#Caitlyn is over party
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dancingdaffodils08 · 21 days ago
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Arcane s2 act 1 spoilers without context
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wrinkledtulip · 17 days ago
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SMUT!! Caitlyn Kiramman x Fem!Reader
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Caitlyn Kiramman x Fem! Reader
18+ Smut!! Fingering, praise, AFAB reader
It's my first time writing smut, or publishing on tumblr for that matter so pls be nice lol <3 Also this is unedited.
Life as an enforcer was always gonna keep you on your toes.
Whether it be chasing drunkards on the streets of Piltover, patrolling the overly large council grounds, or the occasional graveyard shift if the sheriff was cruel enough. 
But what you found most challenging of course, was learning to handle weaponry, at least the ones that weren’t your first choice.
For a strange yet defended reason, all enforcers were required in training to use a rifle, a standard gun. And so, had led to countless hours in the training facilities aiming for wooden targets. 
Technically, you could handle one. Yet your aim was not incredibly precise.
Ever since that Kiramman girl joined, the handling of guns seemed to reach for higher standards. Apparently her family was renowned for their handling of the weaponry. 
You hit the target every time but the sheriff expected bullseyes in a row. 
Huffling in frustration you reloaded the barrel, shouldering your rifle as you aimed once more. 
But as you peered through the iron scope, a posh voice rang out behind you. 
“You’re not hitting the bullseye because you have a poor trigger pull”
Kiramman. 
“Haven’t you got a cocktail party to be at Kiramman?” you huffed, lowering your weapon as you looked back at her. 
The two of you shared a brief moment of a solid yet intimidating stare, her blue eyes bearing down on you. 
You both laughed. 
“You know me better than that” she chuckled, knowing your words were nothing but playful banter. Despite her status and the other enforcer’s distaste of her, you had grown to like the girl. Though she had a tough exterior she was sweet and playful. 
“Come to show me up then I presume?” You said, rolling your eyes as she stepped closer to which her words caused her eyes to roll. 
“You know how pathetic it is watching you stand here for hours aiming over and over, we’ll lose bullet stock because of you” she spoke, shaking her head. 
“Well I have to practise, Marcus has been up our asses since he’s seen your shooting skills… he’ll do anything to keep you from winning if it means dragging the rest of us along” You huffed, shouldering your rifle again as you turned back to the range. 
“Oh” she sighed “I didn’t realise I had placed a burden like that onto you.”
There it was again, that softness that sought for nothing but do good for people. 
“I enjoy the challenge” you answered, hoping your truth would console her as you aimed and fired again. Your body shook slightly with the recoil as the bullet was about half an inch off bullseye. 
Caitlyn chuckled, shuffling through her pockets as she stepped behind you, balancing a coin atop of your rifle.
“Don’t you remember what I said before? Try again” she said.
“I don’t want your money.”
“That’s not what it’s for. I said, "Try again.”
She stepped back as you sighed, keeping your rifle still as the coin balanced on its smooth top.
You aimed again and as you fired, the echoing sound of a coin clattering to the ground could be heard.
“Now what was-”
“You have a poor trigger pull.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
You sighed, agitated by her unexplained actions.
“You should be able to fire without the coin falling, it means you move the gun as you pull the trigger and you can’t properly withstand its recoil” she explained, stepping back towards you as her hands reached out to your form.
“Your stance isn’t firm either. Open up your chest a little more and stand with your legs wider” she stated, her hands moving in correspondence with her words as she adjusted your shoulders and hips, her fingertips grazing your form.
“Try again.”
So you did, focusing as you aimed once more and fired. This time it was closer to the centre of the target, your body the stiller as the impact of the recoil began to subside. 
“Better. You just move the gun when you pull the trigger, learn to isolate your finger, you need more finger strength, I suggest working on that before you create a bullet shortage” she said with a small smirk, raising her eyebrows as she looked out to the target. 
“And how would I do that?” you huffed, lowering your weapon. 
“Just exercise it” she shrugged.
“And how would I do that?” you sighed, turning to her. In genuine curiosity you had no clue how to exercise it apart from just shooting, but that would waste bullets.
“I have my own ways of doing it.”
So that’s how you ended up in Kiramman’s bed, a withering mess as she showed you her own ‘special’ ways of literal fingering exercises. 
She had you bent over her lap, her legs crossed to raise your hips as her spare hand roaming over your backside as you moaned into her silk covers. The subtle echo of her fingers squelching in your hole could be heard.
"Not so tough are you now pretty girl?" she cooed, smirking down at you. By now you were bound to be leaking across her thigh as her fingers slipped in and out of your hole. Every time you inched closer to a release, she would just roam her fingers across your folds instead.
"Kiramman please.."
"My name is Caitlyn" she said, that dominant tone in her voice. The same tone she used to get you to lift up your own dress and pull your own panties down for her. God, it sent shivers down your spine.
"Caitlyn please-"
"You finish when I say you can finish" she commanded, her finger slipping back inside you, eliciting a long whine as you gripped at her bedsheets. Her fingers curled to hit that sweet spot inside you, sending electricity through your body as she only smirked at your needy whines. It was clear you were desperate for release; her fingers were soaked as a small stain began to appear on the fabric of her thigh as you leaked in need of proper release.
"I thought this was a finger exercise-" you whined out.
"It is, for me at least, you just get to enjoy the benefits of it" she said in that sweet little smartass voice of hers as her fingers curled up inside you again, causing another loud moan to slip from your throat.
"fuck, just let me cum" you whined, your thighs trembling in anticipation as your body begged for that high, evident in the pleasurable sounds that escaped your lips.
"Ask me properly and I just might" She said, continuing to slip her fingers in and out of you.
"Caitlyn please... please let me cum" you begged quietly, gripping at the bedsheets as you could barely keep it together anymore. She leaned in, whispering in your ear as she smirked, her fingers speeding up.
"That's a good girl" she cooed. You moaned needily.
Her fingers moved quickly inside you, sliding in to continuously press up against that sweet spot. Your thighs began to clench around her hand yet she persisted as you whined and moaned. You felt that knot in your stomach begin to build as your increased volume made it evidence, however Caitlyn showed no intention of stopping or slowing down anytime soon. Just what you wanted. Every moment felt like ecstasy as she pulled you to your high, shuddering and moaning as she felt you come undone upon her fingertips. She rode out your high, continuing to milk you of your essence until you settled to a whimpering pant, feeling her fingers slowly slip out of you.
You glanced back to see her tongue swirl around her own fingertips, your sticky consequences being lapped up by her tongue as a dirty smirk rested upon her face.
"Those aren't even your trigger fingers-"
"So? Is there a problem darling?"
"No."
"Good girl."
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ones-g · 13 days ago
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Take it
Dom!Caitlyn Kiramman x F!Reader.
WARNING: smut!!! public sex, use of strap-on.
Summary: You both were invited to the founders party but Caitlyn really has a soft spot for you in that purple dress with a slit up the leg, she needs to fill you up right now.
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Her hand comes up to your face and her middle index and ring fingers press against your bottom lip. Fuck the party can go on, nobody cares, let Caitlyn fuck you in the fucking closet.
"Open" she orders with a voice hoarse with desire, obviously you obey her and open your mouth to be greeted with her fingers inside your mouth cavity. You start sucking them, making it a matter of getting them wet enough.
Your desperate pleas fall on deaf ears as Caitlyn continues her relentless assault on your quivering pussy. Her fingers pump in and out at a breakneck pace, stretching your tight walls to their limit. Drool escapes the corner of your mouth, trailing down your chin as she claims your mouth in a bruising kiss.
"Mmmph...you taste so fucking good," Caitlyn growls against your lips. "Gonna...fuck...this needy cunt...until you scream." Her words are punctuated by the lewd squelch of her fingers plunging deep inside you.
She captures your wrists again, pinning them above your head as she presses her body flush against yours. The heat of her skin sears you even through the fabric of her dress. Her thigh nudges between your legs, providing delicious friction against your throbbing clit with each thrust of her fingers.
"That's it, take it...take my fingers like a good little slut," Caitlyn commands, her blue eyes blazing with lust. She curls her fingers just right, hitting that sweet spot inside you that makes stars explode behind your eyelids.
Your legs tremble uncontrollably, barely able to support your weight as the pleasure builds to an unbearable crescendo. Caitlyn's grip on your wrists tightens, holding you in place as she drives you closer and closer to the edge.
"Fuck...I'm gonna...ahhh!" Your orgasm crashes over you like a tidal wave, your pussy clenching vice-tight around Caitlyn's pumping fingers. She doesn't let up, fucking you through the aftershocks until you're reduced to a whimpering, boneless mess against the wall.
Caitlyn doesn't let up, continuing to pound into your spasming pussy as you come apart in her arms. She grinds her thigh harder against your sensitive clit, drawing out your orgasm until you're a mewling, incoherent mess.
"Look at you, falling apart so beautifully for me," Caitlyn purrs, her voice dripping with dark satisfaction. "Such a perfect little cumslut."
She finally withdraws her fingers, bringing them to her lips and licking them clean of your essence. The sight sends a fresh wave of arousal coursing through you.
"Mmm... delicious. But I'm not nearly done with you yet," Caitlyn promises with a wicked grin. She spins you around to face her, her hands gripping your ass possessively.
In one swift motion, she lifts you up, encouraging you to wrap your legs around her waist. The move presses your dripping pussy directly against the bulge of her strap-on, the thick latex rubbing deliciously against your sensitive folds.
"Brace yourself, baby. I'm going to fuck this needy cunt until you can't walk straight," Caitlyn warns, her voice low and husky with desire.
With that, she thrusts forward, spearing you open on her thick cock in one brutal stroke. A guttural moan tears from your throat at the sudden intrusion, your walls stretching deliciously around her girth.
Caitlyn sets a punishing pace, pounding into you with animalistic fervor. The lewd slap of skin on skin echoes obscenely in the small closet, mingling with your wanton cries of pleasure.
"Fuck, you take my cock so well," Caitlyn grunts, her hips snapping forward with each powerful thrust. "This cunt was made for me, wasn't it? Made to milk my dick dry."
She leans forward, capturing your lips in a searing kiss as she continues to ruthlessly fuck you into oblivion. Your nails rake down her back, leaving red welts in their wake as you cling to her for dear life.
Caitlyn's grip on your ass tightens as she continues to pound into you relentlessly, the thick strap-on splitting you open with each brutal thrust. She breaks the kiss, leaning her forehead against yours as she gazes into your eyes with pure, unfiltered lust.
"Look at you, taking my cock like a champ," she pants, her hips never faltering in their punishing rhythm. "Such a perfect little fucktoy for me to use."
She reaches between your bodies, her fingers finding your swollen clit and rubbing tight circles around the sensitive nub. The added stimulation sends shockwaves of pleasure racing up your spine, your inner walls clenching greedily around her pistoning cock.
"That's it, cum for me again," Caitlyn commands, her voice a low, authoritative growl. "Cum on my dick like a good little slut."
Her words, combined with the relentless pounding of her hips and the expert ministrations of her fingers, prove to be your undoing. Your orgasm hits you like a freight train, your pussy spasming wildly around Caitlyn's thick length as you throw your head back and cry out in ecstasy. Caitlyn doesn't let up, fucking you through the intense waves of pleasure until you're reduced to a twitching, mewling mess in her arms. She captures your lips in another bruising kiss, swallowing your wanton moans as she continues to drive into you with reckless abandon.
"Fuck, you're so tight," she groans against your mouth, her hips stuttering as she chases her own release. "Gonna fill this needy cunt up with my cum."
With a final, powerful thrust, Caitlyn buries herself to the hilt inside you, her strap-on pulsing as she finds her own peak. She grinds against you, her hips rolling in slow, deep circles as she rides out the waves of her orgasm.
Finally, she pulls out with a wet pop, a trickle of your mingled juices dripping down her thigh. Caitlyn sets you down gently, her hands steadying you as your shaky legs try to support your weight. She gives you a moment to catch your breath, her blue eyes roaming over your disheveled form with undisguised satisfaction.
"You did so well, baby," Caitlyn purrs, running a hand through your tousled hair. "Took my cock like a champ."
She leans in, pressing a soft, tender kiss to your swollen lips. It's a stark contrast to the rough, aggressive kisses from before, but no less electrifying. Her fingers trace the curve of your cheek, the pad of her thumb brushing over your bottom lip.
"Let's get you cleaned up, shall we?" Caitlyn suggests, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Wouldn't want anyone to see what a mess I've made of you."
This was an idea brought up by a C.Bot on Janitorai! Usser: @annaescura__
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loycos · 19 days ago
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what did you make of the scene where caitlyn hits vi ? the timing of the blow was so unexpected to me…she was kinda steadying herself and then WHAM. What was going through her head ? Was she making some kind of decision ? Mind still reeling that she chose (?) to gut punch Vi to signal the end of their relationship.
well, i dont exactly know what made her make this decision. it looks like a momentary lashout based on rage. i think her rage comes from a place of betrayal, so she wants to make vi as hurt as that betrayal feels.
i actually think the "misunderstanding" thats happening here is very well written. clearly we as the audience see that caitlyn is becoming more and more unhinged. vi sees it as well. caitlyn might have missed the shot and killed a kid- her composure at that moment was very much shaken. most people, given this scenario, would choose to opt out. so to us, caitlyn being so insistent feels callous and irretional. which, it is. but lets look at it from caitlyn's perspective.
so, caitlyn feels a lot of guilt about the fact she didnt shoot jinx back at the dinner table. its very well established. she mainly blames herself, but i think a small subconscious part of her also blames vi- vi is the one who got her to hesitate, after all. the fact that she "messed up" last time and that caused so much grief and pain not only to herself, but to the 2 cities, makes her EXTREMELY determined to NEVER make that mistake again.
vi told caitlyn to not bring back up, so basically, theyre each other's only support. caitlyn agreed, that means that to her she put 100% of her trust in vi to help here and to have her back. vi told her, my sister is gone. when u have the chance, take the shot. caitlyn is convinced theyre on the same page here. so when vi turns on her, shes in utter disbelief, and she starts questioning whenever vi ever had HER best interest in mind.
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thats why i think caitlyn is so obsessed with bringing up the idea of who's "side" vi is on. you could read it as "piltover vs zaun" but i think what she means is "me vs jinx". at the dinner party caitlyn didnt shoot because of vi, and she wonders whether or not the girl she sacrificed everything for would do the same for her.
and at that moment, after she missed her shots, again, because of vi, she comes to the realization that vi would never choose her over jinx. and she flips out.
now. thats how CAITLYN sees it, im pretty sure. we know there are other things at play that have affected vi's decision, and that caitlyn currently is not seeing the bigger picture. but that's what i think she felt that drew this severe of a reaction from her.
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q8qwertyuiop8p · 29 days ago
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Dark Details of Arcane Season 1
Five of some of the darker, more morbid details you might not notice watching for the first time.
1. Silco's Shadow
In s1e6, when Marcus opens the door to his daughter's bedroom, Silco leans forward to place cards on the house he and Ren are building. For a brief moment, however, his shadow appears to be strangling Marcus' daughter.
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This eery juxtaposition of course foreshadows the threat Silco will soon make to Marcus and the hidden danger he poses to Ren. It is also ironic considering what happened to Silco.
2. Jinx's Voices Trying to Convince Her
In s1e9, during the dinner party scene, you can hear a voice whisper something to Jinx after Caitlyn points pow-pow towards her. It is difficult to make out, but listening closely you can hear:
"It's time to leave them."
This prompts Jinx to whip her pistol out towards Caitlyn, who is already aiming towards Jinx, nearly getting killed in the process.
Supposedly you can hear this phrase during some other scenes involving her psychosis, however this is the only scene in which it appears in Netflix's subtitles.
Earlier in the scene Vi tells Jinx that:
"We can just go... we'll leave and never come back!"
This triggers Jinx's psychosis. She asks where they would go, looks over to Mylo, and says,
"No... no, no, she's not saying that..."
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3. Message to Silco
If you look closely at the table in the dinner party, you can see that Jinx, furious and hurt after overhearing Silco's apparent plans to "betray" her, wrote "DIE" on the table in front of him.
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After accidently killing him, Jinx looks down emotionlessly at the table, exactly where she wrote that word.
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4. Painting Parallel
The scene of Silco cradling Jinx on the bridge is likely meant to be a visual reference to the 1880s painting Ivan the Terrible and his Son by Russian artist Ilya Repin. The story behind the painting parallels a different scene.
The painting depicts Ivan cradling his dying son after he struck him on the head in a fit of rage. Ivan is horrified and grief-stricken at what he has done, placing his hand over his son's wound in a hopeless attempt to take it back.
This foreshadows Jinx killing Silco when she is no longer in the right state of mind, as well as her immediate shock and regret. She even begins to place her hands over his wound before realizing there is nothing she can do.
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5. Aftermath of the Bridge Explosion
In episode 8 when Jayce visits the bridge, we get a brief shot of the aftermath of Jinx's explosion, and looking more closely one can see just how gruesome it is.
Blood splattered everywhere, intestines spilling out, blown off limbs, and even brain matter can be made out in this graphic scene. The rest of the shot, however, is very beautiful.
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Arcane was originally going to be even bloodier. In the storyboards Jinx punches the arcade so hard her knuckles bleed all over it.
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In the original layout animation, blood sprays on the camera when she bashes a firelight with Pow-Pow, and she even smiles with glee.
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adieutristana · 2 days ago
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comforting reader scenarios; arcane women x fem! reader
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finally home and spending time with family for the first time in a while. i started writing this while still at my dorm though, and wanted to finish it <3 i’ll get to my requests once break is over!
summary: scenarios of arcane women comforting their girlfriend.
characters included: jinx, vi, mel, sevika, caitlyn.
tags/warnings: mentions of anxiety and panic attacks, insecurity, nightmares (mel), smoking (sevika), crying, fluff, hurt/comfort
men dni.
jinx;
hosting at the last drop during a holiday weekend was no easy task, you knew that. but still, you needed extra hours. you needed extra money. so you picked up the shifts.
which you were now regretting more than you had any decision in a while. you wished that you could rewind time, and slap your past self across the face. tell her to put her sanity over a few more hours of pay.
you had just seated your final reservation of the night, and as soon as you got back to the host stand, your hands scrambled to untie your apron and slam it down on the desk. you couldn’t even be bothered to hang it up on its hook. you were overstimulated, stressed, burnt-out. you were exhausted.
your coworker grimaced seeing you, but was evidently concerned. “you gonna be okay getting home?” they asked, a hand on their hip. “i can give you a ride.”
“no, it’s fine. i’ll find my way.” you grumbled, grabbing the last of your belongings before swinging the door open. you knew exactly where you were headed: jinx’s hideout. you turned on your heel, keeping your head down as you sped through the bumpy streets of zaun. your destination wasn’t far, but the way in which your hands were trembling and you couldn’t focus your vision, you didn’t want to face the risk of any more human interaction.
you reached jinx’s hideout after about ten minutes of walking, and stepped in quietly. you saw blue braids, your girlfriend’s back facing you as she tinkered with what was presumably a new explosive device. typical jinx. she turned around in her chair as soon as the sound of your arrival registered, and she ran to give you a tight hug.
“how was work, toots?” she asked, her dark lips curled in a smile. “i missed ya, y’know.” she chimed, her arms still holding you close to her. you sighed and released the day’s worth of tension from your body, finally feeling safe enough to do so.
“it was hell. honest.” you began, before you felt a full tirade coming on. “i mean- i got yelled at for the simplest things. not having a table for a party of thirteen, having to consult with my manager for something, anything and everything. it’s… it’s like i couldn’t do anything right today.” you spoke, your voice faltering. you felt tears welling in your eyes, and you felt jinx’s grasp around you grow tighter.
“(y/n). hey. it’s okay.” jinx replied, her voice softer than most times. one arm stayed in place, and her other hand came up to gently cradle your cheek. “customers are awful. they always are. but you’re a damn good hostess, and you were doing your best! it’s just one of those weekends. they feel like they can do or say whatever they want…” jinx trailed off with a slight scowl in her voice. you knew that jinx was never particularly the best with choosing soothing words for you, but her odd and sometimes aggressive way of reassuring you did work.
your girlfriend softly grasped your shoulders to sit you down, then opted to grab one of your hands. her slender, calloused fingers slotting themselves between your own. she offered her shoulder wordlessly for you to lay your head on, which you accepted. you let out a sharp exhale through your nose. a single tear fell.
“i shouldn’t have taken those shifts. holiday weekend, back to back.” you scoffed. “money be damned. i’m never interacting with the public again.”
“no problem with that.” jinx remarked, trying to lighten the mood a little. her free hand came up to run over your side, up and down, up and down, gently and repeatedly. an oddly soothing pattern. “you could just stay here with me forever, y’know.”
you gave a soft chuckle in reply. “yeah. that’d be nice. you and me, not needing anything else.”
vi;
tonight was just one of those nights. you were getting better, you thought. you had been consistently seeing a therapist and airing out every little ugly detail about your life, your past, yourself to a complete stranger. and it was helping. you had a girlfriend who adored you, body and soul. who would do absolutely anything in her power just to see a hint of a smile on your face.
but right now, with your hair clutched in your hands and hot tears streaming down your face, your heart beating in your chest at record speed, you couldn't think about any one thing.
there was no rhyme or reason, you just felt horrible. about yourself, about your life, about everything. it was as if all of that progress you had worked so hard for was completely undone. dull and noid. you swore you could feel yourself dropping deeper and deeper, your shallow breaths growing quicker, until you heard the door of your apartment swing open.
"hey, babe, sorry i'm late, i got held u-" vi stopped dead in her tracks in front of you, taking in your state for a split second before her expression turned to one of unease. "oh, my god- (y/n), what happened? come on, talk to me." she breathed out, calloused, bandaged hands coming to grasp at your shoulders.
your girlfriend’s grip did ground you slightly, but you still couldn’t get a word out. you could only focus on trying to breathe; in, out, in through your nose, out through your mouth. vi’s worried expression didn’t falter, but her hold on you did loosen as she noticed your breathing grow more steady.
vi now sat next to you and swung an arm around your shoulder, pulling you in close to your side. she brushed a stray lock of hair out of your face, and tried to soothe you in the most gentle tone possible. “hey. hey, now. it’s okay. i’m here. i’m not goin’ anywhere, ya hear?” she whispered. “tell me what’s wrong.”
you just gulped, and hastily reached up to swipe away the tears on your cheeks. “nothing… nothing happened.” you said, voice still shaky. your gaze was downcast, focusing on some odd stain on the carpet. “i just feel so hopeless.” you blurted out. you just didn’t know how else to phrase it.
“i’ve done so much, gone to so many appointments and faced myself in the mirror. faced my flaws, my past, i’ve done some rough work.” you explained. “but i feel like it’s all for nothing. if i’ve gone and done all of that, why do i feel like complete shit right now?” you muttered under your breath. your shoulders were tensing back up, and more tears pricked at your eyes, threatening to fall at the next minute.
the girl next to you took your chin with her forefinger and thumb, gently guiding your gaze to meet her own. “(y/n), look at me.” she said.
you looked at her, eyes shaky and unsure.
“you don’t feel like this every day, do ya?” she asked. “i… no. i don’t.” you replied.
“there you go, then. no amount of therapy or coping or self-analysis is gonna take away the fact that some days just fucking suck.” vi’s arm was still draped around you, holding you in close to her and now slightly rocking you.
“you’ve got problems. we all do. they’re not just gonna go away overnight, some of them probably won’t ever. but ya have to keep trying, right?” she asked, prompting you to slowly nod. you sniffled, and whispered, “it just feels so pointless.”
“i know it does, but it isn’t. you know you haven’t done all of that for nothing. one shitty moment doesn’t erase all the hard work you’ve put in.” vi affirmed. she accentuated her words with a gentle, lingering kiss to your forehead. “you’re one of the strongest people i know.”
you finally let yourself go and lay your head on her shoulder, wordlessly accepting your girlfriend’s comfort. her grip around you only tightened, and while you couldn’t see her, you knew her well enough to know by now that she was smiling at the sight of you.
mel;
mel loved sharing a bed with you. it was so peaceful, so intimate in a way. you had her in your arms facing you, her head buried in the crook of your neck taking deep, relaxed breaths.
until you shot up from your slumber with a sharp gasp after having a nightmare. enforcers. your family. you hadn’t done anything, and neither had your family, but there the enforcers were in that dream, taking them from you. ignoring your choked sobs and loud pleas to just let them go.
it was probably a side effect of growing up in the undercity, and witnessing that exact scenario more times than you could keep track of. even though it wasn’t real, it still horrified you.
you tried to steady your breathing as to not wake the woman next to you, still deep asleep. but the second you saw her begin to stir, you knew you were in trouble. mel did not take kindly to her sleep being disturbed.
she sat up slowly, looking around and one hand coming to rub at her eyes, then her eyes met yours. there’s no malice or annoyance in her gaze, only concern. “…what has you up this late?”
“just a nightmare, mel. don’t worry about it.” you sighed, voice dropping and trying to convince her to just go back to sleep. it wasn’t until you felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around you, though, and pull you close to mel’s chest that you realized she wasn’t planning on letting this go.
“no, talk to me.” mel demands, although sleep is still evident in her voice. now it’s obvious that she isn’t going to let this go, and although you feel guilty for disturbing her rest, you’re grateful that she’s not angry with you.
you let out a deep breath, and begin twiddling with your thumbs to keep your racing mind at bay. mel still has you held close to her, one hand cradling the back of your head. “it was about my family. i had a nightmare that enforcers… took them. threw them in jail without a trial. even though they’ve done nothing wrong.”
having been brought up in zaun, this was a fate that was unfortunately not uncommon. a slim possibility for you, one of the more ‘respected’ families of the undercity, but the chances were never zero. you were unsure as to why you were suddenly having nightmares about this, though.
silence hung in the air for a moment, the only sounds in the room being your girlfriend’s slow breathing and rain pattering against the windows. “…that won’t happen, love. i wish i could tell you that our enforcers are a just group of people, but they are not. but you know all i am doing to try and fix this… your family is safe. i can promise you that.”
mel’s words were genuine, but in reality, there was only so much comfort she could offer. piltover as a city was corrupt; there was no denying that. but at the very least, you could rest assured that she was trying. mel cared- not just because they were your family, but because she had a heart. that’s more than you could say for some of the other council members.
you reached to intertwine your fingers with hers, and let your eyes slowly slip shut again. “you’re safe with me, darling. a nightmare is just that; a nightmare.” mel whispered, her voice like honey, sweet and smooth. “let’s get you back to sleep. i’ll be here all night.” she pressed a final lingering kiss to your temple, before you fell back into a deep slumber.
sevika;
being one of silco’s henchmen, it wasn’t uncommon for you to arrive home with an array of injuries. bruises, scrapes, cuts, sometimes even stab wounds if it was particularly bad. most of the time, you couldn’t place exactly where each injury had come from, only that it hurt like hell. but you were used to it by now, and working for silco both paid well and earned you protection. so you couldn’t exactly complain.
this time, though, you weren’t only hurt, you were exhausted. you were honestly considering marching (albeit weakly) to silco’s office and telling him you’re resigning, effective immediately. your legs felt like they were going to fall off. you undoubtedly had a few bruised ribs and had suffered more severe injuries than ever before. thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken, but there was only so much you could take.
you swung the door to your shared apartment open, seeing sevika already sat down. you slumped into the beat-up couch next to your girlfriend, letting out a loud and exasperated sigh. what to do? you had lazily patched yourself up, but you were still in considerable pain. you looked around the room, scanning all of your belongings from years of working for the eye of zaun. could it all have been for nothing? all of your hard work- was zaun, was silco going to chew you up and spit you out?
“(y/n)? took ya a while to get back. everything fine?” sevika asked. she swung one leg over the other and took out a cigar, grabbing her box of matches from a side table. you tried to muster up the most chipper tone of voice possible, and replied, “yep, i just got a bit held up on the way back. all is well.” you even tried to cement it by giving her the best smile you could manage.
sevika gave you one of her knowing side-glances, an eyebrow raised as she lit her cigar. “spit it out.”
god damn it.
if there was one thing your girlfriend was, it was observant. she knew your mannerisms, your habits and your demeanor well enough to know when something was wrong. honestly, sometimes, you thought sevika might know you better than you know yourself.
“sev, it’s nothing, really. don’t worry about me.” you tried to reassure her, a smile cemented on your face to really sell it. yet she still saw right through you. “(y/n), somethin’s up. i can tell. come on, dove, you can talk to me.”
you weighed your options for a minute. you were scared, if you were being honest with yourself. you knew that sevika was frighteningly loyal to silco, and saying that you were thinking of leaving could anger her. maybe provoke her in some way. but another thing you knew about your girlfriend was that once she started something, she wasn’t going to let go of it until it was resolved.
“i got beat up. badly, worse than i ever have… i don’t know if i have it in me to keep doing this, sevika.” you muttered. oh, god, your voice was shaking. “everything hurts. i’m exhausted. i’ve seen so much, and i don’t know if i’m strong enough.”
sevika sat in contemplation for a moment- a moment that felt like hours. she took a long drag of her cigar, exhaling as she talked. “that comes with the job, darlin’.” you felt your heart drop into your stomach. sevika was right. now you seemed like a traitor to silco and weak. “but, we all have our limits. you’ve done all you can, and you’ve done a damn good job at it. now, i’m not gonna tell you that you should leave, because i don’t want you to. i’m selfish like that.” your girlfriend chuckled.
you let her words sink in. you swung your legs around to be on top of her lap, laying your head down on the arm of your couch. sevika brought an arm up to rest her hand on one of your thighs, gently squeezing in reassurance. “do what you think will be best, okay? i’ll still be here. always will.” she smiled. “but… what about silco?” you muttered.
sevika barked out a laugh at that, which slightly startled you. your eyes blown wide and your form jumping. “silco’ll be fine. he has his other people… like me.” she said. sevika gently pulled you to sit your entire body in her lap, and pressed a soft kiss to your temple. “i’ll be here, regardless.” she looked at one of the half-assed bandages on your ankle, blood seeping through. “let’s get ya properly patched up, okay?”
caitlyn;
you sat in one of the many libraries on academy grounds, countless papers sprawled out in front of you on a desk. all of the words and countless problems needing solving had lost all meaning. your final exams were exactly a week from today, but your head was fuzzy. you couldn’t process anything. none of the study methods you were using stuck.
“shit.” you muttered to yourself, grasping your head in your hands against the desk. you lifted your head up to take in your surroundings: countless other students at tables, some in groups and some by themselves. what they all had in common was that they all seemed to be getting something done. that was a lot more than you could say for yourself.
you groaned out loud, disregarding the fact that others would absolutely hear over the loud silence of the facility. you gathered your papers, stacking them the neatest you could before shoving them in your messenger bag. you pulled out your chair, not bothering to push it back in, and turned on your heel to exit the library. god damn it.
you hastily made your way to your apartment, trying to keep your chin up as you passed other students of the district. you couldn’t let yourself crack. you couldn’t let on that anything was wrong. as you inserted your key into the lock of your apartment and turned the doorknob, the smell of dinner immediately hit you. was caitlyn… cooking?
“i’m home!” you called out, trying to search for caitlyn in the kitchen. you spotted her tall figure, her back turned to you and arms busy. you hung your bag up on a hook, and sat down on the living room couch with a dramatic huff. caitlyn turned her head to look at you for a moment, abandoning whatever she was busy stirring to come sit next to you.
when you looked over to see your girlfriend, you jumped the slightest bit. her footsteps were so quiet, it was startling at times. you never knew exactly where she learned how to do that.
“how was studying?” she asked, reaching to twirl a strand of your hair around her index finger. you sucked your breath in, and hung your head low in defeat. “well… i didn’t exactly get much done.” you murmured.
“i didn’t get anything done, actually.” you corrected yourself, voice a bit more clear this time. “i’ve got this… this mental block right now. i don’t know what it even is. i feel like every time i look at a piece of material to study, my mind just goes blank. whoosh, like i haven’t been studying this shit for months in class.” your hands were clutching your pants, trying to find any type of temporary relief. you were so utterly disappointed in yourself.
“what now, then?” your girlfriend asked, still absentmindedly playing with your hair. the smell of what you could now identify as some kind of pasta filled the room. “what do you mean, ‘what now?’” you asked. it wasn’t a quip, but a genuine question. as much as you loved caitlyn, she could be confusing from time to time.
“i mean, what are you going to do now? sulk? rest?” she clarified, her blue eyes gazing directly at- or through you. it wasn’t meant to be intimidating, but caitlyn had that effect. you took your hands off your lap and crossed your arms over your chest, gaze still downcast. “i don’t know. i’ll try again tomorrow, but right now, i don’t know.”
caitlyn moved her hand to gently tap your jaw, signaling that she wanted you to look at her. you obliged, her eyes still piercing- but a bit softer now. “do you know how many days like that i had as a girl, sat with my instructor? completely clueless as to how to solve the problem in front of me?” she asked, her tone soft and the slightest bit playful. she scoffed as she recalled the memory.
“that’s part of the reason i decided not to attend the academy. of course, i had expectations to live up to, which played a major factor in my decision. but student life hasn’t ever been for me.” caitlyn said, settling her hands down and opting to rest her head on your shoulder. navy strands lightly tickled your neck.
“what you do is admirable, dearest. one odd day doesn’t make that less true.” she smiled. “you’re still such a hard-working, smart person.. you just need to rest.” she accentuated her statement by pressing her lips to your cheek, ever so gently. fleeting.
you gently smiled at her words and leant into the kiss. you didn’t have a clue as to how she managed, but caitlyn somehow always had the right words to say. you remembered the pasta cooking, though, and gasped. “shit- cait, should you be leaving that unattended?”
your girlfriend lightly chuckled. “the sauce needed to sit for a few moments. all is well, i promise.”
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cartierre · 1 year ago
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SINCE WAY BACK | ln4
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SOCIAL MEDIA!AU lando norris x fem!black!producer!reader (fc: alexis carrington)
side note: drake is aged up in this because i want y/n to be born around 2000/2001 but that would mean drake was 14/15 when he became a dad... so he's just a few years older here to make it more believable okay? great. side note pt2: there are so many long twitter threads used to explain the whole backstory. like, really really long. i didn't know how else to explain everything, i'm sorry.
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♡ liked by champagnepapi, mclaren, octobersveryown and 829,938 others
tagged: mclaren, octobersveryown
f1 BREAKING: October's Very Own (OVO) joins the McLaren team as their new primary sponsor for the 2023 season.
#F1 #Formula1 #McLaren
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user1 what the fuck is drake doing here
user2 i'm actually so gagged like what is happening why is drake invested in f1 all of a sudden
user3 this is such an odd pairing? drake and zak brown together feels like a fever dream
user4 drake joining f1 as a sponsor was definitely not on my 2023 bingo card
user5 caitlyn jenner buying a whole w series team is less surprising than whatever this is
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♡ liked by yourusername, champagnepapi, danielricciardo and 187,385 others
lando.jpg adonis is teaching me how to play basketball because otherwise he "cannot accept me" i've been humbled by a 5 year old
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user6 is that the girl he might or might not be dating ⤷ user7 i need to know otherwise i might die (i won't but the suspense is killing me)
user8 WHO IS THAT GIRL LANDO
user9 is this you trying to soft launch or is she just a platonic friend?
user10 "fans" going insane because they can't handle the thought of lando having female friends as well
user11 he's not even tagging anyone omg now i have to scroll through all the people he follows. lando is not making my job easy
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(private account)
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♡ liked by centralcee, jorjasmith_, landonorris and 637 others
y/n_graham why am i trending on twitter and why is everyone uncovering my childhood
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landonorris i think this is my fault ⤷ y/n_graham you and your jpg ⤷ landonorris my camera lense is just so mesmerised by your beauty ⤷ y/n_graham your compliments won't get you out of trouble
centralcee i'm literally getting dms asking about you ⤷ y/n_graham i woke up to 15,000 people trying to follow me
jorjasmith_ lando's fans are literally fbi agents ⤷ y/n_graham i'm making so many backup files of my music projects because i'm scared someone will hack into my laptop now
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f1wags Y/N Graham, daughter of Canadian rapper Drake, was photographed by a fan outside the venue in Greece where Lando Norris, her rumoured boyfriend, was playing this weekend. None of the two have confirmed nor deniend the relationship allegations that have been going around for a few months now. An inside source, which attended the party, revealed how the two behaved very intimate with each other.
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user12 girl it's been nearly four months since the rumours started... can one of them just please either confirm or deny them?
user13 at this point i'm just over the whole drama. let them have their privacy i guess
user14 this drama is juicier than when the whole oscar-alpine-mclaren fiasco happened
user15 i'm this close to ripping my hair out why is this rumour been going on for AGES i just want a simple statement already
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♡ liked by y/n_graham, champagnepapi, danielricciardo and 374,947 others
tagged: y/n_graham, champagnepapi
lando.jpg bonding family time, got to support the father in law ;)
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user16 EXCUSE ME WDYM FATHER IN LAW? is this a joke or real ⤷ y/n_graham we're not married, don't worry ⤷ user17 OMG Y/N MADE HER ACCOUNT PUBLIC JUST NOW
champagnepapi i like the sound of "father in law" ⤷ lando.jpeg i know you would ⤷ y/n_graham no no no
user18 okay from what i've gathered drake and lando are on good terms ⤷ user19 bet that's why drake sponsored mclaren lmao ⤷ y/n_graham no but deadass
user20 y/n fighting for her life in the comments lmaoooo ⤷ y/n_graham in the trenches
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nhaaauyen · 4 months ago
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⋆ ˚。 ⋆୨ The Ghost of You ୧⋆ ˚。 ⋆
"This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong // To love that well which thou must leave ere long." -William Shakespeare (Sonnet 73)
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PART II: MY HEART DREAMS
zombie apocalypse sevika x reader au!: sevika was the super soldier; a killing machine driven solely by survival. you were nomadic, constantly searching for something in whatever was left of the world—till you met her.
series masterpost: part I // part III // part IV // part V // part V
wc: 7.1k author's note: ahhh tysm to everyone reading!!! your comments literally make my day and the taglist DAMN!! seriously I'm so grateful <3 also i apologize for this chapter being so long, i tried to stfu but it still ended up being 7k
One thing you should've realized sooner was that nothing escapes Sevika's notice in Zaun. 
You were barely a week into your new routine, legs burning as you struggled through your morning run. The only sound you could hear was of blood pounding in your ear—and the addition of a rumbling engine approaching from behind.  
You whip your head back, unsure if your ears were deceiving you but there it was, a truck filled with Sevika's scavenging team catching up, with Sevika herself leaning out the passenger window.
"Pick up the pace, pantry girl!" she shouted, her voice laden with amusement. "At this rate, you'll be old and gray before you join my team!"
Her crew howled with laughter as they sped by, leaving you red-faced and fuming in a cloud of dust.
Now, weeks later, you collapse onto the grass beside Caitlyn, both of you panting heavily after finishing your lap around the neighborhood. The memory of Sevika's taunts still burns, spurring you to push yourself harder during training.
Just as you're about to ask if you should do another lap, something ice-cold presses against your neck. You yelp, jerking upright in surprise.
A dark-haired woman hovers over you, a familiar smirk playing on her lips and a frosty water bottle in her hand. "Still jumping at shadows, I see," she teases. "I'm not sure I can use someone so easily startled on my team."
You glare up at her. "That's rich, coming from you," you retort. "Your late-night victory parties make it impossible to get a good night's sleep around here."
"Feeling left out? The invitations open, you know. Just bring your own drink."
"How about an invitation to join your team instead?"  You counter.
Sevika laughs, the sound was simultaneously frustrating and oddly captivating. "Maybe focus on not tripping over your own feet first, pantry girl."
After you finish your training for the day, you take a quick shower and make your way to the pantry for your shift. But as you approach, you notice something odd - your name isn't on the schedule. Again.
"That's the third time this week," you mutter.
Caitlyn notices your confusion. "Maybe they're cutting back on hours?" she suggests, but her tone is uncertain.
With your unexpected free time, you find yourself spending more time with your makeshift family. Family dinners were something you always had, but for the first time you didn’t have to worry about where or what your next meal would be.
Powder chatters animatedly about her latest inventions, while Caitlyn asks questions that make the kid’s eyes go wild with excitement. Vi listens with a mix of amusement and pride, occasionally ruffling her sister's hair.
Vander sits at the head of the table and he interjects with the occasional piece of wisdom that makes Vi interrupt to remind him that they were too old for lectures or dad jokes, drawing laughter from the group.
As plates are cleared and the conversation winds down, Powder asks to star gaze again, which Vander wants to say no to when everyone has work tomorrow. But then he looks outside and he’s reminded that things weren’t the same, you could afford the leisure to enjoy the skies now.
So you all move to the roof, continuing your evening under the stars. Powder points out constellations, making up stories for each one. Vi playfully argues with her interpretations, while Caitlyn offers more scientific explanations. You lean back, taking in the moment, feeling truly at peace for the first time in a long while.
As the night deepens, drowsiness sets in. One by one, you bid each other goodnight and retreat to your beds.
Morning arrives sooner than you'd like and you meet Caitlyn early, both of you squinting against the bright sunlight as you make your way to the training grounds. The morning sun warms your face as you and Caitlyn wait on the grass for Grayson to arrive with your sparring partner. You're chatting idly, speculating about who it might be when you hear approaching footsteps.
Your eyes widen as you see Grayson walking towards you, but it's the figure beside her that makes your breath catch. Sevika strides across the field, her presence somehow always able to steal your attention. She's wearing dark wash jeans that hug her legs and a sleeveless, tight black tee that shows off her toned arms with her usual red shawl draping over her left side.
Grayson offers an apologetic smile as they reach you. "Sorry we're late. There was a situation to handle."
Sevika merely grunts, barely acknowledging you and Caitlyn. Your heart races—if she was here to watch you were so screwed, there was no way Sevika would let you have a match without her snarky comments. 
"Marcus was supposed to be here today," Grayson explains, "but it seems he's... incapacitated."
You and Caitlyn exchange knowing looks. It's not the first time Marcus has been too drunk to show up, and frankly, you're relieved. Even when sober, he's a total ass.
"So... who are we sparring with?" you ask, though you have a sinking feeling you already know the answer.
Grayson gestures to Sevika. "Someone owes me a favor."
Sevika rubs her head, clearly annoyed. "Can we get this over with?" she grumbles.
Grayson chuckles. "She's just grumpy because she's hungover," she explains to you, then turns to Sevika with a raised eyebrow. "Which you wouldn't be if you didn't drink like it's water."
Sevika scowls, softly as she crosses her arms. "It's my day off," she retorts. "You never come to my parties."
"I drink on my own time," Grayson replies primly, adjusting her stance.
"You're too much of a goody two shoes," Sevika snorts, rolling her eyes.
You and Caitlyn look at each other in shock, from the fact that the two captains are bickering like siblings and they’re going to be sparring with Sevika. 
"Sevika?" Caitlyn sputters. "You want us to spar Sevika?"
"It's better practice for you two - Sevika has years of fighting experience. You can learn some new techniques today,"  She reassures. "So, who's first?"
"I'll get it over with," Caitlyn acquiesced, her voice steady despite the nerves you can see in her eyes.
As Caitlyn approaches the sparring area, Sevika reaches for her shawl. In one swift motion, she removes it, and your eyes widen in shock. Where you expected to see flesh and bone, there's instead a gleaming bionic arm. 
Intricate gears and pistons are visible beneath panels of transparent material, offering glimpses of the arm's inner workings. As Sevika flexes her fingers, you can see these components whirring and sliding with precision, each movement accompanied by a soft, almost musical hum.
Sevika doesn't react to the stares, her face stony as if this reveal is inconsequential. You feel a pang of guilt for gawking, but you can't help wondering - was this a war injury, or a result of the walkers? 
Caitlyn recovers from her shock like you do, now both of you feeling more intimidated by the strength and skills of the woman before you.  You watch as Sevika easily deflects Caitlyn's first attack, countering with a move so fast you barely see it. Caitlyn hits the ground hard, she barely has any time to react when Sevika strikes again.
"Come on, cupcake," Sevika taunts, using Vi's nickname for Caitlyn. 
The use of the nickname catches both you and Caitlyn off guard and she narrowly dodges a punch.  You had no idea how much Sevika had been paying attention to your group.
"Is that all you've got?" The captain says smugly.
As the sparring continues, you find yourself studying Sevika's every move. The way she anticipates Caitlyn's attacks, the efficiency of her counterstrikes, the subtle shifts in her stance.  
But it's more than just her fighting skills that captivate you. It's the fierce concentration in her eyes, the slight smirk that plays on her lips when she lands a particularly good hit. It's the way her muscles flex as she moves, the sheen of sweat that forms on her skin under the hot sun.
You're so lost in your observations that you almost miss when Grayson calls an end to the match. Caitlyn is panting, bruised but not beaten, while Sevika looks barely winded.
"Your turn, rookie," Sevika calls out, her eyes locking with yours.
Sevika takes a menacing stance, her bionic arm whirring softly as she flexes her fingers. You try to quell your nerves, reminding yourself of all your training.
The match begins, and Sevika doesn't hold back. She lunges forward with a quick jab that you barely dodge. Her follow-up kick catches you in the side, and you stumble back.
"With those sparring skills, you'll be dead by now," Sevika taunts, circling you like a predator.
You regain your footing, countering with a series of quick strikes that force Sevika to step back. "As far as I'm concerned, I don't think any walkers would be punching me back anytime soon," you retort.
Sevika smirks, effortlessly blocking your attacks. "There are still survivors out there, some who might not be as merciful as me." she says, suddenly dropping low and sweeping your legs out from under you.
You hit the ground hard but roll quickly, narrowly avoiding Sevika's follow-up strike. "I’m only alive because you needed the meds.”
“But you’re alive regardless?” She counters.
“Urgh, you're the worst, you know that? You just like watching me suffer-"
Your words are cut off as Sevika charges forward. You manage to sidestep, grabbing her arm and using her momentum to throw her off balance. For a moment, you have the upper hand, landing a solid hit to her midsection.
Sevika grunts, a flash of surprise in her eyes. "Well, it's not a bad view," she quips, her voice slightly breathless.
You're holding your own better than you expected, your training with Grayson evident in your improved technique. You even manage to land a few solid hits, each one making you more hopeful that you could finally prove yourself to the captain.
But Sevika is still Sevika. Just when you think you might have a chance, she changes tactics. As she unleashes a flurry of lightning-fast strikes, you are able to block the first few, but the last one catches you off guard, sending you stumbling back.
Before you can recover, Sevika is on you. With a move so smooth it seems almost effortless, she sweeps your legs again and follows you down. You’re on the ground immediately, the air knocked from your lungs, and suddenly Sevika is on top of you, pinning you down.
Her face is inches from yours, her breath hot on your cheek. "There's always next time, pantry girl," she says, her voice laced with arrogance.
Fury and frustration surge through you—at the nickname, at losing, but most of all at yourself for the way your heart races at her proximity. You struggle against her hold, but it's futile—you lost and couldn’t prove you were ready. 
The days blur into a haze of relentless training after the match, your body pushed to its limits.  Yet despite your efforts, something feels off. Each time you miss a target or fumble a move, Sevika's face flashes in your mind. Your focus wavers, distracted by unnameable thoughts that surface whenever you recall her challenging gaze or the smugness in her voice. 
The sharp crack of gunfire echoes across the makeshift shooting range. You squeeze the trigger, watching as your shot goes wide, missing the target by a good margin. Expaseration bubbles up inside you for missing yet again.
Next to you, Caitlyn's sniper barks and the center of her target explodes. Again. You can't help but feel a twinge of envy at her precision.
"Excellent shot, Caitlyn," Grayson praises, her eyes gleaming with approval. "I think I’m looking at my newest sniper."
Caitlyn beams at the compliment.
Grayson turns to you, her expression apprehensive. "Something on your mind? You seem distracted today."
"No, I'm fine," you mutter, trying to focus on the target in front of you.
Grayson raises an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. "Well, if you keep shooting like you did today, you can expect another month before Sevika would even consider accepting you on her team."
At the mention of Sevika's name, you can't help but frown. Grayson catches it immediately.
"What's wrong?" she probes, her voice a mix of curiosity and concern.
You hesitate, then the words tumble out. "I just... I don't get her. I don't know how to convince her I deserve that spot on the team when she's so infuriating and stubborn."
To your surprise, Grayson laughs, a warm, rich sound. "She hasn't changed since we were deployed together, then."
Your ears perk up at this. "You were deployed with Sevika? Can you tell me about it?"
Grayson shrugs. "What is there to tell? We were in the military together for 10 years and she's a brilliant soldier."
"That's all to her?" you press, not satisfied with such a simple answer.
Grayson gives you a long, appraising look. "What is it that you really want to know about her?"
The question catches you off guard. You open your mouth to respond, then close it again. What do you want to know? But more importantly, why do you want to know? You realize you don't have an answer, and the realization unsettles you.
Seeing your confusion, Grayson's expression softens. "Sevika is not the best fighter," she says quietly.
"What?"
Grayson chuckles at your expression. "Don't get me wrong, she's an advanced and skilled fighter. But she's not unbeatable." She pauses, her eyes distant as if recalling memories from long ago. "What makes her different... She is loyal and fierce. That woman fights till her very last breath. If she's going to hell, she'll drag you down with her."
Your mind whirs at this information. Who is Sevika beyond the soldier everyone knows her as? You find yourself hungry for more details, more glimpses into the woman behind the tough exterior.
Then you catch yourself, anger flaring up. Why do you care? Why does it matter who Sevika really is? She's just the leader of the scavenging team, nothing more.
You shake your head, trying to clear these thoughts. "Thanks, Grayson," you mutter, turning back to the target.
As you raise your gun again, you can feel Grayson's knowing gaze on you. You take a deep breath, trying to focus on the target. But in your mind's eye, all you can see is Sevika—her cocky grin, her ruthless determination, the mystery that surrounds her.
You squeeze the trigger, and this time, your shot flies true, hitting just off-center. Progress, but not perfection. Much like your understanding of Sevika, you realize. You're getting closer, but there's still so much more to uncover.
⁺˚⋆。°✩
A slight breeze rustles the leaves as you wait by the usual tree, checking your watch. Caitlyn's late, which isn't like her.   You’ve been waiting for 20 minutes already and this was the Caitlyn, the one who’s never even been late to a shift at the pantry.  
You’re about to turn back to the house when suddenly you hear shouting from the road a few blocks away. Without thinking, you immediately sprint towards the commotion.
When you arrived, the scene before you was the last thing you would expect—Caitlyn and Vi were in each other's faces, their voices rising with each exchange. A burly guy from Sevika's crew is half-heartedly trying to separate them.
"You fucking liar!" Caitlyn screams, her face flushed with anger. "Why would you join without telling me?"  
You momentarily pause from trying to pull the fighting couple apart, in all the years you knew Caitlyn she had hardly cursed; Vi must’ve fucked up, bad.
Vi's stance is defensive, her hands raised. "It's safer for you this way!"
"Safer?" Caitlyn's laugh is bitter. "I didn't ask for a white knight, I asked for a partner that's honest!"
The guy from Sevika's crew steps between them. "Come on, ladies, this ain't the place-"
Caitlyn whirls on him. "How could you let her in Sevika’s group like this?"
He backs up, hands raised. “Listen, I had no part in this. Vi was the one who asked, and Sevika accepted her."
Caitlyn's face contorts with anger, and she lunges forward. You jump in, grabbing her arms. "Cait, stop!"
But as you hold her back, his words sink in. "Wait, WHAT?" You turn to Vi, shock evident on your face. "She accepted you to join her scavenging and not me?"
Vi looks away, guilt written across her features. Your blood boils. You release Caitlyn and round on the guy. "Where the HELL is she?"
He crosses his arms, defiant. "I don't have to answer to you."
You step closer, your voice low and dangerous. "Oh, trust me. You want to tell me."
He hesitates, then sighs. "Fine, but it's your funeral. She's in her garage."
Without another word, you turn on your heel and march away, leaving Caitlyn and Vi to their argument. You had your own annoying, lying woman to deal with.
The garage comes into view, its large door open. As you approach, you catch sight of Sevika bent over a motorcycle. Her back muscles flex as she works, visible beneath a black sports bra. Her jeans hang low on her hips, revealing the band of her boxers. For a moment, you were unable to comprehend the sight of Sevika in clothes that weren't military green. 
You take a deep breath, steadying yourself before addressing her. "Vi and Caitlyn are out there fighting. I thought you should know."
She turns, surprise briefly flickering across her features before her trademark nonchalance slides back into place. "And that concerns me... how exactly?" she questions, wiping her hand with a rag. "Last I checked, I wasn't running a relationship counseling service."
"Because of all the bullshit you gave about me not being ready? Why won't you let me on the team?" you demand, your voice cracking with desperation. "You let Vi join. What makes her so special?"
"You don't know what you're asking for."
"Then tell me!" you shout, stepping closer. "I'm sick of your cryptic bullshit, Sevika. I deserve to know!"
Something in Sevika snaps—Her composure shatters, replaced by a raw, barely contained fury. "Fine? You want to know why?" She grabs your arm, her grip tight enough to bruise. "Let's go."
She drags you out of the garage, marching through the community with large strides. You struggle to keep up, confused and a little scared by this sudden change in her demeanor.
As you reach the outskirts of the settlement, Sevika slows down. You follow her gaze and feel your blood run cold. Wooden crosses stretch out before you, maybe 20 to 25 of them, each marking a grave.
"This is why," Sevika grits.
You stand there, frozen, as Sevika turns to face you. Her eyes are blazing, but there's something else there too - something melancholic you've never seen before.
"Do you know how many empty graves we have?" she asks, gesturing to the crosses. "It's a fortune if you're able to bring a body home, or if you can spend someone's last moments together."
She walks among the graves, her fingers trailing over the rough wood of a cross. "This is the type of thing we have to deal with. Every time we go out there, we risk not coming back. And if we don't come back, this is what's left of us. A wooden cross and a memory."
"I've had to bury too many people. I've had to tell too many families that their loved ones aren't coming home. And sometimes, I couldn't even give them that closure."
She turns back to you, her eyes now hard, and gone was the brief moment of vulnerability you saw before. "This is why I won't let you on the team. Because I can't... I won't add another cross to this field."
The weight of her words hits you like a physical blow. But instead of understanding, you feel a surge of anger.
"So what?" you snap, surprising both yourself and Sevika. "You keep me locked away like I'm Rapunzel in a tower? Look around, Sevika!" You gesture wildly at the desolate landscape beyond the settlement. "There is nothing left to lose. The world is gone!"
For a moment, she's silent, and you think you might have finally gotten through to her. But then her expression hardens, a bitter smile twisting her lips.
"You can say that," she says softly, her voice barely above a whisper, "until you have the world in your hand and it's ripped away from you."
The words hang in the air between you, heavy with meaning. You see a flash of something in Sevika's eyes - a deep, soul-crushing resignation that makes your anger falter.
"There is always something to lose," she continues. "And every time you think you have nothing left to lose, life finds a way to prove you wrong."
She steps closer to you. "You think you're ready to face what's out there? You think you have nothing to lose? Trust me, pantry girl, you have no idea what loss really is."
"What are you living for if you're constantly scared of losing?" you challenge, your voice rising. "This isn't living, Sevika. It's just... existing."
Sevika's eyes flash dangerously. "You don't understand-"
"No, you don't understand!" you interrupted, shoving her back. "We're all going to die—But I'd rather die out there, trying to do something I wanted, rather than rot away in here!"
You’re angry and you know you just provoked her but you can’t help but shove her back again, frustrated at her but, even more so at yourself.  You were terrified, of fucking course you were—but who wasn’t in the world you were living in? 
With a growl, she lunges forward, shoving you hard. You stumble back, shock and anger coursing through you. Without thinking, you retaliate, pushing Sevika with all your might.
The two of you grapple, a tangle of limbs and fury. Grass and dirt kick up around you as you roll on the ground, each trying to gain the upper hand. Sevika's bionic arm hisses as she tries to pin you down, but you're quicker, fueled by frustration and pent-up emotion.
With a burst of strength, you manage to flip Sevika onto her back. You straddle her waist, pinning her arms to her sides, which fall limp immediately. Both of you are panting heavily, faces flushed and hair disheveled.
"I won," you gasp out, your chest heaving. "You promised. If I could beat you, you'd let me join."
Sevika looks up at you, her expression unreadable. "When will you learn patience?" 
The proximity is intoxicating, and for a moment, you're distracted by the feeling of Sevika beneath you, the rise and fall of her chest, the intensity in her eyes. 
"You can't expect me to live like this," you insist, your voice softer now but no less passionate. "What are you living for if you're constantly scared of losing?"
Something flickers in Sevika's eyes—pain, fear, or something else entirely. Without warning, she bucks her hips, throwing you off balance. In one smooth motion, she shoves you away and stands up.
You scramble to your feet, ready to continue the fight, but Sevika's next move stops you cold. 
"Sevika!" you call out, your voice cracking. "Don't you walk away from me!"
But she doesn't stop, doesn't even look back. 
You're left standing there, alone among silent tombstones and empty graves, watching her retreating figure disappear into the gathering dusk.
⁺˚⋆。°✩
The weight of defeat settles heavily on your shoulders as you stumble into your room. You collapse onto your bed, fully clothed, as the scene replays in your mind. Sevika's face haunts you - not her usual cocky smirk or searching gaze, but that fleeting expression of raw pain you glimpsed just before she walked away.
There's something deeper, a hollowness in your chest you can't quite name. It's more than just the sting of losing an argument or watching her retreat. 
There was something else in her eyes that truly unsettled you—that flash of fear when she looked at you, as if dreading you might become another one of those wooden crosses she would have to mark.
Just as you're about to drift off, a sudden burst of loud music jolts you awake. Shouts and laughter follow, unmistakably coming from a few blocks down—right where Sevika's house is located.
You groan, pressing your pillow over your head. Of course, another one of her infamous parties. But as you lie there, listening to the distant sounds of celebration, a part of you can't help but wonder what Sevika looks like when she's relaxed, surrounded by her team. 
After an hour of futile attempts to sleep, frustration wins out.  You sit up, running a hand through your hair in annoyance. You throw on a hoodie and stomp towards the door, grabbing the nearest pair of slippers without looking.  
The cool night air does little to calm your irritation as you march down the street. You pound on the door, ready to give her a piece of your mind.
To your surprise, it's Sevika herself who answers. Her usual scowl morphs into a grimace as she recognizes you, a lit cigarette dangling from her lips. The sight of her throws you off balance—her gray wife beater clings to her frame, and her cargo pants are smeared with what you hope is just mud. Despite the mess, she looks... good. Annoyingly so.
"Do you know what time it is?" you demand, trying to focus on your anger.
Sevika takes a long drag of her cigarette and then blows the smoke out slowly. Her eyes drift downward. "I like your slippers," she remarks.
You glance down, mortification washing over you as you realize you're wearing Powder's pink bunny slippers. "Shit," you mutter, but quickly shake it off. "Why do you have to be so loud? This might come as a surprise but some people are trying to sleep!"
"Worried you won't get enough sleep to organize properly tomorrow?" Sevika taunts, leaning against the doorframe. "Make sure you don't mix up the soup and fruit cocktail cans."
Her dismissive attitude ignites your temper. "Fine, whatever. You're acting like a complete ass," you spit out.
Sevika's eyebrow raises slightly. "Is that all? Because if so, I've got a party to get back to."
You're about to retort when you catch a glimpse of the interior of her house. It's a mess—empty bottles strewn about, gear haphazardly tossed in corners. 
"What?" Sevika's voice snaps you back to reality.
"I... nothing," you stammer, taking a step back. "Just turn the music down, okay?"
Sevika studies you for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then, without a word, she turns and disappears into the house. A few seconds later, the volume of the music noticeably decreases.  Sevika.. Was being obedient? 
She reappears at the door, taking another drag of her cigarette. "Anything else?" 
You open your mouth, then close it again. What else is there to say? That her apparent disregard for what you want infuriates you? That her words about from earlier today won’t leave your mind? That despite everything, you find yourself drawn to her in a way you can't explain?
Instead, you just shake your head. "No. That's... that's all. Thanks."
As you turn to leave, Sevika's voice stops you. "Wait."
You pause, looking back at her expectantly.  You notice that there is a hesitancy to her this time, like you were fragile and if she got too close you might shatter.
"Wear proper attire tomorrow, okay?" she says, her tone businesslike. "And check in at the armory with Vi."
You blink, confused. "Vi? What does she-"
Sevika cuts you off with an exasperated sigh. "Do I really have to explain it to you, rookie?"
"Yeah, cause I don't get it," you retort.
"You're on the team."
For a moment, you just stare at her, unable to process what you've heard. Sevika refuses to meet your gaze, suddenly finding the wall very interesting.
As realization dawns, a wide grin breaks out across your face. Sevika immediately cuts in, "Don't think I'm going soft on you and giving you anything you want. This is an easy spot, but-"
You can't help the shit-eating grin that spreads even wider. "Thank you," you say, your voice sincere despite your obvious excitement.
Sevika just nods, her expression carefully neutral. "Yeah, okay. Now get out of here before I change my mind."
You nod enthusiastically. "Right. Yes. Thank you again. Good night!"
You turn and walk away, trying desperately to keep your cool. But as soon as you think Sevika has fully closed her door, you can't contain yourself anymore. You do a little excited jump right there in the street, pumping your fist in the air. Then, grinning like a fool, you take off running towards home.
What you don't see is Sevika, still standing in her doorway. She watches your celebratory dance with a mixture of disbelief and something akin to fondness. Shaking her head, she finally closes the door, a small, bemused smile playing at the corners of her lips.
⁺˚⋆。°✩
The early morning sun casts a golden glow over the farm as your team arrives. The dilapidated barn looms ahead, its red paint peeling and faded. Overgrown fields stretch out to your right, while a rickety fence encloses what must have once been a thriving chicken coop.
Sevika's voice rings out across the coop.  "Alright, gather the chickens."
You blink, certain you've misheard. "Wait, what?"  
You weren’t expecting your first mission to be on a farm, much less to gather the animals. But your confusion is quickly overwhelmed by the sight of your teammates scattering, chasing after a flock of very startled, very loud chickens.  
"How do you expect us to get food?" Sevika asks, her tone matter-of-fact.
You turn to her, eyebrow raised. "Why aren't you helping?"
The air seems to still as everyone freezes, shocked by your boldness. Sevika's eyes narrow dangerously.
"I'm your captain," she states, as if that explains everything.
A reckless grin spreads across your face. "What? Afraid you can't catch a single chicken in front of your people?"
Sevika's jaw clenches, and for a moment, you wonder if you've pushed too far. Then, to everyone's surprise, she vaults over the fence and into the coop.
"You have a mouth on you," she growls, eyeing a particularly plump hen. "That's going to get you in trouble one day."
You hop in after her, heart racing at how she easily accepted your challenge. "Only if I'm caught," you quip back.
The two of you circle the hen, which clucks nervously. You lunge forward, but the bird darts away.
"You're scaring it!" Sevika snaps.
"Me?!" you retort. "You're practically harassing the thing!"
As you both scan the coop for a chicken that wasn’t running like it had its head chopped off, a voice pipes up from outside the fence. "They’re bickering like an old couple!"
In perfect unison, you and Sevika whip around, shouting, "Don't you dare say that!"
The moment the words leave your mouth, you freeze, looking at each other in shock, and then it’s replaced quickly with a scowl as the determination to capture the chicken sets back in.
Okay, so barreling at full force towards the animal was not the way to go considering everyone was already filling their cages.  You mentally devise a plan to corner the chicken, gesturing for Sevika to move to the right while you go left. But as you both rush forward, the hen squawks indignantly and darts between you in a perfect straight line.
Unable to stop your momentum, you and Sevika collide, tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. You find yourself pinned beneath her, acutely aware of her weight, her warmth, the scent of her body wash and gunpowder that clings to her skin.
Sevika pushes herself up slightly, her face inches from yours. "This is dumb," she mutters. "I don't need to prove anything."
"Mhmm," you manage, your brain short-circuiting from the proximity.
She grunts, rolling off you and standing up. "There's one last chicken," she says, brushing dirt from her clothes. "We better get it."
You turn your attention back to the task at hand, scanning the coop for that last elusive hen. The last hen clucks nervously, darting between the wooden beams of the coop. You and Sevika exchange a quick nod, wordlessly agreeing on a strategy.
Sevika crouches low, her movements slow and deliberate as she inches towards the left side of the coop. You mirror her actions on the right, creating a human barrier. The hen's beady eyes dart between you, sensing the trap.  
"Easy now," Sevika murmurs, her voice barely above a whisper. 
The hen makes a break for it, but you're ready. You lunge forward, herding it back towards Sevika. She reaches out, her fingers just brushing the chicken's feathers—
A deep rumble suddenly echoes across the farm, stopping you both in your tracks. You both freeze, exchanging a brief, confused glance. In that instant, the barn door explodes outward with a deafening crash. Splinters of wood fly through the air, unleashing a horde of walkers that stumble and lurch towards you.
"Fuck! Run!" someone screams, and chaos erupts.
Your teammates scramble to grab their chicken cages, but you're transfixed by the sight of Sevika, who's inexplicably clutching the chicken she just caught to her chest with her left arm. Without thinking, you grab her right hand and bolt, pulling her along.
As you run, weaving between broken fences and overgrown crops, the absurdity of the situation hits you. Here you are, fleeing from a walkers horde, hand-in-hand with your usually stoic captain who was so dead set on capturing a single chicken she risked a few minutes just to get it. Suddenly, Sevika bursts out laughing, a rich, genuine sound you've never heard before.
"This is so fucking stupid," she gasps between chuckles.
Her laughter is infectious, and soon you're both giggling like maniacs as you sprint towards the getaway car. The wind whips through your hair, you look over at her and see her tiny ponytail bouncing, her eyes sparkling with unadulterated joy.
As you approach the car, you see one of your teammates dancing in the driver's seat, bobbing their head to music that was loud enough you could hear it from a distance.
Sevika's eyes widened in disbelief. "What is that moron doing?"
"Start the car!" you yell in unison with Sevika.
"Start the fucking car!" echoes from all directions as your team converges on the vehicle.
In a mad scramble, you and Sevika end up diving into the trunk together, barely missing from crashing into each other. The car peels out, tires kicking up dust as you make your escape. You twist around to look back, seeing the walkers crest the hill behind you, their grotesque forms looking like ants as you get further away from the farm.
As the adrenaline starts to fade, you become acutely aware that you're still clutching Sevika's hand. You both look down at your intertwined fingers and quickly release a faint blush coloring your cheeks. 
You glance at Sevika and are struck by the sight of her wide grin, revealing the charming tooth gap from the first time you met her. She looks lighter somehow, the usual weight of responsibility temporarily lifted from her shoulders.
"Maybe you should put the chicken in the cage," you suggest, nodding towards the bird still tucked under her arm.
"Right," Sevika says, quickly stuffing the bewildered chicken into a nearby cage.
Free of your feathered companion, you lean out of the trunk slightly, letting the wind rush through your hair. The music from the car's speakers drifts back to you, and you close your eyes for a moment, savoring the smell of the woods and the high from the adrenaline rush.
When you open your eyes and turn back, you catch Sevika staring at you. She's not looking at the receding farmland or checking for pursuing walkers. Her eyes are fixed solely on you, an unreadable expression on her face. In this moment, bathed in sunlight and the afterglow of survival, she looks different. Softer. There was no reminiscent of the super soldier you knew her as.
As your eyes meet, Sevika doesn't look away. Instead, her grin softens into something more intimate, more real. You feel a warmth bloom in your chest, a feeling you can't quite name but don't want to let go of.
The car hits a bump, jolting you both and breaking the moment. Sevika clears her throat and turns to secure the chicken cage, you weren’t sure if had imagined the smile or not.
As you return to Zaun, the adrenaline from your narrow escape fades into a collective sense of relief and camaraderie. The team works together to unload the chickens, and despite the close call, everyone seems to be in high spirits.
"Hey, how about another bonfire party?" someone suggests, and a chorus of agreement follows.
To your surprise, Sevika turns to you. "You should come," she says gruffly. "You’re part of the team now."
"Yeah, sure," you reply, fighting to keep the eagerness out of your voice.
As the team disperses to prepare, you notice Vi sprinting towards a certain someone waiting for her at the entrance. "Caitlyn!" Vi shouts, throwing herself into Caitlyn's arms and kissing her passionately.
You raise an eyebrow. "Well, those two made up fast," you mutter to yourself.
Later that evening, you find yourself seated on the cool ground in front of a roaring bonfire. The flames dance hypnotically, casting flickering shadows across the faces of your teammates. The air is filled with laughter, the clink of bottles, and the rich aroma of smoke and grilled food.
You're nursing a beer, listening intently as the others regale you with stories from previous hunts. Sevika sits not far from you, perched regally on a lawn chair. She's quieter than the others, but you notice her lips quirk up occasionally at particularly funny or outrageous parts of the stories.
As the night wears on, a cool breeze picks up. You shiver involuntarily, the chill seeping through your thin shirt. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Sevika glance your way. Without a word, she shrugs off her shawl and leans forward, draping it over your shoulders.
The gesture catches you off guard. You want to thank her, but something in her posture tells you she'd rather not draw attention to the act of kindness. No one else seems to have noticed, and you wonder if this is just how Sevika takes care of her team—quietly, without fuss or expectation of gratitude.
You pull the shawl tighter around you, inhaling the faint scent of cigarettes and gunpowder that clings to it. 
The conversation lulls for a moment, and then someone pipes up, "Hey, remember that time at the hospital in Piltover when we-"
"Uh," another teammate interrupts, glancing nervously at Sevika. "Sevika’s here."
All eyes turn to your captain. Sevika just grunts, taking a long swig from her bottle. You can't tell if it's approval or indifference, but the storyteller takes it as permission to continue.
The crackling fire seems to dim as the storyteller begins, his voice low and reverent. "It was before Zaun was established. Sevika, Silco, Grayson, and some of us old veterans had been cooped up in the hospital for weeks. But it was time we got out, find new people and a place to stay."
You lean in, curious, sneaking glances at Sevika, whose face remains impassive.
"The hospital was completely surrounded," the storyteller continues. "But we had weapons and vehicles. Silco had this completely badass idea to add extra defenses to the ambulance in the garage."
A chorus of whoops erupts from the group, and you see a flicker of pride in Sevika's eyes.
"The plan was to pile as many people as possible into the ambulance. But in the garage," The storyteller's voice drops. "There must've been an opening or something. Somehow, those bastards found their way in."
You find yourself holding your breath while Sevika's face is impassive, but you notice her grip tightening on her bottle.
"It happened so fast. One second Silco was up, the next he was down, a walker lunging for his throat. And Sevika," He shakes his head in awe. "She didn't hesitate. She threw herself between them."
All eyes turn to Sevika. You glance at Sevika, trying to imagine her and the emotions in that moment. 
"Go on," she says. "Finish it."
The storyteller hesitates, unsure. "We had to go back in. We cleared the area, but the walker's teeth sank into her arm instead of Silco's neck." the storyteller says softly. "Even then, she didn't stop fighting. She bashed its skull in with her free hand, then turned and took out two more, saving a few more of us.  But the bite meant she was infected…"
There's a collective intake of breath around the fire. You feel a chill that has nothing to do with the night air.
His voice trails off, and Sevika finishes for him. "So Silco ended up amputating my arm," she states.
"When I die, I'll die on my own accord.  Not because some mindless corpse decided it was my time."
The silence that follows is profound. You see a mix of awe, respect, and a hint of fear on the faces around you as Sevika's words hang in the air.
Then, as if a spell is broken, cheers erupt. "Fuck yeah, boss!" someone shouts, and others join in.
Sevika just grins as she stubs out her cigarette and stands.  “I’m calling it a night, try not to have too much fun."
You remain rooted to the spot even though you know you should go give the shawl that's still draped around your shoulders back.  
As you’re watching Sevika’s retreating form, you're struck once again by how little you truly understand her. Just when you think you've got her figured out, she does something that shatters your assumptions. Her rare, genuine smile from moments ago was like a crack in her armor, offering a glimpse of something you're not sure you were meant to see.
You recall Grayson's comment; If she's going to hell, she'll drag you down with her. But Sevika isn’t just dragging anyone down—she's fighting, clawing her way up. She’ll endure whatever comes, as long as she’s the one who gets to forge her own path.
Sevika faced death itself, and she emerged victorious.
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venusindelusion · 1 month ago
Text
Giving In (to the Love): My Kink Is Karma
2nd chapter
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SUMMARY: After that hideous night, your nightmare wasn't over yet and the odds were certainly not in your favour. Or, you were about to properly meet this mysterious pink haired girl. WC: 3K PAIRING: Vi (Arcane) x Fem!Reader WARNINGS/TAGS: MDNI, mentions of alcohol/bar, NO PROOF READ it's just me, miscommunication, and obviously cursing A/N: i don't know how college works in other countries so i'm just making everything up lol Previous chapter Next chapter
A light breeze caresses your face as you turn around trying to avoid it, sunlight illuminating your eyelids and interrupting your dreams which were turning into a nightmare. It would have been wonderful to be woken up by nature itself if it wasn't for the throbbing headache threatening to burst your brains.
You open your eyes slowly, your stomach growling and your mouth completely dry as if you had been out in the desert the night before. Except it was much worse— you were at a party, completely wasted and fighting for your life. Forcing your body to get up was painful, your head was still spinning and you couldn't focus your vision.
Once you are standing more or less still on your feet, you head to the door. This is what baby giraffes must feel like when they're learning how to walk. Your hand reaches for the door knob and you open it, cursing the sun and its light and the day you decided to get beige curtains instead of full black ones. The smell of coffee was in the air and your mouth starts watering over it, something you so needed right now.
"You're awake," a familiar voice says, "finally."
You turn around and see your dear not abandoning friend, Caitlyn, sitting on the couch with her own mug of coffee in her hand. Notebooks and different papers were spread over the small table in front of her, you assume it must be all homework.
"You spent the night here?" you asked her, serving some of that delicious hot coffee into your favourite mug. Just a taste of it could solve all your problems, or at least you hope so.
"Don't you remember? I brought you here, you were completely passed out."
Your brain was working overtime to try to piece together the events of last night. You remember going to the party, of course, dancing and drinking just a little bit… Until it was not a bit anymore and you were having your glass refilled over and over with different types of drinks. A bathroom door comes to mind, working your way downstairs and then trying to get outside.
You remember seeing a couple making out and then some flashes of blue hair. A blue haired teenager.
Oh.
"There was a drunk teen outside the house!" you yell at Caitlyn with your finger up, little pieces of last night coming together. This coffee really does wonders. As you sip a bit of it, you keep remembering more and more. "And someone yelled at me…"
She looks at you with concern on her face, "yeah, about that…" smiling softly she adds, "It was Vi—Violet, the teen's older sister. She said you gave her booze."
You could actually feel every cell of your skin moving and turning your expression into a horrified one. How could your uptight best friend know this violent girl?
Walking to the couch, you sit down beside her, still wearing your horrified expression.
"I never gave her booze, she's a kid!" you leave your mug on the small table in front of you, carefully moving your friend's paperwork and keep explaining. "I went outside after fighting for my life— which thank you very much for abandoning me," Caitlyn rolls her eyes and chuckles a bit at that comment, "and then I saw her passed out on the grass, I just wanted to help her!"
"I know, I'm not putting you on trial." she smiles at you and puts a hand on your shoulder, you can feel your muscles relaxing a little bit. The last thing you needed was your best friend not believing you, it was enough with that Vi girl thinking you poisoned her little sister.
"By the way, where were you while my brain wasn't working and I had to drink vodka mistaking it for water?" you raise one of your eyebrows, pretending to judge her. You didn't really blame her, she was not your babysitter and you should know by now that your stomach can't take that much alcohol, specially when all you'd eaten before was noodles. Precooked noodles.
Her cheeks turn instantly red and you furrow your brows, "I was in the bathroom…" is all she answers. You think for a moment and your eyes widen, your lips parted in realization of what she just admitted. It was so obvious; that Vi girl, the bathroom, Caitlyn even came a few seconds behind the pink haired lady when you were outside.
"Oh my god…" she looks at you confused, "so it's your fault I couldn't get into the bathroom to puke!"
Both of you laughed at the coincidence and stayed in comfortable silence for a moment. Your head wasn't threatening to kill you anymore, but your stomach was still growling a bit so you suggested ordering a pizza and staying in. It was your free day, neither of you felt the need to rush anywhere and it's been a while since you could spend an entire day with your best friend; she was always running around and busy with her studies and internship— it was tough getting into the Legal bussiness being just a student, and although her family is wealthy and has connections, Caitlyn has always worked hard to earn her place. As much as she can anyway.
Aware as you are that her social status has always been an advantage for her— one you used to envy when you were younger, the pressure and disappointment it carried were heavy on her shoulders.
After eating a whole pizza and some ice cream, you say your goodbyes and Caitlyn takes off, leaving you wondering what you could do with the remaining hours of the evening. You decide to put your favourite comfort movie as background sound while cleaning your place up a bit and then preparing your bag for tomorrow's lesson.
With the day coming to an end, you turn off the lights and sneak under your freshly changed sheets, then grab your phone to check for any new assigments or messages but what you find leaves you speechless; someone tagged you on a picture from the party, you see yourself outside the house completely wasted, your own vomit on your side and your mouth wide open from passing out. On the other hand, Caitlyn looked stunning while trying to wake you up.
You felt absolutely embarrassed, your veins filled with shame and you could feel your cheeks already turning red. Who would post something like this? And how come you only check it now?
Cursing at yourself for not using your phone earlier, you scroll up to see the username so you could know who this horrible human being was and gagged— no way, it couldn't be her.
"doing god's work"
That bitch.
Getting up the next morning was easy, all you had to do was forget about the embarrassing photo of you wasted and puked along with the fact that your whole class has already seen it and left comments about how ridiculous you looked and how funny that bitch was for posting it.
Easy.
You didn't even want to check your phone anymore, the embarrassment was too strong— but you were also angry as hell. Whatever reason she thought she had to post that picture wasn't enough, you wanted an apology; a real good one, on her knees and everything. Although remembering how muscular she was and how physically weak you are, you were willing to accept a simple sorry and go on with your life.
But you had a secret weapon, one who was involved with that bitch while you were fighting for your life outside the bathroom that night. And you were going to use it.
Once you grabbed everything you needed for today, you leave your apartment and get into the elevator. Feeling your phone ringing, you decide it was enough free screen time and pick up. Your secret weapon was calling you.
"Hey, my current favourite person in the whole wide world."
"Hi," she answers, you can hear some people chatting in the background and a door closing, "I won't be making it today, I got stuck at work. It's pure chaos here, everyone's running around and yelling at each other."
"What? What am I gonna do now?" You can feel your whole plan shattering to pieces inside your mind.
"What are you talking about? I'm just not going to class, you can handle yourself." you hear some papers sounds on the other side before she adds, "We can meet later, I could use your help for this case."
"I'm talking about the picture, haven't you seen it?" The elevator stops at the lobby and you start walking out, looking for the keys to the main door. "It's all over the internet." Now, you were just being a tiny bit dramatic.
"I didn't see any pic, but I'll check in a bit so send it to me and—" her boss' voice interrupts Caitlyn, he was yelling at her like a madman over an important paper. You could hear apologizing and more paper sounds until she picks up the phone again, "can't talk right now, this man will kill me if I don't find that stupid paper."
"It's okay, we'll talk later, Cait." You comforted her as you lock the main door and start walking down the street, you thank the heavens everyday that your apartment was close to your college. She hangs up and seconds later your phone alerts a new message arrived. It was from Caitlyn.
"Who was your favourite person?"
You can't help but laugh at that, she never misses anything even as trivial as it may be.
As you start walking, you think about what you should do; you couldn't take it down and you certainly weren't to ask her nicely— not like she would accept anyway. Deciding to put that chain of thoughts for later, you arrive to the classroom and hope for God to be merciful and your classmates forgetful.
You greet the professor and seat beside him. As part of your networking efforts and to earn extra credit, you help to organize paperwork, lessons and exams, occasionally even correcting them yourself. Of course, everything under strict supervision.
This semester you were assigned to Viktor's class, which you were grateful for. He was a brilliant man, very ahead of his time—if you dare say so, and handsome. You had to admit though, your little crush on him was embarrassing and a bit cliché, but your eyes weren't blind and you couldn't help yourself.
As the lesson went on, you stayed seated on the desk checking and grading exams from students while Viktor was explaining to the class how using AI on the medical tech department could help improve many lives; which had nothing to do with the actual topic picked for today. Just as you were getting bored of reading other student's interpretations and thoughts on their exams, you come across one name that catches your eyes: Violet.
Still, you weren't sure it was her. She might as well be someone else but what caught your attention was the fact that she actually belongs to this class and yet you have never seen her, maybe you just weren't paying attention. And what's even worse, she didn't write down a single good answer—this whole exam was a mess.
Oh, you had her good.
Your hand ached to grab the red pen and start marking all the incorrect answers, leaving little red lines across some words to state a grammar mistake and, finally, the most satisfying moment of all: grading. Without second thought, you write "FAILED" on her exam and wait for the lesson to finish so your work could be supervised.
After the lesson is done through, Viktor and you walk to his office down the hall and start preparing the topics and books required for the next class. You were getting a little nervous, being alone with him was embarrassing and you felt a bit undeserving of being her assistant in his lessons; although he picked you himself because you were an outshining student—his words. This certainly would not apply to your other classes which you were pretty far behind.
"These are the exams, correct?" he asks, grabbing the pile of papers in front of you.
"Yes, I already graded them but you should check if everything's okay." he hums in response as his eyes scans each word while you keep writing down the list of books needed.
Once he's done with it, he lets you know that you have done a very good work and that your day is over for now. Grabbing your bag and stuff, you were about to open the office's door when he called your name.
"I need one last thing from you." he says, looking a little concerned.
"Yes, of course."
"One of these students is in…" he grabs one of the exams spread on the desk and watches it carefully. "A particular situation, she may be in need of tutoring, and I believe you are perfect for the role."
"Sure, who would that be?"
"Her name's Violet, you already graded her exam as failed—" your face turns into a distressed one and he adds, "correctly so, don't you worry about that, but I wouldn't want to waste her potential over one failed test."
You nod in agreement and say your goodbyes to him, leaving the office with your heart pounding against your chest like crazy. This is not what you were expecting. Why did it have to be you of all people who gets to tutor her?
Well, you think that Violet is a pretty common name and it could actually be anyone. Maybe she's even nice, right?
The little break you had in between classes was dedicated to eat, so you head towards the cafeteria and pick your favourite seat next to the window. Today's weather was nice and you wished you had some free time to enjoy it outside.
While you were admiring the view through the window, a waitress approaches you and asks for your order. You turn your head around to reply and open your eyes wide when you take a look at her, unforgettable long blue braid, her teenage face so familiar that you can't even find the words to make your order.
"Do I have monkeys on my face or what?" she asks, clearly annoyed that you were wasting her time like that.
"N-No, sorry…" you assume she must've forgotten all about you that night. After all, she was as wasted, or worse, as you were. "Just a coffee, please."
She nods as she writes down your order with her eyebrows still furrowed and takes off. You stay there feeling a bit embarrassed at yourself for not being able to answer properly. Watching her from afar as you're waiting for your coffee to arrive, you wonder what is she doing in the college's cafeteria when she's so young, you have never seen her here before and for the way she gets annoyed easily at customers it seems obvious she got the job very recently.
Once your coffee arrives, you decide to get some courage and tell her, "I was there when you passed out the other night." She looks at you confused then her face turned into one of realization, so you continue, "Your sister yelled at me."
"Yeah, she does that—" the little bell hanging from the door started ringing, signaling someone entered. "speaking of the Devil…" she ends the conversation and approaches the person standing near the door, your eyes move on their own to the same spot just to find Violet with her arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing a black top, tightly on her body and some baggy sport pants. You could see her arms more muscular than the night you met her, biceps flexing and her arms accompanying whatever she was saying to her younger sister; she even looked like she had just showered, her pink hair dripping over her face and the small towel around her shoulders. You could even say she was actually attracti—
The teenager looks at you and laughes outloud, telling her sister something you couldn't hear and Violet stares at you, meeting your gaze with one eyebrow up then furrows. God, did you felt small under that gaze, but you also feel something you couldn't quite figure. Was it rage because of what she did?
You took a sip at your coffee and avoid her intimidating gaze. Just when you were about to pay for your order and leave, someone sits beside you.
"I heard you're tutoring me." Of course it was her, you can't believe Viktor told her about it so soon, you didn't feel mentally prepared yet.
"Seems like it." she was so close to you, you could smell her perfume. Her light blue eyes locked into yours, she didn't seem upset so you wonder if she actually remembers you.
"Fine, meet me at The Last Drop at night." she grabs her little towel and dries her hair ends.
"What? We're not studying in a bar."
"You scared you're gonna get drunk and posted online again, cupcake?" she smirks teasingly. So she does remember you. She watches you getting pissed off already, how dares she make fun of what she did! "I work there, once I close the place we'll study at peace." she explains.
"Fine." you're already pissed off, but the only reason you agree was because of Viktor, you couldn't let him down and certainly needed those extra credit if you wanted to be an outshining student.
Leaving the money for the coffee and a tip for the waitress, you stand up and Violet moves aside so you can leave.
"Wait," she stops you on your tracks and you look at her annoyed, "say hi to Cait for me." she winks at you and walks through the door, not before saying goodbye to her sister. You let out an involuntary groan and leave behind her.
You really hope she's a quick learner or else you're going to lose your mind.
Next chapter
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sage-nebula · 6 days ago
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Okay, so I actually do want to get my thoughts down on why I didn't like season two as much as season one. This is going to be a lot of complaining, but keep in mind that while I don't think season two was as good as season one, I think season one was S tier. Season two was B tier. B tier is still pretty damn good, but it is a noticeable drop, and is disappointing considering that this is the show's finale. But with that said, please do not reblog this yammering about how much you hate the show, you're glad it's over, etc. Despite my criticisms, I don't feel that way, and I don't want to see that on my post.
With that said:
My biggest problem with the show overall is that, between seasons one and two, they seem to have remembered that this is supposed to be a video game show, and so felt compelled to abandon their focus on character work in favor of flashy action sequences. This isn't me being in la la land thinking that season one had no action sequences; obviously it had fight scenes as well. But season one had a heavy emphasis on the characters, their internal worlds and struggles, that I feel was sorely lacking in season two.
The best way to demonstrate why I feel this is is to look at the final episodes of each season. Season one ended with Jinx's family dinner party. That entire scene was one long conversation; although there was a bit of action when Caitlyn freed herself from her bonds and got Pow-Pow (and then Jinx knocked her out and took Pow-Pow back), that isn't what I would call a fight. Neither was Silco shooting at Vi / Jinx killing Silco. Instead, the scene consisted of Jinx walking back and forth along the table, trying to figure out whether Vi or Silco loved her most, and who she should be with therefore. It ends with a quiet, mournful song as Jinx fires the rocket, right as the Piltovan council was deciding in favor of Zaun's independence.
By contrast, the final episode of season two is pretty much a 40 minute battle sequence. The character exploration they could have had (e.g. Ekko convincing Jinx not to commit suicide) was omitted completely in favor of this battle sequence. We couldn't even see Piltover prepare for the battle. Instead, it cut straight from discussion of what they had to do to prepare, to the battle itself. Ekko convincing Jinx was omitted, Jinx making her decision was omitted, Sevika and the Firelights being convinced was omitted, Vi mourning her sister was omitted, how Sevika ended up joining the council was omitted. The only character work we had in the last episode at all was what was between Jayce and Viktor, and even that was barely anything, time-wise, in comparison to all of the battle scenes. (And the fact that the only character work in the finale was between two men when this series was supposed to be about two sisters . . . don't even get me started.)
While the animation in this show is the best animation I've ever seen, period—and while the action sequences always look fantastic because of that—I feel that the shift in focus from character work to action was to the show's detriment. What made Arcane so good, in my opinion, was not the animation—or at least, not just the animation. It was the character work. The fact that we had these three dimensional characters, each with their own rich, internal worlds that drove the story forward—that was what made it worth watching. So to cut that out, and relegate it either to music video montages or off-screen conversations, was a mistake. The characters suffered for it, and so did the story. It turned it from a masterpiece of a narrative, to just another good show. (Although I maintain that season one is a masterpiece. Season two doesn't affect that.)
Having said that, I'm going to break the rest of my critique down into sections.
The Noxus Problem:
Before I go further, let me just say: I love the Medardas. Mel in particular is my second favorite character on the show, and I love how messy the Medarda family is. I'm still fascinated by the Black Rose, and I feel that we weren't given an adequate answer as to what, exactly, the beef between them and Ambessa was. I want to know more about that. I'm really hoping that we get another show with Mel at the main character, to further explore what is going on there.
However, I feel bringing in the Noxian army was a huge, huge mistake, because it took focus away from the socio-political conflict between Piltover and Zaun—and, in the final episode, abandoned it altogether. After all, there is no time to address that if they're being invaded by a foreign army. There is no need to address it, if you show them working together against a common enemy. Except, there really is; we're given no reason to believe that Piltover's oppression of Zaun will stop. Yes, Sevika was given a seat on the council—but we don't know what that deal entails. Was she promised sovereignty for Zaun? If so, then why is she on Piltover's council? Is it merely that now she can vote for it? If so, I can't see that (or any other pro-Zaun measure) going her way, considering the fact that the two people most likely to support her (Mel and s1!Jayce) are both gone.
I understand that the writers' intention was, "they came together to fight an enemy, everything is good now!" but that is simply not how it works. Now that the battle is over, the most realistic thing to assume is that it went back to the status quo prior to martial law. And the status quo was that life in Zaun was suffering. Despite what the alternate timeline in episode seven tried to suggest (and "alternate timeline" feels too gracious; Zaun did not look like that prior to Hextech, Powder was mentally ill since the first episode's cold open—it was an AU on multiple levels), life in Zaun was never good. Characters like Sevika and Silco wanted to fight the enforcers and Piltover rule for a reason. And that reason has never been properly addressed or resolved, and we're given no reason to think that it will be, because they chose to ignore it altogether by making the second season about the Noxus army's invasion rather than letting it actually be about the socio-political struggle between the two sister cities. And for whatever reason that was done—the writers' being scared to commit to either Zaun's independence or Piltover beating them into submission, or the desire to set up the next show—I feel that it was a mistake. The Noxian army should have never invaded this show. Instead, Ambessa should have been saved for the Medarda spin-off, with Mel's decision to return to Noxus instead of staying in Piltover built to a different way.
The Vi Problem:
Of all the characters, I think Vi was written the worst and done the dirtiest in the second season.
The problem with Vi's character stems from inconsistency. We're never given convincing reasons for why she thinks the way she does, or why she does the things she does. The second season opens with her having done a complete 180 on her sister, for reasons that we're left to guess at because they aren't explained. Is it because Jinx fired the missile at the council? Is it because Jinx rejected her by saying "here's to the new us?" We don't know, because no time is spent on character work for that. All we know is that Vi went from telling Jinx "it'll be okay" at the end of s1e9 to begging Caitlyn to let her help hunt and kill Jinx in s2e1, even before the attack on the memorial service. Vi went from being unable to bear the thought of being an enforcer because they killed her parents in the beginning of s2e1, to being willing to gas the Lanes with the Gray in s2e2.
And this inconsistency is not relegated only to act 1. In act 2, Vi strangles Jinx so hard in her apartment that Jinx has trouble speaking after Vi finally releases her—but later, when they fight in the mines, she doesn't do anything to seriously hurt her and instead just tries to pin her down and get her to surrender. Why is she less murderous toward Jinx now? We're not given a reason. After all, she wanted to kill her in the temple; her brief hesitation when Jinx said "it had to be you" is overruled when she raises her fist to deliver the finishing blow, stopped only by Isha's intervention. And again, her first instinct upon seeing Jinx again was to strangle her hard enough to crush her windpipe. But she flipped again, for reasons we're not privy to, because the character work wasn't done. The closest we get is Vi accepting Jinx after Jinx proved she was right about Vander—but even then, that doesn't make up for the above.
And again, it doesn't end there. In act 3, she's furious with Caitlyn for jailing Jinx, and wants to comfort and help her sister. Yet when Jinx leaves her in the jail cell, suddenly it's "tell me you were right, Caitlyn" and "I was an idiot for trusting her" — this, after Jinx was right about Vander. This, after Jinx saved Caitlyn's life. This, after Jinx told her "don't feel guilty about being happy" and "you deserve to be with [Caitlyn]." She does a 180 again simply because Jinx left? Even though Jinx left telling her that she deserved to be happy? Even though Jinx was probably the one who told Caitlyn where Vi was?
In season one, Vi's actions made sense. Her reasoning was always clear. We knew that she hated the enforcers because they killed her parents, and made life worse for those in Zaun; we knew that her priorities were those closest to her (not Zaun itself, never Zaun itself), and that she would do anything for those she loved. And we knew who she loved, without a doubt, and could see exactly why she loved them.
In season two, this is no longer the case. Vi's motivations and goals flip-flop on a whim. Best I can tell by the end of the season, Vi is willing to agree with whoever is closest to her at any given moment in desperation to keep them there. Jinx abandoned her, but Caitlyn was still there, so Vi agreed to be an enforcer and kill her sister. Then Caitlyn abandoned her and Jinx came back, and while Vi blamed Jinx for Caitlyn's abandonment, she was still willing to take Jinx back if it meant having Vander back, too. But then Jinx left again, and Caitlyn was there, so now Caitlyn Was Right and Jinx shouldn't have been trusted. Perhaps if we had the character work to understand what was actually in Vi's head it would make sense and she would seem like a better written character, but we don't, and so instead it seems that her goals shift depending on what the plot needs. The plot needed her to fight Jinx in an Cool Battle Sequence, so that's what happened. The plot needed her to fuck Caitlyn so the show could have a lesbian sex scene, so that's what happened. No thought was given to her character or her relationships at all, despite her being one of the protagonists. (Jinx is the other, of course.)
Speaking of Vi's relationships, though . . .
The Sisters Problem:
This was supposed to be a show about sisters. What happened to that?
In season one, their relationship was handled beautifully. We saw how close they were in childhood, and the moment they fell apart; and we saw them struggling to work their way back together in late teen (Jinx) / adulthood (Vi), only for Jinx to seemingly sever that at the end. Honestly, that is the one complaint I have about the finale of season one; it has never made sense to me that Vi didn't try to argue with Jinx when Jinx asserted that Vi couldn't love her like she used to, because Vi did love her. Even at that moment, she loved her. But I digress. The point is, in season one, the sisters' relationship continued on a strong through-line. We could see where they were going, and how they were getting there, every step of the way. It was strong, it was consistent.
This is not the case for season two. I already talked about this a lot with Vi above, and Jinx's character was written much more consistently; still, there are problems. For one, in act 3, Jinx is made to ignore Vi's own inconsistency; her line "you're never going to give up on me" makes no sense when Vi had already given up on her once before, in act 1 and the beginning of act 2. The bigger problem, though, is that their relationship was sidelined hard and that, as a result, we once again miss the character work. We got a bit of it in episode six, with their talk about their mother next to the chunk of wall that had once been used to mark their heights. And we know that Vi forgave Jinx the moment that she invited her into the group hug with Vander. But for a show that was supposed to be about them, that is nowhere near enough. Jinx telling Vi, "you know I'm always with you" doesn't feel earned when we didn't get to see them reach that point again. Vi not mourning her sister at all, and instead being fine with being "the dirt under [Caitlyn's nails]" feels extremely dissatisfying when the entire show was supposed to be about the sisters. The most important relationship for Vi and Jinx both was the one they had with each other, and that was completely forgotten.
Speaking of the lesbians, though—
The Violyn Problem:
Look, I'm a lesbian myself. Obviously I was on-board for Violyn, and I thought they were well-written in season one. The problem is, they weren't well-written in season two.
To be fair, of the two characters, Caitlyn was better written. While she, too, had problems with inconsistency (we're given no reason as to why she's feeling doubt about martial law or why she wanted to betray Ambessa in act 2, for instance), she was still written more consistently than Vi was. Catilyn being willing to abandon her positive belief in Zaun made sense given the life of privilege she was raised in. Caitlyn turning to martial law made sense when you remember that her dream was to be a cop. Even her turns back toward wanting to remove martial law and betray Ambessa could have been written to make sense, had the character work been put in. It wasn't, but Caitlyn still made more sense than Vi overall.
But this section isn't about Caitlyn, it's about her relationship with Vi. And her relationship with Vi was done dirty. Yes, they ended up together. Yes, they had sex. But again, the character work to get them there was not done. In season one, we see their relationship develop; we see how they go from enemies who oppose each other to friends who build trust (and feelings) between them. We see their growing care for each other, we see them work past their preconceived notions and struggles. Their relationship is slowly and steadily built. It makes sense.
In season two? We kind of get that in act 1, but only because we can continue on from knowledge of where they were in the last act of season one. However, season one can no longer carry them after Caitlyn hits Vi in the stomach with the butt of her rifle and then they break up. They should have had a long way to go toward reconciliation after that; the trust between them was shattered, and it takes a long time to build trust back. But they weren't given that time; Vi's easy acceptance of Caitlyn back in her life the moment they reunite aside, we're given absolutely no reason why Caitlyn—someone who felt horribly betrayed by Vi seemingly choosing Jinx over her—is willing to trust Vi and take her back again. Even putting aside her doubts about Ambessa (which were, again, not built up well enough to justify a betrayal from a writing standpoint), and the fact that she was in a relationship with someone else (and there was never any indication that Maddie was a traitor until the literal second that it happened), Caitlyn felt betrayed by Vi. It isn't believable that she's Completely Over It by the time they reunite again, or that those feelings of betrayal wouldn't come back full force when she sees that Vi is partnered up with Jinx, versus Vi's previous assertion that she was only trying to protect Isha when she stopped Caitlyn from shooting.
And it wasn't only Caitlyn who had reasonable grievances! Vi saw Caitlyn change before her eyes, when that was her worst fear; she saw Caitlyn being willing to shoot at a child, knew that Caitlyn had teamed up with Ambessa to put Zaun under martial law, and then had Jinx imprisoned after Jinx saved her life. She did, very briefly, air those grievances with Caitlyn. But then it was all abandoned a few scenes later so that they could have sex in the dungeon. It was completely forgotten for the sake of a fanservice sex scene.
Listen. As I said before, I'm a lesbian. And I'm always happy to see sapphic relationships in shows. I'm even happy to have messy sapphic relationships in shows, because believe it or not, we sapphics are actual human beings, and sometimes that makes us messy. ACAB, and that includes lesbian cops, but bastards make television entertaining. I'm here for that.
But messy shouldn't mean underdeveloped. It shouldn't mean poorly written. And I for one could not enjoy that sex scene when it wasn't properly built up to at all. When Vi and Caitlyn had all of this unresolved, and now ignored, conflict between them. It wasn't even hate sex, or at least, "we're still not good but we're alone and horny" sex. It was "everything is better and they're a couple now" sex. Which is extremely frustrating, and a complete let down over how well their relationship was written in season one. Despite the "league of lesbians" goof tags, the show wasn't about them, but it still should have done them justice, and it didn't. Not by a long shot.
Other Problems:
I don't like that the only character work in the last episode of the show was between Jayce and Viktor. While even that was lacking, taking a show about two sisters and making its series finale about two men puts a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that the bulk of the fandom cares about the men (or at least it seems like it does when I put "jayvik" into my blacklist and half the Arcane tag disappears), but the show should be written for its narrative, not for the fandom. And I, for one, never cared too much about Jayce or Viktor, but after the way this finale sidelined all of the women in order to focus on them? My feelings are pretty negative toward them now.
I don't like that they tried to do a fake-out with Jinx dying, when it's obvious that she didn't. For one, Riot would never kill off their most popular character. For another, there are too many signs that make it obvious that she survived, from the pink streak right before the main explosion, to the glitchy "the end" message over the airship sailing away (one that Powder said she'd ride on one day). It feels as if they wanted to make it look like she died for shock value, and that's something I thought that this show was above doing. It's cheap, it's bad, and I don't like it.
I don't like that Mel and Ekko were both sidelined so much throughout this entire season. Mel spends the bulk of the season in captivity, and then when she is finally free, she doesn't get to do anything to affect change except be in a magic battle against her mother. Jayce completely abandons her without any insight as to why beyond "the Arcane messed him up", and we're given no indication that Mel had anything to do with the reformation of the council at the end. Ekko, meanwhile, was completely absent in act 2, and while he literally saved the day in act 3:
His convincing Jinx not to commit suicide was off-screen;
His rallying of the Firelights was off-screen
He ends up alone in Zaun with absolutely no indication of what he or the Firelights will do after—was the tree even healed at all?
Ekko and the Firelights should have played a much bigger role. The sanctuary that the Firelights had built for the refugees should have had more of a showing other than "the tree is sick" (a plot line which, as I just said, was never resolved). Episode seven was nice, but the Zaun depicted was completely incongruent with what we knew of Zaun's state at the start of the show, and the depiction of Powder is the same. (Because Powder was hallucinating even as a small child, as shown in the cold open of season 1; Vi's death should have sent her spiraling. The fact that she was Totally Mentally Healthy in the alternate timeline makes absolutely no sense. She was Ekko's Ideal Version of Powder, not who she'd realistically be growing up like that.) He wasn't given justice as a character.
And Mel? Again, she spent most of the season in captivity, had her agency completely ripped away from her, lost everyone she ever cared about, has powers that aren't clearly defined or explained, and is now leaving the only home she has known for years to go back to Noxus. And again, I want that story for her, I want that show, but after we saw her brilliant mind in action in season one and how much change she affected, I still feel that she was done dirty this season. I hate how much she was sidelined; she deserved better.
Final Notes:
Despite all this, I do still love Arcane. Well, I love season one, and season two had parts that I liked (I think that arc 2, despite the lack of Ekko, was the best because of the fleeting character work we did get and the focus on the sisters), despite being a disappointment overall. I think for me, I'm going to just take the parts from season two that I did like and put them into an alternate season two that I have in my mind; one where Noxus didn't invade so that the issues between Piltover and Zaun could be focused on and actually resolved, one where the character work wasn't abandoned for flashy action sequences, and one where there wasn't a fakeout of Jinx's death for shock value.
And now that it's all off my chest, that's all I have to say about that.
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riddlers-roulette · 5 days ago
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Probably a bit of a hot take, and definitely petty fandom salt, but i’ve come to notice that in recent years, with most fandom spaces becoming puritanical in their efforts to ice out anything that can be labeled toxic, or anything that just doesn't fit the fandom’s prevalent opinions on a situation or character–a phenomenon that has only been exacerbated by TikTok and the overuse of “therapy-speak”--there seems to be a general lack of nuance and/or sense of media literacy in most vocal fandom spaces when it comes to a story that is not just black and white.
Arcane is one of the most recent example of this, with (arcane s2 spoilers ahead) characters caitlyn and vi being discussed pretty heavily with the terms like “domestic abuse” and “abuser apologism” particularly when it comes to caitlyn’s act of jabbing her rifle at vi’s side before walking away, leaving vi anguished. Now, i’m not saying domestic abuse is not real–i’m just saying, that in this instance, I don't believe that the act was domestic violence, nor do i believe that any of the parties that make up CaitVi are abusers.
Arcane itself is a complex story with heart shattering situations that the characters find themselves in constantly, often putting them at odds with their morals, the morals of their environment, and the morals of the audience. Do I think caitlyn was right to jab her rifle at vi? No. But we as an audience can tell that neither does Caitlyn herself. Neither does Vi. But when Caitlyn did so, it was when she was under immense emotional duress, her mother’s killer getting away, and she was blocked from taking vengeance by the person she trusted the most. When she said the horrible things she did, she was hurting and angry and lashing out–she was punching the walls like a woman gone. And why is it that we can offer characters like Jinx the grace to absolve her of her crimes due to her own psychotic breaks, but not other characters to their own actions done in moments of their own breakdowns? Vi punching Powder, for instance. An act that had Vi villainized by the fandom for a long time. 
Which brings me to another point–absolution. It is one the extremes characters tend to fall into when it comes to fandom, with the other extreme being amplification. A character’s sins tend to be glossed over, or explained away so that the character in question becomes an unquestionable angel and champion of justice, or, in other cases, tend to be overly exaggerated, making the character out to be the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low. Rarely is there an in-between, with multifaceted characters complete with riveting backstory and motivations and complicated characteristics inevitably losing a little of what makes them, them, all in the pursuit of woobification, gratuitous groveling from other characters, and victimization; it’s an apology fantasy on steroids. In other cases, and often, connected cases, if one character is getting the baby treatment then chances are that another is getting the villain treatment, becoming a sort of caricature of themselves. Motives and environmental factors and politics are all thrown out the window, and all that’s left is cartoonish, flat, oft one-dimensional portrayals. 
Arcane’s Silco is an example of the former, with the singular trait of caring for Jinx becoming twisted and emphasized until he is nigh unrecognizable. His harmful actions towards the undercity are erased and he is lifted up instead as something other than he was. He is transformed from the fascinatingly flawed, human depiction to something bland and uncanny. He is just a Poor Sad Betrayed Meow Meow who is also a Good Dad. But it’s okay because he also does crimes! Except wait, those crimes are also sanitized and cutesy, or horrific and without reason or logic. He has lost what makes him, him.
And for the other half of the coin, the unnecessary villainization, we have Jayce! Jayce was hated upon widely, especially after the release of Season 1, and his struggles were erased.
(and yes, there were struggles. Jayce was more privileged than those from the Undercity, that is unquestionable, but he was not as privileged as the other Council members or even most of his peers. He had the fortune of a patron, but that was something that had to be earned, and he could always risk losing. He was from a House, yes, but it was also a minor one, and he would have labored in his factories alongside other workers–he wasn’t a crazy wealthy guy. He staked his entire life on his research that he was actually going to take his own life when his dream was taken from him. His dream wasn’t to generate wealth by unlocking the arcane, but rather, it was to put these tools in the hands of the common man too. One of his first act as councilors was to immediately try to root out corruption. He was able bodied and from Piltover, and so, had more privilege than Viktor (who is my favorite arcane character) that is undeniable. But Jayce did have struggles, he wasn’t taken seriously by the Council due to his own status and had to go through them initially when it came to his own HexTech. Jayce had struggles,but Jayce is a POC and Viktor is a white boy, so Jayce’s problems are gonna be minimized by fandom but that’s a whole other issue–)
And yet, three years ago, the Jayce hate was at a total high, with every action of his being dramatized so as to make Viktor’s pain far more excruciating. 
I’ve derailed a little! The point of this post was to point out the “therapy speak” in fandom that often comes at the cost of lifting one character up and bashing the other, all while skipping over the context and nuance for the gray situations the characters found themselves in. All this to say–with fandom’s recent behaviors when it comes to relationships in fandom, it really makes you wonder if people have forgotten that relationships aren’t easy and actually require constant work and effort. That relationships change and evolve and grow with each obstacle that comes one’s way, and that sometimes things get rough, but that love is being able to understand and empathize with one’s partners–that not everything is black and white and that not every mistake is irredeemable.
edit: also, don’t really care enough to argue with ppl on this point in the notes. it’s tired and repetitive and half the time it’s like arguing with a brick wall. if this gets out of hand I will start deleting and/or restricting replies
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dancingdaffodils08 · 20 days ago
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Every time the scene between Vi and Cait in s2 is compared to this scene an angel loses it’s wings.
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bunniehrtz · 14 days ago
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HOT TO GO!
i knew you were trouble - masterlist
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art by @trackinglessons at the end of the chapter! — your best friend drags you to a college party — not your scene. amongst the new people you meet, a spark ignites between you and an unfamiliar pink- haired girl cw: multiple alcohol mentions & consumption, sexual tension, no smut (do not fret! smut is coming!!!)
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Caitlyn pleads, practically on her knees, begging you to come along with her to a party on campus. You couldn’t roll your eyes further into the back of your head if you tried. You didn’t want to go, the thought of going out into the cold November night sent chills down your spine, the hairs stand up on your arms. As cliché as it might be, you’d much rather stay at home, hot chocolate in hand and catching up on TV you’ve missed since starting university almost two years ago. Reluctantly, you sit up from your horizontal position you had perfected so well, making eye contact with your best friend who is sitting on her bed, adjacent from yours. She looked perfect, she always does. She sits in a lilac, low cut night dress, matched with deeper purple pants that sit just above her knees. “Fine.” you attempt to hide the smile that sneaks its way onto your face at the way Caitlyn’s eyes light up. Of course, you fail. The giddy smile and the way she shoots up onto her feet is just too good to not smile at. “Really?! You’re coming?” Caitlyn exclaims, rushing over to stand at your feet as you swing your legs around, your feet firmly on the floor. You nod, laughing softly. Your right hand comes up to usher her towards the wardrobe you share. “Can you help me find something to wear?”
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The flashing blue and red lights were enough to almost give you a migraine. You secretly wished it would, the escape plan would become just that much easier. The sharp, grim taste of vodka lingers on your tongue, forcing your mouth into a disgusted pout. You keep it in your hand though, picking the bottle back up to refill your cup. The alcohol to mixer ratio could kill a Victorian child, you think, shaking your head and chugging and finishing the red solo cup. “I think that’s enough for you,” Caitlyn reaches for the bottle, but you quickly pull away, shooting her an evil glare. She laughs, shrugging. “Suit yourself.” You turn your attention back to the table filled with different types of alcohol, mixers and pathetic looking party snacks on cheap paper plates. It’s better than nothing, you think to yourself, giggling gently. You pick up a small cookie, taking a bite as you turn around to talk to your best friend.
“Hey, Cait! What are- oh…” you speak to a Caitlyn that is no longer next to you. You look around frantically, trying to spot her. Over the vast amount of frat boys’ heads, you find the blue haired girl. She’s connected by the hand to another girl, you don’t recognise her. Caitlyn follows her upstairs. You connect the dots in your mind, letting out a soft oooh. You snigger to yourself, taking another sip from the cup you don’t remember refilling. You don’t know how she does it so easily, it’s quite amazing to watch.
As you go to take your final sip, you feel a barge on your shoulder, making you snap around. You turn eye to eye with a girl that looked about a year younger than yourself, her hair was long and a gorgeous shade of powder blue, braided in a way that made it hard to look away. She stands pale, clad in a dark, small skirt, tights with rips all the way to the top of her thigh and an almost tiny, black top. Her shoes were a messy pair of bulky, black canvas sneakers, topped by a pair of white leg warmers. Messy, but she looked put together perfectly. She stands next to a boy, around the same age. His jeans were a big and baggy blue pair, a black undershirt under an oversized grey shirt on top. His jeans cover his shoes so much you couldn’t make out what they were. His hair was a shade of white, dread-hawks swooped to the right side of his head. “Sorry, he’s had a night. Too much in his system,” the girl jokes, you laugh with her. “Been there. Don’t worry about it,” you flash her a reassuring smile and she mirrors it. Her friend quickly rushes behind you, you don’t think too much into it. “I’m Jinx. This is…this is Ekko,” she grimaces, looking behind you. You follow her eyes, turning around to see Ekko’s head in a bucket on the stairs. Nice. “Oh, boy…” Jinx whispers to herself, her face hiding in one of her hands. “It’s going to be a long night,” she sighs. You grab her shoulder, sympathetically. She moves to stand in front of you, her back facing the rest of the party.
“So, what are you studying?” she asks, filling up her own cup. You open your mouth, about to answer when someone catches your eye, sitting behind your new friend. A pink-haired girl sits on the sofa on the back wall, looking up to talk to, what you assume is, her friend. She sits quite slouched, her knees spread wide. Her legs are covered by a pair of loose, black jeans with the waistband of what looks like boxers peeking out the top. You squint your eyes to try and get a good look at her, not thinking about what you look like right now. You notice a hoop on the side of her nose, with eyes a light grey. The jeans are paired with a black hoodie, with something in the front pocket. You’ve completely tuned out Jinx, and she’s beginning to notice. The girl pulls out a joint from her hoodie pocket, along with a grinder and a lighter. Her eyes trail across the room, and your stomach drops. Her eyes land on yours. She is looking straight at you. A cocky smirk creeps onto her face as she sinks a bit further into the couch, her legs spreading just a bit more. Not a lot, but enough for someone that’s staring at her to notice. Enough for you to notice. A heat rushes to your cheeks, and you feel electricity in your lower stomach. You absentmindedly gulp, loud enough to catch Jinx’s attention.
“Hello? Are you listening?” she questions, trying not to laugh at your expression. You haven’t blinked in about two minutes. The girl sitting on the couch laughs breathily, maintaining eye contact with you as she places the blunt between her teeth, lifting her hands up to light it. She takes a drag, holding the gaze into your eyes as she inhales. She lifts her head up as she blows the smoke, sending you a wink. You gasp softly, your breath shaky as you try to stand still. You feel like you could faint. The girl sits up straight, her blunt passed to her friend sitting next to her. Her hands run down her hoodie, straightening it out before holding onto the bottom hem, lifting it up to pull it off. Her eyes stay locked on yours as she peels it off, placing it on the arm of the couch. She reveals a black tank top, the straps are thick on her shoulders and it cuts off just at her navel, short enough to reveal the trail of hair leading down her stomach that hides under the waistband of her Calvin Kleins. God, you think. Or so you thought. “God, what?” Jinx asks, her eyebrows furrowed as she looks up at you. She follows your eyes, looking behind her. She spots the girl, the change in her body language is enough to pull you out of this trance. “Oh,” she says softly, turning back around. Your mind is too foggy to notice what she says, but you notice the change of her facial expression. “What’s wrong?” you ask, placing your right hand on her shoulder, trying to read her face. “It’s-It’s nothing. I’ll see ya. Come on,” she stammers, walking away to pick Ekko up by the collar of his shirt. Weird. Your attention is pulled back to the table behind you, as you go to pick up and open a fresh bottle. A familiar blue haired figure stands next to you.
“Oh, hey, stranger,” you joke, elbowing Caitlyn gently. “You have fun?” Caitlyn’s cheeks flash red at your question, shrugging in jest as she takes a sip of her drink. “Naughty girl!” she giggles at your remark. You almost choke on your drink as you begin to mention the girl on the couch. “Oh my God, you missed it,” you grab Caitlyn’s arm, shaking it a little to emphasise how much she missed. “What? What did I miss?” she laughs, looking around confused. “Shut- shut up. The couch, over there. There’s a girl. On the sofa. Over there,” you pathetically spit out, the alcohol hitting you like a truck. Caitlyn smiles, shaking her head as she turns to look at the sofa. “Are you sure?” she asks, looking at the now empty sofa. “What? What the fuck are you talking about, of course I’m sure, she’s right- Oh.” You’re met by the empty couch. The only thing left of her is a half smoked blunt rested on the coffee table. “Come on, home time,” Caitlyn says, sympathetically, pulling you into her chest as she walks you both out.
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wingedshadowfan · 3 days ago
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⚠️arcane s2 act iii spoilers // criticism ⚠️
i kind of hated the end of arcane. hear me out.
i don't wanna rain on anyone's parade but we can all agree season 2's pacing was super breakneck. not a lot got explained or was given the proper time to develop or be addressed (at least in front of us, the audience, that is - but even then, some things could've been hinted at better) and this goes for both lore, motivations and interpersonal character relationships. (and i can give many examples such as the black rose, maddie's true motivations, caitlyn and vi's fight, jinx rallying up the undercity, viktor and ambessa's plans diverging, etc. but instead, i'll tell you what i think went wrong with what we got to see in the last three eps)
seeing where ep 7 left us made me think "okay ep 8 will start from the same exact spot and we'll see from there" and ofc my expectations were defied but that's not my main problem. i needed to know what happened to ekko, jayce and heimerdinger but even more than that, i wanted to see jinx grieve isha in her own way (by herself and not through being asked or guilt tripped to help someone else's agenda bcuz she clearly had little intrinsic motivation to unite the undercity over a common goal after silco's death) and internalize what she'd meant to isha - and that becoming jinx's catalyst to rally up the undercity. i wanted her to understand why this orphan from the undercity's mines sacrificed herself to save jinx - the symbol of a cause greater than her. i needed her to see what unifying zaun and making tangible institutional change to the undercity would mean in a way sevika never would've been able to show her. it would mean no more powders, no more ishas. not one more. breaking the cycle of violence, poverty, oppression, somewhat like what silco said in ep 9 (which she interpreted as 'you're the problem, so kys' and she attempted to until somehow ekko convinced her to help. how, why and did she even unite the undercity at all or just make her big hot air balloon late-to-the-party entrance with the firelights to a stray kids banger while sevika did all the work down in zaun?).
anyway, ep 8 threw us in for a loop in an alternative universe (and i loved it, don't get me wrong, but considering there were only 2 normal length eps left, it scared me just as much). instrumentally to the plot, we got to see ekko's main ability develop, and we saw jayce's reasons for shooting viktor. the main conflict of the show, the piltover/zaun one, if those 1,5 seasons so far were anything to go by, just got set aside for the time being. over halfway through the season, we've got a new big bad - the possibility of everyone getting possessed by the viktor/hexcore and becoming part of The Glorious Evolution™. it felt like a movie about racism and police brutality added aliens in the last 5 minutes to force oppressed and oppressors to (not all that successfully) work together, massive losses were suffered by everyone, and then the overarching motif wasn't about love or humanity or rebuilding (things that have come up repeatedly in other episodes, including the one ep literally called 'the messege hidden within the pattern'), it was "bad things happen sometimes, but good things happen sometimes too. it is what it is. i guess." like. duh?? as a viewer, this was quite the disappointing ending takeaway from such a masterpiece of a show but more on that in a second.
narratively, we saw a butterfly effect situation in ep 8 that answered the question of 'what could've been?' but even that answer confused me. the undercity was already oppressed and in socioeconomical peril before jayce's hextech - vi's death during that last job (which makes me believe zaun was the same in both universes because why else would they be poor enough to steal from piltover?) prevented it from being invented and thus stopping other things in piltover from happening but how did it lead to progress in the undercity? what happened and what was the key to it all along? why did shimmer not get invented, how did zaun and piltover seemingly unite, why were zaunites all of a sudden seemingly so much materially and culturally richer and better educated in just a few years? (that aside, i love ekko's determination to get back and save his universe's zaun. i loved the alternative jinx and i loved how everyone was wearing vests 10/10)
then, ep 9 felt like a bunch of confusing things happening one after the other to the point it almost overwhelmed me and i was left thinking i didn't understand a single thing from it (except maybe that one scene - that, i understood spiritually). and the first maybe 90% of ep 10 felt like i was just repeatedly getting hit, and again - no time to breathe, no consolation, no resolve, just receiving bad news after bad news, like getting beaten to the ground with stones.
and at the very end, after some of the ends get tied, caitlyn has her speech, which to me, sounds more depressing and hollow than anything else. she talks ambiguously of history and of ups and downs and of a story not yet over, but there's no promise for the future, no motivation to keep going, no bigger picture, no lesson learned. we're not shown much work being done either (and i'll make a separate post examining why it felt that way to me and a separate one abt how i interpreted her conversation w/ vi at the very end). i was left a bit confused, somewhat unsatisfied, and very, very sad.
did anyone else feel that way too? what did i miss, did i misinterpret or misunderstand something? please i'm going insane i had two different friends tell me they had no idea what i was talking about and that the ending was everything they wanted and more
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brain-depositary · 12 days ago
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Okay, here are Arcane spoilers for Act 2. I have thoughts on Viktor, as there's been a lot of back and forth over whether what we're seeing is really him or if he is being controlled by the hexcore/arcane. And people are missing the narrative explanations, which seem to make what happened really obvious. And the biggest sign of this is that Viktor has been hallucinating Sky the whole time. The man has clearly lost his marbles.
The show is very clear that Sky is not there physically, but she's also absolutely not there mentally, spiritually, magically, whathaveyou. Her ghost isn't in the hexcore or whatever. There's simply no way.
It's not that we know for sure there are no ghosts in the world of Arcane. It hasn't been proven one way or the other that they exist. All sorts of fantastical things exist in Arcane and maybe ghosts do, too. But we know Sky isn't one because it makes no narrative sense for her to be.
Thematically, all of Arcane has been about people handling grief and loss not just poorly, but destructively. Powder hallucinates the people she's lost as critical voices and behaves erratically and dangerously whenever they do. Both Vander and Silco twist Vi and Powder's mother's dreams of peace into more violence and oppression. Jayce can't deal with the loss of Viktor and uses the hexcore to save him which Viktor specifically told him to destroy. Caitlyn becomes a dictator after her mother's death and uses the ventilation system her mother created against the very people it was intended to help. Ambessa has gone on a rampage for her dead son who preferred bloodless subterfuge, and I have a feeling Singed's daughter would approve of all the things her father is trying to do to bring her back, had she ever had the chance to know.
But Viktor, after losing Sky and her dreams, just kind of gets her back, and fulfills them? Yeah, no, I'm calling bullshit. Viktor is not going to be the only one exempt from the Arcane pain train. This would be bad writing.
Sky isn't a ghost here. She's gone. The version of her in the hexcore is purely a product of Viktor's imagination. We don't see Sky a lot, but what little we do, she's different, much more confident. It's not her. Viktor is handling his loss badly, too, but his method of doing so is just wholesale denying that it happened. Sky isn't dead, she's right there. Her dreams aren't gone, they're perfectly within reach. It doesn't matter if he dies now because he's succeeded in his goals of helping people. The sick are healed, the hungry are fed. The commune is thriving. Everything is great.
With whatever power he gained from the hexcore, he's able to project this denial onto the real world, at least for a little while. Everything in his little bubble DOES seem great, but the cracks in the facade come early. When Salo talks to Jayce in the overflow chamber, Jayce's breath condenses, while Salo's does not, implying that he's not breathing. Also, Salo's turnover at the commune is disturbingly quick -- his original personality just does not seem to be there anymore, despite his insistence otherwise. The "no weapons" rule, while idealistic, cannot realistically be enforced -- as much as Viktor denied, reality was going to come crashing in and he was going to be unprepared for it, because he just decided he didn't have to be. Huck didn't even seem afraid at all denying a heavily armed warlord and her contingent entry without disarming first when literally his only character trait has been being cowardly. There's nothing in him anymore.
So, is Viktor being mind controlled, or is this the same Viktor we've known the whole time? Well, it's not really either. This is Viktor snapping and having a mental breakdown. This is Viktor's equivalent of Jinx's tea party at the end of season 1, except he has far more power to make it last longer, seem nicer, and drag far more people into it. Probably, the hexcore is taking advantage of Viktor's vision to build its hivemind, but the vision itself is all Viktor.
So, given all this, my prediction is: Viktor will be salvaged and revived by Singed. He will get a reality check, that Sky is really gone, that the people he healed are hollowed-out husks, that the peace he created was too fragile to last -- and he won't care, he will try to get it back by any means necessary, even if he doesn't have the arcane abilities or ability to completely deny reality that he used to have. And this will create a bitter person, similar to the character we know as the Machine Herald from League of Legends.
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watched the s1 finale with my sister two days ago (but it was like semi-late when we finished watching and then some shit happened the next day so i didn't post her thoughts until now):
"vander would go on my hear me out cake"
"she has the fighting equivalent to blue balls. she's all revved up and no one to punch" (about vi when jayce left her with the gauntlets)
"i think you're just talking out of your ass" (about silco after renni's son died)
"i would've had your son killed for this" "i would've punch him in the face cause who the fuck does he think he is"
"you could go back to noxus if you like to talk about it so much" (about ambessa)
"with respect, i don't give a shit what any of you think of me anymore" "period, kind of attractive of him to say, just that though. i don't forgive how you've neglected viktor"
"this is a dinner party from hell"
"i was hating him but now i feel bad for him" (about heimerdinger)
i jokingly called the show a masterpiece sometime after we finished watching and she went "i wouldn't say that" so do with that what you will
"kay but the thing is, nothing he said was wrong" (about finn after he died)
"are they flirting?" (about jayvik when they were on the ledge)
"i feel bad for her but i'm not sad that he's dead" (about jinx and silco)
the credits rolled and she went "i'm sorry what" which is so me-watching-arcane-for-the-first-time-coded of her to do
"there's too much moral greyness for me"
okay and then i had her list her top 5 and bottom 5 characters (she struggled to find three more top characters after the first two, probably tells you a lot about her viewing experience)
top 5:
vander: "he has clear morals and he's just trying to protect his people and he's a good father figure"
ekko: "he's the little guy, when we first meet him that is, he's like a tech wiz. and for him to build this place, i'm proud of him"
caitlyn: "she's an actual good enforcer like she's actually trying to listen to the people"
viktor: "he just wants to help people and he's looked over a lot and downgraded so he tries not to do the same"
claggor: "he's just a homie, he's a ride or die, literally, i don't know, he just has a special place in my heart" (that "literally" was UNNECESSARY)
bottom 5:
silco: "he is the archenemy. he is persona non grata. he. killed. vander. so- he's also a crime lord who doesn't care about his own people. silco doesn't have a code. silco has no scruples"
sevika: "sevika is just annoying. why she tryna kill vi all the time? i mean vi's tryna kill her but-"
marcus: "i hate a crooked cop"
jinx: "the crimes. like the killing of those six cops, and the almost killing of caitlyn, and the kidnapping of cailtyn. like she's obviously a pawn of silco's so that's why she's lower than silco but she did some crime independently"
ambessa: "ambessa's a bad mother"
special mention: deckard: "he is bad, he was really creepy and a predator" and any of silco's goons (reason is obvious i guess)
and these are her thoughts on some of the characters who aren't in either of those lists (no ranked order, just the order she spoke about them):
jayce: "i don't care about [him], you're a bad friend and i hate when people are bad friends"
mel: "you're kind of two-faced but i do feel bad about the situation with your mom"
vi: "i'm still upset with what you said to powder but i like that you're trying to make up for it but unfortunately words stick"
cassandra: "booo *thumbs down*" (that's it i guess i don't-)
mylo: "booo *thumbs down* i feel bad that he died but he was really mean to powder"
heimerdinger: "i judged him quickly cause he was a bit annoying but by the end, he had a warm place in my heart and i always go back to him in the orchestra" (the scene with ray chen's insert)
sky: "i feel so bad for her. it's also kind of a commentary. even without meaning to, the man destroyed her to save himself"
tobias: "he cares about his daughter and what she wants and realizes there's a time and place for chastising"
episodes 1 and 2
episode 3
episode 4
episodes 5 and 6
episodes 7 and 8
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