Crescendo, Chapter III:
Back to square one
Jinx leaned back on the barstool she was sitting on, relishing in the feeling of a full stomach. Ricar, which was apparently the owners name, had brought out leftovers from the evening before that he presumably had prepared to be his own lunch. She didn't feel too bad about that though, the guy certainly wasn't going to starve anytime soon. He also didn't seem affected, watching her eat, leaning against the backside of the counter with his arms crossed and a smile on his face. It was a bit off putting, really.
"Well I'm glad to see you enjoyed the food, you must've been starving given the speed you devoured it in." he said with a laugh, to which she gave an innocent shrug.
"Eh, wasn't the worst I ever had." It had been fantastic, but he didn't need to know that. She still didn't quite buy the friendly act he put on and she wasn't willing to give him any more reason to think of this as putting her in his debt. She had watched Silco play this game for years, and it had always started with simple things like helping people out with food or shelter, and before they knew what had happened their lifes belonged to him. She wouldn't be falling for anything like that though and if this guy thought she was gonna owe him anything he had another thing coming for him. For the time being he didn't show any malicious intent though, simply shaking his head at her antics while cleaning up the plates, still with this annoying knowing smile on his face.
"I do take pride in my food not being the worst anyone has ever tasted, so I'm happy to keep that streak running."
"Seems like a low bar to set for yourself, but sure." He chuckled at that, because of course he did. She could probably tell this guy she was planning to massacre his neighbours and he'd chuckle as a response.
"Sometimes not putting too much pressure on yourself can make life a lot easier. But enough about my average cooking skills. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
She opened her mouth to tell him no reflexively, but paused. She did originally come in here to ask for information so she might as well do that still. Her current knowledge both about where she was and how this place worked was next to none after all. So instead she took a moment before answering:
"I'm kinda just passing through and was looking for a place to get some simple equipment, my old stuff got busted recently. You happen to know a place that could help me out?" It was an oversimplification of course but that was the general idea, stock up here as quickly as possible before disappearing off into the wilds.
"You probably did come through the market street to get here, most essential things you should be able to pick up there. That probably won't be cheap though." Ah, so he did rightfully assume she had no money.
"Right, you guys don't happen to have any place for machinery or tinkering do you?" He looked her in confusion at the question, but answered nonetheless.
"I don't believe so, there's a guy from Piltover that comes over regularly to check on the airship platform over here but that's about it. Is that where you're trying to go?" She grimaced at the thought of returning.
"Nah, screw that. Besides, I heard things got pretty out of hand there recently, wouldn't wanna get mixed up in all that chaos." she said, doing her best to keep a straight face while ignoring Mylo and Claggor glaring at her incrediously.
"Ah yes, that's true of course, things there seem to be somewhat unsafe at the moment."
He fell silent for a moment, presumably trying to think of other options. Eventually he spoke up again:
"You could try with one of the blacksmiths in town, or our local builder. However, if you like to tinker your best shot might be the garison." Jinx raised an eyebrow at that, although she had seen it coming. The entire place seemed insanely militaristic so it made sense that the military would also be the driving force behind any technological advancements and would therefore be looking for inventors and the like. More so than some random blacksmith or builder anyway.
"Yeah, sorry, I don't really want to get recruited. Don't think I could pull off the whole red and gold ensemble." she attempted to deflect, but Ricar laughed the comment off and pushed on.
"I'm sure you could find some simple repair or maintenance jobs that wouldn't require you to become part of the military. There are tons of civilians working with or alongside the army without actually being part of it. You might have to watch your tongue a bit though, they take their jobs very seriously and don't like being ridiculed." he said with a small wink. Okay, that sounded difficult but doable, and she had found no reason to believe these people knew who she was, or even cared in the first place. And sure, it'd probably be boring as hell, but she clearly needed some way of affording her equipment. Yet she hesitated. She had fought and shot noxian soldiers not even a week ago, and now she was meant to work with them? She felt no sympathy towards those she killed, unlike in some other instances these guys clearly had it coming. The question was would Jinx be able to pull herself together and not end up wreaking havoc. She giggled at the idea, more so from nervousness than joy, her left hand twitching slightly.
Ricar, seeming to sense her discomfort raised his hands, surrendering the point.
"Hey no need to get jumpy, nobody's going to force you to do that if you don't want to. Just give it some thought and if you do end up wanting to give it a shot, feel free to talk to me. I can try and arrange something as soon as you give the word, alright?" Jinx really couldn't decide whether this man tried to manipulate her or was just a good-hearted simpleton. She had little to no experience with the latter as they usually ended up dead fairly quickly where she was from.
"Alright, I'll think about it. Is there any reason that there are so many soldiers in this town anyway?"
He blinked a few times at the question before laughing, stepping away and returning with two cups and something to drink. He set it all down on the table, filled both cups and took a big gulp out of one before speaking up again.
"You really don't know much about Noxus, do you? I'll be happy to give you a small history lesson. However!" He made a pause for dramatic effect. "I couldn't help but notice that you didn't give me your name when I introduced myself."
She rolled with her eyes. If you noticed it maybe take a hint and don't ask again. But she supposed she should give him something to call her by. She had thought about what name to go by while she was here the night before. Having the name Jinx bounce around this close to Piltover could retroactively ruin everything she was trying to achieve here. She could think of another name sure, but she really felt like she didn't need yet another alias to haunt her. Back to square one it was.
"The name's Powder." she said and immediately felt like she made a mistake. Reminding herself that it was only for as long as she was in this town and making a promise to rid herself of the name for good afterwards, she straightened herself and looked back at Ricar, who grinned at her like the idiot he was.
"A pleasure to meet you Powder. Now, let's get you caught up on the glorious history of Noxus. You see, it all started almost a thousand years ago, when..."
Jinx had a feeling she'd be sitting here for a while.
The planks creaked under the feet of the sailors rushing off to secure the ship on the landing stage. It was a sight to behold as the three-master had entered the harbour, the size of the ship almost double that of the second largest present. A small crowd had already gathered, filled with curiosity about the new arrivals. That was to be expected, it had been a while since this small settlement had seen any visitors from the Immortal Bastion. And while the ship they arrived on wasn't one of the new indestructable metal beasts, it was still very much a warship. Rumors about why they were here would probably spread like a wildfire.
Through all the people rushing back and forth there was one person slowly walking towards the harbour, seemingly unaffected by the chaos around her. Her long black hair was swinging in asingular braid with every confident step she took towards the town. The impact of her dark combat boots on the wooden planks slowed as she approached the gathered townsfolk, that looked at her with a mixture of worry and awe. She was more than used to this kind of response and only stopped in front of them for a brief moment, a confident smile on her face.
"Don't you worry people, we ain't here for any of you. Just gonna do what we do best and we'll be out of your hair in no time, eh?"
With that, and without wasting time waiting for any kind of response she moved on, the crowd parting under murmurs. She had layed her accent on thick to give these people some more to gossip about, let them talk more about her than about her mission. People were so simple. But then she was no better, relishing in the attention. She chuckled for a moment, the afternoon sun warming her skin as she continued further into the small town.
It had been a confusing assignment that brought her here to say the least, not least because Indari hat been incredibly vague about her actual target. It wasn't until after her trip to Qualthala that she was told the weapon she was hunting was actually a person. Not that she minded the secrecy, on the contrary. Being surprised at what you find made the hunt so much more fun! It did however make finding her target more time consuming, three times had she traversed the continent now, chasing after this mystery weapon and the trail of destruction they left behind. Then suddenly Indari told her she knew without a doubt that this weapon would come to the small town of Krexor and she needed to leave as quickly as possible, even put aside a whole freaking war-ship for her personal use.
So now here she was, with no information as to what to look for or do, other than wait and trust in her old captain. Or rather her captains source, which did make a difference. While she trusted Indari with her life, there was no telling whether she herself even knew all the details. If she was anybody else she would probably be worried by the fact that she had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. As it stood, she was ecstatic about diving headfirst into the unknown. The only thing irritating her was that she didn't know how long she would have to wait here. What if she had to stay in this backwater for weeks with nothing to do? She shivered in terror from the thought alone.
Nah, the captain wouldn't screw me like that, she knows I need my adrenaline rush.
As she was thinking this she headed straight towards the towns little market street. She was supposed to report in to the garison immediately upon arrival, but she simply had to check out the place Darius had told her about. She'd known the grumpy general for a while and not a single time had he come this close to not frowning as when he told her about the "shithole of a tavern" he and his brother would go to as children to mooch some food. She wasn't sure what was harder to imagine, the Hand of Noxus as a helpless little child or someone within the empire actively helping the weak. As far as she had learned Noxus valued one thing and one thing only. She could count on one hand the amount of acts of kindness and good will she'd seen in her time here, so this was enough to peak her curiosity. Besides, if the guy running the place was still the same, maybe she could squeeze some embarassing stories out of him about weak little Darius. Laughing at her own joke, she came to a halt in front of a rundown place that seemed to fit the description. A somewhat lopsided sign hung above the door, with the name "Guillotine" written on it. She shook her head, the hint towards him was so obvious they might've as well named it "Hand of Noxus". On second thought though, that would've gotten them killed for sure.
Loud laughter from inside the building pulled her out of her musings. Truth be told, she hadn't expected the place to be opened already, these types of taverns typically opened when the soldiers started pouring into the cities from the neighbouring garrisons. Pushing the door open she was met with the familiar smell of a soldiers tavern and took a deep breath. Home, sweet home. There were only two people in the place when she entered, a small hooded figure sitting rather slumped by the bar and a heavyset man standing behind said bar gesturing wildly before looking up at the sound of the door.
"Ah, my apologies, we don't open until..." he froze mid sentence when he saw her, the other figure slowly turning their head in her direction as well. To his credit, it only took him a few seconds to continue, she had left people speechless for way longer.
"As I live and breathe, the Desert Rose herself, in my humble establishment." For a second she thought he would fall on one knee behind his counter, but he remained standing, slightly bowing.
"It is such an honour to welcome you to this fine town, Lady Samira!" She waved the comment away with a grin.
"Hah, the name's just Samira, never been much of a lady. And I don't want to take up too much of your time, this place was recommended to me by a" she paused for a moment, thinking of the right description "friend from work, so I thought I'd pay it a visit while I'm here, eh?"
The man beamed at her, a tear sliding down his cheek, while the other figure groaned silently and began to get up.
"Oh but of course, it would be my greatest pleasure to serve you, can I get you anything?"
By this point Samira had stepped up to the counter, keeping an eye on the hooded figure that seemed to hide their features from her, all she could make out were a few strands of blue and pink hair. Could this be her target? It seemed like a longshot to just run into them here of all places, but she shouldn't rule it out. Her right hand stayed on her hip as she leaned against the counter casually, conveniently close to her gun and half turned towards the - as she could now see - young woman that seemed in a hurry to leave.
"How about a round of your strongest drinks for all of us and I'll get out of your hair? You must be busy with preparing for the evening, I'm sure this place will be packed." She looked straight at the hooded woman the entire time with an almost predatory grin. The tavern owner replied something but she didn't listen, her focus solely on the potential target. Slowly the other womans head turned towards her and Samira felt excitement rush through her. She looked like a mess, unhealthily pale skin, dark purple eyes with even darker circles and veins around them and thin enough that Samira could probably snap her in two. Yet when she faced her, there was no fear in those eyes, no respect or awe, not even a shred of hesitation. There was a challenge in those eyes. Whoever this was, she also was clearly used to being the most dangerous person in the room. Samiras hand inched closer to her gun Blaze, the strangers eyes following her movement. She could see the younger woman's left hand twitch slightly towards her own hip under her coat and her own hand gripped Blaze, the grin on her face evergrowing.
Three glasses slammed down on the table as the man with no talent of reading the room returned with a huge smile.
"Here we go, three glasses of Bilgewater's finest brandy. Been keeping it in the back for a special occasion. You can say what you like about Bilgewater, but they know their liquor, am I right."
The younger woman blinked a few times, her hand moving away from her side before finally breaking eye contact. She all but grabbed the small glass and, through the owners protests chugged the entire thing down in one gulp, before starting to simultaneously cough and retch.
"It tastes like wolfpiss and burns like acid. Why would you drink that voluntarily?" she gasped out between coughs, earning her chuckles from the other two.
"I did try to warn you, they like their liquor flamable in Bilgewater."
"Quite smart really." Samira chimed in. "Easier to get drunk and usable as a makeshift weapon." With that she toasted with the tavern owner and chugged her glass, enjoying the burn down her throat while ignoring the death stare from the woman in front of her.
The following minutes were mostly filled by the extremely talkative tavernowner – Ricar as he introduced himself. Samira enjoyed the smalltalk, all the while keeping an eye on the blue haired mess next to her. The tension from before had all but disappeared, yet there was something both suspicious and intruiging about the younger woman. However, sitting in a bar early, wearing a hood and "being dangerous" wasn't exactly a crime, not even in Noxus, so she could hardly attack and/or question her if she didn't do anything to warrant it. Well, she could of course, but while she was in a habit of actively looking for fights, she would not just blindly attack someone based on a feeling.
She doesn't appear to be an immediate threat so it'll be best to move on, they're gonna be pissed off at me already at the garrison.
Besides, should she be an issue down the line Samira would enjoy chasing her down all the more. With that in mind she turned towards the woman in question.
"Well it was fun meeting you Ricar and..." she looked expectantly at the young woman, who stared back defiantly.
"Oh, her name is Powder, forgive her, she is a bit shy." Ricar helped out, earning him a glare from said Powder that he either ignored or simply didn't notice. Samira smiled at the childish antics.
"Of course she is." she said with a wink to the girl in question, earning her an eyeroll. "But I really gotta take my leave, I'm sure they expected me a while ago. No rest for the wicked, eh?"
With that she tossed a couple of coins on the counter and made to leave, tuning out Ricars rambling farewell as she once again noticed a pair of purple eyes staring at her. Or, more precisely, her weapons.
"Like what you see?" she asked Powder with a cocky grin and an arched eyebrow, tapping one of her guns. For the first time she seemed to get a response out of the younger woman, who grinned back.
"Eh, I've seen better. Come back when you use actual weapons, not these poorly designed peashooters or the overcompensator 3000." she said, pointing at her two guns and the massive blade on her back respectively. From the sounds of it Ricar was suffering from a heart attack, gasping for air loudly. Samira simply laughed however.
"Kind of hard to take this critique seriously from someone who's running around like a shaved Drüvask, no?"
"At least my boots aren't five times as long as my pants."
"It's called style darling, I can teach you about it if you'd like."
"Ugh, I'd rather down the rest of that wolfpiss and -" at this point Ricar apparently had regained his consciousness enough to intervene.
"I am so sorry Miss Samira, Powder here had a rough time recently and is simply looking for work, please don't take offense at her statements." Powder rounded on the tavern owner - did her eyes just flash?
"You really need to learn to shut your mouth sometimes." she all but growled at him.
"Work, eh? What you looking for then, mystery woman?"
With a sigh the younger woman turned back to face her. There was a hint of hesitation before she answered.
"I'm good with machines, inventions and weapons. Was thinking of maybe making some money here before setting out. All I had kinda got destroyed."
Well that was more information than she had got this entire time. It also sounded honest, if somewhat vague. Samira smiled at the girl winningly, while beginning to head for the exit.
"Well why didn't you just say so to begin with? You obviously have to improve my weapons then, get them out of the peashooter status, yeah? And in return I can make you at least somewhat presentable, it's a win win!"
Powder stared at her, eyes wide "No way in -" but Samira didn't let the younger woman argue.
"Great, I'll see you tomorrow morning at the garrison then, don't be late or I will find you."
And with that vague threat she finally stepped out of the Guillotine and slammed the door shut on the shocked arguing she heard as she left only made her smile wider. Well, that visit had given her more than she had hoped. The girl, as messed up as she might have looked certainly had something interesting about her. If she did turn out to be her target or a threat in general then keeping her closeby would make it easier to find and stop her. If she did run away she would have a headstart of less then a day, so tracking her down would be , Samira thought as she finally approached the garrison, if nothing else she would certainly keep things entertaining.
Authors note:
Hello again, thank you for making it all the way to the end of chapter three. For everyone that watched Arcane but isn't playing League or knows much about the lore, I will try to introduce characters in a way that no further knowledge is necessary. And for all you Runeterra-Lore enjoyers out there, I know a fair bit about the lore myself but definitely far from all of it. That means I will try to keep things according to lore while adjusting to the "new" lore from Arcane. There might be some contradictions every now and then, I'll try to keep them to a minimum though.
In case anyone might be wondering, Jinx is very much meant as the main character of this story, but I want to give screentime to the other characters I introduce from the game or lore and let them be an actual part of the story instead of just tag-alongs.
That being said I'm excited to bring the story along further and am thankful for everyone who partakes in the journey. Have a great day and I will hopefully see you next chapter! Also obvious disclaimer, I do not own Arcane, League of Legends or any of their characters, they belong to Riot Games.
