#i might try to jump to vander

[deadtired-highkeyenergetic]

Feelings

Arcane. Yes. More brain rot as if I didn't have enough already.

Summary: Young!Silco x reader, Silco confesses to a certain extent when reader is drunk and very unlikely to remember the confession

You're a fighter, he knows that well. Those who lived in the underground tended to be such, for survival's sake. You're a survivor, he knows that well. You were still alive after all, and that was the mark of a survivor. So why did his chest tighten every time he saw you do a dangerous thing he knew you'd done a thousand times before? Why did his heart jump to his throat every time he saw you fight?

Why did his stomach flutter every time you looked back at him?

As you downed yet another glass of your favourite drink, the familiar smell wafting from your breath, he feels his throat constrict at the closeness of it all. Your free hand is mere inches away from his own hand, fingers tapping on the wooden counter top of the bar, your shoulder brushing against his. If he concentrates hard enough, he swears he can feel your warmth, then again it might be the chill of the night playing tricks on him. Still, it doesn't take away the fact that you are so close to him, knocking back shot after shot.

"How many?" Vander asks, gesturing towards you.

"Not enough," you slur, shoving the now empty cup towards him.

"Eight," Silco answers without hesitation, reaching over to take the cup away.

"Not enough," you mumble again, clumsily grasping for your cup.

"I think otherwise," Silco frowns, passing the cup to Vander who leaves the two of you alone to start cleaning up the bar. It's about time The Last Drop closes anyways, and Vander knows it's easier for his brother to talk openly to you when he isn't around. Felicia sends Vander a knowing wink and continues pretending to not eavesdrop on the juicy conversation, but fails to hide her growing smile. Vander huffs in amusement and decides to give the two some privacy, grabbing the woman's arm and gently hauling her away, much to her annoyance.

"You've had enough for tonight," Silco sighs, trying to drag you off the stool to which you stubbornly cling.

"Nooooo!" You whine, pouting at him which causes the butterflies in his stomach to go off at an alarming rate. Still, he finds a way to overcome that weakness, if only for a moment, and properly yanks you away. You stumble into him, head smacking into his shoulder and he grunts.

"You're heavy," he grumbles, slinging your left arm over his shoulder.

"I'm not heavy, you're heavy," you cackle, clearly thinking your comeback is very clever. He rolls his eyes, wondering why he even bothers sometimes but then he sees the way your eyes crinkle as you laugh and his heart melts again. He starts to make his way to the spare bed in his and Vander's shared apartment, the route familiar due to the number of times he's hauled your drunk self there. You stumble every now and then, groaning at the headache that's starting to kick in and nearly smack him in the face for some unknown reason but Silco still gets you to your destination, dropping you unceremoniously on the bed.

"Don't move," he says sternly, going to the wardrobe to take a fresh set of clothes for you.

"Hehe." He can hear you giggle, and from the way your giggles start to become muffled, he's pretty sure you've gone ahead and moved anyways. He sighs, shaking his head and turns around with your clothes draped over his arm to find that you've started rolling around on the bed. It's amusing, to see you drunkenly try to wrap yourself in the blanket as you roll about but then that feeling quickly gets replaced by fear when you roll off the bed and hit the floor with a yelp of pain.

He rushes over immediately, your clothes haphazardly thrown onto the bed and unwraps you from your blanket tangle, checking you over for any injuries. Fortunately, there's none aside from a bruise that is sure to form on your forehead where the floor had come up to meet it, and Silco is relieved. Not that he would ever tell you that, of course.

He helps you back onto the bed, listening as you whine about how your head hurts even more now and holds himself from flicking you in the forehead. Right now, he needs to ensure you don't throw up all over yourself and that you wake up tomorrow with as little issue as possible. Luckily, tonight you've decided to be cooperative, so it doesn't take long for Silco to change you into your new set of clothes and get you to lie down on the bed without rolling around.

"M sorry."

"For?"

"Everything."

"Everything?" He frowns, trying to recall a reason for you to be like this. You take it the wrong way and curl into a ball, shying away from him. He reaches out but you pull away, shaking your head.

"You always have to clean up after me," you mumble sadly. "I'm such a burden."

"Don't you dare say that about yourself!" Silco snaps, and immediately regrets it as you skitter as far away from him as the bed allows. He takes a deep breath, pushing the anger he feels at himself for not noticing your feelings earlier and centers himself. He has to rectify this mistake, make you see yourself the way he sees you, if only so that he can see a smile on your face again tonight.

"You're not a burden," he says, gently taking your hand.

"As if," you mutter, but don't let go of his hand.

"I mean it. I clean up after you because I —" The words get lodged in his throat. He swallows, and tries again. "I — I care for you."

There. It's out now. The reason why he always steals glances at you, the reason why he's always chiding you, the reason why he gets all worried whenever you throw yourself into danger without a care in the world.

Nobody cares if we live or die, you had said before, we're but specks of dust to Piltover, lost to the wind forever if we die and insignificant if we live.

But we are not. We're just as human as they are, he'd replied.

And that's why there's that dream of Zaun, isn't it? Your smile had lit the murky grey of the underground up. A toast, to a Zaun reality.

A toast. That was the first time he had seen you drunk, and you'd nearly fallen into the waters below. Silco had caught you just in time, staring into the depths of your eyes and saw the fire that burned behind them despite how drunk you were.

"You're special to me, in a different way from Felicia and Vander." He knows you won't remember this conversation, and that brings him a small comfort, even if there's a part of him that wants you to remember it. You look up at him, taking in the way his gaze softens, feel his hand give yours a squeeze, and feel a fuzzy feeling in your chest that's definitely not from the alcohol.

"Special," you echo. He gives you a nod, silent but encouraging. You squeeze his hand back, liking the way the word rolls off your tongue, but you like the way his name rolls off your tongue better.

"Silco," you say, unsure of what to follow the word up with. He raises an eyebrow, and huffs with amusement when he sees the way you struggle to keep your eyes open. The alcohol is catching up with you, it's only a matter of time before you knock out and this night will be lost to the wind.

"Stay, please." You whisper, feeling sleep tugging at your body.

"Always." It's a promise not just for tonight, but for the rest of your lives, whether you know it or not.

Always.

[ivonhart]

only for you | sevika x fem long haired!reader

— one shot

masterlist

cross posted on ao3

requested by: @almostdeepestwombat

gif credit: @terrapia

summary: Sevika finds you after you help Jinx through one of her episodes

a/n: Straight up blacked out and came to with this on my computer

For as long as Silco could remember you were there. The one most loyal to him. Even in the most trying times he would turn to find you standing right behind him with a proud smile.

You…the first person to believe in his vision for Zaun to flourish into an independent nation no matter what actions were deemed necessary. Even after the blisters within the bedrock crumbled apart, you were always there.

You were there when he lost his eye. You were there when he first came up with the idea of Shimmer. You were there when he finally got his revenge…and you were there when he found her. A little girl, Felicia’s youngest, no more than twelve, curled up in his arms as he stared up at you with wide eyes.

The rain running down the cracks along his face as the fire behind you illuminated his orange eye. You hadn’t seen the girl since the death of her mother. The betrayal of Vander splitting your once large found family into only two.

For years it had just been you and Silco…but now, as you lifted your gaze from the man to those around you…it seemed as though your once family of two grew in size. Brutes…from Sevika’s group had now aligned themselves with Silco.

For months you had heard whispers of Sevika’s faith wavering in Vander, but when she jumped in front of the blast you knew she would become a prominent part in your life. And you were right. Due to what she did to protect Silco, and you, she quickly worked her way into Silco’s inner circle.

-

It had almost been three years since Silco took in Powd—Jinx and your life took a drastic turn. Not only because of the little girl you found yourself caring for…but because of the brute of a woman that was now Silco’s most trusted subordinate.

She became a constant in your life that left you breathless and flushed in ways you’ve never felt before. For as long as you could remember all your time was focused on freeing Zaun and each day you got closer and closer to it thanks to Silco.

And that dream was within reach…it had to have been. Silco managed to secure power over the Undercity with you by his side. As the two of you had always dreamed about. It wasn’t until Silco pointed it out that you realized what you might be feeling. “I believe you are smitten with her.” 

Silco suddenly teased one night as the two of you drank during your weekly catch ups. No matter what…the two of you set time aside to simply be in the company of one another without the weight of work looming over you.

You playfully scolded the man as you hid your burning cheeks behind your glass filled with the Undercity’s finest liquor. The man couldn’t fight the chuckle that passed his lips and he leaned back in his chair. “I’m just stating what I see.” 

It wouldn’t be until a month or so later that you would think back on your brother’s–for all intensive purposes–words. It was late at night as you stumbled out of Jinx’s room with sluggish movements.

She had experienced another manic episode, leaving her in a state that was dangerous for herself and those around her. At this point in time you were accustomed to helping her through it…but that didn’t mean you got out unscathed.

The episode was a brutal one which caused the girl to claw at your body, leaving deep scratches from where she dragged her nails across your skin.

Your hair was also a mess. Normally it would be hanging loose down to your knees after all the years of never cutting it, but because of Jinx it was now terribly knotted.

On Jinx’s good days, the young girl was obsessed with braiding your hair, but it wasn’t a good day. You slowly started making your way towards your room before you collided with what felt like a brick wall.

If it wasn’t for the metal arm that wrapped around your waist you would’ve tumbled over. Then the familiar voice that sent warmth throughout your body slowly cursed as you were held.

“Watch where you’re goi–” You looked up at Sevika and her sentence died in her throat when she took in your appearance. “Fucking hell you look like shit.”

She quickly said while getting you steady on your feet. You were too tired to register how her touch, even from her cold metal arm, left your skin on fire. “Yeah…Jinx had an episode.”

You mumbled as you looked at her. The woman simply nodded her head, knowing about the episodes, before turning on her heel. “Well let's get you cleaned up then.”

-

Sevika told herself that the reason she found herself tending to your wounds was because if Silco found out she left his sister alone in this state he’d have her head…but a part of her knew that wasn’t the whole truth.

Since joining Silco, Sevika always noted how beautiful you were. With each passing day she found herself looking at you more and more and subsequently sought out a brothel worker with similar hair and eye color to you in her free time.

About a year into her new life she couldn’t hold back the small flirty remarks she sent your way, feeling a sick sense of pride in the way she made your cheeks heat up with simple words. You were beautiful…but what she found most alluring was your hair.

When she first met you that night in the warehouse the moonlight caused your tailbone-length hair to shine within the style you pulled it into that day. She caught herself thinking about running her hands through it while she kissed you. Pulling it while she fucked you.

Tending to it while you got ready in the morning. For three years you wormed your way into her mind and her heart, leaving her with feelings she never thought possible to feel.

Now you sat before her with heavy bags under your eyes and knee-length hair knotted so bad it would take all night for you to brush it out. If you even could. You were a tough woman, it was another thing that pulled Sevika in so hard, but as she looked at you in the low lighting so noted just how tired you were.

Sevika couldn’t imagine having to care for the little psycho that Silco took in alongside her. The woman didn’t say anything as she began maneuvering you so that she would get behind you and begin working on your hair. Never in her life had she held something as softly as she held your hair.

She started at the bottom, slowly combing through the knots mindful of what caused you pain. It wasn’t until an hour or so later did you finally speak. “You’re not as scary as people think.”

Your words were almost slurred as you struggled to keep your eyes open. The feeling of someone caring for your hair always relaxed you, resulting in you falling in and out of a semi-conscious state.

Only for you…the woman thought as she finished brushing the last knot out before scooping you up and walking you to your room. As she put you on your bed she felt you cup her jaw and the faintest kiss brushed her cheek before you fell against your pillow, leaving the brute with burning cheeks to stumble out of your room. 

[tetsunabouquet]

Why Isha is the Most Misunderstood Character from Arcane S2: My Headcanons

A/N: After doing Sevika, I really just wanted to write this in defense of my little sweetheart, because the hate train against her is just dumb and occasionally downright ableist in how some people talk about her being mute. As a HF autistic woman, that shit just disgusts me so here I go!

-First of all, let's adress the hate towards Isha for 'magically fixing' Jinx. It's far less magical then you think. Ever heard of inner child work? Jinx might not have been working the classic techniques, as Isha acted as a proxy for Powder instead. That scene of Jinx just drifting off mentally as she does Isha's hair, talking about how she didn't do that with Vi? It very much gives off the vibe that Jinx would have liked to do the occasional girly things wih Vi as a child and that her inner Powder finally feels heard in that moment. They had been together for months at that point, so I doubt that was the sole moment Isha allowed Jinx to work through her problems by Isha being a proxy for her past self. -Secondly, let me adress the common criticism that she has no goal or whatsoever and is just there to idolize Jinx. You should all take some media literacy classes. She's very clearly set up as a mirror to a young Powder AND Vi, so why can't you see the obvious parallels?! Jinx has become like Vander, a symbol for the undercity and their fight against oppression but she doesn't wants to fight anymore. Isha isn't pushing Jinx into a hero role because she's a fangirl. But because she HAS a goal. Like Powder and Vi, she genuinely wants Zaun to be liberated and is trying to encourage Jinx to get back in the game just like Vi tried to do with Vander! Whilst the circumstances leading up to that were different, Isha even gets imprisoned for trying to make a stand for the undercity just like Vi did. I don't want to be hateful like you guys but seriously, do you Isha haters really need dialogue THAT badly to point out the obvious? -Isha's lack of voice also refers to her lack of family. Whilst she could be mute because of disability, there is also the possibility of her never having learnt how to properly speak as an orphan, as well as the possibility she became mute through trauma. As a mirror, it's highly likely Isha's parents were also brutally murdered. With 2 of the 3 explanations pointing into the direction of her being mute due to being an orphan, it's statistically likelier for this to be the actual reason. -Which adds an additional layer of tragedy to her character. Because going mute through trauma as well as being mute due to being a 'feral' child, can be dealt with! People tend to get over traumatic mutism and whilst feral children missed some important milestones, Isha could still be taught to speak basic sentences with the right help. This seems to be highlighted with how Isha learns to stand up for herself and be more assertive. She's crawling out of her shell and just when you could catch a glimmer of who she could become, she dies. With Sevika now being in charge as part of the Council, the aid Isha would need to regain her speech are now available to the children of Zaun. It's heartbreaking to think about the future Isha could have had if she had just survived the attack on Viktor's camp. -With how desperate Isha was to have a family- just look at how quickly she attached to Jinx and jumped at the chance to also be with Vander and Vi, it's clear the girl was dreaming of a home. Which brings me to her intentions to her sacrificing herself. If she was that desperate and traumatized, then it very likely could be that Isha rather wants to die then lose her family all over again. The fact her song ends with according to translations, 'for this is good enough for me', seems to imply that these months of having a family was what she dreamt of for so long and she can go in peace thanks to Jinx showing her love in the cruel world of the undercity.

[bitxhy-bookworm]

CinnaVanilla: The Date

contains: swearing, reader almost cries, food mentions, mostly fluff

You’re a goddamn mess, trying not to leave sweat stains all over your brand new sun dress. You’re trying not cry as your hair refuses to cooperate, your makeup is scattered across your sink, you haven’t even begun to think about what shoes you’re gonna wear…all the while the clock ticks slowly toward 12:00.

After your cute confession moment outside of Vander and Silco’s place, Sevika offered to take you out on a date before you discussed doing anything further. A real gentlewoman. Originally, Sevika offered to take you out on a date to one of the nicest restuarants in town, a fancy overpriced steakhouse. You almost laughed in her face, while you appreciated the gesture, you would’ve rather prefered something small and intimate. Which led to Sevika inviting you to a picnic in the flower field on her farm. You were so excited, you’ve been on your fair share of picnics since moving to town but most of them were while you were babysitting Powder and Vi. It didn’t matter what you wore cause you’d probably be covered in dirt and crumbs by the end of it. The shoes you would choose would just be the most comfortable walking shoes, it was all so simple.

the clock strikes 11:55 and you hear your doorbell ring, “fuck me…” you mutter. Rushing down the stairs, and swinging the door open. The sight in front of you almost knocks you out. Sevika, clad in a plaid button down shirt, and (what looks to be brand new) a pair of denim overalls. Her hair is pulled back into a low ponytail, and she’s got this stunned look on her face as she stares down at you, like she’s completely lost all the thoughts in her mind. You feel embarassed, thinking your messy appearance has stunned her into silence. Sevika clears her throat and begins to speak, “you look…you look so beautiful, doll..I feel a little underdressed now” she chuckles at the last part of sentence, then you see them. A boquet of your favourite flowers, *did she pick them herself?* Sevika notices your gaze and suddenly remembers what she came for, “oh..yeah, they’re not as fancy as the flowers from the shop but you metioned you really liked this kind and I-“ She’s cut off as you press a light peck to her cheek and take the flowers from her hand.

“They’re beautiful, Sevi. Thank you.” You say, smiling at her, fighting back a giggle when you see the starstruck look on her face. “Come in and sit down, I’m almost ready..well kinda, I just need to finish my hair, find my shoes..oh and I shoud probably put these in water, which means I’ll have to find a vase and..” you begin to ramble, but Sevika just smiles and assures you there is no rush. “The field isn’t going anywhere, sweetheart take your time.” god how did you get so lucky

You end up leaving at 12:15, luckily the walk isn’t long. You both approach a picnic table that wasn’t there the last time you came to visit…did she build it herself?

On the table, theres a pitcher of lemonade along with your favourite snacks and side dishes. There’s one empty space, you place down the fresh batch of cookies you made. Cinnamon Vanilla, her favourite (and it’s kinda growing on you too ngl).

You sit down and Sevika sits across from you, the walk to the table was silent. But not in the way you both usually enjoy, this silence was scary. Neither of you knew what to say, too nervous to say something stupid or embarasssing or just boring. You clear your throat and reach for the lemonade pitcher, your hands shaking from how nervous you are and how heavy the bottle is. Before you know it the bottle is tilting all on it’s own, and ice cold lemonade is spilling all over your and brand new dress.

You think you might cry, how do you keep fucking up? You’re ready for the ground to open up and swallow you when you hear snickering from across the table. You look up and see Sevika, terribly holding in a laugh. You want to be mad, you want to jump across this picnic table and splash her as well, but her laugh. It’s so geniune, and carefree. She laughs with her entire body, shoulders slumped over the table and moving up and down. You think she might pass out from how hard she’s laughing, she even bangs her hand on the table a few times. “oh this is funny to you?” You say, trying to stay upset but her laughter is also contagious and you can’t help but crack a smile. “i’m— pfft! I’m so sorry” Sevika sputters out, trying to pull herself together but it just makes her laugh harder.

“You should’ve seen your face, sweetheart! You look like someone shot you” She continues to laugh and even wheeze while pointing her finger at you. how cute childish can she get?!

oh you’ll show her something funny alright…

You reach for one of the bottles of water on the side of the table while Sevika keeps laughing, you unscrew the cap and dump the whole bottle on her. Sevika immediately shoots up, her laughing ceased as she moves her hand to protect her from the cold liquid sliding all over her. Now you get what she found so funny, she looks like a cat that’s never touched water. “oh fuck you..” She responds, taking the bottle from your hands and glaring.

Despite your ruined dress, you’re actually quite grateful for the chaos. Both of you are less on edge and tease eachother endlessly for the rest of picnic (which was cut short because your dress was sticky from the lemonade).

You spent the rest of the evening cuddled up on your couch with Sevika, watching a movie. Both of you in dry clothes and Apollo curled in your laps.

(divider credits @anitalenia)

[taleeater]

The More Things Change, the More Things Stay the Same

Vaunite Viktor and Runaway Jayce AU

Just an idea, but this just sprung on me and I had a big lightbulb moment.

Jayce goes to the undercity to buy parts for his less than legal experiments from Ekko’s shop. Like he had been doing for a while. And that’s how he knows Viktor, who is mentoring Ekko, and also works under Silco and is a former student of Singed. Since he decided to continue to work with Singed as a child, he never left to join the college in Piltover. Viktor did his best to keep Jayce at a distance at first, despising the Pilties, but Jayce was extremely persistent in befriending Viktor, the enchanting, mysterious, incredibly intelligent Zaunite scientist and engineer. And Viktor could only resist Jayce’s advances for so long before this incredibly sweet and surprisingly smart big oaf of a man began to grow on him. So they become somewhat well acquainted friends over time.

Marcus, after a particularly frustrating meeting with Silco, has some of his officers tail Viktor, Silco’s assistant, to try and dig up some more information and dirt on what Silco’s secret plans are. But Viktor is smart, and slippery, but not at all fast. He manages to lose the Piltover cops tailing him, but what he doesn’t know is that after they leave, they discover Jayce, obviously a Piltie, sneaking into the undercity and follow him to Ekko’s shop where Viktor is now waiting to meet up with him. No one but Vander sees the police there watching them.

Skip ahead to the Incident™️where Jayce’s apartment gets blown up. It’s less of an accident this time, and the kids don’t have anything to do with it. This time it’s the corrupt Piltover police force. Later that week, when Jayce is out with Caitlyn, the Piltover police illegally raid and search his apartment, and make it look like a break in. They try to find any connection he might have to Silco and the Undercity, but all they find are his weird experiments. So they grab anything fishy- and valuable looking, and make to leave. But one of the cops drops a crystal and it explodes as they run out the door. Jayce is a block away when he and Caitlyn hear the explosion, and discover his place in ruins and a lot of his stuff missing. But thankfully he had his research notebook on hand so it wasn’t taken.

The police of course claim that the break in was the work of Zaunite children, and avoid being held responsible. Using the excuse to patrol Zaun and harass anyone who they might think is suspicious for other reasons. But unlike before, the university doesn’t feel the need to search his apartment for anything left, as the police already claimed that anything dangerous looking had already been stolen. (They did their own ‘investigation’ to cover their tracks.) Jayce is brought before the counsel like before, and stripped of his status at the university, support, and funding, and ordered to give up on all his research. He goes home defeated.

The scene in his destroyed apartment still happens, he almost jumps. But he has another idea instead. He grabs anything left related to his research, writes his mother a misleading note claiming he’s leaving Piltover for good, and escapes into the night. And heads straight for Zaun. (In a disguise that covers his face this time, as Viktor had been recently pestering him about doing so anyway for safety.) Jayce finds the Last Drop, as Ekko’s shop is closed late at night, and asks around for anyone who might know Viktor. The whole bar immediately gets suspicious of him, and it’s Sevika at the bar who decides to take him. She thinks he’s a Piltover spy, and leads him away from the bar with the intention to beat him up and rob him. And maybe bring him to Silco to see if they should kill him. But it’s Viktor who comes across them on a late night walk, and takes notice of the suspiciously familiar lumbering shape being led down a dark alleyway by his coworker that draws him to the scene. Sevika shoves Jayce into a wall and pulls off his face covering, Jayce throwing up his arms in defense asking her to wait, when the familiar voice speaks up. “….Jayce?” He would know that voice anywhere. “What are you doing here?” Viktor asks him, and Sevika backs off but is incredibly suspicious as to why Viktor is so familiar with a possible Piltie spy.

Jayce all but melts at the sight of Viktor and rushes up to him to embrace him in a hug, one that Viktor is very surprised and uncomfortable by. But he can tell Jayce is very rattled. Jayce is able to tell him a little bit about what happened in the alley, all in earshot of Sevika, but he’s able to get across that no one will be looking for him, especially not in Zaun, (he thinks) and that’s all Viktor needs to hear before he realizes that Jayce has abandoned Piltover to continue his research and needs a place to stay. After a lot of inner turmoil, knowing he’s probably going to regret it, he brings Jayce back home with him to his private lab and his little apartment.

That night, Jayce shows Viktor all of his research with incredible passion and fervor, and it surprises Viktor how much he finds himself believing in Jayce’s research. There begins their official partnership to share their Hextech dream, not with Piltover, but for Zaun, and the rest of the world.

The Piltover police, with no targets on which children to blame for their break in, and not wanting to piss off Vander, grab a random kid off the streets that was picking a fight with them to arrest, not realizing that the kid worked for Silco. But the kid had Shimmer on him, and injected himself with it to fight them off in desperation. He manages to kill a few cops, but is ultimately gunned down. Silco is beyond pissed off. Marcus is forced to bury the whole incident just to appease Silco, but ultimately their whole bargain is all but thrown in the trash, and Piltover is still enraged that some of their officers were killed in the Undercity. Relations between Piltover and Zaun become increasingly more unsteady, and violent as a result. But meanwhile, Viktor and Jayce are holed up in their own little world working together to develop Hextech. Silco is not exactly thrilled to lose his assistant. But Silco manages to bribe enough people in Piltover to leave the undercity alone in the meantime. Jayce and Viktor quickly realized that they still desperately needed funding for their research, and ended up presenting their work to a sceptical, but soon baffled Silco only weeks after they began working together. Silco sees the potential for the Hextech to benefit the Undercity in many different ways, so he uses the money he makes from his enormous sales in Shimmer to fund their research. No less than a month later, he rescues Powder from the aftermath of a brutal police attack that burned the Last Drop to the ground, killing Vander, Milo, and Claggor. But Vi escaped only to blame Powder for leading the violent officers back home with her after one of her toy bomb traps failed to activate. Vi was still arrested unjustly, and Silco took in Powder.

Years pass, and things eventually calm down again. Without Mel around to seduce and influence Jayce, he realizes his feelings for Viktor much sooner. But he’s still too scared to confess to him as Viktor becomes more and more busy being radicalized by Silco to fight for the Undercity. It’s Viktor who ends up having to step up and take a position of political power, not Jayce. Viktor and Jayce did not have access to any of Piltover’s extensive funding and resources like before, so their research was slower going at the beginning despite Silco’s funding and resources. But surprisingly, with Jinx’s help after years of her endless curiosity and tutelage from a big brotherly Jayve and regretfully resigned Viktor, they refine the crystals to a more safe form. Soon enough, they are able to produce versions of the HexClaw and the HexGloves, which they made for assisting work in the mines and in construction. But without Heimerdinger’s warnings like before, they are able to have Silco fund their mass production to be used all over the Undercity. But it doesn’t take long for the people of Zaun to figure out they can also use the tech for their own self defense against Piltover, and it begins to cause problems again between the two cities. Viktor ends up having to fill in for Silco more and more as a representative for his Shimmer operations and as a political representative for Zaun in talks with Piltover, leaving Jayce alone often in the lab to work alone. So Jayce is not there when Viktor collapses for the first time from the illness he’s been hiding from them. 

That night, Jinx and Silco bring in an unconscious Viktor to their lab. It’s not the first time Jayce has helped a rogue Zaunite with first aid, and they even developed a few useful medical devices, but this was different. This was Viktor, and as far as he could tell with his limited medical knowledge, his condition was bad. Very bad. So Jayce throws himself into working on creating new medical inventions, things he tries to use to treat Viktor, to cure him. But the tension between Zaun and Piltover is boiling over again, and Silco needs weapons to help the citizens of Zaun to fight off Piltover’s oppression. Jinx ends up using their refined crystals to manufacture bombs and weapons, against the strict wishes of Jayce and Viktor never to do so. But it goes unnoticed by Jayce as he gets more and more desperate as Viktor’s illness worsens without real medical attention. He is tempted by Singed into resorting to treating him with small doses of Shimmer like Silco uses on his eye.

Now with Viktor having minorly stabilized, and the usage of an artificial lung that Jayce designed, they work together on the evolving HexCore. Eventually, they accidentally trigger the HexCore mutation, with Huck there bringing them food like usual on orders from Silco, Huck gets sucked up to feed the HexCore as it feeds power to Viktor to transform him as Jayce tries to control it. Viktor doesn’t turn into Machine Harold thanks to Jayce having a better grasp of the HexCore, but most of his body is still transformed to merge with all his metal braces that Jayce made for him, and the artificial lung support and Shimmer that was keeping him alive.

Viktor, empowered by his new strength and powers in his new form, decides to go join Silco in his war against Piltover. But Jayce stops him, and finally confesses his feelings to Viktor, and pleads with him to stay with him. Viktor, still having his emotions, is swayed. Because he knows it too, deep in his bones, all these years they've spent together, he loves Jayce too. He returns his feelings. They kiss, and even sleep together that night. But when Jayce wakes up in the morning, Viktor is gone. 

I haven't worked out all the alternate universe differences in this AU revolving around Jinx, Caitlyn, and Vi, so for now assume most of their storyline outside of what happens with Jayce and Viktor stays mostly the same. 

Someone shoot me. Why can I never write like 1 paragraph for an idea and just leave it alone. Once again running with this until it looks like another rough fanfic instead of a little AU idea. Hope you like it. :]

[iminyourwallsbabe]

Arcane incorrect quotes once more, because y'all think I'm funny

Jinx: Sometimes I try to sync our dreams so I can terrorize you in different dimensions, one day I'll get you

Caitlyn: excuse me

Vi: Can I make out with you tomorrow

Caitlyn: Yes

Vi: Goated

Jayce's lawyer in season 1: On my soul the jury fw you they might let you off fr 🤣

Viktor: I know a guy who can get you sodium cyanide if you absolutely require it

Jayce: Literally I don't but thanks

Mel: Ugh, I'm sorry

Jayce: For what? You fine asf don't apologize, a bad bitch is never wrong

Maddie: Chill bro she's dating both of us, I'm your girlfriend in law

Jinx: I love being neglected as a child... so much time for research

Jayce: #LetsGetTheWorm

Ekko: What

Jayce: Early bird shit you wouldn't get it

Vi: I need relationship advice

Ekko: Break up

Vi: At least listen to me first

Viktor: It's Two Thangs I'ma Always Beat 💪🏻 Da ODDS & My MEAT🍆🤷🏻‍♂️

Vander: Why'd you get jumped?

Vi: Idk should I go ask them?

Jinx: Be so completely yourself that no one is attracted to you or wants to employ you

Mel, 15: I'm not interested in glory through combat anymore. I do not want to be apart of this shit

Mel, in her 30s: On the battlefield again

Caitlyn: What should the council pass this year?

Sevika: The blunt!!!

Viktor: Bought a meatloaf flavored vape from goodwill and now my arms won't bend

Sevika: Just got hired at CPS if y'all want your kids back cash app me

Mylo: Why are you as a man drinking lemonade

Ekko: Fuck it, I'm non-binary now this shit getting crazy

Jayce: Yeah I have ADHD (a damn huge dick)

Jinx: Dad what if I was a bug

Silco: You are a bug! You are my bug

Random citizen post season 2: Bro Jayce Talis just died. Y'all man stay inside fr. This not even funny. I cannot stress this enough to y'all. It's dudes dying that ain't never died before. Like I'm not even joking

Sky: Are you ever free? You seem like a busy person

Viktor: Is anyone ever truly free...

Sky: What the fuck does that mean

Vi: Fucking with a British bitch she said her knickers are dastardly wet

Ekko: Why the fuck are there people named Charles? You are ONE Charle

Caitlyn: STOP excluding the B from LGBT. I'm fucking sick of it. British people should be proud of who they are. Fuck you.

Mel: RIP MOM I KNOW YOU LOOKING UP AT ME RIGHT NOW 🕊️

Elora: Up???

Mel: Yeah she beat my ass a little too often

Jayce: Let me know when we're going to slide on the opponents

Sky: What if we kissed and all my teeth fell out into your mouth

Viktor: Pro tip: Never throw a party at your house

Jayce: Some dude opened our fridge and tried to steal bacon. Music died down and just hear someone say "aye this dude sliding bacon down his pants aye he stealing the bacon yoooooo"

Vi: I was in prison watching ESPN and this big swole ass dude said "we watching the Incredibles and anybody who got a problem can see me" Guess what I did? I sat my ass down and watched The Incredibles

Sevika: Single dads be like "she's such a daddy's girl" 🙄 what other choice she got

Mel: Best tips for removing individuals?

Ambessa: Kill em

Mel: Um I'm talking about lashes???????????????????

[bwat5-blog]

Still Sisters: Arcane Fanfic one shot

*I have thought a lot about what Jinx must have gone through in her decision to leave. Because although I think she knew it was best for her and Vi, I think she knew what believing she was dead would do to Vi as well. And even though we didn't get to see anything, I refuse to believe after all the healing she and Vi had been through as sisters that she wouldn't care about that at all. So here's my poorly written coping haha*

I saw what was happening to Vi before she even felt it.. I think.. She didn't respond when i called for her to move and at first, I just thought maybe she was stunned from the fall. But I saw her eyes.. saw her laser focus on Vander even with the world falling apart around us.. saw her hands shaking violently, and for a horrible moment I saw her the way I saw her that day so many years ago, over his body in the street and I knew.. She couldn't hear me. Because as she held our dad's head in her arms she was back in that terrible alley.. on that terrible night...

Then he attacked and.. fuck.. she sounded like she did when we were kids.. she sounded so afraid, my sister afraid I.. I knew what I had to do even before I started running. Vi had fought for everyone our entire lives. I would die before failing her when she needed someone to fight for her.

I really thought that was it. I was okay with it.. going out that way. making sure Vi got a second chance. I even think I could see a-little of Vander in that face as we fell. But... just before the bomb went off I saw that vent. I can't explain it, why I jumped. I just.. I heard Ekko's voice in my head,

"no matter what happened in the past.. it's never too late to build something new.."

I don't know how I got free of his grip. I don't know if there was something of him left, something that held on enough to give me one last chance but, he let me go. I dove into the tunnel just as the explosion went off in a roar of flame and smoke...

I lay there trying to catch my breath and that's when I heard her.. heard Vi screaming. S-screaming for me... fuck the pain in her voice I knew I could solve it, knew all I had to was go back up and that scream like her soul was rending would stop and she could be okay. But I stopped myself... I'm Jinx. In every street-corner of Zaun they expect a revolutionary. Silco's mad daughter! The last heir of Vander since Vi committed the oh-so-terrible crime of being locked up without cause and falling in love with a Top-Sider. And in Piltover, well... If I stayed, Vi would never know peace. She and Caitlyn's lives would be consumed by the consequences of everything I'd done.. One way or another we'd be dragged into fighting again and I won't do it. Not to them, or to me.. I can't stay.. and if I go and she knows, she might not be able to stop herself from turning on her back on the happiness she deserves. I won't take that from her. Never again.. I'm so.. so sorry Vi. I love you more than I think you ever really could understand, and I'll be back some day.

***Later that night, a private hospital room after the battle****

Violet and Caitlyn Kiramman sleep in their hospital beds, side by side. The light is low. A cool breeze drifts through the open window.. A cloaked figure stands quietly over Vi's sleeping form and presses a gentle kiss on her bruised cheek, before vanishing out through the window into the night air.

"always with you sis... even when we're worlds apart"..

[l0sermouth]

MAJOR ARCANE SPOILERS

bro im lowkey mad at vi, like congrats on ur sesbian lex i enjoyed it but

when jinx left the jail cell all suicidal and very clearly planning to kill herself, vi was frustrated but then cait came and opened the cell for vi and cait is all “i just saw someone walking by…” and instead of vi immediately going after her suicidal sister, she goes “i dont fucking care” and fucks cait.

then at the end of s2 vi looks at the warwick and starts cryin about vander, and jinx is literally like “girl, hes gone lets go like jump outta there…”

THEN JINX DIES(?) TRYING TO SAVE VI’S DUMBASS

i wanted the sisters to bond more. not this. vi had the family she still had right behind her but she was stuck on vander who was long gone.

at least i got some timebomb with ekko saving jinx instead, which i might actually prefer now that i think of it.

idk i just finished the season, so ill let it settle but just my thoughts right now i needed to get it out

[sapphic-enigma]

Since I'm on an arcane therioes kick here's another one

Jinx is going to mellow out because of Isha and since she's a symbol of the people now she's going to want help [whether it's emotional or practical] and since she sees her sister spiraling she's gonna try and initiate a new bonding moment. [She’s a dick though and vi is all fucked up so prolly won't work the first time] Jinx is also gonna have words with Ekko because let's be real the only legit revolutionary in this show is Ekko. He's been about his people from the jump.

They are going to have to work together because hextech is still fucking up the tree[whatever it touches] and ambessa is using caitlyn to do more wild ass shit [before caitlyn finally gets her shit together. She likely almost dies and Vi saves her]

When shit hits the fan and all of piltover and undercity are under attack from black rose everyone comes together to fight the powerful ass magic users [Salo is the one who helps black rose get a foothold in piltover to start some shit]

I'm a little worried jinx might die because her character to going to go from one extreme [murder and destruction] to another [saving my people from enforcer hell] but let's hope that's not the case.

Mel's gonna be missing for awhile but she escapes the black rose and finally figures out how to fight [likely she'll have some sort of magic and the reveal about her gold armor that protected her and jayce will be brought up] but I know she's gonna get her ass beat again by Salo cuz she clearly had ZERO self defense from the fake enforcer guy during the memorial killing spree.

Jayce is gonna crash out cuz he lost his bestfriend and his girlfriend cuz he's not gonna know where Mel is. He's gonna cave and make more hextech weapons for Ambessa's army because he's hoping she'll use it to find Mel or at least kill whoever took her. Ambessa will likely tell jayce it's the only way they can win the fight find Mel Yada yada.

Ambessa will obviously have glorious fight scenes but Mel is prolly gonna do something to fuck her up I mean she knows Ambessa is trying to use hextech for her own reasons and she's definitely not going to like that her mom manipulated jayce to get what she wanted while Mel was fighting for her life with the black rose people

Viktor is gonna meet back up with the scientist guy and will prolly be the key to making Vandor [Warwick] work for some reason. Idrk much about Warwick but I'm sure he's still gonna have some on vanders' memories and will try to help vi/jinx when they get into a sticky situation. I don't think he's gonna come into the picture until the 3rd act or the very last episode of the second. Viktor is also prolly the reason the arcane start waking back up because he's merged with the hexcore and something about that magic is revitalizing the arcane.

Sevika is prolly gonna die. I think she's gonna try to save jinx from some crazy ass plan she has and won't make it. Pretty sure whatever plan jinx makes will happen because something happens to Isha. Idk what what though, maybe she dies, she gets hurt, kidnaped idk But Isha is the thing keeping her steady so yeah they are gonna fuck with jinx by hurting Isha in some way.

Now i know this is the final season for arcane but I don't think it'd the end of arcane as a whole so the magic arcane users will be a bigger plot point for a new story in the future. Maybe the final battle scene is only between the black rose people and piltover/zaun and they think everything is good now but the arcane people have some end credits bs where we know it's going to be morwohappening in this universe. The arcane will likely make a legit appearance in the end and even though they are the big bag they won't be the big bad for this storyline.

[tophat-69]

i really admire the way you place breadcrumbs of what essentially is going to make their relationship to explode (to be clear i am not blaming silco in any way for the river) you’ve done it in such a way where it doesn’t feel like in your face obvious but is still very present and makes me as a reader just feel like there’s a very nasty shark lurking just under the water i enjoy it very much

First, thank you! I've probably outlined "trapped by a singular fate" more than anything else I've ever written, sitting around with my serial killer-esque wall trying to work in references and rewatching scenes as they become relevant and skimming the art book and reading creator comments and keeping a timeline and a list of three generations worth of characters.

While I still think there are things that Arcane fumbled (which would be why everything Arcane I write seems to jump right back into the Zaun/Piltover conflict), one thing that I really appreciate is how much they implied about Vander and Silco's relationship without really pinning any of it down. While as a viewer it might have been more satisfying to see what we all inferred play out on the screen, as a writer it gives a pretty expansive playground for these two.

We know the key points and we can see that they've been intertwined with each other's lives for ages. And that leaves us a chance to play in the "fanfiction gap."

In most fandoms and ships--even other major ships of Arcane--that's just a relatively small time-skip or a few years if we're lucky (how much do we all love playing in the lab partner years of Jayvik?). But they've given us decades for Vander and Silco to come together, to start a rebellion, to lose a revolution, to fall apart, to work against each other, and to come so close to almost resolving their problems in a way that changed the world for everyone.

I don't want to hammer what happens over your heads as readers, but every fracture I can work in early plays into the idea that these two are star-crossed lovers in their way. They genuinely do love each other. But their rebellion is doomed to fail, and their relationship fractured from within. But both the cause and the relationship held merit, despite how they were doomed by the narrative.

So if I'm doing this right, you as a reader should still catch things that in the moment that the two of them miss. And that dramatic irony will keep on stabbing all of us!

[mangohgeckoh]

Chemical Reaction Chapter 14 - 15 years ago.

“Blink mate.” Silco’s body nearly jumped at Vander manifesting behind the bar. “If you stare any longer, your eyes might dry out.” A shit-eating smirk was plastered on his sweaty face. His large frame hunched against the bar next to his smaller brother.

Silco only rolled his eyes, tucking a roque strand of greasy black hair behind his ear. “Piss off.” The younger brother growled and crossed his bandaged arms against his chest. He averted his gaze to the otherside of the bar, far away from the Vastayan woman he was staring at. The lot of them just returned from a protest at the mouth of Zaun’s side of the bridge. Piltover had been more strict when it came to trade recently, keeping food from the hungry poor in the fissures. Felicia had just spent a good thirty minutes griping to Silco about simultaneously skinning his arms and injuring his knee when they had to flee from Enforcers.

“Don’t give me that damn look, Sil!” Felicia almost shouted as she wrapped the bandage around him, the gauze tightening more than it should around his arm due to how angry she was at her friend’s recklessness. Scoffing, Silco’s seafoam green eyes begrudgingly found his friend’s. Even though Felicia was younger than him, she still treated him like he was her little brother and it drove him mad. Sympathy suddenly washed over her light complexion when she took his hand gently. “You can’t let those posh enforcers get to you like that.” Silco groaned. Felicia was, of course, referencing how one of the officers had shouted slurs at him, Felicia, Vander, Benzo and Ophelia while they were escaping the busted protest. Doing what you should never do, Silco froze and shot insults straight back at the enforcer.

Felicia’s hand squeezed his hand lightly. “If it wasn’t for Ophie shielding you from those bullets you’d be in even more fucked up shape.” The enforcer had cocked his weapon, aiming for Silco’s berating form screaming obscenities towards the officer when Ophelia had leaped over him and used her Vastayan back plumage as a shield from the downpour of bullets.

Vander’s voice snapped Silco from the recent memory. “She almost works as hard as you do, Sil.” Vander’s massive arm nearly bumped him off the barstool when he elbowed him with a smirk. - “Here.” Two glasses of liquor slid across the tarnished wood of the bar counter. Eyeing the glasses with confusion, Silco looked at his smirking brother. Vander almost looked annoyed. “What’s this for-”

Vander cleared his throat with a chuckle. “Listen, if you don’t end up hitting that-” Silco’s face immediately reddened, a disgusting look overbearing his face.“Keep your damn voice down!” He didn’t even realize that his body had spun on the stool to scold his brother-in-arms. This only made Vander chuckle. “Just, for all our sakes,” He looked at Felicia who, turned around from tending to Benzo’s wound from across the bar, gave Silco a desperate look. “Talk to her.”

“I.do.talk.to.her.” Silco said through gritted teeth, narrowing his deadly gaze at Vander. “You two only talk about business. No pleasantries, just boring stuff.” His brother said from behind the bar, whipping the towel he was using to clean a glass over his strong shoulder. “I guess it hasn’t occurred to you lot that we are in the middle of a revolution. Or shall I remind you of the brothers and sisters of Zaun we have lost trying to acquire even a shred of influence for our cause?” This made Vander chuckle, shaking his head at how oblivious his brother is. “Don’t do that, Sil.” Silco scoffed again, rolling his eyes once more. “Brother, I do not understand what you mean-” Just like that, a miffed Vander shoved the glasses into Silco’s hands, some of the brown liquid spilled onto his palms. “Talk to her. Unless you, one of the bozos running this operation, is too scared.” “Well fuck you too.” Is what Silco wanted to retort with but lacked the energy to argue with Vander any longer. Taking the glasses, he made his way to the woman hunched over a chaotic pile of parchment in a booth across the pub.

“Hey.” Silco greeted awkwardly in front of the table, body rigid. His eyes didn’t mistake the way her feathered ears twitched at the sound of his quiet voice.

The woman he had known for several years now didn’t look up to meet his gaze. Her husky voice only returned his greeting after she heard the man standing before her shift awkwardly. “Hello.” After the greeting, Silco took it as an opportunity to engage with her. “Writing a memoir?” He quirked, setting one of the glasses down next to her, careful not to spill the alcohol on her work. “Perhaps a letter to Piltover’s council?” The booth groaned under Silco’s weight as he sat across from his friend, careful not to aggravate his injured knee as he sat.

Ophelia only gave him a loud “mhm” in reply, opting to focus on scrawling on the paper before her. Silco couldn’t resist noticing those feathered ears pull back, something he came to understand as a sign of annoyance.

“We need to adjust our technique when interacting with Piltover’s finest.” Silco gave a light hearted chuckle before taking a sip of the amber liquid.

That made Ophelia groan under her breath. “Yeah, well, you need to have better reflexes.” With a flick of her wrist, the feather she used as a medium to scrawl on the paper retired to its inkwell. Finally meeting her eyes with his, Ophelia leaned back in the booth. “I don’t drink.” She said pointedly, nodding to the glass on her side of the table.

“To which I foolishly attempted to tell my dear brother,” The thin man across from her hummed, getting comfortable on the booth’s cheap cushions. “But it would seem that our Vander is dead set on getting us drunk tonight.”

This earned a soft chuckle from his friend, who leaned sideways to spot Felicia, Benzo and Vander waving at them from the bar. “Drinks were always his specialty.” Ophelia said fondly, not without rolling her yellow eyes at the attention the trio were giving them first.

Long feathered ears popped forwards, training on Silco when his body shifted closer to the edge of the table. “They’re distracted.” Silco whispered, his register sounding halfway between a scoff and a whisper. “Despite toeing the edge of a new era.” His voice growled, his gaze now narrow.

Unsure of where this was going, Ophelia’s eyes started to feel drawn to the paperwork she was previously engaged in.

“But we know better, Ophie.” This caught her attention. “We are needed.” Silco continued, matching her gaze.

“Really?” Ophelia questioned her friend, feeling nervous. His head dipped in reply, the reality of the conversation sunk into Ophelia’s bones.

“We are the only ones dedicated enough to the cause.”

“You're right, no more distractions.” - Dust and debris covered Ophelia’s limp body. One of the tower’s many rusted poles now crushing her form against the rubble. Gradually, Ophelia came to. Pain engulfed her spine like someone set fire to her back, making her scream in pain. Despite the dire reality sinking in, her eyelids were heavy as she tried to make out her surroundings only to find her sight violently trembling. Slowly, her sight began to lessen its quivering, allowing her to observe the scene around her. Dust from the debris and ground still clogged the air, making everything around her vague in detail. Purple light flickered against the clouds of dust from the sign that once stood atop the now collapsed shower. Screaming filled her ringing ears. The scream was familiar though. “Sil…co…” The groan that escaped her mouth weakly while the figure of a familiar man rendered in her shaky vision. He was on the other side of the rubble, kicking one of his downed followers with enough force to kill. “Silco…” Ophelia tested his name again, her ears still ringing. Finally, Silco peeled away from beating one of his men to a pulp, running shaky fingers through his now dust covered hair. Ophelia inhaled, gathering her strength to call for him once more, but was overcome by a coughing fit. Her lungs burned each time she coughed. It caught his attention, the crimson glowing eye now resting upon her dying body. Silco’s face was still painted with anger and shock, Ophelia noticed how there wasn’t even a shred of evidence on his face for guilt as he slowly backed away. He left her to die. Again.

The mission was a complete disaster. The man she had aided left her to rot in a canyon full of shimmer-heads.

Her oldest friend was completely gone. It has now taken dying for her to realize that Silco was never hers. He was never on her side. If she wasn’t Vastayan, the Industrialist would have never saved her. It was her fault to continue taking his blood money, and now she must pay her dues. Ophelia could feel her breathing reaching a hitch, growing weaker. Her breaths became shallow as the world around her started to bleed into an eerie blur.

“Ophelia!”

A figure emerged from the debris-polluted air. The soot stung her eyes when Ophelia tried to spy the person. He was a man, one with a familiar voice at that. Despite being in shock, she muttered out a weak “Silco..?”

Kaz kneeled down in duress, panting over his friend. “Damn it! I knew I should have spoken up.” Using what strength he could muster, Ophelia’s second-in-command slid the rusted beam off her body.

He stifled a gasp. “Oh, look at the state of you…”

“Leave me.” Ophelia croaked out, her chest rising rapidly and in unmatched patterns. Too many times had she fallen for Silco’s gambit. Gain her trust, ask something of her, and when she needed him most he’d leave. Predictable. “Take the orphanage. Take care of Roadie.”

Her voice must have been too quiet for him to hear as after he checked the severity of her wounds, the redhead turned and hopped over a pile of rubble. “Stay there!”

[venomwrites]

Was there anything romantic pre-divorce?

There was one kiss, but it wasn't totally romantic? Kind of a cross between 'we should kiss in case we need to wake each other up again because that might work' and 'i want my first kiss to be my Soulmate, how about it?'

Vander and Cassandra were trying to get them to take things slow because they both experiences and Soulmate breakup and didn't want them rushing into things. Which backfired completely. Weirdly I now have two fics where Cassandra being like 'don't jump into bed you are too young' turns into 'you're old enough, please do it this is ridiculous'

I have the first kiss written out. i was gonna post it as part of the inventors ball thing but I could post it sooner if people want fluff sooner since i'm going to have to break the inventors ball thing into 2-3 parts.

[iiheartarc]

ARCANE S2 SPOILERS!!!

****

I cannot be the only one who cannot fathom how people even blame Vi for Jinx's death.

"She could've jumped onto the other ledge." My guy she did not look okay.

I do think this is something the writers could have done better, and I really wish they actually went into Vi's traumas and mental health issues, because we know she has a mental illness similar to Jinx's (I don't rlly want to put a label onto it) but the writers barely touch upon it and so the audience don't have a good understanding of how it affects her. I think that's why so many people sympathise with Jinx, but because it's not really touched upon with Vi its not something they consider like they do with her sister.

She's clearly not I the right state of mind, I don't think she had been for the whole season and whether it's something intentional or not it's glaringly obvious.

At this point she had lost Vander two times ALONE, obviously she's going to try and reach out because that's incredibly in character for her.

She literally gets a flashback, PTSD or not (which she definitely has) this should show that hmm maybe she isn't in the best state of mind rn so she might do something in a way to comfort herself (aka cling onto her father figure). Vi and JINX had just fought him too, that's going to do some damage yk.

This is the one time her trauma actually kicks in and she loses her last family members because of it. She isn't acting like this for giggles yk, and people will critique her for trying to hold onto Vander when he's gone but again, she isn't in the right state of mind.

Anyway thanks for reading if you did, really needed to get that off my chest 💀💀

[goodmeeting]

s1e1 notes: these are just things i mostly wrote for claggor, then some for vander and silco as the episode went on. they're not super detailed, just good references for me. if you want better notes, rose took a more thorough and fair approach.

claggor’s skill with his body when scaling and jumping, fast (right behind mylo) and fast enough to eat the cupcake too — also, he loves to eat, which ties into my later alt timeline stuff.

cautious but confident.

calls his dad vander — he respects vander A LOT — personal hc that he is the most scared bc he is his son, thus that blood bond, but calls him vander in front of the others to make it less pointed he isn’t fully an orphan

says he will get powder, inferring he’s done it before — he also tosses powder onto the balcony, meaning he is used to basically manhandling her and assisting her, and she is comfortable with his touch

claggor can’t pick locks — just mylo

claggor seeing hextech + knowing ekko is what likely got him into science — he will pursue anything to help zaun.

claggor is bigger — stays behind when running, hits the wall hard, has to be pushed a bit to make fast corners when running from the enforcers. he addresses the group “guys, what was that? what the hell happened back there?” versus mylo, who is pointedly mad at powder. claggor doesn’t share that disdain, a mediator between vi and mylo. he isn’t mad about the sewers, he’s pretty generalized and more collectively worried than independently mad.

his puberty voice. it’s so sweet.

clag is very physically affectionate — he puts his arm around mylo when they’re walking into the fight scene with deckard, trying to be playful and comforting. mylo isn’t having it. very silco and vander energy.

claggor’s fight — he immediately tries to dispel trouble. he is a vander type, but he’s “older vander” in personality — he’s never known younger vander, so that makes sense. claggor doesn’t address deckard at first, and he doesn’t want to disrupt peace. he interferes when he has to. when vi indicates it’s time to fight, claggor is ready. he immediately throws a boy away basically by the head, and when tackled from the side, picks him up over his own head, and uses that boy to slam into the one he pushed down. and then kicks him when he’s down. he’s incredibly strong and confident to use that strength. this actually really freaks powder out. i think powder, despite seeing this sort of thing before, really got the idea how much her influence causes, and also an idea how they are both getting hurt because of them but in theory, they could hurt her if they wanted to. he has a boy in a headlock at another point while kicking another boy away. claggor also is the only one who gets consistently attacked by multiple foes, meaning they see him as a big threat physically. he relentlessly holds a boy by the head, punching him and throwing him away easily, which is the boy who lands in front of powder. this is what inspires her to run. claggor gets fully thrown by the face and body into a wall, recovers fast enough to throw sand in his opponent’s eyes, and then fully tackle him. he beats him down, then tosses him aside. claggor can hold his own. when deckard threatens the knife, clag is ready to approach, but vi takes the helm.

clag doesn’t confront powder about anything. he lets her off without acknowledging it, only suggesting he regrets going there at all, but doesn’t align his regret to her.

claggor might too big to stand fully in the elevator, sitting immediately — he’d at easy hit the lights for sure.

babette propositions clag via some suggestive looks.

vander enters the picture — the hound of the underground. he immediately helps his patron, and also shows his display of influence. everyone keeps an eye on vander because he keeps an eye on them.

vander really likes this almost skyrim-medieval aesthetic. silco is a trap lord.

really interesting that claggor is the one prompted by vander to go out solo to talk to benzo and ekko. claggor also is entrusted to keep people out of benzo’s shop while he and vander talk. ekko and clag have a good relationship, indicating they’re friends / friendly. ekko tells clag of jayce’s visit.

vander suggests to benzo that there are worse things than enforcers out there, indicating where he was cut(?) in his confrontation with silco, indicating he is referring to silco(?). his letter not being received was taken poorly. benzo’s later reaction to silco can kind of confirm this.

claggor gives credit to vi for winning their fight — modest.

vander’s deal is exposed — he keeps zaunites off the streets, topside stays out of zaun. vander denies giving anyone up — just like silco, he will not give up one of his own.

claggor got his foot stuck along the gutter-canal area when running from enforcers, who left him there. he was out all night before he was found.

silco self-injects easily — ive talked about this so much.

one of his first gestures on screen is touching one scar, moving fluidly like a shark, and suggesting he knows vander, who he indicates is in trouble — he also has a bandage around his leg / a wrapping, similarly to how he used to wear them, as maybe a callback? his outfit changes from here to post main timeline, becoming more refined. this is an early version of this aesthetic for him.

his scar is pretty fresh, dark, and he’s not hiding it yet. he is still becoming “silco”.

testing shimmer with singed? good moment for silco — it’s all coming together.

[goddessofroyalty]

PLEASE tell me about Bookstreet in the ZF Au, I love them so much, I love the thought of them getting 7 extra years of ~shenanigans~

Does teen Vi ask him totally chill nonchalant questions about Caitlyn? Arm wrestling contests (does Jayce lose the first one on purpose when she's a kid and get punched for it?)? How many extra explosions are there (and how mad is Silco about them?)?

Bookstreet is definitively part of this AU that I do not explore as much as I should or would want to. It is one of the best character combos in the show and this verse gives it so much more time and potential to interact and cause problems.

Vi is probably a bit more cautious around Jayce at first see how the explosion is a lot more recent in both of their memories when they meet and it didn't get overshadowed by everything else that happened in Act One. She's had the riot act read to her about it by Vander, Silco and Viktor and she's very aware of how badly it could have gone. And I think she's a little afraid of Jayce making the connection that it was her and her siblings that caused the explosion.

That only lasts so long though, Vi is a rather confident person, her and Jayce's personalities gel too well, and, of course, the fact Jayce loves talking about Cait and Vi loves hearing about Cait. Viktor doesn't know which of his siblings crashing into his lab are more annoying - Powder who wants to see what they're working on and 'help' or Vi who is trying to oh so subtly ask Jayce all about Caitlyn.

Jayce so wants Vi to like him as well. He wants all of Viktor's siblings to like him. So yeah I can absolutely see him purposely loosing the first arm wrestling match to give Vi the 'win' only to be hit because she saw right through it and hates the idea of him going easy on her because she's younger than him. When she does eventually beat him at it she doesn't believe he didn't let her win despite the fact he very much didn't.

Vi's influence is a major part of why Viktor's parents have some doubts about their sons claim that Jayce is actually a brilliant mind. Because a lot of the time they spend Vi is also around and the two of them mixed together seem to almost repel good ideas. Me and my partner have talked about this a lot and they have this idea of the two of them, for some reason, deciding they want the measurement of the height of the last drop, and then deciding the most effectively way to get it is for one of them to jump off the roof while holding to the end of measuring tape (with the other standing at the top holding on to the other side).

They have accidentally blown up so many things that it's a bit of a joke that their count might be higher than Jinx' despite the fact her explosions are on purpose at times.

[arcane-ish]

Hmmm, I'll try to put it into words/hope what I'm saying makes sense.

I also think that pacifist is not really the best way to put it. Vander clearly doesn't mind some kinds of violence (ie praising Vi for putting Deckard on his ass). And yeah he plays with his old reputation.

At the same time, I do think we try to see him try to experiment with non violent methods, whether it is using his words to convince Vi to trying to the Zaunite crowd to follow him. If he was just unthinking pro violence or pro intra Zaun violence, he could just have scared them into submission. [in comparison to Silco who doesn't seem to be interested in asking normal Zaunites for their opinion and he uses intimidation/threats against the chem barons]

So to me I can gel with the idea Vander as a man who got frightened by his own violence and tries to handle things less violently. (I think it also really fits well into the dramatic irony of "He doesn't want to be a beast anymore, but he ends up as one")

But at the same time, I don't think that violence is completely off the table for him, when he considers it appropriate.

At same time, I don't think that it's just about success rate? After all we can say that we see him use violence in situation where it seems doubtful that it would change that much. And we see Benzo jump to violence and while Vander doesn't want him to attack Silco, I don't think it's beause he has a moral problem with Benzo using violence there (I don't think really any speaking Zaunite character we see is fully non-violence).

As for their ideology, yes I think the flashback shows that they were leaning into different directions already.

We can argue that his "You hear that, Bozo 2? We made it. We're done." could be Vander being sarcastic, because he knows that there's still a lot of work. Or you can read together with it as "What's the point if we can't raise an ankle biter or two?" as "Vander always had a smaller scope" as opposed to "Vander reduced his scope after losing faith".

To me his words in 1x03 also don't sound like they are just about "we don't have a chance".

Particularly the line "In fighting topside, you'd sacrifice everything that we are."

To me that sounds like a moral debate.

Granted, the lines before is about the people Silco is willing to kill on the way.

"Look at what you've done. Benzo. These kids. In fighting topside, you'd sacrifice everything that we are. It's not the way. Can't you see that?"

I think there's a valid ideological debate here. "What's the point in having freedom if most of our people die on the way". Just like I think there's a valid ideological debate to be had "what's the point of freedom if all you rule about is rubble/if you make people's lives worse/why not focus on making people's lives better in the here and now rather than after some hypothetical victory".

But I think the "sacrifice who we ARE" rather than let's say sacrifice the people we care about or the people who you claim to fight for is an interesting choice that suggests that Vander might think a moral line is being crossed.

And to me that is different from just "we can't win".

Not just that "we can't win/you are making those sacrifices/doing those bad things maybe for nothing", but the "you sacrifice who we are" to me reads like "even if you win, I don't like it/it wouldn't be worth it".

Of course it's very vague and unclear what Vander means here, what the lines that shouldn't be crossed are here. It could be "if our dead outnumber theirs" or outnumber a certain number, it could be that they lose themselves if they intentionally go after their own (maybe Vander felt like he lost himself when he went after Silco).

I think protectiveness still makes sense for Vander's theme and Vander's priority, especially with what he tries to pass on to Vi.

I read it as Vander and Silco saw slightly different things in their revolution and Vander thinks certain things are a betrayal of what he considers the core value of the revolution and Silco has something else.

It would make a ton of sense if Vander saw the core value of their cause being protecting people and making their lives better and that he thought that was "violated" when you are the one who intentionally puts people in danger or targets them.

And Silco's focus was more freedom and strength (I think opportunity fits with both of these themes).

But I don't think that Vander was fully happy with his choice because Viktor said that he saw Vander's dream.

Reframing Vander as protective, rather than peaceful.

posted this to twitter here, if you’d like to yap about arcane together! I’m a bit more unhinged on it, heads up.

Here’s a case for reframing Vander dropping his gauntlets on the bridge as choosing PROTECTION over violence, instead of peace. And how, contextually, this could work well with his and Silco’s characterizations pre and post-betrayal. I don't see him as a pacifist.

We know Vander as the Hound of the Underground, and he didn’t earn that title lightly. "Be a shame if I had to put them on again. Cast iron's, well, it's hard to clean." Young Silco, on the other hand, is shown with his journal. He was strategic and that trait stays consistent.

Silco isn’t naturally physically violent, but he surrounds himself with people who are strong, capable, and willing to act on the anger he internalizes. And he knows how to foster that well — something we later see with Sevika & Jinx. He channels his revolutionary ideals through people.

What’s compelling about this is we could then easily make a case that Silco respected Vander’s duty to the cause AND his violent nature. Maybe young Silco wanted to specifically channel Vander’s violence toward their cause/Piltover, often by instigating his temper a step too far.

Vander, by contrast, is capable of terrifying violence, but it’s shown to us as reactive: when the people he’s responsible for are threatened. That can suggest he’s more naturally driven by a protective & parental instinct. His default is to be passive, gentle, & voice of reason.

In this same conversation, Silco listens for most of it and contributes by reaffirming his commitment to their cause. “To Zaun, then.” It would be a great way to foreshadow an inevitable divide between them — regardless of Felicias death. An echo to where their true loyalty lies.

Either way, I think Silco would have kept pushing limits that Vander couldn’t reach. And eventually, he would have hit a wall that Vander refused to cross. AKA, I think Felicia’s death may have been the final catalyst for Vander losing his patience with Silco, but it didn’t START there.

“You had my respect—the Lanes’ respect—but that… that was never enough for you.”

The phrasing makes it sound like Vander was already fed up with just how far Silco was willing to go to not be seen as a filthy little thing anymore (and all of Zaun by extension). That wasn’t new.

When Felicia tells them she can’t parent and be a soldier, she says they’re not allowed to fail anymore. Except they did “fail,” with Silco instigating again. The protest led to a massacre, ankle biters orphaned, and that’s where all of it was brought back up to the surface.

Vander reacted by prioritizing safety. He narrowed his scope to what he felt responsible for: protecting The Lanes and those he loves.

Silco dug his heels in further, staying fixated on ALL of Zaun & its cause. He could not let Felicia’s death be in vain.

In Jinx Fixes Everything, Silco praised Felicia’s courage to have kids with admiration and signed the bottom with “Blisters and Bedrock” — a direct call back. It could suggest that her memory as a martyr fueled his resentment and resolve even more.

Silco was always going to keep fighting, no matter what. Whatever it takes. He had to see everything they did up until then as meaningful. The Day of Ash strengthened his conviction and MAYBE caused survivors guilt that he couldn’t shake.

“What is truth but a survivor’s story?”

Vander’s betrayal may have actually pushed Silco into becoming an even bigger zealot than he already was. It turned his love for people into love for ambition. People hurt you. Ideals don’t. And Vander’s choice to give up the fight was like killing Felicia all over again.

But, Vander saw Felicia’s death as a sign that the Nation of Zaun wasn’t possible. His job as her friend was to protect her and he failed to do that. So his ideals shift: now the only thing that matters is his responsibility to protect what’s left of the community they built.

He tells Silco as much and pleads with him to “spare the Lanes.”

Vanders scope: The Lanes and his family

Silcos scope: ALL of Zaun or nothing

Which does say a lot about Vander’s leadership… but I digress. Even then, he doesn’t say he’s against war or violence, just that they won’t win.

I also don’t think Vander is a pacifist because he never tried to eliminate violence in the Lanes — just contain it AWAY from Piltover. When Vi takes the kids to rob a topside apartment, he isn’t angry about the crime itself. He’s scared because it happened in Piltover.

He gives the “violence isn’t the answer” speech, but smiles when Vi says she beat up Deckard. So violence within Zaun is acceptable; what he fears are the consequences that come from provoking Piltover.

The letter shows Vander still blames Silco to some extent after the river: “The dirt is on both our hands.” Vander regretted the way he went about the split, but I don't get the impression that he feels cutting Silco off at the time was a mistake. Since despite the time that’s passed, he still considers Silco an extremely dangerous loose end. A lurking threat to the people he wants to keep safe. Enough so, that even Benzo was convinced. He knew Silco would still burn everything if it meant saving it.

Meanwhile, Silco had already forgiven Vander by time they meet again. He doesn’t even ask why because he’s not hung up on it. He just wants his Hound back. But they can’t coexist in Zaun. Not in the main timeline.

One was always going to either die fighting or protecting.

TLDR: I think Vander realized that Silco would still stop at nothing to pursue Zaun’s independence causing him to snap out of grief, guilt, but also intense fear. Vander’s responsibility to protect The Lanes kicked into high gear, which meant killing what he saw as the #1 threat: Silco.

I also like this because it parallel’s Silco’s arc as his scope narrows in, too. He wouldn’t stop fighting for Zaun, but he does come to understand Vander by choosing to protect (and love) Jinx.

"The greater good."