Tourney Spectator Lounge

"Me?" Trenn said, addressing Ceres. "I'm from a small little town in Electopia, just like Zeo over there. As for Soundman..." Trenn laughed, "his origin is kind of obvious. I coded him from scratch."

Soundman, meanwhile, responded to DNR.

"Yes, I'm Soundman. It's nice to meet you, DNR." The walking sound system extended a hand towards DNR, and shook. "And yeah," Soundman turned to face Enigma, "The second block does look tough. I'm particularly hoping I don't have to face Pianissimo-- music versus music almost never turns out well..."

"Mmmh... sounds like a musical duet that would surely put the crowd into a frenzy, heheh..." DNR said with a jovial smirk as he shook right back. "Hmm..." the navi murmured to himself as he got a good look at Soundman. "The second block looking tough? Hah... don't get into a fight with Druidman or Soulman Junior... you'll regret it~" DNR had to say as he wiggled his index fingers, giggling mischievously.

"Good advice." Soundman nodded. "As well, I've been..." He trailed off. That box was really beginning to bug him, and now it was actually twitching about. "Trenn."

Trenn looked down. "Yes, Soundman?"

"Can I open that program you put in here? That Melody thing?" Soundman asked, pointing at the brown package in question. "It's beginning to sort of jiggle around. Of its' own volition."

"Oh, crap! I forgot to tell you!" Trenn smacked himself on the forehead. "Yeah, go ahead and open it."

Soundman gave Trenn an odd look, then walked over to the package, conveniently wrapped with string tied in a bow. He pulled on the string that would untie it, and there was a great flash, both from Soundman's point of view and that of the one from the PET-- the display turned a blinding, brilliant white for a moment, giving any onlookers a nice case of glare.

When the light died down, both Soundman and the hologram of him were holding an electric, blue-toned Guitar, with a bandage loosely coiled lengthwise around it.

"A guitar?" Soundman said more than he asked.

"Yep. Try hooking one of your inputs jacks into it." Trenn responded, smiling confidently. Soundman hooked the input for his speakers into the guitar's jack, and lightly strummed it. Along with the sound of the guitar, giggles of all things softly filled the air for a moment. Perplexed, Soundman looked around; he could not find the source. So, he strummed the guitar again, and once more the giggles sounded, this time louder.

Curious now, Soundman strummed the guitar twice more. This time they were not merely giggles. This was full-blown laughter, louder than even the sound his speakers were pumping out. Or, perhaps that was a misconstrued opinion? Now that he thought about it... hadn't the sounds been coming from his speakers as opposed to drowning out the sounds playing from them?

Soundman looked down at the guitar, and checked the file extension.

"SP?" Soundman said aloud. "Synchronized Personnel? ...Superb Prison? ...SubPar? Uhhhh..."

Trenn merely looked on, trying to withhold his laughter.

Finally, after listing about 30 other options, Soundman struck pay dirt. "...Support Program?"

"Bingo!" A feminine voice chimed from his speakers. Soundman blinked.

"...Melody?" He asked, his eyes locked onto the guitar's blue frame. As if in answer, the bandages partly unraveled from the guitar, and hooked onto Soundman like a guitar strap.

"At your service!" The voice cheerfully replied once again from the many speakers attached to Soundman's body. It was like conversation in surround sound. But there was one thing that struck him.

Even Melody's talking sounded like music.

"Well well... You have a support Program... a female guitar..." DNR said with a slight giggle, possibly thinking of innuendos. "Say I got a smashing idea Soundman!" DNR said with a snap of his holofingers "Why don't you play that...how does it go..."funky fresh beats"? with that Melody girl... guitar... thing... would create quite the nice atmosphere and bring everybody closer in harmony."

"Thats actually not a bad idea DNR..." Polonius nodded in agreement. "I'm rather curious about getting one for DNR... what would you guys suggest?"

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful..." DNR said in a rather... amorous way towards SplashLady.

Comforted by the warm reception, Zeo attempted to commit peoples' names and faces to memory. He looked at the other people in the room, realizing he was being addressed. The one named Sabrina seemed to have been first. Turning to her, he responded. "Again, nice to meet you too, Sabrina, SplashLady." HIs brow furrowed. "Wait, SplashLady? Heh, I don't think I've ever encountered any navis with lady in their name. Pretty unique."

Quickly focusing on Ceres and his navi, he rubbed the back of his head with his free arm. "Yeah, they're probably airing it on TV, but I hadn't been to Netopia in a long while, and, um, I didn't stop to consider that anyway." He smiled sheepishly. "And Polonius? That's another unique name." Next was Polonius' navi. "Yeah, ViralMan and I have some personality clashes now and again. I haven't used him in a while, and we're just starting again now."

Zeo started feeling awkward. Was he the only one not in the tournament? He looked for his navi, who had apparently transferred himself into the network machine. "Are you going to say hello, ViralMan?" The navi glanced upward, then shrugged and pulled off his helmet, which disappeared. "Hello, everyone," he said, turning back to one of the battles being displayed.

Sighing, Zeo replaced the PET in its holster and put his hands in his pockets again, casually studying the screens.

For the last few minutes, Sabrina had been focusing a bit on the matches...well, focus was probably too strong a word. More like...aware. However, the words 'Support Program' magically brought her back to the conversation. "Support Program? What the heck is that?"

"Nice to meet ya, SoundMan, ViralMan!" SplashLady had been paying significantly less attention to the battles; at this point, they were just making her more nervous about her upcoming battle. "Hmm...support programs...that sounds familiar, but I don't remember where I've heard it from...anyone mind filling me and Sabrina in?" For some reason, a mental alarm seemed to be going off in her head in the direction of DNR. However, she just dismissed it as her being crazy, and awaited a response.

Enigma's insides (or whatever was left of them) burned with jealousy. I could've milked one out of the NetPolice, but of course I went and killed one of 'em, he thought to himself irritably. However much he was annoyed, he still managed a 'Gratz, SoundMan, before retreating back into the PET to think.

Damn, grumbled Ceres, not doing quite as well with concealing his feelings. I really need to get my hands on one of those, he said with an effort, attempting a smile but ending it somewhere around a grimace. I'm Electopia-based as well, he finished, attempting to change the topic away from his lack of excitement for Trenn and SoundMan.

Enigma, on the other hand, had gotten his head past the idea of someone else getting a support program and onto methods for him to get one. All sorts of crazy ideas were wheeling through his head-- Theft? Hacking? Custom code? Kidnapping?

D'you guys think there's any way to get a support program without bothering with the NetPolice? asked Ceres to the collective as inconspicuously as he could, having suddenly changed his mind about switching topics. I don't really want to muck around in government affairs for something like that.

No, no, no, everything takes too big of a risk for just us to plan, Enigma replied to himself, groaning inwardly. There was a myriad of wild schemes in his head, and yet none of them seemed practical in any way. Maybe the NetPolice is the only way...

Hearing Ceres, Zeo turned his head. "If you're looking for a support program, what's wrong with bothering the government? They don't seem to mind much." He thought for a second, then smiled eerily. "I guess that if you didn't want to go through the usual channels, there's always the 'black market'," he said, making quotation marks with his fingers. He laughed and glanced back at the screen.

ViralMan picked up on the conversation, and added in, "If there actually were a black market, I'm not sure they would bother selling pets. Not exactly illegal stuff." The navi shrugged his shoulders as he continued. "And even if they did, who would bother? You'd probably get overcharged or robbed." Finished with his addition, he brought up a status screen. "Zeo, are you going to finish the programming on my upgrades?"

Zeo waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I'll do it eventually. I'm busy talking right now." He focused on Ceres again. "Hey Ceres, um, if you really don't want to bother the NetPolice, maybe there are some non-government request boards?"

And that was Enigma's epiphany. Well, not what Zeo had said, but close enough. Enigma hesitated before he spoke, but then remembered his excellent choice; he'd had Ceres buy a small earbud that transmitted only on a channel with the PET quite a long time ago. Ceres. I've got it, he announced confidently, causing Ceres to jump a bit before realizing that not just mp3s went through the earbud.

Er, what? he replied as quietly as he could. Shame it didn't work both ways.

Non-government boards? Spool never sent us that e-mail, Enigma chuckled. Why don't we see what we can get our hands on from them? he asked, choosing his words carefully. One could never know what'd be intercepted, though the earbud surely wasn't loud enough for the other tournament-goers to hear.

Yeah, I'll talk later, Ceres muttered in response, a flash of recognition streaking across his eyes like wildfire. Sorry, Enigma wanted to talk about something in private, what were we talking about? he said out loud, smiling awkwardly. Oh, the message boards. Yeah, thanks, Zeo, I'll see if it can work out.

For some reason, the words 'non-government request board' resonated with Sabrina, like she knew of one. And she couldn't help but feel it was obvious, too...if only she-wait, she remembered! "Oh, that's right! I read the Mission BBS isn't run by the NetPolice anymore! I don't remember who runs it, but I do remember that they went out of their way to say they were neutral! I bet you could ask them for a Support Program, just like the NetPolice!" Of course, she wasn't sure about that last part, but it made sense to her. Though...why would he care so much about getting involved with government stuff? He wasn't some sort of...criminal, was he? Eh, now she was just jumping to conclusions...

"Uh, sure, no problem," said Zeo, a bit surprised by their quick solution. "I might get a support program one of these days, but as of now, ViralMan's enough of a handful." He flinched, expecting a comeback from his navi. His navi, however, was busy surveying the battles once again. ViralMan glanced up once. "Huh? What?" Zeo quickly shook his head, glad he hadn't been heard. "Well, whatever. Check out some of these navis. Pretty interesting stuff."

Following his suggestion, Zeo watched several heavily customized navis duking it out in interesting looking arenas. "I was more focused on the attacks, actually. We ought to get better ones." ViralMan didn't bother pointing out that new attacks were exactly what he was supposed to be programming right now. He moved a screen near him that read: Note to self: buy Zeo more memory. He chucked quietly.

Deciding he wanted a bit more info on the tournament, ViralMan called out to the people and navis gathered, "Does anyone know who's technically the strongest in the tournament?"

Well, technically, there is no quote-unquote strongest entrant, replied Enigma, his icy tone emphasizing the second word as the operative one. All of the chip folders are standardized, but elements gave me a huge advantage against Miyu, and the amount of upgrades people have bought is insane.

A lot of the tournament's interest is due to the fact that people can't just use amazing chips. Victory depends a lot on strategy and the raw power or speed of the navi, Ceres explained. If you're going by upgrades and power, I'd say the top few are Voltman, Pianissimo, Druidman, Kaimaria, and Junior; they're the upper-tier navis.

I've got a couple of speed upgrades and a couple of HP-memories, so that puts me at middle tier, Enigma explained, trying to give Zeo and Viralman a way to judge the tiers. Some navis have all-out, obvious power, but some are more... subtle, he laughed, giving an obvious hint as to which of the two he considered himself. It's no fun just putting all your aces out for show.

Rose had thought that it was nice that people were coming in for the tournament. "Really makes it seem like a big family thing." she had thought.

Rose nodded when the question as to whether they were all in the tournament was asked, affirming Sabrina's answer.

"And I'll be covering it in my paper." she thought when the fact that the tournament would be aired on television was brought up.

SummonerMan had his own thoughts about difficulty, based solely off levels. "Hah, second block is a walk in the park. He have two first round matches between nothings, Koumori being one of them. The other side has some tough characters in it, based off what we've seen so far." He looked over at the second Bracket Navis in the room. "Not so sure on how competent this block will be..."

Rose found herself bothered by SummonerMan, but his goal in life wasn't to ridicule her but to offend everyone he met, so she skipped out on that part.

Rose smiled slightly at the possibility of two Navis with the same theme fighting. SummonerMan chimed in on SoundMan's comment. "I wouldn't worry about that just yet, you have a few rounds of opponents to go throw before a fight between you two is possible. " he said, eyebrows raised.

SummonerMan continued watching the matches as DNR affirmed some of his stronger picks, though he left out many others.

SummonerMan noticed the SP deal. He rolled his eyes, slightly. "Hopefully our SP isn't quite as useless as mine." he said dully. Rose looked at him quickly. "It just needs more training, it'll be useful someday. You'll see."

"His even has a personality. Though there are some strange implications going on there. I'd feel more kicking the card around if it had feelings, a gender, and a voice." The purple clad Navi thought.

He noted once more the strange relationship between DNR and the apparnetly uninterested and uninvolved Splash"lady".

Rose chimed in on the musical note. "Yeah, I'm sure music would help to add some nice atmosphere, here." She said with a smile.

And as no one else did, Rose took the liberty of explaining Support Programs to Sabrina. "You see, Support Programs are extra things that fight alongside your Navi. They can be almost as varied, if not more varied, than Navi's themselves. They can be creatures, like that one on the screen," at this point she gestured to the screen where Myun was being knocked around as it hopped, "Or act as a Navi like program, armor, a weapon, a vehicle, or any other sort of object; even a guitar." She thumbed back at SoundMan and Melody. "They can help in battle, can attack on their own, can have their own abilities, and grow in strength as you destroy viruses alongside them. Generally you get them as Mission rewards from the general Internet City Mission BBS." She tried to think back to the news program she had seen. "They used to appear semi-randomly on the net i the form of some sort of wild entity that would attack opponents, who could use the natural SP core to create their own SPs. I think the government cleared them all out, or Navis did, as they're given out as rewards now and no longer found." She racked her mind once more. "Oh, and they eat spare data called bugfrags in order to grow stronger; that's what they get from the viruses."

After spilling her guts on everything she knew about the SPs, she listened with about as much interest as she had to Sabrina's father's shady organization; she was now eavesdropping on some sort of non-conformist, anarchist, rebel, or criminal. She would squirrel this information away into the recesses of her mind, and make sure to keep track of it in the future. However, the talk of avoiding the NetPolice and using the black Market could make for an interesting story someday.

SummonerMan wasn't surprised as someone called attention to the boards; he had already been staring at them. Rose took the opportunity to glance over them again, but didn't stare long.

SummonerMan liked to think he'd be one of the stronger people here, but wasn't quite so sure about that fact. Not that he would tell others that, as they had no reason to doubt him. However, he did think over what he had seen thus far. He added to Ceres' list, "I may keep an eye out for this Daisy girl, too. She seems to have her opponent shut out right now with heavy defenses."

Listening to Enigma, SummonerMan couldn't help but butt in again. "I'd probably be mid-tier, too, then. And I agree; the direct power house approach just isn't my style, sometimes more subtle powers are far more...interesting."

Rose rolled her eyes, but had to agree anyway. "Well, I guess after the first bracket's over, we'll have a little more insight for you." She added. "And we'll have a lot more after the whole first round ends."

"Though anyone who wins by default gets away without showing their power, so we'll have difficulty judging fighter's like Exorcist and her somewhat strange operator." She thought.

The Netpolice, eh...? Trenn thought, chuckling inwardly at the fact that he was one of them. Ah well, if they were spooked a bit by even the mention of the Netpolice boards, it would probably be better if he didn't mention his membership status...

Soundman, meanwhile, continued fiddling with the different settings and ways he could play Melody. "Do you have an acoustic setting?" He asked, continuing to lightly strum off a few notes. Abruptly the sound of the notes he was playing switched from electric to acoustic; not as good for rocking out, but... good for mood music.

Soundman turned the volume of his speakers up a bit, then searched through the library of songs he had grabbed from the internet. Snagging one at random, he flipped the box Melody had come in on its' side, sat down on top of it, and began to play.

Trenn noticed this right away. He turned up the volume of his PET's speakers to match, then sat back. So he could play it already, huh...? Man, sometimes he wished he was a navi. Being able to instantly learn stuff like that would be great...

Must you? Ceres grumbled, irritated with the clashing of television and guitar sounds in the background. This, combined with the multiple conversations, would eventually drive him insane.

Be polite, chastised Enigma, not quite sure if he was joking or not.

What? There's some reporter on the TV talking, all these people talking, and then there's music trying to drown everything out, Ceres complained. Sorry if I'm coming across as standoffish, but little things bug me, he confessed, putting his feet up on a nearby ottoman (SP?) and placing his hands behind his head in an attempt to relax.

I'm not exactly sure why you came in here in the first place, Enigma snorted, crossing his arms and leaning against a wall he'd apparently made himself. You haven't got the longest fuse in the world and you're not good with liking others' music.

It's better than sitting in the lobby, waiting for the others to finish, Ceres snapped. Besides, there are worse people out there than me.

Maybe if you acted a bit nicer to others and stopped acting like such an ass, you wouldn't have to apologize your way out of everything, Enigma retorted calmly. Drop it, and let him play his music.

Lord above, when did I ask for a dad as a navi? cried Ceres in frustration. It took him a full three seconds to realize what he'd said.

Enigma took those seconds and a few more to compose his response. You're very lucky I owe Magnus, otherwise you'd be pretty damn navi-less right now, he threatened. At that point, Ceres decided to swap his pride for tact and kept his mouth firmly closed.

"Oh, lighten up, Ceres. It's not like a little music will detract from watching a battle," said Zeo. "Besides, it's good music. It could have been bad elevator music coming from the lounge speakers, ick." He made a face.

ViralMan had given up looking occupied and laid on the ground with his hand propping up his head. One of the battles was being shown on a screen a foot away from his head. "Well, some sort of heavier tune would be more appropriate for these battles, but I'm not sure some people would take to anything louder than this." He stretched. "It almost makes this battle arena seem peaceful."

Imitating his navi and collapsing into a comfy looking chair, Zeo grabbed his PET and started pressing buttons on it. At this point, his attention was divided 50/50 between the PET and the battle screens. He noticed that Ceres had quieted. Deciding to just listen to the music and continue with his PET, he didn't say anything else.

Soundman finished the tune with one last strum of the guitar, and-

Melody promptly burst into giggles. "What's wrong, Melody?" Soundman asked, worried.

"N-nothi-hi-hi-hing! It's- ha ha- it's nothing, I'm just ticklish." Melody choked out, her laughter dying down. "It's- hoo!- really hard to keep from laughing when you're playing a song, but I manage."

Soundman found that, all of a sudden, he was laughing too.

SummonerMan hadn't cared much for the music, but he wouldn't have cared much for any music. He was too busy focusing on the battles, where something happened occasionally.

He did roll his eyes when the musical due burst into laughter. "And great, now she feels the way people do, too. Even more strange." He thought.

Rose enjoyed the music. She found it not very mood fitting, but she dealt with it. She noticed the sudden presence of back bone in the two operators who had seemed somewhat quiet before.

She also noted the arguing between Enigma and his operator, but chose to keep quiet about it. She noted the mentioned names, though, in case they came in handy for the sensational article she may or may not be able to someday write on Ceres.

SummonerMan didn't really care.

"Huh...neat! I'll have to get one after the tournament! Thanks for explaining it, Rose!" Sabrina quietly listened to everyone else talk, and SoundMan's music. The latter helped her deal with the former, what with a couple of Navis saying...less than pleasant things about Navis that focused more on raw power...which hers was, to an extent.

Luckily, said Navi seemed to be taking it well enough. "A mission, huh...well, some of the NetPolice that worked there could be real jerks when they put their mind to it. Wonder if the new people in charge are nicer?"

"I hope so...sheesh, they could be annoying! I mean, I know they're not all like that, and I know they help maintain peace...but that's no excuse to be a jerkwad!"

"From what I've heard it's still that dimension navi near the top of the ladder..."

Damian interjected as he walked into the room, wearing his old black T-shirt and worn jeans. Giving a cocky lopsided smile towards Sabrina as he walked up to her, he continued, "No offense intended towards the NP, but he tends to jump off the handle a little fast."

Running his hand through his tangled hair, Damian gave a bit of a nod to Sabrina as an introduction, "I'm Damian, nice to meet you. We've got a wide cast for the show," He said, looking at both the 'active' navis and the unpartnered OP's, "I take it you're in the second round too huh?"