#that really was poor planning on Sevika's part i guess

[mollysunder]

I was talking to my friend who is very adamant about not watching arcane, but does enjoy listening to me rant about it. They told me Jinx was right not to show up at Sevika's rally. They pointed out it's kind of illogical for Piltover's Most Wanted to go to a large rally in the middle of the day in a public square and not expect to be arrested, and the crowd should have been too.

I couldn't really argue woth that because... yh upon retrospect, that plan was obviously going to fail. Why hold it in the middle of the day? Why out in public next to a popular statue where enforcers would inevitably be doing patrols, because Zaun's under occupation?

Practically every person in that crowd was on the wrong side of the law and nobody expected things to go wrong? The only one at that rally who knew they'd be arrested was Singed, who's also one of the two people who technically brought a weapon?

[alpaca-clouds]

Winter Whumperland Day 04: Needles

My entry for @amonthofwhump's Winter Whumperland Day 04. As the prompt is Body Modification I kinda wanted to write about some canonical ones. :D

Fandom: Arcane - League of Legends

Characters: Vi, Jinx, Silco, Sevika

Genre: Whump

Length: 1923 words

[Ao3 Link]

A/N: For formating reasons I highly advice you to read the fic on Ao3!

When the needle first hit her skin…

… Vi only winced for a moment. They had started with her upper arm. It was as good of a thing to do as any in prison. Not that she was ever gonna get out of here. She was not sure, what she had expected. Pain? It did hurt, sure, but it was more in the way a little scratch might hurt. Something one would normally ignore, so she leaned her head against her arm and just waited while Milux was continuing his work. She was not even sure, why she was doing this. Just, that it was something she could have control about in her life. Yeah, this was something about her that would not be controlled by the wardens or anyone else. This was hers and hers alone. She liked the idea, because the gods knew, there was not much about that left.

It had been four years, since she had ended up here. Four fucking years.

… Jinx yelped. She had sworn herself not to do that, but yet she could not help it. Even though she actually liked pain. She absolutely did. Yet, feeling the needle against her skin was… different. She gritted her teeth, while Sevika only grunted.

“I told ya the stomach was the worst place to start.”

She had indeed told her. But fuck this all. Jinx was not even sure why it was Sevika doing it. She guessed because Silco had told her to. “It's not like it is actually hurting,” she pressed out between her teeth.

Sevika looked at her, raising an eyebrow. There was a grim look on her, as she grunted again. “Yeah, sure.” She continued her work on the little cloud. Jinx had planned it all out. It would be pretty. Blue like her hair. And it wasn't hurting that much. She would just grit her teeth and power through it. At least the voices stopped talking to her while the pain was real.

When their second session started…

… Vi had a hurting jaw once more. That shithead Fein had gotten into a fight with her again. All of them followers of Silco of course, that even Marcus could not have kept out of prison. She knew what was going on out there. At least in parts. Though not much of it mattered. Vander was dead. They all were dead. And Powder… Powder had been all alone in that alley. She was probably dead, too. And it was Vi's fault of course.

“Wow,” Weilin said, as she sat down on the chair opposite of Vi, while Milux was still working on Vi's right shoulder. “Fein has messed you up real good.”

Vi growled at this comment. All she had was a bruised jaw. “You should see how he is looking.” Actually, she had been lucky to not end up in solitary again.

“Don't move,” Milux muttered, as his needle was moving across the shoulder in a slow and steady motion. Once you got used to it, the feeling was almost pleasurable.

“Sorry, bud,” Vi muttered.

“You can't go on like this forever, Vi.” Weilin said, watching her. They were in the dinning hall, because there really was no other place to do this. Dinner would not come for another hour, so they had a bit of time.

“Like what?”

“Fighting with every Silco goon thrown in here.”

Vi sighed, grinding her teeth. All of this was Silco's fault after all. “Watch me.”

… Jinx found herself way too tense. She hated it and the voices laughed at her for it. The fact that there was this certain grin on Sevika's face didn't help any of it. This was bad. Because Jinx was not a poor little girl who was afraid of a little needle. She would be fine… The clouds in the front would get finished today and then it would get easier.

“We could do the back, first,” Sevika offered, leading to Jinx just staring at her.

“No. We'll do this now.”

Sevika however was not impressed, instead just giving a disdainful laugh. “Whatever you say, little girl.”

Jinx hated her. But she hated everyone but Silco. Because they all were just trying to hurt her, leave her, harm her. In the same way that Vi had done. Vi had left her. Alone. In that alley. And they all were dead. They all…

There they were, Mylo and Claggor standing behind Sevika – until the moment the needle hit Jinx's skin. She almost sighed with relief this time as the ghosts vanished and the voices stopped. Actually, the pain was not that bad. Yeah. Actually, this was kinda nice.

It was during the fourth session, that…

… one of the wardens came through the dining hall. By now most of Vi's right side was finished, with only some finishing touches to be made. The warden – Julian – was clearly out for trouble, banging his baton against some of the metal tables. When he came over to them, he stopped.

“What'cha doing there?”

“Getting a tattoo,” Vi muttered, only looking at the guy from the corner of her eyes. She knew he was out for trouble, but she did not want to give it to him.

“Who said you're allowed to?"”

She growled, leading to Milux to tap her arm. “Calm down.” He reminded her.

“Fuck no,” Vi muttered. “It's our own deal what to do in our free time, right?”

Apparently Julian was not of the same opinion, as he grabbed Milux's hand. “Where did you even get that?”

“I bought it,” Milux said calmly.

“Yeah, and from whom?”

Vi could the anger burn in her guts, as she got up. “Leave her the fuck alone!” Of course this was, what he wanted, as a grin crossed his lips.

“Or what?”

… Jinx started to wish, this would never end. It was so nice, so calm. No voices. No Mylo and Claggor. Just her, Sevika and the needle. She smiled, as the pattern was drawn across her shoulder. Blue clouds, symbolizing the vapors from the chem factories, that would suffocate the lanes and yet had not suffocated her. She was the one who had survived. She was the one who had in fact thrived. She was doing great for herself, especially as her bombs were by now finally working.

She just watched the wall of her room, which she had skillfully decorated in neon colors. There was no one, who would touch her ever again.

After all there was an upside to not trusting anyone – anyone but Silco at least. Because when you did not rely on anyone, no one could ever disappoint you. They had all died. All of them. Every last one of them. Her parents. Vander. Mylo. Claggor. Vi, probably, too. But maybe they had deserved it. Maybe they…

“Falling asleep, princess?” Sevika teased, earning only a grunt from Jinx.

“Just shut up, will ya?”

By the sixth session…

… Vi had almost gotten used to the little pricks of pain. She knew that by their current speed it would take still at least take two or three more sessions, but who cared? It was not as if she had anything better to do. Days, even weeks were bleeding into each other. At times it was hard to even keep track of time. If she only could get out. If she only… She was not even sure what she would do. She would hunt down Silco or die trying, that much she was certain of. But what would she do after that?

There was no place for her to return to. She did not know what had happened to The Last Drop, but it was probably either gone or under Silco's control. Neither did she know if anyone else from back then was still alive. What about little Ekko? Did the boy still live?

She sighed, as she closed her eyes, just trying to relax. It was just so… She did not even have words for it. They were all dead. There was nothing for her out there – or in here. Nothing but revenge.

.. Jinx was looking forward to these sessions. While there were the voices talking to her, as she returned from the bathroom, having cleaned herself, they almost immediately stopped as the needle touched her skin. She grinned, as the ghosts vanished.

“You seem to be in rather good spirits,” Sevika noted, as she noticed this.

“I am,” Jinx replied. She was not going to tell her about the ghosts of course, because Sevika was a liar and would just use it against her someday. Silco always said that Jinx should be kinder to her, as Sevika was one of his most trusted partners. But Jinx did not trust that woman.

After all: Sevika had betrayed Vander, so it was only a matter of time until she would betray Silco as well. So, really, why would Jinx even think about trusting her? Having her do this was something else. Like, Jinx would've done it herself, if she only could. But she was sane enough to know that was a bad idea. So, she let it happen, knowing that if Sevika tried anything, Silco would have her head – no matter what kind of a good partner she was.

After the last session was finally done…

… Vi found herself in her prison cell, looking into the dirty little mirror. She had to turn her head quite a bit to even get a look at the machine now covering her shoulders. But it had turned out great, she thought. Milux and her had come up with the pattern together. It was a symbol for the undercity. The beating machine heart of Piltover, even though those stupid uppercrust folks never saw it that way. A machine heart spewing out fumes. She found herself almost sighing.

Well, this was done now. So she would find a new thing to spend her time with. This was prison, after all. It was not that there were a lot of things to do here. It was by now more than 5 years since she had ended up in there - and she knew chances were slim that she would ever get out.

At least her cell right now had a little window – even if the view from here was not the best. At least she could dream of being out there again. Being out there and getting her revenge.

… Jinx tried to ignore the ghosts following her, reminding her of her failings. She put on a smile, as she entered Silco's office, jumping easily onto his desk. “Look! It's done!” She twirled around, ignoring that her shoes pushed papers of the table.

Silco, though, would not chide her for it, instead smiling as he looked at the still red skin on her arm. “You look beautiful, Jinx.”

She let herself fall onto the edge of the table, putting her feet into his lap. She was grinning. “I know, right?”

“And Sevika did not strangle you, did she now?” This was meant to tease her, but Jinx rolled her eyes, blowing a stray hair out of her face.

“Only because she knows you'd kill her.”

His eyes wandered over the tattoos that now adorned her body. The first ones had already healed well. “You two really should try and work together,” His hand found hers, holding it gently. “Just at least try for me, will you?”

She grumbled, looking at those two uneven eyes. “I guess.”

This at least got him to smile. “That's my girl.”