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As it turned out, Operation Regicide was not going well. 

It had been over fifteen minutes since she started playing and though she had gone through about eight opponents, each asking for a rematch, she still hadn't faced the adversary she hoped for. And now, she was starting to slip. A missed block had one of the better opponents launch into a combo and Noel lost half her health before Eidel ordered her into a ruthless attack on her opponent, juggling him in a ruthless series of hits when he tried to start the same combo over again. In the rematch, she had a nearly perfect win, but clenching the controls and breathing shallowly, she was starting to get dizzy. At some point, she started confusing the characters and cursed herself when a red-colored Jin made her think she was fighting Ragna and mess up. Plus, she was running out of opponents. And those who were left were actually starting to make [i]bets[/i]. This was not helping her steadily mounting stress. Finally, in between a shift between players and an exchange of quarters between the boys, with some landing on her controls as part of bets she hadn't really agreed to but certainly wasn't against, she turned in a fury towards the cabinet directly behind hers. To Eidel's fair amount of shock, it was empty.

Instead, the woman who had been playing before was now leaned against the wall and watching her. "Damn it, stop gawking and actually play, I need an actual challenge!" she almost wanted to yell. Instead, she found herself glaring. Sometimes, despite her not being especially good with dealing with people at times, she could still find herself being impatient and very, very, very wroth. Still, she wasn't going to explode, not here. Instead, she looked down her last opponents and noticing the small tower of coins on her cabinet, she sighed. [i]I guess subterfuge was not the way to go[/i], she muttered inwardly. Still, she had fun, she supposed and smiling, and adjusting her seat to make her butt a little less sore, she decided to at least finish this pseudo-tourney and then maybe she'd challenge her, fair and square. Even a friendly match of StreetBrawler could be fun, Eidel was garbage at it, finding it slow and sluggish with not enough movement compared to [i]Arc System Works'[/i] titles, but since she was already being spectated, there was no point making a show of her skills by playing a game that she was good at.

Soon enough, an Astral Finisher, with Noel dancing around her opponent, Hakumen, and firing enough bullets to make an A-10 Warthog nervous, she had ended her last opponent and after standing and shaking the sweaty, damp hands of the boys, she stood up, stuffed the pile of quarters into her blouson's pocket and let the cabinet fade back into the anime opening of [i]Continuum Shift[/i] as she courteously took a tissue from one of her pockets and wiped down the stick and buttons on both sides. She tossed it into a rubbish bin as she walked away towards a vending machine and bought herself a pair of cold drinks. Not knowing what her hoped-opponent would want, she decided just to get a bottle of water and some Fanta for herself. Reflecting on the story she had heard of Fanta being invented in Nazi Germany as she returned to the older style cabinets, she found the girl still at the same spot as before.

Eidel stopped for a moment and wiped her brow with yet another tissue, then adjusted her hair, which proved quite useless as her style never really needed much adjustment. She had chosen it precisely for that reason, after all. Something shocked her, however. [i]Why am I being so bold?[/i] she realized, even if she was shaking a tiny bit. She thought it over for a moment, hesitating and doubting herself, but eventually she just decided it was adrenaline or a winner's rush and kept walking. Standing near her as she watched another game, at an angle which hopefully wouldn't startle her too much, Eidel made a point of entering her field of view slightly and waved with a friendly, if a little weak, smile.

"Hellooo. I saw you watching my game and I saw yours earlier. I'll treat you to a game if you want?" She gestured to a small pile of quarters in her free hand and offered her the water bottle. "Of course, if you don't want to..." Eidel doubted herself anyway and trailed off.