Tourney Spectator Lounge

"Oooh right! Sorry about that!" DNR said with a bit of a bow towards Enigma. "So you beat Miyu huh? Well... I had the pleasure to busted with her before her match... I hope I don't laud it when we met... heheheh"

"Heh, thanks you two." Even though everyone seemed to be fine with her idiocy, Sabrina still felt like she had to make some kind of remark that made her sound like she had a brain in her head..."Hmm...well, no sense worrying about it too much right now, I guess. We'll just see how the battle goes!" Eh...that'd do in a pinch. At least it wasn't mind numbingly stupid. "Maybe all those obstacles can slow him down, at any rate!"

"...Hrk!" SplashLady's suddenly widened, as something inside her seemed to be spreading itself around...wait, she knew this feeling...wasn't it...a Cross? Yeah, it was...and the data signature resembled Binary, the first Navi she had ever busted with...a little surprising that wasn't her first one, but oh well. She figured that she'd keep this one a secret; if she had to fight any of them, she should probably keep at least one trick up her sleeves. And so, she sat down and checked the other battles. "Hmm...I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the matches. Wonder if any of the others are about done?"

SummonerMan briefly noticed that WhiteWeb had been one of the main draws towards this folder, and that he was very much looking forward to using it. He didn't know much else as far as the folder's strategies went, though, and as a result he was watching for anyone with a fire Folder in the first bracket's first round.

Rose thought quickly about how convenient it was that all these people were so closely inter-related. ""Must come from local busting not being a humongous field. Or maybe there's a reason we're all coincidentally meeting up, who knows?" she mused.

She also smiled when Sabrina said thanks, as a way of acknowledging it.

Both SummonerMan and Rose noted the strange grunt SplashLady made, but neither said anything about it. Rose simply wondered if she was ok, and seeing her recover assured her of that. SummonerMan didn't care either way.

SummonerMan took care of the last question. "So far, none of them look like they're ending just yet. A lot of them started later than those twos'. Some of them are getting rolling to quite a start, but none of them look to be on the final stretches yet." He commentated.

Rose wasn't quite sure how to continue the conversation, so she fell back on something that was easy for her; advertisement. "Have you two seen my NetPaper?" She asked, directing the question at Ceres and Sabrina. "I'm coming out with a second issue after the Tournament, and I figured you two could look into it." Turning to Polonius she added, "You've already seen it, I think, right?"

"Anyway, I'd be grateful for any input or additions you want to send me, like interviews, comments on the tourney, art or questions, comments on my writing style, ideas for future issues, whatever." Rose smiled, "I'm new, so where the paper goes is kind of open book. I'll take suggestions with open ears, and think 'em all through."

SummonerMan rolled his eyes at Rose's ad show and went back to watching.

Yeah, I sort of agree with Sabrina; don't overthink your strategy, 'cos if it fails, then you'll have no backups. Make sure you're flexible about things, Ceres noted, eager to change the topic. He'd been thinking about the tournament nonstop for over three days, and the fact that all people wanted was tips on their battles wasn't exactly pleasing him.

No point in wasting time socializing with your opponent; it just made me anxious, Enigma admitted. I'm pretty happy I got my battle over with quickly.

Nodding in approval, Ceres opened his mouth to agree with Enigma, but was interrupted by a stream of advertisement by Rose. When she'd finished, Ceres had forgotten what he was going to say, and instead stammered, Uh, sure, if I have anything interesting, I'll be sure to let you know.

"Flexibility is a lot in what I prefer in battle myself." DNR commented in a sagely manner as he nodded to Ceres' statement.

"Oh yes I've seen your paper, it was rather nice miss." Polonius said with a flustered smile. "I-I'm not sure what should be added miss Rose but it seemed like a nice publication."

"NetPaper, NetPaper..." Sabrina tapped her finger against her head, trying to think of exactly why that seemed really familiar... "...Oh, right! Yeah, I've read it! It was pretty neat! I'm with Polonius, though, I dunno what you should add...but! If I can help you with anything, let me know, okay? Though, I gotta admit...I never realized until now that you were the one that made all that."

"I bet that's part of the reason you joined the tournament, isn't it? I mean, getting an inside scoop for something like this would be pretty good for your paper!" SplashLady looked over at Rose and SummonerMan. "And I'm with Sabrina all the way! If you need anything from us for it, just ask!"

"Thanks, Ceres." Rose responded, "and you too, Polonius."

"And thanks, Sabrina." She finished, almost as overwhelmed by the string of responses as they may have been by the advertisement.

"I'd really appreciate all the stuff I can get. So I don't know, an interview or even just a statement on what you thought of the tournament and what not would be great." She answered, thinking.

"And yeah, that is why I'm here." Rose continued. "Well, part of the reason. The tournament also looked like fun. But the inside scoop was a great opportunity, so I took it."

"It's actually a lot of work on my own." Rose continued. "Which would explain why it's so lacking in articles. I figure if I continue on and gain some more contacts, it'll only get easier and I'll only get better, so I'm going to keep working at it."

SummonerMan was quite a fan of strategizing. In battle, out of battle, it didn't matter. A last minute startegy pulled off well was just as fulfilling as a strategy prepared well before the actual battle. Flexibility was key, but it wasn't the most fun part; for him, anyway. So he mentioned something along those lines. "Flexibility's nice; I prefer the aspect of strategy itself, though."

The comment was more directed towards Enigma and DNR, as they were the ones discussing it. He didn't take much care to be heard, though, as he continued watching the battles. Now, however, as he watched, he began thinking about his own possible strategies.

I'm not really sure I'm what you'd call... er... interview material, replied Ceres hesitantly. You could probably do a bit on the lounge itself; seems pretty interesting in here, he suggested, making an airy gesture around the room for emphasis. Or, you could do, say, a paragraph-long summary of each battle, with input from operators? I dunno, it's your schtick, not mine.

Strategy's fun and all, but I don't think of quick reflexes as strategizing, said Enigma to SummonerMan. Whatever pieces of a plan I had fell apart as soon as I saw the arena.

"Hmm...guess we'll have an interview to do after my battle!" Sabrina thought for a moment, before suddenly developing an idea. "I know! You should do some interviews with different people at different times! Like, catch someone right before starting a match, someone right after losing a match, right after winning a match...that way you'll cover a bunch of different angles for your readers!" Woo, she was on a roll.

"Strategy, reflexes..." SplashLady was listening intent to the other Navis now. "You need both of that and more to be a great NetBattler! I hate to sound like a broken record, but that's one of the reasons FlareMan and Sabrina's dad are so great...they're good at it all! Oh, and the scary-good power doesn't hurt, either!"

"Everyone's interview worthy, Ceres." Rose answered. "I'm sure you'd do fine." She heard out his summary plan. "And yeah, I figured I'd give little summaries and hopefully get something from each operator."

SummonerMan took the time to respond to this comment by Enigma. "Thanks, but I'm still hoping to go in with a good amount of strategy. I mean, that's why I'm watching all the first bracket."

"Thanks Sabrina," Rose said in response to the offer to be interviewed. "I was hoping you all would be will to be interviewed after the tournament was all over."

She looked back at the girl, after being advised on what to do. "Well, actually, I thank you for your suggestion, but I have what I'm doing here planned already." She said. "However, I'll take any advice I can get, especially on other things, like topics of interest if you have them."

SummonerMan rolled his eyes slightlt as Splashladies statement, and replied all the same. It was a nice enough reply on the surface, he ust nmade it very condescending. "Yes, thank you SplashLady. I really appreciate that information, especially since we haven't already established it." Then he turned and rubbed his hand back through his hair quickly. "And while I wouldn't call myself scary good, I'm thinking I'll be able to do well all the same." He said with a smile and in a more normal, if somewhat cocky, tone of voice.

SummonerMan noted to himself that one more match seemed to be speeding up, but that still none were approaching their ends.

Trenn confidently strode into the room and took a quick look around.

Hmm, a lot of people are here already... He noted, scratching an itch on his arm. He glanced around for a few moments after that, then found himself a seat in one of the far corners of the room and sat down. Luckily Block 2 hadn't started yet...

Approaching the doors to the Spectator's Lounge, Zeo studied the entrance to the room. He thought about his trip. How many other people would fly to Netopia on impulse to watch a Netbattling tournament? He couldn't name any. Reaching out a hand, he inched the door open a bit. Glancing inside, he saw several other people gathered. Not the best at social encounters, he pushed the door open enough to walk in, and approached the group, putting his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Were you always this shy?" his navi remarked from the holster on his arm.

Zeo grimaced and said in a hushed voice, "Shut up, or I'm removing your upgrades."

The navi quieted and then shouted, "Well at least let me see!"

As inconspicuously as he could, Zeo quickly reached over and shut off the PET speakers. ViralMan continued yelling soundlessly. Gathering up his confidence, he finally smiled and said to the group,

"Um, hello everyone. My name is Zeo Yamikagi. It's nice to meet you all. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Rose looked towards the door as two more people entered the Room. She apprached them in turn.

"Hello there, I'm Rose Dunrae!" She said, happily, as the first one walked in.

She then turned to the second one, who walked in in a more reserved manner, as opposed to the confident one of her first encounter. "Hello to you too. I'm Rose Dunrae, nice to meet you." This greeting was once again followed by a smile.

"Are you two here to compete, too?" She asked. "It seems that everyone coming in here is." She explained.

"Yeah, I am." Trenn replied. "My name's Trenn. And this-" He pressed a button on his PET, prompting a hologram of Soundman to appear above the screen, "-is Soundman."

"Hello." Soundman waved, smiling. "Are you competing in the tournament as well, Miss Dunrae?"

"Yes I am." Rose replied. "My Navi SummonerMan is the one right there." she said, gesturing quickly to him. "We're in the second bracket, fighting Marius and his Navi, Voulge." She continued.

"He visited a while back; it was nice getting to meet my opponent in a friendly setting before having to go and fight him." She thought back to the visitors they had had thus far.

"Oh, SoundMan!" Sha said suddenly. "Hah, I remember now. You're on the bracket against another person who visited earlier. Mill and his navi, Anyis. She was some sort of water priestess or something; they were very nice." She smiled at the memory, adding in thought "Unlike the other Male operator who came in with a priestess Navi. He was just a creep."

SummonerMan looked over at the other Navi, just to get a good look at him, but didn't say much. After he had seen him, he turned back to watching the screens again. For a while, at least, until he felt like he had something to chat about.

Zeo was surprised at the girl's direct approach. I guess a lot of people are more social than me, he thought. Searching his head for a response, he decided to stick to answering her specific question.

Mentally managing to edit out the 'uh' at the beginning of his sentence, he responded, "Nice to meet you as well, Rose. I'm not actually in the tournament, I was just in the neighbourhood and decided to have a look at what was going on." By this time, ViralMan had manually reactivated the speakers, and chimed in, "In the neighbourhood? You flew over from Electopia!"

"Ack! Zip it!" exclaimed Zeo, ripping the PET from its holster. "You're not helping my attempt to socialize here," he whispered to the navi. ViralMan's smile was hidden by his helmet. With a nervous laugh, Zeo held up his PET and tried to smile again. It sort of worked, he thought. "This is my navi ViralMan." Mumbling to himself, he added, "Who takes every opportunity to ridicule me..."

Pushing his hair from his eyes, he ended his part of the conversation. "So I guess that means you and the other people here are all in the tournament then. Have any of you battled yet?"

Huh...two more people showed up. Not surprising, seeing as how this was a tournament. What WAS surprising was that someone came all the way from Electopia just to watch. "Hi, you two! I'm Sabrina Jetto! Let's see...this is my Navi, SplashLady...and I fight in the second block against MachMan!" She turned towards Zeo, and his continental traveling for the sake of watching. "Don't worry, we're not ones to judge. Trust me, we can't..."

"Yep! We're all in Block 2, except for him!" The one feminine looking Navi pointed her spear towards Ceres. "He's already fought and won! Just don't tell Sabrina that!"

"Hey! I already said I was sorry for screwing that up!" Sabrina shook her head before continuing. "So, it's nice to meet you guys!"

Trenn simply let himself fall out of the focus of the conversation. Multi-directional conversations always confused him anyway, so he was perfectly content to sit and think unless someone decided to focus on him.

Meanwhile within the PET, Soundman was wondering what this strange program Trenn had left in here was. It was a brown, rectangular package, sitting nearly in a corner of the small digital 'room' the PET contained, with its' label facing center: "Melody."

Very strange indeed...

Ceres, having been focused on the rest of the Block 1 battles, had entirely missed Trenn and Zeo's entrances. Only upon hearing "Are you two here to compete, too?" did Ceres' attention stray from the television. Raising his eyebrows slightly, he stood up and walked to the duo while Trenn finished his 'presentation' of SoundMan. Smiling inwardly at the odd actions of the operator, he greeted both with a Hey, I'm Ceres, before attempting to pick up whatever parts of the conversation he could.

Electopia? Really? I thought they were just airing it on TV anyways, thought Enigma aloud, who'd been absentmindedly listening in for most of the introductions. This led to a very bewildered look on Ceres' face, which he quickly covered.

So, where're you from? Ceres asked, addressing the operator with the hologram. However, it would appear that it was exactly the wrong time to try and keep a conversation going with the operator; he looked like he was doing some serious zoning out. Uh...?

SoundMan versus Anyis? That should be interesting... Enigma muttered to himself, not really caring if anyone heard him. Then, out loud, The second block looks pretty tough.

Polonius seemed to be entranced in the upcoming matches to not say hello to the two new entrants to the lounge. He got up from the seat he was positioned in and bowed to both new people "Hello there! I'm Polonius Carbonium..."

"Blah blah, I'm DNR. I'm also happy to meet you all. So YOUR Soundman... I've been wondering who that navi was like for some time after seeing the brackets..." DNR's red eyes then shifted to the other navi, giggling as he replied. "Viralman huh? ridicule huh? Well we have something in common... Isn't that right Petunia?" DNR said looking towards his protege, whom gave a quick disgruntled wave back.