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Snippet - Who's That? Who's That? - Forward, but Never Forget/XOXO

A few shopgirls spy a pair of distinguished shoppers.

Forward but Never Forget/XOXO

Snippet:

Today, the Skylight Commercia is an upscale amphitheater, licensed by Zaun's Cabinet and protected by its own army of blackguards. It also boasts a full complement of unionized staff: porter boys, seamstress girls, spoonymen, bakers, bartenders, watchmen, even medicks who specialize in the tragic malady known as shopaholism.

Already, the atmosphere is a profusion of bedazzlement. Clutches of people dot the pathway: early risers and late-night revelers. A few stop and stare at the couple strolling past them. An entourage of Enforcers follow them at a distance, footsteps echoing across the cobblestones.

"Lookit," are the whispers. "Lookit."

They make an unusual pair. A man and a woman, shoulder-to-shoulder. He is a blade of a thing: sharp in every facet. Sharp-dressed, sharp-eyed, sharp-built. He gives the impression that if you come at him wrong, you are liable to get sliced in half.

Yet he has a smooth, silky manner about him. A Zaunite's strut.

His companion is a lithe, languid, lovely creature in a charmeuse gown the color of midnight. It is intricately pleated and geometrically cut: a Piltovan style. Indeed, the woman is all Piltover, from the top of her beautifully gold-coiffed head to the soles of her shapely gold-sandaled feet. Some greet the sight of her with scowls; others with stares.

The woman pays no mind to either. Her head is held high. She appears serenely at ease in her strange surroundings.

"Who're they?" the shoppers whisper among themselves.

Rumors swirl. The man is none other than the Eye of Zaun, master of it all. Hard to credit. Most only know him by his trademark voice in radio broadcasts. The rest are still convinced the Eye is a myth, or a monster risen from the depths of shadow. This man is too real to be either. The scars on his face are crosshatched as deeply as mining seams.

And the woman? A Councilor, it is whispered. Harder to credit. Why would a Councilor dirty the hem of her dress across the pathways at this hour? Indeed, why would she bother to get out of bed (a bed the shoppers can only imagine is as sumptuous as a chocolate gateau) before noon, when most Pilties ring for their maids to serve breakfast?

"Who d'you reckon they are?" one shopgirl whispers to another.

"They say it's a Topside toff," her companion whispers back, "with the Eye of Zaun."

"Pffft. The Eye already owns the whole city!"

"Well, maybe he's out bargain hunting?"

"That's bollocks! Bet it's a chem-baron, giving his mistress the tour."

"A Piltie mistress? You're dreaming!"

"Am I? These days, every Topsider and their dog wants a sniff below."

A third shopgirl stares awestruck at the woman's elegant silhouette. "She looks a right prize, I'll say that."

"We'd all look right prizes if we never worked a day in our lives!"

They laugh in ribald unison—laughter being the main thing that has survived in the Fissures despite decades of hardship.

And so, inevitably, has gossip. In a few minutes, off on their break, they are at their usual haunt near the Big Brass, chattering away. The city bubbles with scuttlebutt: fads, fights, fancies. What is passe and what is posh. Who has gone up in the world; who has tumbled down. Who’s up to no good, and who’s met a bad end.

News is impossible to separate from natter. It is the lifeblood that pulses through the city's arteries. It suffuses the air with its own magic. And no one knows that fact better than the Eye, who has spent much of his tenure collecting it, distilling it, manipulating it.

Knowledge is currency—and the currency is the only thing that can be relied upon in a world of shifting sands.

Today's fare is the juiciest of the week. The shopgirls, on their third round of cavernfruit juice, are already aflame. The upcoming Expo is off to a promising start: the streets are cramming with tourists, and the shopkeepers are rubbing their hands with glee. Hotels are seeing a surge in bookings. Clubs have mandated fire sprinklers and escape stairwells. The air has been pleasantly pure despite the periodic Gnashers. A new dance, the Targonian Twist, is sweeping the Lanes. In Oldtown, rehab centers are running out of beds. The treatment programs are making headway. The Shimmer addicts are being weaned off their fix. And the medicks say a cure for Grey Lung is on the horizon.

The prototypes are currently undergoing tests at private laboratories. By this time next year, there could be a vaccine available for sale. No word on the cost, yet. Or whether the Cabinet will approve its mass-production.

But the talk is rife with optimism—the offspring of early progress.

What truly interests the girls is gossip to do with the Council. They lean in closer, their voices dipping to a hush.

"You heard what happened to Heimy, then?" one girl says.

"You mean the old Yordle?"

"Who else, daftie?"

"What about him?"

"Well, seems he's gone missing while on sabbatical."

"On what, now?"

"Sabbatical! Y'know. It's what the eggheads call it when you take a holiday."

"And he just vanished?"

"His secretary got a letter saying he was heading up to Demacia. He hasn't been seen since."

"How'd you know?"

"My second-cousin's wife, she's a maid at his house. Said Enforcers dropped by. They told her to keep her lips zipped."

"Zipped why?"

"Said the Council are keeping it hush-hush. Heimerdinger’s their former head and all. Don't want folks worrying."

"He was on the Council, wasn't he?"

"Well, there's something else..."

"What's that?"

"My aunt, she works at the Boundary Markets. She says that before the Siege, she could've sworn she saw him wandering about."

"You mean... here? In Zaun?"

"Yeah! And not alone. She said he was with some bloke."

"Who?"

"Janna knows. He had a mask on. Personally, I think she's exaggerating. She's a bit of a lush. The drink must've gone to her head."

"But what if it's true?" one girl says. "Maybe the fuzzball's hiding out in Zaun? And who's the man with the mask, I wonder? Could it be the Eye?"

"Why'd the Eye help a Councilor? He calls 'em A lineage of leeches."

"Maybe he's trying to make nice after the Treaty?"

"Or he's holding the old Yordle for ransom?"

"As what? Jinx's new pet?"

They share peals of laughter. Absurdity is also a staple of the Zaunite diet, and the notion that the Eye would keep a Yordle captive in his penthouse is enough to make anyone's sides split. They can picture it, clear as day. The Eye in a dark silk robe, the Yordle in a pink bow, the two of them dancing their own strange waltz around the lavish rooms. Maybe Jinx would serenade them, as her devotees do her: Come on, dance faster, just a little bit of energy...

"I keep hearing," a girl says, "the Eye's a vampire, and his flat's a dungeon."

"That's just the chem-burn talking, love."

"Well, I'd wager there's a grain of truth. Vampires don't breathe, right? And they don't need sunshine. The Eye's no different. Where else would he live but underground?"

"He's commissioned a dozen cultivairs' hothouses full of sunshine. Why'd he do that if he's a vamp?"

"I'm not saying he's a full vamp, for Janna's sake. But everyone knows the Eye has his fingers in the blood trade."

"The Shimmer trade."

"Same thing. I hear Shimmer's made of poro blood. That's why it's so dangerous."

"It's a drug, love. Drugs're all dangerous."

"Not always. My boyfriend got a thimbleful last weekend from the back-alley chemist. Cleared up his cough, it did. And gave him a cockstand so big—"

"Oh, shut it, I don't wanna know!"

"What I'm saying is, there's more to Shimmer'n meets the eye."

"Got that right. My uncle OD'd on it, remember? Died screaming. So did his missus."

"Didn't their kid run away?"

"Yeah. Joined the Firelights. Who are a bunch of crazies, if you ask me."

"Oooh. I can't stand the lot of them! Making a ruckus wherever they go!"

"I heard they're dying off. No one's seen hide nor hair of them since the Siege."

"That's not what my brother-in-law said. He's a blackguard at southside. He heard scuttlebutt that the Firelights were holed up in a secret lair. Somewhere down in Oshra Va'Zaun’s tunnels. The Eye's trying to wall 'em in—or starve 'em out."

"How long've they been there?"

"Don't know. Maybe years."

"What a load of bollocks. Where are their goods coming from, then? You'd have thought the blackguards would've sniffed out the supply lines."

"My brother-in-law says they've a secret way into Zaun."

"What? Where?"

"Dunno. Supposedly only the Eye knows."

"He's a crafty sod. Bet he's already filled it up with Jinx's bombs."

"Why not ask him? He was browsing for jar cakes an hour ago."

"That's not the Eye, you dumb tart!"

And etcetera.

Under the watery sunrays of the glass dome, pigeons flutter. The girls buy paper cones of birdseed, for the fun of watching the birds flock around them. They are still playing guessing games over who the enigmatic chem-baron and his companion are. But in fact, it matters little. The security detail has alerted them to the presence of bigwigs. They need to know nothing else.

Where the Gray sits, as the saying goes.

At the escalators, they spot the couple again. They have stopped with their entourage. A little girl lingers by the railing. Too scared to climb aboard the steps, she is blocking their path. The shopgirls tense as one of the lady's guards move to shove the girl aside.

That's Enforcers for you. Always throwing their weight around.

The sharp-dressed man stops the guard. There are quietly severe words exchanged. Then the man himself kneels. He is talking to the girl, a gentle hand on her shoulder. His manner is almost reassuring. Whatever he says is lost in the hubbub of the marketplace. But the little girl seems soothed by his words.

Politely, he proffers a hand. She accepts with caution, then smiles a little as they perform a box-step together, leaping onto the escalator. Playfully, the man lifts her off the last step at the top. The girl giggles and kicks her feet before he deposits her on the ground.

Below, the elegant lady claps. She has been watching with an intrigued eye. Her entourage, more grudgingly, follow suit. The little girl, titillated, performs a curtsey. She and the man exchange parting words. With a forefinger, the man taps the skin under his eye: the universal Zaunite gesture:

Fuck the police.

He gives the girl a finger wave. Beaming, she rushes off to her family, who've watched her progress with bated breath. A chem-baron and Enforcers cornering a lone child? In the Fissures, it's the beginning of a horror story.

With a dismally familiar ending.

"That was decent of him," says one shopgirl, licking her fingers.

"The best men are good with whelps," the second says. “It shows.”

"Pffft," scoffs the third. "One good turn and you're already fitting him for a ring, eh?"

"I'm only saying! He was patient. A lot of kids would've started blubbering."

"Maybe he's a chem-baron who moonlights as a nanny."

"Chem-barons have whelps, too!"

"And they pack 'em off to boarding school soon as the tit's empty."

"Maybe this one's special."

"You're daft," the first girl says, tossing a pigeon a last pinch of seed. "He's the Eye, for sure."

"What's got you so convinced?"

"Well, he's got a whelp too, doesn't he? Jinx?"

"Pssh. Jinx is his dollymop."

"Don't think so. I read somewhere he'd adopted her."

"I read he'd had a child by her."

"That's bollocks!"

"They say it's why she went into hiding after the war."

"Well, I heard she'd—"

"Ssh," the first shopgirl hisses. "They're coming this way."

Sure enough, the couple are crossing the plaza. Their entourages follow. Hurriedly, the shopgirls clean the clutter of cigarettes and paper-cones, straightening up. They give the couple wide berth, nodding respectfully as they sweep past. The aroma of hothouse hyacinths and bottled bergamot lingers in their wake.

The woman stares straight ahead, indifferent to the scenery. The man, on the other hand, appraises his surroundings with interest. They converse in soft voices: contralto and baritone. The latter has a graveled pitch that seems uncannily familiar.

A radio voice. The Eye's.

The shopgirls are too intimidated to eavesdrop. But suddenly, the rumor—that the Eye and a Councilor are on an extended excursion of the Skylight together—no longer seems so far-fetched.

A paper cone, caught in a shopgirl's fingers, slips free. It skitters toward the man's gleaming leather shoes. He stops mid-step, and the lady follows suit.

"I-I'm sorry, sir," the girl stammers.

The man stoops, picking up the cone. With an elegant precision, he hands it to her. For a moment, the three shopgirls are caught in his crosshairs. Up close, he's a fearsome-looking creature. The dapper clothes conceal a hard-edged physique like a miner's pickax. His right eye is the color of a lapis lazuli strung from the stalls. His left eye...

Roving across the girls, it gives off an acid-red glow.

The eye of a godling—or a devil.

The shopgirls’ skins break into gooseflesh. Their tongues go dry as Fissure-roots.

Idly, the man nods, and walks on.

"Shit," the first girl whispers, "what if that is the Eye?"

"If it is," the second whispers back, "then pray to Janna nobody gets their throat slit."

#arcane #arcane league of legends #arcane silco #silco #forward but never forget/xoxo #forward (never forget)/xoxo #arcane jinx #jinx #arcane mel #mel medarda #silco x mel #melco #snippet

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pathetic-sapphic · 9 months

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Hello! Been obsessed with all your work, thank you for feeding the arcane simps🫠 would you consider doing the arcane ladies (vi, jinx, sevika, grayson, mel) caring for r in subspace? I know you already did general aftercare, but I was thinking about how sweet and soft they’d be when you’re extra sensitive and vulnerable like that and just ahhh

VI knows this is normal but that doesn't stop her from being so worried about you. Always careful about what she says and does. If you let her, she'll gently hold you in her arms and whisper praises into your ear. Likes to tenderly caress your hair and press kisses against the top of your head. If you're feeling particularly vulnerable or tear up, Vi immediately shushes you and reassures you that everything is alright, you're safe here with her.

Shhh, you're alright, baby. It's okay, I'm here and I'm not leaving you, okay? You don't have to answer that, I know you're tired. It's alright, you can sleep, I'm not gonna leave. Rest for a bit, sweetheart, you deserve it and I'll be right here when you wake up, okay? Good, always so good for me, sleep tight.

Although JINX usually has a hard time being still, she's ready to do anything as soon as she sees the unfocused look in your eyes. Quickly realizing you've gone into subspace, she bundles you up in your comfiest blanket, puts your favorite drink on the nightstand and curls up next to you. She'll latch onto you like a koala if you're okay with touch and she'll ramble about anything and everything while gently caressing the bruises she left on your pretty body. If you're up for it, she will draw on you with body safe marker, doodling cute flowers and writing praises on your skin.

Oh, toots, I can see by that look in your eye that you're already far gone. It's okay, no worries! I'm here and I'll take good care of you, you're safe with me baby! I'll hold you allll night long if that's what you need, you don't even hafta ask! Hey, how about I paint this pretty canvas of yours even more? I have some nice ideas as long as you don't mind. Good, I'll show you just how much I appreciate you and how good and beautiful you are for me.

If you're up for it, CAITLYN prepares a nice, warm bath for the two of you. She'll have you sit on her lap, gently wash your tired body and give you a soft massage. Loves knowing how safe you feel with her, especially when she feels how relaxed and pliant your body is. Whispers praises into your ear and pecks your cheek every now and then. She will hold you and draw patterns on your back with her fingers, lulling you to sleep. Afterwards, she'll dry you off and take you to bed, telling you one last time just how proud of you she is and how you were so so good for her.

Darling, how about we take a bath? It'll help you unwind and after what I just put your poor, sweet body through, you'll need it. Don't worry, I'll carry you. Just relax, be good and let me take care of you, alright? There, that's my good girl, just relax, I'm here. Feel free to doze off, darling, I'll wake you up once the water starts getting cold. Afterwards, you'll need to drink some water and then we'll cozy up and fall asleep together, how does that sound? Good, just close your eyes now and rest. I love you so much, my dear.

SEVIKA's number one priority is to make you feel grounded and safe, so holding you on top of her body seems like the best option. She has you laying on her chest, knowing that hearing her heartbeat calms you. She'll share bits and pieces of dark chocolate and sips of water with you, making sure you're doing alright and aren't feeling hurt in any way. She knows her words and actions can seem rough in the heat of the moment, so she makes sure to give extra praise and cuddles afterwards, especially when it affects you like this.

There, lay on top of me, sweetheart, I promise you're not heavy at all. Put your ear against my chest and relax, I've got you. You were great just now, you know that? Made me feel so good and you were so obedient for me, I love seeing you like that. You're perfect for me, you know? I don't ever want you to doubt it, you're my darling girl. Now, are you hungry? Here, I brought some chocolate, just be good and let me feed you, alright? You're adorable, baby.

GRAYSON is the softest and most gentle lover you'll ever have the pleasure of being with. She is very caring and attentive so she picks up on your situation quickly and is already taking care of it. First she makes sure you aren't hurt or too sore in any places, next she makes you drink some water and then holds you in her arms until you come to. She is honored to have your trust like this, Grayson knows that it can't be easy for you to feel so vulnerable in front of her but it makes her love you even more. Let's you wear one of her shirts as she knows her scent calms you down and keeps you grounded. Softly caresses your cheek and waits until you're more focused after which she prepares a bath for the two of you.

Are you alright, darling? I didn't go too hard on you did I? You know I could never forgive myself if I hurt you, I hope you won't feel too sore tomorrow. Don't worry, I already took a day off so we'll be able to relax as much as we want and I can carry you around if you wish. Drink some water, good girl. I have some sandwiches waiting for you once you feel better, but not before we take a bath. Don't worry, I'm here for you, beloved and I'll take good care of you, okay?

MEL knows she can be a demanding and strict lover, so when she sees you go into subspace, she makes sure to do her duty and be there for you. There's an array of snacks and drinks next to the bed, as well as a steaming bath just waiting for you. But before that, Mel wants you relaxed and satisfied, so she makes sure to rub some lotion into your pliant body while showering it in kisses. Her gaze lingers on each bruise she left, hoping that she wasn't too hard on you. As much as she loves hearing your whimpers and begging, the last thing she wants is for you to be hurt. Kisses the shell of your ear while whispering sweet nothings and softly brushes her fingers through your hair. A soft smile adorns her face from seeing your blissful expression. She adores you and wants you to know that she thinks the world of you.

Does that feel good, sunshine? Yes, I thought you'd like the smell of this lotion, it's the same one that I use so you get to smell like me. I'm sorry, you know I cannot help wanting everyone to know you're mine. I know you don't actually mind, you love the idea of people seeing my claim over you, don't you? Maybe I should get you a collar for next time- Oh! Forgive my silly ponderings, darling. There's no need to be shy, you know I love to tease you. Now, are you hungry? How about we eat and then go and take a bath together? I'll wash your hair for you if you want.

#arcane #arcane headcanons #arcane x reader #arcane sevika #sevika x reader #arcane vi #vi x reader #arcane caitlyn #caitlyn x reader #arcane jinx #jinx x reader #arcane grayson #grayson x reader #arcane mel #mel medarda x reader #requests are open

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