I have returned bearing gifts of another chapter!
I also bring notes! So many notes!
1: So far it seems people are enjoying this so that's nice C:
2: Last Saturday the views on this thing went from 650-ish to almost 900. What the hell happened? Tis ridiculous.
3: If you don't see a new chapter on Tuesday or Friday it means it's going to be a long one or it will be short but really difficult for a man to write. Like that damn restaurant part. That one part took longer than entire chapters used to. BAH!
4: Because I think I can do stuff with it at some point this could become a romance… yeah… could be odd to write. But that stuff won't happen till like chapter 50 or something. I plan on introducing every champion before that happens and also I got to do some league matches for Zoh and Ahri along with more Noct x Morg stuff because I find it too much fun to think about.
End of notes! Enjoy the chapter :D
THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN UPDATED RETROACTIVELY
Chapter 8: Pool party
The next morning (10:30):
Zoh's POV:
Something was clearly wrong when I could feel the sun on my back and polished stone on my front. When I opened my eyes, it was considerably worse than I expected. We were on the roof and I was one wrong shift away from falling into a bed of thorns three stories down.
Spread out on the roof with me were Ahri, a main wearing a blindfold and no shirt, Caitlyn from Piltover, that gerbil-ninja thing that Shen knew, and an incredibly fat man, still clinging onto a massive casket of drink, most of which had leaked out and streamed down the slanted roof. They were all still passed out as I struggled to my feet, taking a few moments to get some semblance of balance.
I surveyed the scene and attempted to work out how we had managed to get up onto the roof, but eventually I gave up when I realised I remember very little of what happened after Nocturne and Morgana left the previous night.
Since we were all in a precarious position to say the least, I went around giving them all very light kicks to their guts until everyone was awake.
"What happened… and how did we get on the roof?" The large man asked while checking under his arm to make sure his precious casket was intact. All I could respond with was a shrug and a look of confusion.
The blindfolded man rubbed his head while getting to his feet and immediately looked to me and questioned: "What time is it?"
I checked my watch and responded: "Ten thirty-three. Why do you ask?"
"I and Kennen have a match at quarter to eleven. We must depart quickly."
"The problem is how we get off the roof. It's quite the drop." I responded as I nodded towards the edge.
"We shall get down the same way we got up."
"How did we do that?"
"You threw us."
"Ok. Where should I aim you at?"
He stared straight at me. Then it clicked.
"Oh yeah, right, the blindness thing."
I turned around and scanned the area for something suitable. Luckily, there was a conveniently deep fountain in the garden below us.
"Okay, who's first?" I asked while getting into my armour.
"Ooh! Me first, me first! I called it!" Ahri exclaimed while hurrying over to me and holding her arms up above her head. I grabbed her by the stomach and, after taking a deep breath, launched her over to the pool. She managed to do a few flips while flying through the air on her way to the fountain, before straightening out and landing in it safely.
I repeated that same process with Caitlyn, blindfolded man and the hamster thing before encountering understandable difficulties with the fat man. However, with great effort, I managed to hold him above my head. I had to take a run up with him, but I was just barely able to chuck him in the direction of the fountain. It dawned on me as he got close to it that he wasn't small enough to land between the sides of it and the decorative array of mini-fountains that fed a constant stream of water into the main one. My worries for his health were dispelled when he practically disintegrated the water feature upon landing on it. He also managed to launch pretty much the entire contents of the fountain into the surrounding few metres of garden.
From atop the roof I declared: "Thank you all for flying with Zoh Airlines. I hope you all had a pleasant journey and were not grievously wounded in any way! Just to make sure, you are all still alive, right?"
A chorus of 'yes' came back as they dried themselves off. I didn't bother trying to go for the fountain when I hopped off the roof, it wasn't necessary. I dropped to the ground and landed on one knee, a hand on the ground to further weaken the blow. An almighty cracking sound echoed through the gardens, originating from the pavement that I had landed on. It had gone from a clean, grey length of rock, to a web of cracks and rubble.
As I stood up, the large man wandered up to me. Helpful, as I had a question for him: "Hey, can I ask what your name is?"
"I'm Gragas laddy. I told you last night, but clearly you can't handle drink as well as I!" He responded with a hearty laugh.
"Yeah, I think I had a bit more than I was planning to?"
Ahri approached from behind Gragas, counting down: "Three, two, one…"
"Ah! There it is! That's the one! All-right, that hurts. Yep. Not pleasant at all."
"I used to suffer the same problem. That was, until I realised you can fix it with more drinks!" Gragas announced as he walked away.
"I, too, shall be taking my leave now. There's always more criminals to capture and I've got a free day." Caitlyn beamed while strolling away with a spring in her step.
Everyone else was already gone, leaving me and Ahri. She immediately put her finger on my chest and shot me a confident smile: "I can't wait to kick your ass later."
"Don't get ahead of yourself now. You've got to complete your judgement before you can get a chance to get dunked on by yours truly."
"Oh come on now, the judgement will be nothing. You just have to answer two questions relatively correctly and endure a bit of a bit of a bad memory. That's nothing."
Four hours later (14:40):
The door opening was my signal to stand up and take a few steps towards it. Within seconds, Ahri rushed out with a pained, genuinely horrified expression covering her face. I had never seen her so out of breath as she slammed the door behind her and, upon seeing me, rushed over. I knew what kind of thing she had just gone through, so I didn't dare to not accept her embrace. She started to calm down when I hugged her back, but neither of us let go until she was breathing pretty normally. Even then, I still held her pretty close.
"That was not fun. Not at all."
"Will you be okay?"
"Yeah, but not for a while. I feel like such shit right now."
"I don't know what you experienced in there, and I think it's best you don't tell me, but just remember that you'll never have to go through it again. That will be the hardest point in your life, because from now on I'll be there right beside you. If there is anything I can do, just say."
A bit of the usual brightness returned to her face as a weak smile broke through.
"I can think of a few things…"
"I'm willing to go halfway and go to the beach with you."
"How's that halfway?"
"Cause you get to see me in swimming trunks for a few hours and you can touch anything above the waist."
Fifteen minutes later (15:00):
It was clear as soon as we arrived that this beach was made by the League. Not only were the conditions perfect with barely a cloud in the sky and a constant warmth broken up at seemingly the perfect times by refreshing gusts of wind. A very thinly populated palm tree forest covered the grassy parts of the island, with the obvious exception of the rocky hill that poked out of the treeline. The island was curved into a slightly wonky 'J' shape and was probably about a mile long and half as wide. Despite its relatively large size, people and creatures were everywhere.
It definitely explained why the League building itself was so lonely sometimes. Why walk around the mostly under-construction halls when you could be messing around on a tropical paradise?
Only a minute or so after I arrived there, Ahri appeared next to me, accompanied by a flash of light. When I looked over to her, I was just sorta stuck there for a second. It wasn't that I was stuck in something or my limbs just weren't in the mood at that moment. I just couldn't turn my head away from Ahri.
She was wearing a red, one-piece swimsuit. It was a lot like the average two-piece, except it was connected down the middle of her stomach. This left the entirety of her legs, arms, back, and sides, along with quite a lot of her butt completely uncovered. If I had to make the biggest understatement since the dawn of time, I'd have said they were all nice.
However, I couldn't even really do that. After a few moments of staring all I could utter was: "Damn…"
Ahri was smiling at me, knowing full well why I was looking her up and down.
"So I take it you like my swimsuit?"
"It's certainly… something…" I mumbled, finally managing to pull my head away and look forward. Just in time to see a huge water balloon headed straight for me, already within a metre by the time I saw it. With a huge splash, I was knocked back onto the sand and instantly drenched from head to toe.
When I sat up, there was another of those waist-high gerbil things. He had floaty thing around his waist in the shape of a cartoonish duck, swimming goggles over his eyes and a huge water balloon on his back.
"Hey! You just got invited to the pool party! We're having a blast!" He laughed maniacally while hopping up and down in the air.
I wasn't too thrilled by the idea. However, Ahri was, and she was faster to respond: "Aww you're so cute! Of course we will come to your party!"
I got up and looked over at her, stunned into silence for a short moment, before attempting to ask: "Do you really-"
"You promised to do something that would cheer me up. This would do that job pretty well. So would setting your trunks on fire. Which would you prefer?"
I paused for a second before groaning: "I am making a habit of saying things which come back to bite me in the arse."
"Come on, it's this way! The name's Ziggs by the way. It's nice to meet you." He proclaimed as he started waddling in the direction of a pool not too far away.
"I'm Ahri and this is my buddy Zoh. Nice to meet you too."
"You don't need to introduce yourselves to anyone anymore. We all saw the most recent Journal of Justice cover."
We soon came within view of the pool and I was surprised to see some familiar faces. The monk obviously had a short match as he was sitting by the pool with a coconut drink, wearing sunglasses, an orange flower-pattern shirt with the buttons undone, blue swimming trunks and sandals. It appeared he was talking to the blonde I had seen Ezreal talking to when I apologised. I made a mental note to not interrupt him, as he clearly had something going on, so to speak.
"Hey Zoh do you realise what you have done wrong again?" Ahri asked while I sat down on one of the sun-loungers around the pool.
Ahri lay down on the lounger next to me and I was thankfully quick to realise what she meant.
"I thought I said what I thought about it."
"You tried but just ended up mumbling so quiet even I couldn't hear it."
"Oh… uh, well, it certainly does a good job emphasising your… 'Assets'. When did you get it?"
"I took a little while out of my shopping trip yesterday to treat myself. I would have shown you this and all the other cool stuff I got but you were in a bit of a hurry to get out of there so I didn't really have time."
"Truly is a mystery why I left so quickly, isn't it."
"Yeah. Maybe next time I'll 'suggest' you stay and see what they all look like on me. Fair warning though, this is relatively conservative compared to most of it."
I stared at her with an eyebrow raised for a few seconds before announcing: "I'm gonna go have a swim and beg the universe that you forget about that idea."
"Before you go I'd just like to say I like what you're wearing too, even though I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't get you in spandex."
I didn't dare reply, still thankful that she hadn't decided to force me into such a thing. Instead, I was just wearing a pair of plain green trunks and sandals. Kicking off the sandals by my lounger, I went towards the diving board where a woman with short white hair was jumping. As I climbed up the ladder to the board I saw that Ahri was already doing lengths in the pool.
"That woman is incredibly fast when she wants to be…" I thought to myself, considering the problems it could cause me in the future, particularly in the upcoming match.
Deciding it was something best left for later, I stepped up to the edge of the board. Not wanting to show off, I took a run-up and jumped off. I immediately did a backflip, followed by a three-sixty and, of course, another backflip. A perfect landing led to me being at the bottom of the pool, staring at some light blue tiles. I could feel a tiny bit of pressure on my head and the water's attempts to pull me upwards, right up until I felt someone pulling me upwards.
When we emerged from the water, I got an up-close look at Ahri's face. She had her scheming smile on.
"Uh, I can swim fine on my own, thanks."
"Shhh, we just did the perfect synchronised dive. Don't break the magic." She whispered.
"What, synchronised dive- I didn't agree… how did you even get onto the other diving board? You were at the other end of the pool."
"Never-mind that. Come swim with me." She ordered cheerfully, pulling me along as we began swimming.
Whatever she was doing all that for, I doubted it would be good for me in the end. At best, she had eaten too many sweets and was feeling hyper. At worst, she actually had a plan and my day wasn't going to go as smoothly as I had hoped when I woke up that morning.
I had to wonder if her chosen swimming technique was on purpose, or she just natural acted in ways which fucked with me. Why, of all the ways, did she have to backstroke? It made it nearly impossible to not look over occasionally. And it was only occasionally.
A few times a minute, at most. The looks weren't even for long.
"You've really not got a lot of self-control, have you? At least in terms of where you look." She pointed out while taking a short rest on the side of the pool.
"I'm normally much better."
"If it helps, I obviously don't mind. It's not like I've been stopping myself from staring back. I'm just a lot more discreet about it."
"I wish I had that skill. Feels like I'd find more and more use for it every day."
"Oh, I'm sure you would. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to teach you before you stopped lying to yourself and carried me into your room over one of those oh-so-lovely shoulders."
I glared at her for a second before pushing off the side. When she caught up with me, I was thankful that Ahri had decided to swim like a normal person. Unfortunately, she decided to keep pestering me:
"Okay I'm sorry but I just need to say that I might faint if you ever do that."
We reached the other side and turned around, all the while I was still ignoring her.
"So that's a sensitive subject, I get it. Let's move onto a different one! What do you want to talk about?" She asked almost like she was relying on the conversation continuing. What for, I couldn't tell.
"Sounds like I'm gonna have to come up with a topic. Uhh, did I tell you about… uh, oh yeah I've got an unlimited lifespan now."
I stopped instantly and looked over at her: "Whoa, whoa, hold on! That's not exactly the kind of thing you just casually bring up in conversations. And why 'now'? What happened?"
"Well every time I take someone's life essence it adds years to my life. When I joined the league they gave me an infinite amount so that I didn't get the urge to kill anyone. I made sure not to tell them that before they did it."
"Wait, don't you have to kill people for that?"
"Not anymore. Every time someone dies in a League match the essence has to go somewhere. So, it just gathers in this massive underground pool. I'm not exactly sure, but I've got somewhere between a hundred billion and forever."
"Holy hell! How many people have died in these matches?"
"A whole lot apparently." She joked while swimming over to the side of the pool and sitting on the edge of it.
"Huh. Well, if it's any consolation, I'll be around for the same amount."
"How'd it happen for you?" She asked as I joined her on the side.
"It didn't just 'happen'. It took a wormhole, a badly-made ham sandwich, a truly vile concoction, and an explosion ever-so-slightly larger than I meant for it to be. THAT was an interesting day. Or week. I honestly couldn't tell."
"Just another reason why we're just too perfect for-"
"HEY if you were going to try swim as fast as you can, what technique would you use?" I interrupted just to prevent that conversation from starting up again.
"Freestyle Stroke. Why?"
"Would you be able to talk while doing that?"
"Probably not."
"Okay, we're going to have a race. First one to the other side and back wins."
"What is the prize for the winner?"
"If I win you have to tell me about that plan of yours."
"Pffff what? What plan… I haven't got a plan! Don't be crazy." She scoffed while leaning away and shoving my arm lightly.
"We both know you have so just go ahead and tell me what you want for winning."
"You know what I want. In front of everyone. Same way you did it yesterday."
"I knew that was coming. I'll go get Ziggs to count us down."
I got up and went over to the bar where Ziggs was spinning around on one of the stools. He stopped when he noticed me standing next to him with my arms crossed.
After a second of frantically looking around and grabbing onto things to keep himself up, he greeted me: "Hey buddy what's up?"
"I have a favour to ask but first, have you been drinking?"
"YEAH! Pure ethanol and gunpowder!"
"Uh, how are you still breathing?"
"With great difficulty!"
"Look I kinda need you to help officiate this race. However, I'm gonna need to ask that you seek serious medical assistance immediately after."
"If I say I'll consider it will you let me put on my fake announcer voice?"
"Wha- I, that's not- I have no control over whether you use it or not."
"OKAY it's settled I'll do the voice and consider that… thing you said! I'll remember what it was later! I'm gonna go get everyone's attention!"
He hopped off the stool and was at the edge of the shaded part of the bar before I could catch up and turn him around: "No, no, this wasn't supposed to be an event or anything. We just needed someone so that we didn't have accusations of cheating."
He stared at me, wild eyed, his entire body vibrating heavily with that same insane smile he had carried ever since I met him. Without even dignifying me with a response, he turned around and announced in a heavy, stereotypically British accent: "Greetings one and all! It is my incredible honour to announce the first ever Pool Party Swimming Competition Extravaganza! Renekton! Wheel in the scoreboard!"
A large crocodile that stood on its hind legs and was wearing life-guard clothing hopped off his very tall chair and went behind the bar hut, pulling out a chalkboard when he emerged moments later. It already had, what I assumed were, the names of everyone at the pool set up in an elimination tournament format.
I had to wonder why that was just sitting behind the bar.
"The first race shall be between Zoh and Ahri. Contestants, step up to the edge!"
At that point I gave up trying to make sense of the situation and just did as Ziggs asked. When everyone had got out of the pool, he shouted: "Start on 'go'! Three! Two! One! Go!"
The dive in went decently well with neither of us getting a clear advantage. However, I didn't have to surface for a few moments longer than Ahri. I didn't have time to check if it had led to an actual lead, but I guessed that, even at best, we were still very close.
As we reached the wall, signalling that it was half-way done, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my competitor had managed to complete the turn in a fraction of a second. That alone removed any lead I may have built up in the time.
However, as I started heading back to the other end, I realised just how good at that she was. I wasn't sure if she had been going easy on me up until that point; but if she had been, it was no longer the case. I wasn't exactly a slow swimmer, but she made me feel like an amateur in comparison. By the time I reached the wall she was already sitting on the edge, a sneaky smile on her face.
"The winner is Ahri!" Ziggs announced as everyone clapped with clearly impressed faces. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who wasn't expecting that sort of speed from Ahri.
"It would appear that you lost, Zoh. I'm ready for my reward now." She gloated happily as I got out of the pool and stood up. Her enthusiasm was clear as she hopped to her feet and leaned towards me slightly.
"Do we have to do this in public? What if it makes people uncomfortable?" I whispered, hoping for some sort of mercy.
She turned around before announcing: "Before this match we had a bet on who would win. For winning, he's supposed to give me a kiss. Would that make any of you uncomfortable?"
Anyone who didn't say 'no' or some variation of that just shook their heads.
Ahri spun around to me with a cheery smile and, once again, leaned in expectantly.
"If I have to do this I may as well enjoy it." I conceded before grabbing her perfect waist and pulling her into me. It was like her lips and mine were magnetic. The second they met it felt like I'd have to fight a force of nature to separate them again. I couldn't tell if it was my brain was playing tricks on me or the entire world was fading away. I didn't dare open my eyes to check. All I could sense were Ahri's hands gripping my back, her flowery scent filling my nose, her sweet lips convincing me that no better taste existed in the world. And that tingling. Right in my chest. Spreading like wildfire, but never burning out. It was the most unexplainably incredible feeling I had ever experienced. Even the second time around, I couldn't understand it. I couldn't even convince my own head to attempt to understand it.
And when I pulled myself away, it all faded. Diminishing as the world once again grabbed my senses. My bewildered mind struggled to make any sense of the situation as I gazed into the sea of gold in front of me.
"I feel sorry for the people living next door to them tonight." Ziggs declared, getting a few laughs out of some of the onlookers.
I was still trying to make heads or tails of it by the time I had walked over to and sat down on my sun-lounger. Ahri took her place on the one next to me and rested her hands behind her head, a victorious smile spread wide across her face. She closed her eyes and reached up to push a button on the umbrella shading us, collapsing it inwards.
"You had that same look yesterday." She pointed out, not even having to look at me to know it was still there. Whatever it was.
"What face?"
"That one you put on when you don't understand something. Helpful for me, cause it means I'm not the only one who felt it."
"Felt what? I don't get what that was."
"Couldn't tell you. I'm guessing it's good though. Certainly felt like it was good."
"Do you really not know or are you messing with me?"
Ahri leaned over on her side and used one of her hands to support her head while opening her eyes.
"I can assure you without a doubt in my mind, I have no idea what that was. I don't really want to think about it because right now all my attention is on finding a way to make it happen again. And finding out how well I tan."
She started to move back to her original position before stopping and going in reverse to look at me again.
"And finding out how nice the drinks are here."
Ahri laid back down and but put her arms down by her side. After a moment she waved her hand at me: "Go on, shoo. I'm not getting it myself."
I didn't like getting shooed; however I much preferred it to being on fire. So, I made my way over to the bar. When I stepped up to it, a man in casual swimming gear with a purple hood concealing his face came over to serve me.
"I've seen that same disgruntled look on quite a few of the lads that come down 'ere. So, what'll she be 'avin?"
"Don't know. She didn't bother to tell me any specifics."
"Well what's 'er favourite? We've pretty much everything."
"Why would I know?"
"Cause you just snogged 'er."
"So? Why would that mean I know her favourite drink?"
"I don't know. You're just meant to learn that stuff."
"Well, I haven't, so just give me something. Anything. I really doubt she cares."
"Coming right up."
He mixed a variety of drinks into a coconut before dropping in a straw and mini-umbrella. I thanked him and started heading back to Ahri.
The way she was laying down and the smile on her face exuded confidence. She knew all-to-well that I was on my way back and finding it incredibly difficult to avert my eyes.
As I sat down next to her, I handed the drink over.
"Here's your drink."
She kept her eyes closed as she reached up and took it, ignoring the straw and sipping it.
"Well, you passed that test."
"What test?"
"You managed to get a drink I actually like. I'm impressed."
"Do I get anything for passing the test?"
"I could give you a reward, but I doubt you'd accept the one I have in mind."
"I really do wonder why you put so much effort into me. For example, back on the road, you could've killed me the second we met. My armour doesn't protect me at all from the kind of magic you use. And now, you seem to devote every waking moment, and some sleeping ones, to getting with me. You've explained some of your reasons but we both know you haven't told me the full story."
She opened her eyes and rolled them at me before sitting up.
"It's because you intrigue me Zoh. Before we even properly met I could sense there was so much more to you than you let on. Even now your life is a complete mystery to me, and it just fills me with such a sense of wonder. Every time you speak of these insane accomplishments from your past, I try my best to absorb as much of it as I can because it's all so… alien to me. Even now, as I stare into your eyes, I'm silently trying to imagine the things that they've seen. When I do find out something, whether by you telling me or by piecing it together, I just- I can't explain it! It's like I need you in my life now. I don't know what I would do without you and I don't want to imagine a world where you weren't around."
"I'm not really sure what I can say to that… apart from 'sorry'. From the moment we met I've been misjudging you based on my own prejudices and for that I am truly appalled with myself. I concluded early on that you were only hanging around with me for my looks and because you liked pestering me. I guess I just needed to hear something like that from you to make me realise how unfair I've been."
She stared at me with thinly-veiled concern in her eyes: "But do you… feel the same way? About me, I mean."
"I don't know. In all my years of living, I've never experienced anything like this before. Everything about how I feel right now confuses me. When I think I'm angry at you it feels like I'm happy. When I think I'm annoyed it feels like I'm someone else looking at me, smiling at how irritated I'm getting. When I'm supposed to be feeling annoyed and disappointed with myself for kissing you, I feel like I'm experiencing everything I've ever enjoyed like it was the first time all over again, all at once. My entire life, I've never allowed myself to lose sight of the big picture. It has always felt like, if I stop watching, it's all going to fall apart. When I'm around you I can't bring myself to concentrate on anything else, but it's me that falls apart."
"So you can understand everything to do with worm-holes, but you're too dumb to know what you're feeling in your own mind?"
"Apparently so. You wouldn't mind if I blamed it all on your charm magic, right? I've got an ego to sustain."
"I'm sorry, but you can't really. It doesn't work that way."
"This is helpful cause I'd been meaning to ask, how does it actually work? Is it through physical contact or something else?"
"It's a bit more complex than you give it credit. At will, I can project an aura around me that makes people produce more of the chemicals that increase arousal while also telling their brains that I'm the one who can sate that need the best. I can also throw a particularly strong charm at someone from a distance. That one basically sets their mind to a state where it can only think about sex with me, however it only lasts for a little while. The last, and most effective, one is by kissing. Unlike the others, this one can't be blocked by magic dampeners. If I use this one while kissing someone, it makes my own body produce an incredibly powerful pheromone and then sends it through the kiss. Because it's self-cast and very minor, the dampeners don't pick it up. It is also the most complex one, because the effects of the pheromone change with each kiss."
"Uuhhh, so, um, what exactly are those… 'effects'? You know, out of curiosity."
"First use makes the person want to be my friend. Second makes them want to date me. Third makes them absolutely need to have sex with me a short while after its use. It's so powerful, it shuts down the brain's ability to recognise that it is not the right place for it. Someone could be in the middle of the street and instantly just jump on me and go at it. They could be sitting around the dinner table with their parents and grandparents. Doesn't matter. They'd still do it."
She smiled, looking happy to have informed me on the subject. I, on the other hand, was wide-eyed and mentally repeating the word 'shit' in my head at a rate of thousands per minute. When Ahri realised what I was thinking, she giggled and put her hands on my knees: "Zoh, you're not about to fuck me on the sun-loungers. If I was pulling that trick on you, we'd be dating this very second."
"Wait, so, why aren't we if I we've kissed four times? I'm pretty certain you were using it on the journey."
"The first two times it's still able to be resisted by a particularly stubborn person."
"Well, that explains me perfectly. I do have one question about it though, does it ever fall off? Do you have to refresh it every once in a while?"
"The first two do. Considering the time it's been since I last used it on you, I'd say they have by now."
"But the third one?"
"Absolutely permanent. After it leads to sex once it can be instantly triggered again by any of my charm spells. Including the aura."
"Wow. Potent stuff. I have to wonder though, how do you actually know all this?"
"The moment I became a person I knew. I also know that there are other methods that I haven't got the hang of fully yet. I didn't mention them before cause I don't know what they do."
"You know, I'm more curious than I am scared, as usual. So, hit me with one. But, you know, stop me if things get out of hand or at least get us out of sight."
Her face lit up with delight as she pondered what to try. After a second, she brought her finger up to her mouth and kissed it. She was about to press her finger against my mouth when she stopped and advised: "Put your hands out above your head. We don't know what they're going to do."
"Good idea."
I did as told and, a moment later, she put the finger to my lips. Instantly, I was having to restrain my hands from moving down and, seeing my struggling, Ahri assisted in holding them in place.
"What did it do to them?" She asked as my arms slowly descended against all the opposition.
"They really, really want to undress me right now. I don't, but my arms really do."
She giggled and her hold weakened. My arms inched further down, but I couldn't do anything but smile with her.
"How long does this last?"
"Anywhere from a minute to an hour."
"Oh fuck me."
"That's a different charm entirely."
A little while later (18:30):
"Ahri! My hands have stopped!"
She burst out of her door and hurried over to the sofa I had been laid on. She kneeled down in front of my face and asked: "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, they're doing what I want now. You can untie me."
"Aww, okay. And I was just starting to get used to the idea of having a hot guy tied up in my living room."
"I'm sure I'd be okay with this in the right circumstances, but not right now." I explained as she undid the ropes that were restraining my hands behind my back. Or at least, she tried to.
"What the hell kind of knot did Ziggs put in this?" She mumbled before something gave way. I felt it all suddenly loosen, and soon after Ahri had it all untied. The second my hands were free I stretched them out to the sides and stood myself up. It felt incredibly good to not be restrained anymore. There had been more than one bad experience involving being tied up in my life before that point.
"Thanks." I patted Ahri on the shoulder before rushing over to my room. We didn't know how long we had left and we were expected to be fully prepared upon arriving.
It took me a thankfully short amount of time to put on a suit and find the device for my armour, despite having haphazardly thrown it into the room just before we went swimming.
When I emerged from my room, Ahri was laying down across the sofa. I sat on one of the armchairs and had barely gotten comfortable when she asked: "Hey Zoh, do you have any idea what is going to happen?"
"My best guess would be that we get teleported somewhere then the Summoners do… whatever it is they do. Then we go to the Summoner's Rift and kill each other for a while."
"Do you think we'll just be told what to do by the Summoners and expected to comply or will they control us completely?"
"Uh… I'm not sure. I guess it's more about their skill than ours, so they probably take over."
"I'm not sure that I am comfortable with them taking control of me. What if they get me killed?"
"Don't worry about that, I heard it doesn't hurt nearly as much as getting actually killed would. Plus, Nocturne mentioned at the festival that new champs are always overpowered as shit, so you'll be doing more killing than being killed."
"Does that mean I could lose a bunch of powers if I do too well to get more in line power-wise with everyone else?"
"It's only in the matches so you will still have it all out here. Also remember that you only get five abilities in the match. According to Shen you have one called a 'passive' that you don't interact with but just works automatically, three that are moderately useful and one that does a lot of interesting stuff. However the summoners also get to choose two abilities which do a variety of things. Considering Shen is a ninja, I don't think he would lie about that stuff. It's probably bad for his honour or something."
"Oh this is just wonderful so not only will my magic be weakened at some point but I will only have four things that I can use to kill things."
"You won't actually be doing any of this, the Summoner will. You'll essentially be a first-person spectator."
"Sounds boring as hell."
"Yeah it does actually. Oh, I almost forgot, Shen mentioned something about the Summoners changing the way we look for some reason. Apparently, one of the Summoners who uses him a lot covers him in ice before sending him out."
"That sounds like it could be fun. I wanna be robot-me for a while."
"Oh damn that'd be cool. I want to be a robot now too."
We were cut off mid conversation by blue rings surrounding us and we both knew what was coming. Within seconds we were in a large room with a dome ceiling and pillars all around. In the middle stood ten glowing orbs with a group of summoners nearby talking in a circle. Noticing our presence, two of them stepped away and walked up to us.
When they reached us, the taller of the two spoke up:
"Hello Ahri and Zoh, welcome to your very first match. I and my friend here will be your Summoners for today and, as such, we will be explaining how this works to you. As Champions, you have very little to remember or do in these things. The only things you have control of will be your head and voice. We've also written a set of lines that you can use if you've got nothing else to say. Now, the big bit that I doubt you know, is that we use clones these days. At the start of a match you just come here and let us make a clone of you, then be off on your merry way to do whatever. When the match is over, the clone will evaporate and all its memories and experiences will merge with you. Side effects include: sudden and uncontrollable rage, extreme and randomly occurring bouts of paranoia, incredible pain all over the body, instantaneous loss of limbs followed by the immediate return of said limbs, explosive headaches, and an unshakable feeling of impending doom. These effects have only been found to occur in Champions with a Vitamin C deficiency. Any questions?"
"Are there any occasions where we'll have to attend personally?" I queried.
"That will only happen if the cloning program is abandoned. But don't worry, you shall all be informed weeks before that happens if we do find sufficient reason to end it."
"Wow, this is easy!" Ahri cheered while smiling cheerfully.
"For you, yeah. Entirely opposite situation for us." The smaller of the two explained.
"Yes well I don't think they want to hear about our problems. I should probably tell you about your abilities so your copies will know. As for you Ahri, your passive is called 'Essence theft' basically every once in a while your next ability will heal you for every enemy you hit. Your first ability is called 'Orb of deception'. All you have to know is that you throw that ball of yours and it comes back after reaching its max range. Your second ability is called 'Fox-fire'. When you use it three balls of fire orbit around you and shoot themselves at the closest enemy, prioritising enemy champions. Your third ability is named 'Charm'. Quite simply you blow a kiss to someone and if it hits them it does some damage and causes them to walk harmlessly towards you for up to two seconds. Your final ability which everyone is particularly eager to use is called 'Spirit rush'. When you use it you dash forwards and fire three bolts that damage nearby enemies, prioritising champions. However, after its initial use you can use it twice more within a few seconds. As far as I can tell you have tons of damage and you can escape from just about anything but…"
"What is it?"
"You have basically no health at all so if lots of enemies group up on you… well… it won't go well for you."
"Oh, cool. What about Zoh's abilities then?"
"We had a bit of trouble finding some abilities for you, Zoh. So, we had to go digging around in your past a bit to find some relevant stuff. Don't worry, we avoided looking at anything personal."
"That's fair enough I suppose. What are they, then?"
"Your passive is called 'Heightened will'. Over the duration of a minute you slowly gain health and damage. At the end of that minute you slowly lose them again over the same time period until your health and damage is slightly below normal. It then starts over again. Your first ability is called 'No Retreat'. This ability increases the amount of damage you do against a single target when multiple enemies are within your range. Additionally, it can be activated to fire out a skill-shot that, if it hits an enemy you have recently damaged, pulls them half-way towards you. If it hits anyone else, it's a very small slow that removes any move-speed buffs on the target. Your second ability is 'Confusing Strike'. After a short wind-up, you swing your axe in a cone in front of you. The enemy hit by the ability has their auto-attacks and abilities start to fire backwards. So, if they wanted to fire something at you while under the effects of the ability, they'd have to aim it behind themselves. If multiple enemies are in the cone of the ability when you use it, the effect is only applied to the one you recently damaged and, if you haven't damaged any before using it, it is applied to the first enemy hit. The third ability is 'Warrior's Leap'. You target a nearby enemy and jump at them, disappearing into a portal just before hitting. After a quarter of a second, you appear in the air on the opposite side of them to the one you used the ability from and smash into them, tackling them back a short distance and applying a slow. Your final ability grabs a nearby target and holds them in the air for a second, stopping them from doing anything. If their team is able to do half of your total health as damage in this time, the ultimate is cancelled and put on the full cooldown. However, if they can't, you both disappear and all of your vision is blocked off with the exception of each other. You then have four seconds to do as much damage as you can. At the end of the duration, you disappear and then fall from the sky on top of them, dunking them with your axe for damage equal to everything you did, minus twenty-five percent of what they did to you."
"So if they did four times my damage it would do nothing?"
"Yes. And if they did more than four times, it would heal them. Luckily, you are meant to build tanky and your abilities do a lot of base damage, so it should work out fine unless you try to fight someone who is absurdly fed. In the worst case scenario, you're still taking someone out of the fight for a few seconds."
"That's pretty cool. I approve."
"Good. Now, if you'll turn around, we just created your clones."
I spun around and found myself staring at an incredibly well-made copy of myself. We both pulled off our helmets and the same time then spent the next few seconds staring intently at one-another.
"Wow, clone-me is almost as handsome as the real thing." I joked before turning to Ahri and her clone. The real one was adjusting the clone's clothing, eventually getting it to a state that she was happy with. She stepped away and looked over at me as the clones disappeared into a teleportation spell.
I removed my armour and asked: "What do you want to do now?"
"I've got a few ideas."
Fifty minutes later (20:00):
There wasn't really a whole lot I could complain about as I sat on that sofa. The pillows were the perfect amount of squishy and the sun heated the room up to a temperature that managed to remain consistently comfortable. I had a device to tinker with and Ahri had gone out saying she was going to do… something. She had definitely mentioned what it was, but I had not been listening too keenly at the time. I'd been making tea and it required all of my concentration to get right.
Just as the device popped out of existence with a puff of smoke that smelled like freshly-grilled steak, Ahri shoved her way through the door.
Just like that, my serene time was over.
"Welcome back. How was your trip to… that place… the one you told me about… which I remember the name of…?"
"I am really confused right now. Why don't we get out own bathroom?" She asked while slumping down on the sofa.
"Uh… we do."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask."
"Okay where is it then? There are only five doors and none of them lead to a bathroom."
"On the wall over there. One button for the toilet and one for the bathroom."
Ahri got up and headed over to the two buttons. They were both on the wall to the right when you come into the apartment, a short distance from the door to the closet. She pressed the one labelled 'Bathing' and disappeared. I'd been in there before, so I knew what she was seeing. That meant I wasn't particularly surprised when she came back with an impressed expression.
"How is it?"
"It's cool but I feel like there's something I'm missing with it. Can you help me work it out?"
"Lead the way." I replied while getting up and pulling my jacket off. I draped it over the armchair that I passed by on my way to the button, just as Ahri disappeared again.
Slamming the button, I immediately appeared on a tropical island in the middle of a vast ocean. The island was a few dozen metres across in every direction with beaches all around. The majority of the island was covered in grass, with a large hot spring in the very centre. A solitary palm tree stood to the side of the pool of water, providing a small amount of shade. On the tree was the return button. The only other thing on the island was a tall, thin grouping of boulders, a constant stream of water flowing from it into the hot spring.
"Doesn't seem very complex to me. What could you possibly be missing here?" I questioned while crossing my arms over my chest.
"Okay I'll be honest, I just wanted to get you here as quickly as possible. You kinda stink right now."
"If that's all this is about then either leave me to deal with it myself or let me go get my swimming trunks."
"No-one is leaving this island until I am confident we're both clean. I'll even turn away until you're in the water."
"How's that going to help?"
"As you can see, the water is pretty misty. I think that's enough that you'll get to keep some of your precious decency."
I glared at Ahri for a few seconds, her unfaltering gaze proving she was not joking.
"Fine. But if you try to force something to happen I'm strapping a rocket to you and launching you to the mainland. Do we understand each other?"
She smiled: "Perfectly."
Barely even a cliff-hanger but I don't care this chapter has gone on long enough already.
Anyway so I have BIG NEWS! I somehow managed to get over 1000 people to read this. Honestly I am confused as to why so many people would read this but I'm not complaining.
Also this is the first full-length chapter that is on time! That requires some sort of celebration with cake! But I have no cake so I'm just going to get ice-cream instead.
Goodbye!
