i am the monster you created

powder Jinx - Arcane

its been long enough im not gonna tag arcane spoilers so be aware and watch arcane please. pirate it if you must it's always okay

a ball of trauma, mental illness and abandonment issues held together with duct tape and given high caliber weapons and explosives

puts the disaster in disaster lesbian

has killed multiple people, like a lot of people, but it's okay they were mostly cops

is incredibly gifted with tinkering and inventing gadgets. if piltover actually gave a shit about the citizens of the undercity she could have really helped a lot of people

instead she blows things and occasionally people up because it's the only thing that remotely gives her any peace anymore. good work capitalism!

fuck rich people fuck cops especially fuck caitlyn kiramman no-good sister thief

why don't you love me for who i am vi [blows up the council]

dont talk bad abt silco he was her DAD

does not respond well to being called powder. if she can't be powder for vi anymore she sure as fuck can't be powder for your ass

it wouldn’t be the first time someone accused him of… that because of what he wears. but the topsider comment is what he elects to focus on to avoid the mild discomfort that tends to follow that train of thought. lio looks down and thumbs his jabot, understanding the connection in spite of the unfamiliar word. the settlement offered him a certain level of wariness upon first arrival for the same reasons. still, lio would sooner die than change anything just because of a vocal majority. fashion only says so much about a person, after all.

when jinx continues speaking, he falls out of his brief train of thought and wrinkles his eyebrows for a moment. fireworks sounds like such a waste. not that lio is that much better, chasing it for the desire of a much faster bike. it’s good to see someone else that realizes the potential of something like that. it’s satisfying, and without his flames he’s starting to feel a little jealous of these combustions.

the offer takes lio off guard, expecting they’d have to put in a lot more work to get jinx comfortable enough to approach him like this. his movements are still slow and careful, choosing to pick out a bomb shaped like a little shark from the batch. he even moves the little mouth before mentally dissecting the mechanisms that would activate this thing. recognizing the fact that there’s a dial to turn makes it easy. an ‘ohhhh’ rings true as he nods his head in understanding. lio hesitates to tell her at first, but… does he really need to be careful around someone that clearly sees destruction as a comfort and catharsis more than something to be feared? the chattering of the wound up teeth only give him a few seconds to admire the cool craftsmanship before tossing it and beholding the explosion, familiar giggles and celebration going off in his head with an internal giddiness that this one even seemed to have copper to make it green.

“ i do, he’s just not here. ” they stroke their chin with a hand on their hip, much more relaxes as if the explosion was a drag of a cigarette. “ i… never thought to use regular explosives before, though. ”

Well, the fact that they’re not acting shocked and yelling about how you shouldn’t build bombs or just throw them around because ‘what if someone gets hurt’ makes him different from most people she interacts with. More interesting, too. The explosion, loud as it was, has already drowned out most of the voices in her head, but even then Silco’s starting to quiet down a bit more. A bit. Dads, right?

“Ooh, Sharkbait, huh? You need me to--ah, nah, you got it.” A guy who can at least figure his way around a bomb, eh? Not bad at all. Maybe they’re not such a bad dude after all, even if they do wear an enormous bib. She’s about to tell him he should probably throw it pretty soon when he does so, which means all she has to do at that point is watch it go. She cheers as she watches the green explosion go off, pumping her fist in the air and rocking herself back once or twice.

Nothing quite like the rush of an explosion. The fact that it quieted the peanut gallery in her head was a much-appreciated bonus.

“...Yeah. I got someone like that. Rich bitch I wanna blow up but she’s not here, I mean.” And it would make Vi upset to put her out of everyone’s misery, but she doesn’t feel like mentioning that. She gives a little shrug as she picks out something that looks like a toy Silverwing--she’s only seen paintings from Demacia Silco bought, so it’s probably not an exact likeness. She turns the key in its back and its wings flap before she tosses it out. A few seconds later it explodes in midair, the smoke taking the form of a Silverwing’s upper half. She gives another giddy laugh--she’s been working on that kind of aesthetic flare for her bombs! Good to know that one worked!

lio’s shoulders stiffen up with how erratic and panicked her response is. the fear is justified, whispers and hitting of her head make the voices at least apparent to him. keep a cool demeanor. if you panic, they’ll panic more in return. lio doesn’t get closer, but he does leave his hands visible and slowly puts his tool belt on whatever ground there is to show he’s unarmed at least.

he even kicks it off the side of the hill. the voices are protecting her, a harsh contrast to his own flames goading him to join her. something they close their eyes and take a deep breath towards.

a deep breath that’s swiftly interrupted by the accusation of him being any kind of enforcer. rage at the memory of them battles with the sheer comedy of him ever being any kind of police officer. not in a million years… is it this inherent composure he carries himself with to make her think that? “ fuck no. i just thought it was cool. ”

lio eyes the bomb in her hand, not showing any fear or intimidation, long forgetting that the flames aren’t protecting him as much as they could be. there is a genuine fascination, aside from the fire, that anyone could make such quick on the spot modifications. a certain glint flickers in his otherwise illegible gaze as he observes her intent. 

“ …is that ammonium percholate? ” is mumbled before they have a chance to stop the question from sliding out of their mouth. the color is indistinguishable. they’ve been looking for ages for that chemical.

It’s a trick. Look how he’s dressed. Silco insists in her head as the person slips off his tool belt and kicks it off. She trusts Silco, she’s always trusted him, so, she still regards him with a little suspicion. Her arms relax away from her chest as she finishes up the bomb, though.

He has the right idea about Enforcers, anyways. So, that’s a point in her book. Unless they’re lying, which they could be. She barks out a laugh at his empathetic denial, adding a few more finishing touches.  “It’s the getup. The leather’s fine, I guess, I mean, you’re into what you’re into. Don’t go poking your nose into people’s bedrooms unless you’re ready to see some shit, right? But the oversized bib is real topsider of you.”

They do seem interested in her handiwork on her bomb--unless that’s a trick too. It would have to be a very elaborate trick, but there’s still a possibility. She blinks at the mention of the chemical, giving a small nod. “Yeah. That’s what the people at the academy call it anyways. They use it for real high-end fireworks. I...” She screws the top onto the bomb and sets the timer before tossing it from hand to hand once, twice. Suddenly, she gets up and throws it much like a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball, sending it onto another scrap hill in the distance.

some days, it’s a bit easier to find what he needs than others. it’s a scrapyard, expecting to find everything he’s looking for every day is like asking for god to give him his house back. it’s just not happening. lio isn’t exactly the type to socialize much with others when scavenging, at least not unless they talk to him first.

but fire and explosions aren’t exactly something that should be overlooked. they can handle them, but if not handled with care they could seriously hurt someone… or worse. the soft thump thump of a fist against a skull makes it easy for lio’s ears to find the perpetrator, oddly surprising themself at the sight of jinx.

…not enough to make all that much noise. lio needs to think about the right way to approach them first. witnessing the next explosion and jinx’s body language is more than enough for him to connect at least a few dots. the handmade pile of steel animals(?), the thumping, the overall feeling of melancholy that rolls off of her back…

“ are you alright? ” asked ever so softly, typical tough poise betrayed in the same way he’d approach a newly awoken soul from his kind. lio maintains eye contact for a minute before following the smoke. a twitch of a smile cracks at the corner of his mouth. “ …that’s a lot of fire from something so small. ”

Even with his soft language, the sound of his voice is enough to make her whirl around, holding the next half-constructed bomb she was planning to throw close to her chest as if it were pearls being clutched. Unnaturally pink eyes scrutinize him up and down suspiciously, as if any moment they might attack her. Who knows? They might.

Uh oh. Looks like little Jinx got the Enforcers on her. Mylo sneers in her head. He looks topside. Is he topside? Don’t trust them. They’ll all betray you. Everyone betrays us. Silco urges her.

“Quiet.” She smacks her head again with a balled up fist--she can’t ever bring herself to be too harsh when Silco’s talking. He seems like he’s not threatening but she can’t trust that. Lots of people don’t seem threatening before they put the knife in.

This stupid city. First it kept her from making Piltover feel how she felt every day, and now she couldn't even do the same to it without, like, ten naps.

What'cha making? Something to ruin someone else's life? Mylo can eat a dick. She's working, which means it's time for him to keep his mouth shut.

She holds up her latest little mechanical firelight bug (no charges yet, too tiring) before her stomach growls. Loudly. Oh yeah. She needs to eat sometime. How long has she been in this room? She doesn't know. Lost time. Her memory skipped a few steps, hazy, fogged, and now she's got no idea how long since she last ate.

She gets up and opens the door to her room, walking out to find her robot roommate doing the same. She's got a robot roommate now, or housemate, or whatever. As long as he doesn't stop her she doesn't care.

"You didn't eat the leftover pizza, did you?" She asks.

Hearing footsteps behind her, she turns around, a moderately excited grin on her face.

"Hey, toots. Whaddya think about banks, huh?"

Of course, she's wanted to feel anything as long as what she's feeling isn't dead inside for a long, long time now, but having gone back to being bored she now can't tell which would be worse. Oh, but this world is cruel to her. Yeah. What else is new? For right now, she's just...hanging at the scrapyard with a combination of household cleaning supplies and more serious chemicals stolen from that research tower. If they made it so easy for her, after all, why not take it?

As for what she's doing with these materials, she's taking it along with scrap and junk she finds in the yard and using it to construct bombs. Time bombs, short fuse, short enough that she can set the timer, toss it a safe distance and listen to it blow. It keeps the boredom at bay.

What? You think this is going to help anything? Freak. Mylo's voice hisses out in her head, prompting her to squeeze her eyes shut, grit her teeth and smack a balled fist against her head a few times. Shut up. Shut up, Mylo. She grabs another bomb she's constructed, something resembling that old defective Mouser prototype a young girl from the undercity once built, and winds it up before tossing it out.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Boom. Mylo's voice fades from her head as she watches the smoke billow up from the explosion, for the moment. She's focused enough on that, that she doesn't hear anyone coming up behind her.