tophat-69

[tophat-69]

So something subtle I noticed in Arcane. Silco uses makeup. I'm far from the first to notice this as a quick Google will lead you to reddit. But what I've connected it to is with his relationship to Jinx/Powder.

Jinx/Powder uses makeup. She's probably one of the only besides Silco, in the Undercity atleast, that does.

It's interesting to think about. That Silco probably imported makeup from topside for Jinx when she asked for it. But then ended up using it himself as well.

Also is the image of her needing to practice doing her makeup, and Silco letting her practice on him. Probably still allowing her to do it, but she still does it on occasion. It's probably they now both have the dramatic arch to their brows.

Him continuously doing his makeup to show Jinx he likes it. And by keeping it pristine to preserve when she does it for him.

Just a cute image in my head of him having child Jinx slathering makeup and liner on him and him going to business meetings with it on. And no one says a thing cause it's Silco.

Except maybe Sevika who would be like, "Glad I wasn't made to have her practice on."

[tophat-69]

wish I can wipe my memory after season finale

[tophat-69]

Jayce's POV

[tophat-69]

Ximena being great at all types of cooking.

And we thank her for that

[tophat-69]

I hope you know we had everything, and you broke me and left these pieces...

instagram / twitter

[tophat-69]

in another universe

instagram / twitter

[tophat-69]

I have a relatively popular Soukoku WIP that I really do want to get back to, but my brain is inconveniently stuck on the largely unread Arcane/Zaundads prequel story that no one asked for and no one is reading.

[tophat-69]

No, I love that you’re taking it to meta! So much of the reason I’m writing a prequel for the Zaun Rebellion is because I have too much meta crammed into my head about the previous generation. Including Felicia.

I’ve seen the discussion that their mental health struggles DO seem hereditary, and am building on it. They are also something that predated “Jinx” or Stillwater for both sisters.

In Act 1, Powder is already struggling. She has meltdowns, she has overwhelming fears of abandonment, struggles with feelings of inferiority. I know a lot of the answer given to that is “she’s young.” And she is! But she’s also an adolescent of an age where you might start seeing symptoms of BPD. Usually it takes years to reach that diagnosis, but according to the DSM-5, BPD can be diagnosed as early as 12: if the symptoms have persisted for at least a year. Powder is 11.

“Jinx” obviously takes it beyond what would be typical, so the struggle you’re seeing from Felicia is actually all behavior that was already apparent in Powder.

Even putting aside diagnosing fictional characters, though, what you also have is generational trauma. Life in Zaun ends up with that for so many of them. It leaves its scars. In the story, Felicia is orphaned and sees her parents bodies too. A mining accident that we can blame on the negligence of topside since they use Zaun for labor but don’t care for their safety. Then, it’s Vander who takes her in.

Cycles.

Felicia’s age isn’t specified. She does seem younger than Vander and Silco to me, in the flashback. And frankly, her presentation of her pregnancy and their reaction to it and her comments on not being ready for motherhood, all of that to me said “younger than these two mid-thirties brother-figures.”

Which brings me to another parallel. Not Vander taking in Vi and Powder—Jinx taking in Isha. Because Jinx IS like her fathers, and reflects both of them. She takes in strays, and she seeks family, and she changes to try and become better when she has someone who looks up to her. Even as a teenager herself, she ends up as essentially both sister and mother to Isha. She rewrites her life around this girl. She becomes the “hero” for her. And when Isha dies, Jinx breaks. She hands herself over to Piltover, she accepts imprisonment, and would have killed herself if something else to fight for hadn’t presented itself at her lowest moment.

And because I’m looking for “how did Vander and Silco go from being the originators of a shared dream to trying to kill each other” through the lenses of everything being a cycle, we know that Felicia’s death is the event that broke them.

Felicia was Vander’s Isha. The much younger sister who he was also half a parent to. And her death breaks him. He abandons his dream, but takes on another cause—her daughters.

So, the relationship between the three of them, and the question of how much of this is genetic and how much of it is the scars left behind by the conflict between Zaun and Piltover, that’s absolutely what I’m trying to sort of play with as I write Vander and Silco’s story and how the Zaun Rebellion came to be and how it fell apart with them.

trapped by a singular fate

It begins in a coal mine. It ends in a river.

They are Vander and Silco, two young revolutionaries tied together by love and ideals and family, destined to fall apart over a shared dream.

But there are so many years between.

Chapter 3 for "trapped by a singular fate" is up now on AO3! This canon-compliant prequel will cover Vander and Silco from the time they meet until the Day of Ash, where they fall apart.

Chapter Preview:

There’s a fanatical light in Silco’s eyes that mirrors the glint he has when he’s sparking a fuse. It’s dangerous, explosive, and Silco is wielding it with both nonchalance and deadly precision. Vander’s standing too close again but is still just as unable to look away. “We are standing in the ancient Shuriman city of Oshra Va’Zaun. When the northern land owners plunged us into the dark as they cracked the world open for their profitable canal between the eastern and western seas, they thought they buried us. They renamed themselves the city over the River Pilt. Piltover.” He spits the name like it disgusts him, like it’s a slur. “And they call us the undercity and act as if we’re their refuse, as if their rejects crawled into the fissures and bred there like rats. But we are the original inheritors of this land.” There’s something about Silco that’s almost mesmerizing, not because he’s performing for a crowd but because he believes. Silco was himself cast down from the wealthiest part of the undercity to its darkest depths, and it’s as if he’s trying to claw his way up with the entire city on his back. To force the world to respect him and to respect all of them.  “We grew back out of the ruins at their feet just for them to try and grind us back down… But Zaunites are harder to kill than they ever imagined.”

Read More On AO3

[tophat-69]

"it's the good, defining itself"

98K Words

Complete

Jayce/Viktor, background Vander/Silco reconciliation

Rated E for brief, periodic sexual content

Post-Canon, Soulmates, Fix-It, Found Family, Zaun Revolution

Happy Ending

Read it on AO3

[tophat-69]

trapped by a singular fate

It begins in a coal mine. It ends in a river.

They are Vander and Silco, two young revolutionaries tied together by love and ideals and family, destined to fall apart over a shared dream.

But there are so many years between.

Chapter 3 for "trapped by a singular fate" is up now on AO3! This canon-compliant prequel will cover Vander and Silco from the time they meet until the Day of Ash, where they fall apart.

Chapter Preview:

There’s a fanatical light in Silco’s eyes that mirrors the glint he has when he’s sparking a fuse. It’s dangerous, explosive, and Silco is wielding it with both nonchalance and deadly precision. Vander’s standing too close again but is still just as unable to look away. “We are standing in the ancient Shuriman city of Oshra Va’Zaun. When the northern land owners plunged us into the dark as they cracked the world open for their profitable canal between the eastern and western seas, they thought they buried us. They renamed themselves the city over the River Pilt. Piltover.” He spits the name like it disgusts him, like it’s a slur. “And they call us the undercity and act as if we’re their refuse, as if their rejects crawled into the fissures and bred there like rats. But we are the original inheritors of this land.” There’s something about Silco that’s almost mesmerizing, not because he’s performing for a crowd but because he believes. Silco was himself cast down from the wealthiest part of the undercity to its darkest depths, and it’s as if he’s trying to claw his way up with the entire city on his back. To force the world to respect him and to respect all of them.  “We grew back out of the ruins at their feet just for them to try and grind us back down… But Zaunites are harder to kill than they ever imagined.”

Read More On AO3

[tophat-69]

[tophat-69]

I think I would read any Jayvik AU if I'm honest, every plot is more interesting and works better because of them, on that note please recommend your favourite Jayvik AU 🤲 I need to start yet another one 🫣

[tophat-69]

Yep… still addicted. Damn ^^

[tophat-69]

SILCO in ARCANE Season 1 Act 1

[tophat-69]

crack-ass edit, shitty quality but I swear to god, it looked better in my head + plus, it took way too long to make, so here we go

(also, I forgot that tumblr only lets you upload 10 pics in one post, so I had to merge some of them rip)

anyways, taylor wrote the tortured poets department about them, prove me wrong

[tophat-69]

[tophat-69]

Happy FFWF! Lets play a find the word game: Valentine's Day Edition! Find any of these words in your WIP, and post the part where they appear: pink / red / heart / valentine / chocolate / ribbon / love / friend / partner / boyfriend / girlfriend / husband / wife / couple / date / kiss / card / candy / dinner / flirt / snuggle / soulmate / together / always / arrow / candle / rose / beautiful / handsome / hug

Happy FFWF! “Red” and “heart” were going to throw things off a LOT considering some of my WIPs, so I went with “flirt!”

From the upcoming Chapter 3 of “trapped by a singular fate,” we have Vander getting ready for a shift at the Drop.

Vander’s never lacked for confidence, even at times when he probably should have tried for a little humility instead. He was born the son of a barkeep and a smuggler, and both professions require their own sort of charm. Most of it centered around stopping trouble or trying to slip away from it, but a bit of charisma can get you a long way in either profession.

It’s also true that flirting brings the tips, and having someone decent looking behind the bar can make a difference when your business is struggling to begin with. So he always does his scrub-up before he heads back to the Drop, because he knows he’s going to be slinging drinks and laying on the charm as soon as he walks in and that’s harder to pull off when you look like you rolled in soot. Not impossible, but harder.

No one could say he was a slouch about making sure he keeps up appearances.

But he sure as hell doesn’t dress out like Silco does.

Happy Valentine’s Day, and thank you for breaking the ice and being the first person to ask me anything!