ic contact.

[deushexmachina]

"Hi, probably just easier to find me in the lab. I'll get back to you."

Comments

[jinxs]

Thank you anyway.

(her hand looks even tinier in comparison to his once she sets it atop, a smile towards him. if someone told her she'd be taking classes with the councilor, she'd laugh. that there is no way that she'd be able to stand it, they're too different.

this place shows that they're not different at all. two restless minds, working together to solve a problem.)

Hey. I have that hydro energy thing still brewing in my head. I know, I know, incense-- but I think... I'm used to what it does.

[deushexmachina]

You've adapted to the incense? [He's skeptical, his mind already considering the blueprints of an experiment — one he would never ethically run. It remains just a thought experiment.]

How can you be sure?

[jinxs]

Oh, no. I haven't, dummy. It just makes me see shit and hear things. I'm-- I'm used to that. I can push through.

(what is one more hallucination? one more loss of control?)

[deushexmachina]

[He frowns at the insult, pulling back.] Okay.

[jinxs]

I'm joking.

(so sensitive, she forgets.)

I thought about wind power, too.

[deushexmachina]

[He shrugs, folding his arms, pulling in.] Great, [deflated, a shrug,] sounds good.

[jinxs]

What is it? Come on.

(she's squinting, almost too damn much.)

[deushexmachina]

[He squints back, his mouth a pout. He sulks.]

You wouldn't like someone diminishing your greatest strength.

[jinxs]

I don't mean it seriously. Sorry, Jaycey.

(her index finger tugs at the end of his lip, as if she was trying to erase the pout with a smile.)

And that's not your greatest strength.

[deushexmachina]

It's okay, [he opens and closes his mouth, eyes watching her.] You want me to ask what you think it is, don't you? You know I'm curious.

[jinxs]

Yep!

(with an insufferable smile.)

Go on, ask.

[deushexmachina]

[A tight-lipped frown, he pinches his shoulders and then:] What do you think it is, then?

[jinxs]

You really don't know?

(just a suspense thing before she snorts.)

You have a good, curious heart, Cheeks. It's because of your intelligence that you can put it to good use, it's a tool, not your whole damn thing.

[deushexmachina]

[A huff, he shakes his head, eyes downcast.] Good hearts don't survive long topside. That's become clear to me pretty recently.

[jinxs]

How so? I thought that was Zaun. There's no room back home for, well, anything like that.

[deushexmachina]

It's maybe not as obvious, the sharp teeth hidden behind inauthentic smiles. But I lead a city of progress. Not kindness, [his voice lingers on that last word.]

[jinxs]

Sounds like it sucks, dude. At least we bare the teeth first thing right off the bat.

(her hand moves to his shoulder, a smile coming to her.)

Well, even so. You could be super jaded by now, but you're here, teaching big scary Jinx physics and trying to figure this place out. Sounds like topside didn't break you yet.

(a little beat, before her hand drops.)

Don't you dare change. I happen to like you now.

[deushexmachina]

It's less than ideal. Subpar. [He glances to her hand, the sympathy observed, accepted. He'd learn to play the game — against his will, out of necessary survival. Such was Piltover, such was progress.]

Well, [the smallest of smile, he takes a breath,] it's nice to know you'd accept me as I am.

[A strange parallel between them: they both suffered forces demanding that they adapt, asking them to change.]

[jinxs]

Just move to Zaun, man. You might get a scar or two or five or twenty, but I mean. Sounds like a good fair trade for freedom of being.

(because that's what zaun is to her. it's a filthy place, rats living in every crevice, every turn dirty and impoverished, but could she be who she is in any other place? unlikely.)

I think there are things we're never going to see eye-to-eye, but honestly? That's fine. You are who you are, and I am who I am. We're good friends somehow, and I don't take that for granted. Thanks for taking a chance at my brain, Cheeks.

[deushexmachina]

[Flatly:] I'm not moving to Zaun. [And then more gently, he explains,] All my work is topside. My lab, my resources, the funding. But I do think... I wish there was better integration. A bright, inventive mind like yours deserves the benefit that Piltover can offer.

[Should offer, he thinks.]

Something I'll need to ensure, upon my return.

[jinxs]

Well, that's gonna be for someone else, it's too late for me. I don't think Piltover is going to welcome me with their arms open-- but I like that you'll give a shot to little Powders in the undercity. Considering Ekko and I, there must be others.

[deushexmachina]

The little— who? [Jayce catches the name without the parameters of context. His furrowed brow suggests sympathy for Jinx—he doesn't contradict her logic, seeing the wisdom in it—and his fingers pinch his chin.]

It's something we need to encourage. The City of Progress can't keep ignoring our gifted undercity brethren. [Echos of reminiscent guilt over Viktor weigh his voice.]

[jinxs]

Powder. That was my name when I was little, when literally none of my inventions worked and I was-- useless, actually. Well, they work now, don't they? Really well.

(sometimes, she looks at jayce, and she sees something that she cannot easily place. is it naivety or hope, too bright a light or unbounded will to do good, whatever that means, whatever the consequences?

he says it, but jinx knows for a fact that piltover will not agree with him. hasn't, in the course of time, and if zaunites just start roaming the streets of piltover, attending the same places, having the same opportunities - jayce himself would not be accepted. she'd rather be the bad guy who raised zaun from the ground and his enemy, at this point in their friendship, than see him lose that sparkle as the city of progress disassembles it wholly. he said it himself - not the city of kindness that he leads.

jinx herself isn't sure what she's looking at, and her own face expresses that with the ways her eyes move, trying to find the slightest hint of disbelief into his own words, but she catches something different that she took cannot pinpoint.

it makes her frown grow.)

Don't change, okay, Cheeks? Stay like this.