Something drops onto the roof next to her.

It's a girl, young, in strange clothes. She seems totally unaware of her surroundings, whimpering quietly with intense pain, although she is not visibly injured.

Jinx looks over at the sound, and stares for a long moment. 

"Uh. Are you okay?"

She's kind of too busy whimpering to notice or respond, but she does not look super okay, no.

Okay so she needs to get this girl down off the rooftop and to a safe place where she can recover from whatever is making her be in intense pain, and she should probably try to keep her from screaming in the meantime. But she has nothing to stuff in her mouth and anyway that would be too dangerous SO let's just leave quickly.

Walking over, she casually hefts the strange girl onto her shoulder - the one that's not occupied by her rocket launcher.

The girl is small and light, easily liftable. She's very tense but doesn't actively struggle, just squeezes her eyes shut and makes quiet pained noises.

Alright then! Pull her Zapper! Hold on to the girl! Stairs! Downdowndowndowndowndown. Night guard still safely out of the way?

Night guard: still out of the way. Small whimpering girl: still small, still whimpering.

Downdowndowndowndowndowndown! Out! Into the alley! Down the street! Left, left, right, left, down into the sewers annnnd here's her bolt hole. Anybody following her?

Nobody following her!

Whimpering girl actually managing to look around! Seems confused and frightened by her surroundings!

Okay, let's put the whimpering girl down on the less-stained futon, because 1: She can't be comfortable up there and 2: it's kind of awkward to talk to her like this. 

She grits her teeth and stops whimpering, then says something in a totally unfamiliar language, with visible effort.

"Uh. Hello. I have no idea what you're saying." 

Jinx digs around in one of the piles of books and ammo and random bits of gun: she comes up with a small vial of deeply red fluid, which she offers. 

"Healing potion?"

...She looks at the healing potion with confusion and mild suspicion, then tries a handful of other languages, none of them recognizable.

Jinx shakes her head in reply to the various other languages. She scratches her forearm with her nails, then takes a sip of the potion, still showing her forearm. The red welts vanish almost instantly. 

...okay, she still has no idea what's going on, but that's a strong argument in favour of drinking the mystery liquid! She reaches for it and takes a sip.

Jinx waits, and arches an eyebrow. "Any help?"

Well, she does noticeably relax. And half-smiles and hands the vial back to Jinx.

Jinx smiles, then holds up a hand and darts out of the room. 

(That one fence she knows still has a translation charm in stock, right? She sure hopes so. Stealing one off a noble could take a while.)

If all goes well, she'll be back in five minutes.

...okay, sure, she'll just. Stay put, then.

A few minutes later, a rather more dishevelled-looking Jinx appears, a wide smile plastered across her face. She holds up a little silvery charm. "Hey! Can you understand me now?"

"Yes I can!" she says, looking and sounding much more chipper. "Where am I?"

"Sweet! I wasn't sure if this thing —" she pings the charm "— was a load of bunk. Welcome to Piltover, most boring city in the world. Excepting yours truly, of course. Feeling better? Healing potion do the trick? I would've given you a more specific remedy but I didn't know if you were cursed or poisoned or sick or what."

"'Cursed' is probably closest. I just collapse in unbearable pain for no reason sometimes, usually at really inconvenient moments like when I'm about to inexplicably appear in midair in a city I've never heard of. It lasts a few minutes and then lets up and I'm fine until the next time it comes around. Do you know how I got here? Because I definitely don't know how I got here."

Jinx shrugs, fingers dancing across a shelf of tossed-together glass vials. "I've got no more of a clue than you. As for your curse or whatever — just pain, you said?" 

"Yeah. I usually don't bother with painkillers, by the time I'm together enough to take something it's not that bad anymore."

"Still, if you have another attack — here, take this." She offers a tiny ampoule filled with amber liquid. "That's the good stuff. My supplier says it's based on one of Singed's formulae, a real Noxian soldier-drug. He's probably bullshitting me, but I can tell you from experience that it kills pain dead. No side effects I ever met, either. Great for when you've gotta stitch yourself up — which let me tell you was a really shitty experience before I had this." 

"Thanks." She accepts the gift. "I, uh, have never heard of 'Singed' or 'Noxian'."

"Huh. You must be from really far away. Noxus: Big badass dictatorship, strong rule the weak, cull the herd, yadda yadda, not my style but pretty powerful, constantly at war with Demacia, their shiny stuckup rival: Singed's their head alchemist, makes most of their chemical weapons, also fights in the League as one of their Champions." 

"...Yeah none of those places exist where I'm from. The Eivarni Empire is all there is."

"Huh. Okay." 

Jinx shrugs. 

"Whaddyagonnadoaboutit?"

"I'm really not sure! ...What's an alchemist?"

Jinx taps on the bottle. "Someone who makes magic potions like this. Like Hextech, but for chemistry."

"Aaaand Hextech...?"

"Uhhhhh. Magic engineering. Like Fishbones, here." She pats the shark-toothed rocket-launcher affectionately.

"That's also something we don't have in Eianvar!"

"Huh. Okay. I don't really... Know much about this stuff? I just use it, I don't build it." 

"Magic where I'm from isn't very... engineer-y, in general? If I said I'm a Light mage, would that make sense to you...?"

"Sounds Demacian. Like Lux. Lux is definitely a light-mage. No clue if they work the way you do, though."

"There's Light and Earth and Air, and Fire and Water and Wood, and then gods," she says. "And those are all the kinds of mage it's possible to be, where I'm from."

"Yeah, we definitely have more types than those. Like, Swain is probably a mage of like, birds or doom or something."

"Well. I'm Light, so I can manipulate light and heal people and that's - mostly it. I could do more impressive things if I had more practice."

"I see. Still more than most people here can do, I'd say."

"More than most people at home too. Mages aren't common."

"Congratulations on the awesome magery! Hopefully that means you won't starve to death. Cause, y'know, I am not rolling in so much cash that I can afford to support you full time forever." 

"I can probably figure something out."

"Just a warning — there's not a lot of legit jobs around here for foreigners, not that I'd want one. Piltover's prob'ly the most stuck up town on the whole planet. If anybody would refuse awesome light-Mage healing, it'd be them."

"And what about non-legit jobs?"

"Oh, there are plenty of those. I'm personally fond of theft and prostitution, at least on the money-making side of things. They might be a bit of a waste of your talents, though." 

"Never done either. Not sure how good I'd be."

"Well, personally I don't find you half bad-looking, but you'd probably make more as a back-alley doctor. I've had to patch up more than a few people in my time here, though I've never tried to charge for it: genuine healing magery would probably be worth more than a little."

"I can do back-alley doctoring. At least in theory. I could use some help with the details, I'm sure."

"Fortunately for you, I've got a bit of a name for myself in the shadier parts of Piltover. If I put the word about, you'll get plenty of clients. Space and equipment might be more tricky, but..." She grins. "Five-finger discount. When that doesn't work, rocket launcher discount. If you need it, I can probably get it — and I definitely don't mind helping you set yourself up."

"Really good healers don't need much in the way of equipment. I'm not that good, yet. But I don't know the first thing about what doctors here even use... well, it'll be an adventure."

"I should have some spare supplies I can give you: while you're learning, you're welcome to stay with me. Though, uh, you should know this isn't where I like, live. Just a convenient bolthole." 

"I am happy to take you up on your kind offer."

"Alright then! If you wanna stay here and rest for a bit, feel free, or if you wanted to ask more questions that's also good, or we could head to my place right now, or maybe there's something else I'm forgetting? I do that a lot." 

"Hmm, let's see, questions - what's this League you mentioned somebody fighting in?"

"Huh. You really must be from far away: the League of Legends is kind of a big deal. I don't know the details, but I can fill you in on the basics." 

Jinx sits down on the free futon, and absently counts on her fingers. 

"Alright so, magic is a big deal, it's scary, hextech is badass. There are spells and enchanted things out there that will fuck your shit up. If you're a nation, you get your hands on as much of it as possible, because the other side has magic too and if you don't fight magic with magic, things are gonna go badly." 

Jinx cracks a small smile. 

"Except actually fighting magic with magic tends to go badly. It only took one or two magical wars before people started realizing that we were running out of places for people to, uh, live. Things were crawling out of cracks in reality, an entire kingdom is a blasted hellscape now... Yeah, it wasn't good. So the League came in to replace all that. Magical trial by champion, wagering Nexus crystals on the outcome - they're intensely magically powerful, one of the big wars was over a place that's now called the Crystal Scar, three guesses why and the first two don't count, you get the picture. Some of the champions fight for a nation, some of 'em are mercenaries, a few are Things That Should Not Be left over from the bad old days... should I keep going? Want any examples?"

"Wow, that makes so much more sense than just continuing to fight each other until the continent you're fighting on is under the ocean and covered in horrible monsters," she says.

"We've still got a whole kingdom of pissed-off dead people, so I wouldn't say we did perfect. But yeah, the League's probably better than that." 

"A kingdom of pissed-off dead people? Where'd you get one of those?"

"They call it the Shadow Isles. I dunno what happened to it - my money's on 'too many people being killed and resurrected' - but nothing there stays properly dead anymore. The whole place is covered in the Black Mist, which so far as I know is basically a giant cloud of hate ghosts, and occasionally the Black Mist goes and attacks Bilgewater on the coast, and they call that a Harrowing. S'part of why I don't live in Bilgewater. Anyway, the League uses parts of it as a dueling ground sometimes - nothing there that anybody would mind destroying, and it adds to the tension of the match when a five-story-tall spider could come crashing into the middle of it." 

"Sounds exciting."

"Oh, it definitely is. A good chunk of the matches are just so's you know who's got the toughest champions nowadays: they play up the drama a lot. There's this one guy Draven who basically runs on showboating, he throws these enchanted axes that bounce into the air and then he runs and catches them and when he gets 'em going let me tell you it's a sight to see, and of course there's the void beasts and the Shadow Isles representatives and so on. Nobody dies permanently though."

"People die temporarily?"

"Yeah! If the Champion dies, then their Summoner just calls them back in a few moments... Okay, this could get complicated. Should I, like, go over it from the top? I'm pretty sure I've got the collectible board game over here somewhere..." 

"Sure, let's hear it. Collectible board game and all."

"Okay!"

Jinx fishes around in the pile, and retrieves a case of dark wood. She unfolds it and spreads it open, revealing a heavily-forested miniature battlefield. Three sharp paths have been cut through the trees, linking a red jewel in the upper-right corner with a blue jewel in the bottom-left.

"So the basic setup is that most of the dueling terrain is very difficult to move through — dense jungle, usually — and inhabited by monsters. The three paths between the red and blue nexus crystals are called the 'lanes', and they're where most of the fighting happens. They're guarded by towers." Jinx taps a little stone figure placed in one of the lanes, which holds a glowing red crystal high above its head. "The towers can smash visible enemies flat with deadly magical projectiles, and they also sustain defensive enchantments that make attacks on anything further in from them futile. Your team of five champions needs to destroy all the towers in a lane in order to expose the enemy nexus, and then make a final assault and shatter the crystal — all while preventing the same thing from happening to your own Nexus. With me so far?"

"Yeah," she says, studying the tiny battlefield thoughtfully.

"Okay, so that's the basics. But it gets better! This isn't just duelling, this is a little simulated war. Each side gets a whole bunch of conjured soldiers - they're extremely dumb, and just run down a lane, attacking anything from the other team. Both sides' soldiers are exactly the same, so any battle between equal forces is largely a matter of luck..." 

Jinx grins. "Until the champions get involved, that is. Their job is to clear a path through the opposing forces so their own minions can attack the tower — and both sides' champions earn additional personal enchantments by the impact they've made, so even close stalemates don't tend to hold for long." 

Jinx taps one of the Nexus Crystals. "Now, your question about people dying temporarily. Sometimes, a Champion kills another one. It comes with the game - and it's worth a lot towards your side's progress through the match. That said... Nobody wants to actually lose a Champion in a ritual duel, right?"

"Right. Wouldn't want to run out of Champions and have to go back to fighting wars."

"That's where the Summoners come in. The actual Champions never venture out onto the battlefield: instead, they're Summoned into conjured bodies by dedicated mages. The Champion and their Summoner essentially share that body: sometimes it's an even split, sometimes the Summoner is just along for the ride, and sometimes the Summoner's the one in charge. That last one is how the Void Beasts are controlled, incidentally. If somebody dies, that Champion and their Summoner are going to be disoriented and hurting - they just 'died' - but in a few seconds, a new conjured body is ready and the fight continues." 

"Huh."

"Yep. Real luxury version of ressurection magic: most of the other ones don't work nearly that well. On one hand, it sucks that I don't get to come back like that when I die: on the other hand, watching the matches is seriously fun. They're part of the reason I came here, actually: the local sheriff and her deputy both serve as Piltover's Champions in the League." 

"And, what, you're a fan?"

"Yeah, you could say that. Every day I'm not arrested, it means I'm better at my job than a proper League Champion."

"Congratulations."

"Gotta get my kicks from somewhere, right?" 

Jinx grins, her fingers flicking through tossed-together game pieces in the other half of the case. "Annnnd here she is! Caitlyn, the sheriff who always gets her man!" She holds up a little figurine: Caitlyn's fascimile looks resolutely down the sights of a bolt-action rifle, seemingly unbothered by the voluminous purple top-hat she's wearing.

...she giggles. "What is that she's holding?"

"Hextech rifle - it basically throws little pieces of metal really, really fast. Hat lady won her place in the league by being an absurdly good shot with one. She's famous for knocking weapons out of criminals' hands, hitting moving targets through thick underbrush, you get the idea. It's almost impossible to get anywhere near her in the League: when a bullet like that pangs off your helmet's defensive wards, you turn around really fast."

"Huh."

She studies the figurine thoughtfully.

"Who even decides who fights in the League?"

"There's a governing body, like the Summoner's Council or something. If you wanna apply, I'm pretty sure there's some mystical mumbo jumbo involved. Most places of any size get to pick at least one or two Champions of their own: Piltover's got four, last I checked."

"I don't think I want to fight in the League but I think I might want to entertain myself thinking about fighting in the League."

"I can get that, there's too much politics and rules and regulations and all that crap."

"Yeah. Politics is not my favourite thing."

"Congratulations, one more thing we have in common. Less concerned about the whole 'might die in creative ways' thing?" 

"Well - temporarily die is not at all the same as permanently die."

Jinx grins. "I agree completely. And that's part of why I carry these." Her fingers tap the shark-toothed tube on her shoulder, the pink metallic blob at her hip, and the blue-glowing tube of her Zapper on her other hip. 

She frowns. "... Now that I think of it, I should give you something. You're probably safe so long as you're with me, but there are enough footpads and asshole nobles around that it makes sense for you to have a weapon just in case."

"I wouldn't know the first thing about using a weapon like that... do you have anything that's particularly learnable?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of lending you my Zapper." She takes the luminescent blue tube from its holster, and offers it to her guest handle-first.

She very tentatively takes the tube. "And how does it... zap?"

"Trigger's here, just at the top part of the inner bit of handle. Aim the pointy crystal end at the thing you wanna zap, then push the button." 

She studies the Zapper.

"All right. And what happens to zapped things?"

Jinx spreads her arms out wide. "Zap me, find out." She grins.

...she looks at Jinx. She shrugs slightly, a well-you-asked-for-it sort of shrug. She points. She zaps.

A flash of cyan light, and a yelp. Jinx flops over backwards, her spine arching, and shakes and shudders violently on the futon.

A few moments later, a weak voice drifts up from the floor. 

"... that was dumb."

Ruava looks down at her with a wry smile. "You okay? Need me to get you anything?"

"Nah, it's my own fault. Forgot how much of a kick these things have. I'm fine."

"All right."

Jinx sits up again, and blows an errant bit of her bangs out her face. "So yeah, anybody you shock with that thing is going to have a hard time chasing you for a while. If you have to, kick 'em while they're down."

Jinx tilts her head. 

"... Y'know, if I'm lending my gun to you, I should probably know your name first." 

She laughs.

"I'm Ruava."

"Jinx! Nice to meetcha, Ruava. You should know I'm famously bad company and being near me is gonna complicate your life. Last chance to back out?"

"I don't mind a little complication," she says. "You seem all right so far."

"Glad to hear it! Anyway, it's late and I should really sleep. On to the apartment?"

"Sounds good."

Jinx stands up and stretches: she yawns, and shakes out a slight twitch in one arm. 

"Alright. Stick close: even if a couple girls out late in a bad part of town might make a tempting target, any footpads'll turn around fast when they realize it's me."

"Will do."

Jinx shoves aside the bookcase that acts as a makeshift door, and turns her head away from the sewer-stench that rolls in. 

"Ugh. Okay, here we go."

And out she goes into the darkness.

Ruava follows. She decides not to make any light to see by.

Jink shoves the bookcase back into place, and sets off into the darkness. 

... It really is very dark. The Zapper sheds a little light, but nowhere near enough to really navigate by. 

Well.

Ruava is a Light mage. In theory she doesn't need to see the light; if it's nearby she can just... tell where it's going. Right?

So she pays attention, and tries to feel the shape of the space in the movement of what little light there is. It works reasonably well, and it's kind of fun, and it lets her keep up with Jinx no problem.

And before long, they're outside in an alley beneath proper starlight. Jinx sets a fairly brisk pace, threading her way between the verdigrised buildings: the crammed-together townhouses seem to have settled into stately decay, marred here and there by scrawled graffiti.

It sure is an interesting place.

It seems to be getting a bit less awful as Jinx leads onward. The buildings are certainly getting younger and taller and shinier, with less graffiti. 

Jinx turns in at the door of a building that, while not exactly respectable, can at least see respectable from where it's standing. 

Just telling which things are respectable is a fascinating challenge - it's not that hard, but it's very different from what she's used to.

There is a lobby. A metal marionette of a person looks up, then waves the pair of them through when it sees Jinx. She goes by without even a glance at it. 

Well all right then. Ruava follows Jinx some more.

Jinx walks into the hallway beyond, presses a button on the wall, and a little light blinks on above a pair of double doors. She stands there, looking at the light. 

Okay, sure. This is definitely going to start making sense at some point.

The doors open, revealing an empty closet on the other side. Jinx steps in, and pushes another button on a panel by the door.

Ruava follows her into the closet and awaits sense.

The doors close, and there's a momentary feeling of weight.

Jinx looks bored.

"...huh," says Ruava. That's motion, is what that is. A moving closet. Handy for getting from place to place.

And then there's a moment of lightness, and then the doors open to a completely different hallway. 

Jinx takes three steps down the hall, and fishes a key out of her shorts. She tilts her head at the apartment number. "503, in case you need to get back here again on your own."

"Good to know."

Into the apartment! Fairly simple but nice: a kitchenette and entertaining space with a little table at a window and a rather ancient-looking couch. Stove, sinkful of dishes, fridge. Big squashy beanbags on the floor. Piles of magazines, a heap of tossed-together jewellery on one of the counters, metal boxes stacked against one wall. A disassembled Zapper sits on the window table, atop what looks like a half-done schematic or maybe a piece of abstract art. 

Jinx's gaze flicks through the corners of the room, then she turns to Ruava with a smile. "Welcome home. It's got running water, central heating, and electricity seven days of ten. Don't trust the fridge unless it's got a block of ice in it, but otherwise the place is pretty decent."

"It's a nice place," she says. "And I wouldn't know what to trust a fridge with anyway."

"It's supposed to keep things cold, but it's not very good at it. Anyway, for tonight you can sleep on the couch, or I should have a spare futon I can toss down in the middle of the room if you think that'd be more comfy. I have a ton of spare blankets, do you want like a heavy quilt or something.... Oh, you kind of just appeared, are you even tired? I have no idea what time of day it was where you came from." 

"It was a little after sunset, but I might as well start sleeping on a local-ish schedule, right? Couch plus blanket works fine."

"Do you want a heavy comforter, or something lighter, or...?" 

She considers the temperature. "Yeah, let's go with the heavy blanket. I like to be cozy."

"One heavy blanket coming right up!" Jinx darts into the bedroom for a moment. 

The blanket is indeed heavy and voluminous and snuggly, in a deep burgundy color that definitely doesn't match the couch. 

"Here you go."

"That is an amazing blanket," says Ruava, accepting it. She is rather engulfed. "I love it."

"Big snuggly blankets are definitely on my list of things that are great. Want a second one? They've got down in them, they are just the best." 

"Just one of them is already almost more blanket than I can handle," she says, laughing. "Look at me. I'm the coziest person alive."

She flumphs on the couch and nestles in the blanket so only her face pokes out.

Jinx giggles. "Okay, that is amazingly cute. Careful, or I might decide to keep you."

Ruava grins. "I'm not necessarily opposed to being kept."

Jinx blushes. And retreats into her bedroom, trailing a string of 'nope nope too tired for this shut up fishbones yes I know she's cute!' 

Her voice drifts in from around the corner. "Goodnight!" 

"Goodnight!" giggles Ruava from her blanket nest.

"Yep, goodnight!" 

There's a sound of rustling covers, and then the lights go out. 

Ruava curls up in her wonderfully cozy blanket nest and goes to sleep.

Eventually, morning arrives.

And Ruava remains cozy. She should maybe get up or something, but actually she thinks she will just snuggle this glorious blanket until she sees Jinx.

Jinx sits at the window table, staring out into the city with a pen in one hand. She doesn't seem to have noticed Ruava's awake yet. 

There's Jinx! Ruava pokes her head out of her nest. "Good morning."

Jinx blinks. 

"Sorry, what?"

She giggles. "Good morning!"

"Good morning! Sorry, was lost in thought. You need a lot of sleep, don't you? I had time to build an entire gun while you were out." 

Jinx grins, and picks up her spare Zapper from where it was sitting on the table. This one glows pink!

"They're that quick to build? Wow, now I want to learn how to do that."

"Well, most of the work is in getting the right parts, and I had this one mostly done already. But yeah! If you want someone to help you learn to make guns, I am totally your girl. Pow-Pow is one hundred percent mine. Now that I think of it, have I shown you her?" 

"I don't remember being introduced!"

Jinx picks up the pink blob of metal and sets it on the table with a weighty thunk. Then she presses a button, and the table groans as more gun unfolds - far more than the pink blob should have been able to hold. The resulting contraption is bright pink, three-barrelled, bunny-eared, and almost as large as Jinx's torso. 

"Ruava, Pow-Pow. Pow-Pow, Ruava. Pow-Pow is a gun that can saw through trees. I don't think I need to tell you that building her broke, like, all the laws."

"She's adorable!"

Jinx leans in and whispers. "But deadly."

She giggles. 

"I'd offer to test-fire her for you, but I like this apartment."

"I absolutely want to learn how to make things like that."

"Probably not going to start with something like Pow-Pow, though. She's my baby: I've been building her out and modifying her for years now. I should have a basic kit kicking around here somewhere, though." 

Jinx presses the button again, and Pow-Pow compresses back into her handy carrying case.

"I can start with something smaller," she agrees. "But hopefully just as adorable."

"I can do custom art for it! I mean, if you want custom art on it. Do you want custom art on it?"

"Sure!"

"Custom art of what, though, that is the question." 

"I dunno!"

"I'm sure we'll think of something. In the meantime, I guess I'm going to have to find some parts for you. Would you prefer to go shopping, or to 'go' 'shopping'?" 

Giggle. "I don't know, what's the difference?"

"One involves money, the other doesn't." 

"Aha. Well, all else being equal I generally prefer not to steal stuff, but if there was a good reason I could make an exception."

"Guns are expensiiiiive and if I buy them it's gonna be with less than legal cash anyway, so I don't see the big difference, but sure, whatever. We can get something relatively more legit rather than knocking over one of the arming-posts for the bots." 

"Arming-posts for the bots...? What bots?"

"Most of the police force around here are bots - not people, just machines operated by remote control. Tougher, stronger, faster than normal humans. Makes it hard for your average criminal to evade or escape them... But I think we've already established that I'm not exactly average." Jinx grins.

"You're definitely something special," Ruava agrees. "And stealing from the police is kind of tempting..."

"My own Zapper's police-issue. Well, it was before I started fiddling with it."  

"I am increasingly tempted."

"I mean, it's not as if they can't spare a Zapper or two. But it's your call! After all, I maintain a strict division between my criminal work life and my criminal fun life."

Ruava giggles.

"Sure, let's steal from the police."

"Alright! Do you wanna do it the smash-and-grab way, or the sneaky silent way? Either is fun: smash and grab's always about as dangerous, sneaky's more unpredictable." 

"I'm not sure I'll be much use either way..."

"I can alllllways use helpers. Are you absurdly clumsy or terrible under pressure?"

"Well, now that you mention it, no and no."

"Then if nothing else, you can be a lookout."

"Sure."

"That said, I do still want your opinion on sneaky or not sneaky. Do you wanna see Pow-Pow in action?"

"...Hmm... sneaky, I think."

"Aw. Okay. Give me a sec, I gotta change." 

Jinx vanishes off into the bedroom, and there's a sound of running water.

Okay then.

A few minutes later, Jinx returns from the bathroom. Loose chestnut-brown hair spills down her back: she wears a shapeless sweater top and a pair of jeans, her gunsmoke tattoos almost entirely hidden by the dark fabric. She's not carrying Pow-Pow or Fishbones, but there's plenty of room in that top for her to hide her Zapper. 

"Alright. Let's get going, then."  

"Nice," says Ruava. "All right."

"I've got to at least be able to fake normalcy, right? Or did you think electric blue was my natural hair color?"

"It might've been!"

"Oh, right, other world. Nah, it's dye. Takes forever to maintain, but it's worth it."

Ruava looks at Jinx consideringly.

Now Jinx's hair is electric blue again! ...And glowing slightly.

"Wow, doing that with light manipulation is even harder than I thought..." She lets it go; the colour fades.

"Cute!" 

She grins.

"That could definitely be a useful trick if you practiced it. Disguise without the disguise."

"It's really hard. I might be able to figure out an easier way, but if I did it wouldn't work on myself, because I'm Light."

"... Could you maybe explain that a little more?"

"Sorry. Um—"

Now Ruava's hair is electric blue and glowing slightly. Now it's bright violet and glowing slightly. Now it's sunny orange-yellow and glowing slightly. Now it's ordinary black again.

"I can do that with lightshaping, because I'm a Light mage," she says. "But most of what a Light mage can do is magic that works on other people. So if I figured out how to do a disguise that wasn't insanely difficult and didn't make you glow, it would be from the works-on-other-people part of my magic, and I wouldn't be able to use it on myself."

"Huh. Weird. I guess that makes sense... and it does kinda explain why you can heal people with your light powers. Can you do other stuff?" 

"Yeah, but I don't know what yet."

"Wanna bet you're gonna get a lot of chances to find out?" 

She giggles.

Jinx smiles back. "Anyway! We should get moving. Oh, and take this." She holds out the silvery translation charm. "It makes a lot more sense for the person who needs translating to have the charm, right? You're probably gonna want to talk to somebody who isn't me eventually. Kinda hard to talk your way out of a jam when nobody can understand you, right?" 

"Good idea. Thanks."

She puts on the charm.

"All right, let's go steal stuff."

"I thought you'd never ask." 

Back down to the lobby, out through the double doors past the bot, and off we go down the alleyways! Left, right, left, right... 

(There's a poster over there with Jinx's face on it, electric-blue hair and all. "WANTED", yells the poster. "JINX", "REWARD". There's a lot of smaller text beneath the picture.)

Well, that's... unsurprising, all things considered.

The Jinx on the poster grins at Ruava. She can just about make out the top line of charges below "REWARD": Murder, Unprovoked Assault, Disturbing the Peace, Public... something?

Hmm. Something to ask her about later, maybe.

Jinx looks back at Ruava. "Hey, what's so interesting? I get it, everything's new, but... Oh, hey!" 

It seems she's noticed the wanted poster.

"It's got your name on it," she observes.

"Yeah, it does!" She grins. "Read the charges for me, would you?"

Now that Ruava's a bit closer, the list of charges is big enough to make out. 

"Murder, Unprovoked Assault, Disturbing the Peace, Public Indecency, Murder Again, Unauthorized Property Recoloration, Unflattering Impersonation of an Officer, Reckless Hexplosive Detonation, Destruction of the Peace, Really Petty Larceny, Exorbitant Weapon Size, Some More Murders, Inciting Mass Hysteria, Making Fun of the Peace, Aggravated Jaywalking, Forging of Official Wanted Posters."

Ruava obligingly reads them. When she gets to 'Murder Again', she raises her eyebrows. Somewhere around 'Really Petty Larceny', she starts snickering.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't even one of mine! I'd remember 'Unflattering Impersonation of an Officer', that's a good one. Check the bottom left corner for me, wouldja? My tag's there on the ones I made."

"Well there's something there..."

"X with a line under it?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"Yeah, not one of mine then. Still no way it's legit though." She grins. 

"Who's going around making fake wanted posters for you?"

"I dunno, I guess it caught on. You said there was something in the lower left - what was it? It's probably the artist's tag."

"It's a letter with a line through it, I don't actually know what the letter is called," she says.

"I guess translation charms don't substitute for everything, huh? Let me have a look." 

After a moment's inspection, Jinx makes a thoughtful little noise. "Hm. Not one I recognize. Guess I'll have to ask around later."

"Guess you're pretty famous, huh?"

"Guess so!"

"Onward?"

"Yeah, at this rate we're never gonna get anywhere."

Streets streets streets. Occasionally people, minding their own business. And here is a building with a sign out front that marks it as a constabulary arming-post.

Goodness. What are they going to do with it?

Jinx looks at Ruava.

"Hmm. How good are you at climbing?"

"Pretty good. What do I need to climb?"

"Well, option one is like, tenth-story work or higher. Option two is 'go in the front, bluff our pants off'."

"At home I'd be better at bluffing than climbing, but around here I don't think I'd know what to say. I bet I can make the climb, though."

"Alright then, let's go. Follow my lead."

... Her lead, apparently, is a vertical scramble directly up the dilapidated wall of the building right next to them. She seems to be aiming for a balcony about four floors up. 

Ruava follows.

Jinx makes it to the balcony, not even breathing hard. She looks back at Ruava, and grins. 

"A woman of many talents, aren't you?" 

She leans in, and presses her ear to the balcony door.

She beams. "I get by."

Jinx tries the doorknob. It rattles, but doesn't give. 

"Here's one of mine." 

Her palm thuds into the doorknob, and the next time she tries it, the door opens easily. Beyond lies another apartment, not so different from Jinx's own - though perhaps less cluttered.

"Nice trick."

Jinx crosses to the outer door of the apartment in three long strides, and looks out through the peephole.

"The trick is knowing a shitty lock when I see one." 

"Useful!"

"It helps that barely anybody shells out for a decent lock on an exterior door four stories up."

Jinx slips out into the hall.

Ruava follows, laughing very quietly.

Jinx stops in front of another elevator, and pushes a button. A little up arrow flashes on.

What a convenient way to go up!

Certainly better than climbing. 

Elevate elevate elevate. Top floor. 

"Now, where's the staircase to the roof..."

Ruava still isn't used to the way buildings work around here and won't be much help looking.

Fortunately, there aren't many places to search. The stairwell with the roof access door turns up quickly. 

Jinx looks at the padlock on the door, and makes a little 'tsk' noise. 

"I don't think this one will give up if you punch it," remarks Ruava.

"I was just thinking it's a shame they made such a nice lock, and then used a shackle on it that's only as wide as my pinky."

Jinx pulls a chisel from her hoodie. Bracing it against the lock with her left hand, she puts the butt of her Zapper against the end of it. 

"This'll be loud."

She giggles.

One sharp tap, and the lock is no longer a problem. Jinx walks briskly out onto the roof, over to the edge nearest the arming-station.

Ruava traipses cheerfully after her.

Jinx leans out over the edge, and considers the gap between this roof and the arming-station's. 

"... Alley's pretty narrow. This is an easy jump for me, but I've got a lot of practice not flinching from long falls. I don't recommend trying from ten stories up if this is your first time."

"I could jump that in my sleep."

"Alright. It's just that novices say that and then balk halfway through, trip on the ledge, splat. S'your own fault now if you turn into a street pancake."

"I'll be fine. Heights are not a problem I have."

Jinx doesn't reply: she just vaults the gap.

So does Ruava, as casually as if she does this every day.

The door to the station roof is predictably locked from inside. Jinx produces a set of lockpicks with a sigh. 

"Ugh. I hate these things, they're so damn fiddly. Least I've got some decent kifers now." 

"Your locks are different here, or I'd offer to help."

"You sure are a convenient sort of person to have randomly dropped on me! Just a minute here, I think I've almost got this..." 

Click. 

"THERE we go."

And there goes Jinx again, darting off down the stairwell. 

Fun and excitement!

Jinx isn't descending this stairwell in a safe or sane manner, unless you consider leaping down from one landing to the next to be both safe and sane. Definitely faster, though, if you don't mind the high chance of a very nasty fall.

Ruava pauses for a second at the top of the stairs, observing how the game is played, and then follows in the same manner.

That landing is not as close as it looks. How the hell did Jinx make this jump?

It's exactly as close as it looks, thank you very much, at least when Ruava's doing the looking. She has to pay attention, but she doesn't have trouble keeping up.

And here is a door with the word 'Armory' on it and Jinx has her chisel out and she's not even bothering with the reinforced lock: A few sharp blows and the door sags on one hinge. Jinx pulls her Zapper and sweeps the room, then nods to Ruava.

"Grab everything you can carry, anything that glows is probably valuable, move fast." 

So Ruava does that. What's the highest available concentration of glowiness? Looks to be those racks of crystals, time to grab a bunch! She's small, she's not going to haul around many of those big weapons by herself, she's better off picking up the smaller stuff.

Jinx comes in, takes a brief scan of the room, and then lets out a stifled whoop. She picks up a thing that looks like a grenade with teeth, and shows it to Ruava. 

"Flame Chompers! I didn't know they had these here yet. These are crowd control grenades, you activate 'em and then they leap at the nearest person that's not you, bite 'em, and then they apply a really heavy magic restriction that basically leaves you on the floor unable to move because it feels like a ton of bricks on top of you. And then maybe they explode, depends if you set 'em that way. I've seen these things used in the league, they're that cutting-edge!"

...She giggles. "Isn't it a little pointless to grab somebody and pin them to the ground and then explode?"

"And then explode is optional!"

"Well all right then!"

More glowing crystals. Goodness she's efficient. What even are these.

Jinx stuffs crystals into her hoodie pockets, along with a Zapper body. She slips a longer rifle over one shoulder, and then looks around appraisingly one more time. 

"Anything in particular catch your eye?"

"Mm..."

Of the available things-that-are-obviously-weapons, most range from 'big' to 'intractably big', but some are small. Ruava-sized, you might say. She darts over to a rack and picks up two little pistol-things.

"There."

Jinx gives Ruava's weapon selection an approving smile. "Nice. Alright, let's go."

She throws the door open on its remaining hinge - right into a lurking robot. 

"Oh, hi!" 

Goodness. Whatever will they do.

Kick the robot through the banister and listen to it smash against the floor five stories down, apparently. 

"And that's our cue to run."

Ruava can run! Ruava can totally run.

Stairs stairs stairs stairs stairs! Robots with Zappers on the ground floor taking potshots! More robots coming down the landing hallways to investigate the noise! 

Running running running dodging running -

- what happens if she surrounds a robot in total darkness?

The leader of the group coming down the side hall makes a distressed beep, and goes down in a tangle of limbs. Its followers trip over it almost immediately.

Jinx grins, pulling her Zapper from her hoodie pocket as she runs. "Nice!"

Cool. She darkens more robots, particularly any that are trying to shoot at them. The darkness takes a little concentration to maintain, but not a ton.

Great, robots on the landing in front of the door to the roof. Zapper bolt to the chest of the closest one, kick it into the second, shit the third one's got a bead on her -

Not anymore it doesn't!

And now it has a boot in its face as well. Door's still unlocked good out out out - 

Out they go! Back to the other roof or what?

Back to the other roof and back down the stairs! 

Whee!

Back to the apartment they came in through! Annnnd stop?

Jinx closes the door behind them and sits down. 

"Okay, we've got a few minutes, they'd have to check every door and there's no sign of forced entry here, they probably know we're in this building but I don't think any of them got a good look at us, if we quickly break down the bigger items so we can stash them then we can probably walk right through them before they form a proper cordon."

She pulls the rifle on her shoulder into her lap, and starts disassembling it. 

"Enjoying my life so far?"

"Your life is great."

Everything Ruava picked up is already in her pockets. This makes for some suspiciously bulgy pockets, but she redistributes a few things and then it's not so bad.

"You're not half bad either. Light magic there, blinding them?"

"Yep! It seemed helpful."

"It definitely was!" 

Jinx grins, and absently stands up to wander around the room as she sets to work disassembling the bulkier of her pistols. Yep, this sure is someone's apartment. Much tidier than Jinx's, though. Neat pile of paperwork on the central table, long leather coat thrown over a chair... She absently opens a door and looks into the bedroom. Deep blue dress laid out on the bed, along with a purple top hat. Jeez, who has a sense of fashion like that? I mean, there are lenses attached to that hat, what a weird fashion statement.

Wait.

Jinx points at the hat. 

"Hat." 

...Ruava last saw that hat on a game piece.

"...hat," she agrees. "Um. Do we need to be out of here."

"Uh fuck let me think. Good news, the person who lives here is almost certainly out on business. Bad news, when she hears that this building has us in it she's going to be coming straight here in case somebody's targeting her. Really bad news is that this is gonna look a thousand percent like we just deliberately broke into the chief of police's home. Uuuuuuuuuhhhhh should I leave a note and say 'sorry accident'? That would be dumb she wouldn't believe us so yeah we'd better run. At least I don't look like me?" 

"I bet I could make the note believable but running immediately seems safer."

"Yeah I'm gonna leave this chunky pistol as a gift for Cait and just go."

"Sounds good!"

Out onto the balcony! Any bots inconveniently looking this way? No? Okay, down down down down - 

Down down down this part is kinda fun really.

And casually out of the alley, we are just two everyday citizens, good morning officerbot, what is all the shouting and beeping about?

Ruava does a remarkably good impression of someone who is actually completely innocent.

Officerbot seems rather preoccupied. Perhaps his police chief is breathing down his neck about something? He hardly even looks away from the doors of the building, just waving this pair of fine upstanding citizens on through. 

Good officerbot. Well done.

Casual stroll casual stroll turn a corner run for it!

Ruava can do that.

And three or four blocks later they can return to a casual stroll, now that they're probably not going to be spotted by Caitlyn Herself.

"... Well. That was interesting." Turn left, not back towards the apartment. A few more blocks this way there's another one of her boltholes. 

"Fun and excitement," Ruava says cheerfully.

"That it was! Anyway, we're not gonna sleep in the apartment tonight: turn in here, basement door, one sec let me get out the key..." 

Jinx fishes in her pocket, and turns up a little piece of twisted glass. As she touches it to a spiderweb of copper by the handle, the heavy metal door swings open, revealing a cramped room with two futons and a few cartons labelled "food", "meds", and "drinks". 

"Not my best bolt-hole, but better than risking Cait following us home." 

"Makes sense."

"Well then, let's have a look at the haul! What've you got?"

"Lots and lots of glowing things!"

So many glowing things. She turns out her pockets. Many glowing things emerge.

"And these," the two small pistols.

"Nice! A ton of mana crystals - they use these to recharge the guns, but they're a lot more general purpose than that, you can run just about anything on them if you've a mind to. Heck, maybe we could convert the fridge over so it would work more reliably. The vials'll take a bit more inspection, but I'm willing to bet we can add a few of those to our medical supplies. Those pistols look nice too - mind if I have a closer look? I'm not sure if they're slugthrowers or Zappers from this distance." 

"Sure." She hands them over.

"Hmm. These look like pretty standard Zappers to me, but this one has a toggle I'm not familiar with... and some extra size to its charge pack, it's subtle but I can see it goes all the way into the handle. Maybe you can set it to be lethal...? Nah, doesn't make a lot of sense, slugthrowers are more efficient at that. Still, both of these are nice pieces: even if you decide not to hang onto them, we can probably sell them for a decent amount of gold."

Jinx rubs her chin.

"Between those, my slugthrower rifle, and the extra crystals, we've definitely made more than enough on this that even if you're missing some parts we can buy them easy." 

"Oh good."

"Not bad for one job."

"It was kind of fun!"

"Glad to hear it!" 

Jinx yawns and stretches.

"Heck of a thing, accidentally breaking into the house of the Chief of Police. Trust me when I say that usually doesn't happen." She grins.

"I believe you! Maybe I'm - well, not a bad luck charm or we would've gotten caught. A weird luck charm?"

"Hee! Something like that. You're successfully managing to complicate my life, and let me tell you, that's not something other people usually do to me."

"Should I be proud?"

"You definitely should. I think you're the very first not-boring person I've ever met." 

Jinx looks at Ruava contemplatively.

"Best compliment."

...Okay, fuck it. She's going to kiss Ruava and the rest can sort itself out later. 

What a great idea!!!

Oh good. Good! She's very glad that this was one of her better ideas. More kissing? More kissing. 

Definitely more kissing. More kissing is such a good plan.

Mmmmmmmm. Kissing. 

... She will probably have to come up for air at some point, but that point is not yet now. 

Breathing while kissing is a skill! It is a skill Ruava possesses!

She's truly a woman of many talents. It's one of the many things Jinx loves about her. 

Awwwwwwwwwwwww.

Mmmmmmmm. 

She is tempted to just keep kissing Ruava for forever, but other options are coming to mind and they are things she should probably actually consult her on.

"... So. We're stuck in this little room for the next, mmm, few hours at least. However will we entertain ourselves."

"I'm liking your ideas so far. Got any more?"

"Small room, underground, middle of the day, one tiny window that lets in the sun... We're gonna sweat through everything we're wearing after a couple hours cooped up in here. I should probably take off this jacket at least."

Ruava grins.

"Very logical."

"My deductive skills put all the cops here to shame."

No more jacket: just a dark t-shirt with some artistically placed slashes through it.

Ruava continues to grin.

Also kisses her again, that seems appropriate to the situation.

Kisses! Yes, kisses are good. 

"... It, mm, occurs to me that we're both girls, so there's," kiss, "no reason anyone'd see anything new to them..."

"True," Ruava agrees. "So it would be totally reasonable to take off all our clothes right now, is that what you're saying?"

"Oh no, your piercing insight has seen right through my cunning plan!"

Ruava giggles. And kisses Jinx. And commences taking off all her clothes.

Jinx can definitely help with that. The kissing. And also the clothes part. Which happens to reveal new areas for kissing.

What excellent ideas Jinx has!!

Any idea that gets Ruava to smile like that is definitely an excellent idea! Let's see if she can come up with a few more on short notice.

Today is going to be a very smiley day.

Yesssssss.

... well, Ruava ran out of clothing quickly. One or two more kisses, and then Jinx supposes it's her turn?

Definitely.

Excellent.

Contrary to what Jinx said earlier, Ruava might actually be learning a few things. Particularly about the extent of Jinx's tattoos and what body parts can be pierced. 

Goodness.

Well, Ruava does like to learn new things.

Jinx does love to be surprising. Let's reward her bold discoverer with an extra kiss...

Kisses! Kisses are so good!

Kisses are wonderful! Let's see, what kind of kisses are best? Kisses on the mouth? Kisses on the shoulder, the neck? Kisses on the collarbone? Kisses... lower than that? 

All of these kisses. All of them.

It's a good thing that Jinx has unlimited stock. 

Yes. Very good. An inexhaustible supply of kisses is a valuable resource.

It is! But what about an inexhaustible supply of kisses and caresses?

Even better!!

And in exchange, an inexhaustible supply of those wonderful smiles. How perfect for her. 

Yes.

Ruava, it turns out, also has an inexhaustible supply of kisses.

Oooooh. And Jinx certainly has some areas of interest to kiss.

They're very interesting! And kissable!

And you know, Jinx doesn't strictly need to stop kissing or caressing Ruava while she's kissing her. 

This leads naturally to the both of them ending up snuggled together rather closely.

A positive development!

What's Ruava's opinion on the subject of friction?

It is a positive opinion!

Let's see if we can get her to express that positive opinion more strongly.

This is an eminently achievable goal.

Actually she's glowing faintly lavender now?

Glowy cute wonderful kissable firm Ruava. She gets Jinx the best surprises.

It's good to be a nice surprise!!

It is! Let's see, can Jinx be as nice a surprise? Perhaps she has something from her other criminal enterprises to repay Ruava with.