Disclaimer: League of Legends belongs to RIOT Games.
—KINETIC—
"Brava! Brava!"
"Bravissima!"
The girl on stage smiled demurely and curtseyed. Her floating instrument bobbed at her side, seeming to curtsey as well.
Ezreal was tired of it all.
The crowd around him began to stand up from their seats, their thunderous applause punctuated every now and then with "brava" and "bravissima".
'These old geezers. If they like it, they should cheer properly.'
"Come on, Ez, let's stand up for Sona!" Lux enthusiastically tugged at his elbow, standing up.
"Alright, alright," her date sighed and grinned fondly at her, obliging. He would have preferred to stay in his seat to watch a show of a different sort—Lux was, after all, showing off her graceful back and glowing skin in that deep blue backless velvet gown, with her blonde hair done up in an elaborate knot. He would have preferred to unravel that knot and explore that back...
"Ladies and gentlemen, Sona, the Maven of the Strings!" The cool, detached voice of the host reverberated through the concert hall, prompting the applause to swell once more.
It must have lasted a full minute before dying down. Sona took her final bow and floated back towards the wings, her flowing white skirts swaying gracefully with the motion. The people took their cue and began to exit, a hushed buzzing spreading over the hall. Despite wanting to leave since about an hour ago, Ezreal sat back down to wait for the crowd to disperse. His date had a different idea, however.
"Come on, Ez, I gotta introduce you to her."
He sighed and shook his head affably, unable to refuse those glimmering eyes and that eager smile. He had known Lux for quite some time, before he even thought of making a move, and knew that Sona was one of Lux's closest friends. However he had never gotten the chance to meet the famous musician, and Lux thought it such an urgent matter that she had immediately arranged for them to have a date at the next Sona concert.
She held onto his arm as they picked their way through the crowd—rather, he held on to her as she dragged him through the horde of stiff collars and swishy skirts and stuffy suits.
"This way."
Lux managed to find a narrow hallway that had somehow escaped the crowd's notice. They slipped in quietly and Lux suddenly turned to face him. Her pretty blue eyes looked up into his, and for a moment he had the wild idea that she had brought him there so she could kiss him secretly. Before he could plant one on her she dropped her eyes downwards, straightened his tie, smoothed out his collar, and rearranged the rose in his chest pocket. Then, with a quick smile at him, she turned on her heel again.
"Luxanna Crownguard," Lux said to the big, burly man standing by the door, as if it was a password.
"Ah, Miss Crownguard." He acknowledged her with a nod, then furrowed his brows at her companion. Muscles bulged under his dress shirt, and Ezreal thought the man would have been better off without it.
"And?"
"Ezreal."
"Ezreal...?" The guard eyed him steadily.
"Theprodigalexplorer," he deadpanned. Lux barely held in her giggle.
"...that works." To their surprise, the guard accepted his answer, his thick moustache curling upwards as he grinned. Ezreal responded with a similar grin and a friendly salute as the guard stepped aside, opening the door for them.
"Miss Sona, Miss Sona! Please sign my teddy!"
"I really liked your music, Miss Sona!"
"Can I have a hug?"
"Can I have a kiss?"
"Hey, I was gonna kiss her first!"
A chorus of little voices greeted their ears as they stepped into Sona's dressing room. The Maven of the Strings was sitting on a cushioned armchair by a vanity, long hair loosely gathered and hung over a bare shoulder. At first Ezreal thought she was shivering, but quickly realized that her shoulders were just shaking in silent laughter as she signed plushies and kissed the soft cheeks of a cluster of children all vying for her attention.
"Aww, isn't that cute," Lux cooed.
"Yeah," Ezreal agreed absentmindedly, nodding. Sona's neckline dipped dangerously low each time she leaned forward.
"They are children from the orphanage Sona grew up in," a warm voice explained. Lux and Ezreal turned their heads toward the speaker, a smiling nun who was standing by the door.
"Good evening," Lux greeted her with a handshake, and Ezreal did with a nod.
"Sorry to interrupt the meet and greet."
"Oh, it's quite alright, it was about time we left anyway to let Miss Sona have her rest," the nun assured them, stepping towards the children.
"Now, dears, Miss Sona has other visitors and she needs her rest. Time to go."
"Aww, do we have to?" A little girl with short red hair pouted, clinging to the famous musician's neck. Sona grinned at the nun with amusement and an "oh well, what can you do?" expression. It took a bit of coaxing, but eventually the little tykes released Sona and left her with her blonde friend and her date.
"Sona, that was such a lovely performance," Lux crooned, her friend standing up to meet her with an embrace and a kiss on each cheek. Sona reached for her etwahl and plucked a few bright notes on it, smiling as she did.
"She says she's glad we enjoyed it," Lux "translated" for Ezreal. Ezreal nodded, his hands in the pockets of his white dress suit. He would have to ask later how exactly his date could understand string-speak.
"Yeah, it was...not my cup of tea, but it was okay I guess." He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the musician's hair to avoid looking at that neckline. It was a pretty shade of blue-green, almost matching her eyes, which were blue like Lux's own. However where Lux's eyes were bright sapphires, Sona's reminded him of a calm sea, muted and friendly with a veiled promise of deeper, fiercer currents. He remembered a rumour he had once heard about the musician's instrument—that it could produce waves of sound that can actually slice through solid objects. He felt a chill run up his spine.
"...she says she understands, and thanks you for being so frank," Lux was saying, following another string of lilting notes from the instrument. Ezreal looked at the blonde in wondering disbelief. Before he could say anything about it Lux clapped her hands once and her face lit up.
"Oh, where are my manners? Sona, meet my fiancé, Ezreal, also known as the Prodigal Explorer."
"Please to meet you." He smiled and held out a gloved hand. Sona smiled as well, shaking his hand warmly but with a firm grasp. With her other hand she plucked a few more single notes, followed by a rather strong chord with a bright sound. Lux chuckled and blushed. Her fiancé looked at her questioningly.
"Oh, sorry." Lux's face went a bit more pink. "She says she's pleased to meet you too, and that she thinks we look good together."
Ezreal would normally have smiled and said something witty, but at that moment he couldn't help but stare, wide-eyed, at the two girls, wondering how exactly they were communicating.
'I, Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer, am lost.'
—CONCUSSIVE—
"You're joking."
"I am not." She frowned at him. It was such a familiar frown, one he knew too well. Taking the ad she held in front of his face, he sat back in his chair and crossed his right leg over his left knee.
"RIOT Music presents: Re:SONAnce—Party in Piltover," he read aloud, then looked up at her incredulously.
"You, Sheriff Caitlyn, Sheriff of Piltover, bane of crime and detective of the highest caliber—pun intended—want to go to a rave party?"
"You make it sound like it's the weirdest thing."
"It is!" Ezreal chuckled. He would have laughed outright, but Caitlyn had her rifle slung over her shoulder, and he wasn't sure he could Arcane Shift away fast enough if she was going to shoot at point-blank range.
"Of all the years I've known you, Cait, I'd never have thought you'd be interested in going. Vi, maybe, but not you. It's like if Jayce told me he wanted to go to a Sona concert. Why not get Vi to come along with you anyway?"
The black-haired sheriff straightened up and sighed. "Her mechanical glove-things need maintenance, you know how attached she is to those. Literally. And I don't want to have to be babysitting her again, you know what happened the last time I went to a party with her." She shuddered.
"You saying I'm more mature?"
"Are you just gonna keep asking me questions instead of outright saying no?" Caitlyn pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Well..." The young cartographer glanced at his desk. He still had a few maps that needed to be corrected, and then there was his latest exploration journal whose pages—the book had fallen apart somehow as he was fighting to get out of a precarious position—he had to get back to chronological order, and then there was some equipment that needed cleaning...
"You know, I'm pretty easy to talk to, if you don't wanna go there's no need to—"
"Let's go!" Ezreal slipped off his goggles and leaped off his chair. Caitlyn smirked, her lips curling to one side.
"I knew you'd come around."
xox
"Why did you want to come to this party, in particular? This wasn't just to welcome me back from my month-long expedition, was it?"
"Nope, it was."
"You're lying."
"Am not."
"Cait, I've known you long enough to know that you don't just do things for me."
"Fine, you little blonde sh*t," she muttered through her teeth. "I'll tell you."
The Prodigal Explorer and the Sheriff of Piltover moved carefully through the crowd. The lights were a dim blue and no music played yet, but hundreds of people had already gathered at the huge stadium that was the venue. Ezreal could see the ceiling high overhead, held up by a metal skeleton whose ribs were made up of dozens and dozens of spotlights, inactive for the moment. He guessed they would be enough to cause seizures once the party got started. A nervous, suppressed energy buzzed through the crowd.
"Vi told me about this party," Cait explained in a low voice. She adjusted her neon pink headband, part of her "rave party" get up. Ezreal thought it looked odd on her, but had long ago learned to keep his mouth shut when it came to women and their outfits. He waited for her to continue.
"It's more like a concert, really, which means you just got a free ticket from me, so be grateful." She smirked.
Ezreal sighed and nodded. "Yes, thank you very much, o kind and generous Caitlyn."
"You're welcome." She looked smug.
"Anyway, tonight is special. There's this really cool DJ from Ionia and this will be her first time mixing for Piltover, and word is she made three new tracks just for us!" Unknown to the usually stoic sheriff, her eyes twinkled with excitement in the dim light.
"More news is that she's a mute, but she talks to her audience through a voice synthesizer especially made for her by a scientist here in Piltover, and—and it just sounds...like a great concept." She slowed down towards the end of her sentence. Ezreal guessed she had realized that she was sounding more and more like a spazzing fan girl, and of course she had an image to maintain.
"Okay?" Ezreal shook his head, amused at how excited his friend was getting. "Can't say I'm a fan of this kind of thing, but it's gotta be better than that stuffy Sona concert I went to with Lux."
"You went to one of Sona's concerts?"
"Yeah. Sona is quite the piece of eye candy, but I find her pretty boring."
'Girl can't even talk. Probably can't do much else aside from float around looking pretty.'
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you'll like this concert." Caitlyn's grin was amused, almost mischievous, like she knew something he didn't.
No sooner had she finished speaking when the dim light flickered for a moment before completely going out, soaking the stadium in total darkness and hushing the crowd. But this lasted for only a second before the stage itself lit up, without any spotlights trained on it, in a neon green. Ezreal realized he and Caitlyn had somehow made it to the very front, as now he could see that speakers and turntables had already been set up, also glowing green. The crowd started cheering, people screaming and whistling and hollering. Still the stage remained empty.
Then, from out of nowhere—or from everywhere—a robotic but unmistakably feminine voice boomed.
"The fanfare ascends."
With those words a steady beat began to thrum, and the crowd erupted in wild cheers and screams.
Just when Ezreal thought things could not get any more chaotic, he was proven wrong. Right there in the stage in front of him, a figure rose from beneath the floor. First he saw the twin tails of long, green hair, flowing in a gentle and unseen breeze. Then followed a sleek helmet with round headphones at the sides and a black visor covering the upper half of the figure's face. Red lips curved into a mysteriously sweet smile.
The crowd cheered itself into a frenzy, bright green lights dancing overhead.
The mysterious DJ was clothed from the neck downwards in a tight body suit, and even with her chest and legs covered in a gray mesh-like material, the only visible skin on her was that of the lower half of her face. From her slender arms the eyes trailed down to a well-endowed bosom and curved hips so wide they just made Ezreal's hands itch.
Ezreal cheered and whooped and hollered.
Suddenly and with agility Ezreal would not have expected on someone in such a figure-hugging outfit, the DJ front-flipped lightly onto her turntable, leaned forward, and swept a gloved arm across the air in an all-encompassing gesture.
"PILTOVER!" The robotic voice called.
"ARE YOU READY?"
The crowd cheered.
"I can't HEAR YOOOOOUUUU!" She cupped her hand around one of her headphone speakers and turned her head, ear towards the audience.
"ARE—YOU—READY?"
The crowd cheered again, chanting her name.
"SO-NA! SO-NA! SO-NA!"
"Wait what?" Ezreal looked at Caitlyn, wide-eyed.
—ETHEREAL—
Caitlyn, busy cheering and with fist pumping in the air, ignored the look of astonishment on her friend's face.
"ALLEGRISSIMO!"
The beat quickened, and DJ Sona hopped down from her perch, laying her hands on the glowing turntable. Electronic sound pulsed through the air with the beat, and now it was evident that the visor was not just something to mask the DJ's face—it lit up with three green bars that rose and fell in time with the music.
People around Ezreal moved and jumped and swayed, and even Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover, could not resist shaking her hips to the sound. Someone passed him a glowstick—he set it off and began waving it in the air in glee. Caitlyn chuckled at his antics.
DJ Sona herself bopped her head and shoulders as she moved about her equipment, slim fingers dancing over the green glow. Even her fingers were included in the body suit, looking like they were slick with black ink in the neon lights.
'Is this really...Sona? Maven of the Strings?'
Ezreal had to stare. She had been graceful onstage at her concert, her deft fingers moving across wood and string to make her etwahl sing almost as if it was a living thing, but though he had admired that display of skill he had not enjoyed the music. Now he even more admired her for her versatility, and even might have to change his opinion on her being "boring". She slid effortlessly from one side of the turntable to the other, and Ezreal realized that she was actually floating, her black boots at least a foot from the ground.
His gaze slid upwards, up to the black visor with the green bars dancing. Her red lips curved upwards a little more, and then mouthed "hello". Ezreal's breath caught in his throat—she must have seen him. He felt his cheeks heat up and he grinned and waved awkwardly in return. Sona's shoulders trembled again in silent laughter.
"See what you would have missed if you had stayed with your maps?" Caitlyn yelled in his ear.
Ezreal barely had time to nod enthusiastically when the music stopped and the beat changed. The green lights shifted to hot red, the stage too emitting a red glow along with Sona's turntable and speakers. Sona herself rose several feet more in the air, and Ezreal could only marvel at how much magic the production seemed to be using as her flowing green hair rippled into a fiery red and her visor smoothly extended to cover her whole face.
Still suspended in mid air, Sona raised a hand to one of her headphones. The robotic voice spoke again.
"From my mind—"
Her other hand stretched out towards the roaring crowd.
"—to yours."
She then abruptly dropped back onto her turntable, and a new sound pulsed from her speakers.
"Her second new track!" Ezreal heard Caitlyn squeal in delight.
The music took off at a mellow start. Sona eventually added layers of sound, building it up until it exploded into a barrage of beats and bass. This time, jagged red lines danced furiously on the black screen of Sona's visor.
"Disorder through music!" prompted Sona's artificial voice, as the crowd around Ezreal continued their frenzy. People passed more glowsticks around, and one person handed him a bottled drink that glowed red and tasted sweet. The lights and sounds and fevered movement around him started to make him feel dizzy, the good kind of dizzy that made you hectic and filled you with nervous energy that you just had to let out.
"Dance for me!" Sona's synthetic voice commanded as the music reached its climax, and a bright ray of golden light exploded from her and flashed across the whole stadium like one huge shockwave, dazzling in its splendor. With the light a throbbing pulse ran through Ezreal's bones and stirred his blood, pumping his energy up higher and making him dance. The rest of the crowd did the same, even more fevered and frenzied than before, jumping up and down, bodies moving and swaying and dipping and grinding—
xox
Ezreal was sure he would remember the concert as a blur of neon lights and throbbing beats mixed in a bowl with Sona's electronic voice and magical color-changing hair, but then she had one more trick up her sleeve.
The final fevered note of the red track died down and suddenly all was quiet. Ezreal felt a hum of confusion as all eyes focused on the stage. As when she changed tracks, Sona floated up gracefully into the air, and with a wave of her gloved hand the lights changed into pinks transitioning into purples turning into blues. Her setup and her hair mimicked the change. The visor retracted from the lower part of her face again, her red lips curved into a gentle smile not unlike the one Ezreal remembered her using on the children—and on him. She held her arms out towards the audience, and the robotic voice spoke again, this time in a gentle and hushed tone.
"Harmoniously."
She floated down fluidly, and as soon as her hands touched the turntable her visor lit up in the same soothing pink and blue and purple. Beautiful, clear notes rang out in the silence.
"It's her third special track," Caitlyn whispered, awed, beside him.
Ezreal would have normally said something like "thanks, Sheriff Obvious" but this time he simply nodded, eyes glued to their DJ. This third one was more like the music he had heard during the concert with Lux, but somehow different. Maybe it was the lights, or the drink he had gotten into his system, or maybe it was the way DJ Sona swayed as she played, purple hair flowing and hips moving with a slow, hypnotizing motion.
"What was that, Ez?"
"What was what?" He turned to look at her.
"You said something. And you look dazed."
He turned his head and resumed his ogling.
"She's an angel," he mumbled.
Another moment passed before he spoke again. "Cait, where else is she playing?"
"Really, Ez?" Caitlyn snorted and laughed. "The concert's not even over yet and already you want to know where you can see her next?"
"...yeah."
"Oh, you're smitten all right. Her tickets cost 3250 RP, you know."
"...Riot can have all my RP then."
xox
END
Sona was love at first game. The first champion I ever played, and in spite of me dying over and over again that first game I fell in love with her (and I think was largely the reason I had the patience to learn LoL while I couldn't be bothered to for DotA).
So when DJ Sona was released, I was one happy little noob.
All the music, wallpapers, and such that were released inspired me to write this. Please consider this my humble way of showing my appreciation to RIOT Games for being awesome, both in producing quality stuff and in being so active in communicating with the community.
Kudos to you, RIOT.
