Tags: Quinn, Teemo, Valor.
A lone figure can be heard sniffling somewhere in the gargantuan and magnificent gardens that are surrounding the Institute of War. A familiar brunette scout is perched on a small wooden bench as Quinn finally decides to just give up and cry her aching heart out.
The buzzing of tiny insects and cawing birds accompanies the young Demacian maiden's laments, the silent plant-life all around her the only witnesses to this truly soul-crushing moment.
Quinn stops sniffling for a brief second when small furry arms suddenly wrap around her visibly shaky form, the sad Demacian ranger's eyes instantly widening in recognition when her amber gaze abruptly lands on the considerate and immensely kind visage of her furry best friend, Teemo.
"Quinn, please tell me what's wrong?" The softhearted short yordle reluctantly questions the scout.
"Teeto!" The Demacian ranger abruptly exclaims with evident joy in her face and voice while hastily wiping away her tears before Quinn also engulfs the smaller yordle in a big warm hug.
"Shh.. it's Ok." The friendly yordle quickly replies as it gently pats Quinn's trembling back. "Now tell me what's wrong, Bird-girl? Please reveal to me what problem ails your mind."
The Demacian ranger shakily nods her head in agreement as Quinn raises her eyes to stare straight at the kind short yordle's firmly shut eyelids, the sobbing woman's voice coming out in a solemn quivering tone.
"T-the Summoners just won't pick me anymore, Big T! They say that I am a cheap knock-off of Shauna, they won't let me stay at bot and they instead send me to lane top and mid and even exile me in the damn jungle!"
Teemo as expected grimaces at that last one, the immensely intelligent yordle knowing well how tedious a Jungler's job can be and pitying the poor Demacian girl for having to slave all day in unwarded territory for the benefit of her obnoxious teammates.
"No slave- Ahem! Support for poor ol' Quinn, no smiling caretaker to help her last hit or a beefy tanky babysitter to ping her the enemies on the map whenever a dangerous foe is approaching her! None of those! Nothing at all! Big T, I am telling you, the Summoners hate me!" The young ranger resumes her truly saddening monologue as Teemo keeps patting Quinn's back even as the crafty Swift Scout is already shaking his fluffy cream-colored head in apparent denial and disagreement.
"No, you are wrong there Quiny. It's not you. The one the Summoner's truly hate is actually Valor." Teemo states wisely with both certainty and unwavering determination and the stunned brunette girl can only blink in surprise.
"What?! Why?!" The Demacian ranger suddenly yells at the top of her lungs and briefly stops hugging Teeto so Quinn can distance herself from her fluffy friend a little bit and stare at his solemn round face with puzzlement and shock visible in her agitated expression.
The Swift Scout sighs as if the subject tires him greatly and also saddens him to boot.
"Just look at him" Teemo abruptly mutters with some annoyance in his voice and Quinn's gaze obediently follows her dear friend's gesture only to stumble upon a familiar drunken Demacian Eagle that's wrestling with its fifth opened beer bottle.
"Valor is unreliable, rude and a complete bozo both in and out of the Summoner's Rift, the two of us know that. Just tell me that I am wrong." The short yordle challenges her with a pointed look towards the drunken, stumbling eagle.
"Tell me, Quinn, just when was the last time that you got a new skin released or were considered a viable pick as a bot lane markswoman?"
Quinn blinks as she ponders the yordle's sudden question and the ranger's kind sun-kissed face gradually scrunches up in thought when the female ranger fails to come up with an immediate answer to her stealthy furry friend's musings. Well, she had been a popular pick during the first lethality patch hadn't she? The young woman can't really be sure since those hazy memories of her life are muddled with the taste of innocent blood, agonized death cries and soaked in the bitter tears of millions of outraged Summoners.
"That's right.." Teemo offers in a low and slightly condescending tone "It's not your fault that you aren't popular Quinn, it's all because of Valor."
The dark yordle lets its words sink in for a moment or two as both unlikely friends silently observe the Demacian eagle in the gardens throw up and then open a new beer bottle with its beak before Valor begins gargling down his sixth beer of the day.
"Quinn, which one of you dies the most in a League match? You… or Valor?" Teemo abruptly asks the sad brunette scout when the young girl's tears finally stop flowing over her tanned visage and start drying out.
"Errr? Me? Valor is usually safe high up in the sky. He is untargetable most of the time."
Teemo's expression darkens at that as the Swift Scouts turns to seriously glare at Quinn with his eternally closed eyelids. "Exactly!" The short furry man abruptly exclaims "Can't you see what's happening, Quinn? That damn stupid bird is literary letting you down! He is abandoning you and letting you die when you need him the most!"
Quinn slowly nods in exhausted bitter acknowledgement as Teemo's small fluffy hands suddenly tighten against her hunched stiff shoulders.
"The bird has to go, Quinny." Teemo suddenly mutters and the brunette female scout's eyes instantly widen in shock and horror. "You'll never be a popular pick in the roster with that feathery demon holding you down."
The sun-kissed Demacian's reaction is immediate. Quinn rushes to defend her winged partner.
"N-no! Valor is my childhood friend! I can't do this to him! I owe Valor so much, my very life for that matter!"
"He is a friend?! Just what kind of nonsense are you spluttering, bird-girl!?" Teemo loudly growls in response. "You and I are friends, Quinn. Valor is just a flying rodent that's taking advantage of you! He is taking advantage of your kindness! You owe him nothing! Nothing at all! And if you did somehow owe something to that bucket of dirty feathers and cheap booze what about Caleb's debt? What about your dear dead brother's wishes?"
Quinn's breath hitches upon unexpectedly hearing the name of her beloved deceased kin and that gives Teemo all the time that he needs to keep weaving his dark web of malice and deception.
"Yes, that's right Quinny. Think of Caleb, poor sad Caleb. Don't you owe it to him to be the best that you possibly could? The two of you wanted to become heroes of Demacia! Shouldn't you accomplish his dream since you are now the only one left that can make it true? Shouldn't you do what is necessary in order to accomplish your common goal in his sacred memory? Don't you want to make Caleb proud?"
Teemo's furry hands slowly slide to grip Quinn's tearstained face and force the young woman to stare straight at the black abyssal slits of his seemingly always closed, scrunched up eyelids.
"Valor is betraying you, that flying demon is backstabbing both you and Caleb. And it pains me Quinny, Gods know how much it truly hurts me to even think of such a wretched thing to do, but you have to get rid of that winged brute before he spits more mud in your and your poor dear brother's honor."
Quinn shakes her head in the crafty yordle's palms, she tries to mutter her hurried denial.
"I- I can't! He! I.. there is no way that I can kill Val! Not even in a hundred years!"
"No of course not" Teemo quickly agrees with a voice softer than the most expensive silk in Ionia. "You are righteous and kind just like that. And I really admire those qualities of yours Quinn. I am not asking you to shoot Valor with your crossbow in cold blood. Gods no, we will give him a little something to let him rest. We will let him go peacefully…"
The treacherous yordle gently turns Quinn's face towards a passed out Valor that's currently sleeping in his own puke.
"Valor there is the last one of his kind my dear, dear friend. He is doing all of this out of pain and sadness, he must truly be really desperate, completely broken."
A hot breath approaches Quinn's ear, the dark yordle whispering its vile reassuring words in the unguarded ears of the presently trusting and vulnerable ranger.
"Poor Val is doing all of this to ask for your help. He knows that you are the only one that can put an end to his pain, his loneliness, his endless misery. You're the only one that he can count on in his time of need. Won't you help poor ol' pitiful Val find peace at last? What kind of owner are you if you would just let the poor bird suffer for your own selfish reasons instead of helping it?"
More tears start rolling down Quinn's tanned cheeks, the Demacian scout's wet eyes practically captured by the pitiful sight of her now drunken, but once proud majestic eagle and the accusing words of the short treacherous yordle.
"A.. bad one?" The Demacian ranger finally whispers after a while with a broken tone and a hesitant shaky breath and once more Teemo starts stroking the woman's back, almost affectionately this time.
"That's right my dearest friend. I know that you are afraid right now, but letting Valor draw breath while he's in so much pain is.. it is in one simple word inhuman. Please, Quinny, don't become a monster that doesn't care for her companions and friends like the Noxians you are so courageously fighting against. Please, don't let poor old Val suffer for your own selfishness…"
Teemo's hot breath is once again tickling the Demacian woman's ear. Lies leaking into her heart and tainting her brain.
"Please, don't abandon your beautiful dream and let down Caleb once more because of your incurable weakness, Quinn. Or.. do you perhaps.. hate Valor, Quinn? Do you want him to keep suffering like this? Is that the reason that you are refusing to aid him?"
Quinn frantically shakes her head and Teemo sighs in mock relief as he slowly pat the Demacian scout's back one last time before he proceeds to reluctantly shove a small green mushroom against the young ranger's quivering fingers.
"That's good… It means that you are still your kind and sweet self. My very best friend in the world, the righteous Quinn that won't stand for others being in pain and that will always try her best to save everyone. The considerate brave girl that ignored the fake gossips and the baseless accusations of the other champions in the League and decided to befriend me when other simply cursed and ignored me. Take this mushroom my dearest friend, crush it and then mix it with Valor's birdfeed whenever you are ready to relieve poor Valor's pain. Whenever you want to save him and be your partner's hero."
Quinn stiffens and Teemo hums the next part kindly. The small deadly object practically dancing in the Demacian woman's trembling grasp much like an abandoned fishing boat during a thunderstorm.
"My remedy won't hurt at all I can assure you. We want to help the old chap after all, not cause him even more agony, right? This time you will save Val even though you couldn't have saved your dear brother.."
The crying scout tries to weakly push the poisonous mushroom towards the yordle once more between her muffled sobs, but Teemo refuse to take it back and the Swift Scout's embrace just tightens around the female Demacian like a starving coiling snake.
"No, no, you can keep that, Quinn. It is Ok. I understand, you are not ready to save poor hurting Val, not yet… But when you are I want you to know that I will be right there for you and that I will help you all the way. And even if.. even if you do fail once again and decide to refuse and let down both me, and Caleb and regrettably enough poor, poor Valor. I will still stick with you, dear friend. I won't let you be alone when your dream fades to nothing and Caleb's honor crashes down and Valor hates you.."
Quinn just sobs something heartbreaking and unintelligible as the young woman continues crying against Teemo's small shoulder and the evil yordle just grins and kisses Quinn head softly, reassuringly.
"No problem, Quinny. That's what friends are for… I will continue offering you my guidance for as long as I can help you… I promise."
The Swift Scouts eyes briefly open behind Quinn's quivering back and a few sparks of hellfire minutely escape from the dark yordle's empty eye sockets.