bakerstreet | Christmas in July

( this was the last place jinx wanted to end up. sure, her mission was to track down the firelights and locate their little "hive", but to be snowed in a cabin with their leader? it was definitely not part of the plan, and she has nothing on her person to help blast herself out of this predicament.

is this her "jinx" making a fool of her again? mylo definitely seems to think so, as he snickers at the corner of her earlobe. the girl rubs her ear to shoo him away, and fixates her gaze dead center at the front door -- and for the fourth time, jinx kicks the doorway with the heel of her boot (maybe four times the charm?). and with each knock, the teen grumbles out with so much irritation in her throat. )

Stupid — ( 'whack'. ) Dumb — ( 'whack' ) Snow!

[Being trapped dangerously close to his secret base with one of the three people who could do the most damage with that knowledge should be nerve wracking, but instead it sorta just feels surreal to watch Jinx rage against the situation ineffectually. Ekko was so sure he'd already given up on her, after he tried to free her from Silco's clutches only to find out she'd never been trapped at all, but it turns out that proximity alone is doing some work in breaking down those hard-won barriers.

Because despite everything, it feels almost like when the older kids would occasionally lock them in the Last Drop's basement together so they "didn't have to babysit."

He'd never really minded it, even though it always pissed Powder off. She was the one he came around to hang out with, anyway. Sure he wanted to be like Vi, what undercity kids didn't? She was strong, and cool, and she wasn't afraid of anything—but it was just easier to talk to Powder. She was exactly like him, seeing possibilities in the junk that the others ignored, ways to put it all together to make something new and exciting. He never felt small when it was just the two of them.

He shakes his head when she kicks the door for the fifth time and it still doesn't budge, trying to throw off the dangerous, creeping nostalgia. He throws up his hands, voice modulated by his mask:] Would you quit it already? That's the only thing keeping the snow out right now.

( great, now he's talking. and while she does stop her thumping, jinx tosses her head back dramatically before swirling around the face the other. her arms cross over her frame -- eyes narrowing daggers at her "companion". )

I don't see you doin' anything. You're the boy savior, aren't you? Sooooo... Do the hero crap! It's freezing and I wanna get outta here.

[Ekko scoffs, crossing his arms as well and leaning against the far wall, trying to look unbothered but probably actually looking like he's sulking and trying to keep as much distance between them as possible.]

It's even colder out there, and until the snow lets up you're not going to be able to see two feet in front of your face. [That would be fine if they were up on the north side, all paved roads and safety regulations, but visibility is a huge issue in the Undercity if you're not trying to trip and fall all the way down to the fissures.] What happened to Big Bad Jinx? I thought you didn't need any help. [Easy for him to say, with his big coat on.]

( the scowl dips further and her arms fall dead weight at her sides. she is silent, but she makes her way to him -- predatory with her eyes dead lock to that stupid mask of his.

she really should smack it off of him like she did to that vi-wannabe girl. in all honesty though, she... didn't truly mean to kill the girl, only injure her. but as silco would say, " accidents happen" and what happened on the airship was just a little mishap, nothing more or less.

jinx isn't close to ekko, but enough so the two of them wouldn't need to strain their voices to speak (except jinx will scream no matter the distance). a steady head tilt and a click of her tongue, her eyes dancing over the boy from head to toe. not that she needs a reminder of how his figure is built, of course. jinx has done a lot watching and stalking her prey. )

Careful, bug. It's just you and me here. And it'll be so much easier to squish ya without your lil' back up.

( but will it? sure, she is good at physical combat, but she's not her older sibling. )

Edited 2023-07-09 20:16 (UTC)

[Despite himself, Ekko can't help but straighten up to his full height like her glare is a knife under his chin as she stalks closer, back pressed against the wall, shoulders stiff with tension until she stops advancing. She is not Powder any more.

He hadn't forgotten, he'd just... failed to focus, for a moment.

He unsticks his tongue from the roof of his mouth, grateful for the presence of his mask. He never has had a poker face.] You're all out of explosives. [He hasn't made a move himself, though. His strength is mostly in his maneuverability, not in a straight melee. (He is also not her older sibling.) He is bigger than she is, granted, he put on a lot more mass in their years apart than she did, but he's seen her fight. He's seen her kill his people, that same gleam in her eyes that she's got now. Ekko is pretty sure he could take her, slightly less sure without his hoverboard in this cramped space, but almost pretty sure and certain are two vastly different things. He didn't survive this long by gambling when he doesn't have to.

At least, that's the excuse he's clinging to like his life depends on it right now.] You can talk a big game, or we can just figure out how to survive until the blizzard passes.

( would be it childish of her to very quickly stomp on his foot? because the urge is definitely linger over her shoulders and his little comment isn't soothing it, either. huffing a breath through her nostrils, she storms away from him -- her long braids flying behind as she plops herself on the other side of the room.

jinx hugs her legs close to her chest, rubbing her hands over her forearms as she balls herself up for warmth. )

The way we survive is if you to stay the hell away from me.

( she really should search around for a blanket or something more like it, but... she is being a little stubborn and wish not to show weakness to him, either. she can tough it out. no problem. maybe she can just picture this as one of silco's lessons -- fight off the cold to become stronger. )

[Ekko rolls his eyes behind the mask, which would be impossible to see if the way his whole head tips with the movement didn't make it clear that's what he's doing. He's only barely more subtle than she is, it turns out.

He means to leave it at that, not go down any more rabbit holes, but he can see her starting to shiver out of the corner of his eye. Even he's getting cold in his coat, now that the adrenaline is ebbing away.

He gnaws at his lip, finally trying to really take in their surroundings now that she's containing herself instead of stalking around looking like she might try to eat him. Tells himself he does not feel guilty about however uncomfortable she is. And anyway, there's not much by way of fabric: an old bed frame sits against one wall, but neither the mattress nor the blankets that would have once been on it were left behind when the cabin was vacated. Not so much as a tablecloth remains.

But all the wood furniture does look very old and brittle and dry...]

... Do you know how to start a fire? [If there's one thing Jinx knows, it's how to light shit up, so he's hopeful.]

( as ekko scopes around the area, jinx continues to sit silently with her face buried her in her knees. she is doing her best to ignore the fact she's shivering, ignore the fact she's cold. because maybe if she tricks her mind somehow, she'll just warm up. but even if that's something possible, her mind is far too ill to have that kind of strength.

... silco must be worried about her right about now, and the thought of him venturing off to search for in this weather makes her feel unease and guilty. she should had retreated when she had the chance, but she really wanted to prove to everyone that she had ekko cornered for once. it never fails for him to slip through her fingers whenever they bump into each other, and hearing sevika's mouth whenever she comes back empty handed was starting to get to her. )

( her head perks up at the boy's question, blinking twice in confusion for a split moment. but then she grins cocky-like as she bounces right up to her feet. )

Do I know how to start a fire? ( she repeats, hands on her hips and chest out -- immediately egotistical. ) — Ekko, Ekko, Ekko ♪. I'm startin' to think you're forgetting who's the biggest genius of all of Zaun. Too many jabs to the noggin', huh?

( debatable, naturally. because while she is pretty smart, so is he. anyway now in a cheerful mood, jinx hums as she makes her way over to the said brittle furniture. )

If I'm gonna start a fire for us, we gotta find a spot that's secured. So, y'know, this house doesn't go WHOOOSH!

( a brief pause as she turns to look at ekko over her shoulder. )

... Actually, we oughta do that!! Whaddya say?

Edited 2023-07-10 03:54 (UTC)

[He tries not to get drawn in when she suddenly switches gears, sing-songing and cheerful, but he finds himself spluttering indignantly anyway at her boasting.]

Uh, no, I can remember. [He spreads out his fingers in a gestural shrug, casually cocky as a counterweight to her excitable egotism.] It's always been me.

[Not that he does actually know how to start a fire without a lighter. If he wasn't trapped in this little hut without any useful resources he'd just be building an entire furnace, instead. He's always been a cart-before-the-horse kind of guy.

At her suggestion he starts moving things away from the center of the room, where they'll need to build their fire so it doesn't creep up the walls. They'll definitely have to break out the highest window for ventilation at some point so they don't choke on the smoke, but he hasn't thought that far yet, more interested in getting the place at least hospitably warm first.

Then his head snaps up at her last suggestion, followed quickly by a groan.] No! Do not do that. [In case she's serious. One can never be sure, with Jinx.] Again, this house is the only thing between us and the blizzard, crop top.

Ugh, buzzkill. ( she rolls her eyes as she breaks apart the chair first, taking out the legs out of its sockets was pretty easy. but the rest of the chair? it's going to need a little more muscle, and if only she had her big sister's upper strength for this. )

And take off that stupid mask already.

( jinx complains while lying the chair down, boot on the top rail in attempt to yank off more pieces. )

I know what you look like. Afraid to show me that cutesy lil' face of yours?

( she pauses quickly at a sudden thought, speed looking over at ekko again. )

OR WAIT!! — Did someone give you a shiner? You gotta let me see.

( if he did get a black eye, it'll be a somewhat of a shame it wasn't from her. but on the other hand, it'd be funny to see if someone punched his lights out for once. or it'd be even funnier if his little inventions went haywire on him and a bolt threw flew at his face then send him tumbling. )

Edited 2023-07-11 14:58 (UTC)

[Ekko hesitates, because he likes having the physical barrier of his mask between them. Some sort of last line of defense against his stupid brain, which hates her but can't actually figure out how to hate her.

But he knows she's going to be insufferable if he insists, so he reaches up to unclasp the mask by the time she's started imagining scenarios in which he got beat up by his own inventions, and hangs it by the cord on his belt.]

I don't have a black eye.

[It's not a lie! There's no shiner, but he does have a fairly fresh split lip, which he got almost as ignominiously. He ate shit off a ladder while doing graffiti on one of the walls of his base, and caught his face on a rung on the way down.

He will not be admitting that to her today though, thank you. Instead he stalks over and brushes her fingers out of the way so he can grip and yank the seat off the chair back that she's got pinned to the floor. He's not showing off, he's helping!]

Now quit daydreaming about punching me and tell me what else we gotta do for this fire of yours.

( so at first when he maneuvers over, her muscles tightens. it's a bit of a defense mechanism in case he suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to brawl with her. it's possible this all could be a distraction, her voices definitely believe this is and she shouldn't get sucker into it. but there's no roughhousing, namecalling, or blood shed. it really is him helping her out on trying to get this chair into smaller pieces.

her eyes dart down to his arms as he tugs without meaning to. jinx had never been this close with ekko before, and the way his muscles pull when he does is... a little alluring. with a subtle nip of her lower lip, her gaze flicker up to him -- leering in a feathery tease: )

Aww, but it makes my day better.

( right, right, okay, fire. she stands up right some more and takes another look around of their little hut. )

Think if we break a hole in the floorboards, it'll be a good idea to have the fire sit there?

( why yes, she is asking his opinion on this. because well... sometimes two minds are better than one. )

Edited 2023-07-11 16:09 (UTC)

[Ekko's eyes flit down to her lip when she bites at it, aware belatedly of their proximity in a way he hadn't considered when he first approached—all confidence—and for a few long moments it's like getting stuck in time, a little loop of trying not to Notice but still Noticing anyway.]

What?

—Oh, yeah, that makes sense. [It's fine, everything's fine. He pointedly contemplates the floor in front of them, trying to ignore how hot the tips of his ears feel even in the cold of the room. Beneath the floorboards should be just dirt and enough of a void to make building a small fire safe, between the structural supports for the house. At least, if this hut was built anything like the ones he put together in the Firelight base.

He kneels, running a finger along the seam between two baseboards, hoping for some give but not finding much, despite how brittle all the wood looks. It's hard for anything organic to last long in the toxic fumes of the Undercity.] Do you see anything sharp we could use to wedge one of these up? [The alternative is to stomp on one until it breaks, but he's trying to avoid that because he can only imagine how silly it would look and for reasons he's decidedly not thinking about right now, he's not really willing to look that undignified in front of Jinx.]

Hmmm...

( the blue haired girl resumes on in her search, trying to sniff out anything that could be used as a sharp tool. while the hut is rather small, there does seem to be a door that could lead to another room perhaps? or the outside. she would like to hope it's the former. jinx peeks back over to ekko with her thumbing over to the door a few steps away from them. )

Maybe somethin' through there? Wanna place bets if it's a jackpot or a dud behind that door?

( and before he could really say anything, the teen is already heading in that direction with her finger curling around the doorknob. )

I'm gonna say dud. — Givin' just how boring this hunk of junk has been.

[Ekko instinctively lurches up after her when she goes for the door, because he trusts that if anyone can find a way to bring this rickety old house down around their ears despite the fact that it's obviously been standing here empty and just fine at least half their lives, it's Jinx.

And it'd be just her luck that something is lurking in here and jumps at her out of the shadows, wouldn't it? It's right there in the name she took up.

But behind the door when she peels it open is... just the dark, not particularly visible from the angle where he's looking. The increasing gloom of the hut as snow piles up around the windows doesn't help, though the lack of immediate danger from the new room succeeds in making him feel pretty weird about looming behind her in the doorway like a creep. He backs up a hasty step, and tacks on for the record:]

That was a sucker's bet, I didn't take it. [Even though the fact that he jumped up to follow her like someone lit a fire under his ass definitely says he did take it, just not out loud. Listen. It's been such a long time since he was a little con-man, but he still has his pride! He's not just going to admit to anything.] Well? Anything in there?

( she doesn't answer him, not purposely ignoring him but there's something about this room that's making her skin crawl. jinx is use to moving in the shadows, it's one of her many things. but this darkness is... eternal darkness. something very unfamiliar about it and cold... but the girl forces her legs to move -- slowly merging in the dark with one hand hovering over her pistol. there's no bullets in the weapon, she knows, but feeling its steel brush ghostly against her fingertips is giving her some courage and relief.

as her eyes readjusts into the jet black room, she is able to make out a few things. it seems to be somewhat of a storage room (with hardly anything in it) one can walk around a little around in. there's a small blanket (maybe belonged to a child? a pet?) which is exactly what she needs for the fire, ashes on shelves (what she needs too), toolbox, a shovel, axe, and a rake. there might be more junk fluttering around in the room, but in her search something distracts her completely. )

( because on her way to reach for the said blanket, a horrific monster emerges from the dark, clear as day somehow despite there's no light. her breath catches and she jerks her hand away -- taking several steps back out of the room to where ekko can fully see her again. jinx is so fixated over this "creature" that she isn't able to hear her own heart hammering out of her chest and into her ears. her entire body trembles with her lungs begging to have any kind of oxygen to fill them. the "creature" crawls its way closer, their jagged nails crunching against the wooden floorboards. it's yearning for blood, jinx's specifically, and it's been so...so long since it's been fed. she should run, she knows she should or at least slam the door shut... but she's frozen stiff. something is preventing her entire body to move a single muscle. is it this hut? is this little poor excuse of a home actually alive? because why else can't she move on her own? )

( her lower lip quivers and almost on the verge of tears. she is going to die here. right here, right now and no one will even notice her gone or care. silco can always find another jinx to carry on his dream, her weapons will find a new and better owner, and the firelights will be overjoyed of her passing. no one will care. no one will care, no one will care, no one will — )

[Her palpable tension bleeds over into him while he watches her disappear into the darkness, and he's shocked to find just how much he'd relaxed before that point. A bad idea, probably, but... He hovers outside the room for one, unsure moment, then her breath audibly hitches and he grabs for one of the discarded chair legs she'd dropped to the floor to use as a club.]

Jinx?

[Then she's stumbling back, and operating purely on instinct he sidesteps her and moves into the gap between her and the doorway (between her and the danger), chair leg raised. The boy savior, or whatever. But it's still and silent and dark, the only sound in the hut that of Jinx' rapid, terrified breathing. Even the Undercity all around them has gone silent for once, smothered in a blanket of snow, and Ekko feels like the thump of his own heartbeat is audible where it is battering against his ribs, insistent with anticipation.

He chances a look back at Jinx over his shoulder, confusion knitting a wrinkle in the painted hourglass sitting on his brow. The sheer fear on her face can't be faked, he doesn't think, so he takes a cautious step into the room with his makeshift weapon in hand, blinking rapidly to try to force his eyes to adjust to the light.

Shelves—mostly empty, but there are certainly few useful things. No movement, no bodies, no messages scrawled in spray paint or in blood. There aren't veins of Shimmer anywhere, just dust swirling through the air. He backs towards the door again, glancing between the shadowed corners of the storage space and her, but settling there and trying to catch her eyes and hold her gaze. It almost seems like she has crawled right out of her own skin and left it there, shaking.

They need to get a fire started. Soon.] Jinx, what did you see?

( when he becomes between her and the room, jinx snaps out of her thinking of despair and loneliness. her mind was too busy twisting and sinking her into a hole that she had forgotten she wasn't alone here. and seeing ekko in front of her like this has heart skipping for a whole different reason. is he protecting her? surely, she has to be imagining him being on his guard with a chair leg in his hand. because why would he shield her from whatever that's in there? he hates her, right? want to put a stop to her and maybe want her dead?

if that's true, he would had just let that monster swallow her whole first and then attack. every man for themselves, as they say. but no... here he is, in front of her, armed, and stepping in the dark room for her. maybe he is just being heroic or... maybe he cares for her? perhaps not deeply, but enough that he wouldn't want to see her hurt. ... right? )

( and when he turns to hold his gaze on her, her face softens -- eyes doe-like and gentle as she locks to his browns back. the question flies over her head like a gentle breeze; unimportant now. without thinking and merely reacting on impulse, a delicate hand rest flat against his arm while taking one step closer. her lips part to speak but words are running dry for her, so she shuts them again to just focus on her breathing....and him. for some unknown reason. )

[The moment they lock eyes Ekko promptly forgets all about the theoretical danger of the empty room behind him, as the world narrows all the way down to the look on Jinx' face in the dimly lit hut.

His own breath hitches, too swept up in the moment to do anything else. Because it's still her. He hasn't allowed himself to have that thought in years, angrily pushing it away until it's gone and he can live with who they both are now—with what he has to do about it when they meet. Hitting and running is going to stop being an option sooner or later, and he knows it. But there it is, plain as day in the curve of her mouth, the unshed tears in her eyes, the way she reaches for him like they haven't spent the last few years on opposite sides of a war. In one moment she succeeds in undoing all of his dogged compartmentalization: Jinx is Jinx but she's still Powder, too. Of course she is. She always has been.

Her hand on his arm brings him back down to Earth and he glances down at it for a split second before reaching up to loop his fingers around her wrist—not squeezing, just hanging on. Her skin is cold against the palm of his hand.]

It's okay. [He doesn't really let himself think about it, he just shrugs off his coat and drops it over her shoulders, because she clearly needs it more than him by now and if she can't get the fire started because she's got frostbite then he's screwed too. That's what he's telling himself, anyway.] I saw an axe we can use to get the floorboards up. [And if there's an axe in here, he wants to be the one holding onto it, no matter how she's looking at him straight out of their long lost childhoods. He glances away into the dark, empty room, then back to her, trying not to make too many sudden moves while she's so out of it.] Okay?

( his touch, while brief, it's electrifying and... when his jacket falls over her shoulders, her cheeks instantly burn. and carefully, she tugs it closer to her small frame so it wouldn't slip off. it's definitely his jacket alright, the scent of oil, copper, and metal lingering in the air that so many would find disgusting. but as a fellow tinker, the aroma is exquisite and it's a fragrance she can spend the rest of days with. and as ekko speaks, she blinks rapidly to try and bring herself out of... wherever she went to. the girl clears her throat as she attempts to collect herself. )

Yeah! Yeah... Uh. I-I need the blanket!! ( she adds quickly. ) — And the ashes. I saw it in there... 'Cuz with that, I'm about to show you the Jinx way of makin' a fire. Eh heh heh....

( oh gosh, why is she suddenly tripping over herself? she is silco's weapon who has no fear of causing mayhem, putting people in line, even if it means hurting them severely or death. but... jinx is also a girl. a teenage girl with real feelings with every day girl wants and needs.

and what she wants right now is to be warm and... to stay close with ekko for some odd reason. she doesn't get it, never did even when they fought. she was meant to put a stop to the firelights, of course, but a lot of times... her impulses overtake her to search for him without given orders. a need to just see him, hear his voice (even if it's unpleasant), and to figure out what he's been up that day... she never really questioned it. but now she is a little bit. )

Edited 2023-07-17 15:57 (UTC)

[Ekko spends another moment watching her as she tries to rally, afraid that when he comes back everything will just be back to normal, before forcing himself to break away and head into the room anyway because staying means freezing and getting stuck living in the past is the fastest way to die in the Lanes. From inside he gathers the axe, the blanket, the ashes—and the shovel, just in case they need to dig themselves out through the snow once it finally lets up.

He genuinely considers grabbing the toolbox too, because he's loathe to just leave a perfectly good toolbox laying around, but since he's still also brandishing the chair leg he's thoroughly out of hands at that point. He tells himself he can just go back in later once they light a fire: surely, it will seem less like a creepy silent tomb with horrors that he just can't see, then.

He closes the door as soon as possible, dropping everything except the axe off on the dusty wooden table that he'll probably need to chop up later, depending on how long the storm lasts.]

So how's it going to work? [He points with his chin towards the supplies she asked him to gather, the Jinx way of making a fire, before approaching the spot in the center of the hut that he cleared away and taking his first swing at it. The floorboard cracks immediately, and he tugs the axe back out, before going again. He's trying to get her talking for a couple reasons. The first reason is the most practical: if she's making noise, he'll know where she even while his back is turned so he can hack away at the floor. The second is that he feels like she could really use the distraction from... whatever it was that just happened to her.

And the third is that... well, honestly, she's just funny. He has resisted acknowledging that for a long time, but in the strange liminal space of this buried cottage, with her standing there completely dwarfed in his clothes and blushing about it, there doesn't feel like a point to pretending that he doesn't sorta still have a crush. (He'll get back to trying to deny it later when they return to reality.) He bends down to pry the first shattered floorboard up the rest of the way with his fingers, distinctly aware that he's in a tank-top now and alright maybe a little bit hoping that she's watching because hey, he worked hard on his arms!] Talk me through it?

( once he plops everything down on the floor, jinx slowly sinks down with the items -- grabbing the blanket first with her fingers barely peeking through the sleeves. she looks up to him as he asks her to talk it through the process, although with him hacking away at the floorboards like that... it's distracting to come up with the right explanation. her eyes are glue to him, the way his muscles tightens again, how strong his back appears to be, and the twists of his hair flick around when he moves...

had ekko always been this attractive? there's no way because otherwise, she'd noticed long before, right? with the blanket on her lap, she chews on her lip as she watches him -- her fingers now on a braid to steadily un-twist. there's two reasons for this: one, for more warmth. her hair is stupidly long and with it down, it can maybe help her shield her from the cold with his jacket. two, well... if ekko is going to look this good in front of her, she should play the same game. not... that he is playing a game with her. or is he? it's hard to distinguish anything when she has issues deciding between reality and fiction in general. )

Well, ya start out with cotton. That's what the blanket's for. It's got loads in it. Then... you stretch it out and sprinkle the ash, roll it up to a lil' thing. Like a cigarette or somethin'.

( her fingers continue to vigorously un-twist; a strange urge of a race to have her hair completely down before he turns around again. )

The floorboards you're chopping up, we're gonna need that too. Slap that baby in the middle and just rub the two woods together. The friction will spark a flame. And BAM! "Jinxie Fool-proof fire".

[Oh, that makes... a lot of sense. Ekko puffs out a breath and tosses the splinters of the first floorboard to the side before moving on to the next one and doing a cleaner job of that since they're apparently going to be using them to make Jinxie fire in a moment. He gets a moderately sized hole opened up between two beams of the under-floor framing, stacking the dry, brittle boards up next to the new space and then reaching down to touch the cold rock beneath since it has gotten too dark to see how far down it goes. Only a few inches—not much, but certainly better than lighting a fire on top of the wood flooring directly.

All in all it doesn't take very long, given how weak the material has become after being abandoned to the toxic elements of the Undercity for so long, but he has still managed to warm back up completely through the exertion. He selects out two of the more intact-looking boards before finally straightening up and turning to face Jinx, tugging off the bandana he always has tied around his neck so he can wipe off his face as he does so. He opens his mouth to make some comment about being ready, but then he registers what he's looking at and his jaw just kinda hangs there, open.

It's been so long since he's seen her hair down that he can't even remember what it looked like last time. Maybe it was too short to be put up at all back then. But now there's so much of it, bright blue even in the gloom, and when it's not tightly braided it all manages to make her look even smaller, a pale face and bright eyes lost in a dark ocean. He's always had the perpetual urge to tug at her braids just because they look like such an easy target (schoolboy with a crush style, honestly), but when her hair is all down in waves that thought vanishes.] I, um— [Give him a moment, his brain is rebooting. At least managing one word means he's closed his mouth? He wets his lips, tries not to wonder how long it takes her to brush and braid her hair. Some of the Firelights crack jokes at him for spending so much time on his own hair—constant maintenance to keep even his fade perfectly bleached, diligent retwisting so his dreads stay fresh and neat and looking extremely cool if he does say so himself—but it can't be half of what she must have to do, with the sheer length she has. Probably even more often, given the difference in their hair textures. Suffering for the aesthetic, right? He can respect that.

Then he remembers himself suddenly and clears his throat, embarrassed. Either they both won or they both lost at this game, and who can say which it is?] Is there— uh, anything special we have to do to the cotton first? Just cut it into strips? [Yeah, he's going to try his hardest to pretend that lapse didn't just happen.]

SNOWED IN

Ekko | Arcane | OTA

timeline: uh... somewhere in the middle - during the time vi is still arrested.

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cw: hallucinations + panic attack

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