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

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    • Scheduled vote count started by Chengar Qordath on Dec 19, 2024 at 5:35 AM, finished with 42 posts and 31 votes.
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    • I wonder if going to eat would have Powder feeling guilty over getting to eat real food and now realizing how bad Zaunite diets are. Got to hope we can hook Ekko up with this sweet social climbing deal too. Maybe talk shop and get him an introduction to Jayce.
     
    Its Christmas, Christmas eve, and almost New Years. This entire site has been mostly quiet because of IRL matters likely taking precedence. Relax. Give it a week and then ask.
     
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    A Violent Kind of Peace 3
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    • A Violent Kind of Peace 3​

    [X] Go To The Old Arcade with Vi and Ekko

    Today had been … a lot. A good lot, but still a lot. I really didn't need to go back home and hear Vander dealing with another problem right now. Hanging out at the arcade sounded like a lot more fun.

    Of course, once we got there the place had broken down again. Probably another short, or one of the parts I'd tinkered with last time broke. I sighed and got to work messing around with the mess of wires. Part of me couldn't help wondering what Jayce would make of everything I'd done. Probably try to talk to me about how I could make it all neater and more organized. Which sounded like a waste of time, until I spent ten minutes making sure I still knew which lines went where, and another ten minutes making sure nobody messed up the system. I guess having all the wires neatly bundled up and labeled would make this quicker if you didn't count all the time I'd spend organizing that in the first place.

    Vi was fine just sitting back and waiting for me to finish, but Ekko insisted on tagging along. Not that I minded the company, but at least it gave me someone to talk to while I worked and fetch tools for me. He did ask a few silly questions, though. "Powder, is that wiring being held together with chewing gum?"

    "Yup." I didn't have all the fancy equipment that Jayce had topside, so sometimes I had to improvise with what I could get. "It looks like it's still holding, so it's fine." I gave it a cautious sniff. "It smells like it was Demacian Tangor. That's one of my favorite flavors."

    "Don't eat that!" Ekko blurted out. "It's been sitting there getting covered in dirt and grime for who knows how long."

    I rolled my eyes. "I wasn't gonna, I'm not crazy."

    Ekko frowned at me and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You were sniffing it and talking about how it was your favorite flavor!"

    "I sniffed it 'cause I wanted to know what flavor it was," I shot back. "Doesn't mean I was gonna eat it. Gross."

    "You're gross." Ekko tried to glare at me, but his heart wasn't in it. After a minute he shifted gears entirely. "These wires are a rat's nest."

    "Yeah, yeah, I'll work on cleaning 'em up someday." I scoffed. "Soon as I can go buy a few miles of fresh copper wiring for everything. Besides, I have a system."

    "No, I mean they're literally a rat's nest." Ekko pointed out to a pair of beady red eyes in the middle of one particularly thick tangle. "I bet they chewed through one of the wires, and that's why everything stopped working."

    "Oh. Yeah, probably." I walked up to the nest. "Shoo, get outta here." The rats hissed at me and ran away, letting me get to work on my inspection. "Looks like you were right, they chewed through it. I'm gonna need more gum. Let's go with blue prickleberry flavor this time, and don't throw away the wrapper, I need the foil."

    "I thought you liked…" Ekko trailed off and shook his head. "Wait, don't tell you're using different flavors of gum to identify wires."

    I snickered. "I told you I have a system."

    A few minutes later the wires had been freshly patched and were up and running until the next time they broke. After a quick, "Nice job, Powder," Vi immediately got to work trying to beat her old high score on the boxing machine, while I went to the old shooting range with Ekko. The last time I'd tried the boxing machine I couldn't even make it onto the scoreboard, and Ekko was still too short to even use it. The shooting range didn't care about that kinda thing.

    "Eventually this place is gonna be more gum wrappers and quick fixes than anything else," Ekko pointed out after we finished the first round. "All the sugar in that gum is probably just gonna make the rats chew on things more."

    "But I got it working for today." I knew Ekko was probably right, but that was a problem for Future Powder. Until I could get something better than foil wrappers to patch frayed wires and gum to insulate them there wasn't much point in thinking about better ways to fix it all.

    Though I'd bet Jayce could afford all the stuff we'd need to really fix the place up. I wonder if I could talk him into that? He'd gotten me a nice sandwich from that one rich people place, he'd probably buy me some other stuff if I asked. At the very least I could make a case for a good set of tools to work on my projects. Or if Vander was right about him wanting to hire me to work for him, I could use my own money to buy stuff.

    After I'd beat him again on the range Ekko grinned back at me. "I'm glad you and Vi are okay. We all got really scared when we heard you got pinched."

    "It wasn't that bad." I'd been pretty scared too, but I definitely wasn't gonna admit that in front of Ekko. "Besides, it all worked out in the end."

    "It worked out for you," Vi grunted out in between punches. "You get to spend all day with another tech nerd geeking out over your gadgets. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with the world's snootiest, most stuck-up and stick up her ass…" She threw a thoughtful look at the boxing machine. "Hey, Powder, you're good with art. If I get you some purple do you think you could put her face on the machine? I bet that'd be just what I need to get a new high score."

    I couldn't resist the opportunity to needle her a little. "Wow, Vi. You spent all day with her, and that still wasn't enough for you? You want me to draw her face so you can keep staring at it after you're done with work? Don't tell me you liiiike her…"

    "I wanna see her face so punch it, not…" Vi growled and shook her head. "When did you become such a brat?!"

    Vi tried to pull me into a headlock for noogies, but I saw it coming and dodged outta her grip with a giggle. "I wonder what you two spent all day doing at the park? Vi and the Piltie Girl sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I—"

    "Ekko, if I kill my sister will you help me toss the body down a mineshaft?"

    Ekko immediately held up his hands and stepped back. "I'm staying outta this one."

    I pouted. "I thought you said you liked me…"

    "Yeah, but Vi's way scarier than you," Ekko whispered back.

    "No fair." I would've said more, but I saw Vi coming for me and had to start running before she could grab me.


    We wound up barely getting back before it was so late we would've gotten in trouble with Vander. I'd hoped that would mean everyone else was gone, but The Last Drop didn't close down until way past my bedtime. There were still a few of the usual regulars hanging around, but everyone was being real quiet and Vander wasn't behind the bar. That wasn't too weird when things were quiet, but something about the situation felt wrong. This wasn't the kind of quiet where everyone was just keeping to themselves. There was a nervous sort of tension in the air, and people sneaking looks towards the stairs leading up to Vander's office.

    "Something's up," Vi echoed my own private thoughts, only to immediately take them in the complete opposite direction with her next remark. "Let's check it out."

    Personally I didn't want to get involved in whatever was going on that had all the other people in the bar feeling nervous, but Vi grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the stairs before I could figure out how to say that. Once we started getting close to Vander's office door I could hear voices, Vander and someone else.

    They were loud enough that I could make out the words pretty clearly despite the closed door. "What do you want me to do, Vander? I said I'd deal with this." It took me a minute to place the woman's deep, raspy tones. That Enforcer who'd showed up when Vi and I got pinched. Wasn't her name Grayson or something?

    I tried peeking through the keyhole, and after shifting around a bit managed to find an angle where I could see Vander's face. He looked ... tired. "What I want is justice. You're telling me that you'll talk to your people and make sure nothing like this happens again. If they'd been in a topside bar and left a girl with two black eyes and a busted lip and broke a bouncer's arm on their way out there'd be consequences. You're not even gonna take away their badges after hearing what they did?"

    "You know it's not that simple." I heard Grayson let out a loud sigh. "If I tried to fire every Enforcer who got too rough with Zaunites, I wouldn't have a department left."

    "You say that like it's a reason to keep them around," Vander scoffed. "You ask me, that sounds like a damn good reason to clean house. If you know how bad most of your department is, why keep them around?"

    Grayson let out a bitter, humorless laugh. "I think you misunderstand. If I tried to do that it wouldn't be me cleaning house, it would be the Council removing me. Salo, Bolbok, and Hoskel would love an excuse to replace me with an attack dog who'd just follow orders or turn more of a blind eye to some of their questionable activities. A lecture might not be good enough, but half the people they'd replace me with would probably congratulate those officers for reminding you Zaunites who's in charge."

    "So that's it?" Vander growled. "You're not good enough, but the alternative would be even worse? What do we get out of this?"

    Grayson stood up and planted her hands on Vander's desk. "What we both get is that we keep the peace. That's what we agreed to years ago: you help me deal with the worst parts of Zaun, and I keep the Enforcers out of your backyard instead of chasing down every single petty criminal. I know it's not perfect, but we both know what happens if that peace breaks down."

    Vander sighed and shook his head. "Your people come down here, beat mine up, and all they get for it is a talking to. If that's peace, it's a violent kind of peace."

    "Should I arrest them?" Grayson shot back. "Assuming that isn't enough to get me fired, or any prosecutor would actually take the case to trial instead of just quietly burying it, how do you think that would go? They'll all back each other up with their testimony, and no jury in Piltover is going to believe a Zaunite whore and tattooed thug over half a dozen of our officers."

    "It's not that they won't believe," Vander growled back. "It's worse. They'll believe her. They just won't care." He scoffed. "The only way we'll ever get justice against the Enforcers is in the streets of Zaun."

    Grayson stood up and slammed her hands down on Vander's desk. "What do you want me to do, hand my people over to a fucking lynch mob?"

    "What's going on?" Vi tried to nudge me out of the way so she could see through the keyhole now. "Is that bluebelly trying to start a fight with Vander? Should I get in there and kick her ass? It sure sounds like somebody needs to do it!"

    "Hey, quit it!" I tried shoving her back, but I couldn't make any progress against all her big dumb muscle. I still hadn't gotten her away when the door suddenly snapped open, revealing Grayson and Vander standing in it, staring down at us. Vander sighed and started massaging his forehead. "Girls."

    "I see your daughters are as energetic as ever." A hint of a dry smile flickered across Grayson's face before she turned back to Vander. "It's fine, we were done here." She reached into her pocket, and Vi tensed up before we realized she was just taking out a bag of coins that she tossed over to Vander. "Make sure that gets to the girl and the bouncer. It should be enough to cover a doctor and a few weeks off work, plus some extra to spare."

    Vander took the money but sighed and shook his head. "You don't really think you can fix this just by paying some blood money, do you? Paying for a doctor's a nice gesture, but it doesn't unbreak that boy's arm."

    "I know it doesn't fix everything, but it's all I can do." With that said she strode past us, putting on her rebreather and heading out the door.

    Once she was gone Vander's attention returned to us. "Powder, Vi, glad you're back. How much did you overhear?"

    "Enough." Vi glowered up at him. "So what happens now? Will you take the payoff and just drop everything? What happened to making the Enforcers pay for what they did?"

    Vander grimaced and shook his head. "This money will do Lili and Anaclet a lot more good than starting a fight. I don't like it, but Grayson was probably right about most of what she said. It's the only justice we're getting without starting a fight."

    "Then maybe we should start a fight!" Vi shot back, raising her voice enough that a couple of the patrons downstairs probably heard her. "Why not bust one of their arms as payback? That'd teach them a lesson about not messing with us!"

    Vander groaned and shook his head. "You really think it'd stop there? The Enforcers would never let us get away with something like that. They'd way payback for our payback, and next thing you know we've got a war on our hands and blood running in the streets."

    Vi glowered right back up at him. "So we're back to just letting them get away with it?!"

    While the two of them argued, I stood awkwardly trapped between them. Neither of them was asking me to get involved, but maybe I should say something? Or should I just get out of the way before I got in trouble for arguing with Vander or Vi?


    Current Stability: 0
    Current Willpower: 1

    [ ][Argument] Take Vi's Side
    Issues: Self-Worth (-3), Jinx (-3)
    Failure Consequences: Powder loses her composure

    [ ][Argument] Take Vander's Side
    Issues: Self-Worth (-3), Daughter of Zaun (-2), Vi (-2)
    Failure Consequences: Powder loses her composure

    [ ][Argument] Remain Quiet and Leave
    No Issue Roll Required

    [ ][Willpower] Spend Zero
    [ ][Willpower] Spend One for +3
     
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    • Chengar Qordath said:
    "Eventually this place is gonna be more gum wrappers and quick fixes than anything else," Ekko pointed out after we finished the first round. "All the sugar in that gum is probably just gonna make the rats chew on things more."

    "But I got it working for today." I knew Ekko was probably right, but that was a problem for Future Powder. Until I could get something better than foil wrappers to patch frayed wires and gum to insulate them there wasn't much point in thinking about better ways to fix it all.
    Click to expand...
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    Oh, look, a metaphor.

    [x][Argument] Take Vi's Side
     
    [X][Argument] Remain Quiet and Leave

    It's reckless to get payback without proper preparations. While Vanders way is just pass the problem to the next gen and hope they can fix it. Which only works in the good timeline due to Heimerdinger.
     
    Darkcore41 said:
    It's reckless to get payback without proper preparations. While Vanders way is just pass the problem to the next gen and hope they can fix it. Which only works in the good timeline due to Heimerdinger.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I don't thin Vander is passing it off to the next generation and hoping they can fix it. I don't think he believes it can be fixed.

    I'm also pretty sure Vi just wants to argue at someone about the injustice of it all - which is good, because it is unjust. But we don't have to think about the tactics of how we get back by breaking an enforcers arm because Vi isn't actually going to go off and do that.
     
    [X][Argument] Remain Quiet and Leave


    Edit:
    Just let powder ramp up with her tinkering and she can make Zaun liveable plus dont forget maybe we get to see heimer and we can go the Route of the good timeline.
     
    Last edited:
    [X][Argument] Remain Quiet and Leave

    Damn Vi, why you got to listen to your shoulder devil like that?

    [X][Willpower] Spend Zero

    The Willpower vote is there for a reason. I really don't know why after the last few times where still having this problem. QM puts in effort for you. Put in some effort for the QM.
     
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