Caitlyn was extremely bored.
More specifically, she was bored of waiting in a madwoman's house. Truth be told, she supposed that being patched in a hospital wouldn't be much better than here. She would still have to wait for the healing process to fix her up. Though at least in a hospital, she wouldn't want to stab her caretakers every time she saw them...
It had been four days since she first woke up in her prison, and two days since she awoke with Jinx tending her. She has been keeping track of the days in her boredom. So far, the amount of the time she has spent was 4 days, 5 hours, 34 minutes, and 17 seconds. Give or take a little. She wasn't exactly an astronomer or anything, but she assumed that it was pretty close to the mark.
She groaned in annoyance. How has it gotten so bad that she had started counting the seconds of each day…
She hated to think about it, but-and she would never admit it out loud to anyone-Caitlyn felt that Jinx's visits were the most eventful parts of each day. The criminal was...interesting to say the least. Jinx's annoying antics were occasionally humorous at times, and almost got a chuckle out of the resolute Sheriff at the best of times. But almost is the key word.
When Caitlyn was able to overlook the fact that Jinx is wanted for more counts than she could list with her hands, along with her burning desire to see Jinx in maximum security, the criminal was the highlight of her days. It was especially amusing to watch her speak to her guns, as if they were actual living beings. Watching her talk to them was like watching a puppet show live or something. Well, if puppet shows were hosted by sadistic criminals that liked to blow structures up with said 'puppets'.
She sighed to herself. The boredom must really be getting to her, if she really is starting to believe that watching Jinx's insane tendencies is amusing. Maybe she was slowly going insane herself from the boredom, or from being in the presence of Jinx too much, or a combination of both.
She closed her eyes, hoping to sleep the day away.
The mornings, like now, were the hardest part of each day. The quiet stillness of dawn's early light left her to nothing but her thoughts. They were no comfort to her either. Her possessions were taken from her; her favorite hat, and gun gone from her reach. She felt naked and empty without them and they haunted her mind. She tried not to think about them too much. But it was hard not to.
Caitlyn was trying her best to keep her sanity in this maddening room. She couldn't even go back to sleep to avoid the boredom, even if she wanted to. Her body was actually denying her from attempting. So she tried to entertain herself by looking through the cracks of the boarded window.
As usual, she could not see any comprehensible image as she was too far from the window, what with her lying prone on the bed. The cracks only allow light and blurred images of objects in the distance through them, barely telling Caitlyn anything. Caitlyn sighed, pulling her vision from the window. It was going to be a long morning...
She decided to entertain herself by wondering what her partner was doing. Vi must be losing it right now, trying to find her partner. That thought was oddly bittersweet to her. Sweet, as it would be hilarious to see Vi losing her mind with worry. But at the same time, bitter, as her partner must think she is in trouble or even dead. She sighed, and moved on from that train of thought, knowing that it would depress her.
The door clicked, drawing her attention from her thoughts, and another click sounded soon after, announcing that it was being unlocked. Jinx was finally here.
She's a bit later than usual. Usually she would have stopped in to give me lunch or something. Curious...I kind of wonder what she was doing all day. She mused to herself as the door opened, and an unarmed Jinx stepped in. That's odd, she usually has her guns with her too. I wonder what is so different about today, over most days...
"Heya, Hat Lady! How's it going? Did ya miss me?" Jinx gleefully asked, purposefully drawing out the last syllables.
"No. I didn't," Caitlyn lied. "And how do you think it is going? I am confined to a bed, sitting here bored all day. I'd like to see you try to enjoy sitting here for even an hour."
"Alright then, I will!"
Wait...what?
Jinx walked over and promptly hopped into the bed, lying right next to Caitlyn on her left side. She snuggled up against the surprised Sheriff, and eased into the bed, managing to not touch or disturb Caitlyn's injuries at all.
"W-what the hell?! What are you doing?!" Caitlyn sputtered out. She looked over at the girl, and found the violet eyes staring directly back into her own. She immediately diverted her eyes, feeling uncomfortable, looking back at the window again.
"You said you would like to see me enjoy sitting her for an hour. So I'll do it if it will kill your boredom. Will it?"
"Uh," Caitlyn dumbly responded. She didn't know how to react to that. She had been sarcastic, and she was pretty sure Jinx had caught that. Maybe Jinx did catch it, but just didn't care.
"I'll take that as a yes. So, the window. That's interesting, huh?"
Caitlyn looked back at the girl who had an annoying smirk on her lips. She frowned, expressing her annoyance.
"...Yes. It is more interesting than anything else in this room, at least."
"That's hurtful."
Caitlyn looked see Jinx pouting, and had to hold back a chuckle. The criminal was annoyingly childish, but...a bit funny at times.
"...I meant it is other than anything living." She didn't quite know why she was reassuring Jinx by correcting herself, but she supposed it didn't matter.
"Yay! I always knew you liked me, Hat Lady!" Great, now the correction was going to the criminal's head.
"...What? No I don't. I despite everything about you."
"Pfft, you can't lie to me! I know you like me. I can see it in your eyes."
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "You're delusional. I hope you know that."
"Rude." Caitlyn didn't have to look at the girl to know she was pouting again. She just decided to ignore the criminal, though it was hard to with the girl right next to her.
"Hey! Wanna do something fun? Jinx suddenly asked, stretching out the end of fun.
"Huh? What do you mean by…'fun'?" Caitlyn replied, looking back at the girl who was smiling mischievously. She was somewhat curious, but at the same time, apprehensive. Jinx's idea of fun drastically varied from hers.
"Heh, you'll see. We are going somewhere special today!"
"...What?"
Jinx frowned in exasperation. "You know, for being the famed Sheriff of Piltover, the same Sheriff who makes bad guys wet themselves and who kids look up to, you aren't very bright. That's like the tenth 'what' you've said today."
Caitlyn scowled. "Hey! How am I supposed to know what the hell you mean by going somewhere 'special'? And how do you suppose I get there, when I can barely move, let alone walk?" Caitlyn responded, annoyed at Jinx's notion that she was stupid or clueless.
"Easy! Like this!" Jinx got up, and walked over to the other side of the bed. She stopped at the edge of the bed, and examined Caitlyn, making the Sheriff uncomfortable under her scrutinizing eyes. Then all of a sudden, Jinx reached over and placed her arms underneath Caitlyn. She then lifted Caitlyn in a bridal style, holding the Sheriff up by her left shoulder and legs.
Caitlyn was wide-eyed at the action, and squirmed in the bluenette's arms in protest. "L-let me go! What are you doing?!"
"Relax, Hat Lady. I'm not going to drop you. And quit squirming, you're gonna re-injure yourself by opening your stitches, and I'm not gonna patch you up again."
Caitlyn stopped squirming, but was still tense and wary. She didn't feel any pressure on her injuries, as Jinx was holding her with a peculiar amount of delicacy. But she was still nervous that Jinx would slip and drop her.
"You're so tense and untrusting, Hat Lady. Relax!" Jinx commanded, laughing her signature laugh as she did so.
"Sorry. I don't exactly trust a maniac who enjoys blowing things up with my health. So no, I won't 'relax'."
While not relaxing, she was calming down. And now that the fear of being inured further has passed, she realized that her earlier guess was correct, Jinx was indeed stronger than she appeared. Either that, or Caitlyn was a lot lighter than she thought she was. She going to assume it was the latter.
"Pfft, I prefer explosive expert over maniac, and it is a valid profession, thank you very much. Look at Ziggs, he blows things up and you don't give him flak."
"Yes because Ziggs doesn't blow up half the city for fun."
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Jinx took them over to the door, and somehow managed to open it, while still delicately holding the sheriff. Caitlyn noticed that Jinx was actually taking extreme care not to press on her injuries. Why Jinx was taking such proper care of her was the answer Caitlyn desired, but could not grasp.
Jinx brought her into a hallway. They passed by an open window as Jinx walked them through it. Jinx obviously did not care about leaving it open, but Caitlyn realized why. The window overlooked an empty alleyway, and showed nothing of importance. Nothing Caitlyn could see out of it could tell her where she was exactly located.
She looked around some more. Caitlyn noticed a door to the right. It had messy handwriting all over it, looking as if an angry child attacked it. There were scribbles in intense scratches on it. She was curious about it, but chose not to ask.
Jinx continued to take her out of the hallway and into what Caitlyn assumed was the main living room. The room was fully furnished, having two couches, a couple of tables, a small hexavision on a stand in the middle of the room, and some other things in an surprisingly neat fashion. There was also a kitchen attached to the room on the east side relative to the hallway. There were three other doors connected to it, one of which Caitlyn presumed to be the entrance, and another she figured was Jinx's quarters. However, she had no clue which was which, and what the third one led to.
Jinx set Caitlyn down on one of the couches, and turned on the hexavision. Some kind of cartoon was on. "There we go, some entertainment! Wouldn't want my guest to be bored, would I? Now sit there, while I cook dinner. After we eat, I'll show you the special place!" Jinx ordered.
Caitlyn silently followed the order. She didn't know what to make of everything. It was her first time outside of that dreaded room she has been cooped up in for the longest, and she didn't quite know what to expect of Jinx's home.
It was normal, and even slightly bland in comparison to her expectations. She would have never suspected Jinx living in a place like this. It doesn't have the bullets and weapons scattered about, or any of the traps and gadgets Caitlyn suspected Jinx to have lying around. No, it was just a normal dwelling. It was...perplexing to Caitlyn to say the least.
However, she put those thoughts aside, as she realized that this would be one of her only chances to start figuring out her escape plan. She now knew that one of the doors in this room was the entrance. The only thing to do is figure out which one it is…
She heard the crackling sound of grease sizzling, and glanced over to see Jinx cooking something that smelled delicious. She thought of the meals she has had before, just know realizing that Jinx had actually been cooking them for her. She is actually a good cook. That's something I never thought I would say...or rather think. Caitlyn shook her head and returned to thoughts of how she would escape.
After several minutes, Jinx finished with the meal.
"Food is ready to be devoured, so let's get to devouring!" she said, placing a filled plate in front of Caitlyn, on a small table next to the couch. Caitlyn's stomach rumbled, signifying that it wanted the savoury sight in front of her eyes. She was hungrier than she thought she was. Quietly mumbling a thanks, she ate her meal. Jinx chuckled and started eating her own meal.
After finishing, Jinx cleaned up the remnants of the meal. Once finished with cleaning, Jinx went over to Caitlyn again, and picked her up. This time, Caitlyn was more prepared, and was not taken by surprise. She was still wary of Jinx, and uncomfortable, but just like before, she knew it would be futile to resist. And besides, there was no point in resisting Jinx anymore. It would be much more worthwhile to let Jinx lead her and then discovering the criminal's secrets and tricks and then escape unseen once she was healed enough. She just needed to go along with Jinx's antics and 'fun things' for now.
"Now, we are going to have fun! You are going to get to see where the magic happens! No one else has seen it before, so you should feel special."
Not bothering with turning the hexavision off, she carried Caitlyn over to one of the doors. Caitlyn mused over what 'magic' she would be seeing, as Jinx opened the door. Some sort of workshop was revealed as the door moved past.
At first glance, Caitlyn noticed that the room was filled with hundreds of blueprints on the walls. From what she could tell, there were prototypes of bombs, guns, and other a multitude of weaponry. She also noticed spare parts and bullets of all shapes and sizes littered about on the floor. This room was what Caitlyn had expected the rest of the house to look like.
Caitlyn further examined the room to find a large desk area in a righthand corner with tools scattered over it, Jinx's main equipment, and Caitlyn's gun and hat as well. She was excited to see that her belongings had made it safely out of the rubble with her, and that they were present. However, they looked...different, but Caitlyn couldn't exactly tell what was changed about them.
Jinx set Caitlyn down on a little couch on the wall opposite of the desk area. "This is where the magic happens. I like to call it the Fun Factory," Jinx said as she walked around the room. "Cause it's the place where I make fun things that blow up stuff and cause more fun!" She mimicked a explosion for emphasis.
Caitlyn was surprised by this revelation. Jinx made her guns herself? I always thought she stole them from some Zaun weapons manufacturer. She was starting to realize that she actually knew very little about Jinx, beyond the basic information.
"So…you actually made your guns?" Caitlyn voiced her thoughts.
"Yup, straight from scratch, except for Zap, I got him from Zaun and just upgraded him. They are my little babies of mass fun and destruction."
This was a surprising development for Caitlyn. She looked at the blueprints on the walls. They were extremely detailed with diagrams depicting specific components. She saw one was for a Ultra-Super Death Rocket, an upgrade to her giant rocket, that could explode into flaming shrapnel when it collided. Another blueprint showed an upgrade to Fishbones, depicting heat-seeking rockets from what Caitlyn could tell. She could not understand all the complex wording used to describe some of the upgrades, but she could easily tell from the diagrams that they were extremely complicated builds.
It was equally odd and astonishing to discover that Jinx was a genius in technological advances. But it was also a bit saddening to Caitlyn. She only saw that the brilliance in Jinx was being wasted to cause destruction and havoc, instead of being helpful to the world. Jinx could have been an amazing engineer and inventor. She could have saved lives, instead of destroying them if she had just chosen a different path in life.
"Bet your wondering what your stuff is doing here, huh?" Jinx asked, pulling the Sheriff out of her thoughts. Caitlyn had actually forgotten about her stuff over the course of the days, but with them right in front of her, she remembered how much she actually missed them.
"Yes. What did you do to them? They look...different somehow"
"Well, your gun was broken a little when you got injured, so I fixed it. But when I did that, I realized that I could make it like a million times more awesome. So I took your stuff into here, and modified them. Your gun now has a scope that allows distances up to 1000 times what it was before. And I modified its strength and precision to allow that kind of distance, and added heavier, more penetrating bullets for fun. So you can cycle between them and your regular ammo. I also adjusted the recoil on it, so that it only pushes you back half as much when you use the net release. Oh, and I added a hextech lens to your hat. Now you can view things in infrared, x-ray, and ultraviolet, making it easier to spot targets in different situations," Jinx explained, but Caitlyn was completely lost.
She was never one to understand technology, despite her mother being a renown inventor and engineer. As a result, she didn't understand a single thing of what Jinx had said.
"Jinx, I hope you know that I have no clue what you are talking about. All I know about weaponry was the basics of my gun, and the lenses it had on it. I may have modified it once by adding more lens it it, but that's practically all I know about technological advances, and that was mainly done with my mother's help. Nothing you said makes sense to me"
"Hmm, so you need a dumbed down version. Ok, I can do that. Alright, so basically, I made it so that you can shoot Viktor in his ass from here with your gun if you wanted to, and you can see people through walls and shit with your hat's lenses. Is that basic enough?"
Now that she actually understood the explanation, Caitlyn was dumbstruck. She could hit someone in Zaun from Piltover with her upgraded lens? That was ridiculously strong. Granted, Zaun was pretty close to Piltover, but still, there was at least several hundred meters away from each other. She would have no problem hitting targets now, and they would never even know where the bullet came from. But one thing still lingered on her mind, why?
Why did Jinx do this for me, why is she doing anything for me? Beyond saving me, she really did not have to do anything for me, aside from feed me and such. I thought she wanted me to be her slave...? She was truly perplexed. Jinx was a major criminal, and she was the Sheriff of the city, who was injured and completely at the whim of Jinx. Jinx should be treating her like a slave, and abusing her injured state.
But she wasn't doing that in the slightest. Jinx was acting like she was helping a friend that was injured, not the damn Sheriff who wants to lock her up for crying out loud.
"Why are you doing this Jinx?"
"Hmm? Doing what? Fixing your stuff?"
"Yes, but why are you helping me in general. I get doing stuff to keep me alive, but fixing and modifying my gear? It's as if you don't know or care that all I want to do is arrest you when given the chance? Are you trying to befriend me or some crap? I truly hope you are not, because if you are, you will be sorely mistaken."
"Hat Lady, I told you this before. It's because I want to. I have my reasons, hehe. And who said anything about making friends? I didn't, so quit thinking about it. Now relax and watch. I'm gonna show you some basic hextech, and show you how good your gear is now." Jinx moved to her table, and picked up some spare parts, starting to explain what each one did.
Caitlyn was still confused, but she decided to not think about things, like Jinx instructed. The thoughts stayed at the back of her mind, lingering, but she tried to ignore them. She choose to just listen quietly to Jinx's explanations, hoping to learn more about her illustrious captor, and to gain an understanding of Jinx's motives.