Scene #7999: The Happy Rebel

Owner	Pose
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Rubi-Ka Tir County City of Tir Clan Territory - Sentinels The Green Knight has called for celebration after a difficult quest. For that, he's secured the use of a storied tavern in the city of Tir! Tir is the unofficial capitol of the Clans on Rubi-ka. It's also one of the more arid locations on the desert world, as much of Tir County is the same desert wasteland it was before humans arrived on this planet. The difference, thankfully, is the presence of breathable air. Dominating the center of the walled city is the headquarters for the Council of Truth, a large tower that rises above even the transmitter of the nearby exit for the planetary public teleport system. It's far from alone in the night sky, however. Bathed in the light of two moons, countless square and domed roofs vie for space along with communications towers and landing pads for businesses and public spaces alike. The cobblestoned streets are patrolled by the Sentinels, the clan responsible for the daily operations of the city. Their armor, deceptively sophisticated technology hidden behind a brutal, wasteland facade (their helmets resemble sun-bleached animal skulls), makes them easy to pick out. Nighttime here is just as lively as the day--an energy-fenced arena near the canal that runs the circuit of the city appears packed with spectators, and the streets are just as crowded on the ground level as they are from the birds-eye view. Your destination here is a small courtyard near a public computer terminal labeled 'THE GRID.' These terminals seem like popular gathering spots. There's a crowd of techies set up around an old monitor jury-rigged to run an even older fighting game. 'The Happy Rebel' is a quiet tavern opposite this terminal, though it likely won't be quiet tonight.
Chase	There's a party, and Chase is going, if for no other reason than to stretch his proverbial legs. He did however, let the rest of the Dark Generals know before he left, which prompted them to get him to wear literally anything else. Chase unwillingly obliged, but since they weren't there to see what he changed into, they don't know that the only change of wardrobe is a single black shirt underneath his usual purple jacket. Other than that, he just stands in the bar, a single glass of water in hand as he just sort of stares at everyone else in the corner as he just sort of absorbs the atmosphere.
Rita Ma	One may suspect that Rita has never actually been to 'a tavern' before. It's not that she's dressed inappropriately- maybe she is a little bit, but it's Rita, she's always dressed cute- but rather that she's totally unnecessarily brought beverages of her own. Then again, maybe she just had fun making them and leapt at the flimsiest excuse. That would also be like Rita. While she waits at the terminal for the other arrivals, she fishes a thermos out of her little leather satchel and pours any familiar face who'll have some a cup of chilled magnolia tea. Chase, in particular, is accosted en route to the tavern; she matches his stride while talking. "Hi, Mr. Chase! It's good to see you again. You haven't seen Mr. Bercilak yet, have you?" she asks brightly, while foisting a little plastic cup upon him.
Sylvi	The City of Tir, in a word, is 'dense'. To use a few more letters and some color, it is more accurately 'an urban future fuckfiesta'. Navigating the area without an incredible sense of where you're going, or some sort of map or bird's-eye-view of the situation, is hard. Doing so while half paying attention and getting shitty directions via phone is worse. "No," takatak goes Sylvi's nails on her phone screen, brow furrowed in annoyance as she looks around the neon-lit interchangeably stucco brown future-hole buildings. She speaks as she types, muttering darkly. "idiot, I'm at the bridge." "Whicche Bridge? Bitch, this brigde!" She growls, her phone cracking quietly. Annoyed, Sylvi crunches the phone the rest of the way in her hand and throws the flattened-crumpled device into the nearby large water feature for no reason with a lethal drop into moat-water. Without a railing. Future! Booting the door in, late, Sylvi seethes. "Okay. I found your stupid bar, Jolly Green!" She shouts into the back, before looking around, green eyes tracking across the room. "You promised me Melty."
Hibiki Tachibana	It feels like it's been forever since Hibiki was last at Tir, even though it truthfully hasn't been all /that/ long. It is, however, always a distinctly nice feeling to come back to these places minus needing to be there for some kind of mission. It gives a little bit more of a chance to appreciate it all for what it is, and take your time with it. It's enough that she doesn't mind the humid atmosphere of this neck of the woods, though it being nighttime helps enough with that already. Of course, she's not usually the sort of person to visit a tavern of all places. But it wouldn't feel right at all to not come to a celebration being thrown for what happened when she was there - seriously, who'd do that? Plus, after a week, she's really wanted to check in on things again anyway. So she makes her way through the streets, moving between the crowds on the way towards the Happy Rebel...with a glance spared off in the direction of the arena. Good times. Gooooood times. And towards the building, hands in her jacket pockets as she preps to scan for the familiar sight of Bercilak and, more importantly, what he's doing. Her guess before walking in is somewhere between 'chugging' and 'arm wrestling someone into the ground', but maybe that's for later tonight. She just so happens to make it in right on the tail of Rita accosting Chase. "Hey, you two. If he's around, you'd usually know on account of how loud it is. Is that...tea?" She raises an eyebrow to ask that /just/ in time for the bar door to get kicked in.
Karlan Nobles	As always, the siblings from the mountains don't quite blend in too well around here. To their credit, they aren't really trying, but the fancy winter coats they have slung over their shoulders certainly won't make it any easier. Thankfully, they don't need to worry about that too much tonight, because it's time to celebrate! ... Except they're also out of their element when it comes to finding the Happy Rebel. They linger near THE GRID for a while, busying themselves with watching the techies at work (and even a few matches if it gets set up soon enough) until realizing that they're actually in the wrong place. With Rita at the terminal to confirm that that's just a gathering point, though, their fears are assuaged! They both take some tea, of course, and they head on in once the group gets sufficiently big enough. Pramanix: "It's quiet here. Peaceful, even." SilverAsh: "A good place to rest after so many trials, although I imagine little rest will be had today. It seems Mister Chase had the same idea as well." Pramanix: "It's not so bad to let loose once in a while. See, she gets the idea!" Pramanix gestures at Sylvi with an intrigued tilt of her head, and SilverAsh raises an eyebrow slowly before shrugging. "Melty...?" He murmurs to himself, then notices Hibiki and greets her with a light, stiff wave.
Liza Grier	Bercilak wants a celebration. That's fine. It's for 'a quest', which sounds sort of bullshit and weird though. But it's at a tavern, which is like a bar. Pretty compelling. But Liza wasn't even on that 'quest', so it's kind of a weird intrusion. But Rita has been acting weird lately, so Liza wants to be there for her. And also she's bringing tea to a bar. If that's not a desperate cry for help, then what is? In as much as it actually matters, this is one of those rare (very slightly less, recently) occasions where Liza shows up with her face visible. Despite still having the casually intense demeanour of an overworked bomb surgeon, she does, apparently, know how to dress up like a twenty-two year old and do her hair a little. She even has a jacket chic enough to mostly hide her wrist comp under, and legwear sufficiently divorced from the exact kind of combats that might otherwise project in a bar setting: 'butch lf'. Doesn't matter since she's hovering Rita anyways. In the second temporal, Liza sighs, visibly opens up a window, and is entering 'Shakespeare definition Melty' into a search engine.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Chase is accosted by more than just Rita. "Hmph." Standing on the roof of a weapons store, a shadowed figure strikes a pose. As if in response, glimmering green-white lights dance a trail on the air that leads straight to Chase. Refusing to elaborate, the figure leaps off into the night. At the very least, the lights don't seem to present any danger or injury. Indeed, Hibiki is correct. If Bercilak is around, it's not hard to tell. "WHAT ITIDES, BICCHES?! BAHAHA!" Bercilak bellows into the night air, bursting out from the tavern. He's wearing one of his typical shirts, along with a pair of black jeans and heavy-duty motorcycle boots. His undercut mohawk hides a red-eye, unable to be moved with both arms hefting sizable kegs. "So thou ifound irighte bridge, afte al," grins Bercilak at Sylvi. "Wori not. Melti shalt thire be," says Bercilak to Sylvi and Pramanix with a grin, blowing with pursed lips to get his hair clear of his face. "Come!" He turns and steps into the tavern proper. Through the door, there's a hallway, made of the same polished desert stone as many of the buildings in Tir. The rooms of chief interest at present are: The bar, where one of those bootleg emulation rigs has been hooked up to a monitor nearby some comfy-looking couches. Bercilak's fidgety, foul-mouthed friend Phreak's currently sat down testing it out. Fashion in the mid 29000s is as bold as it is eclectic--contrasting Bercilak's brash, rugged look, Phreak's wearing a black star-print crop top, matching pants and silver boots. "Hey, guys. She's all warmed up for you!" The bartender, Revanda, looks prepared to the best of her ability. The kitchen, open to patrons and stocked by the Green Knight (and Phreak) specially for tonight. It's got a working stove, counters for food prep, and a fridge, making it a perfect place to prepare food for... The dining hall, with a long table perfect for parties like this. The chairs are plenty, the table's sturdy, and the sound system makes blasting tunes easy enough. Pinned to the wall is a bulletin board tracking missing persons. It looks like a few have been taken down recently. Bercilak sets the kegs down in the dining hall, gets to work on passing out brews, and proposes a toast. "Oure labourage is not done--but what we hath done, let us not foryet. To a mo sauf, joious Rubi-Ka," he says, tapping the missing persons board with a finger. "To theim that labour to biginne aneu what was lost. Al-heil!"
Rita Ma	Rita makes as active an effort to stick near Liza as Liza does for her, which is to say 'very'. She has been acting weird lately, for reasons that aren't much of a mystery, but it's not eating at her so badly that circumstances like these can't bring a smile to her face. "Mr. Bercilak!" she shouts, waving with her thermos-bearing hand. (The other is busy holding Liza's.) "It's rude to say that word, you know," she adds conscientiously as the group heads inside. "You shouldn't be teaching me-" Her sentence hits a sudden stop as she remembers who'd scolded the Watch about that first. She looks uncomfortably off to the side. The sentence is never finished. Phreak's presence distracts her a moment later- "Hi, Mr. Phreak!" is accompanied by a little squeeze of Liza's hand- as she scans the bar. "Are we allowed to use the kitchen?" she asks Revanda. Staying busy will be good for her. On getting an affirmative answer, she looks up at Liza: "What do you think I should have while I work, Ms. Grier? I'd like to try something new."
Chase	Chase acknowledges Rita with a nod while also accepting the cup from her with zero questions or hesitation. "No. I have not-" The Grim Reaper is cut off as Bercilak finally shows up. Or perhaps, he was always here. Though given how loud the man usually is, Chase doubts it. When the booze is finally passed around, Chase decides to give it a try, downing the first cup down with a completely straight and unflinching face. It tastes awful, but if this is how people choose to party, it would be rude of him not to partake. "How has everyone been?"
Sylvi	Sylvi feels the attention - is used to it, smells it on the air as sweet confusion and candy-like bafflement, and basks in the taffy-caramel notes of curiousity. Grinning-pleased when Bercilak sends a greeting down to her, Sylvi scoffs back at the keg-toting giant loudly. "How do you have so much technology, and still just put buildings in a brown everywhere? You live in a desert! I know you used up all the green on the planet, but... yellow? Black? Red?" She sweeps her hands around indicatingly as she heads to Phreak's TV. "You can use different colors!" Handling the rig like she owns it, the tall girl with the mane of white hair and green eyes carries on re-assembling Phreak's setup to expose a truly iffy optical disc reader, to pop in an un-marked CD from a jewel case. While the 'pretty girl at the bar' Sylvi had directed more attention to holds hands with the one who doubts the way of Melty Blood, Hibiki and Praminix both expressed some interest. "Phreak where are your controllers?" She asks, having already read Phreak's mind to know where the CD drive was, and simply not wanting to get the controllers herself. "So is this, like, a..." Sylvi looks among the group. "... board game night? Tabletop group? Cult, but the kind that usually skips the rituals and just does brunch with heavy drinking?"
Hibiki Tachibana	There he is, the man of the hour himself. "Nice entrance. Without changing expression or missing a beat, Hibiki swings up her forearms to give him two thumbs up, right before she gives a casual wave right back to both of the SilverAsh siblings. Now it's a party. "And with how much talking is going on about 'Melty', I almost wanna try it myself..." She says while glancing at the search Liza is putting in, and promptly stopping doing that a second later to join the Green Knight in stepping inside properly. The inside is-- Bigger than she thought. Whoa. "Hey, Phreak! Nice to see you again." He also gets a greeting from her, before she goes to having some 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing at the place. "I gotta say, I wasn't expecting the place to be this...cozy." She probably had something more like a bar in mind when Bercilak mentioned 'tavern', and is surprised in the good way. Oh yeah. She's gonna be visiting the emulation corner. Though, picking up on Rita's moment of uncomfortability, she glances at her while the other girl looks off to the side--and from the other side of her as Liza, gives her a small and quick pat on the shoulder. "If you end up needing any extra help in there, just lemme know, okay?" She says that a little more seriously than she planned to, before lightening up. "...I'll take a cup of tea before you go either way, though. Drinking isn't really for me." That's true, and also it'll give her something to raise up in a kinda-sorta toast to Bercilak's.
Karlan Nobles	When that booming voice heralds Bercilak's presence, the pair look over at him. They're about to greet him, but they stop when they see his magnificent shirt. Pramanix, of course, just stares at his shirt wide-eyed and flushed-cheeks'd. SilverAsh takes it in stride and greets him with a similar wave to the one Hibiki gets. "Perhaps later." It takes the two a moment to recognize Liza. They haven't really seen her often outside of her suits, so seeing her actually dressed up has Pramanix practically beaming when she approaches Rita. It's a relieved sort of look, and even SilverAsh seems to relax a bit himself before heading into the dining hall. Of course, that relief on Pramanix's face turns to shock again once Rita reveals the extent of her knowledge. Pramanix: "Th.. That's right, Rita. It's not right for ladies like ourselves and Miss Hibiki to know of such things." SilverAsh: "She said, lying as easily as she breathed. Where did you learn such words, I wonder?" Pramanix: "... That's beside the point!" Bercilak proposes a toast, and that's enough to get Pramanix to calm down and for SilverAsh to stop tormenting her. He even speaks up after Bercilak does, raising his drink with a well-practiced... Raise. "It was a hard fought battle, but we prevailed through all those trials. With any luck, the people here will be able to work towards something better without that threat looming overhead." Pramanix, meanwhile, doesn't come up with anything fancy to say. She's just pleased to be here with everyone, and to sample Rubi-Ka's brew in defiance of probably everything she's been taught to do. She waits until everyone else starts drinking, and then she downs a good third of hers before moving to join Phreak and Sylvi in the Melty hole (even if she has no idea what she's looking at tech-wise). "No cults. We did defeat one, though! And we're ready to take on another, if need be~"
Liza Grier	Liza gets precisely one look at Bercilak's chest, sighs exhaustedly, and says "You cannot be fucking serious." She walks past Phreak along the way. She sighs for a very different, but equally compelling reason. "That better not be the reason we're invited or so help me." Deep breath. "Hi Phreak." Liza repeats, in less sweet and chipper echoing of Rita. "I was already wondering if we'd have to do any more of that TRON-ass teleporter hopping the second I saw a terminal. I think I'm glad it's just videogames." The explanation of 'Melty' follows. An eyebrow disappears. "'Videogames' you play in hotel rooms and dive bars." Liza adds in apathetic disbelief; the kind where she's pretty sure most of this is bullshit, but it doesn't really affect her either way. When Rita's interest gravitates inevitably to domestic matters, Liza tugs back on her a little. "Isn't this about that miss-- 'quest' you just did for Berc? This is supposed to be him treating you then isn't it? You're not really going to spend the night doing unpaid bar labour are you? It's not about that kind of relaxing. That's just a day on. Like, your usual hobby. And don't try to argue with me --I know you're going to-- you already said 'work'." Thinking on her answer for only a second, Liza decides "Cult, probably. Can't you tell? We've got the loud old man trying to recapture his youth, the weird stoic who doesn't make friends, the dumb daredevil teenager who thinks she can back out any time she wants, the one nice girl who gets used as the face, and the sociopathic killer who gets used as the insurance." Trying to discern the level of authenticity in the deadpan is irrelevant. "Your turn. Who are you to the big guy?" She looks back over her shoulder to stare at Bercilak and Phreak and lowers her voice. "She's right though. Building this place up like sandstone huts just feels kind of appropriative and stupid doesn't it?"
Sylvi	'Videogames' "Now I didn't say video-games. Fighting games." Sylvi repeats, lean-turning back to the bar as Praminix shifts into the snake's orbit. "Fighting games that you play in dive bars and hotel rooms." Over her shoulder, the screen begins loudly playing heavily synthed piano and pictures of blurry clouds -- and then still 2d sprites! In a forest! With jazzy music! Settling into the couches by the emulation station, in a full spread and slouch, Sylvi pats the couch besides her to accept Pramanix into the Melty hole, grinning over the priestess' head at the questioning operative. "You could be a cult, sure." She leans perilously close to Praminix' ear and rattle-breathes a "You must be the daredevil. . ." into a fuzzy ear. She then leans back and bursts out laughing. "Normally, -I'm- the pretty girl at the bar, the bad idea to buy a drink for, but you've took e-v-e-r-y ssssssingle spot on the dance card." A beat. "I'm Bercilak's 'main sssqueeze'." She answers confidently. "We play fighting games in hotel rooms." She adds with oozing amusement.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	oYou shouldn't be teaching me- Bercilak catches a lot of things people might not expect. The mischievous grin on his face as he's scolded briefly shifts to an expression of quiet concern when Rita looks away. Gears turn silently in his mind--whatever conclusion he's drawn, he keeps to himself. oAre we allowed to use the kitchen? Revanda, an opifex woman in a white tee with the bar's logo, smiles. "Of course you can, sweetheart," she says. Judging by her tone, she must take Rita to be some young rookie on her first visit. "That kitchen's been free use for as long as this place's been around." Bercilak's large hand pats twice upon Rita's head. oI wasn't expecting the place to be this...cozy. Revanda nods at Hibiki. "It used to be a place of rest for Clanners fresh off the front lines. Place is just about as old as the city--fella that built it asked to be buried beneath it, so they say. It's quieter these days, for a..." She frowns. "Couple of reasons. I'm glad you and your friends came by. By the time I started working here, the glory days were long gone. Most days, we're lucky to get half this many people." oPhreak where are your controllers? "Fuck. I knew I left something at home." Phreak waves his hands, bringing up some kind of AR display. His hands and fingers dance rapidly across whatever's projected before his vision. Two standard issue controllers, brand-new, in box, are constructed by nanites. A receipt attached reads 'Thank you for your purchase, [null] [null]! You have earned ERROR in-store credit.' "It's my copy," he says, snatching the receipt off and unboxing the controllers. "...so we do have all the characters, at least. How do you know that big idiot, anyway?" oSo this is like a... board game night? Tabletop group? Cult, but the kind that usually skips the rituals and just does brunch with heavy drinking? "'Tis celebracioun, for the astruing of the Temple of Thri Winds. 'Twas theim that wert the cult, and thei didst verily lest to astrue time itself, that thire nau-ded master wouldst hath his contentement. A malengine of one hundred and fifti-fif yeres, and thanne som, was stutten bi we," he says proudly. Phreak passes him a controller, and gives the other to Sylvi, for the first set. Bercilak instapicks the buff, sleeveless grappler. oHow has everyone been? "God!" answers Bercilak mid-button mash. Phreak can give Chase a more detailed answer. "Don't think we've met," says the short fixer, extending a hand. "My handle's Phreak. Things have been good around here--missing persons found, hidden but cool societies unearthed, unethical black sites bombed." "Ofaxed him hau thou wert," Bercilak corrects. "Spending most of my money on debt and membership fees. Just peachy," says Phreak, slamming back a swig of beer. "They say work as a TRON-ass computer toucher makes good money," he laments to Liza, "...but it sure does seem like everybody else figured that shit out before me." At the question of 'who are you to the big guy,' Bercilak takes his eyes off the screen to grin at Sylvi. He nods animatedly at her answer, only to swear when his lack of concentration opens him up to a massive counterattack.
Rita Ma	"How has everyone been?" "I've been alright," Rita says, with a slightly wishful smile. "What have you been doing, Mr. Chase? It's been a while, hasn't it?" To Pramanix: "But if I don't know the bad words, how can I know what people aren't supposed to say? Wouldn't that be improper, too?" If not for the sly little smile she gives both of them, it'd be hard to tell whether she's joking. Rita is just about to give her own answer to Sylvi when Liza cuts in with the cult explanation, and from there on is too busy trying not to laugh to contest it. The response, though, gives her pause. "'Main squeeze'? But isn't Mr. Bercilak...?" Her eyes slide over to the Green Knight's shirt in quiet bafflement. She's absolutely delighted to pour Hibiki some tea; it's brown, with dark dried berries floating in it, and has a rich complex taste. It's a little sweet, a little tangy, a little earthy, a little spicy... the lack of a single strong note makes it feel like something you could sip all day and never get tired of it. "Ah, that's okay, Hibiki! It's good for me to keep busy. I promise." (Implicitly, she means it helps her keep her mind off things.) Liza cuts off that escape route a moment later. Her eyes sink to the floor; her free hand fidgets with her jacket. She is, in fact, opening her mouth to argue when that possibility is shot down too, and the words transmogrify into a little uncomfortable whine. "Well, what should I do, then? I don't know how to play any games. I don't have an appetite." 'For the food they're likely to be serving' goes unspoken. "I want to keep busy. Is that bad?"
Chase	Chase casually refills his glass before immediately downing it again. How many of these is he supposed to drink? What is the socially acceptable amount of liquid he needs to consume to be polite and fit in? He doesn't know, but at the very least, he is certain someone here will tell him when he needs to stop. "Good to hear. And good to meet you, Phreak. I have been obtaining my full license." It's not the only thing Chase has been doing, but it's the only thing of note he feels worth bringing up. The rest has been his job and obligations, and as far as he knows, those aren't particularly interesting talking points to most people. Or at least, that's what Brain and Medic have told him.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki might be dense ordinarily, but the very slight frown she has before she gives a nod towards Rita shows she probably understands. Really, she's concerned but not quite sure on what to do about it--before Liza speaks up, and Hibiki looks...surprised, maybe? Surprised, before she drops into a slight grimace. It's thankfully for reasons other than the whole dumb daredevil teenager comment, which she'd normally raise a ruckus about but not this time. "If she wants to spend some time in there, I don't think it's that bad." Her thoughts of 'it's fine to want some alone time' go unsaid. Pause. She glances slightly back towards Rita. "...But I was about to say, even if you do, just don't spend most of the night in there. You gotta enjoy parties while they're busy and bustling." That sounds like advice she likely got from someone else. From what she said," she being Revanda, "The more people out here making noise the better." After another look up to Liza, she actually perks up a bit. It's only partially forced. "...Though if you don't know how to play, don't worry. I've never played whatever this is either. Don't actually do video games a whole lot in the first place. So if you wanna get started, I'll be just as bad as you." She jerks a thumb over towards the Game Corner, which she intended to do to make a point but ends up doing a double-take to make sure she heard right. "Wait...did she say main squeeze? And he agreed!?" That's not expected. Like at all.
Karlan Nobles	SilverAsh: "That's right, Rita. There's no such things as impropriety when it comes to knowledge, only the use of it." Pramanix: "Not that you should use it! Unless it's appropriate, but... But still!" Joining Sylvi at the couch, Pramanix is almost immediately entranced by the music. Moreso than the graphics, the jazzy sound captures her attention almost immediately, and it's hard not to bob her head lightly to the beat within the first minute. She's eager to get her hands on it, but she'll wait her turn as befitting someone that's totally not impatient as hell and wanting to bash buttons with her buds and also whatever Sylvi qualifies as. "A cult? No, no, we stopped the cult. There's a..." She freezes up when Sylvi gets all close like to that stereotypical sensitive point, complete with a brief hitch in her breathing and a shiver. That's just from being chilly and or drinking too much in one go earlier, right? Right. "I-I am bit of a risk taker, I'll admit. Sadly, I'm not quite that young, but thank you anyway~" She responds with a hearty laugh, then pauses to tap her chin. "... Why would it be a bad idea to get you drinks, if I might ask? Free drinks are free drinks, are they not?" She also kinda sucks at Melty, but that's to be expected. She might manage to mash out a flashy combo every now and then, though, but there's no consistency to any of it. The talk of being Bercilak's 'main sssqueeze' gets Sylvi a wider-eyed look from Pramanix, then a look over at Phreak to see if he's aware of any of this, and then to Bercilak to see if he confirms or denies such allegations. Rita knowing what that means, meanwhile, gets another startled look from Pramanix and a quiet chuckle from SilverAsh. Pramanix: "You shouldn't know what that means, either! Y-you either, Hibiki!" SilverAsh: "And how do you know what that means, oh pure Saint of Karlan?" SilverAsh, always the maybe-gentleman (except for today), takes a longer, but slower chug of his brew. He watches the matches for now, not quite ready to put his pride about playing a game for the first time on the line just yet. "Have you considered leveraging those skills in a less advanced world, Phreak? Finding somewhere that still uses credits, but is otherwise primitive by your standards, could be a simpler way of earning money that you could convert to funding here." He pauses briefly, then continueso. "I might have need of such services in the future, in fact, if that would be something you're interested in."
Liza Grier	"Main sq--" Liza gets halfway into blandly repeating Sylvi, then, finally, becomes present, narrowing her eyes. "I don't believe you." Her own words are used. "I don't fucking believe you. There's no way." A beat. "And even if there was, it wouldn't even be much of a fight would it." Liza has apparently decided she isn't awake enough for this bullshit because she waves down Revanda and starts ordering Quantities of gin, vodka, scoth and vermout --or whatever 'space bastardization' they have-- and is right back on her PDA. More importantly: Rita. "You can keep that kind of busy any time. At home too." Liza emphasizes the second to last word a little. "Kinda defeats the whole point of coming out here. Why don't you try something new? That'll be better than letting your mind wander with a knife in your hand." She starts to get up, apparently not taking no for an answer. "Nice try, but I'm not letting that excuse fly either. If you're still hungry later, we'll figure it out, but I'm not getting you in a room with ten people for you to not talk to any of them." A Look:tm: goes over to Pramanix's predictable reaction. Liza just shakes her head in disappointment. However, she has a Course of Action in mind first. Step one is being just slightly obnoxious by insisting on asking for everyone's drinks (well, they weren't favouring Revanda with any orders anyways) and mixing them up herself in her usual rapidfire way, laying out a couple of refills-per on whatever trays she can borrow. This is partially for the purposes of getting Rita the one kind of thing she knows she can drink, this time in martini form (hence the gin and vermouth), putting it in her hand, putting her near a terminal, and telling her to 'at least learn the game' if she won't play, stating that her objective is to beat Bercilak by the end of the night. Her second order of business is to grab a hair scrunchie and see herself to the kitchen, asking Revanda to stay out for 'like, fifteen minutes'. There's a very bright red teleporter flash from under the doors.
Sylvi	Sylvi is proficient but not oppressive at Melty Blood. She picks rushdown characters and punishes openings and flaws in mindstate rather than actually being fundamentally good at the game - she actually just enjoys fighting games. Her competition is the Pridefully Jolly June Giant in the first round, and after she crushes Bercilak's moment of foolishness and pulls ahead in the otherwise roughly-even match the controller passes to Praminix -- Victorious, Sylvi just passes her controller to Bercilak, rather than 'staying on'. The furious tapping and couch foolishness of the game on the screen is an excuse, and she pulls back from it when there's a bit more scandal in the air to bask and sun in. "What, pretty girl," Rita again. "Did you stop trying new things? Keep busy over here, and bring purple over, so he stops trying to not make eye contact and drink!" Chase. Getting up to make room on the couch, Sylvi steps around to behind Bercilak and rests her elbows on his shoulders -- which is an operation she can only do while the large man sits down -- her flat palms on the top of his head, and her chin atop her layered fingers. "If you're the new cult, don't be the cult of lame parties." She 'suggests', using active and direct voice. "Nobody's making a messss, nobody's making out, nothing. At least there's Melty, otherwise I'd fall un-conssscious from boredom and find a better party, when I woke up." Liza's reaction, though, among all of them, gets a sharp, hissing laugh out of the green-eye. "You don't have to believe me! That's the bessst part." Sibilant, jubilant, exultant, Sylvi turns -- cranking Bercilak's neck as she does, though it's well within scope for him, chiropractic if highly distracting, and widens her arms as Liza lingers with Looks:tm: and takes orders. The boisterous Sylvi takes the local equivalant of Everclear and tonic water. "It's not much of a fight when I win every time, no. But we do it anyway, because otherwise there's no way to figure out what I'll want to do after!" She calls, towards the kitchen. When Liza's gone she turns back to looming over the couch. "She's definitely the fun one."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	oBut isn't Mr. Bercilak...? oI don't fucking believe you. There's no way. Rita isn't the only one surprised. Far from it--just about the only person who isn't stunned is the fixer. Phreak explains. "Maybe one way more than the other, but his axe swings both ways," the fixer slyly says on behalf of the knight. Bercilak himself is the most damning, however, smiling up at Sylvi as she leans against him. "As thou lest," he says. The jerk to his head is just distracting enough to cause him to lose--not that he seems to mind. Not wanting to be the leader of the cult of lame parties, he stands up. "Kegge stand? Kegge stand." He disappears ominiously into the larger dining room. oHave you considered leveraging those skills in a less advanced world, Phreak? This draws a look of discomfort from the fixer. "Yeah, but... it's just..." Pausing to take a drink, he continues. "I wonder what's left for me, when I'm paid up and it's just the membership fees I gotta worry about. You know? What the point of the whole song and dance is. Do I get rich? I just wanna not be broke, so that doesn't track. Do I 'take charge of my life' and 'make a difference?' Well..." He looks around the room. "I've made a lot more difference helping you guys and tipping you off than I ever did staying on my grind." He glances at SilverAsh over the rim of his glass. "I'd be interested. I'd be more interested in a permanent position with you guys," he says with a sigh. "But I dunno how that's ever gonna happen. I'll be paying off my armor 'til they bury me under this place." Liza's Quantities of spirits are mostly available. There's even a several hundred year old scotch, originally made to commemorare the FINAL football cup for the Neo-Scottish League of Planets. Bercilak calls from the other room asks for a cheap and cheerful Plumbo XXX (guaranteed to do you in, promises the advertising). For Phreak, a fruity mixed drink. oAt least learn the game if you won't play. "Thanks, Liza," calls Phreak, his drink served. "But maybe me or the main squeeze oughta explain. With him teaching you," says Phreak to Rita, gesturing to the returning Bercilak with his glass, "You'll be lucky if you understand half the shit in this game. Check it out," he jokes, grabbing an empty controller box and pointing to illustrate. "Let's start with controls and shorthand, then we can work into mechanics and playstyles." "KEGGE STAND!" The Green Knight picks SilverAsh up with one hand, calls his axe with the other, and punctures the top of the keg with the haft. A bamboo nozzle sprouts from it, and the knight tosses his weapon aside. Looking SilverAsh in the eye (raising him by his collar to do so), "Shalt thou accept the chalaunge?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	With his spot abdicated to tend to the challenge of the keg stand, Phreak reaches for the controller and passes it to Rita. "How about you and Chase give it a shot?" The fixer does a double take, at the sigh of the offered challenge. "...don't let him make you get carried away," he advises Chase, sotto voce. "If this is your first time, just take it easy. Three drinks max, yeah? Your body'll thank you for it in the morning." At a more conversational volume, "Congratulations on the license, by the way. You drive for a living, or something?"
Rita Ma	"Okay, Ms. Grier," Rita says. "If you think that's best, then... Well, I'll try. Thank you." She looks defeated, but it's hard to look that way for long with her very favorite drink in hand. After one or two sips of it, she's perky enough to be smiling a little again when she's deposited at the couch. "Sometimes you want to stick with what's familiar," she tells Sylvi, after a moment for thought (and another sip, and a smile at 'pretty'). "But I guess this isn't one of those times." As a small person on a big and cushy couch, she's much too comfortable to get up and fetch Chase on her behest, but she waves him over anyway: "Come on over, Mr. Chase! If I have to try new things, then you do too, okay?" Rita absorbs Phreak's lessons as best she can, watching the screen raptly and nodding along for however long they get until Bercilak returns. When she accepts the controller- and pats the spot next to her for Chase- she's still definitely not ready, but eager to get into it. She looks a little lost on character select, but she'll pick whoever anybody recommends. Rita is bad at fighting games. There's really no mincing words about it. She does, at least, have an intuitive idea of how to get better. It seems like she's button-mashing at first. When she finds something that works, though, she keeps 'spamming' it until it doesn't anymore, then switches to something else when it's countered. That gives her an idea of when each tool is and isn't useful. When her opponent uses something against her, she does the reverse, cycling through responses until she finds something that works and then sticking with it forever. She's much faster than is reasonable, too. Things that ought to be 'unreactable' for human players, she instead responds to almost at the first possible frame. This makes her especially obnoxious at blocking things, once she figures that out. Even so, she's definitely going to lose a lot against anyone but a fellow newbie- which, hopefully, Chase is. "I'm Rita," she says to the green-eyed woman between games, extending her hand to shake with a little smile. "What's your name? And how did you meet Mr. Bercilak, if it's okay to ask?" Then, looking a little more sly: "Do you have any tips for me against Mr. Chase?"
Karlan Nobles	There's some friction between Liza and Sylvi! That gets the siblings' attention rather easily, but their reactions are varied as usual. Pramanix doesn't seem too bothered by Sylvi's presence, but SilverAsh does give Sylvi his own Look:tm: that's equal parts intrigue and suspicion. "She certainly has the drive to be a force of nature unto herself. but you... I can feel a powerful aura coming from you as well. What drives you, miss...?" He takes a swig, then continues. "Ah. My name is SilverAsh. A pleasure to meet you." "Pramanix. Good to meet you, friend!" Pramanix chimes in from the couch, only somewhat distracted before she gets right back into the game. Alas, her mashing skills are her only strong point right now, so she's easily beaten by anyone that actually knows how to block. She takes it in stride, though, and she cheers as Rita issues the challenge to Chase. "Go, go, go! Hit those buttons! Beat those heats!" She doesn't actually know what those words mean, but it looked cool when the words appeared. After Phreak explains his own misgivings, SilverAsh goes back to ruminating with a hand on his chin and occasionally closing his eyes as smart people and people trying to look smart often do. "Lacking personal investment in a cause can certainly be troubling, especially for..." He trails off, deciding not to comment on Phreak's age. Instead, he slips him a business card (it's fancy, color printed on both sides, and embossed all over). "... Highly skilled individuals. If you do want to make it permanent, then all you need to do is ask. I've made far worse investments before." Before he can elaborate, Bercilak yoinks SilverAsh off the ground, and he just stares ahead dumbfounded while trying to comprehend what's going on. The challenge is issued, and he raises an eyebrow before reaching for the nozzle experimentally. "I don't see why not. Let us begin whenever... How does this work?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	oHow does this work? As beer flows from the spout, Bercilak laughs. "I hold thee, and thou drink, 'til thou cannst drink non-mo... oth that, til the kegge is empti. Esi!" He tips SilverAsh upside down, and begins a chant. "DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!"
Chase	"I see." At the warning of going past three, Chase stops at two. He would rather not tempt fate. "I do a lot of driving, but I do not have my full license yet. It is currently only a temporary one until I pass a test." Chase flatly explains to Phreak, in an extremely dry manner that only covers the most important parts of the question being asked. It's sufficient for the conversation, as far as he's concerned. With Rita calling him over, Chase immediately disengages to join her, handing his cup to the Opifex as he promptly takes a seat. "I have no problem joining you, but what is this?" Chase does not play video games, he vaguely knows what they are, but this his real first exposure to them. Rather than wait for a reply however, he grabs one of the controllers and starts sifting in and out of menus at an extremely rapid pace, almost as if he's looking for something, but in actuality, it's because he doesn't know what he's doing and is simply pressing buttons to figure out what they do. It takes a bit, but once he figures out what each button does and where everything leads, he goes back to the character select screen. "I'm ready." Chase, not knowing who to choose, settles for a large man in a trench coat. A slower, intimidating character, which is perfect for him. Sadly though, he's not that good. Navigating menus is completely different from controlling the character. It's like a completely different game... Or perhaps, the menu wasn't the game at all? His character just sort of flails wildly as he rolls over all the buttons as he intensely stares at the screen. It almost seems like he's throwing, up until something clicks with him. Some might call it a download, but really, he's just memorized what each button on his controller does and how each of his moves works. It's the fearsome power of fundamentals. It's enough to make up for the slightly lower reaction speed, but not enough to grant him full superiority. Basically, it's a lot of back and forth and probably Rita learning to hate lingering hitboxes.
Sylvi	Sylvi continues to oversee the production at the couch while Bercilak calls for Keg Stands and cedes the area to Phreak. The expertise of the 'main squeeze' is called for, and her advice floats in a sibilant, thick haze about Rita's intuitive play. "Pick the one that looks coolest to you. There should be a few that look right. You can feel it in the hands, connecting the thoughtsss to the actions." She doesn't explain any of the heady mechanics -- Phreak has all of that handled, with his eager assistance and flash-card like recall of specific ideas and theories. Sylvi has touch-instinct and all sorts of unflinching aggression to put to 'useful task'. Pointing that in others is one of the emerald-eyed instigator's open passions. At the sly request, Sylvi looks past the Keg Stand In Progress, considering Chase, and then back to Rita. "He's gonna block, but try lows until he learns, then lows and going past him." Sylvi, also Not Great At Melty, But Great At Salty, also is bad at lingering hurtboxes and any other technique that makes it harder to Get In. People picking up quickly - and the light competition among the Mashing And Download Leagues keeps Sylvi entertained. "B, are you really letting your computer boyfriend get a case of the capitalism no-can-do's?" Sylvi asks the axe-wielding lunatic, before addressing the room. "Cult, fix thisss." She directs, to the Couch and beyond. The sad Decker was both broke AND maidenless!
Liza Grier	'but his axe swings both ways' "Yeah that probably explains why you got your hopes up." Liza mutters to herself just slightly too loud to be stealthy. 'Nobody's making a messss, nobody's making out, nothing.' "Yeah only because they won't order anything." Liza says ever so calmly in the midst of shaking up something that may have actually just contained a small amount of uranium for Bercilak (his fault for being a regenerator), upending most of a minibottle of something bright purple and what looks like a lizard tail into something green and slightly flourescent on the back of Sylvi's heinous order, and making Rita's red-tinted beverage something actually suitable to get her buzzed. It's the one thing Liza does faster and more smoothly than operated a tacticap telepad. "Maybe you shouldn't be bragging, though. If you're his experience, it says something about him wearing a shirt like that." 'Kegge stand? Kegge stand.' "That comes after everyone's hammered already." Liza gently huffs on her way out. 15 minutes go by. The smell precedes her by a little, but Liza returns from the back, smooth and poised as can be, with hair still tied back, a random bar apron grabbed off a rack, carrying a dripping basket of lightly fried lightly fried lightly fried thick-cut bar fries (yam fries? they're a tiny bit red-tinted, heavily spiced and seasoned, and as sweet as they are salty), a surprisingly competently arranged platter of mystery dips, mystery chips, rainbow salsa, ordinary onion rings, and strangely coloured spicy peppers, shoots, and mushrooms galore (she warns Pramanix not to touch the transparent pepper), and a return trip for two runs of great big juicy burgers, still audibly sizzling, slightly medium rare in that way that is unhealthy to do ground-anything but is sinfully delicious anyways, and loaded with wide varieties of smoky and savory sauces and spices, some of which may be blue or a little glowy, alongside the usual suspects of caramelized toppings. They taste like very tender pork more than greasy beef. Her gloves are splattered with sriracha sauce, even though there isn't any to be seen anywhere, and her professional hygiene is kind of shitty since she just whips everything off and balls it up on an empty chair right after, yet, shockingly, she actually knows how to cook heavy craving liquor-sponge food up to restaurant quality, with some rather exciting little flavour notes to them. 'You know? What the point of the whole song and dance is.' "You figure that out and then you get enough money to make it run. Money is never the point. Money is never part of the point. It's an obstacle to getting what you want, nothing more, nothing less, so don't get wrapped up in it." says Liza, foisting replacement drinks and thick meat(y burg) especially on Rita, even pouring out some bright blue vodka, soda, blue goop and cracked salt and sugar sweet-acidic abomination for Phreak. Seeing as Chase appears to be getting involved, Liza winds out some kind of thick, black, glistening stout, and decides to see if she can get a reaction from the stoic by doing that gimmicky lighter trick where the head is now a perpetual little blue gas flame. "So, did Rita win yet?"
Hibiki Tachibana	"I don't think you should make a mess outta someone's tavern, and if you're gonna do /that/," Hibiki avoids saying making out directly. "Do it in a backroom or something." With the Couch Gang forming in earnest, there's no doubt Hibiki is following Rita over. She was going anyway. It's fine if she doesn't get first dibs, though. The novelty of seeing these two game more than makes up for it. Or well, it was novelty at first. Soon, however, it becomes Hibiki having increasingly more sweatdrops falling down the side of her face as Rita becomes the peak reaction speed, frame-on-a-dime menace she was destined to be, and Chase picks up the fundies. Even if they both still have a long way to go, to her, it's a lot crazier than she thought she'd be getting from two newbies. "Y-You guys are picking this up pretty fast...if Chase starts using his specials more, this might really get outta hand..." She, personally, liked the look of the tall, dark, and mysterious quiet man with a lot of grapple attacks, but she doesn't say that out loud either. Sylvi shouting gets her to snap out of her Fightan Spectator mode to perk up briefly, first with - "We're not a cult, we /defeated/ one like the big guy said, sheesh." And then, to Phreak. "Hey, it's a party, cheer up a little. If you wanna get something like that, then the important thing is realizing you don't gotta try to get it on your own. You got people willing to help you. Heck, pretty sure you're probably owed some favors from more than one person." She has no idea if this is actually true. A glance is spared to SilverAsh's plight, and then she looks away again. "So don't worry too much about it. If you give up on it, it's never gonna happen. Where there's a will there's a way...or something like that?"
Karlan Nobles	Being held upside-down is most certainly not what SilverAsh was expecting of tonight. He actually looks somewhat flustered for once, too, being so out of his element. It takes a lot more willpower than he normally uses just to get his expression back to (relatively) normal, but that doesn't do him much good with the quantity of chugging required to complete... THE CHALLENGE. Against his better judgment, chug he does! Despite his prior put togetherness with drinking that brew earlier, he's actually not going to last very long with the keg stand. There's a clear moment in the middle of it where he doesn't quite chug or even inhale, but his pride still won't allow him to actually yield. Also because he might throw up if he tries saying anything while upside-down. Pramanix actually looks almost worried watching him, but she's soon distracted by Liza's surprising culinary prowess. "Oh my... Did you make all these? This all looks so amazing!" She comments, eyeing the burgers and the transparent pepper. It's kind of easy to tell that she really wants to try it after being warned against it, but she's going to behave for now. She's just not doing a good job hiding that look in her eyes. Getting a few drinks in (and ordering some of the heavy stuff) is keeping Pramanix occupied, at least, as is trying to get her own download in the game through osmosis or something. It's not going to work, of course, but it's still fun to watch! "Money is... I probably can't talk considering how I grew up. It's never been as big of an obstacle as everything else has been. If you have the drive to do something, then..." She pauses to munch on some MYSERY CHIPS AND DIP and also a borg. It's a long pause. "Amazing... Mmph. Don't let money of all things stop you from doing that, even if you need to follow someone else's lead for a while to figure it out. My... SilverAsh even offered, so I'm sure you'll get it eventually." She wipes her mouth off, then gives Phreak a greasy thumbs up and confident smile. "You've got this!"
Rita Ma	"Lows," Rita repeats dutifully, nodding along with Sylvi's instructions. That vocal quality unsettles her at first, but once she gets used to it, it's pleasant. "Those are... these ones, right? And then... lows and go past him. Okay." The match adopts a natural back-and-forth. Rita discovers an annoying thing to spam and presses it for maximum advantage. Chase finds a way around it and has her on the ropes again with his fundamentals until she finds something new. Slowly, they're both becoming less terrible. But health bars eventually run out. It's a close game, but Rita happens to be on the downswing of that see-saw when it's down to the wire, and she takes the L. "Awwwwww," she says quietly, not yet enough of a Gamer to have learned to salt. "Good game, Mr. Chase. You're really good at this! I'll give Hibiki a chance to play now, okay?" She passes the controller off, maybe to give her hands a break from all that mashing, but more likely because she can smell food coming. "Welcome back, Ms. Grier!" she says, waving brightly. Her other hand has picked her crimson martini back up. "Not yet, but I'm getting better. I'll get there, I promise!" When the food's about halfway to her, she startles for no visible reason. "Oh, is that...!" Whatever it is she's reacting to, it elicits a strange mixture of excitement, self-consciousness, and guilt in her, in that order. The latter two are tamped down as soon as she gets some of that sinfully delicious burg in her mouth, though. She eats like she could strip a cow to the bone in a minute flat. The first of the fries are carefully studied after the last of the burger is destroyed. She eyes them with apprehension and suspicion, but those, too, are banished at first bite. "You're really too good to me, Ms. Grier," she says shyly. "I've never had fries before, but these are perfect." She slips around the couch, wraps her arms around Liza, and hugs her tight. For numerous reasons, her mood is much higher than it was at the start of the evening. "Now that I've had fun," she says while pulling away, "am I allowed to help you clean up?" There's a suppressed laugh behind her words.
Liza Grier	"Yeah, I don't mind throwing him a bone." Liza says offhandedly over the talk. "He's been a big help, and not all of his motives were even suspect." A teeny tiny grin. "But I'm gonna make him fill out at least a five page manifesto. Entry exam homework. I think we've already got more than enough rookies who can't put their feelings into words." A side eye goes to Hibiki and Chase. She waves a vague little 'yeah yeah' to being asked about the food. "Yeah. I mean, did you think I just ordered takeout every day? I don't have a secret identity you know. And fuel is always a thing. Obviously I can cook. Bar types better than most." She sees Pramanix examine an eerily see-through pepper. "I warned you. Those are ghost peppers. You'll regret it, Snow White." Liza smiles as big as it gets for her at Rita's compliments though. "Then all that experimenting in my free time paid off. Fries are like school; they aren't anything special on their own, but they're a common point everyone should have experience with, and they have moments that can be special." 'am I allowed to help you clean up?' Liza tilts back her head to look at Rita. "Clean up what? We haven't even made a mess yet." She then brazenly reaches up to lay her fingers on the back of Rita's neck, gently yet firmly pulls her closer, and then upside-down kisses the shorter woman on the lips (tasting as if perhaps she had a drink or two in the kitchen as well). Securing her window of opportunity, Liza even slides her spare grip to catch Rita under the arms, and then strong lady hup-haul her over the back of the couch and drop her sideways into her lap, only then picking up the controller. "You're not cleaning up until there's salty tears to wipe off the floor. C'mon. Who am I dominating?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Sipping his abomination, Phreak nods at Liza. "You guys seem to do just fine without big wads of cash," he agrees. Glancing towards Hibiki, the fixer seems very thoughtful for a moment. His gaze drifts to Bercilak. "Maybe I'll come help out more, uh, permanently than SilverAsh was talking about." Still maidenless, but the no-can-dos Sylvi mentioned are probably on their way out. A dark grey blush spreads across his cheeks at Liza's implication, his brow creased in indignation. "Excuse you!" He has to finish his mixed drink in one gulp, just to have something to hide behind. She's probably not wrong. Bercilak helps SilverAsh down after the keg stand, and invites a whooping cheer, before slapping Phreak heartily in the back. So heartily that the fixer nearly chokes on his mixed drink. "I was drinking, you big asshole," swears the flushed opifex. "Fuck you." The beratement only draws a mirthful laugh from the Green Knight. Bercilak leans his axe against the bar, much to the bartender's tacit disapproval. He swipes a credit chit (he has one of those???) in a dusty jukebox, typing in a selection, before throwing an arm around Sylvi and loudly asking Liza for another uranium-laced beer. The Green Knight is loud, and often eggs on those better left to ride out their inebriation, but no (great) damage befalls the Happy Rebel by his hand. When the drink weighs heavy and eyes begin to droop, he's quick to escort someone to one of the tavern's rooms to sleep it off. Fully prepared to keep the party going until the early hours of the morning, he's liable to be the last to go to sleep, but until then, Bercilak endeavors to be the best host he can.
Sylvi	Chase has what every single fighting game player -wishes- they have: absolutely unflinching fundamentals. Rock solid basics, and precision spacing. Machine-analyzed lines. Sylvi has no taste for watching the CPU play, even against other players, and Chase's play lacks the competitive soul of salty runbacks and passionate struggles and flow-based freestyle combat. Rita, however, has potential! Until she loses. Leaning and watching, Sylvi looks down, while Rita looks up, and grins shark-toothed. "Easier to walk off and come back for more too. Competition's fun when the field's close enough for question-marking." Liza Grier, then, returns with a big meaty burg and all sorts of finger-foods, and Sylvi drifts back to get... ... really Carl's Jr. commercial about such a sinful, sauce-drippy burger. One consumptively loud 'don't bother me - I'm eating' moment later, she finishes licking off each finger and wicking a dollop of sriracha off the front of her shirt. Liza is face-on Rita, and SilverAsh is head-off the keg. The party moves, and for all the doubt, Sylvi spends the night 'coaching' (shouting) at Melty matches, drinking, and wrapping an arm around Bercilak's upper-middle when the night grows thin and tired. "Clean-up's for the morning. Fighting for fun'sss what you do in hotel roomsss." Are Sylvi's lightly slurred sibilant words of wisdom in parting. Basking gets easier for the emerald-eye with a normative level of mess.
Hibiki Tachibana	Liza comes back with a /horrendous/ host of food, including burgers. Burgers, greasy foods, chips, dips, literally the sort of buffet of her dreams whipped up in a mere fifteen minute's time. Now /that's/ just cheating. And mouth-watering. Mostly mouth-watering. The look on her face is enough to tell that, yeah, she was definitely in the 'Liza can cook?' camp. Which she probably should have known before, evolving it into the 'Liza can cook /like this/?' camp. She almost forgets the controller's been pushed off into her hands. As she reins herself in, she watches Rita and Liza engage in that super close hug. There's a little pang of...something. Not from the hug, but from the fact Rita is smiling so brightly - Liza went and did all of that for her, and if she didn't, Hibiki doesn't think /she'd/ drag a beaming grin like that out of her even after the whole night passed. A second later, she's shaking her head and stepping around the couch, throwing some Mystery Dip on top of some Mystery Chips and taking the combination with her as she goes to throw herself down on the couch on the Chase-end. "Alright, if you want some 'feelings'," she caught that side-eye before. "I'll give 'em to you in the way me and Chase do. Kicking your butt. I'm up next!" Gamer mode: activated. Competitiveness: high. Also, she can play the funny grappler man now. If she has things to work out, she'll be doing it over a night of yelling at the screen and jumping out of her seat, sending food everywhere and contributing to the chaos that'll befall the Happy Rebel. "And I'm sure as hell not going to lose even once!" Translator's note: She definitely loses more than once.
Rita Ma	Sylvi's toothy smile is reciprocated with a warm, sunny, and innocent one from Rita. Her initial unease has been replaced with... affinity? Or maybe just a natural comfort with the Archetype being represented. "Question marking? But you're right. I'll try again soon, so don't worry!" Rita doesn't make a noise when she's kissed and abruptly picked up. Even with her demonstrated reaction time, she takes a couple of seconds to blink and process it. In the meantime, her face turns distinctly pink. But then she adjusts herself in Liza's lap to a comfier position, and slips an arm around the taller woman's shoulders possessively. She really does radiate comfort there. "I wanna see you play against Mr. Phreak, Ms. Grier," she says decisively after regaining her bearings. Implicitly because she thinks it'd be really funny to see him get destroyed. Her free hand picks her martini glass back up and swirls it just for effect: it's a decadent sort of mood. When Hibiki declares her intention to still throw down, though, Rita glances over at her with a sweetly smug expression- one that's almost foreign to her face. "Are you sure about that, Hibiki? I bet Ms. Grier's pretty good. You can always hand the controller off to someone else, you know . . ." Of course that could only make Hibiki more determined. That is the desired effect.
Hibiki Tachibana	When Rita says that, Hibiki goes from slouching forward in her seat in a state of Attempted Gamer Focus to slowly sitting back up straightly, looking back over at her with an expression of surprise, followed by a few blinks. And then, the rare totally confident grin of her own, as she takes a hand off of her controller to jab back at her own chest with a thumb. "Not a chance. I'm fired up and I got a dozen reasons to win. If she's good, I'll just keep throwing myself at her 'till I'm better. You're looking at an unstoppable Tachibana Hibiki tonight!" Rita is truly a menace. But it did, certainly, evoke the Gamer Focus (True).
Liza Grier	"Sorry Hibiki, but I'm two drinks in, I've got my girl in my lap cheering me on, and I haven't killed anything in three days. You're done." Liza replies smugly to the challenge. Looking intolerably at ease in her new position, she picks up a controller and-- Well, someone guessed right on this count. Liza plays exactly like someone who hasn't touched a fight stick in a couple of years, but was unmistakably a regional menace at some point in the past. Being a computer-savvy independent adult with pay and long periods of isolation or confinement with few other people, videogames are a perfect fit, but Liza is goated on the sticks in a specific way that only someone who's 'watched a VOD' can really be, even if very rusty. Her ability to absorb game knowledge and memorize her opponent's habits combine with her seemingly almost supernatural situational awareness and improvization to stoke her burning desire to flex hype plays as hard as possible for Rita's entertainment into a perfect storm; one that crackles with lightning-flashes of dry, smug taunting. The words 'skill issue' and 'the game disagrees' show up here and there. Soon it becomes a drinking game, with shots involved. "Glad the burgers were a hit." she murmurs in Sylvi's direction over a round, speaking up a little when the music kicks in. "You can polish off the rest, but there's no more meat until . . ." She thinks for a second, slow-loading a memory check while rolling the stick. "Wednesday."
Hibiki Tachibana	Damn. Liza has hands. Hibiki is definitely not a regional-level gamer girl, not even quite at the level of a /rusty/ regional-level gamer girl. And unlike her friends, she has neither scary levels of mechanical precision nor lightning fast reaction speeds. She simply has one thing - heart. There's less memorizing any of her opponent's habits or go-tos and more feeling out what she might do at any given time. Absolutely no match is gone into with a plan or thinking about what she's going to do this time compared to last time, but fought off the cuff. If nothing else, being good with her hands translates into hardly ever fumbling inputs, and she's a monster in the advantage state. When she's allowed to have it, anyway. Most of the time, there's a lot of angry screeching, sounds of raw disbelief, and looking like she's going to stretch across the couch and choke Liza out with every 'skill issue' before Rita's presence stops her. But each and every time, she gets right back into it with even more fervor than last time. And whenever she does pull out a win, usually from chain grabs and unrealistic levels of rushdown, the hollering is loud enough to be heard the next block over. Singing lungs at work. Phreak is probably not getting the controller tonight. Like, ever.