[The Mythic Scribe]

Lien opened her mouth to inform Mythos that yes, it was a little weird, and really, she was fine. But she thought better of it and just stayed silent and shook her head in response, looking down at her feet as she really had no idea what to say. Luckily, the announcer came to her rescue, starting up the interview with Zabar Aga and Nathan Eau. Interested, Lien focused her undivided attention on it.

At least she would've if a tiny blue figure hadn't materialized on Juno's shoulder.

Lien yelped and backed away-into the other people behind her. "Oh I'm so so so sorry," she whispered to them. "I-I didn't mean to, just, um, sorry." Shyly, she averted her gaze from their annoyed selves and focused back on what was happening onstage, every once in a while glancing at Juno's little... mini pixie blue thing. What was that anyway?


Bianca leaned back in her chair as the interview began. This was bound to be interesting. The Auric dude started off easy, made sense, just a little question to ease up the mood, didn't touch on any hard stuff or particularly grilling things. Yet the Eau dude still managed to screw it up. Bianca scoffed in annoyance, crossing her arms. Sure darling, please rub how great you are in our faces. "Guess the rest of us at Beacon aren't world-class like Nathan here!" she yelled. She wasn't even bitter about her loss, at least not that much, but this dude...

[Siuwa]

Catalina wanted to talk to her, this girl, but her response is not graceful at all. At once Cata returned "Well getting into the tournament means you're world-classed to some degree, but some of us are clearly more world-classed than others!" Cat almost wanted to add something about her lost at the preliminary round, but he isn't a jerkass.

Then Cat doubted. Why did he have such a big reaction? It's not even about Gray, why did he defaulted to defending Nathan? Is it some kind of code where the loser have to follow the will of the winner? Or did he defend just for the sake of being different? Cat cannot accept himself being the latter.
Infrared definitely do not have nearly as big of an reaction as Cat did. Actually, she thought Nathan responded just typically right. But now that he shortly became a focus of everyone, he can't easily talk to him without everyone knowing what she's up to.

[Walter]

Glancing at Isabelle briefly to make sure she wasn't expecting to continue the conversation with the interview starting, Razzy turned his full attention towards the stage.

'Man, Zabar's so cool!' Razzy thought as the Vacuan spoke to his opponent in his answer. He didn't hear the yell which had followed Nathan's response, having not found anything wrong with it. If anything, Razzy felt like this Nathan guy was being shy or something - of course he had to be excited!


Reginald hadn't wanted to come here. While, surely enough, the majority of the guests here were respectable, and their attire appropriate - with few glaring exceptions - young sir dickwaffle was far from a fan of the tournament. Matter of fact, he had made a point to not watch any of the fights. He considered them barbaric. Yes, that was the reason, and definitely not getting his ass kicked so hard not a soul would've considered him for one of the contestant slots.

The boy, dressed in royal purple costume with matching regalia wig. It appeared he had arrived just as the interview was starting, and he made his way through the crowd to find a seat. Yes, he didn't want to come here, but it was better than staying at Beacon. Not like he had any friends- That is, the wish to go out into the town, for example.

While he was only half-listening to the people on stage, what caught his attention was a girl in a somewhat risque outfit shouting at them. While certainly not indicative of class, it was interesting to see such a reaction nonetheless. He might just find some common ground with this girl, though she seemed to be quickly responded to by a boy who... Oh, lord, not this guy. Reginald took a nearby seat, ready to side with the girl for numerous reasons, but for now just willing to see how it plays out.

[FunkyMonkey]

Upon hearing the two finalists' answers, Auric gave a slight nod.  "So now that the tournament's advanced through so many matches, is there anything that either of you do to prepare for fights?  Do you find yourself watching replay videos trying to study your opponents' techniques ahead of time or do you try to blank your mind out and really enter a fight with an as fresh and stress-free mind you can?"  Leaning back in his chair, Auric restated, "I guess what I really want to know is: what have you done to prepare for tomorrow's final match?"

[Xarias Fury]

Oh for Remnant's why did he have to arrive so late. Shiroe wanted to make sure his teammate didn't look like a complete imbecile this time so he went through the trouble of picking out a suit for him, unfortunately Reginald thought different...or maybe didn't think at all and pranced about in a regal fashion before taking his seat. Wondering whether he should drag him back or ignore him he rubbed his brow with two fingers in a rather distraught manner while weighing out his choices.

"Excuse me"

Shiroe's self pitying ended for a second as he politely apologized for blocking the entrance to a girl, whom he recognized as one of his classmates, and moved aside. Oddly enough, unlike her usual half torn and assymetrical casual wear, she wore a somewhat still assymetrical dress but its design was flowing and elegant highly contrasting tonher rather crude jeans and tshirt. Ayaka Miyamoto was her name he believed though he wasn't really too familiar with the odd person who'd either be training or meditating every time he saw her. The dress seemed to be of silk, oriental in design with subtle floral paterns adorning the dress. The left sleeve was long and hid her left hand while the right was nonexisistant, cutting aburptly from the neck and bossom. A bright white ribbon adorned her hair with two pins keeping her ponytail together and another much wider one adorned her waist. Below the waistline the dress flowed continuously but had a cut in the side high above the thigh which showed a generous amount of skin. Wooden sandals rather than shoes were the prefered footwear and it made an audible noise as she walked by. She left without any more words foe Shiroe but was mumbling something about winningnthe tourney.

Looking down at his rather simple white cut gray tux and black flats, white vest and a white rose tucked into his pocket he realized how drab it was and maybe he should have used a more vibrant color...like yellow? No...bad choice. As he pondered once more on the manners of dress of the fellow party goers a rather vibrant amethyst cocktail dress stood out, not particularly because of design, but because the wearer was angrily walking his way.

Deciding to bolt Shiroe dashed through a crowd and blended in rather subtly in another crowd of suits. Good thing he wasn't wearing something vibrant like...yellow. ugh

___________________________________

Damn it, why did she have to go home for her stupid family ceremony? Because of it she lost her chance to win the tourney and her team didn't seem to be on the stage either. Frustrating to say the least and even worse she was wearing a dress! Having been ewcorted back her mother forced her to wear it but she quickly made some adjustments in her room; nothing a pair of scissors can't unfix. Now she was intent on finding her team leader and chewing her out for no othrer reason than not informing her of the results. She felt lingering stares and quickly glared at any she locked eyes with before approaching the cat faunus she called team leader. Luckily the annoying hipster girl wasn't within sight. She wasn't in the mood to exchange insults.

[Dr. Gustave]

Zabar frowned slightly as he glanced toward the crowd as he heard someone yell out before slowly shifting to a smile while he leaned forward on the table, looking toward Auric. "Well, like I said, I've been tryin' to keep myself on my toes in this tournament. I've only been to a single match, actually. See, way back when the airships came to Vale at the beginnin' of the tourney, I'd met Juno Vert..." Zabar paused and looked out into the crowd, despite only being able to see darkness beyond the stage. "I'm sure he's out there now..." He said, turning back to Auric. "When Alban had given us all that speech, I'd met Juno and we were talking and found out that we were both contestants. Since there wasn't any guarantee we'd face off, I wanted to at least make sure I saw him in combat, so I went to his two-on-two match with the students from Haven." Zabar put his hand up and leaned back against his chair. "Now, that mighta given me a little bit of an advantage, but he did plenty enough damage to me even with that."

The Vacuan lay his hands down onto the table, the smile remaining on his face. "Other than that, though, I've only watched matches of my opponents after we'd already fought. In particular, I'd paid attention to Razz and Martin's match and Juno and Xhan's match." As he spoke, Zabar realized he liked this. He'd figure he would be less talkative or stumble over his words but this all felt right, felt natural, to him. "Other than that..." He paused for a moment, raising his hand to his chin. "Mostly just weapon maintenance, really."


Wei raised an eyebrow at the girl. "No, no ringing. Probably just that ringing in your ears you get sometimes." She paused, listening to her teammate begin to talk, a smile forming on her lips. As she came back to listen to Aegis'n question, she gave a quiet chuckle. "Yes, yes, very creative isn't it?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "I was born in Mistral, and the story goes that when my mother was pregnant, she was given a bouquet of weigela flowers by the headmaster of Haven. Apparently he was an old boyfriend." The girl raised her hand to her lips, stifling giggle. "Personally, I think it's just one of those stories parents tell their kids. Knowing mom, she was probably just into flowers at the time." She paused once more to listen in to the interview, somewhat surprised her teammate was still talking. "Oh," she started, turning her head back to Aegis. "and what about your name? Aegis isn't exactly what I'd call a common name, no offense." She said, the smile still on her lips.

[nathan67003]

Nathan was looking at Zabar as the guy spoke. This was a good thing. He was also actually listening to him, which was an even better thing. He smiled when Zabar spoke about 'not spoiling it for him'. Oh, boy, that was he'd been doing right from the start of the tourney.

Right before Auric started talking again, somebody decided to scream something from the crowd. Oh, greeeaaat, try and distract the ADHD guy, why don't you. Thankfully, Nathan was able to restrain himself from looking into the crowd as well as understanding whatever was yelled. Probably somehow derogatory, anyway.

Instead, he looked as his appointed interviewer as he spoke, turning to Zabar as he answered the question(s) in earnest. Wow, he really was excited. Then Nathan's turn came to answer and he sincerely, whole-heartedly doubted he'd be capable of delivering something as good as the co-interviewee.

"Personally, I do a bit of both. While I went into the first few fights without a clue about the opponent, as the stakes grew, the amount of risk I was willing to take diminished. I've seen most matches from the stands, but it wasn't solely to get a tactical feel for any potential adversaries - the matches were genuinely fun and enthralling to bear witness to. Apart from that, I just go in with a calm, open mind."

He finished by adding "I'm planning to get a good night's rest to be able to give it my all tomorrow."

[FunkyMonkey]

While listening to the two finalists' answers, Auric had been mostly silent, his gaze shifting from the contestants to the pen and notepad he had in his lap.  On the topic of what the two were each doing to prepare for the fight, a thought came into Auric's head, leading to a possible question.  It was a provocative question, to say the least; not one that he had submitted to the tournament organizers ahead of time.  As the finalists spoke, he tuned out a bit, trying to decide whether or not she should go ahead and ask the question.  Weighing the decision, he thought to himself that he was never one to back down from asking the tough questions, and the organizers knew that.  He wasn't going to compromise his journalistic style for the sake of sterile propriety.

As Nathan finished up his answer, Auric nodded slightly and took a brief look at his notepad before  turning very slightly to Zabar.  "Hmm.  I see.  Zabar, I find it interesting that you are taking such a rather relaxed approach to this next fight.  Nathan has gathered quite a following based on his past performances.  But more than that, Nathan," Auric gestured toward Nathan, "you have left lasting injuries on your opponents, beyond that which is preventable by aura protection."  Turning back to Zabar, Auric continued, "Zabar, aren't you even a little concerned about the outcome of tomorrow's fight?"

[EdgeyReyes]

Leaning on the balcony, Aegis found her giggling a little bit funny. Even infectious if she were to continue it, a small smile forming on her lips. "None taken, well I don't have some fantastic tale of some cool person giving a gift. I was called Aegis because they thought I would help people when I was older. Lord and behold here I am, a huntress in training. Oh my full name is Aegis Guard. So it kind of matches."


Unlike Lien, Mythos' reaction to the little blue figure was completely average. She just looked at it with minimal curiosity, looking back at the people she had accidentally backed into. "Don't mind her, she didn't mean anything."

[Metroidhunter]

Isabelle's focus on the stage was lost as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps, particularly those of someone wearing sandals. Part of her was able to guess who it was just by those sounds, but even with that inkling, she looked quite surprised when she turned around and spotted her teammate. "Ayaka!" she said in a hushed tone, trying not to disturb anyone around them. "Welcome back." Even though everyone around them was being pretty quiet, she hadn't seen her teammate since she had left to go to... whatever that thing was again. A little bit of quiet chatting wouldn't hurt anybody. The closest person to her was Razz, but he didn't seem like the type of person that would mind.

Attempting to think up something to talk about, she took a brief look at Ayaka's outfit, though her gaze returned to it again shortly after she looked away the first time. This was definitely the first time she had seen her wear something so graceful, as opposed to her usual chopped up shirt and pants. It almost made her seem like a different person, though she knew that she'd probably get the usual annoyed attitude from her. "That's a very nice dress."

While waiting for a response, the interviewer on stage had caught her ear again, the most recent question sounding a lot more intriguing than the other ones up to that point. Even if she was mostly listening to her teammate, she still was curious as to how this Zabar guy was going to answer.

[Dr. Gustave]

Zabar smiled as Auric mentioned his relaxed nature, but as he continued his question the smile slowly dropped to a solemn half smile. As the interviewer finished, Zabar looked down at the table for a split second before glancing toward Nathan and then out toward the crowd, toward Wei. "Ya know, Dustin probably wouldn't like my answer." His smile grew for just a moment as he spoke to Wei more than Auric or the crowd before turning back to the interviewer. "Dustin is my team leader," He explained, the smile dropping back down. "and he would probably like somethin' more... more noncommittal, maybe."

Zabar's eyes moved back toward Nathan, staring directly in his opponent-to-be's eyes. "I'm not- well, Iwouldn't say I'm one to get cocky. Anythin' can happen on the field. That said," his eyes glanced back to Auric for just a moment. "No, I'm not worried." The Vacuan leaned back in his chair, exhaling as his back pressed against the chair. "I mean, I should be, by all rights, I should be. He made it to the finals, just like me." He said, gesturing to Nathan. "That puts him at very least the second best single fighter in a worldwide tournament. But," Zabar leaned back forward, putting one finger on the table as his eyes found their way back to Nathan, his voice and cheerful demeanor dropping. "One of three things is gonna happen. I'm gonna win, you'll win and injure me like the others, or you'll win fair and square. Now, either the first or the third thing happen, fine." Zabar lifts his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "I win, fine. You win, fine. But you..." He paused for a moment, seemingly catching himself. He quickly lifted his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat before looking back toward Auric, an apologetic smile growing on his lips. "I'm sorry, it's just a... controversial topic. The point I wanted to make was that he would be hurting himself much more than he would be hurting me if he injured me, or any other finalist." Zabar made a point to not looking back toward Nathan as he corrected himself, mentally chastising himself for the show of frustration.


Wei, meanwhile, listened silently as her teammate spoke, biting her lip worriedly as the frustration began to show. In her small purse that hung by her hip, she could hear the muffled vibration of her scroll. Dustin for sure, but she didn't want to walk into that mess. Not now.

[nathan67003]

Nathan listened to Auric as the man asked another question. Which rapidly went into some shady territory. Which revealed itself as not-so-shady since it pretty much was a blazing inferno. Well, then. That was... an unforeseen development, but also an unsurprising one.

He turned to Zabar - towards whom the question seemed to be mostly aimed - as he answered.

And he listened.

And listened.

Frankly, this had gone rather well. He thought about adding 'he makes a good point' after the guy had finished, but not knowing whether or not it'd grant him some flak, he merely nodded a bit to his future opponent, much in the same way as the aforementioned Vacuan had earlier.

[Siuwa]

Ah. So there is the question. As Cat expected. And Nathan didn't know what to answer. He want to cover him by saying something along the lines of him easily recovering but before he can fabricate something he was pulled aside by someone. Turning back, steadying himself and trying to bursh off the hand pulling him he was surprised to see Infrared, despite noticing her earlier.
"Did you bring that thing?"
"I didn't. Of course I didn't, this isn't some secret place, this is the tournament ball!" What he didn't say is that he wouldn't bring it because it's in his weapon.
"Implying you found it. Where is it, I'll take it myself."
"You can't take it out without my presence."Cat can only stall. He has a plan tho.
"Fine, we'll go tomorrow."
With that done, Cat and Infrared turned back to the stage, together.

[Zwei Not]

To see the perspectives of both fighters was... interesting, to say the least. While Nathan's position as the second best fighter remained to be seen, Juno simply accepted the notion that he just wasn't as good. He could, no, he would get better, and then cement his worth as a huntsman. His attention on the stage, for the most part, he hadn't noticed when Phi turned around and waved at the two girls he had recently held a conversation with. Not that he minded when she did, it was expected that the AI would garner some degree of attention.

[Xarias Fury]

Ayaka's ears tinged red at the tips but her face didn't show any sort of gratitude for the compliment. Isabelle seemed to have been talking to another boy beforehand, probably one of their classmates, but he seemed preoccupied by the questioning on stage. Scoffing at the exchange she crossed her arms and said, "I can't believe I missed the chance to participate. I would've won for sure.

Shiroe, squished in between a couple of other suits staring at the stage, finally avoided a certain purple haired menace and started making his way towards Reggie. Maybe he could spare everyone an earful of self praise if he could.