Duke is in the area

Rigel stepped off the plane that had taken him here from Electopia and sighed. "Gotta love free air travel for netbattlers," he said, more to himself than anyone else. He stepped outside and into the village, surrounded on all sides by jungle, just as he remembered. "Now then..." he said, walking to a spot that was visible from the airport, but not so obtrusive that everyone passing by would come knocking, and set up his portable shelter.

"Now to wait for Area," he said, propping the door open and walking inside, then grabbing a camp chair and setting it up outside. Rather not give the wrong impression, he said to himself, taking a seat.

A waft of smoke came out of the airplane's port as Area walked out and down the stairs onto the ground. A cigarette was hanging between her lips as she looked around the airport. Taking it out of her mouth between two fingers, she started to talk to Divinity. "Let's look for Duke... Keep your eyes out for someone with a cape," Area said and generated Divinity's hologram on her shoulder again as holograms weren't allowed inside airplanes because of fake terrorist attacks in the past.

"Why does he wear the cape anyway...?" Divinity asked as she tilted her head to a side after sitting down on Area's shoulder, "It's not like it's... Cold... Ah, there he is." Divinity pointed out at the blue contraption in the distance with Duke in front of it.

Area started walked towards him as she continued to talk to Divinity, "Well, you've got to have something that makes you stand out... I've got my own things..." After saying the last few words, she took a drag of her cigarette and blew out the smoke away from Divinity to not distort her hologram. "Hey Duke," Area said eventually as she stopped in front of him, her hand in her side and the cross-shaped things on her clothing shining in the light of the sun.

"Well, with security and other moronic things in airports these days, she might be awhile," Duke said, leaning back in the camp chair and closing his eyes. Unable to sleep with how hot it was, he contented himself to humming and singing softly to himself. "I never wanted~ to become~ someone like him..."

Almost twenty minutes later, he thought he heard a familiar voice talking with someone as he continued his singing. "The calls of admirers~ who claim they adore~ drain all your lifeblood while begging for more. Innocent victims of merciless crimes~ fall prey to some madmen's impulsive designs. Step after step~ we try controlling our fate.
When we finally start living it has become too late. Trapped inside this Octovarium. Trapped inside this Octovari-hm?"

He looked up to see Area standing in front of him in a new and even more attractive outfit. She was also smoking, but Duke no longer cared if people did such things. "Oh...hey," he said, somewhat more cheerfully than usual.

"What do you mean 'oh hey'?" Area said with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice and took her cigarette between three fingers. "At least greet me normally. You're the one who asked me out after all," she muttered, threatening to poke his forehead with her cigarette as she waved it before his head. "Anyway, what were you thinking of doing with me?" she said afterwards as she looked at his face, her eyes pierced at him over her glasses.

((Personality alteration in progress. Pardon my dust and stuff.))

"Why don't you wave that thing somewhere away from my face," Duke said, standing up and brushing Area's cigarette-wielding hand aside. "And I didn't ask you out, I simply wondered if you wanted to team up a little longer." Then, a slight smirk crossed Duke's face, but it was gone in an instant. "Unless, of course, that's what you were wanting." He grasped the back of his camp chair tightly, knowing this was probably the wrong thing to say. Meanwhile, a hologram of Pianissimo rematerialized on Duke's shoulder, perfectly expressionless, but obviously trying to fight back a huge smirk.

"No," she answered abruptly and shrugged as she took another drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke out sideways. "I have no interest in dating men like you," she said after she blinked a few times, still a bit taken aback by his reaction, "Especially not after this. Anyway..." She looked at him for a few more seconds, then walked past him towards the portable shelter he owned and inspected it. "What's this anyway? Me and Soryu never leave the house for vacation or something... Only when I go somewhere for netbattling business," she muttered as she kept her back towards him. A few seconds later, she looked at him over her shoulder and muttered at him softly so people who'd be passing by wouldn't hear her, "Done with being an ass?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Duke said, smiling. His tone had gone back to being perfectly friendly again. He didn't look the slightest bit hurt by Area's rebuttal. Yeah, that was definitely the wrong thing to say. First Sora Hjort and now her. I really suck at this. As though hoping to make up for his very bad word choice, he answered Area's other question.

"Even if you did go on vacation and stuff, I doubt you'd have one. They're made for long-term stuff. It's a portable shelter of sorts. Collapses to the size of a large briefcase, but as it is there's about as much room inside as the average college dorm." Duke leaned against the side and closed his eyes. "And when I say long term, I really mean it. I own a house in Sharo, but I only even go there every few months."

"I'm fine with my position in ACDC. As I told before, that brother of mine is lousy at cooking himself even though his Navi Persephone is trying to get cooking books over the internet," she said as she looked at the box before them, "What is the actual name of this thing anyway? What company made this?" She tapped softly against the side of it and walked around it slowly to look at it from different angles. But from each angle, it remained a big blue box. "Why do you use this anyway?" she said as she stood behind the box with her head around the corner slightly, "Do you have some reason to keep away from Sharo? I mean... I was born in Sharo, but I never go there myself. Only for, yeah, Netbattling. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, but at least invite me into your, ehm... 'House'. I thought we were going to do some Netbattling."

"What? Oh, sorry," said Duke, walking back over to the door and propping it open. He walked inside, grabbing the camp chair as he went, and beckoned for Area to follow. Inside, the walls were just as plain as the outside, except for a Dream Theater poster hanging behind the computer desk, which in itself was just a simple desk with a monitor, keyboard, printer, and mouse sitting on it, all attached to a laptop computer. The only real furniture was a small dresser, a small camp bed, and a second camp chair at the desk. There was also a small refrigerator and microwave in one corner.

"Again, sorry it's not very fancy, but it suits my needs. As for your questions, I don't remember who made it. This thing's a good ten years old, and any logos, insignia, or whatever else has long since worn off. And I have no problem with Sharo, but..." he broke off. He had bought the shelter when he first left Sharo, but other than being bored with his usual routine and wanting to travel, he never did have a good reason. Perhaps after all this was over he would go back, even if only for another visit. Make sure his house was intact for one, then perhaps see if the Ishiharas were doing okay.

Pianissimo's hologram smiled slightly, thinking that even after Duke's misstep that he might still be able to get Duke and Area to hook up after all.

Slowly following Duke, she immediately started to look around in the room. She had been in the room of guys before, but she was always surprised at how different they were compared to her own. There weren't clothes lying all over the place. After she was in the chamber entirely, she followed her instincts and started looking for a place to sit down. I better hope that thing is cleaned... she thought as she walked over to the bed and sat down on it. Scooting back a bit so she could cross her legs and keep them on the bed for comfort, she looked upwards at Duke and held her PET up. "Where is your connection in this thing? I swear I didn't see any wires on the ground when I checked it. I need to get Divinity into the net, she's been acting... Quiet. Divinity...?" she said and turned her head to Divinity's hologram that was standing on Area's shoulder.

"Why can't your room be so clean like this for a change...?" whined Divinity softly as she held her hands out towards the center of the room. Area merely sighed at the comment, face forwards, and shook her PET at Duke in an attempt of getting Divinity into the net so she would be busy enough to not complain.

Duke sat in the camp chair as he and Area entered, smirking slightly when he saw that Area was surprised at how clean it was. "Oh by the way, yes you can sit there," he said, after Area had already sat on the bed.

Duke fiddled with a few settings on his laptop as Area talked, having to fight with it for a minute to get it connected. "Of course you didn't see any wires. The entire thing is wireless. You know how you can receive e-mails and stuff when you're nowhere near an internet connection, right? Same basic principal. And, hold on a second..." Duke fought with something on the computer for another few seconds. "...there. Connected. Maybe I should do something about that, it's never taken this long to connect before."

The hologram of Pianissimo waved slightly at Divinity, then disappeared from Duke's shoulder. Duke pressed another button, and sent Pianissimo into the net.

"Connection acting up...? Maybe because it's pretty hot lately. I'll jack in now," she said as she held her PET out towards the laptop. The red light shone at the laptop as Area pressed a button to relay Divinity into the connection piece. As the transmission was sent, she innocently asked Duke a question. "Are you getting hot too?" she muttered softly.

"Just a bit," said Rigel casually, intentionally ignoring the innuendo. Please don't take that the wrong way, he said to himself. "Though I doubt that would cause problems with the connection. I've never had problems connecting even in Netfrica, and trust me, the heat's much worse there."

Duke turned to Area as soon as he had jacked Pianissimo out. "I'm headed to Scilabs to buy stuff, and I'm probably not coming back, so I'll need to pack this up. Sorry if you were getting comfortable."

Duke got up to walk out when he noticed his cape had gotten caught on the chair. Sighing, he took it off and pulled it off the chair, then balled it up and tossed it onto the small dresser. "Not sure why I still wore that thing anyway," he said.

"I'm going out to see Suitachi too anyway..." she muttered as she stood up from the bed. Putting the chips in her left pouch and took out her cigarette pack and lighter from her right pouch. Clipping her PET on her belt, so she wouldn't have to keep her hand on it constantly, she stepped outside of Duke's camping compartment. Lighting her cigarette, she held it between her lips and took in some smoke before blowing it out. "I needed that..." she said and turned towards Duke, "I'll see you at Suitachi's place." Putting the cigarette between her lips again, she inhaled some and puffed it out at Duke. "Don't be late..." And with those words, she left for the airport and took the first plane to Science Labs.

"I'll be right behind you..." said Duke as Area left, though he wasn't sure she heard. Before leaving, he walked over and picked up the cape. He'd had it since Mysterioso was his navi, and had worn it every day since the dream knight's disappearance for the sake of memory. Now, however, it was torn in many places (probably from leaning against too many trees), faded slightly, and smelled terribly, no matter how much he washed it. Just like flags, something such as this was hardly fitting, be it as a symbol or a memory, when it was in such disrepair.

Besides, despite the intentions, he looked like an idiot with it.

He sighed, and put it in a drawer. He would have to retire it officially later, but it would have to wait until he didn't have anything to do. Duke turned all his electronic stuff off, walked outside, and closed the door before fiddling with the controls to pack it up. Once he was done, he picked it up and headed for the airport.