STILL IN A FUCKING ALLEYWAY
Among the many things the... curvy... dragon... person shouted out, a few things stood out to Duncan.
"You!" Said personification of everything Duncan had come to loathe but sort of expect in this bullshit world suddenly exclaimed while pointing at the violet haired Shenanigans-Engineer behind him who was in the midst of some frenzied Aya-smothering
"Aren't you supposed to be by Vesta's side?"Slowly, Duncan's head turned half-way towards the trap in question, his eyes swiveling the rest of the way to fix Avery with a silent look of
'Are you fucking kidding me?'Before Duncan could quite grill her on that little remark, said still-unidentified demi-human turned and began to head out of the alley, remarking (truthfully) that a bunch of guys standing around a teenage girl in a dark alley would look just a
liiiitle bit off to any passers-by, Ease in tow.
“Okay, I know a place not too far from here. We’ll go there to discuss...basically everything mentioned in the past 20 minutes or so.”Eyeballing where the sun was sitting in the sky right now, the Canuck frowned a little; this... whatever the hell this was, had taken up a fair amount of time, and he was already running late when he got here. Him and Avery'd have to leave soon if they wanted some good daylight for the road.
Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose and screwing his eyes shut, the man lightly waved his hand the negative at his Blond friend.
"Sorry man, but me and Avery kinda got shit to do out of town. And we're late enough as is..." He offered apologetically
"...And if we want to get far in the daylight, we're gonna have to hit the road and soon.""And after we get your hair done, we will have to do something about those nails! They are dreadful!" Avery remarked, having spent most of the encounter babbling to Aya without even giving the poor girl a chance to get a word in. He only finally turned his attention back to the others when he heard a familiar sounding voice mention something about Vesta.
Blinking a few times as he looked from Zin to Duncan back to Zin, down to Aya before finally returning it to Duncan, his head tilted slightly to the side as he pointed towards himself. All this while still holding Aya close to his side.
"Is....is she talking to me?" The trap asked, sounding as confused as anyone else about this situation. He had never met this woman...lizard...thing before in his life!
He was sure he would remember someone like this. Though the voice was familiar....
Snapping back to reality as Duncan mentioned how late it had gotten, he let out an almost comedic, over the top gasp as he directed his line of sight skyward.
"....Huh." Wondering where the time had gone, Avery walked after the group holding Aya like a newborn baby with the puppy sitting on her stomach.
"Yeah we should get going. Need to get Aya some new clothes before we go at least, no way is she going adventuring in a potato sack!'"I'm... sorry, what?" Duncan interjected, putting a hand on Avery's shoulder to both stop him physically and also, hopefully derail that crazy train before it picked up steam
"We're going to a place we found on a map that we got from a bunch of bandits your sister turned into beet stew with no idea of what's actually going to be there and your first thought is to bring a Japanese Schoolgirl? You're fucking with me right now, right?" Something that was... trying to be a smile made it's way across the bald man's face... and then slowly, comically began to melt into something between irritation and disbelief as he looked Avery in the eye, realizing one thing-
"Oh God, you're serious.""Hmmm, sounds about right." The trap master replied after a moment of umming at Duncan's question. So what if it was just some place they had never been to, and they were using a map they had taken from criminals Vesta had turned into bloody remains scattered around the countryside, and yeah they had no idea what was at the end of this rainbow.
But Avery wasn't leaving Aya behind. Not this time.
"Don't be such a spoilsport Duncan! I promise to look after her! She won't leave my sight for a moment!" From the way he was talking, it sounded more like a child begging one's parent to let them keep the stray dog they had just found.
Which, wasn't that big a difference in this situation either. Avery needed to think here.
Duncan seemed pretty deadset against his idea, which was why he hadn't planned on letting him know till *after* it was too late. Damn him and his horrible ability to keep such secrets hidden.
"I mean, won't she be better off with us than in some dank, dark alley in this city filled with rapists, murderers and goons? We can at least make sure she eats and stays warm."Duncan could only rub his temples and clench his eyes shut to soothe the headache that Avery's arguments wrought on his very psyche- Yeah, the trap had a point, leaving the girl alone in the city
was a terrible fucking idea... but bringing her along was potentially
a lot fucking worse.Goddammit, there was no real right answer to this one, was there?
After a brief silence, the bald man sighed (again); Avery had that weird sparkly thing going on with his eyes right now which meant this was gonna be an
uphill battle."So lemme get this straight..." He finally started, opening his eyes wearily and bringing his hands forward slightly in a lecture-y, chopping-motion
"You want to bring this girl to what is likely, at best, a Bandit Lair populated solely by 'Rapists, murderers and goons', and at worst, a dark cave filled with giant spiders and cursed bullshit because why wouldn't it, we've spent the past month fighting hordes of flesh-eating rabbits and big fuck-off demon bears. This is your plan?"Duncan had to take a minute to inhale after
that mouthful.
"You understand that that sounds completely bugfuck crazy, right?""Yep, sounds about right." Avery didn't hesitate in his carefree response, his grin widening even further as Duncan continued to grin him. So what if there were fifty or so bandits, he and Duncan could dispatch that with ease.
Hey, speaking of Ease maybe they should invite him! More eyes to watch Aya!
At the crazy comment, he couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
"That's what I thought when she turned down Lady Vesta's offer and decided to brave the city on her own." The young man admitted, his playful tone faltering for a moment.
"Well, maybe not with those exact words, but close enough." With his tone restored, he perked up and gave Duncan a knowing smile.
"Besides, even if there are bandits, giant spiders or mabeasts up ahead she'll be far safer with us than here. All by herself, in the cold, dark alleyways. Afraid and hungry. Unless you have a better idea on where to take her? To Lady Vesta perhaps?" Avery said slowly, mockingly so, as his smiled widened further. To the point of annoying arrogant and smug. His tone soon matched that as he added another thought.
"Maybe Lady Summer? What could go wrong with leaving her with the woman that raised Vesta and myself?"Duncan's head tilted to the side slightly; Yeah,
that one was actually a fairly good point... well, save for one
minor detail. "Oh, so does that mean you don't intend to take her home with you afterward?" He queried flatly, crossing his arms and leaning forward slightly with a brow cocked
"Ya know, where both of those people live?"Head tilting to the other side now, the bald man clicked his tongue and quickly ran it over his back molars in an expression that showed that though he wasn't convinced, he was at least
listening now.
"...You have thought that far ahead, right?" Duncan
did, in fact, agree that Aya shouldn't be living on the street in this shithole city, in that sense Avery had already won this argument; it was whether or not he could actually convince the bald man that he'd thought this through enough not to get her killed and/or punted back out onto the street again when this was over that kept Duncan in opposition to the whole idea.
"What exactly is your endgame if she comes with us?""O-of course I have! Even I'm not that impulsive!" With a nervous laugh, Avery could feel the cold sweat setting in. It was a complete and utter lie, Avery never thought anything through.
He was as impulsive as they came, I mean he had just jumped off a roof on the off chance that it was Aya. He was certain it had been her, but it would've been awkward if it wasn't.....
Thinking hard for a moment, he returned his still unconvincing gaze back to Duncan.
"T-there are other people I can talk too! Like Lady Mari, she's a knight. When we get back, we can just talk with her what to do!
Yeah that works." Nodding to himself, he seemed rather proud of the suggestion he made up on the spot.
"I mean, there other people too, like Yoshi, Lady Vivi or Lady Maribel just to name a few. We can work out the rest as we go." Avery added with a 'hmpth', puffing out his cheeks in an overly exaggerated, cutesy pout. Whether he convinced Duncan or not, he had already made up his own mind. Duncan could certainly damn well try to stop him.
He had one other trick up his sleeve though. Geography and local street smarts.
"If she's not going, then I'm not. Good luck guiding yourself with a map that you have no clue how to use, I mean do you even know half of those landmarks?"Duncan clicked his tongue. Kid had him there; he wasn't gonna get too far without a guide in a country he barely knew a damned thing about, even
with a map. Though he still wasn't entirely satisfied with Avery's ultimatum.
Pinching the bridge of his nose for the umpteenth time today and wringing his eyes shut, a sort of habit he'd formed in reaction to Avery's... Averyisms... he finally let out a defeated sigh.
'Welp, guess we're doing this now...'"Alright. Fine. Two conditions though." Duncan began, opening his eyes and locking them directly onto Avery's own.
"Firstly, she needs gear-"Knowing right away how Avery was going to take that statement, he pre-emptively cut him off with an indicative chop pointed at his face.
"Proper gear. Not a maid outfit. Not a sundress. Something that will keep her safe." He continued, before his hand aimed away from the trapmaster's face and towards the girl in Avery's arms who they've been arguing about this entire time as if she weren't even there.
"Second, she actually has to want to come." 
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