The Lounge (Round Three)

(Once again, a reminder - second round Lounge plus the Infirmary are both still open for anyone wanting to finish up interactions in the former or participate in the latter. As for now...)

Another two days, and once more, the Lounge was back again in full swing. The place had been cleaned, foods and drinks had been replenished, even the windows had recieved a wipe down to give a sparklingly clear view of the city around. It was all set for a rather relaxing setting...

...And yet today, an air of increased tension hung over the Lounge. Whilst beforehand the Lounge had served as an area for those with bys to pass the time, today all who remained in the competition would be competing. These were the quarter finals now... things were getting serious.
Almost as if to serve as a reminder of this fact, eight faces decorated the surrounding screens; Amber, Boubka, Esme, Froshana, Malware 2.0, Maxie, Twilight and Zephyr. By the end of the day those eight would become four. Four hopefuls all one step away from the final itself...
Still, back in the present, around their images flashes and highlights of the previous combats were displayed. Reminders of the action that had occured, the good, the bad, and the controversial.

And of course, at the centre of it all, ready to welcome each entrant in, was Handsome Greg. The zebra had opted out of a tie for today, apparently deciding that simply trouser and a suit jacket with naught beneath would be suitable for today. It was probably a growing concern as to just how much he'd take off before some higher-up stepped in.
Either way, he held a form of... scruffy formality. Prepared for the days presentations.

Chutha opens the door to the Lounge and the first thing he noticed was food "...Are those...DONUTS!" Chutha ran to the snack bar to clobber down on some grub.
 "Oh man so many options to eat with my donuts!  I mean I could chow down on that blue berry muffin I've been eyeing over there, or I could take the healthy route and eat all of the grapes over here.  You know what I'll take them all!"
Chutha takes a handful of everything and just starts eating like a pig literately stuffing his face with any food he sets his wings on.
Chutha not being considerate for anyone eats most of all, of the food leavening only scraps left.

As with most days, Esme had entered the lounge bright and early! Indeed, long before any other competitor would have done today. Her long, waist length hair dyed back to it's original bubblegum pink. With an almost practised grace, she treated Greg to a wink and a smile and a "good mornin', hot shot~", before grabbing herself a glass of water! From there, she settled down on a sofa, and began to catch up on the other fights!

...Or at least, she started off doing that. At some point, she seems to have curled up against the sofa arm, and drifted off into a quick nap. The low drone of snoring drifts from her lips as she does so. Her glass of water sits unnervingly near her tail, that flicks every so often as she snoozes, so perhaps someone might want to move that before she knocks it over.

"Gooood morning, beautiful darlings~!" well that air of tension was now cut swiftly. Walking in with a powerful grin of confidence was the white and pink griffon known as Maxie, who had now entered from the open doors of the Lounge. The bandage was now gone from her left eye, but there was still a small hint of a purplish blueish bruise around the socket. Regardless of that, she still walked strong, with heavy clacks from her heels, with a sway and a flick of her lion tail, with a light click from her snapping her gloved fingers as she strode on. If anyone was worried about the competition, she certainly wasn't one of them. Or at least, it didn't show on her face.

The hybrid giggled, taking a moment to observe the scene, but that faltered upon noticing the new individual in the room. One who hadn't been present with the last few rounds, and was now there eating most o- no wait that was all of the food. Impressive, definitely so, but also incredibly annoying and selfish. Her lips twisted into a puckered frown as she shook her head with an additional 'tut-tut'.

She walked forward, adjusting her short dress as she did so, towards the newcomer bird. Her tail tickled under Esme's nose as she did so, purposeful of course, since it'd be quite a shame for the woman to sleep through her own match. A raise of her finger, and she tapped Chutha on the shoulder.
"Pardon me, lovely, but that food was for the fighters," she scolded, her arms now crossed but there was an amused and almost condescending smile to her lips, "We don't want anyone fighting on an empty stomach, now do we, honey? Oh I do hope management has more, otherwise you're not going to be very favoured around here."

"Getting pushy, are we?" Twilight called from the door, an air of confidence surrounding him. "Let the kid eat." He laughed, fully aware that he didn't require the same amount of sustenance for his body to work properly. 

For him, the unexpected win for round 2 despite his handicap did wonders for his mood. However, he was perhaps getting a bit too cocky as his confident aura flared at every straight and strong step he took into the lounge. "I wonder... what match would be the most interesting to look at first." He thought out loud as he stride brought him over to one of the couches. He leaned over the back of the couch slightly, his gaze only just barely fixed on one of the screens. 

His expression hardly budged at all, he seemed rather bored with most of them. Though his bored look could have been a facade, he seemed to be acting a lot more outwardly prideful as if trying to assert his superiority over the others. With his confidence, he seemed to almost physically glow from the strength of his emotions- but when his confidence turned into excessive pride that glow darkened considerably.

Chutha turned around and faced the two. "Thanks stranger."
Chutha said looking at Twilight.
 "But I think shes right, I should leave something for them to eat."  Chutha said while cleaning his wings with a napkin. 'I ate most of the food anyways,  they seriously need to restock this place.' Chutha thought while throwing his napkin in the trash, and walking to the sofas to take a seat on the one with the fewest people.

One more time, the doors opened. Zephyr, with his clothes now patched up, walked through the room directly to an empty chair and, without saying a single word, unsheathed his sword. The sound of resonating metal could be heard across the entire lounge. With a calm expression, he retrieved a cloth from his pocket and started to wipe his weapon like a cook cleans his knifes, leaving the sheath on the chair.

Doing this was a great way for him to keep relaxed. Although he was a bit oblivious at first, he later noticed the new face. He checked around him. The multiple screens revealing the current fighters left made him wonder. Maybe he was just a guest? Anyway, that wouldn't influence his plans: Taking care of his blade so it would shine in the match.

Also, it seemed that Maxie didn't have the "eye patch" anymore. Good. That way she couldn't be hindered by a bad eye.

Only 8 left... Since he already studied his opponents as best as he could, now he had to make it worth it. Thus, he had a little surprise prepared that wouldn't be revealed until the battle started. Decided to give it his all, he kept polishing his sword with a rather disturbing calmness...

The door opened again. This time it was Boubka that entered the scene. Even with all the tension going on in the tournament, Bou seemed happy as ever. He had never imagined coming this far.

Oh hey there was Handsome Greg! He didn't really say anything to the guy, because he was from tv and maybe Bou would disturb him in his show and he wouldn't like that because then people are watching him getting disturbed and that would be bad. Very bad. He could however say hello to Mom....Nah not worth it. He gave a quick nod to Greg and said "Heyo!"  And then he moved on.

He looked at everyone he'd seen before. He noticed that he didn't even knew most of them still, after these eventful days. Maybe it's better to catch up on information about other participants. He looked at the screen and compared faces. To be honest he didn't really wanna get all strategic with this tournament. It was still supposed to be fun. Ah! It seems like Esme is here!

He walked up to her while grabbing three donuts, trying to dodge this unknown person that seemed like it was eating ALL OF BOU'S FOOD. Bou took a seat next to Esme and started talking to her, seeing as she just kinda woke up from a certain person's tail.

"Hello! I don't think we've met before!" He offered a hand for Esme to shake. "I'm Boubka! It seems like we're both still in the tournament." Boubka had seen a little part of the fight with her against Spark. She seemed to have some great fighting style. "So who do you hope to fight against next round?"

Esme blinked dully, her eyes flickering open as a tail gently whipped across her nose. She scowled eeeeever so slightly at the tail's owner, and mumbled 'maxieeeee, it's not time for me to be up... bluh.'

The last bit was said as she forced herself to sit up, and stare at the screens again. She blamed them for her sudden nap. Yes, it was definetly their fault - Why would they display such boring nonsense? Barely any of those fights, her own included, had interested her! Was this really the level of competition she'd descended to? Blue children and gun users and just... it irked her, it really did. Still! She'd picked up some useful knowledge, and she inteded full well to use it in her next fi- Oh

Now there was a hand thrust in her face.

She blinked and followed the hand up it's respective arm, and blinked at it's owner. Speaking of blue children... 'Oh, no. Hello.' she said slowly, tiredness still infecting her voice. After a moments consideration, she shook his hand lightly. 'Esme. Don't get me wrong, but I'm kinda... surprised to see you here still. Thought that Shade guy was getting the better of you from what little I saw...'

and then she shrugged, taking her hand back and leaning on the sofa. 'and I really.. really don't care about who I fight next, as long as it's fun.' she murmers softly, the tiredness briefly replaced with a growl of anger. '... what about you?'

The griffon gave an arched brow towards Twilight's direction. For a moment, she looked between the bird and the shadow being, before simply raising her hands and walking away without another word. Now admittedly, she would have struck up a conversation, but with the stakes raised, she couldn't just stand there and talk to someone who wasn't involved. Unless they were, and she just made a grave mistake.

Still, she stretched momentarily with a slight flutter of her wings, and took note of those entering. Their fights had been... interesting, to say the least. Boubka seemed like the kind of fellow who was there for fun, but could be potentially be manipulated into holding back if the opponent started playing up a pity party. And honestly, that wasn't much fun at all. The boy had potential, and she wanted to see it to the fullest.

Zephyr's fight was also one to note. His opponent was ruthless, but he thought through with tactics and skill. The boy had powers similar to her own, and a weapon as bladed as hers, so she contemplated how she could get around that, and abuse the knowledge of what he'd shown so far.

Honestly, there wasn't anyone she didn't want to fight. Those so far had proven themselves in battle, but with Envy out the way, now it was a clean slate to a fight to the finish with hopefully honourable opponents. No bullies to beat up, just a smooth flight to victory. Her wings fluttered again.

And so, with that thought process out the way, the hybrid flopped onto the couch where Boubka and Esme were chatting, "Goood morning, sleepy-pie~!" she giggled, twisting herself into a comfortable position, "Are you two cuties ready for the next graaand event?"

Boubka shook his head in reaction to Esme's question. "Nope. Not really. Most of them seem like nice fellow, so hurting them is kind of not fun." He took a bite in one of the donuts he was holding. Actually, he only needed one bite to finish a donut. Holy moly how did he eat that in one go? "So-"

BUMP. And there was Maxie sitting next to him. He couldn't see anything at first, seeing as he got some feathers in his face. He tried to keep the donuts a bit out of Maxie's movement area so that Maxie wouldn't get icing on her feathers (and maybe so that the donuts didn't get feathers on them.)

"Are you two cuties ready for the next graaand event?" Bou's eyes started to glow. It seemed like he was full of courage. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" That was....pretty true actually. He felt way better after the fight with Shade and even learned some stuff from it. "What about you, Max?"

With the opening of the doors, yet another contestant arrived into the lounge.

'Oh good, I'm not late again.'

Froshana shut the door behind her, taking note of who all had already arrived. She was considerably nervous today, well aware that she would have to fight any one of the others here--Well wait. There was a face she didn't recognize seated over on one couch. She eyed the roadrunner for several moments while making her way over to where she had been seated on the first day of the tournament. Maybe he was friends with one of the combants already here. Sure.

The hedgehog's eyes scanned over the others in the room. There was already a small group forming on the couches and chatting it up. The other two avians seemed to mostly be keeping to themselves. For now, Froshana intended to do the same. She did her best to not let it show, but she was all kinds of nervous today. At this point, everyone here (minus the new guy) had been in at least one fight. She was also relatively sure that all those contestants who were here now had won their fights as well. This round was very likely to be a tough one and, unless she pulled herself together and gave it her all, she was unlikely to get out of it with just bruises...

She recalled that at least two of those here were blade-wielders. It made her stomach churn, but hey, at least she wasn't likely to get shot now, seeing as Envy hadn't continued into the third round. Whoo.

Froshana shook her head slightly, pulling out a chair at an empty table and taking a seat. She instead set her gaze on one of the television screens for the time being, matching faces to names and watching the recaps of yesterday's battles.

The Hyena let out a small whine as Maxie plopped down besides her. 'How can you two be so... chipper this early in the monrin'?' she murmered softly, as she began to wipe the sleep from her eyes. '....It is still mornin', isn't it? I didn't sleep for that lon' surely..'

At this, she lifted her head up and observed the Griffon for a moment. The fight between herself and that weird... Envy Psycho combo had confirmed a few of her own theories, at least in terms of Maxie's personality, and she allowed a grim smile to spread across her face. 'And I suppose so. This is the... quater finals now, right? Should prove to be some fun matches comin' up, at long last~' she murmers, not... actually seeming to believe her own statement, but whatever.

'And as an addition to Boub's statement here, you lookin' forward to fightin' anyway in particular?'

...So an awful lot had just happened there.
First of all - and arguably most surprising of all - was the entry of a bird who had not previously stepped a single foot into the Lounge. It was rather odd that the first individual to arrive overall would be both one who was not competing, and also one who hadn't shown their face at all on any previous day. Still, the individuals intent seemed to've been made pretty clear, as they approached the refreshments table and began eating... well, most of it.
Before Greg could bring himself to approach the gluttonous beak of the bird, he was distracted by the entry of one Esme. Well, that had peaked his interest;
"Good mornin', hot shot~" she offered with a wink. The zebra opened his mouth to respond... only to watch the hyena fall unconcious on the sofa. Oh. Well. Okay then.

Returning his attention back to the ravenous bird, Greg came to discover that he'd been rather beaten-to-the-punch in terms of the addressing the issue, watching as the newly-arrived Maxie berated the individual. A brief exchange with Twilight later, and all three figures were soon parting ways from the now largely-empty table. Well... their sponsors weren't gonna like that. He made a brief request to his earpiece for a refill, before glancing around the room, attempting to relocate the bird.

Ah, there, on one of the sofas, apparently by himself for now. For a few seconds he just watched - offering a courtesy nod in response to Boubka's 'heyo' - before deciding perhaps he should investigate. After all, he was the host! Therefore, he had hosting to do!
Making his way over to the bird, he just sorta... stood awkwardly near the seated figure;
"Er, excuse me..." he spoke up, "Are you a guest of one of the contestants? A friend or family member?" It did seem odd that noone here yet seemed to know the stranger. Though perhaps someone yet to arrive would know him? That was Greg's best guess, though he supposed he was about to find out.

After staring at the videos in boredom for a little while, Twilight turned his attention to the group of Boubka, Maxie and Esme in an attempt to observe them inconspicuously. He turned his head back to the screen he was looking at moments ago after having looked at them for long enough, though his eyes barely gazed over it's contents. Perking up his ears and shifting over towards the sofas edge, he only just barely made out Esme's '... fightin' anyone in particular?...'

Now this had definitely piqued his interest. He relaxed his wings slightly, ears still perked and looked towards the windows as his eyes focused on nothing in particular. Most of his concentration was going to trying to hear the rest of his conversation, given that they didn't catch him in the act. Oh, who was he kidding, of course they wouldn't catch him. He'd be fine, and this would be hilarious to listen to.

Chutha looked up at Greg and said trying to look very serious. "Yes I'm um...A friend of a contestant just waiting for him to walk in."
Chutha was lying threw his teeth
"Why do you ask?" Chutha said crossing his legs.

'When the next person walks in I'll just act like they're a long time friend or something.' Chutha thought.

Malware was completely oblivious to everything that was happening around him. The masked, black-hat hacker was currently looking through his "Chitter" profile and what the LulzTrain Movement was currently doing and saying. Malware 2.0's profile was full of nonsensical things and photos. One photo was actually a meme of a small baby doing a fist pump. The captions read, "Went to rave party for first time. Met Malware 2.0." Another photo of Malware's had his face photoshopped over the face of the current President of the United Federation. The captions once again read, "Vote Malware 2.0 And Make The United Federation Great Again!" A lot of the LulzTrain Movement members really liked that photo. In fact, there's even a petition just to get Malware 2.0 in office.

The masked hacker chuckled as he continued to scroll down the page, viewing everything that was positive about him. The masked hacker even started to type a few words. His post read, "Wh0'5 Rav3n? 50m3 1di0t m3rc wh0's angry 0v3r th3 fact that 50m30n3 that his g1rlfr13nd died? #Boohoo #LulzTrain #sorryexcuseforamerc" This was what Malware did best. His annoying antics were enough to infuriate even the calmest of people. When Malware 2.0 looked up to see a stranger amongst the group of contenders, he tilted his head over to the side in curiosity. He then pointed his specialized hacking gloves at Chutha in an attempt to find any tech he might have on him and steal his private information.

Malware 2.0 needed some excitement anyways. So pranking Chutha by stealing his info and altering it to arrange an arrest warrant for him. Of course, his prank wouldn't work if Chutha didn't have at least a phone on his person. After attempting to hack Chutha's possible tech he has, the masked hacker/DJ went up to him and held his hand out, expecting a handshake. Unfortunately, Malware refused to speak, making things a bit awkward at the moment. It wasn't that Malware couldn't speak, but much more because he had an "interesting" voice. The only way you could get Malware to talk was to give him a voice modifier so that he could save himself from embarrassment and keep his anonymity up.

Aaaand making a rather underwhelming entrance was the black vixen, good ol' Sora slipping on into the room like she was avoiding conversation or something. She stalked her way right on over to the refreshments, scooping up some cake and giving a glance to Froshana. She awkwardly turned her attention away again, almost falling over due to the distraction, though she simply began shoveling down the rather sizable piece of cake. She had her metallic gloves on in the lounge. Legit.

She quickly shoved a few things onto some kind of ungraceful platter, and then, rather than dive back into social stuff, Sora simply made a brisk pace to one of the main sofas - hoisting herself up on it and laying back on it, glancing to the screens for a moment, before beginning to munch on some random bits of food. From light crisps to chocolate, she was really overdoing it.

Guess she was making the most out of being able to visit the lounge even after being totally murdered by the competition. Losing in the first round hurt more than she'd have liked to admit.

Greg hesitated. If this was someone's friend, he didn't want to be too harsh or pushy with them. That could wind up making the zebra look like a real jackass if he turned out to be an actual guest.
"Oh, er, well..." he finally responded, "Basically, if you weren't an official guest, well, the food isn't, er, free for everyone. We'd have to ask you to compensate."
There was a slight awkward pause.
"Though, of course, you've no reason to worry!" he grinned broadly, albeit rather fictitiously, "So, who is it precisely you're waiting for?"
Okay, he was blatantly trying to test the guy. Still, he was at least trying to make it seem like an innocent question.

Chutha got an offended look upon his face at hearing the response from the Zebra.  "Oh so you don't believe me or something?" he said starting to look angry "Do you think I'm shady because I haven't acted all prissy and stuck up?!  Well don't even want to hear your answer just take your damn money!"
Chutha grabbed some penny's and nickles out of his pockets and threw it at the Zerba!  After that he stormed out of the door of the lounge heated.

The masked hacker became confused as to exactly what happened just now. He looked from face to face as if he were seeking an explanation of the current events that took place. Feeling that no one would even offer an answer, the black-hat hacker put his phone away and went off to find something else to do, and that "something else" was bothering Maxie, the griffon who he had briefly communicated with in the first round of the tournament. The masked hacker sat on the arm of the couch and proceeded to do the most childish thing imaginable. Malware 2.0 did the "I'm not touching you" thing. His finger inched close to her neck and then inched away. He began to giggle like a schoolgirl as he had his moment of fun. He seemed to be enjoying this a lot and had no intention of stopping any time soon.

Froshana's general focus had remained on the television screens in the lounge for much of the time since she'd arrived. She'd attempted to not be obvious about trying to listen in when Greg started to question the roadrunner as to who he knew in the tournament, but it was relatively easy to see her ears turned in that direction, even if her eyes weren't. Admittedly, when the roadrunner suddenly seemed to take offense to being questioned, the hedgehog's eyes shifted over in the direction. She kept her head resting in one paw, though. At the sound of coins clattering to the floor, Froshana did finally lift her head and turn her full attention to what sounded like the beginning of a conflict, but was actually the end. She watched with furrowed brow as the roadrunner stormed out of the lounge. What an odd bird...

Once the roadrunner had gone, though, Froshana noted that Sora had arrived again. She offered  a small smile in case their gazes met during the few moments that she watched the vixen move over to the snack table. After all, Sora was the closest thing to a friend she'd made so far. She had to wonder how she might get along with her next opponent...

For now, though, the hedgehog remained seated at the table. She looked around the room, taking note that Malware seemed to be looking for mischief again. She actually hadn't even seen him arrive and figured he must have been quietly keeping to himself since before she arrived. The sound of his giggling simply made the hedgehog roll her eyes a bit and turn her attention down to one of her paws. Rather than paying any attention to the fox's antics, she could just pretend her claws were more interesting for now.

Well, things were interesting in the lounge. Both the roadrunner's loud exit and the fox's childish actions served as amusements for Zephyr who looked to be enjoying his time between matches. With the sword now sparkling clean, he raised it and managed to see his own reflection in the weapon, filling him with pride.

Alas, there was still free time until the battle's match-ups were announced, so he decided to keep the fun going. Sheathing the blade carefully, he planed to do something unexpected, fruit of his sudden urges: "Play with the player".

He quickly fidgeted with both hands in one pocket, later picking a torn empty page from his notebook. Trying his best to remember how this things were done, he ended up making a fairly decent paper airplane.

Since he was sitting some distance behind Malware, it shouldn't be too difficult to hit the target. Ready... Set... Go! He sent the "war plane" gliding in the air, gracefully shortening his distance with his victim aaaaaand...

Bullseye! Though he aimed to hit him in the head, instead it reached a better place: his neck. With the deed done, he tried to act like he was looking to the screens, but a wide smile in his face showed he was trying to hide his laughs. Maybe now he would give up annoying her...

(Apologies for the wait - I've been rather busy recently!)

She paused in response to Boubka's question, and for a moment, her gaze just remained on him as she smiled, "Honey, don't call me Max, alright?" she said with a slight hum in her tone. The griffon grinned widely, tapping her finger against her chin; "And I'm aaaaalways ready, any time any day. As long as its, ahah, just fun and games, yes?"

Her tail swung around Esme's cup of water, curling around it to lift it to her lips, which she then drunk from. A moment passed, until she directed her attention towards the hyena's question, "Mmmm, no-one in particular. And I don't fancy giving any more details other than that," a wink, "Even the smallest bit of information can be used to someone's advantage, don't you know~?"

Of course, this would be the moment that Malware started played the annoying act. And her feathers bristled instinctively with each motion towards her. It was fine for a few minutes, but the more it persisted, the more her expression would change to that of a blatantly forced smile, and the more her tail would twitch. Until finally, the woman whirled around, held her head in her hands, and laughed, "Ahahahah~! Cute! But darling, would you stop? Only, I don't think acting like an infant will get you anywhere."

Malware stared blankly at Maxie as she asked him to stop. Malware did stop, but then grasped her beak and made a honking noise as he lightly squeezed the griffon's beak. This was now getting fun! This was just the sort of adrenaline rush that the DJ/hacker was looking for. He loved getting on people's nerves, or, as he likes to call it, troll people into doing something stupid. As he let go of the female's beak after the honking noise he made, Malware smiled widely underneath his mask. He then puffed out his chest proudly, until he felt a stinging pain grow in the back of his neck.

The masked fox produced a muffled grunt of pain as he moved his hand up to his neck, rubbing the affected area. Turning around, Malware 2.0 saw a paper airplane on the ground. Aggravated that someone would dare attack the leader of the LulzTrain Movement, Malware's eyes widened as he scanned the room in search of who to blame. Malware did have his moments of stupidity, but when he wanted to be, he was the smartest fox on Mobius. Malware saw Zephyr and deduced that he was the source of the thrown object.

Readying up his hacking gloves, the fox pointed at the screen that Zephyr was "looking" at, and found an almost fatal vulnerability in the screen's system. Taking advantage of the opportunity before him, Malware literally made the screen explode in an attempt to deliberately harm and prank Zephyr. Granted, it may have not been a fatal attack, the action was still a dirty thing to even try to do. Now, Malware's pranks were going too far.