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Chaos redefined
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There were always new champions in the League of Legends, but this one came in, crashing and trashing and destroying everything on its way like one of her beloved rockets.
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As one of the older champions, Shaco wasn't one of the more popular choices in matches, but he had, too, heard of the newest addition to the League. Jinx. Pretty word, interesting name, now often thrown in conversations:
"So op!"
"―will be nerfed―"
"―not even mana hungry―"
And on and on. Interestingly enough, the Demon Jester wouldn't hear even one bad word about the new champion. Apparently there was no drawback to the attack damage carry, which was strange because all those summoners were so picky and so critical and always rambling about something called "meta" ("Shaco doesn't fit the current meta, blah blah blah"; haven't those guys heard of having fun?). Anyway, she was insanely good, no matter who played her and even the biggest of idiots fared well enough with her.
And when somebody said "insanely", Shaco's pointy ears pricked up and his heart skipped a beat. He wondered if this new champion would miss a punchline.
She looked like she wouldn't.
However, she didn't live in the Institute, so he had to wait quite some time till he met her in person and getting to know her.
In the end, he found a roundabout way of learning stuff about her.
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It was no secret that Vi hated Jinx's guts. In fact, it seemed the only reason Jinx joined the League was to annoy the Piltover Enforcer (which was just another plus in the jester's book).
Vi was Shaco's friend. Whether or not Shaco was Vi's friend was irrelevant.
And by virtue of being his friend, whenever he talked to her she had to answer.
So one day, when he stumbled upon her, he stuck up a conversation.
"Hey, Vi~!"
"What do ya want? Go 'way!" she didn't even turn around to look at him and instead continued to wherever she was going to. Shaco never had any exact somewhere to go to, so he decided to follow her and march-march-march-marched next to her and fell into the rhythm of her steps.
They were in a long corridor, which shot out in a straight line with no seeming end, in a rather quiet part of the Institute. It was gonna be a long walk.
Though Vi wasn't of the silent types, no word came from her. Something was wrong with her. And there had to be some telltale sign of what she was feeling.
There it was, a small vein pulsing right over her pink eyebrow and her eye was twitching. Maybe she was annoyed. She looked like an angry little child. She needed amusement.
Shaco excelled at that.
"Soo," he started oh-so-smoothly, "how's your friend Jinx?"
His grin was definitely not maniacal and masochistic when she drove him into the wall and held him there with her fist. Her face was centimeters away from her and he could see the pulsating veins crisscrossing her forehead, forming a strangely delicate network. Although she was taller than him, her cold-cold eyes were glowering at him at the same level, staring at him with a glazed look. They stayed eye-locked for what seemed like a long time. No words passed between them.
Shaco reveled in her expression. He'd love to meet a person who was capable of eliciting such a violent reaction from a generally upbeat person, such as Vi.
Eventually she let him down and inched away from him.
"Don't even mention her name again," she growled out in a low tone, turned around and marched down the straight-straight-straight corridor.
Shaco wiped the corner of his mouth, rubbing away the slight trickle of blood, caused by the sudden and violent manhandling. Boy, was that Vi hurtful. To act so harshly to an innocent clown. Those police officers… They are never there to help you, aren't they?
His shiny eyes lingered on her retreating form for a few seconds, and moved aside to stare at nothingness. Then he promptly turned around and went out through the window. The straight corridor was way too exasperating.
Shaco was intrigued, however. And not by Vi's giant fists, which looked perfectly sane.
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When he finally got to meet her in game, she was nothing much.
Just another attack damage carry; just as easy to kill as the others.
He was in the hands of a summoner who knew what he was doing, had blinked pass her cutesy harmless snares, luring her into a false state of security. As if! There was no security around Shaco and his little Shaco-s in a box. With his help, the carry of their team (a quite misfortunate Tristana, as he later learnt) got a double kill.
So much for a first impression.
However, things went downhill after that. And not for Jinx's team.
Apparently the Tristana was controlled by such a lousy summoner that she and her support managed to die several times by the end of the laning phase. The other lanes were all doing fine, until Jinx started roaming: poor Lux was pushed to her turret and Shaco was forced to help her out many, many, many, many times. Still things weren't looking out good for her. At least, Malphite knew what he was doing and had no problem against Jax.
Overall, the score was pretty even.
Therefore, the game dragged on. And Shaco had yet to see anything amazing by her. Sure, she had the damage. She had skills. However, she had no way to make her opponent furious, to annoy everybody and be a pain in the ass. She was overpowered, but boring.
He killed her some, though. Then she killed him some. Exactly how normal courtship in the League of Legends worked.
It was almost at the end of the game that it happened.
Shaco barely emerged as the sole survivor out of a three-versus-three battle in top lane (where he hadn't done much, besides doing his best to be behind those from the other team) and entered their jungle, with the intention of stealing their blue buff. However, his plans were cut short when he spied a giant rocket heading his way.
Giant. Red. Rocket. Heading towards him at insane speeds.
He was so dead.
The smile at the tip was a nice touch though.
Fortunately, his summoner had such quick reflexes that he managed to Hallucinate out of it. Just as the rocket passed by him, Shaco looked over and stared at his own face, which wore the same smug look his own face was bound to be wearing.
A bubbly feeling rose up his narrow chest and suddenly he was laughing, a deep and hearty laugh. Ha!
As though that noob would take his life! One does not take good ol' Shaco so easily.
With a hop and a skip, he continued on with his objective, which was blue buff.
When he arrived at the camp, it was still there. Humming a random tune, he set about to prepare the camp. He had little health and his clone had just poofed into nothingness, so he had to take it with little Shacos-in-the-boxes. He was so concentrated in what he was doing that he saw the pale wraith of the Twin Shadows coming his way too late. It reached and crashed into him and suddenly he was visible.
This time he wasn't quick enough to dodge the pink blast that appeared from behind the trees. It hit him point-blank, shocking him and sending tremors up and down his body. His muscles contracted, lost their strength and sent him staggering down. His knees hit the forest floor with a loud crack. He couldn't get up. Pain―
It was almost over now.
He wouldn't allow her the pleasure of killing him. By instinct his hands went up and stabbed his belly with the daggers he could always trust to finish the deed. He would never allow someone to kill him.
And he was dead.
Shaco crashed and thrashed and cursed while the summoners worked their tricks to bring him back to life. She hadn't killed him. Oh no, no, no, no, she hadn't. He was sure of it―
Except that she had and she had also picked the gold from the kill.
That blasted annoying little tiny bitch had actually managed to kill him. That lucker!
―You've slain an enemy!―
"WHAT?"
His shriek was voiceless.
"It seems that Jinx walked straight into the bush with your jack-in-the-boxes," his summoner was kind enough to inform him, "Ha-ha-ha, that's why I love playing with you, man!"
He blocked out what he continued on blabbing, instead focusing on the essence. She. Was. Dead.
Funny how happy that made him.
In the darkness of the place where every champion went after being killed, between life and death and dreams, Shaco realized something.
He liked her.
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She wasn't the type to narrate an existential monologue with a skull. She was more likely to French-kiss it and throw it away 'cause it'd got boring.
He figured that should bother him in more ways than one, but, interestingly enough, it did only in one way.
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He was well on his way to another prank, err, he meant, to his room to have a nice sweet rest, when his journey was cut short.
Quite literally short.
Shaco didn't pride himself in being tall but now he looked down into impossibly pink eyes. Wait, nothing is impossible; he had shiny eyes, so why shouldn't she have pink eyes?
A thin smile was dancing on Jinx's mouth and she stood in front of him, proud and scantily clad. Her pink eyes and everything on her was aggressive, but the way she was leaning into him, standing at the tips of her shoes, and never letting him out of her sight told him she was curious. Very curious at that.
He stared right into her, looking for the usual bitterness everyone felt around people who have killed them countless times. There was none.
"You pulled an awesome stunt today!" she was…. Happy that he had killed her today?
This was a first.
A good first.
If possible, his grin grew even more in size.
"Hah, that's nothin'. I can do much funnier stuff."
Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets and she had to bite her lips to keep from mimicking his grin. Her whole boy swayed in the direction of his body; their faces were so close his nose dug into her cheek. It was funny. Her nose was funny too, when it crinkled up at the sensation.
"REALLY!? I wana see!"
He chuckled at her reaction, nodded his understanding, turned around, leaving her hanging onto thin air and took off for somewhere. Where? He didn't know.
She easily fell into his lively pace.
"You know, haven't seen you around much..."
He nodded absent-mindedly, already thinking of what trick to use to impress her, and meantime started telling her the story of what he'd done with the noodles and the poor man. She laughed her ass off.
This would be fun.
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He found that he was quite like the skull and she'd soon grow tired of him and want to throw him away.
But she would soon find out she had grabbed a skull covered in glue.
