Synthetic heart, real emotion
I hate Cliff-hangers but the last chapter was almost double the regular length…
I don't know how long I've had my eyes closed but it felt like an eternity which seems very odd considering up till now it seemed like this woman was intending to finish me quickly, I force my eyes back open where I see she's still standing in front of me with her crossbow level with my neck but she seems like she's been frozen in place; I'm tempted to just ask her why she hasn't killed me but before I can a blue vortex surrounds her and after a few seconds she vanishes… I have less than no idea what happened and I'm positive 'less than no idea' isn't a proper use of English.
Before I can dwell on the issue to much Vi crashes out of the foliage and rushes over to me picking me up and carrying me back towards the fountain we had started at while uttering many profanities including about twelve I had never heard before. Once we return to the fountain she drops me; the air catching me before I could fall more than a few inches evidently causing slight ire in Vi,
"Okay what the hell do you think you're doing pretending to be Janna and sneaking into a league match?!" Vi questions me with aggression coating her words like a layer of sludge in the Zaun sewers,
"Well to start; you pulled me in here, I had no intention of becoming Janna or being here at all."
Vi starts as though she's going to yell again but stops herself and takes a deep, stressed breath before speaking again;
"Alright well lets not spilt hairs on who did what and who grabbed who lets just get you out of here."
Vi points toward the fountain where a small blue portal opens and Janna, the not-me one… obviously, why did I feel the need to clarify that?... she floats through then motions for me to go, I float over and hand her staff before I start apologizing profusely so fast that I think I'm burning out my processor but Janna puts a finger to my lips to silence me;
"It's all right Mora I'm sure it was an accident but for now you need to leave the match will begin again soon… unrelated note though it is so surreal seeing myself like this; is my outfit really that skimpy?"
I nod quietly as Janna looks over me… er herself… uhh however one would explain the situation, Vi makes a motion pointing at her wrist which I assume means we're running out of time so I go through the portal; I feel the portals magic engulf me and for some reason it fills my mouth with the taste of pomegranate, once the blue light fades I'm back in the lounge room where I'm tackled to the ground by Nami;
"OHYGOSHOHMYGOSHIWASSOWORRIEDABOUTYOU!"
My audio receptors can barley decipher that but I get the gist of it as Sona comes over with a short man in a purple robe beside her, he clears his throat and Nami stops stranglopming me and helps me up as the man begins talking;
"Miss Mora I presume? My name is Adaphon; I am a summoner of the League of Legends."
"A pleasure to meet you mister Adaphon… I suppose you want to know why I look like Janna?"
The man reaches beneath his hood though its too dark too see his face the motion suggests he's adjusting his glasses,
"That won't be necessary: champion Nami and Champion Sona explained what they believe to have happened which given what Champion Caitlyn had relayed through her summoner it seems like it was an innocent mistake; despite that though you preformed well for someone who has never so much as witnessed a league match."
"Thank you, I was apparently designed to adapted to many dangerous situations."
I manage to pick up on the subtle telepathic magic coming from him and interpret something that seems like the mental equivalate to saying 'wait what?',
"I'm not sure what you mean by designed but that can wait for later, champion Sona reserved the skybox for you three and I'd hate to deprive you of the rest of the match, we can discuss things later if you feel so inclined… also please revert to whatever you true form looks like; seeing Janna out of the rift might raise some questions."
I hadn't even realised I was still in Janna's form as for whatever reason it felt so… normal; this was the first time I had completely transformed my body, it takes a few moments but I revert to my normal form and outfit which now that I think about it I'm still wearing my Pentakill t-shirt… how did that transform with me? Before I had long to mull over the lack of logic Nami excitedly bubbles me once again and starts rolling me out of the room,
"I am not losing you again Mora, so hold on tight we have to go up a few staircases."
I can already feel the area that would be my stomach buckle.
After an exciting and slightly confusing forty-eight minutes the Piltover champs had won, a short ceremony talking about the peace between the city-states, I tried to listen but Nami had fallen asleep within the first minute of the speech so it was hard to pay attention when I had her next to me sleeping like a big scaly puppy…
"I get the feeling that Nami might be asleep for a while, why don't you go talk to Janna and the others back downstairs in the meanwhile?"
"Uhh… I suppose I can do that."
I make my way back down through the stadium and into the locker room; I seemed to have arrived to early so I take a seat on one the benches while I take a moment to reflect on things, mostly on what the summoner said about talking again later; what did he even want to talk about and how would we meet up again?
"We could meet whenever you want miss."
I feel my skull nearly leap from my composite ooze of a body as his voice comes from within my own mind somehow,
"My apologize miss Mora; when a person of whom I've linked with thinks of communicating with me I am able to connect, in truth I had forgotten we were currently linked."
"Umm okay then… uhh this is kinda freaking me out honestly."
"Once again my sincerest apologizes; though while I have the opportunity I'd like to know if you'd be open to speaking with me again soon?"
"I uhh.. I suppose we could do that..."
"I eagerly await the chance to have a proper conversation with you miss Mora; if you don't mind my saying: your potential fascinates me."
"Uhh thank you?"
"I will remain in the city for the next few days at the Institutes Pilotver branch, one of your friends should be able to show you the way, have a pleasant day miss Mora."
With that my head is left silent save for the whirling torrent of fears and tortured memories I normally have… should I seek a therapist or a mechanic?
Before I can get too existential the doors to the coliseum open swing open with a loud slam making me jump a little, I stand up hoping to greet Janna or even Vi but instead a man clad in what looked like the cloak an aristocrat from upper Piltover would wear but with armor on his forearms and legs and well as one needlessly massive shoulder guard on his right; he had a very stocky build topped by a head with sharp features and short well combed brown hair, I believe the announcer said his name was Jayce?
He looks over me without saying a word before walking over an- "WHAT THE HECK ARE YO-" before I can even finish yelling at him he lets go of my shirt and starts walking away, I glance down perplexed as to what just happen when I notice a smudge o my shirt... wait that's not a smudge; the jerk just penned his name on my shirt… right on Sona's head too… I feel myself getting warmer and my chest moving as though my heart rate had accelerated my teeth instinctively gritting, all of this sounds like anger; I don't think I've ever felt that emotion before.
I try to keep my composure and ask Jayce why he did that to my favorite shirt;
"Excu-
"Look I don't have time to hear this I'm a very busy man and I don't want to waste time I could spend being productive listening to the worthless prattle of yet another fanatical woman."
…
I pull open my briefcase and smack him with a duplicate of his own hammer.
Sona furrowed her brow with as she watched the champions begin to leave the arena, Jayce especially seemed like he wanted out of there as fast as he could hardly keeping himself from a sprint; she hoped he and Mora would be able to avoid one another as their personalities might conflict, she turns to Nami who had sprawled across the empty seats at some point in her sleep; she leans over to prod the marai in hopes of waking her but before she could a blast rings trough the arena as a tall woman with dark red hair and a massive hammer is flung into the arena crashing through the champions of Piltover attempting to leave, a few seconds later Jayce charges through and over his still recovering teammates as a number of blue energy spheres blasts through the foliage…
"Oh dear… Nami wake up Mora is in trouble again!"
Sona mentally slaps herself as she realises Nami can't hear her shouts and instead pushes her onto the floor, the impact of the cold pavement to her cheek wakes Nami up and she flops around for a few seconds before finding her Tidecaller and gathering her wave beneath herself to stand/float, she turns to Sona in hopes of figuring out why she just let her body hit the floor but Sona simply points into the arena; following her prompt Nami peers down and see's an oddly familiar woman attacking Jayce with a hammer identical to his own…
"Gosh-Darnit Mora…"
I switch the hammer to a cannon and fire three quick shots as he rushes towards me, he dodges them by leaping overtop them and bearing down towards me hammer first; I take a page of his and switch the cannon back into a hammer and put as much power into the swing as I can: our hammers collide and we're both knocked back from each other several feet but we both remain undeterred as in near unison we take aim with the cannons and fire at each other; the balls of energy colliding and exploding on impact with a wake that sent me flying again; during my freefall I can't help but wonder if maybe I overreacted to some extent…
I manage to right myself before landing in the river that spans across the arena and I rush towards the center with the educated assumption that would be where Jayce is heading, I burst from the foliage and skid to a halt in the center of the field where sure enough Jayce is standing glancing around looking for me; we lock eyes but neither of us move, instead we stand still and stare at each other, watching, waiting for the other to move, as though this scene wasn't cinematic enough a lone tumble weed blows by as we continue to stare; finally the tension weighs us down and we both lunge at one another once we're within six feet of one another we both leap into the air and swing our hammers with all our mi- why do I feel the sudden urge to dance?
The both of us hit the dirt hard without so much as a glancing blow to one another but we both stand up and start dancing like someone who's pants are needlessly baggy, after a few moments we finally stop dancing but at this point I feel exhausted and fall to my knees, thankfully Jayce does the same.
"Jayce what the heck did you do?"
Janna floats up to us, Sona right alongside her gentle strumming her Etwahl; both of them looking down at us with a mix of disappointment and contempt, mostly directed towards Jayce it seems though,
"Why do you always assume its my fault?!" Jayce prods still panting from exhaustion,
"Because nine out of ten times it is your fault, and frankly Mora doesn't seem like the kind of person to randomly commit acts of aggravated assault, that's Vi's thing."
"All I did was sign her shirt and tell her to leave me alone and she attacked me." Jayce says in a weirdly neutral tone,
"Did she ask you to or did you just assume things and tell her to stop talking when she was trying to question your rude tendencies?"
Jayce goes silent as Sona glances at me, I tap my index finger against my nose in silent response… it occurs to me I could have telepathically spoke to her instead but for some reason thought to use that motion instead… odd.
*sigh* "Lets just agree that this was an incident of failed communication and go our separate ways; I think we've all had quite enough excitement for one day."
With that a bubble splashes down onto me and Nami rolls me away as Janna conjures a small tornado to whisk Jayce away; Nami rolls me outside the stadium and the bubble pops letting me free, I turn to Nami and Sona expecting them to scold me for my behavior which as much as I'd like to deny it I probably deserve it;
"I'm sorry Mora I should have gone with you; I forgot how infuriating Jayce could be."
Wait what?
"So wait, are you not upset with me?" I ask somewhat perplexed at the situation,
"Well I am somewhat but frankly I can't place much of the blame on you; Jayce has a personality that would make even Soraka fly into a fit of rage, in fact he actually has before…" Sona shivers like she was recalling a disturbing event, "So while I don't exactly like what happened I can't say you're the first person who wanted to bash his face in: most people are actually quite surprised by his real personality as he tends to act like someone with actual charisma during matches."
"Well… I'm still sorry for everything I've done today, It seems like I can't keep myself from destroying things while I'm in this city…"
"Mora…" Nami starts with a tone in her voice making clear she wants to console me but I put out my hand;
"I don't know my own strength, my limits, or even my purpose in life; within the last week I've fought pirates, a crazy cop, a jerk with a hammer, and a giant rat, but the only thing I can't seems to win is the one with myself… I keep wrecking things and causing trouble and I really don't want to but I keep getting myself into trouble and forcing someone else to save me…" I tilt my head back and look to the sky hoping to make it harder to see the tears threatening to pour down my face, "I'm tired of being a burden to all of the people I meet and just making trouble for them; that's not a friend that's a curse…"
At this point I can't hide it any longer and I feel twin streams of salty water roll down my face, Nami must have seen me start crying because she comes over and takes my hand, she remains silent but her gentle grasp did help me calm down;
"I wanted to make something of myself, to become someone my parents could be proud of, someone who improves the life of others instead of being a walking apocalypse of inconvenience… I just want to do something right for a change."
I can't bare to look at either Sona or Nami as I feel my face soaked in tears that begin to pool on the ground; slowly being pulled into Nami's wake and she grips my had a little tighter and pulls me into a hug and without even being conscious of the action I end up throwing my arms around her and sobbing, every circuit and wire in my head telling me to stop blubbering like a lost schoolgirl but I can't seem to stop myself; just when I think I can't get any more pathetic I feel Sona gently wrap her arms around me as well and the tears keep pouring…
I wake up in the bed of Ezreal's guest room, a quick glance at a nearby clock informs me its been hours since we left the stadium… I must have passed out again, I begin to shake off the covers when I notice Nami once again curled up on the bed; her chest rising and falling gently, I slide off the bed and drape rest the covers on her and slip out of the house, I start walking down the dimly lit streets as the wind howls between the iron building surrounding me; once a few blocks away from the house I speak to myself in hopes of contacting him again,
"Mister Adaphon are you there?"
"I am miss Mora, something wrong? It's a bit late for someone your age to be up."
"I wanted to talk to you now before I have the chance to get myself into any more trouble, I… that is I…"
I can't bring myself to finish the questions but Adaphon begins again with a reassuring tone;
"I have a feeling I know what you wish to ask of me miss Mora, take all the time you need."
I take a deep breath and turn my gaze skyward and peer into the vast open sky dotted with stars before finishing my request;
"I want to make something of myself, I want to hone my powers and find a real constructive use for them, I want to be more then a problem."
One more deep breath and a glance skyward as the twinkling night gives me the last bit of courage to finally proclaim my intent:
"I want to become a Champion in the League of Legends."
