never really saw her. But on the day I got my passport, I was hanging out in the lobby with him, and since I was the only person there, I had control of the TV. I was flipping through the channels, and guess what I found? Princess of the Sea! I watched the whole thing, but SplashMan watched it for a couple of minutes, then decided that he'd rather take a snooze. So he wound up getting a lot of the details wrong in his memory, and...that's how he wound up as SplashLady! I figured that he should learn how to handle himself like that, so I had him stay like that as we came in."

"Yep...trust me, I didn't really want to do it...but she convinced me. So I tried to act girly without being too obvious! ...And I think it worked..." He looked over at DNR, who was still waiting there. "This is why I said it wouldn't work out between us...bet you didn't expect this, huh?"

"Well, any questions?" Sabrina leaned against the now-battered vending machine, and took a well-deserved gulp of soda. "Yeah, I know it sounds really unnecessarily complicated and weird...but believe me, that's what happened. Trust me, I could NOT make something like that up."

Shigeru and Voltman, despite the long explanation, continued to laugh uncontrollably.

"Oh, I see. A patch. That makes sense, dude." Druidman said, closing his eyes and nodding.

Steve laughed and punched his armbound PET. "Druidman, you don't know shit about things like that, don't pretend like you knew everything all along."

Zeo grinned stupidly, keeping his head down. "I dunno whether I'd be willing to let my navi stay like that, but it's your choice, I suppose." He couldn't imagine how DNR would react, and stared at the navi from his position in the chair, waiting. Pondering for a second, Zeo wondered what ViralMan would look like as a girl. Then he quickly shook his head and dispelled the bad mental images.

From his own spot in the network, ViralMan sighed, losing interest in the battles and shifting around to eye SplashMan and DNR. "See, this is what trying to socialize gets you. Nothing good," he complained to his op. Zeo ignored him and concentrated on not laughing, having more success than the guy near him.

"...She's a..." DNR said as his index finger dropped, being of course the most shocked out of the bunch.

"Yep..." Polonius said as he wiped off the Wily Cola from his face.

"Sooo that's a no on the date..." DNR said at first. Now if one read a psychology book, one could know that he's starting in the first stage of the Kübler-Ross model: Denial. "No! That can't be true! Maybe it's quite possibly that THIS is really the GMO. Right Polonius?... right!?" DNR said as he looked towards his protege, whom blinked as he shook his head in response.

Next of course came Anger. DNR's red eyes flared as he screamed in a terrible fury that could be heard around the room. "WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME HUH DRUIDMAN!? I'M JUST A NORMAL, PEACE-LOVING NAVI, JUST LOOKING FOR LOVE BUT NOOOOO... DEAR OLD MURPHY LIKES TO THROW CURVEBALLS AT DNR! WELL TOUGH IT! THIS IS SOMEBODY'S FAULT AND I'M GONNA FIGURE OUT WHOSE IS IT!" Polonius raised his eyebrows as he saw the enraged navi fume, coughing slightly as it raised DNR's ire towards him a bit.

Next in the cycle came Barganing. "Hmph..." DNR said as he crossed his arms thogether. "Maybe I can ask Splashman to be SplashLady towards me! Yeah! How about it Splashman? Please?"

Polonius couldn't raise his eyebrows higher now that DNR quickly changed to the next phrase: Depression. He simply shrugged his shoulders as he sulked, tears in his eyes as he said. "Oh darn it... maybe it's futile... maybe I shouldn't just give up with all of this procurement of a worthy female advisor..."

"Uhmm... i-it's alright? I'm sure it could work out one day,..." Polonius could only remarked as DNR finally shifted to the last phrase: Acceptance. "No, no Polly..." DNR said as he got up, smiling again as his tears disappeared. "So Splashlady is gone and never really was a hottie. So what? Maybe now with this behind us, we can finally be actually friends with more people... What do ya say Splash?" he said as he extends his right hand for a hearty holo- handshake.

Voltman let out a chuckle as he appeared on the net.
Same old DNR. What's up, man?