Fantasy Starscourge War

[Dirge]

Okay, this was not what Advent meant when he said she had to get him somewhere. He had assumed she would be capable of ordering another mech suit or had at least a mechanical contraption that expanded into a hover board or something. He didn’t expect this woman to literally WALK 50 miles.

But then again, based off past interactions with her, he couldn’t say he was truly surprised. The deadpan face he made the entire way evidence of how much this woman continued to surpass her previous levels of WTFery. If he ever had the chance to get away, he’d take it.

When she asked if that was the town he mentioned off in the distance, Advent nodded in defeat. He was thinking about ways to ditch her, honestly. But so far nothing really seemed feasible. Oh well, he guessed something would pop up eventually. Wait, actually, he had an idea...

“Hold up,” He said.​

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Huh?"

She literally stopped moving as he had ordered.

"What is it? Let's hurry and get some rest."

So you can fight me faster. But she didn't say that last part out loud, because honestly, the Remnant's expression wasn't really good at the moment. She had this weird feeling that if she egged him any further, he might smack her in the head.

She didn't understand. He was clearly strong, so why would he get so pale just from a few hours of walking? Must be the weather. Hmm, yes, must be the weather.

 

[Dirge]

"I feel like if the people there saw you they'd throw a riot and probably attack you. You're a Machinan, after all." Advent snorted looking down at the girl in slight annoyance. "You're either going to have to let me enter the city by myself for an indiscriminate amount of time, or change your clothes or something. I'm not saying you need to strip, though honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with it, but you can't go wearing that." He added, gesturing at her clearly foreign clothes.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Huh?"

She looked down on her suit. It certainly looked alien for Astran. Then again, she didn't bring any clothes with her. The mission was invasion, not infiltration.

"I can't do anything about it... oh well."

In the end, she started to... strip, right then and there. With a click of a button, the suit slid off her body, revealing smooth, fair skin underneath.

Hey, she didn't want to leave him out of her sight, alright? She might be stupid, but she wasn't an idiot. If she left a target off by themselves, they would surely flee. There was no way that she would allow that!

"There, satisfied?" She asked while crossing her arms, partly to hide her... assets, although there wasn't much to hide anyway.

 

[Dirge]

What, what was she doing? Was she actually stripping down right here? Advent honestly thought this couldn’t get more odd than it already was, but here he was, watching a girl get naked. In an open area with no cover, and not doing anything to stop her. If somebody was watching this with binoculars well, it was exactly what it looked like.

“... Ya know what? Nice,” The grey-eyed man nodded casually looking the red-head over. “I like your boldness. But uh, you can’t walk in the city naked. Public indecency is a crime and you’ll get us both in trouble. Especially me, cause well, gender stipulations.”

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"This is wrong, that is wrong, then what should I do?" The woman scowled. "Why are you Astran so concerned about clothing anyway? Like it matters much in the first place!"

No, actually, even Machinans would care about clothing, too, right? ...Nevermind. She wasn't really the best tool in the shed.

"...Fine. You get in there and find some clothes for me."

She crouched down over her discarded suit, and then pulled out a small, ball-like device out of her pocket. With the flick of a finger, she shot the ball toward Advent. The little thing stuck rather firmly on his clothes.

"Just in case. If you throw that sensor away or I sensed it going out of the perimeter of the village... then I'll come chase you down, naked or not."

 

[Dirge]

"Why are you Astrans so co-- are you serious?" Advent asked with a scrutinizing squint. Despite the woman's lack of clothes, Advent didn't really eye grope her body. The man was probably too dumbfounded by the woman's consistent ability to hit him with left-field remarks to probably admire it. He was about to answer her, for some odd reason, when she suddenly ordered him to fetch her some clothes and then stuck a tracking device on him. He was about to kindly inquire what would stop him from just taking off his clothes when he got to the city and abandon the tracking device, but he didn't.

"Friend, your threat isn't nearly as intimidating as you think it is. Naked women chase after me all the time," He casually remarked and turned to head off to the city. He was so, oh so tempted to just leave her there. She could always just put her suit back on when she realized he ditched her. That would solve her naked problem. But, when he thought about it, it probably wasn't a good idea. The last thing he needed was her bringing reinforcements in some hissy fit rage to destroy this city too. Ugh, fine, he'd bring her some clothes.

"Be back uhh, later.."​

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Naked women chase you all the time?" The woman tilted her head, having a hard time processing his words. In the end, her... challenged common sense of a brain finally managed to find a conclusion. "Oh, I see. I know that feeling. Right? When you provoked too many people and you have to fight all of them at once. Hmm, yes, I understand."

She seemed to be missing the mark, but that was normal. For her, at least.

"Fine, fine, go quick. The faster you return, the faster you can rest, the faster we can restart our fight," she waved him away like telling a dog to go fetch her some stick.

 

[Dirge]

"..."

Advent just gave up and turned to walk away.​

"I'll be back with some clothes for you, fucking weirdo," He sighed shaking his head. After a few hours of waiting, likely because he dragged his feet to hell and back, Advent returned with a small bag of casual clothes for the girl. The man returning to the same spot he'd left her and tossing the bag her way with an eye roll. There, that should be enough to stop her from throwing another hissy fit. After he did that, he pulled out another granola bar and started to munch on it casually. He bought a lot of these.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The woman yawned as she sat cross-legged on the ground, her absentminded gaze directed straight at the sky. That Astran dude took so, so long just to get some clothes, she was starting to get sleepy. Then again, the tracker was still detected around the vicinity of the village, so she wasn't too concerned about him running away.

She almost lost her consciousness when a bag was thrown at her, landing right in front of her eyes and raising a puff of dust cloud. Waving the smokescreen aside, she pried open the sack and pulled out whatever crap he had procured for her. It didn't take her long before she put them all on.

...They were comfortable to wear, but they felt too... useless for her. What was the point of these frills in the first place? There wasn't enough pockets for her gears as well.

Oh well.

The rest of the stuff that she couldn't bring was fed into the sheath of her sword, and then she plugged the hilt in. She then pried off the belt from her bodysuit, tying it around her waist so that she would have something to hang her sword on.

"Alright, I'm done. What now?" She stretched out her arms to the sides in a 'ta-dah!' pose.

 

[Dirge]

“I don’t know?” Advent retorted with a scoff. “I’m about to go back and find me a hotel or something to stay in since your dumbass blew up my house. I don’t know what you are going to do though.” He shrugged turning to walk away. He fully expected her to follow him.

“I’ll humor your little fight in a day or so. I need a shower right now.”

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"...Fine," the woman harrumphed, but ultimately tagged along behind him like a little lost puppy.

Entering the town, she turned her head around with widened eyes, taking in the scenery of an idyllic little Astran town. Most of the buildings, accentuated and richly decorated, were one or two-storied, while taller ones were rare and never rising beyond five or six stories. It was a huge contrast to the metropoles of Machina with their neck-breaking skyscrapers jutting along the ground, those gargantuan obelisks of glass, steel, and concrete, minimalist and bare-bone in nature. Her curiosity was definitely piqued.

Her steps halted when a nice smell wafted over her nostrils. A street stall was selling roasted pheasant legs, with the owner keeping the fire going by conjuring a light stream of flame from his hand.

Needless to say, she was figuratively drooling all over, her gaze locked straight at the delectable treats.

 

[Dirge]

As they walked through the city, Advent paid very little attention to the technically terrorist following him. As long as she didn’t throw a temper tantrum he didn’t really have a problem with her. His initial avoidance complex mellowing out a bit.

He just so happened to look over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t causing trouble, when he saw her staring at a food stand. Oh right, she hadn’t eaten since she attacked him. That really wasn’t his problem, and he shouldn’t even care. But, ugh, whatever.

“If you want one go get one, weirdo.”

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Huh?" The woman blinked when she realized that Advent was referring to her. When she finally processed his words, she quickly ran over to the stall and helped herself for a stick of roasted pheasant legs.

The crispy meat and the sweet sauce was an enticing combination that successfully melted her gustatory senses. Each bites just added more to her bliss, so much that she ended up purring with satisfaction.

"Err, miss, the payment please..." the stall owner scratched his head. Usually customers would transfer the cost first before eating, but this lady seemed oblivious to it. Weird. Then again, looking at how happy she looked, he didn't have the heart to ask it outright. He quickly turned to the young man that she was following, showing him a helpless grin.

 

[Dirge]

Advent just stared back at the man without any hint that he was going to pay for the girl’s food. The grey-haired Remnant casually reaching up to scratch his nose while a nonchalant gaze watches the girl eat the pheasant leg. The young man waiting until she was done before he spoke.

“Hope you got something to pay him with,” He said to her. While one would have expected him to pay for the meal, Advent was anything but chivalrous. In fact, he was a firm believer of gender equality. If she ate it, she could pay for it.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Pay?" The woman blinked again. Her tone wasn't even trying to be cute or something, she just genuinely asked out of confusion, "what is pay?"

That was enough for the stall owner to break out in cold sweat.

"S-Sir, aren't you with this lady? Could you please help me here..." the middle-aged man coughed. Meanwhile, he was halfway through his thought process of calling for guards. He had only heard the tales, but it turned out that after all the years of opening his stall, there would be a day that someone would attempt to dine-and-run at his place...

 

[Dirge]

Advent continued to casually stare at the shopkeeper, clearly showing that the man’s pleading words fell on deaf ears. Advent didn’t walk over and take the food and eat it; therefore, here wasn’t obligated to pay for it. The grey-haired man flexing a pinky finger at the man and speaking with a calm voice.

“Buddy, I don’t know why you keep looking to me for help with this, but I’m not doing shit. I believe in gender equality, and you’re pissing me off by expecting me to pay for that brat’s actions just because you assume I’m with her. How about you leave me out of this, grow some balls, and get your money’s worth from her yourself?” He said.

Advent then paused and looked at the red-haired. The man was keeping true to his equality ideal and now was tearing into her too.

“And you, dumbass, you stole food from this man. If you don’t know what stealing is too then take notes because you just did it. So, give the man something of equal value to the food you just ate. Hell, give him your damn sword if you got to. But I’m not about to pay for your fuck up, so fix it,” He said before waiting.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The seller was at his wit's end as a random passerby berated him for expecting a normal transaction, while the actual culprit was still oblivious. She just rubbed her chin curiously, as if it was a social experiment that she was taking part of.

"Something equal? Hmm... I don't have any ration to exchange it with. Oh, wait, I still have these."

She had an idea and pulled out a round object from her pocket, a few of those she had salvaged from her discarded bodysuit. She casually put it on the table. The object rolled a bit due to the table's incline, revealing more of its features as the seller stared at it with widened eyes.

T-That, that was...?!

"Solium grenades. If I remembered correctly, Astoria told me that producing one of those cost the same as a week's ration. This should cover that food just now, right?"

Don't tell her that a small flesh roasted on spit was more expensive than the military ration of Machina, now... then again, it did taste way better...

"...I'm calling the guards. Help! Anyone!"

Finally reaching his bottom point, the seller hollered at the top of his lungs.

 

[Dirge]

Advent casually stared at the object the woman placed on the table until his stare then widened into one of disbelief. Holy. Fucking. Shit. Did this brat really just... Hoooooly shit.

“D-Did you just...” Advent said unable to even get the words out. He was about to panic when he suddenly realized this was a perfect opportunity to ditch the girl. He did say he didn’t really associate with her not a moment ago and he looked just as shocked as the merchant. Was he that big of a dick though? Was he really?

...

Of course he was.
​

Wait, she saved his life before. Damn, he suddenly had to abandon that idea. He wasn’t that much of a dick after all unfortunately. Fuck his life.

“Dude shut the hell up before I break your teeth,” Advent said right as the dude started hollering. “Listen here, you didn’t see anything and you never met us. If you piss this brat off she can have an entire military fleet over here to murder everybody in this damned city. There was an invasion not too far away from here anyway.”

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"E-e-entire military? Invasion?!?"

Unfortunately, Advent's threat merely served to further stir the poor merchant's already-panicky mental state. Not to mention, there was a table between them, so before his brain could process the implication, he had already scurried away as fast as his two little legs could bring him.

Fortunately, the woman had moved out of instinct. She took a wooden bowl of apple off the merchant's table, and then threw it with pinpoint accuracy at the back of his head.

With a satisfying thunk, the bowl smacked him down, scattering the apples and hurling the merchant down the street before crashing to a nearby wall.

Alright, she didn't put much strength behind that throw, he should still be alive. Hopefully...

"...What to do now?" She turned to Advent for guidance.