Chapter Text
Thieram nearly dropped the empty glass he was cleaning when he noticed her presence in the bar. When she showed herself to you, it was usually a bad omen. No one in their right mind would want to be visited by her unless they had a death wish. You were either unlucky enough to be a casualty on her path of destruction or one of the lucky ones who had what she wanted. And Thieram, as a bartender and who hears many things in Zaun, tended to be among those who had what she was searching for.
"Chuck!" Jinx exclaimed with a wide grin. "No time no see! How have you been- wait, never mind, I don't care!"
Thieram tried to play it cool, continuing to clean his glass like Jinx was just a regular customer.
Except she wasn't.
The bartender had stopped for a long time trying to correct her on his name because as she herself said, she didn't care. And he wished she wouldn't come here anymore but what could he do? The girl was insane and dangerous, and he was just a normal guy trying to pay his bills.
"J-Jinx... w-what can I do for you?"
"Aww, why whenever I step somewhere people act as if I'm able to blow up the whole place?" Jinx replied with an exaggerated pout. "I just want a drink- I need a drink."
As she said that, the madwoman sat down on a stool, back to grinning, seemingly lost in her thoughts. Thieram didn't waste any more time and poured her a drink, with her usual crooked straw, and carefully put it in front of her.
"T-there," he said.
"Thanks."
Jinx took a sip of her drink, blowing some bubble in it like a child daydreaming.
"So, Chuck, I know you're an expert about picking up girls."
"W-what... no...! I'm not... I don't pick up girls...!"
"Then let's say you do, how'd you do it?"
"Uh... are we talking literally or figuratively?"
"Chuck. You should know by now I'm quite good at capturing people, just ask Hat Lady 'bout it. So take a wild fucking guess."
Jinx was still smiling, but her expression left no doubt in Thieram's mind that she was not here to mess around.
"Oh... oh...! Huh, I guess I'd tell her how I feel about her first? And see if it's mutual?" he tried.
"What I feel huh... but that's the thing. I don't know how I feel!" Jinx let out with a sigh.
Thieram couldn't believe he was having this talk with Jinx of all people. Whoever Jinx was crushing on, poor her. He almost felt bad for that girl, whoever she was. But he was too damn scared to voice that opinion.
"M-Maybe you should ask her how she feels about you then-"
"What kind of dumb advice is that!? What if she doesn't feel the same way? What if she pushes me away? What if she actually hates me? Then what? What am I supposed to blow up to forget about it!?" Jinx shouted before she let out a nervous giggle. "A-Anyway, it's her turn to catch me. I can't just go talk to her. Unlike her, I actually know how to play tag. She has to come to me first."
Listening to Jinx unpack her feelings and obvious repressed trauma, Thieram knew he was not equipped to deal with that kind of stuff. He just wished whatever Jinx wanted to blow up wasn't his bar- or hopefully not that girl. That'd be quite messed up, even by Jinx's standard... but who knows with someone as insane as her.
"W-well, if you can't go see her directly because... because, how about something... indirect?"
"Like a bomb?"
"N-no! I mean, a gift, a letter, something she'd like, something to show you are thinking about her..."
Jinx stared at him with a blank expression and for an instant, he thought he said the wrong thing and was about to get killed. But then, Jinx smiled.
"You know Chuck... I was right to come here! I knew you were good at picking up girls!"
Thieram sighed in relief and Jinx finished her drink, before, much to his surprise and terror, giving him a hug.
"Thanks for the advice!" she added, patting him on the back and left as quickly as she came.
As soon as she was gone Thieram quickly removed his vest, fearing there might be a bomb on it. He was relieved to see it wasn’t the case.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad with girls after all.
Lux looked at the myriad of books with pure wonder. She never had seen so many at one place before- not even at the royal library of Demacia, which only a few were allowed in. And this was apparently a library accessible for anyone? Unbelievable. The City of Progress truly deserved its name.
“This is the Piltovan Central Library,” Jayce explained. “It should have anything you are looking for.”
“It’s beautiful,” Lux commented, still in awe.
“You haven’t seen the Academy Library yet,” Jayce added with a smile, before frowning. “I’m deeply sorry for how our police forces treated you. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you-”
“You’ve already done enough for me, Mister Talis.”
“Please, just call me Jayce.”
Even since he learned about the incident, Jayce extended his hospitality towards the mage, offering her a place to stay for the time of her visit in Piltover. Lux was grateful for his kindness, never expecting such a warm welcome- not after seeing how mages were treated back in Demacia.
“Is your arm alright?” Jayce asked with concern.
“Oh, this?” Lux pointed to her bandage. “Yeah. It’s just a scratch, nothing to be worried about.”
“Hmm. You are lucky it wasn’t anything more serious. Please forgive Enforcer Vi for her rudeness, she’s quite desperate to catch this criminal Jinx. She has been causing her quite a lot of trouble for the past few years.”
“It’s alright, I understand. The sheriff had been quite professional about it.”
“Yes, Caitlyn. She’s an old friend of mine. Really kind and understanding. We couldn’t have hoped for a better person as the sheriff of Piltover. We are lucky to have her.”
Lux considered herself lucky too. If it wasn’t for Caitlyn, she might have been suspected of working with Jinx- or being a spy. It almost made her feel bad to have lied to her about where she was from, but it was for the best. Piltover and Demacia’s relationship wasn’t the best after all and it would only make her more suspicious.
“Well, I’ll let you enjoy the books. I have work to do,” Jayce said.
“Oh, sure. Thank you again for all you did to me.”
“There’s no need to thank me. I’m only doing what is right.”
Jayce left her in this book paradise and Lux immediately started walking around, her eyes wandering on all the wonders.
BAM!
Lux woke up with a jolt. She had fallen asleep at the library, her face lying in an open book. She quickly wiped her mouth, worried that she might have drooled in the book. She sighed with relief when she saw it wasn’t the case. She wouldn’t want to damage any of the books here.
She spent so much time here discovering as many books as possible that she neglected herself and fell asleep in the middle of reading. She looked around, a little embarrassed. She really hoped no one saw her in that position. The library seemed empty…
BAM!
… Or not.
Lux jolted once again. This time she was sure she heard something. She stood up and started looking around. The place was rather big so maybe there was still someone she just couldn’t see from where she was.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” she called.
No answer. Lux was starting to be a bit worried, but also, quite curious. Was there someone hiding in the library? And if so, why? This was a public place, they had no reason to hide.
Carefully, Lux began to walk around, trying to discover the source of the noise. As she expected, she was currently alone.
Then, something attracted her attention. Above a small bookshelf there was a tagging. Some sort of pink strange-looking X with “wuz here” written under it.
Was it some mere vandal that came here, just to do this graffiti? That felt quite childish if so. Carefully, Lux reached for the tag, brushing the X with her fingers.
Lux quickly removed her hand. There were traces of fresh pink paint on the tips of her first fingers. Whoever vandalized that wall must have just left.
Then, what about that noise she heard twice? Lux turned around, noticing a closed window. To confirm her suspicion, Lux lifted the window. It was relatively heavy. When it was fully open she let go of it. But unlike what she'd assume, the window didn't just stay open and quickly fell down in place.
BAM!
That was the noise! So it was the window closing. Lux remembered hearing twice prior, it must have been when the perpetrator first came in and when they left.
Lux looked back at the graffiti then at the fingers. That color reminded her of the paint bomb Jinx had glued to her back. Was it just a coincidence?
“ X wuz here ,” Lux read, ignoring the blatant misspelled word. “Could it mean… Jinx was here?”
Could it be her signature? So she was the one who broke into the library just a moment ago! Lux felt her heart skip a beat. Now that she knew who Jinx truly was, this was different. She was a criminal, a dangerous criminal. She was not someone she should have any business with.
And yet, her curiosity was stirred. What was Jinx doing here? Was it only to commit a mere act of vandalism?
Or was it to see her.
Lux quickly shook her head. It couldn't be. After all, Jinx didn't even come to talk to her. She left as soon as she was done. Her being at the library was merely a coincidence.
Then why did she come here just to vandalize that wall? What was the meaning of this?
“ There is no meaning ,” Lux remembered Vi said some like that. “ She's just crazy .”
Lux had disagreed with that. Even someone “crazy” has their reasons. What they do makes sense to them . There was a meaning, even if it might not be obvious.
Lux looked back at the small bookshelf underneath the graffiti. The books in it seemed awfully disorganized. Too disorganized for such an advanced library.
The mage crouched down, taking a better look at the books. They didn't seem to be organized by genre, or even by authors. It wasn’t even by alphabetical order. It felt like those books were just put them at random.
“ There is no meaning ,” Lux kept remembering Vi’s words.
Lux shook her head. She refused to believe so. Even if this bookshelf looked illogical, it has to have a meaning. She desperately needed it to be. It just felt… personal.
She started analyzing the order of the books. There has to be some sort of logic behind their placement. Some sort of organization, or even a code…
She then noticed two books in particular. They attracted her attention because for both of them, the title began with an X. At first she thought she might have found a pattern, but they seemed to be the only books regrounded by the first letter of their respective title.
But then, something else caught her attention. The book right next to the first X title started with the letter U. Then the one before started with the letter L.
“ L.U.X… could it be… she was spelling out my name…!? ”
Following her intuition, Lux looked back at the books from the start, only checking for the first letter of their titles.
“I.T.S.U.R.T.U..R.N.T.O.C.A.T.C.H.M.E.L..U.X.X.D.O.N.T.FO.R.G.E.T.U.R.I.T.” Lux read the letters before making out a sentence. “It’s your turn to catch me Lux, don’t forget you are it.”
If she replaced the first ‘ur’ with ‘your’ and the second one with “you are”, the sentence made sense. She recalled Lux referring to their first and second encounter as a game and did say she was “it” after she touched her.
So was Jinx expecting her to go after her now? Had she been waiting for her all along? Lux’s heart started beating faster.
“ Jinx… she sent me a message because she thought I had forgotten about her. ”
She hadn’t forgotten about her, obviously. She wouldn’t forget someone who made such a strong impression on her. But she did forget that she was “it”.
But when she looked back at the book, she realized something didn’t add up. There was some questionable grammar, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb.
There were two Xs in Lux.
Lux raised an eyebrow. Could it be that Jinx simply didn’t know how to spell her name and thought there were two Xs? Somehow, that explanation didn’t sit right with her. Why would she even assume it has two?
Could it be that the second X was just a replacement for a comma? Lux didn’t think so too. After all, Jinx didn’t bother with any other punctuation marks. So this second X must have a meaning.
Lux looked back at the graffiti and had an epiphany. “Right! X stands for Jinx! That’s her signature! The second X is for her!”
Then why insert it in the secret sentence she left for Lux? If there is something that stuck out, it usually means it was on purpose- and possibly a clue.
“Perhaps that book is a clue on how to find her,” Lux theorized.
But the real question was, did Lux want to find Jinx? After all, she was an insane, dangerous criminal. No one in their right mind would want to play some twisted game with such an individual. But…
It wouldn’t be the first time Lux had fallen for an infamous criminal.
Lux shook her head. “No, Jinx isn’t like him . She didn’t lie to me or pretend to be someone she wasn’t like Sylas. She’s honest about the kind of person she is.”
Against her better judgment, Lux picked up the book. The title was: “X-Ray, the science of see through.”
Lux cocked her head. She couldn’t see how this was relevant, or a clue to where Jinx could be. Then she saw a piece of paper falling from it.
“Hm?” Lux crouched down and took the paper, examining it.
At first glance, it looked like a map. It reminded her of her map of Piltover, but it wasn’t quite the same. Upon better look, she discovered that it wasn’t a map of Piltover, but Zaun.
The map looked rather used and there were some scribbles on it. Some places had an X on them, similar to the one of the graffiti.
“Could it be… places Jinx often go to?”
Given the circumstances of how she found this map, it was probably the case. Lux put the map back in the book. She didn’t think there were any more clues in it but she decided she’d borrow it anyway, just in case.
She then glanced at the rest of the books. If she left them as they were, the police might crack the code too whenever they come to investigate the vandalism. She couldn’t let that happen. She already had enough trouble with the law, she didn’t need any more attention or something directly tying her to Jinx.
Lux cleared the shelf, dropping all the books on the floor. Now that will just look like whoever did the graffiti also did that. It wouldn’t be weird for a criminal to commit more than one act of vandalism.
Tightly holding the book she kept in her arm, Lux left the public library, her heart racing like crazy.
“Wait for me, Jinx, I’m coming for you.” Lux thought. “And I’ll catch you.”