#adjacent

[renatogpadilla]

The One Where She Comes Clean.

It took Lux a full 3 seconds to process what she had just heard.

She had wondered, despite her best intentions what could her friend have possibly seen in that harrowing vision that had made her break the way she had...

Losing a daughter would do it.

Isha... Not-Isha kept going.

"She wasn't mine," She sobbed out between tired tears "but... But she was mine, you know...? She came... into my life at my lowest p-point... And for seven m-months... S-seven beautiful months, she... she made it so... so b-bright! My Isha.... my.... my p-perfect, beautiful baby girl!"

She couldn't hold it in any longer. Lux hugged her friend, both of their eyes filled with tears, as she sobbed into her arms.

They didn't know how long they'd stayed like that. It didn't matter. Eventually, the tears stopped... slowly. Her eyes were burning. Everything hurt.

Jinx managed to talk. "I... Listen, Lux. You saved me too. In more ways than one... And I want to be honest with you. If anyone knows, I want it to be you... but...." How do you even start?

"If you're not there yet, I understand. I won't push. When you're ready, I'll be here." Jinx wondered if Lux was this sincere all the time or if she just put on a pretty face for her... Either way, she couldn't have asked for a better friend right now.

"I think I genuinely don't deserve a friend like you." Jinx meant that. She really didn't deserve her.

"Well, suck it up, Firework." Lux had to push that out of her throat. She just told you about her dead daughter and you're trying out nicknames?! "You're stuck with me. And I don't plan on leaving you alone."

"...Firework?" She could not let Lux know how much she actually liked that. She had an image, dammit!

"Hey, you call me 'Flashlight'!" It wasn't a chuckle so much as a sputtered breath that left her mouth, but the feeling came across.

"Okay, fine. That's fair." Something in her still feared telling Lux everything...

She didn't know where to go from here... Lux was staying the night. Should she offer tea? She didn't have cookies or anything. She should have had cookies! What kind of witch didn't have cookies to lure children into the woods with?! She had to step her game up when she stopped feeling so depressed...

"But... If not your birth name" Which was a shame, because Lux found 'Powder' really cute "and not your other name... What do I call you?"

And here she had to take a gamble... In her mind, she was praying to Janna or whatever other spirit could hear that the name of the most wanted criminal in Piltover-Zaun hadn't reached Demacia... Or at least not Lux.

She wanted to be honest. But she had to brace herself first. "I can be... completely truthful with you, right?"

"Always. I'm almost offended you even had to ask!"

"Heh... I know. Listen, Flashlight. There's a part of me that's terrified to tell you."

"...Why?" Oh, did Lux want an answer to that question?

"Because..." Just say it. She took a deep breath. "Because you've told me your story. And I'm afraid that... I'm scared that if I tell you..." You wouldn't come see me anymore? You would hate me?

"You'd have to take the first step for once?" Lux didn't mean for it to be a jab, but she wanted to get out of the depression, by whatever way she could, and this girl needed to get this out.

"I'm afraid that you'd be too... Familiar with me." She could think of no other word to describe it. She was kinda glad she couldn't. "You... Um..."

"Go on, friend." And she said it so sincerely that Jinx felt her heart grow a size... She swore those eyes got bigger the longer they stared at her. "I'm not leaving."

She dared to hope. "You promise...?"

Lux actually stood up from the couch. Jinx could tell she was sore from the fight still, but she didn't let it show. And then she took a knee and put one hand over hers and another over her heart.

"I," she said, and she put the weight of the world into her words "Luxanna Crownguard, swear on my honor as a Noble, as a servant of the Crown of Demacia, on my Knighthood and on my light as a Mage, that I will not desert you. I will not run from who you are. I will not judge or hate you for what you have been through. On our friendship and on the joy you've brought me... Lest I be struck dead by the gods themselves."

Tiny lights floated around them. Lux wanted to make sure she knew she meant business. What a dramatic little lady she'd let in her hut! Welp, she'd done it now... Fuck it.

"Whatever happens now, you asked for it."

Lux just nodded her head and smiled. One more deep breath.

"You know Piltover?" She started. Might as well match her dramatics if she was going to tell her.

"The City of Progress. I've heard of the place, but I've never been..."

"Well, you'll hear a lot of stories about it. About how they have the most beautiful skyline and how their technology is second to none... It's alright. They're good, I guess. But what they won't tell you is that their glorious city sits on top of another. One that breathes the refuse of their engines. The smog of their factories... The dust beneath their boot. This is the city of Zaun. And I used to call it home."

Lux was sitting fully cross-legged on the floor now, looking up at her like she was her favorite teacher... Or like a child, hearing a new story for the first time. Jinx realized she missed being a storyteller. She liked that the theatrics she could weave into stories didn't require several hours of explosive safety prep... Like she'd ever cared about the safety prep!

"And even in this veritable hive of scum and villainy, where the air was thick with smoke and drug lords named 'Chembarons' ran the streets, there was a still a little corner of light: A section of the city, marshalled by a man named Vander. My dad. This place was called The Lanes, and smack dab in the middle of them, there was a quaint little bar called The Last Drop... And in that bar lived Vander and a gang of kids. There were four of us: There was Mylo, Claggor... my sister Violet... 'Vi'. And me. Powder. And we spent our days gathering scrap for dad to sell and keep the bar afloat... Well, at least that's what we thought. Looking back, he probably just gave us that idea so we'd feel important. Petty heists here and there, nothing too crazy. Mylo could pick any lock, Claggor was big and smart, always a step ahead of everyone else and the one who always knew the getaway route... Vi could punch like hell and I had my little gadgets. None of them worked as intended, but I was getting somewhere." She nodded her head at Pow-Pow and Fishbones on the floor. "That's one thing I can proudly say I got much better at."

"Question!" Said Lux. She actually raised her hand, the darling! "If there were just those four of you, then... Where does Ekko come in?"

Leave it to Miss 'Repressed Fairytale Princess' to immediately ask about her crush. Good to know Lux had her priorities straight!

"He hung around on occasion. He was more Benzo's kid than Vander's. He usually tipped us off to jobs the gang and I could pull. He was small and could get in anywhere if you stopped paying attention to him... He did stay with us for some time, learning how to fight with Vi... Dancing to the jukebox with me..." She had to take a moment. "You know, I don't think I ever noticed how much Ekko made me feel like a kid until you made me bring him up." He really had been there the whole time... Looking back, that crush he'd had on her was so incredibly obvious that she should have noticed, kid or not. That boy was smitten!

"Sounds like you were getting there by yourself already."

"I might've been, Flashlight... Anyhow, it was Ekko that tipped us off to the biggest heist of all. Some big-shot academy nerd over at Piltover had gotten his hands on something incredibly valuable, and now we were going to strike it rich..."

She told her about the heist on Jayce's house in detail, and while she did so, it occurred to Jinx in this moment of retrospection, that she had never actually met Jayce Talis!

The Man of Progress himself! The Father of HexTech! She'd just... stolen his marbles (and his sandwich) and ran! He made Vi those overdesigned bitch-mittens and she'd never even seen the guy outside of a couple posters or ostentatious mugs!

She wondered where he was now and if he had made it out of the scuffle with Noxus alive. After all, if he hadn't dabbled with the Arcane, she wouldn't be who she was...

Lux was completely enamoured by the story. The little band of ruffians braving the top of society to put food on the table... It was inspiring! It made her think of the struggle Mages faced now in Demacia. And Powder (she'd call her that for now, until she got a name.) had been a fighter since the beginning! And now what a woman she'd become! She could make gadgets that could bring down demons from actual Hell and explosions that outshined the moon! As far as she was concerned, she could have been anything but chose to live as a witch of the woods for the vibes!

She admired her more with every bit of her story she learned...

Little by little, Jinx told her overenthusiastic Demacian friend how everything had been downhill from the moment they'd robbed Jayce's place. The Piltie Enforcers that had killed her and Vi's biological parents now flooded the underground, looking to make an example of the undercity for what they had finally perceived to be an excuse...

She slowed down on the details after a while... And eventually, she told her about the night the rest told her to stay behind...

"I should have stayed behind... Looking back I notice that Vi was just trying her best to keep me safe. But then, I just wanted to be useful. So I went anyway... And I took a new toy with me. Filled to the brim with those magic marbles we stole. It was my biggest bomb ever. And it was gonna get them all out."

Lux could tell by her tone that it was not gonna go that way. She got up and sat on the couch with her. She'd put some tea on after she got done with this part. If she wasn't in shambles by then.

"I got there to see my friends, my sister and my dad pinned down through a small window. They'd run rampant and clobbered everyone that got in their way... Now it was my turn to help. Well... I set the little bomb through the window and let it walk off into the fray." Jinx had to stop for a moment. Lux could see in her eyes that what happened next would be heavy... Maybe she should do it now.

"Tea, friend?" She offered.

"Yes. Please. A lot. I... I think I'm going to need it..." Fuck, she missed coffee sometimes.

Lux put the kettle on. If you could call that ramshackle mechanical contraption a 'kettle'.

"If you need to stop, I understand."

"I think if I don't get it out now, I never will." Jinx owed her the truth after tonight. "I... Be patient with me? Please?"

"Of course. You don't have to ask."

Careful, Jinx. She's about to make you believe in kindness again...

While the water boiled, Lux sat down next to her friend. She made some little light balls float around them and dance a little. Nothing too crazy... It was nice that she'd managed to control her powers to the point of making little magic lanterns, but she wanted to try something new now. Something simple, for her.

"You know." Lux started "When I blasted that monster today, I felt something I'd never felt before. Like, I connected to light in a way I'd never understood... Like I could almost talk to it."

"Now who's got voices in her head?" Oh, good. Powder was making jokes now! That was great! A bit of the gloom of the night was starting to dissipate at last...

Lux shot her a playful glare and continued. "Anyways, now that I see it in that light, heh, I was wondering what would happen if I just... Asked nicely."

As she said that, she waved her hand in front of one of the little light motes she'd made... And a few seconds later, it slowly changed. From yellow, to green, to a lighter tone. A red... A purple... Until finally, a light, magical blue floated in front of them. Slowly, all the little lights changed, one by one, lighting up the hut in a blue hue that reminded her of her friend's beautiful fireworks.

She turned to look at the not-a-witch... and she saw tear roll down her face.

"It's beautiful, Flashlight." Jinx had had pretty lights lit for her before (albeit more dangerous and rebellious ones) but this was so... soft. So caring and genuinely precious... This was a gift. "I'm proud of you, for what it's worth. And I'm glad you're here."

"It's worth the world, mon ami." She leaned in close to the little sphere of light. "Thank you!" She whispered. And the little lantern glowed a little brighter. Jinx knew it was just Lux making it 'answer', but she still let herself get lost in the magic for a moment...

She drank her tea slowly... Calm your nerves. Eventually, she put her cup down and resumed her story, the new mood lighting actually calming her down a bit more than she thought. "Well, I was right about one thing: That really was the best bomb I'd ever made. So much so that even I didn't expect it to go off so... effectively. The blast sent me flying onto the street... As well as the entire building."

She'd expected, deep down, that a blue glow would make it harder to tell Lux how the bomb she'd used had killed two of her friends and her father, made her sister hate her for a decade and taken down the entire building with gods-know-how-many people still inside, but if anything, it was comforting to see a blue glow that didn't mean somebody wouldn't see tomorrow for once...

As she continued telling Lux what she'd done, she felt a pain growing on her chest. "This is it!" she thought. "If she can still care for you after she finds out you blew up children then she's sticking around for good."

"There were five of us when that explosion went off... but when the smoke cleared, it was just Vi and me." She lamented. Some days she wondered what Mylo and Claggor would have said about the life she'd led. Would they have come with her? Would they have fought against her? Would they have joined Ekko's Firelights and stayed out of it until it was their problem? Whatever the outcome, a part of her would have still cared. She'd always care. That was her own jinx. "I killed them all, Lux. I killed Mylo and Claggor and dad... And when Violet realized what happened, she... she said something. She called me something that would shape who I'd be forever. A name I took for myself the day... the night 'Powder' died. And she did die in that blast. I just didn't know it until my sister told me to my face."

She was too afraid to look at Lux. She wasn't saying anything, so maybe she was trying to process just who she'd been friends with this whole time... Jinx continued before one of them got cold feet.

"Shortly after, she was sent to jail. Pilties needed someone to blame and I was in the wind. My other dad had found me and taken me in after Vi and I fought. A crime lord named 'Silco'. The man who kept the Chembarons in check. He nurtured my curiosity. Kept me safe from the gangs... From myself. He never blamed me for what I'd done. He'd been Vander's friend before everything. I'd killed his friend, and he didn't blame me! Eventually, I grew up to be his number one closer. His little Boogeyman that exploded his enemies. And he had enemies, Lux! After Vander was gone he practically ran The Lanes, if not all of Zaun! He was a force to be reckoned with... And I was the little monster he had to make sure people stayed in line. I spent years killing my way out of facing my trauma, hearing the voices of my dead friends in my head, building my gadgets, blowing people up without a shred of remorse... Seeing my sister's face in the people I gunned down. I hated her, Lux. For years, I thought she'd left me to rot... I didn't know she'd been taken... I didn't know she still loved me. And, to be honest... Outside of Silco trying his best to be a crime lord and a part-time dad... I..." This was something she had never admitted to anyone. People who knew her could see it, of course, but she'd never said it out loud... "I didn't think I could be loved. I didn't think I deserved to be loved." And some days, when things get really rough, I still don't.

Warmth was the first feeling. Like a loving little oven had started microwaving her from the side. And when she turned, Lux was holding her tight. Her hands were glowing. Her face too! Her whole skin, dimly lit, warming up Jinx's body... She hadn't noticed she was cold. Lux just held her. And something about it melted in her heart.

"It wasn't your fault."

Those were the first words that came out of Lux's mouth.

It was words Powder had wanted to hear her entire life.

She held her back. The warmth in her chest felt like a knot that had strangled her soul for ages had finally been undone. She allowed herself to sob as Lux kept talking, and she couldn't see her face, but she knew she was crying too. The lights turned yellow again. Warm and welcoming. Like a hug. Like a home.

"You were a child. You tried to help. You didn't know. It wasn't your fault, Powder. That night, that life, will never be your fault! Okay? And if anyone ever blames you for it, I'll light them up myself!"

And for the first time, she believed it.

Her eyes were dry at this point... She was out of tears. And that was okay. It was her that kissed Lux's cheek this time. She'd never really been known to be tender, but her Flashlight had earned it. She could be soft for one person, she thought. As a treat. For both of us.

They pulled apart.

"Thank you, Flashlight. But... Not 'Powder'." She'd made up her mind now. If anything happened to Lux, she would burn Demacia to the ground. "And... not 'Isha' either."

"Alright then." Lux wiped her eyes and stretched out a hand. She wanted to know everything about this person now. "Hello, miss. I'm Luxanna. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Jinx chuckled. She took her hand in hers. "Believe me, the pleasure is absolutely all mine, Luxanna." And she meant that with her whole heart...

"My name is Jinx."

[duchi-nesten]

remember when i joked about cujo being a secret agent?????? well him and perry the platypus are friends and meet up once a month to drink and spill tea

[skrankku]

All 100% canon outfits. Happy pride y'all!

5 hours later:

[gyudons]

what if we were an elite goalie tandem who gave each other hugs after winning games. and what if i sat half-naked in the locker room as cameras filmed me before the game. and i grabbed you by your hip pad and dragged you close. and you had a little happy giggle about it. and we were both boys.

[letmebegaytodd]

[hisbucky]

Chris: Buck, can I ask you something? Buck: Of course, bud. Always. Chris: What are the birds and the bees? Buck: ...Did your dad put you up to this? Chris: He said you can explain it better. Buck, under his breath: Of course he did. He is going to owe me so many favors for this.

[kihorri]

A Gem

[anstarwar]

I only just met her and I miss her already

Koril I love you

[north-pole-picture-co]

Feeling totally normal about this

[The New York Times, Thursday, March 4, 1926]

[acolorboom]

Moons Child

[here-for-fanart]

Isha was HER DAUUUGGGHHHTTTERRRR

Of Fear and Fireworks.

It was just supposed to be a standard patrol.

Nothing out of the ordinary, thought Lux, just to get the locals' minds at ease. Supposedly, there had been reports of a monster in these woods, something that took the unaware at night and left only mutilated corpses in its wake...

Lux wouldn't even have taken the job if she hadn't noticed the sightings were getting closer to Isha's neck of the woods. She'd enjoyed her friend's company too much to let some monster (If that's even what it was, it could have been just a rabid wolf!) get the drop on her. Or worse, give her a reason to run... Though Lux didn't think she would run anymore.

She'd taken two guards with her tonight, some of her brother's company, just in case. To look official! She'd have to learn their names after this... It didn't feel right to face the unknown with someone if you didn't even know how to call them other than "Soldier". Duty first, then she'd buy the boys a drink!

She'd also taken a little rucksack with her... Just in case she needed the staff she kept inside. She hoped she didn't... She wasn't sure how these two would react to being saved by a Mage, if it came to that. And she couldn't really swear them to secrecy, since they were har brother's men...

She REALLY hoped she didn't need the staff.

They reached the edge of the woods as night started falling. Lux thought to herself that maybe she could get rid of the guards after that drink... Pop over to Isha's hut and spend some time with her friend, tell her all about the monster she'd vanquish tonight! Yeah, she was looking forward to it now...!

So when they did their rounds around the area and almost struck midnight without coming across anything other than the occasional ominous crow, Lux started to feel the blues coming on.

"If this is just a mangy wolf," she thought to herself "I will light up this whole forest, secret be damned."

By the end of the night, Lux would wish it had just been a mangy wolf.

They were about to leave when one of the guards spotted something.

"Over here, my lady!"

Lux still wasn't used to that... 'Lady Lux' had a nice ring to it, sure, but the implications of that...

When she reached the soldier, she couldn't help but notice that there were more crows around than before. That didn't feel right...

"What is it?"

"Doesn't seem like something that should be here, does it?"

He pointed a torch towards a small clearing in front of them. There, with crows all over the trees, lit in such a way that the moon seemed like a spotlight, stood a squalid, raggedy scarecrow. It didn't seem too good at its job, considering its company...

"Was that there before?" Lux asked... She would have seen it, right? It was obvious!

"I'm pretty sure we would have-" The soldier started, but was cut off by a scream from the other side of the clearing. The voice of the other guard that had come with Lux. The older one. Screaming like he'd seen a ghost... And then sharply cut off.

The two didn't need to say anything. They just bolted to where the sound had come from.

Not a mangy wolf, then.

The crows had started cackling. Not cawing, mind you. Cackling. It sounded like laughter. The kind of laughter when somebody knows something you don't and is clearly enjoying your cluelessness... Lux was really starting to hate crows.

When they arrived at the source of the scream, they saw nothing. No monster, no guard... Not any indicator of a struggle of any kind.

Then something dripped unto Lux's hair... She checked what the liquid was. Red, sticking to her fingers. Blood. Fresh... The crows finally shut up.

She wished she hadn't looked up. She'd never forget what she saw.

Up in the trees, hung and with limbs twisted in directions limbs should never twist, bleeding out of a gaping hole in his mouth, was the missing soldier, massacred, dangled from a tree.

She had to resist the urge to throw up.

"Gods, no." The other soldier's voice came. "What the FUCK even does that?!"

"Stay vigilant. Whatever it is, it's not gone!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Shield was up and sword was out... Brave little soldier, Lux thought...

"Do you see anything?"

"Nothing." He answered. "Though the laughter is getting on my nerves.

"What laugher? The crows are quiet."

"You don't hear it?" He said, clearly terrified. "But it's so loud! I hardly hear anything else! Wait! That voice..."

Lux was fighting every urge in her body not to light up. Her hand clutched the staff inside the rucksack.

"What voice? Soldier, what do you hear?"

"I just wanted to do right, mom..."

"What?"

He wasn't talking to Lux. A crow in one of the lower branches was looking at him, and he seemed in a trance, talking and crying like a scared little boy.

"I wanted to do right! They're Mages! They deserve what they got! They're not people!"

Before Lux could even process that, she was splattered with red again.

Clean through the armor, a hole the size of a bowling ball, clean through the boy's torso...

"Not... people..." Was the last thing he wheezed out before he dropped. Lux wanted to scrape the blood off of herself... Too much... Too young...

She should have learned their names.

She felt something move behind her, and she lit up on the spot.

Jinx, on her hut, was exceedingly bored. When's she coming over? I want to see her light something up! She was beginning to realize how much she was starting to depend on Lux for entertainment. Before, she'd have been able to find something to shoot and call it a day, but now that she had a friend...

Well, at least she'd gotten some tinkering done! Pow-Pow and Fishbones were in the best shape they'd been in months! She figured maybe it was time to show Lux... She knew she was good with machines, but she really did want to show her her babies! These two were her most wonderful works! Even if they were weapons of mass destruction, Lux would like it if it was hers, right?

Right...?

She didn't have time to ponder as a scream ripped through the night.

Now, Jinx lived in the middle of the woods. Wild animals were a common occurrence! People got mauled ALL the time! And that voice had sounded too deep to be Lux, so what did she care who got gobbled?

She took a few steps to the window, and turned down the lights, just in case.

Then, at the far end of her vision, she heard another scream, higher-pitched, and every single hair on her body stood on end. She saw the woods light up from here, brighter than she'd ever seen Lux get... She would see her work tonight.

She grabbed a big backpack she kept under her workbench and bolted out the door, into the night, in the direction of the voice as fast as she could possibly go...

The voice sounded like Sylas... Lux thought that would be the worst part.

It wasn't.

The vision was infinitely worse.

"Hello, Little Light." Oh, that voice was NOT as pleasant as she remembered... "What's wrong?"

She didn't know when they'd moved. One moment she was in the woods, now she was in... Demacia City. The main street. People in hoods all around, and the floor littered with blood and bodies... Civilians. An absolute massacre. She knew the people in hoods were Mages. She knew this was her fault... She thought she saw Garen among the bodies.

And at the center of it all, Sylas.

His hands were on her shoulders, and that voice that was his and wasn't at the same time boomed again...

"We never could have done this without you."

Her hands were covered in blood... She tried to scream, but her voice was gone. She tried to cry, but blood came instead of tears... Blood she knew wasn't hers...

Gods, it wasn't hers... She couldn't breathe... Like she was choking on thin air...

Sylas spoke again.

"This is what you were born to be. This is what you will always be... Don't worry, Little Light. We see you... We love you."

And somewhere in the distance, she heard the crows laughing again... Enjoying her pain. Her dread. Her fear... And she would have wept if she could have. But she couldn't. It was all blood... It was all blood.

And then... Another noise reached her ears. Like canon-fire, but lighter. Faster. Incredibly fast.

And then a voice she would know through any Hell.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!!!"

Isha... Wild, mad, beautiful Isha! She followed the voice and realized there were cuts on her. Her legs had been... Bit? And then her mind cleared.

Crows. All around her, diving her body and taking small bites whenever one passed her by. Crow bites littered her legs like tattoos, her sleeves and arms tattered and bleeding. She could live with that. She would live with that! If she didn't, she couldn't get back at whatever had done this to her.

And then she noticed the crows thinning out. The light cannon fire was louder. A LOT louder, and then she noticed a crow drop at her knees (Oh, she was kneeling... That wasn't a good look.), dead and with a hole in it's wing and head.

Then another and another and another, multiple dropping a second. She saw small flashes in front of her. Tiny projectiles of pink and blue moving almost faster than the eye could track. Bullets. Demacia didn't use those a lot...

But she wasn't Demacian.

Lux had never been so impressed or so glad to see anything in her entire life.

There, standing her ground, with an absolute mammoth of a gun, multiple barrels worth of firepower spinning rapidly, muzzles flashing like fireworks, dropping crows like she was born for that exact purpose, and pissed out of her mind... Was Isha the Witch.

Fireworks... Yes. That was the word. That was her magic. And Lux couldn't help but be inspired by it.

Jinx, on her end, was absolutely fucking fuming.

Who dared? Who had the GALL to hurt her friend?! And a block away from her hut?! The NERVE on this bitch! She'd make sure to let them know they weren't shit before she put a bomb in their mouth!

"DROP DEAD, YOU FILTHY FLYING BASTARDS!"

Pow-Pow was working like a charm... Good! Nothing like a good first impression!

Lux got to her feet. Her hands shot up and light burnt about 10 crows back to Hell where they belonged.

Atta girl! Jinx was so proud! The little Flashlight seemed a whole lighthouse now!

The crows finally got the memo and started to fly away from them, getting lost in the dark and scattering into the night.

That hadn't been it. She KNEW that. She could FEEL they weren't alone...

Lux threw her arms around her before she could process that, though.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you..." She sounded exhausted. Ragged breathing. Panic attack. "I don't know what I would have done."

"And you won't have to figure it out. We're not out of the woods yet, though!" Stay on track, Jinx. There would be time for hugs later.

Lux nodded her head. Then she grabbed Isha's face and planted a kiss on her cheek. Gods, she was so glad to see her!

Then she jammed her hand into her rucksack and pulled out her staff. She didn't notice her friend having to reboot her brain.

"Where are you! Show yourself, coward!" Lux exclaimed, with as much authority and vitriol as she could muster, which, as it turned out, was a lot at this moment. Jinx was shocked she could sound so mad!

The thing didn't take long to answer.

There, coming out of the woods, shambling like it was being puppeteered rather than walking on its own legs, was the scarecrow from the clearing. Now that they could see it more clearly, it felt... weirdly patchwork. Even for a scarecrow! Like it didn't belong in Demacia, or even in a field doing its supposed job or anywhere the two had known. Three metal keys hung from its neck, and what seemed to be a sickle dropped lazily from its hand. They tried not to think about how similar it was to Isha's hoodie...

And the girls wouldn't show it, but every bone in their body told them to run.

"Alright, creep. You went TOO FAR!" Jinx opened fire before she had gotten that last word out.

Pow-Pow started blasting at full throttle, bullets shredding the form of the scarecrow until it was nothing but a rag on the floor.

"There you go, that's what you get!" Jinx exclaimed.

"WhAt... YoU... gEt..." Came her own voice back from the rag, and the scarecrow started pulling itself together like nothing had happened. Holes in the rag closed, stitched together by some black mist that emanated from underneath its form. And then, when it got up and had its sickle again, it... smiled. A wicked smile. A wrong smile. Rows of sharp, razor-like metal teeth glistened in the maw of the creature that had taken the full brunt of a tricked-out gatling gun and just... Shaken it off.

"Oh... F-"

"Fiddlesticks." Lux's voice was small. Pure fear. Jinx realized she knew what this was, and whatever it was scared her friend shitless. "Like the nursery rhyme."

It was supposed to be a story. A boogie man to keep children from staying out too long... It couldn't be real!

It seemed to acknowledge Lux. Like it liked the sound of its own name... It responded in a deep voice. A dark voice. And the girls dared think that might have been it's own.

"FiIiIiIdDLe... StIiIiCkS...."

Gods, that smile could have given the Devil nightmares.

"Lux what is this thing?" Jinx asked. She didn't even try to hide the fear in her voice.

Lux didn't have time to answer before it pounced. And this thing was fast!

Isha was faster. A flash of purple met a flash of red and suddenly, before her gatling gun had even hit the ground, the witch and the scarecrow were jabbing and tackling each other so fast Lux couldn't even tell who was winning. She clocked a sickle slice on Isha's leg here, a knee to the face there, a missed bite, a nail-rake... Both seemed to be evenly matched.

Eventually, the two crashed into each other and ended up rolling on the ground. Isha was banged up. It was about this moment that Lux noticed the other bag she carried with her, tied to her back. Her witch wasn't out of tricks yet... But Fiddlesticks got up quicker. Its tattered form reconstructing itself like it hadn't just been fighting for it's... Life? Gods, Lux hoped it was life... How do you kill it if it's not alive?!

It seemed too tired to run. Good. That meant she could aim.

A blast of light came out of her staff before she could even think of doing it. Good. The staff helped. It felt more natural this way, like an extension of her body rather than a tool...

When the light connected, the scarecrow actually winced in pain. Magic hurt it!

"LiTtLe LiGhT...!" Ugh! That voice again!

Lux was going to enjoy this way more than she should.

"Don't touch her!" A blast of light. Concentrated, nothing too crazy, just enough to give Isha time to breathe.

It dodged the first one. The second one grazed it.

She blocked it's sickle with her staff, but not without getting a nick on her shoulder... That would hurt later. Now she pushed with all her might to get the monster off of her.

"NoT pEoPlE!" It moaned. Deathly. Hollow.

"SHUT UP!"

A kick sent her rolling away. She saw the sickle come down on her before she knew what happened next.

A flash of blue hit him in the back. A lightning bolt from Zapper that sent the scarecrow reeling into shock. She knew her chance when she saw it.

Point-blank. She put the staff on Fiddlesticks' torso and let out a beam of pure, concentrated light directly to its chest.

The voice-eater did NOT like that.

The whole rag caught on fire as he was sent flying away... Rolling on the floor, it pointed a curved finger at Lux, and the crows returned.

She knew they weren't a problem now. She lit immediately and started shooting them down.

Take care of them quick! Get to Isha!

Where's Isha...?

Between the storm of crows, she'd lost sight of her friend. She caught a glimpse amidst the murder.

Isha. On her knees... A black tendril connected from her chest to the scarecrow's mouth. Like it was... Oh, Gods, it's fucking FEEDING on her.

Jinx tried to get up. She struggled, as hard as she could. She'd made one slip and Fiddlesticks had taken advantage. He was burnt and ragged and tattered, but whatever he was doing to her, it was making it laugh... Like he didn't have a care in the world.

She didn't know what it was, but this feeling in her chest made her mind go back... To Zaun. To when she was strapped to a chair, getting pumped full of Shimmer.

The thing got closer to her, and from it's mouth came a voice she didn't dare hope she would hear again...

"Is ThErE aNyThInG sO uNdOiNg..." Said the scarecrow, getting closer and closer. And it didn't feel like a scarecrow anymore.

"...As a daughter...?"

And now she wasn't in the woods anymore. She was in Zaun, on a moonlit night. At a tea party. She knew it by heart.

She'd set it up herself.

And of all the people to be in it, it had to be him.

"Jinx?"

"Silco..."

And there he was. Standing in front of her, just as she remembered him. The same way she left him.

Pumped full of holes, and with water in his lungs.

"Don't cry..." He said, and he seemed to smile. A hollow smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You're perfect. Just the way you are..."

Water started coming out of his mouth. And the holes in his chest... And everywhere was flooding at once.

She couldn't breathe.

Two steps back, she hit something. Someone. Big. Strong.

"PoWdEr..."

Vander was every bit the man she remembered tall, buff, righteous... And blown to bits, pumped full of Shimmer, his body cracked under the building she'd brought down all those years ago.

His hands dug into her shoulders. And then they weren't hands. They were claws.

And then it wasn't her dad anymore.

The monster the media had named "Warwick" simply had the face of her dad... Nothing of the man remained, she knew that.

But the tears in his face, red as fire, followed by the sobs in those dog-like eyes had taken whatever sense Jinx had left.

The claws dug deeper... And deeper...

She felt herself tear her shoulders getting away. They were freely bleeding now. She didn't care. She just couldn't face him. Not again. Not after last time.

She ran, so fast and far that she didn't notice she wasn't at the tea party anymore. She knocked herself against the counter at The Last Drop.

Home sweet home, but not as it should be.

She knew who the next voice would be before she even showed up.

Sitting next to her, in her stool at the bar, was her sister Vi. Fully decked out in Enforcer gear. Jinx couldn't tell if it hurt more or less that Caitlyn wasn't here to take her anger out on...

Her sister (Not her sister, she knew... But it felt so real!) got up from her stool.

She still couldn't breathe.

"YoU rUiN eVeRyThInG yOu ToUcH!" She said. "You're a JINX!" And with every step closer she got more hurt. Wounds she knew. A nail rake here, a scar there... The marks Pow-Pow had left on her the last time they'd fought. "My SiStEr Is DEAD!"

Back away... Back away!

She felt her fist connect before she saw it, and it sent her world spiralling. She expected the floor... But instead she dropped on grass. A completely different place this time. She thought she recognized it, but where...?

She shouldn't have looked around. There, in front of a bunch of destroyed huts, were Clagor and Mylo. Their faces were crushed. Their bodies burnt... Their expressions a cruel faccimille of the people they had once been. They didn't say anything. They didn't have to. The small blue orbs they held in their hands were message enough.

She still couldn't breathe...

She couldn't stop the tears. The screams that wouldn't leave her throat, no matter how hard she tried to make them...

What followed was a sound like a ticking clock.

"AlWaYs A dAnCe WiTh YoU..." This was wrong in every way shape and form. She shouldn't turn. She shouldn't follow the voice... But she had to see him again. Just once. Just for a moment!

Bad call.

When she turned, it was indeed Ekko's face she saw. Normal at first. Handsome, brave... A flash of green around his form, and a scar appeared on his jaw. 1, 2, 3, 4... Flash! Another scar.

1, 2, 3, 4... Flash! Burnt hair and skin...

1, 2, 3, 4... Flash!

And her boy saviour didn't have flesh to burn anymore. She felt a part of her die inside...

She crumpled to her knees. She had just figured out where she was in all the panic. This was Viktor's camp. His little cult-haven where he turned the less fortunate of Zaun into subjects of his Glorious Evolution.

She had just put the pieces together when another ghost came to haunt her... Who else? Just one word left her lips... Small and almost not there, but enough that Jinx would remember it forever.

After all, it was the only thing she'd ever heard her say.

"MoM...?"

Oh, Isha... Sweet little Isha. There she was. Just as she remembered her. She was holding an orb too.

Please, no. Not again, I can't! Not her! PLEASE NOT THIS AGAIN!

Then the lights turned blue. That cursed blue hue those damned magic marbles took with them everywhere they went... And her Isha slowly, harrowingly, faded to dust in front of her. Soft smile and a tear the last thing Jinx saw upon her face.

And now she didn't want to breathe.

Lux got free of the crows. She could barely explain how. She'd started blasting as hard as she possibly could, and then, eventually, the feathered bastards had dropped her.

Fiddlesticks stood over Isha, and its expression... Gods, he looked delighted. Like it was the greatest moment of its life. Isha was the opposite. The grief in her face, the pain... Lux could make out a few words here and there as she went to them, but nothing that really made sense in the moment.

"Don't touch Isha." She said, light flying from her staff. She didn't have to scream for the scarecrow to turn to look at her. The first hit severed the connection. And again...

"DON'T TOUCH ISHA." Louder... Angrier. BRIGHTER! She felt like every single speck of light around her was saying 'DO IT! LET US FLY! LET US AT HIM!'. She would have done it anyway. A second blast. Harder than the first. It lit the cloak on fire again immediately. Good.

Luxanna Crownguard finally let everything out at once. And she didn't have to scream... She did anyways. For herself.

"DON'T. TOUCH. ISHA!!!!!"

Jinx's body reacted before she did. She didn't know what her name was for a moment after coming out of that hellish vision Fiddlesticks had put her into, but she looked away instinctively. She had a feeling whatever Lux was doing would burn her eyes off if she dared glance. So to her, it was all a big flash. A moment, where holding her head down in the woods at night felt like the sun had come out to wake her up, and then it was gone, just as it had arrived.

Not the sun. Just a Flashlight.

She did hear Fiddlesticks scream in pain, though, and that brought her immense satisfaction...

But she wasn't done with that cheap rag yet...!

When she looked up, Fiddlesticks barely looked like a scarecrow anymore... He still had bits and pieces of the sack that was his body and head, but all the straw was set ablaze. The metal teeth were the only things not scorched, and they glowed red with heat. And underneath where the torso had been, covered by half a rag and the three keys around it's neck, was a small metal cage where that dark thing that kept them tethered a moment before writhed in pain.

So now she had a target.

She threw one hand in a small pouch on her belt and another onto the sack on her back. She jammed the little blue marble into Fishbone's loading chamber with all the rage she could feel.

She braved a glance at Lux. She was still glowing, faintly... But she was on her knees. The grass around her burnt off like a nuclear scorch mark. She tried to blast the monster again.

Nothing.

Not a tiny glimmer of anything came out of her hands. Lux was absolutely spent.

She still got to her feet and clutched her staff again. She was ready to take this thing on magic-less if she had to.

She didn't have to.

Fiddlesticks lunged at her. Slower. Too slow.

It was Isha that pushed her out of the way and onto the ground. Facing the scarecrow with a... Strange contraption on her shoulder. It was long, like a cannon, but the front was painted like the head of a shark.

Lux couldn't make out more before it started glowing blue. Bright blue. Magic blue.

The scarecrow got one more word out.

"POWDER!"

Isha let out a primal, furious scream and fired.

Lux saw the... thing that came out of Isha's weapon connect with the cage point-blank, and in the blink of an eye, the scarecrow and the projectile were sailing off into the night sky, framed by the moon. A streak of bright blue light, carrying its nightmarish payload as far away as its power would let it.

Lux didn't get up. She remained on the ground, looking up at the moon, at the light... At Isha.

She saw her friend lift a pair of fingers in the direction of the scarecrow, like mimicking a gun.

She didn't say anything. She didn't take her eyes off it. Not for a second.

And then her finger gun fired. Just a gesture, nothing more, and the payload exploded.

Lux couldn't believe what she saw. The blast was enormous. Big enough to overtake the moon from where she was sitting. To paint the whole night blue for one brief, beautiful, absolutely incredible moment of pure... Relief. By her estimate, that explosion could have leveled a building all by itself, easily.

And in the center of that blast, looking back at her, framed by her own destruction, by her own power, exploding like fireworks, was Isha. Lux could admit it: She was in awe. Completely and utterly.

The moment lasted way too little for her liking.

After the boom of the explosion had left the night sky, Isha dropped her weapon. The metal cannon had done its job and now she couldn't carry it anymore. She took a few steps forward.

"Isha...?"

She didn't get another word out. The Witch just screamed. A scream so painful, so full of grief and loss and pain that it made the monster they just fought feel like a nice daydream. A scream of immeasurable hurt.

A scream that would haunt Lux for the rest of her life.

And then... She crumbled. On her knees, sobbing openly, crying like she had just undergone the worst pain imaginable, and she probably had, the witch of the woods, who seemed less a witch and more a lost, grieving child, finally stopped holding back the tears. Not because she wanted to... But because she couldn't.

And she had to force herself to breathe.

Jinx didn't remember anything after firing Fishbones. One moment, she was crying in the woods. The next, she was in her hut. In her sad excuse of a couch, with Lux dropped next to her, like a ragdoll who had seen too much play.

The two stayed in silence for a while. What the Hell could they even say?

It took what felt like forever, but Lux finally broke the silence.

"It killed my guards."

Jinx didn't respond.

"I... I- I have to get their bodies home. Their horses too... Star is still out there, and she's probably terrified."

Still not a peep.

"Listen, I won't be gone long. I'll just..." How could she explain what she felt in that moment? She did NOT want to leave the hut, but the dead deserved their dignity. "I'll send them home and then..."

Jinx just scooched over and grabbed her hand.

No words. Just a silent approval. Go. Let them rest. Be you. I won't stop you.

Lux squeezed her hand back, leaned in, under he friend's hood, and kissed her cheek again. She stayed there a little longer than she thought she should, but she really didn't care at this point.

"You saved me tonight. More than once. What that thing made me see... I won't ever forget. And I will want to, but I don't think I can. But I'll always remember that you saved me from dying to it. Thank you".

She'd spoken from the heart. The smallest, meekest curl of a smile appeared on Isha's face for a fraction of a second. That was enough, for now. That's all she could ask.

Once Lux was out the door, Jinx finally let herself think.

There weren't a lot of things in the world that could shake her. After the life she'd led, she was pretty numb to terror in general.

But tonight awoke something in her that she had desperately tried to keep repressed. Regret? Homesickness? The soft, irritating, terrifying cackle that asked 'what could've been'?

Maybe it was a mix of all of that and more. She took slow breaths. Like she was realizing she could breathe again, and slowly daring to, at her own pace... Her head craned to Pow-Pow and Fishbones on the corner of the hut. Had she dragged those there? Had Lux? She couldn't tell anymore. She couldn't care.

Oh, and then there was Lux... Jinx knew what she'd seen. What she'd faced. She had some semblance of an idea of what had been forced into Lux's head, and she felt for the poor girl. Gods, she was grateful she was here tonight! She'd risked her life, given her absolute all to keep her safe... Faced this terrifying effigy of horror, then gotten knocked down, and gotten back up and faced it again for her.

And now here she was... Alone by herself. She'd grown close to Flashlight. She hadn't meant for that to happen. And she really hadn't wanted Lux to go. She understood, as much as she could in that moment, that she had barely survived tonight by mostly luck. One missed bullet, one missed bolt of light, and they'd be scarecrow food. Or worse...

So, what now? She'd be back in a day or two, and they'd have to pretend tonight either hadn't happened or was just another wacky adventure in the woods! Like it hadn't opened every wound they had and poured industrial amounts of salt into them...

She knew one thing for sure now, though: As far as she could trust anyone, she could trust Lux. That girl was special. A fighter, like her. She could take it. Whatever they faced, Lux could take it...

Maybe, she dared think, she could take who she was without running away...

She had been terrified of telling Lux about her past in detail. The comparison to Sylas was too painful. She didn't know who it sucked more for... The girl who had to risk losing her only friend, or the girl who had to come to terms with the fact that the friends she made were a type, and that that type was 'deranged criminals' and 'I-can-fix-them's... She would have chuckled if she hadn't been so absolutely exhausted.

Then she thought some more.

A terrible idea, really.

About the things Fiddlesticks had shown her. Both her dads, dead. Her sister, better off without her... Ekko, who would kill himself trying to save her if he could... Isha...

Isha.

She'd picked her name of all things. She wanted to honor her...

She wanted to have her back. She couldn't be alone anymore! She couldn't take it!

If she had lived, Jinx would have taken her away from Zaun with her! She would have lived in the woods with her little girl... She would have... She would have...

The door stopped her from spiraling. Though honestly, it could have been Fiddlesticks coming back for round two and she still wouldn't have moved from the couch. She was done tonight.

But it wasn't Fiddlesticks, or any other monster from the dark.

It was Lux.

"I sent a message." She said, letting herself in. Her accent was in full effect. She didn't have the care to hide it. Not here.

She jammed her staff on the rim of the door. Not a lock, but it would do for now. "I told my brother not to worry about me and that the worst had passed."

Jinx wanted to ask why she'd returned, but Lux beat her to it.

"I know this is selfish of me, but..." She plopped on the couch again. "Would it be alright if I stayed the night here?"

Her eyes must have been huge the way Lux's expression changed.

"I don't mean to intrude but... It didn't feel right to leave you alone tonight. And to be completely honest, I don't think I could have ridden all the way back... I sent Starfire with the bodies. She's a brave girl. She'll see them home."

Home. For the first time, Jinx thought the hut may have felt like one.

"It's okay if you can't talk right now... I understand." She put her head on her shoulder and her arms around her neck. There was no implication about it. Just... Softness. Now that they both needed it. "I'll shut up too, but I wanted to tell you you're not alone. Maybe it's obvious with me here, but I still wanted to say it. Thank you, Isha."

Stop running Jinx. It's time. Now, while you can.

"Not... My name."

Her voice was hoarse, and little more than a breath, but she got it out.

Lux actually sat up. Jinx couldn't look at her. She was too afraid of what those eyes could say, but she was glad to tell the truth tonight.

Lux just stared for a little while. Then, after a moment, she spoke. "I figured. Fiddle-" No. Don't say it's name. Not now. Not ever. "That thing called you 'Powder'...?" She was trying to stay as quiet as possible.

The witch spoke again. "My birth name. From back when I was little. Before I hurt-" She felt herself starting to choke up. "It's a name. But it's not the name I chose."

No words had ever mattered to Lux more than these. There was something about her opening up that enraptured her. The vulnerability. The trust... She would have fought that demon again if it meant her witch... Huh.

Her witch.

She guessed she was, now. And she was her Flashlight. Not her most glamorous title, but probably the one she was the proudest of.

"Why 'Isha', then?" She asked. She felt like she could ask... Maybe it was selfish, but she wanted to hear her talk more.

Nothing could have prepared her for the words that came out of the witch's mouth.

"To hear it again. To know it wasn't a voice in my head..." And Jinx let herself be human for once. "Oh, Lux..." She said, tears dropping from her eyes as she finally looked at her friend.

"Isha was my daughter."

[boxesblr]

Mayor Vic Michaelis - Good Time Society plays Blood on the Clocktower

[starsonablackboard]

since i finally drew something akin to a finished illustration, i wanna share my process bc i like seeing processes of other artists and just cause i like this piece. the image desc has more info if you're interested!!

and remember how i said i like seeing processes of other artists? >:) as a little self indulgence,

@teruuu @linvxtheghost @sriibble @aniimoni @greedykrab

i would ask you, my lovely mutuals (and whoever else who wants to, tag me in case of!), share your drawings processes too! as a series of images or a speedpaint or whatever else. please don't feel obligated to do this if you don't want to tho. and if you do feel free to tag others, too <3

[chandajaan]

[lorebird]

Several weeks ago @neogotchi said "desertduo but frenrey" and it was powerful enough that I drew something hlvrai adjacent for the first time in years. No clue what to do with it but it's out there in the world now