#pltfighter

Maybe she should have been more concerned that she didn't need to go through a few rounds of lesser fighters before getting her "audience" with Vi. It was a bit of a fell omen of what was to come, not that Xue realized it at the time... and now, she's trying to figure out if the person she's across from is even the right one.

The hair is... maybe right. It's tough to come to a conclusion in between the dye and the scraggly nature of it, and what would normally be an easy tell - the tattoos - is obscured by black and white body paint that makes her look like a corpse. Or maybe a harlequin. Nothing good.

The Ghost, meanwhile, is looking quite like herself. White robes, loose around the legs and tight around the shoulders, giving her plenty of room to work without constricting her too much. An expression of dour impassiveness that could almost be read as insult. She looks first to the crowd, nonplussed by the jeering and hollering, and completely turns her back on Vi to properly get the measure of her audience.

the garden was lifeless. what once was filled to the brim with colorful leaves and branches that reached willingly forward was now filled with nothing but brown and grey and lifeless bark. there were no purples, and pinks, and blues, and green. there was grey and brown and the cold winter sky couldn't make up any beauty that was lost. all the branches stopped reaching to greet visitors and were instead reaching upward towards an empty sky as grey as the rest of the colors of the once alive garden.

a piece of calityn knew this was a nightmare but she couldn't distinguish enough to talk herself awake— she just felt heavy, her limbs just a weight on her body. her mother is always a ghost now. she watches that woman's shadow walk into the manor. she could call out to her mother, but she won't answer. she won't take a walk with caitlyn in the garden any longer.

horrors bleed together, but the most effective horror is always the emptiness a heart feels when it thinks it is utterly alone. there's a little snicker of a laugh besides caitlyn— she stiffens. she knows if she turns that maddie will be sitting there in the last form she remembers maddie. lifeless eyes, blood all over her. so caitlyn doesn't dare turn her head. she doesn't move at all.

"caitlyn. what did you even think would happen—" nightmares are always so devolved of reality, so maddie's voice bleeds into vi's voice and caitlyn gets up to leave, the garden fades away within two steps. she's standing on the edge of the city, vi is holding jinx. a train is waiting to take them away. she's not going to come back is she? caitlyn feels so utterly helpless and alone. nobody here is on her side— perhaps nobody ever was.

"please," caitlyn whispers to no avail. desperation rises in her chest and forms like bile in her throat. she feels so helpless. she feels so alone. nobody is taking her side. nobody is with her. she knows this is a fear, a desperate and lonely fear in a sad nightmare, but she's still watching vi walk away with jinx. maybe it's even a little jealously. why shouldn't vi get her family back? because you wanted to be a family with her. vi should get to choose though, caitlyn doesn't get that decision for her. when are you going to tell vi that there's a very real possibilty jinx is alive? probably when she's ready to give vi up— NEVER .

jinx doesn't turn to look back at vi as they lead their little party back out of the mines. they don't want their sister to see the look on their face at her words, and the way it makes their expression twist as they combat the emotions that they've been trying to keep under control.

"you didn't think that the last time we talked."

"talked" is a funny word for only surviving the beating from magic - powered bitch mittens because of the shimmer that replaced their blood, but they didn't exactly make it a walk in the park for vi. but then she wouldn't have been so devoted to trying to kill them. which would have been -

Vi is the last person Mel expected to run into. That's putting it mildly. Her and Caitlyn's meeting with the council hadn't exactly gone well. So Mel had expected Vi to leave , head back to the undercity perhaps. Mel is not unsympathetic, though. She does feel for Vi. And for Caitlyn. Though she doesn't know necessarily what action to take next.

She waves at Vi, a small smile crossing her face. "I didn't expect to see you here so soon." She says with a small chuckle. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Viktor watches Vi quietly, head tilting curiously. Human nature, he has found, is much more complicated than anyone thinks. People hold onto things and thus so does the brain. Trauma, anger, sadness, jealousy, rage. It all culminates into the same loneliness, the same desire for something more. Not everyone knows how to let go. Some just need a little more of a push than others, more patience, more kindness. Once someone finally learns to stop holding onto the things that hold them back, only then can they really find what they're looking for.

@pltfighter asked: "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise; I wasn't able to keep Powder safe." (from pltfighter for the break my heart meme.)

Protect the family, he'd told her; Take care of Powder.

Never in a million years would he have guessed just how heavy the weight of those instructions would end up being. The lump that rose in his throat, a ball of guilt and remorse at having placed that mantle upon Vi's at-the-time already straining shoulders, threatened to choke him.

Though his brows furrowed deeply, and his expression shifted into one of sullenness and heartache, the Hound stepped forward, stepped closer -- placing those large hands upon her shoulders as if to try and lift that invisible weight off of them now.

⊱ ━━━━━━━━.⋅ ⤽ ⋅.━━━━━━━━ ⊰

He could hardly remember a time where he wasn't in mourning. Ekko had lost a lot, like everyone in Zaun. There were pieces of himself shredded every time he lost a friend. Powder, he had lost the night Silco took her. He had tracked her down, only for her to reject him. He lost her a second time. Any other time they crossed paths, it led to conflict. Opposing sides. Jinx was loyal to Silco, Ekko wanted the bastard dead. He had told himself Powder was gone. He mourned her.

And then he met her again in that other world. Powder if she had support and love. Powder if Silco never twisted her around his finger. It felt like all of the feelings he had in childhood toward her rushed back. Like they never died at all. The time he spent with her... It changed something in him. He wanted to save Jinx. Silco was gone. Maybe... there was a chance for her to heal.

And he did save her for a little while. Only for him to lose her again. He felt gutted. And he couldn't even mourn her. He couldn't explain why it hurt so bad. Because only he saw who she could be. Only he saw her end her own life more than once too. He had reached her. He knew that together, they could change things. He wanted her close to him. He wanted to show her there was hope. And he never got the chance to do it.

He listened to Vi. He wanted to tell her everything but he couldn't. He had told Jinx a lot of it. Even in an attempt to stop her from taking her own life. So when Vi asks him how he is doing.... What can he even say? That he dreams about her almost every night? That he still looks for her in crowds? That he kept expecting her to pop up again? That he tries so hard to remember what her voice sounds like? "At least you guys were on the same side at the end."

"She and I hadn't been close for a long time." He tries to pretend it isn't killing him. He can only hope that Vi doesn't hear the way his voice trembles ever so slightly. Or notice the look in his eye. "We met up again after what happened at the commune. She... she told me about it." They had a heart to heart, at the very least. It wasn't enough though. Those feelings that had resurfaced demanded to be felt. It would be easier if they just... Stopped again. Or really, had they ever?