Get Jinxed: A Tale of Mental Instability and Poor Decisions (Arcane/League of Legends)

I took a deep breath and steeled myself to just ignore everyone. Since when did I care what a bunch of Piltie snobs thought about me anyway? Let them stare if they wanted, I was gonna get a sandwich.

While we waited for our food, Jayce wrote a few more equations onto one of the napkins and passed it over to me. "Can you solve all of those in your head, or is there a limit?"

I looked them over and chuckled. "You just really wanna find a way to beat me so I'll admit your way of solving math problems is right, don't you?"

Jayce waved down a waiter and put in our orders. "Not exactly. It's great that you can do equations in your head, but once we start dealing with multiple variables or calculating differentials you'll hit a limit. Intuitively figuring things out is great, but it also means you haven't built up a lot of the foundation. You skip straight to the end instead of learning how to go through all the steps to get there."

I shrugged. "Why does that matter as long as I get the right answer?"

"Because math and engineering are all about building on foundations." Jayce pointed to the last of the equations he'd written down. "You can't just look at something like '∫ x8​/(1 – x3​)1/3​ dx' and tell me what the right answer is, can you?"

I stared at the equation for nearly a minute before sighing and shaking my head. "Not yet, but maybe if I learn a few more of the rules..."

"The problem is, you don't even know where to start on it," Jayce explained. "Because you always skipped to step five, you never had to learn how to do steps one through four. Math and engineering are all about the process of building upon what you already know. That's not to say your intuitive grasp of these things isn't useful, it lets you make leaps and spot things I overlooked, but it has limits. No matter how big your brain is, eventually there's just too much going on for anyone to conceptualize all the factors at once. Not to mention the more methodical approach helps us communicate with other people in our field."

The waiter bringing me a glass of some weird yellow liquid interrupted me. At first I was worried we might've gotten some bad water, but they wouldn't have stuff like that in Piltover, right? I took a cautious sip and discovered it was some weirdly sweet and sour stuff. Jayce grinned over at me. "The lemonade here is pretty good, isn't it?"

I was too busy emptying my glass to answer him. Besides, it bought me a little more time to think about what he'd just said. "I guess I get it. Like, all these fancy equations are about making sure everyone else can follow what we're thinking, right? It's like how if I told you that the thingamabobber isn't working right with the doohickey you wouldn't know what I was talking about, but if I learned all the proper names for the parts you'd get it."

Jayce smiled and nodded along, stopping to order some more 'lemon-aid' for me before he answered. "That's it. Whether it's proper names for different parts or mathematical formulas, it's all about creating a common language for us to use to solve problems together. I know it can be a bit boring to learn the process, but we'll get a lot more done once we can use the same language to discuss our problems and solutions. Right now all we can do is hope that something I'm working on clicks for you and you get a flash of intuition. The more you understand about what I'm doing, the more chances you have to figure out new solutions."

That all made sense, but there was one obvious problem with that plan. "How long is it gonna take for me to do all that foundation building and language learning? Because if I'm only gonna be working with you for two weeks..."

Jayce's face fell a bit. "Oh, right. Well, let's just keep working on that for now, and when the two weeks are up we'll see where we stand. Considering how quickly you're picking up algebra, we probably aren't going to be working at the usual school system speeds, plus we can stay focused on what you need to know rather than spending time on...literature." He spoke that last word as if it was some kind of dirty word like shit or fuck.

He cleared his throat and smiled at me. "Besides, there's no reason we have to stop after two weeks if we're having fun and getting good work done. As long as you and your father are okay with it, we might be able to work something out. There could be a lot of good opportunities for you up here, and I'd hate to see your talents go to waste in the undercity."

Why would my talents go to waste if stayed in Zaun? There were plenty of good things I could do there. Before I could point that out our sandwiches finally arrived, and I completely forgot about bringing that up in the face of delicious food. Why waste time arguing about whether Piltover or Zaun was better when there was a sandwich?

Besides, he probably didn't mean it in a bad way. Jayce was a Piltie, but he seemed like a nice guy. He probably just looked at how dirty and poor Zaun was compared to Piltover and assumed I'd want to stick around here. Why wouldn't I, when they had sandwiches and lemon-aid and tons of cool stuff to build with way better tools than I could ever get back home?

But ... Zaun was still home. Would Jayce ever understand that?

---

After lunch we headed back to his workshop, alternating between messing around with his gizmos a bit more and another round of math. Learning to do things the slow way wasn't that bad once I got used to it. It was basically just writing down everything I was already doing in my head. It took extra time, but if that was the worst of it I wouldn't complain.

After what didn't feel like very long at all, Vi was knocking on the door to pick me up. I could've made it back across the bridge fine on my own, but I guess as long as we were both here it wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, even if sometimes she was a big dummy about stuff she was still my sister, so walking back with her was nice.

Or at least, it was until she started talking. "Can you believe that girl just spent all day eyeballing me? Like what, did she think I was gonna sneak off to rob somebody if I didn't have her staring down her snobby nose at me the whole time? I swear, if she keeps doing that for the full two weeks I'm gonna end up popping her one and getting slapped with even more time. Probably with her still staring at me the whole time."

I rolled my eyes as she kept on complaining about the fancy Piltie girl. I didn't like Caitlyn all that much either, on general principle, but she didn't get under my skin the way she did with Vi. Then again, maybe I'd hate her too if I spent all day dealing with her instead of hanging out with Jayce. He wasn't perfect, but we got to spend all day doing my favorite stuff, learning about it, and with him teaching me new ways to talk and learn about it. It certainly sounded like I was doing a lot better than she was.

Vi lightly tugged at the sack hanging off my shoulder. "What's with all the books, anyway? Since Jayce saw you carrying them off I know you didn't steal 'em. Don't tell me he sent you home with extra reading material?"

I shrugged. "He says if I can get some work done in my off hours we can jump straight into new stuff when I get back tomorrow." I grinned and pulled one of the smaller ones out. "Plus there are a couple of other ones that're just neat. This one just has a ton of different blueprints with all the parts labeled, so I can figure out how stuff works and I'll know the real names instead of calling all the parts thingamabobber and whatchamacallit."

Vi looked the book over with that glazed look in her eye that always seemed to come up when I was talking about my gizmos. "Fancy book. And he's okay just loaning all of those to you after we tried to rob his place?"

"Uh-huh!" I grinned and put it back in my bag. "I guess he figures the quicker I learn stuff, the faster we can get to work on his new inventions. We don't have that long working together, so he wants to make the most of it." I didn't mention how he'd hinted about keeping me on after the two weeks we'd agreed to. Vi wouldn't get it. After all, she was doing dumb cleanup work in a park while an annoying Piltie watched her, instead of getting to learn about cool new stuff. "Too bad we didn't we didn't rob the house of some topsider who was all about studying the science of punching people. Then you could've learned cool stuff instead of me."

Vi snorted and patted my head. "I don't think there's any science involved in it, sis. You just make a fist, then hit the other guy really hard." She paused a moment, then shook her head. "Well okay, there's lots of technique involved. You gotta know how to hit or you'll end up hurting your hand more than the other guy. How to stand so you can block, dodge, or hit as fast and hard as possible, and what kinda guard to have so you don't leave yourself open." She paused and rubbed the back of her head. "Okay, so I guess there is some kinda science to it all, but it's not exactly the kinda thing you could put into a book."

"Couldn't you just have drawings of the different stances and stuff?" I pointed out.

Vi shrugged. "I suppose, but drawings on the page telling me how to do stuff wouldn't be nearly as good as having Vander work with me. I guess something written down is better than nothing, but eventually you're gonna have to start punching and dodging for real. Vander always told me he could try to train me but there's no substitute for actually going into the streets, getting punched in the face, and hitting someone back twice as hard."

As we crossed the bridge back into Zaun I couldn't help pointing out the obvious problem. "I don't think my gadgets can punch me in the face."

My sister snickered. "Like you couldn't invent a gadget that punches people in the face if you wanted to."

She had a point. There was that boxing machine in the old arcade Vi liked to use. I could probably make something like that, but give it legs or treads so it could go after people, and design it to hit hard enough to hurt instead of just being a training aid. The power source would be the trickiest part, but maybe if Jayce and I figured out how to make this Hextech stuff work I could use that to solve the—

Vi bumped my shoulder, knocking me out of all my planning. "Little Man incoming."

I immediately started scanning the crowd, grinning when I spotted Ekko. Until I'd met Jayce he was the only person I could really talk tech with. I hadn't had a chance to see him since...

Oh. Right. It had been a tip from him that got us into the mess in the first place. Judging by the sheepish look on his face as he approached us, he was thinking about that too. "Vi, Powder." He rubbed the back of his head as he approached us. "I, uh, heard about what happened. Sorry you guys got pinched running a job I put you onto. The place seemed high on money and low on sense, figured it would be an easy job even if it was topside."

Vi waved his apology off. "No big deal. It's not like it was your fault we got caught."


"So whose fault was it?" I muttered under my breath. Or I thought I'd muttered it under my breath, but from the way Vi flinched when I said it I realized I'd been just a bit too loud.

Vi sighed and gave me her Patient Big Sister look. "It was nobody's fault, Pow-Pow. Sometimes things just go wrong."

"Yeah, sometimes you just get unlucky," Ekko agreed.

"Yeah, sure." I wouldn't look at either of them. "Unlucky." Why not just come out and tell me that I Jinxed everything to my face? They're obviously both thinking it.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Ekko loudly cleared his throat. "Oh, hey! Actually, I'm glad I caught you two. There's some stuff going down at Vander's right now, so you might wanna find somewhere else to hang out until it settles."

Vi immediately tensed up. "What kinda stuff?"

Ekko shook his head. "Benzo said it was a community meeting kinda thing. Some Enforcers went and caused trouble at Babette's, and everyone wants to figure out what we're gonna do about it."

I frowned at the news. "Enforcers aren't supposed to come to the Lanes, what would they be doing somewhere like Babette's?"

Vi scoffed and shook her head. "If they were going to Babette's doubt they were here as Enforcers, or even in uniform. Lemme guess, one of them decided to be a bastard, and when the bouncers tried to throw him out he started trouble?"

Ekko shrugged. "I didn't hear any of the details, but I'd bet it was something like that. Just thought I you might wanna ... I dunno, go hang out or get dinner or something, instead of going back and finding yourself in the middle of that mess."

Vi shrugged and cracked her neck. "If someone wants to start trouble in the Lanes, I figure it's my business too." She paused and her eyes flicked over to me. "But maybe that's not something I need to deal with today."

I knew what she really meant, even if she wouldn't say it. She didn't want me to have to deal with it. It was Babette's, after all. I knew the working guys and gals there did 'adult stuff' but when I'd asked Vander what kinda adult stuff he just said he'd tell me when I was older, then poured a big beer for himself. I did kinda want to know what was going on, but if it was that bad Vander would probably just make me leave anyway. Hanging out with Vi and Ekko could be fun, though.

---

Current Stability: -0.5
Current Willpower: 1

No Issue Rolls for this Choice

[ ] Head Back to The Last Drop

[ ] Go Get Dinner with Vi and Ekko

[ ] Go To The Old Arcade with Vi and Ekko

[ ] Write-in (Other Activities with Vi and Ekko)