#anyway for anyone who wants context: elli's jhin is a failed man made mechanical angel

[miighted]

As soon as the front door opens, the strange mechanical cowboy is already talking. "Hey— get your sister and leave. Take the back door. Watch your step; I've already placed mines down. Go north until you hit the next town. Got it?" The shutters over his orange eyes blink. He's entirely covered in dirt and blood, and holding a noisy clockwork monstrosity of a gun in his hands. "Name's Jhin, by the way. Now go."

unprompted / always accepting 

                The door opens with a heavy clatter, the metal hinges rattling sharply as a man who seemed more man-made than anything stands tall and lithe in the door way with the blistering sunlight behind him casting an even longer shadow on the old wood floorboards. His voice quickly follows, leaving Garen stunned in shock and bewilderment at the omen he came bearing. His mind only vaguely hitches at the mention of mines ( how in all this wicked hell were they supposed to know where those were? ), shaking his head briefly while his mouth hung open while trying to find his words. 

                “Why? What’s going on?” Garen demands, standing between the mechanical figure and his sister, but she’s always been a perceptive girl. A quick wit but a good heart often meant she got herself into bad company but was fast enough to slip out of it or fend for herself, but that did not change how protective Garen always felt. 

                His uncle quickly rises from where he sat in the kitchen when the stranger came bursting through his door, his shotgun held in both hands while his weathered features seem to grow darker. A realization seems to settle tightly around Nikkolas, like a coil of hot metal bringing his shoulder in taunt while his jaw locks. Garen’s own brow creases with confusion, his lips parting to question why his uncle seems to know more about what’s going on then either of the siblings. Before Garen can question him, though, his uncle’s calm but strong voice rises above the brewing chaos. 

                “Do as the man says, Garen and Lux. Protect each other.” There is a heavy finality in the way he gives those words, and suddenly Garen feels a newfound panic rattling in his chest like the fragile, rapid beat of a hummingbird’s wing. Both Garen and Lux stammer out his name, Garen stepping towards him, but his sister is tugging his sleeve and heading towards the back door as the man, Jhin as he introduced himself, had told them to. 

                There’s a thrum beating in his chest that is not his heart, like a bright beat of light threatening to burst from his chest under the new pressure of sudden emotions. They don’t have time, there’s shouting in the distance, Garen hears the slow winding noise of Jhin’s gun winding up, his uncle loads bullets into the barrel of his gun. Everything feels so slow and so fast all at once, like the world is moving rapidly around them while his body feels as heavy as lead, the sound of those metal shells coming like distant echos to his ears. Lux is the only one to have enough clarity to grab the jug of water from the kitchen and their coats hanging by the door.  She’s leading this time, her hand extended behind her to lead Garen out the door, a hand clutched to her chest as the shouting is coming faster now, and all Garen can do is start to run with her. 

                His sister’s hands are clutched over her chest and Garen isn’t sure if he can see a golden light glowing against the palm holding their coats or if it’s a trick of his own disoriented mind.