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[powderkegs]

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@

fishbones

✖

CHARACTER NAME

Jinx

CIVILIAN NAME

Powpow McBoom

TEAM

Revelation

HOUSING NUMBER

018

❤

Comments

[powderkegs]

Thought you'd be a lot more . . . cynical 'bout all this.

[ jinx doesn't believe in honour. she's a zaunite. people rip each other to shreds all the time. morality never has a say in it. ]

[gorb]

Oh, I still have back-up plans.

( They're mostly see how much of LILITH he can take down before they fry his brain, but Jinx is young and he doesn't really want to dissuade her from hope if she can keep it. )

Would you stay here do you think?

[powderkegs]

[ her shoulders tense. ]

I dunno. Maybe.

It'll depend on Silco.

[gorb]

( He'd go wherever Jinx asked him, Geto knows that at least. )

Are you happy for the chance to spend time with him? From what I know of your world I'm aware it was ... unforgiving.

[powderkegs]

[ jinx gives a little scoff, blowing her fringe away from her face as she successfully wins her labubu. she pins it to her belt. ]

I think I'd call that the understatement of the fucking year. Though year's still young. Something might top it.

[ she flicks the labubu, watching it swing. ]

Anyway happy's not the word I'd use. Dunno what fits. Complicated probably. That's all we really are. Just some fuckups making it up as we go along.

[gorb]

I think that's the way of most families. Some are just better at pretending.

( Geto had loved his parents, and then he'd killed them. So it's not like he has an entirely well-rounded view of the world. The toy he'd been aiming for drops into the bottom of the machine, he picks it out, holds it in the crook of his arm as he moves onto the next, still in range. )

Complicated is fine. I'm glad you both have the chance to be complicated.

[powderkegs]

Yeah?

[ she gives him a sidelong glance, trying to crack him open. she likes the guy, maybe more so than silco's friends. though she's quite sure that's what he is, first and foremost and jinx will never forget that, he's a chill person to be around. doesn't make her skin itch trying to be something he might envision her to be. ]

That a big deal to you?

[gorb]

The family I built was not a conventional one either.

( He adds a token into the new machine, offers her a smile. )

I was seventeen when I found my daughters. We weren't entirely normal. And the home I built for them I made with the express belief that any of our kind who had been thrown aside could find a place with us. It was a loud, messy affair. It was full of love though. No matter what others thought about us. So yes. It's important that people like the kind we are get to have that even if the world would deny it us.

[powderkegs]

[ loud. messy. full of love. was anything in jinx's life full of love? she can't really recall such a time. everything had been so — so tense. just being alive, being like this . . . it was too much for everyone. ]

I wouldn't say I'm the best thing to happen to . . . families. More like a disaster.

[gorb]

Ah, Jinx-san.

( He hums. )

I think when you're stuck in a world where survival is something you have to grasp for with your teeth it is hard to see the kindness in it. ( He knows Silco. He knows her a little too. He sees the lay of the land and their struggle quite clearly. She doesn't need mollycoddling, but there's something tentative in her, something timid. If he squints he can see two little girls huddled in a shitty Tokyo apartment, unsure of their place. So there's a soft spot. ) You know you don't have to follow the road most travelled, mm? Nobody can judge you for your life, nor for how you and your father live it. All you need to do is decide what you want it to look like now. And that too can change any time you think it should.

[powderkegs]

[ she gives a little scoff, brushing that mood aside like it was nothing. her grin is sharp and playful. ]

Hey now. Why would I do anything else? It's my life after all.

[gorb]

( He smiles. )

Exactly.

( Another toy gets dropped into the hole, Geto's bright glittering gaze dragged back to his work. )

Do whatever you like. No one can stop you.

[powderkegs]

That's right.

[ her gaze cuts like a knife. ]

No one can. But enough of all thaaaat. We're here to have a showdown, remember?

[gorb]

I do.

( He laughs, it is bright and easy. )

Do you want to pick the battlefield?

[powderkegs]

I'll go first. You can pick the next round.

[ fair's fair and she prefers a challenge anyway. jinx taps a nail against her chin, surveying the arcade. ]

Shoot 'em ups first.

[ she wants to see how far geto's skill extends. ]

[gorb]

( Guns.

Oh well, he follows her over to the machines, eyeing them up carefully. These are brightly coloured plastic and so he does not blink as he reaches out to take one of them in careful hands. )

Highest score?

[powderkegs]

[ jinx picks up the gun, spinning it with her index finger. ]

Most kills.

[gorb]

How bloodthirsty.

( But he puts the tokens in for them, feels the weight of the plastic gun in his hands. He has good aim regardless. )

All right, you're on.

[powderkegs]

[ what were they, if not a bloodthirsty lot? she has no illusions about geto or herself.

she aims the gun at the screen, sticking her tongue out playfully. ]

Let's dance.

[gorb]

( It is not a game he has ever played much. It wasn't popular amongst his friend group, and then after the Star Plasma Vessel it had become less of an enticement for Geto. He does not have any particular trigger with guns - he's certainly been shot at since - but still.

He's quick though, reflexes good. The animated figures die in a shower of cartoonish red. He breathes through his nose and chases Jinx's lead. )

I can see why you favour your weapons, Jinx-san. You're very good.

cw: mentions of mental illness, suicide ideation

[powderkegs]

[ maybe she shouldn't have done this.

jinx can feel the sickly sense of nostalgia curling around her. of long days spent at a broken arcade. laying low, trying to avoid the misery of the lanes. mylo and claggar joking around. vi, hitting the machine. punch, punch, high score.

but her hands don't shake. because a gun is a gun and that all she needs to keep her head. or perhaps she's changed enough that keeping her head isn't all that hard these days. she doesn't need to fight powder for that space.

powder is gone. powder was loved but she's gone. jinx is here. jinx was loved. but jinx kills the things she loves.

bang. after she's done, she blows on the muzzle. considers pressing it to her own temple. ]

I'm alive, aren't I?

[gorb]

You are.

( His dark eyes settle on her, ignoring the fact that she has him beat. It's not something he feels any particular way about, the scoreboard is a game and she has won it. Instead he hums, light. )

Do you find games like that fun? ( Curiosity in his voice. ) Have you ever tried the others?

[powderkegs]

Yeah. Maybe not exactly like these but . . .

[ her eyes go distant once more. ]

We had this banged up arcade. Broke every time we fixed it up. But when it worked, it was . . . all good.

[ then the enforcers raided it. vi brought caitlyn there, filled it with poisonous smoke. to kill jinx. the shock of it left her breathless. not that she didn't understand.

it was that she understood all too well. ]

[gorb]

Ours was run by a crotchety old bastard who kept accusing us of cheating.

( He puts the gun down, rolls up his sleeves. )

Come and play my favourite with me. How's your footwork?

( A cult leader and a revolutionary icon walk into an arcade and end up playing Dance, Dance Revolution. )

[powderkegs]

[ jinx throws him a sharp grin, her unnerving red eyes glinting. ]

Oh, I'd say I'm fast on my feet.