#jinx enjoyers are not surviving

[viktorgf]

guys we are not surviving act three of arcane

[jayktoralldaylong]

One of my favourite things about Arcane is that all the couples can be read as toxic, which is GREAT.

I'm tired of people bringing morality debates into dark media. Let dark media be fucking dark. You guys wouldn't survive a day in the TMA fandom, needing everyone to be as good as gold. How are they going to make for enjoyable complex characters if they're not morally grey. In fact, I wish there'd been more expansion on just how morally black they can become!

"CaitVi is so toxic" According to lesbian statistics, that sounds just about accurate. 💀 Heck, I wish Caitlyn had done more (Not really, but it would have been nice to further explore the darkness in her heart). Isn't it adorable how she immediately folded as soon as Vi called her cupcake? Caitlyn's like one of those villains that will consistently do the most....until it comes to someone else hurting her girlfriend. The only one allowed to hurt her girlfriend is her. 💀

Then let's talk about Vi. Someone pointed out how Vi never cared about Zaun's independence in the first place and many people yelled that they were wrong. But actually, they were right. Vi never wanted Zaun. Zaun was Silco's dream, and Jinx inherited that dream cause Silco would never shut up about it. Vi wanted Piltover to take responsibility for all the shit they allowed to happen in the Undercity. That's a part of the reason she joined up with Caitlyn in the first place. Let's not forget she wasn't dissuaded when she dragged Jayce down to fight with her and he killed a child. Children been dying, it's been her whole life. Someone needed to do something about it, and Zaun would have just isolated the people from all the privileges that Piltover SHOULD have been providing for them. Some people just can't accept that Independence cannot in fact solve every problem, and sometimes independence is colonisers running away from the responsibility of fixing the mess that they started in the first place.

Besides, we all know Vi joined up with the Enforcers because "I feel like I am worthless if I can't be of service." She'd already run out of family members to serve, Caitlyn was the next best thing. She's just like Jayce.

And speaking of Jayce, let's talk about his violent levels of codependency with anyone who'll give him attention. People LOOOOVE to talk about Mel, but it's there with Viktor too. When bro wasn't basing his worth on his inventions, he was centering it around Viktor.

Viktor who decided at some point in his life that he would not LIVE without Jayce. He was fine dying without him, but living without him was unacceptable. Oh how healthy. 🙄😂 Viktor be the kind of toxic ex to threaten divorce 500 times over, then burn the world when you actually leave him. Jayce is no better cause he's the kind of guy to keep going back to his toxic Ex.

Yes, Mel is manipulative. That's what I love about her. How are you guys failing to give this woman the praise of being an outsider in Piltover, but running their entire council. 💀 Girl raises her hand once and the whole government starts spinning. She was the best sugar mummy Jayce and Viktor could ever ask for. She kept the whole city running. Literally the entire of Piltover dancing on her palm. And yes she manipulated Jayce but let's not forget she thought that was a love language. 💀 You wanna be mad at someone, be mad at Ambessa for raising her that way.

I also don't think it's fair to blame her for the Undercity situation, she's not native. Monkey see, monkey do, and not a single one of those Council members actually cared about the situation down there, it was deplorable. 💀 Jayce did way more in his two weeks as Councillor than any of those drug pushing, money laundering, Piltovian heads of government.

And that just covers MelJayVik, we don't even need to get fully into TimeBomb, cause we know what's wrong there. 💀 Surely we have not forgotten the many teammates Jinx has killed, but making sure to never kill Ekko cause that's her man. Ekko has a lot to unpack, like how his consistent and unwavering love for Jinx is an indication of a lot of doors he might not be ready to open. I know they dynamics go crazy and I love to see it.

Ambessa and Sevika are a crack ship but I'm sure we all know bedroom dynamics go crazy with Mrs. Warlord and Miss Liberation. I love it when characters clash in a toxic heap. It's insane and should be explored.

Quit saintifying my toxic ships with your woke morality debates. If you want everyone to be sunshine and rainbows then you should be watching literally anything else. 💀 "It's not healthy." GOOD, I like it that way. 💀 Angst, spice and trauma are the recipe for a plethora of explorative fanfiction. Any of their dynamics can be taken in any toxic direction and I want that EXPLORED.

[paradox-time]

Big Fat Arcane Spoilers.

Ok. I'm putting my opinions on here. All interpretations and opinions in good faith are valid, like what you like, hate what you hate.

I loved the finale of Arcane. When I saw episode 6, I had some predictions. I figured Vander would be back, I figured Jinx would be an independent force but not at violent to piltover. I figured Sevika would be a leader in some capacity to replace both Silco and Vander as the glue holding the Undercity together.

I had 3 predictions for Viktor:

Worst Case Scenario- Viktor survives and is morally the same as before the end of ep6 or is a benevolent/good character

Neutral Scenario- Viktor dies a la ep6, and his story ends there. Not my fav, feels like wasted potential, but would be fine with that ending.

Best Case Scenario- Viktor Comes Back Evil!!!!!!

Let me be clear. Viktor has been my favorite character since 2021. I love everything about him and his story. The way I was cheering like I was watching volleyball when I saw his split face and heard the Machine Herald voice and watched the Noxians roll him in like a big cursed egg. Seeing him beat the shit out of Jayce and turning off gravity like a fucked up version of the fire extinguisher in space scene from Wall-E. Girl I loved it!!!!! He deserves it!!!

I am a tragedy enjoyer who loves when cruel self-fulfilling prophecies destroy every facet of what someone swore to stand for!

The end where he eventually sides with Jayce (and sacrifices himself?) and saves everyone was also pretty good 👍 👌

[queenofthursday6599-blog]

Mmmm Jinx AU where after being taken in by Silco, thinking she's been abandoned by Vi leads to her not latching on to Silco as the most important thing in her life who she must be loyal to above all else, but full on swinging into the direct opposite direction and becoming like Sevika.

[This AU is in part inspired by the idea of Jinx becoming more idealogically like Sevika, but also from OG Jinx's personality.

OG Jinx is a character who's primary drive is her own personal enjoyment and happiness. Which comes from building weapons, causing explosions of all kinds, and pranking Piltoveans.

Jinx doesn't go out looking to kill people, she goes out to to have a good time, and if people happen to die while she's having her good time, then that doesn't really concern her.

Like there's this one quote about OG Jinx that basically boils down to: "If Jinx found a box of firecrackers that had a person sitting on top of it. She'd light the fireworks without even thinking about the person on the box because she was so focused on her excitement about fireworks, that she didn't even notice the person."

OG Jinx has prioritized her own personal enjoyment over everything else, that people potentially dying as a result of whatever she's doing is so completely irrelevant, to the point of her being effectively unable to perceive the potential collateral damage.

It's not even that OG Jinx wants to kill people, or enjoys killing people, it's just that people dying while she's doing what she loves isn't even a linked phenomenon in her brain. Because people (who die) are going to die eventually with or without her actions, so why shouldn't she enjoy herself even if people happen to die while she's doing so.

Jinx's loyalty to Zaun is prioritized in the same way in this AU. People are going to die with or without the revolution happening, so they might as well have the revolution.]

Loyal to the dream of Zaun over any individual leader.

I mean, she still comes to love Silco as a father figure, and he still comes to love her as a daughter, but also much like with Sevika, they're both fully aware that if Jinx ever comes to the conclusion he isn't the person who's the best bet for securing Zaunite independence, she'll abandon his gang and possibly go elsewhere.

Or even more so, if she comes to the conclusion that he's worse for Zaun than he is good, possibly kill him herself.

Which I feel like wouldn't stop him from loving her more than anything else.

I think he'd just consider it another aspect of her that makes her the ideal Zaunite. The ability to put The Cause even before her personal feelings and attachments, something he's still not able to do.

Basically this Jinx thinks of her loyalty to Zaun and her personal love for individuals in her life as entirely disconnected to each other, with Loyalty to Zaun being her default.

Which adds a number of complications to her relationships. Specifically her being totally unafraid to fight to the death against her loved ones without an ounce of remorse, and then thinking of it as a complete non-issue in the aftermath if they both survive.

Like she fully still considers Ekko her friend by the time Vi gets out of jail in this AU. Full on "We try to kill each other on alternating Thursdays, but that's no reason to stop being friends" feelings.

Which also results in her not feeling an ounce of shame in helping him and the Firelights out when it comes to basically anything they do that isn't in direct opposition to SIlco.

I mean, the Firelights are also working towards bettering Zaun just like she (honestly believes) is, they just have different opinions and methods of how to do so from Silco's gang. While also serving different parts of the community.

[And yes, Ekko and the rest of the Firelights have complicated feelings about Jinx in this AU. None of them know where she stands with them.

She'll help them without expectations one day, and then turn around and kill some of them in a confrontation without an ounce of hesitation the next.

Some of them hate her, some have mixed feelings. Others just think she's completely mentally unstable, and shouldn't be trusted considering she seemingly flips between being ally and enemy with no warning.

Ekko's feelings are especially complicated, as you can imagine.]

None of this is to say Jinx doesn't feel just as deeply about the people she loves, as she does in canon. It's just that trauma has convinced her that unequivocal loyalty to an individual vs an idea is a very easy way to be hurt.

Detached logical decision making as a way to avoid being harmed by making emotional mistakes. Which is what she feels is why she failed so much as Powder.

The belief, that she was so obsessed with gaining approval from individuals in her life, she never had a real personal goal to strive towards that she could measure progress and growth to. Resulting in her always feeling like a failure, even when she was doing good, or at least improving.

She's still deeply hurt by Vi choosing Caitlyn over her (as far as she could tell), the Firelights taking Vi, and her accidental killing of Silco while spiraling in the wake of her Shimmer surgery. She's also extremely frustrated by her freak out on the airship where she shoots Eve (pink haired Firelight).

Because she feels like those are instances where she gave into the impulse to emotional over reaction to specific individuals that caused all of Powder's problems.

She was so focused on Vi, and her desire for Vi's approval, that she couldn't fight the Firelights as effectively as she normally would.

She was so focused on Vi seemingly leaving her to go off with Caitlyn that she couldn't focus on fighting Ekko on the Bridge, resulting in her getting far more injured than she normally would have, and nearly not succeeding in getting the crystal back.

She was so triggered by thinking she was seeing Vi on the airship, that she completely lost it and started shooting indiscriminately and caused the job to go south and injured people on her own side.

She was so caught up in her spiral and hallucinations at the tea party, that she shot Silco based entirely on instinctual protective instinct when hearing the hammer being drawn on a gun on her vulnerable loved one, rather than anything intentional on her part. Which she'd previously had always sworn would be the case should it ever come to her killing Silco.

That if Jinx ever killed another of her loved ones, it would be because she knew with certainty it would result in the betterment of Zaun, not because she made a mistake because she was being an over emotional idiot.

I think the only major change from this Jinx's actions in the Season 1 part of the story would be how she went about stealing the Hexgem, and why she did so.

In canon she does so because she failed a job, and felt like she needed to do something big to prove to Silco that she was capable, in order to gain validation from him that she was. Even though he never tells her he doesn't think she's capable, just that she needs to take some time off because she had an episode.

He said "take a mental health day, even if you don't think you need it," and she responded, "so you think I'm a fuck up?!"

In this story. it's more that Jinx is so focused on what she could potentially do with Hextech to help the revolution and Zaun as a whole. That she was already planning to steal some research notes and crystals to get experimenting with it on her own terms, before the job gone south, and the new advancements in Hextech being whispered about for progress day.

Getting her hands on the newest form of Hextech is just her getting lucky.

This also means she doesn't steal it the same way. She doesn't do anything to kill any Enforcers, but she does cause a distraction with what seems to be a box of fire works going off prematurely on "accident".

With her swooping in to steal the notes and hexgem while everyone's busy with trying to contain the panic the fireworks accident is causing to really pay attention to what she's doing.

Which the Enforcers do react to, but everyone but Caitlyn disregards as an accident. As once it's clear that nothing other than a few decorations got ruined and people getting startled came of the fireworks incident.

They're far more concerned with the stealing of hextech that's happened, and Viktor's testimony of a young woman with long blue hair sneaking out of their lab.

With the fireworks incident being dismissed as an accident that's completely unrelated to the burglary of the Hextech lab. Beyond the burglar potentially using it as a convenient opening.

Caitlyn's not convinced, and it's already happened so close to the airship shootout incident, so she still goes down and ends up freeing Vi from Stillwater with some of Jinx's drawings as evidence, from the airship shootout.

Which does mean that her trajectory in the Season 2 part of the story would be a bit different.

She still goes into a depression after Silco's death. Mostly because she feels that she's broken her most important self imposed rule: not killing because of personal feelings about someone, but for The Cause.

She killed Silco not because she felt killing him would make things better, but because she was scared and spiraling and in that vulnerable emotional state, she defaulted to the same way of thinking that had gotten her loved ones killed the last time.

She protected Vi who she loved, and couldn't defend herself, based on gut instinct. And it resulted in the death of another loved one, and the complete destabilization of Zaun.

Now because Jinx is more focused on Zaun than on her personal relation ships, I don't know if she fires on the Council immediately after Silco's death the way she does in canon. I don't really think she would.

I could see her doing it because she's still in the peak of the Shimmer high, which is heightening all her emotions. Driving her to seek revenge on Piltover in her grief. Even though if she could think more clearly, she wouldn't do it, and would instead wait to gather an actual following and doing an organized and planned strike to be the most effective.

But I could also see SIlco's death snapping her back to reality as she sees it. That she simply takes the gem, her guns, and Silco's body and Disappears, vanishing into the night with neither Vi or Caitlyn knowing of the weapon she's built or what she's going to do next.

Which could have interesting repercussions on the story. Considering Piltover's council would to have agreed to Zaunite independence on the conditions of handing over Jinx.

Except the man they made that deal with is now dead, no one (except Sevika) knows where Jinx is to hand her over, and the Undercity is and of itself divided on handing one of their own over to Piltover (to potentially be executed, because of how dangerous Hextech can be, and a lot of the counsel fully thinking Zaunites are inherently dangerous, not to mention thanks to Caitlyn, Jinx is a known weapons builder, so what else do they think she'll do with access to Hextech other than build weapons) in order to gain independence.

I'm sure the chem barons would have no issue handing JInx over, because then they'd be free to divide up territory and completely take over with no one like Silco holding their leash, or PIltover dictating what is and isn't legal on their side of the river in the first place.

Oh the Firelights would be around to oppose them, but they'd never really were able to gain any ground beyond causing problems for Shimmer production.

But I'm not sure how more ordinary people would react.

I mean, in this AU it's pretty well known that Jinx holds the idea of Zaun above anything else, and was willing to help people who weren't affiliated with any specific group, as long as doing so wouldn't harm the independence movement of Zaun.

She's not really shy about expressing that stance, it's just up to everyone else to believe it or not.

Jinx, who would use her high position in Silco's circle to help ordinary Zaunites. Be it from one of the gangs overstepping and trying to start rackets Silco had forbidden, from unjust arrest from Enforcers, or even pointing them in the direction of the Firelights if she thought that was for the best.

Declaring that so long as the help she gave random people didn't harm or slow the march towards independence, helping her fellow Zaunite was helping Zaun, was part of the fight toward an independent Zaun.

She's the Loose Canon, shooting for Zaun and no one else. Loyal to no kingpen or Chembaron, but to The People of Zaun as a whole.

She has a bit of a following even without firing on Piltover or turning the Grey back on them. She's a bit of a living folk hero to some people, especially those she personally helped out of a bad situation, for no reason other than "I could, and doing so doesn't hurt anyone else. So why wouldn't I?"

Not to mention I definitely feel like Jinx would be way more intentionally politically educated in this AU than she is in canon.

JInx as she is in Arcane, never really gave a shit about Zaun's independence beyond what it meant to Silco (and later Isha), and she very obviously never bothered to learn anything about politics. At least nothing Silco didn't force her to learn.

But with Jinx's primary drive being Zaun, I feel like she'd definitely be way more politically minded, and while I do think she would consider turning herself over to Piltover to secure Zaun's independence (in a direct parallel of Vi's willingness to hand herself over to get the Enforcers to leave the Undercity alone to keep her family safe).

I don't think Jinx would actually go through with handing herself over.

Not with the Undercity being actively torn apart by gang disputes in the wake of Silco's death, no way of ensuring Zaun's prosperity after handing herself over, and no way of securing actual tangible betterment of conditions in Zaun even with Zaunite independence.

I mean from what we're told, Piltover's offer of independence was essentially cutting the Undercity loose.

Stopping their dumping of industrial waste into Zaun's water supply, ceasing utilizing of Zaun's air duct and water system for the climate control of Piltover's Hexgate system, release of Zaunites from Stillwater (or at least transfer to Zaunite custody)), and the Kiraman family handing over control of the vents that suppress The Grey over to someone from the Undercity weren't anywhere in that deal from what we're told.

[I don't think everyone on the counsel would have agreed to it if it was, they're all complete capitalists, no matter if some of them value sapient life more than others (Mel, Cassandra) on a conceptual level.

I believe the ones who outright hate Zaunites (which some of them clearly did) would have staunchly opposed if it meant having to alter how they actually approached how they ran their businesses, vs just cutting Zaun loose.

Hell I think those councelors would have gotten even more lax with their business regulations. I mean, Zaun wouldn't have been part of Piltover, and their citizens not their legal responsibility any more.

So why should anyone from Piltover worry about them dying? The trenchers wanted independence and if they can't survive without Piltover's support, how's that anyone's problem but the trenchers?]

It was, if you hand over Jinx, we'll legally make you not our problem any more.

Which I don't think a politically educated Jinx would go for. It would just leave Zaun to the messy power struggle that appeared because of the power vacum caused by Silco's death. None of the Undercity's actual problems would be solved, besides Enforcers no longer being able to harass them.

So the Zaun Piltover conflict would stay more political and less outright invasion than it is in canon as a result.

[ramblings-of-lola]

March '25 Wrap Up

I have a tag list for when I do wrap ups! If you want to be added or taken off of it, please let me know!

I only read 3 books this month, but they were all good ones!

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Genre: Non-fiction

Thoughts: I loved this book. Elizabeth Packard's story was amazing. I love how despite all the men who tried to shut her down and believed she was insane, Elizabeth never stopped fighting for her freedom outside of the asylum. I had tears in my eyes reading some of the passages. Being told "No, your thoughts and opinions don't matter and you must be crazy to have them due to being a woman" is something that hits close to home for me as I grew up in a high-control sect of Christianity. I also loved how Elizabeth credited her faith in God to her determination and survival, as well that she used the rest of her life being an advocate for the rights of women and those in asylums.

2. A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers #1) by Brigid Kemmerer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance

Thoughts: This was a nice, simplistic romantic fantasy that was a good switch after reading a dense non-fiction. I love Harper as a main character and Grey and Rhen have quite a few complexities. I read this book a few years ago and my reread was just as enjoyable as the first time. Since I haven't read it since I was a teenager and I've matured in some ways, I thought the romance would fall flat for me, but it didn't. Though it did have some slightly cringy moments, it was done well and Rhen and Harper had a realistic connection. Oddly enough, after watching Merlin last summer, I noticed a lot of a similarities between the two stories, so if you like the show, I'd recommend this.

3. Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables #2) by L.M. Montgomery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Genre: Classic Children's Literature

Thoughts: L.M. Montgomery perfectly captures growing up and how a person's perception of the world changes. In this book, Anne is 16-17 and so relatable. I love how she's show to be more mature but still holds onto her imagination and child-like whimsy. I cried reading one chapter in particular, the one where Anne has a hard day teaching and feels like a failure. I had a particular difficult day where I felt I wasn't good enough for my college major as I had received some harsh feedback on an important assignment. After sobbing for almost an hour, I decided to read a chapter of Anne of Avonlea before figuring out what I was going to do and hopefully, try to stop crying. Well, I cried more when Marilla told Anne the following quote because it was exactly what I needed to hear:

"You take things too much to heart, Anne. We all make mistakes…but people forget them…This day’s done and there’s a new one coming tomorrow with no mistakes in it yet."

I loved the new characters, like Miss Lavender and Mr. Harrison. Anne emotional touches the people around her in such beautiful ways and I loved her connection with these two characters. I also laughed a lot reading about Davy, Mr. Harrison, and Rachel.

Goals I Met This Month

I have list of reading goals here and every month, I go through which ones I've met.

Read more books I owe

Go through Goodreads list and remove books

Work on series

Read more non-fiction

Read more classics

Tagging: @thatrandomlemononyourcounter1 @qylinscafvne @jinxed-starry-pages

@sunflxwcrs @bookwormgirl123

@thoughts-of-caly @brb-on-a-quest @partlysunny15

[talk-danmei-to-me]

sorry for intruding and sorry for the long rant, but regarding "toxic" danmei, i think it's also a racism/homophobia thing.

americans will gladly depict in their horror/copaganda shows and books the worst uncensored rapes and sexual violences, not non-con fantasies, just straight up torture porn, framing it as "realistic", as if realism and the reality of the victim suffering is an integral part of the enjoyment of it, and no one bats an eye. it's often praised for "touching sensitive topics", even if the depiction was not sensitive at all. no one ever said anything about game of thrones and similar. not to mention the state of american (almost always straight) booktok erotica and fantasy, stories that somehow always end with a child.

but as soon as in some fantasy from another country there's pleasure thrown in the mix, then it's suddenly not ok. as soon as the gays do something more than touch hands it's a problem.

it reeks of christian values, it's just "you can have sex as long as you don't like it and you get a child from it", it's just "you can be gay as long as you are behind closed doors". also, i know rape is not sex, but do americans know? it seems not. they really do have a twisted relationship with sex and violence, and when it's pointed out they get so angry!

i get not liking sex scenes, i myself only ever found 2 sex scenes i liked in film in my whole life, but when you can handle hetero steamy sex and all kinds of violent rapes but not a couple guys going at it maybe it's time for self reflection. also, let's remember danmei is illegal, it's a pushback against chinese censorship, it's expected that writers go balls to the walls with it! it's almost a genre convention, and tbh often the "rapey" things people complain about are written in such a comedic style that i can't really take them seriously. it's a trope. you'll survive.

there could be much to say about danmei vs state sponsored chinese media and about american media and their relationship with sex, watching chinese media i found that america and china can be so alike in conservatorism and purity culture, but i found it's a useless conversation to have on social media. it's been reduced to pro-ship vs antis, which is absolutely not the point imho.

Don’t worry, I love long rants and intrusions 💗

Y’know what it absolutely is because hating toxic yaoi for being toxic basically just implies gay characters can’t be as shitty as the rest of us. Like romance has been churning out toxic tropes for millenia. And I understand that toxic tropes are not everyone’s jam, but there’s alternative media for that, don’t come bitching to me in my own back garden about the content of my garden. It’s just manners. Although at least it gives me the heads up on who to block.

(Literally the og post inspired me to find the post about Jinx it was referencing and like… it was going off about facials.

A facial, in smut, how shockingly obscene. Like Xie Lian, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry 🥹)

I can’t comment on American sentimentality since I’m not American. I am a millennial though so I was very much here for the it’s not porn it’s HBO era. Honestly it should make a comeback. I do think people did say things about GoT though… I can’t comment on book tok though. Tumblr is the only social media I’ve ever managed to maintain outside of Facebook in the 2010s 😂

Tbh a lot of toxic danmei hasn’t made the leap to translation yet. With regards to smut in danmei I think censorship only hit written words recently so they could technically write what they wanted beforehand because it wasn’t visual (I’m not super well versed in Chinese censorship, but from what I understand it’s across the board so you can’t have het smut either?)

The argument in general with bl is messy because it depends on which you’re talking about. Danmei has a side to the fandom that came in through The Untamed and so have no clue about genre conventions, whereas with things like manga/manhwa the debate comes down more to hating toxic yaoi. But people slating toxicity probably do read other bl manhwa if that makes sense.

Then again it’s like the whole Heartstopper argument that it’s somehow superior to other m/m romance and tbh any of those kinds of debates bore me to death.

[albinokittens300]

SO. Since we are getting into promo time for season 2 and I am kinda late to this party, handful of theories I am down for. I don't think any of these are orignal speculation, as I've seen them most of them several different places but. Yea, general thoughts on how I am feeling about S2...so when it airs I can come back and cringe at myself XD.

-No way Caitlyns mom survived unfortunately.

-Viktor and Mel probabbly lived, but in extremely rough shape. Enough to isolate Jayce and opening him up to being manipulated by Ambessa.

-Yea Ambessa is 100% gonna be the one pulling the strings through Jayce at least at the beginning.

-I don't know if I feel like Caitlyn is gonna get to become sherif by the end of this season like she is meant to end up becoming. If she does, it's gonna be at the end, imo. Though I imagine Vi will end up becoming an enforcer by the end.

-Sevika probably has taken most of the power and influence SIlco had for the time being. I imagine her thing is gonna be getting all them chem barons to work as a unit to actually stand a chance to fight Piltover whenever they attack. Because they will.

-Jinx most definitely is gonna keep confronting people. I mentioned before Ekko feels like the natural next name on her list. But I think Sevika will be seeing her face pritty soon as well. Singed may also be on there somewhere because of the shimmer infusion situation. Point being I don't think Jinx is going to be hiding out. Her twisted tea party seemed like the beginning.

-Ekko will be creating the the Z drive in the first few episodes, and probably finish it by the second or third. I have a whole think I want to post about my thoughts on just how much the firelights are gonna be joinning in the conflict. But that is an entire post on it's own.

-I want to think Hiemerdinger may risk going to see if he can't talk Jayce down at the point he sends everything at the undercity. Maybe. Or he is gonna throw everything into beefing up the undercity as much as possible.

WHEW okay. A lot lol. Again, these are just speculation I got so give me some grace XD. Put out mostly for enjoyment while everyone is waiting, and to laugh at myself later on.

[sir-adamus]

So for curiosity, how do you feel about how Cait and Vi's reconciliation was handled? Is there anything you wish they'd had more time for or do you think it was handled as close to perfect as they could?

i didn't have a problem with it, i thought it was fine

i feel like - and i have to speak about this season in general, you can feel the constraints holding things back through this season. my overall enjoyment isn't affected but it's clear that they had to sacrifice a lot of stuff to fit in the limited runtime

season 1 is primarily centered around like 6 or 7 characters with only 2 or 3 narrative through-lines because until Jinx fires Jawbones in the finale, the story is contained primarily to those characters, but with the looming threat that it was going to spill out onto a wider scale. so season 1 ends with the event that's going to cause things to start rapidly escalating which season 2 had to deal with pretty much hitting the ground running

and the problem with the story no longer being contained to this small cast of characters but to an escalating conflict spanning both cities with outside actors also making their play is that a lot of scenes that would have helped convey internal character conflicts and fleshed things out as they progress either didn't happen or were instead inferred through the means of a music video as a bit of a narrative cheat to get a point across because there's only so much runtime that can be dedicated to it

because if you look at the soundtrack of this season compared to season 1, there's twice as many songs, and a lot of those were used for precisely that - because unlike with season 1 we didn't have enough runtime to get all the meat out of it because there's so many more moving parts (this is why episode 7 is one of the best ones because it's contained to three characters and completely removed from the main conflict - and even then, Heimerdinger's character arc feels inconclusive), and i think the final two episodes are where this is most noticeable because Jinx is at her lowest point, then Ekko shows up to talk her down and next we see her she's leading the Zaunites alongside him with a new look and seemingly in a better place (as her attempted sacrifice wasn't something she planned)

but the problem is you have to infer a lot about how we got from point A to point C because point B happened entirely offscreen to the point that it felt like they were really struggling to pack everything in and because you can make those inferences it was one of the easier things to cut, when those scenes would've done a lot to show that turning point for Jinx, and using her position as Zaun's symbol (could even use a music video sequence there to show Ekko sharing his experiences in the other timeline to set up a potential future reconciliation of Piltover and Zaun cos now he knows it's possible, as well as show Jinx and Sevika commiserating over Isha), and set up her choice to get the airship and leave without letting anyone know she's alive (again, inference, Caitlyn is holding the head of the same monkey bomb that Jinx used in her final scene, so you can conclude that when they got down there to try and recover her body they didn't find her or Warwick, and Cait's trying to figure out how she might've survived)

this season would've really benefited just from having an extra episode in each act to pace things out more and let us sit in those moments that had to be montaged past - like overall i had a good time, this is going to be a show i come back to over and over, it's the kinda show where it being bittersweet and open-ended makes sense, but i can see the holes that had they been filled would have elevated it from good to great, and that like a lot of good shows, it's an ending ultimately held back by the limitations of the run time, the structure (three episodes per act across three acts), and possibly budget limitations too

[arcane-ish]

Arcane season 2 - Act 2 Review

through most of the act my feeling was that the pacing was off.

I just hate all the spacy, trippy stuff and it really ruins my enjoyment of the episodes.

Not really enjoying design for Warwick much, I want my fluffy furry Warwick. I also think the spooky horror stuff could be way spookier and more effective.

Ambessa isn't bad but she just isn't that interesting and effective. I think she just doesn't do enough interesting evil stuff compared to Silco.

However, enough meaningful emotional stuff happened in episode 6 to tide over a lot.

I don't buy that Warwick is dead. His whole point is that he has healing factor.

Caitlyn and Vi work really well together. After act 1 I was thinking about posting how the main thing that is missing for me between Vi and Caitlyn as a couple (at least compared to their League counterparts) is a sense of fun and raport. They got that back in episode 6.

Vi versus Ambessa was really fun.

I'm sorry Jayce and Viktor fans, I just like Jayce too little to be at all invested in this storyline. Good for Skye getting screentime I guess. Seriously, I would have gladly deleted that entire storyline fro the show. Just have Jayce, Viktor and Mel survive the explosion and then go off on a spa vaaction all season (sorry Mel fans). I would have gladly swapped all of that for Ekko and Heimer screentime.

Vikto and Singed got the most meaningful discussion on opposing philosophies.

It amuses me that they gave Caitlyn a dedicated training montage with Ambessa just to explain how Caitlyn could hold her own against Vi even though she's generally ranged.

I like Zaun going collectively "I am Spartacus" over Jinx.

I think Isha impersonating Jinx and doing an attack thing is kind of stupid. She is cute enough that she doesn't feel too excessively like a self insert and the way Jinx and Sevika react to her is gold. However, she still feels super contrived.

I'm kind of surprised by the relative friendliness of Singed vis a vis Vander and I was almost relieved when they went to him wanting to sacrifice Vander again in the Viktor camp. Ah, that's my unscupulous evil scientist, just the way I like him.

The Mylo and Claggor ereasure is really sad and I'm not even one of the people who particularly cares about them.

So... Vander and Silco flashbacks. One of the main things I wanted out of season 2. Am I satisfied.

1.) I'm glad that despite what is being said it didn't feel like a cheesy love triangle to me (my nightmare was that they would do Vander x Grayson).

2.) That said, my best case scenario, my biggest wish was actually for the fallout between Vander and Silco to actually be about politics and for us to get to actually let them voice their politics disagreements in an argument. (again more like the discussion between Singed and Viktor).

I like that it didn't violate my headcanons of them too much, however it didn't trigger my meaty thinky thoughts particularly about the political stuff either.

The thing that triggers my brain the most is actually their secret hideout, and it's about half !!!!!!!(/)§/$IHIUAHSIU!!!????"!! and half I'm not sure this makes sense.

How is that thing still preserved so pristinely? How come Silco never went there? I have to many questions!!!! And escaped Warwick went to that place and scratched on the door :( :( :( :(

I feel like I want to point out that Vander thought of Silco even before thinking of the girls (right after the monkey that was their undoing).

I wish we would have gotten to see the number on Silco's miner's badge just to see if his number is right after Vander's number to indicate that they joined at the same time if they are apart.

Can we get Ekko to do that particular time rewind that Jinx is talking about?

[arcadiabaytornado]

can u elaborate on how the weapons each arcane character fights with represent their personality n how max makes the choice about who to sacrifice depending on what she feels she needs to do? i love reading u ramble

Okay. Here's the deal. I'll make a post later about why Max leans toward sacrificing Arcadia Bay, but I'm not going to do it in this post because this post got LONG. I know you said you like my rambling, which I appreciate, but I think this post is going is going to be long even for the ramble enjoyers.

The first character I'm going to talk about is Caitlyn. She fights primarily with a gun, a long ranged weapon. The difference between a melee weapon and a long ranged weapon is pretty big. With a melee weapon, like gauntlets, you have to get up close and personal to commit an act of violence. While with a ranged weapon, like a gun, it's easier to distance yourself from your actions. That's notable for a character like Caitlyn who is A: Very kind and not someone who relishes in violence. B: Very privileged and has never experienced violence in the same way Vi has.

By using a gun Caitlyn is able to distance herself from the violence. Which matches her personality when you think about her well meaning but also often naive view of the world. However, there's another character that uses a gun that isn't much like Caitlyn.

More Undercut

And that's Jinx.

So does everything I say about why Caitlyn uses a gun still apply? Yep! Because Jinx uses a gun when we're supposed to be drawing a parallel between her and Powder. She uses a gun during the dock fight where she hallucinates Vi's face on the pink haired girl. She uses a gun when she kills Markus, the man who took Powder's sister away from her. She uses a gun to try to kill Caitlyn, a "monster" that Vi once would have forced to go away. Finally, she uses a gun to kill Silco when he threatens Vi. I think when Jinx uses a gun we're supposed to be thinking of her in terms of Powder, and that's why she uses a weapon that is less destructive than the weapon she uses when she wants to be Jinx: Bombs.

Bombs, much like Jinx, are chaotic and unpredictable. Once you throw one there's no real way to mitigate the damage or even 100% predict how much harm they'll do. That's very symbolic of Jinx, who's mental state has deteriorated to the point where she's very unstable and hard to predict. It's also noteworthy that Jinx, a character who is haunted by her past trauma, uses a weapon that can be a trigger for her, as we see with the bunny scene. I think that's symbolic of Jinx still living in the past, and wanting to prove to herself and others that her creations can be helpful to Silco's crusade. That is until Episode 9, when she gives up and tragically accepts herself (and therefore her creations) as a "jinx" and decides to bomb the council.

Speaking of the council! Mel is the only character who doesn't have a true weapon and doesn't engage with violence! This ties neatly into her trauma and resentment of her war mongering Mother, and her choice in the end to not vote for war with Zaun. It makes me wonder if, next season, (assuming she's alive) she'll come back with some kind of weapon, or if she'll stay defiant by staying unarmed.

Sevika is somewhat similar to Mel in the fact that she doesn't have a traditional weapon, but unlike Mel she is a fighter. She uses her enhanced arm to fist fight, which I think ties into her dedication and loyalty to Zaun. Fighting is part of survival in Zaun. We see that with teen Vi, Vander, and Silco. Sevika is no different from them in the way that she knows how to defend herself. and I think the fact that she fights with a mechanical arm ties into another aspect of Zaun: The technology.

Technology is what Viktor has begun to use as a weapon, albeit, unintentionally. While Viktor wants to use the tech for the good of himself and others, the hex core in his possession ends up killing Sky. This is symbolic of the way Viktor isn't actively trying to cause harm with tech, but he causes it all the same in a desperate attempt to save his own life.

Jayce is much the same. While he's not actively trying to cause harm with tech, he still does so. I find this interesting because Jayce's character could be summed up by one word: Progress. We usually see progress within tech/society/whatever else as a positive thing, but Arcane asks us the question "What happens when society takes a step toward a more destructive path?" And I think this question is symbolized by Jayce's hammer. A hammer is a tool that can be used for far more than causing harm to people. It's a tool often used to create new things, which is why it's heavily symbolic when Jayce rigs the hammer with hex tech technology to makes it more of a weapon than a tool.

His rigged hammer is symbolic of Jayce taking progress and warping into something dangerous. Which is a harsh contrast to Vi, who uses a weapon that is only really made for fighting.

Vi uses gauntlets, a melee weapon used for combat. Combat is a large part of Vi's character. Her skill in fighting is what she uses to survive in the streets of Zaun, and for both better and worse, it's what she typically defaults to when facing adversary. It only makes sense for a "hands on" character like Vi to have a weapon that is best used in a hand-to-hand fight. All of this could also be applied to Vander, another character who uses gauntlets, as he was just as hot-headed as Vi back in the day. Which ties into my next point:

It's further symbolic that she uses Vander's gloves. Vi is Vander's prodigy, and by the end of season 1, she closely replicates him in an ideological fashion. She no longer wants a big bloody war between Piltover and Zaun like she did as a teen, and has started taking steps to do things more diplomatically. Vi uses Vander's gloves because her arc is a parallel to his. But do you know who else's arc parallels Vander's?

Silco. The leader turned Father.

Silco uses a knife as his weapon. In criminology, knives are often considered as "personal" weapons because you have to get close to someone to use it. That's very symbolic of the fact that Silco only uses the knife on Vander, someone he was close with before their idea of Zaun took them in different directions. Him using a knife could also be a reference to the phrase "stabbed in the back" as he literally stabs Vander in the back after Vander tries to drown him.

That's my analysis of the weapons of each prominent Arcane character. I would do a better job closing out this post, but I wrote a small book above and I'm tired of typing so...post over. Scroll on. Thank you for reading.

[ravenkinnie]

i love love love the way you write jinx and the way you talk about her and her relationships!!! not to be annoying bc a lot of ppl in the fandom are like 16/17 but the general interpretation of jinx as little more than a victim of her circumstances and silco’s manipulation who should make up with her sister, be caitvi’s slightly annoying third wheel and ekko’s (or lux? lmao nothing against either ship but yk) quirked up gf is soooo boring (like god forbid a girl contains multitudes and is both a meow meow and an absolute cunt) and your take on her is such a breath of fresh air! not sure if you talked about this in a post already but what are your hopes in general for the new season and ofc for jinx in particular?

❤️❤️❤️ that's my pookie and even tho I'm hoeing across runeterra she will always be the one

no fr fr and listen I do feel like I'm fighting in a kindergarten when I hate because I realise it's cause everyone I'm beefing with is 18 and just likes the same YA archetypes as everyone else at that age but if 10k bitches can post it on ao3 I can hate on it. especially because it erases a supremely well done character that they made out of a lol champion I wouldn't even think twice about when she first released like that's a talent and that's work

and also if people want to complain about female characters in media it feels disingenuous to then remove agency from complicated female characters we do have to make them one dimensional - like one thing you cannot say about jinx is that she's flat - in personality I mean cause well. she is an active dynamic character with insane narrative potential and a lot of layers and being both a victim and a victimiser is an important part of that

my main hopes for season 2 are honestly

*I hope its consistent internally with its own ideology </3 I think s1 at the end starts unraveling a lil because it seems to despair for this both sides ass take but it just wouldn't make any sense with league lore or the show itself. here I mostly fear for ekko gkbknj

*everybody should become a somewhat worse person, like vi provably will because she will become an enforcer, caitlyn seems to also be heading for some corruption arc, obv viktor is there, so I think this will be fulfilled teehee

*I want jinx to have her own arc and I mean an arc where she develops her own goal and motivations outside other characters too and maybe this goal will be to love evil till the day she dies, ill take it!! I just think seeing jinx grow outside that child/flighty troublemaker into a full on villain/terrorist will be fantastic and will also give her actual league lore another layer that hopefullyyyy they can continue to build on (and they will never stop banking on jinx like that's basically leagues mascot)

*mel survives </3 like it would be way too much of a loss of a great character to give her so little storyline of her own, she needs to be in s2

*overall, sorry to be a freak but I'm a tragedy lover and enjoyer and I know they are tied to champion lore somewhat now but I still hope it ends sad or bittersweet for everyone. and when you say tragedy people often think of character death but that's probably the least tragic ending you can give a bitch, the true hollowness in losing everything you once were and could have been is what im talking about!!

*I did say this before but I hope jinx kills imagine dragons in arcane universe. first of all they are touring in israel so they deserve that but also it would be really funny to see them on her list of victims like just whole ass imagine dragons under silco or sth

[samuelyaboyy]

Had to make a introduction abut me cuz idk

My name is Sarah

My favorite shows are the muppet show, animaniacs, ghost and Molly McGee, casagrandes, the loud house, don't hug me I'm scared, sonic x, sonic boom, the letter people, Eddsworld, sesame street, Rocko's Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, CRiTORA, Catdog, moral Orel, muppets tonight, fanboy and Chum Chum, Fred Figglehorn, cartoonmania, mandela catalogue, walten files, Fred the Show, hi hi puffy Ami yumi, your favorite martian the series, nostalgia critic, angry video game nerd and potter puppet pals

My favorite movies are the muppet movie, the muppets, muppets most wanted, adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Fred the movie, Fred 3 the movie, Fred 2 night of the living Fred and CartoonMania: the movie

My hyperfixations are mad scientist cartoon, the rockafire explosion, goosebumps, vocaloid, utau and clone high

My favorite music artists are lemon demon, neil cicierega, your favorite martian, will wood, will wood and the tapeworms, tally hall, Bart baker, ghost and pals, your favorite martian and oingo boingo

My favorite video games are quiplash, trivia murder party, trivia murder party 2, Friday night funkin, five nights at Freddy's, Dave and Bambi, sonic the hedgehog, Omori, team fortress 2, roblox, item asylum, survive and kill the killers on area 51, my singing monsters, my muppets show and my singing monsters dawn of fire

My comfort media are inanimate insanity and peewee's playhouse

I am a bisexual, pansexual polyamorous aroace non-binary transgender genderfluid and xenogender boy

I use he/they/faun/xem/it pronouns and neopronouns

I make xenogenders

I make headcanon about characters from every media

I'm neurodivergent, autistic and ADHD

DNI if:

Homophobic

Transphobic

Ableist

Racist

Vegan

Imvu players

P3d0

Autism speaks supporters/defenders

Xenogender anti

Neopronoun anti

RCTA

Z00ph1l3

N$fw

F3t!sh ppl

Inflation and v0r3 enjoyers

Lemon Demon anti

Spam bots

Favorite characters

Muppets - Uncle deadly, Dr phil van neuter johnny Fiama sal minella marvin Suggs Mr poodlepants chip bill the bug bobo the bear lew Zealand doctor Bunsen honeydew beaker Wayne and Wanda waldo C graphic digit newsman bill the bubble guy Wilkins wontkins bobby Benson link hogthrob Constantine the frog Sam the Eagle Howard Tubman Carter Zelda rose and Mulch

Sesame Street - Count von Count, Bill the Bug and Limbo/Nobody

Bart Baker - Taylor Swift, PSY, Lorde, William, Britney spears and Adam levine

Lemon Demon - Neil Cicierega

Animaniacs - Wakko Warner

The Ghost and Molly McGee - Sharon McGee, Leah stein-torres, Pete mcgee, Libby stein-torres, jinx, Molly McGee, scratch, Darryl McGee and Ezekiel tugbottom

Battle for Dream Island - Puffball

Friday night Funkin - Meri, Beepie, Dave and Bambi

Fred Franchise - Fred Figglehorn

Jashin-Chan - Hatsune Miku

CRiTORA - Kimi canicani, Iggy digahol, Avery Darling, eggy, queen virus, dundun qwerty, Pluto Georgia, spottie Leonard and Ernie joefreckler

Adventures of Elmo in grouchland - Huxley

Channel Awesome - Nostalgia Critic/Doug Walker

Muppets 2011 - Tex Richman

Cinemassacre - Angry Video Game Nerd

Muppet Movie - Max, Doc Hopper and Snake Walker

Pokemon - Sylveon

Fred the Movie - Kevin and Judy

Peewee's Playhouse - Cool Cat, Dirty Dog, Conky 2000, Randy and Chairry

Muppets from Space - K. Edgar singer

Rockafire Explosion - Rolfe Dewolfe and Dook Larue

Cartoonmania - Lucifer Killingsworth, Rufus, Ed Ted Ned and Fred, Anne Mermaid, Roy and Professor Qwertyson

Muppets Most Wanted - Dominic badguy

ABC Muppets - Pache/Pizza

Don't hug me I'm scared - Colin and Shrignold

Muppets Tonight - Heather Locklear

Muppets Wizard of Oz - Wicked Witch of the west

Crash and Bernstein - Crash

Fraggle Rock - Large Marvin fraggle

Clone High - Topher Bus, Abe, Professor Scudsworth and Mr. butlertron wesley

Scott the Woz - Scott the Woz

Owl House - Collector

BFFS list

@elle-eedee @emishows123 @splashy900 @boogiestronic80s @nightmaremp @moshywoosh @cheezecirno

Might pin this later 👀

This was inspired by @emishows123

[independentzaun]

🍒 Would they ever want to get married? , 🍎 How do they flirt with the same sex? & 🍏 How do they react to flirting from the same sex? for Sevika and Silco

In normal verses Sevika wouldn't want to for one simple reason. She doesn't expect to survive working for Silco. She fully expects that some day she will die bleeding out on the street, and she doesn't want to put someone through that. I say normal verses because obviously there are exceptions... like with Elise. She's absolutely here to get married to Elise. If Elise is willing.

How does she flirt with the same sex? Playfully, and confidently, and at times rather bluntly. It is not hard to tell when she's interested, and if she's interested it's not hard to get some time together with her. Sevika doesn't play games, and is the healthiest of my muses sexually so she's pretty up front about things. As for flirting from the same sex she reacts very enthusiastically, and sees no reason at all not to.

He is married, and it's to The Cause. There must be a Free Nation of Zaun, and while that stays unfulfilled how could he possibly imagining joining his life to another in such a way? Not to mention Jinx would get jealous, and quite possibly kill the other person. That said he would be willing to marry for political reasons.

Flirting with other men? He plays games, and does everything possible to keep a power difference between them so he doesn't feel threatened. To be blunt for as much as he does enjoy men, and his natural inclination has him leaning more towards men than women because of trauma he has issues trusting men or feeling safe with them in such situations. So if he's flirting he will be pushing boundaries, seeing what they will accept and take, being a bit of a brat, and trying to force them to admit just what it is they want. It's not really a healthy thing to be honest. His reaction to them flirting with him? Somewhere between vague suspicion, and enjoyment. Deep inside Silco does enjoy the thought that he's still wanted by other men, and if someone comes up to flirt he's probably not going to immediately tell them to go away so long as they are interesting about it. That said if it's just some generic "Hey sexy/daddy/did it hurt when you fell from heaven" thing he's going to roll his eyes, and tell them to go away.

[moondrop-writes]

Hi!! Happy Holidays!! I was wondering if I could request Percy and Hermes (platonic)?

Percy sees Hermes's delivery truck (sometime after the 2nd great prophecy/quest) and goes to say 'hi'/catch up and bring some rats for George and Martha? Maybe he mentions that Hermes's temple in Tartarus helped him and Annabeth survive. Thanks 😊

-@pjo-hermes-stan

hi hi!!! i hope you have an enjoyable holiday as well!!! and of course i can. i hope you enjoy this piece :) i tried to write it smoothly, but it's been a while since i've written anything for pjo.

Percy's life has been normal, which is significantly abnormal considering the crap he'd been through the past few years. He wasn't attempting to jinx it though. He hadn't even seen a sign of a monster for the past month, and Riptide has taken temporary residency in the drawer of his bedside table. He'd been able to just be a seventeen-year-old in New York, and it was amazing.

Skating through the city, chewing on candy from Sweet on America, as he laughed. It felt good to be able to be care-free and relaxed.

That was until he spotted the truck.

It was subtle, he'd admit, but Percy's eyes trained on the caduceus immediately. A shock went through him, and his hand went to his pocket for his sword, only to come up with empty candy-bar wrappers.

What did Hermes want?

But then again, what did any god want?

Tucking his skateboard under his army, Percy walked up to the truck, watching as it unloaded into a nearby warehouse. He isn't sure if he should've been surprised to find the god of messages there considering it seemed like such a miniscule task, but Hermes noticed Percy the moment he moved to take a step closer.

"Ah, Perseus, nice to see you around!" The god was dressed in his delivery wear, a clipboard in hand and a pencil tucked behind his ear. He flashed a dazzling smile that reminded Percy all too much of his son.

"Hermes," he greets, with a polite bow of his head. He'd rather not piss off any gods at the moment. "What are you doing? I thought the gods were working on claiming their kids." it's a subtle implication, but Hermes eyes glint over.

"Ah, we are. I think I've claimed two in the past week. I can't recall," he laughs easily, and takes his pen from his ear. Percy watches as it molds into a caduceus, with two snarling snakes. They immediately reel back upon seeing Percy.

Martha's tongue peaks out, and leans forward, inspecting him. George does the same and is the first to break the silence. "Do you have rats on you?" he hisses, and Martha nudges into his side.

"Uh, no," Percy says and turns back to the god, "then what are you doing here? Surely you have more than two unclaimed kids."

In the back of his mind, Percy can hear George whining about a lack of rats as Martha chides him over manners. He pushes it away and out of his mind, focusing on the god in front of him.

Hermes has a raised eyebrow and his mouth twitches into a smirk. "I should be offended that you see me as a... promiscuous type of god, but you have a fair question. The gods have decided that not only should we work on claiming our kids but helping out in humanity more. My company sales were lacking so..." he trails off, looking behind him as multiple workers carrying heavy brown boxes into the large warehouse.

Percy clicks his tongue and nods.

"But enough of me, how about you?" a gentler look comes across Hermes face, one he'd only seen given to May Castellan. Percy's brows furrow.

"What? Uh, I'm alright. Why?"

Hermes looks at him like he's dumb.

"You went through a war, twice. The world seems normal, but you can't stop thinking about the horrors you went through. And you can't ask anybody about it because they'd call you crazy. See what I mean? I'll ask you again. How are you?"

Percy hates how right he is. He hates how easily he knows how he feels. Percy hates gods like Hermes. He hates all the gods, sometimes. Still, he shrugs and looks back to the caduceus. Martha's looking at him expectantly, and George has already disengaged in the conversation.

"Better. As good as I can be, y'know," Hermes nods, and it seems like he's genuinely interested in what Percy has to say. He's talked to plenty of gods who'd asked how he was, and when he actually tried to express himself, they brushed him off. It was kind of heartwarming.

"Yes. I've been informed of your troubles whilst on the quest to stop Gaea."

Percy laughs drily, shrugging. "If you can dub Tartarus as a 'trouble'."

Hermes sighs in agreement and purses his lips. Martha makes this weird hissing sound, which was probably meant to be a coo, but turned out to be sort of terrifying. For some reason, Percy was endeared by the snake.

"I am sorry about that. I will say there is nothing I could've done, but I am sorry."

Percy nods, before a thought crosses his mind. He thinks about sitting at Hermes shrine, eating peanut m&m's, Annabeth by his side.

"You did do something," he says, and a look of bewilderment crosses Hermes face, "well, not you, but your kids did. There was a small shrine down there, I don't know why or how, but it was connected to Camp. It helped us, a lot. Connor delivered a message for us, while we were down there. I don't think I ever thanked him."

Hermes smiles, unlike the one he'd had before. It was much more enjoyable to see. A proud look came across his face, almost smug over his child's small feat.

"Well, I'm glad. I have never had an active--"

"Boss! The truck's unloaded!" A new voice calls, peaking around the truck. The guy stares suspiciously at Percy but waits patiently.

The caduceus shrinks back into a pen and clipboard, and with one last whine from George, Percy's mind is clouded by mist. He can't even imagine it being a caduceus anymore.

"The world calls me, Perseus, I must go. I'm no Apollo, but I cannot foresee any kind of troubles coming your way," and with that he walks away. Percy stands there, a bit stunned, until the truck drives away.

He drops his skateboard and bites his lip before taking off.

--

Later that week, if he stops by the pet store and buys a few dead rats, his mom doesn't question it.

And if he drops it off by the warehouse by the door, it may or may not say it's for George and Martha.

The next day it's gone. When he gets home, on his apartment door, is a small sticky note with a smiley face on it.

[clownpi]

New Lightcannon idea: Prince of Persia crossover. A new exhibit of rare relics from Shurima opens in Piltover with the highlight being the supposed 'Sands of Time' hourglass and Dagger of Time. The ancient Vizier attacks the Museum to gain both items, and use them to turn both cities into a replica of his kingdom he was master of in ancient times. However Jinx (Surviving being stabbed by the Dagger she just happen to be wanting to rob as well.) makes off with the Dagger in a visiting Lux being dragged along for the ride.

Never played the Prince of Persia games (I seem to be saying that a lot with having not watched/read/played lol) so I'm only able to talk from context clues, but I'm somewhat struggling on figure out how to mentally develop the idea (If that makes sense).

Usually with these submissions it gets my brain buzzing, but with this one I don't really know how it would go. Like I can see Jinx being a little gremlin sneaking in to the exhibit, maybe getting found out by Vi and Caitlyn (who are patrolling the exhibit given it's high profile nature and the fact Jinx likely sent them a note expressing her interest). Lux could also be there as a diplomat.

It's just I'm drawing a blank on how the story would advance past getting the cool dagger.

I don't know, for some reason my mind just drifts to the Mummy given the subject matter and my enjoyment of the movie. In that case it could be an AU (or take place in Runeterra who knows) where Lux hires a team to explore newly discovered ruins that are thought to house unimaginable treasures.

Team would be: Lux (Kinda over it archeologist), Ezreal (Well-intentioned explorer friend that's a massive idiot surviving through sheer luck and is practically unkillable), Sivir (Local guide, gruff with a heart of gold when it counts, constant mocker of "Dumb foreigners"), Jinx (Ex-Convict hired due to her unmatched skills when it comes to traps and engineering, keeps flirting with Lux), and Caitlyn and Vi being thrown into the bunch as Jinx 'technically' isn't an Ex-Convict since she escaped prison early because she got bored.

Villain would be Xerath or something, who the accidentally unleash and have to deal with.

Maybe I just want to rewatch the Mummy.....

[polarisbibliotheque]

DMC OC Week - Day 3: Past

OC + DMC Universe

Summary: “After 10 years, Dante goes back to the city of Remény, a place where he left much more than dead demons and thankful humans. He’d finally meet her again.”

Content: Honestly, everything you’d find in a DMC game. But with more existential crisis and exploration of repressed feelings (it’s a wild ride).

Age rating: +16

Word Count: 3.3k

“So… What’s your name, lady?”

On that grim day, when all hope was lost and Diana thought death was certain, that man in a red coat jumped in to help her defend her own life. She deemed it as good as gone, but that man stood by her side when no one else did.

And not only that – when Diana was sure she would get mortally hit, he stood in front of the blade, a scythe piercing through his chest. She screamed in horror as blood gushed from the wound, pooling around her feet and sprinkling on her hands and face. He couldn’t die, not for her. If the only person who decided to help her had to give their life for Diana, she would choose to die – he definitely was too good to go in such a terrible manner.

But he simply took the scythe off his chest and kept on going. As shocked as she was, Diana still managed to get the bloody scythe from the floor and fight. It was heavy and clunky, but she’d do whatever she needed to survive.

When all demons were gone, that man turned around to speak to her for the first time.

“Diana. And yours?”

“Most people call me Dante.” As he answered, Diana could only raise one eyebrow. ‘Most people’? How many other names did he have? “Those people who left you behind, you know them?”

“Hmmm.” Her reply was nothing more than an annoyed hum and it would remain like that. Diana checked her wound to assess how bad it was, but her heart ached more than any physical pain she felt.

What happened that day was only the last drop of water to overflow the cup of hurt emotions Diana had inside. For too long she had dealt with being mistreated by everyone around her – but she didn’t expect to be left to die like that.

Dante kept watching her for a while… She reminded him of someone.

“You think they’ll open those doors now to let you in?” He had to find out what to do next. Dante needed to get the job done, but now she was under his protection. He wouldn’t leave Diana behind, but he couldn’t move on killing demons relentlessly with a hurt human by his side. He needed to get her to safety.

And Diana just stared back at him.

“Perhaps if we ask nicely.” Her statement dripped sarcasm, making him laugh briefly. It wasn’t a laugh of enjoyment, but one that recognized how humans could sometimes be worse than demons. And it also recognized some mannerisms from a company he missed so much in his life.

“What about your family? Do you have someone around?”

“I told them to leave during the first wave. We weren’t together when the demons attacked, and I didn’t want them to die because of me.”

Diana barely looked at Dante, but he felt a pull in his heart with her words. He knew exactly what she meant – Dante himself would get the people he loved to safety first during emergencies and if he died, so be it. At least they were safe.

Especially if it was his family. If he still had one.

“The sun’s about to set, we better find a safe place to spend the night.” He looked at the skies, the color changing to a darker tone. At night, the city would be swarming with demons that lurked in the shadows – and those things would smell Diana’s fresh blood like sharks.

“Don’t worry about me, you have a job to do. I can go on my own.” Diana took the scythe from the floor again, testing the weight on her leg. It hurt more than she expected, and it didn’t stop bleeding.

But she learnt to be alone. It had been a very long time since she couldn’t trust anyone, and that day sealed her belief that she could depend on herself and herself only. Although Dante saved her, Diana also thought the world of the people who left her to die. The people she forgave so much so she wouldn’t be alone – but she was. Left to die. Left to survive.

Dante furrowed his brows. Vergil. Diana had some of his mannerisms: the way she was cold and distant, sarcastic and stoic. A lone survivor – instead of keeping it light-hearted like the Crimson Slayer, she had the cold, polite aura of the Dark Slayer.

Dante couldn’t leave her there to die.

“Well, you’re not going very far with that leg of yours.” He pointed out, making her stare at him. “C’mon. I’d prefer to continue our chat in a place where those demons won’t turn you into their Happy Meal time.”

A faint smile appeared on Diana’s lips, even though she didn’t want to. That alone made Dante a little more content about himself – he knew Vergil was hard to crack, but Dante had his ways to deal with his brother. Perhaps he could do the same with her.

When someone was so used to harshness, a little kindness could go a long way.

*

The mirrored walls were covered in blood. Chairs and tables were tossed around, broken, blocking the way. The floor had drag marks everywhere, covered in crystals of broken glass, bottles and cups. There were no bodies left – and if there were, they wouldn’t want to see them.

A pub wasn’t the most obvious choice for a safe place to spend the night, but it had only two entrances: Dante and Diana blocked the back door with chairs and tables, making sure no demon could enter. They left the front door unblocked, though – if they needed to escape, that was the route.

Dante knew a handful of demons who could teleport through the barricade, so an escape route was a must.

Diana sat by one of the last chairs on the bar, the scythe resting by her side, close enough to be grabbed in an emergency. Dante stood by one of the blood sprinkled windows right at the other side of the pub, checking if the streets were safe.

But he also checked on her. Diana’s wound was worse than he initially thought, and Dante was suspecting there was some sort of poison that wasn’t allowing her to heal. It kept bleeding and that was a huge problem – not only because it could attract demons, but it was unsafe for a human to bleed so much.

“Hey, Diana. Let me take a look at that.” He decided to approach her, which seemed to startle her. Diana was too lost in thoughts to remember she was there with someone else.

“It’s ok. I’m fine.” She answered briefly, but shied away from him as soon as Dante was close enough to touch her.

That annoying tug on his heart stroke again. What the hell did people do to her to make that woman so avoidant?

He understood Vergil – he really did. Neither Dante or his brother had an easy life and even though Vergil did some stupid ass things in pursuit of power, Dante knew where it came from. He knew why Vergil was so avoidant and so closed up, deeming his feelings as a weakness – Dante could never really judge him.

Yes, Vergil was a pain in the ass to deal with, but he could understand wanting to become full demon and leave all his humanity behind. For his brother to get like that, though, it took a lot. Dante’s heart always got hurt seeing another human with those traits, because it usually stemmed from a great pain.

He had always been the soft-hearted twin.

“Ei, I know a thing or two about first aid.” He sat on what was left of the seat by her side, leaning most of his weight on the bar. Dante didn’t want her to get even more uncomfortable – reaching out was a matter of patience. “But I do know a lot more on demonic wounds. Scythe through the chest, remember?”

Diana let a little smile color her lips, making Dante smile back – a little proud on breaking through that thick coat of ice, even if it was just a little bit.

“That thing isn’t healing, right? We’ll have to patch it up somehow until we find someone who can properly take care of you.”

“I don’t need to be taken care of.” Diana’s response was almost automatic – she even stopped talking as soon as she noticed the words coming out of her mouth. Luckily, Dante brushed it off and didn’t tease her as she expected he would do.

“Oh, I know that. You faced head on a bunch of demons with a metal stick as a weapon.” It was a compliment, and she wasn’t expecting that. Dante took Diana completely by surprise and disarmed her so easily. She didn’t even know what to do with herself. “Say what. I’m gonna find whatever bottle's left on this joint and pour us a drink. Whenever you get uncomfortable, we stop to have a sip and chat. How do you feel about that?”

Diana still shied away when Dante leaned a little towards her but he took her answer as a good omen.

“If you can find a surviving drink in this place, fine.”

*

“You have to be quite strong to be able to take a stab through your heart and keep on going.” Diana barely moved as Dante saw what he could do on her thigh.

It was way worse than he was used to see in humans. Diana mentioned a Monk at the Cathedral who could help, but he didn’t want to break the news that it was probably going to take a lot more work than just patching her up. There was something more at work there – Dante couldn’t make out if it was a poison, a jinx, a hex, or whatever else those demons had in their bodies. He just knew she was at a great risk.

But Dante also didn’t want to admit that to himself. He decided to stay in denial and tell himself “everything is gonna be alright”. He probably was being too overdramatic, too much of a doomsday person. Or at least that’s what he wanted to think.

He wasn’t going to lose her. He wasn’t able to save his brother and bring Vergil back to a normal, functioning life where he didn’t have to know only suffering and harshness – but he could do that to Diana. He could save her. He had to.

“Eh, it’s part of the job.” Dante brushed it off, already used to it. He lost count of how many times he was impaled by blades.

Dante immediately stopped what he was doing, though, when Diana took her glass from the table to take a sip of whisky. He leaned back, taking his own broken glass between his long fingers covered by black leather gloves.

“Everything ok?”

“Hmmm.” She just nodded back, taking another sip of alcohol. Dante waited, knowing she’d say something else. At least that’s how it was with Vergil. “I’m not used to that much… Touching.”

“It’s ok. You’re doing fine.” Dante’s lips searched for the part of the glass that wasn’t broken for another sip of whisky, looking aloof to allow Diana to smile briefly. She tended to smile when he wasn’t looking, even if it was a shadow of a proper smile. “We have the whole night.”

And in those sky-blue eyes, she found nothing but honesty. Dante wasn’t human, Diana knew that. But his heart was an open book in his eyes – there was something in there. A kind of pure honesty mixed with loneliness. A longing for kindness in return.

Dante waited patiently until Diana said it was ok for him to work on her wound again. He had a few first aid things resting on the bar that could help – the most he could find on that hopeless place. She didn’t touch her glass for quite a while.

“Scythe through the chest, just like the song…” She muttered to herself, drawing his attention. “Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame…”

“Darlin’, you give love a bad name.”

As soon as Dante sang back to her, Diana smiled. The very first honest smile that lit up her face, making Dante smile back. They were making progress.

*

“You seem to know my brother well even though you spent years apart.”

Vergil walked gracefully by Diana’s side. Enveloped by the darkness of the night, both moved silently like specters, making almost no noise. They didn’t want to draw the attention of demons during a rescue mission – they could investigate further when people were safe and the whole crew got back together.

“Dante did help me when I had no one else. He isn’t that easy to forget.”

“That you are right.” Vergil’s tone was annoyed, making her smile. “His foolishness is remarkable.”

Diana didn’t want to laugh out loud, but she did – making Vergil raise an eyebrow towards her. He wasn’t used to people laughing of the things he said… Well. People other than his brother. Dante seemed to be the only one who thought Vergil’s dry humor was funny. Having another person outside his family be so… Welcoming to him was surely different.

“It is, but it always puts a smile on our faces, right?” Diana agreed with a sigh, contemplating the bright moon high in the velvet blue sky. “He can always make me smile.”

Vergil wasn’t expecting that remark – but she was right. In all his foolishness, Dante made him smile even when Vergil didn’t want to. The Dark Slayer lost count of how many times they ended up laughing when Dante started to follow him around during an argument to “hug it out” while Vergil literally ran away around the shop’s table.

It was very angry laughing between both, but it always worked like a charm to make them less angry and stop screaming at each other.

“Hmmm.” And Diana furrowed her brows when she noticed Vergil had the same mania she had to hum while thinking. She wondered if Dante also noticed that years ago. “You’re also right about that.”

“Does he follow you around for a hug when you’re avoiding all human contact as well…?”

“…And you keep pushing him away, but that idiot is worse than a hungry koala?” Vergil completed her question, making Diana start laughing immediately.

And even though he didn’t want to, Vergil ended up laughing as well.