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In theory, she felt the impact of the explosion immediately. In some instinctual part of her brain there were alarm bells ringing, warning her of the force that flung her body outward and the sharp bits of debris that bit into her skin.
She could feel her heart leap into her throat; for a moment, she felt the air leave her lungs and she couldn't breathe. But here was no fear. She felt no panic in that moment, suspended in air and time as blue light enveloped her like a warm hug. It was so bright, brighter than anything she had ever seen, brighter than anything anyone in this miserable city of smog and death had ever seen in their entire lives. Heat like the midday sun washed over her already feverish skin; the ringing in her ears was that of golden bells from the highest peak in Piltover. Whether the stars in her eyes were from the incoming concussion or stray sparks glinting off of scraped metal she couldn’t tell, nor did she really care. They lit up the sky like fireworks either way.
When the explosion dimmed, when her body slammed into the cold stone and the sting of her wounds woke her from her revelry, she would forget her thoughts during that moment of bliss. How she wanted more than anything to stay stuck in that space, to live the rest of her life in light that she would never be able to see again. But the moment ended. The dull greens and browns of her home dragged her away from her kingdom of blue, straight into the fire and blood it left in its passing. And Powder was reminded that she would always be a jinx.
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Fishbones was heavy, in more than one sense. It’s sharp metal skeleton weighed on her thin shoulders and even heavier on her aching chest, in the place where she often wondered if a heart still resided.
The night sky was coated in red moonlight and she hated, hated, hated red. Red followed her like a bad omen followed death. No matter her action no matter her intention it clung to her like mold and she could never wash it off. Red speckled her clothing, red hugged her warmly one minute and then left her in the cold the next. She couldn’t get rid of it, couldn’t forget what it was and what it made her into. But she could overpower it. Blind herself to it, if only for a moment.
Her finger twitched on the trigger. Her body was numb but she could still feel the tingling anticipation of impending catharsis. She pressed down and screamed.
Red was enveloped in a tidal wave of blue light. The force of Fishbone's blast threatened to knock her to the ground; hot steam hissed from his gills and washed over her face, drying the tears that wouldn’t stop and leaving her raw.
Distantly, in some instinctual part of herself, she knew this would not be the end. Alarm bells rang from the moral center of her that was battered and beaten and locked deep deep down where she didn’t have to see it. When the blue light faded and the cold chill of the night sank back into her bones, she would be forced to see what she had done. To witness the ocean of red she had just created. But not now, never now. Now was the one thing that nobody could ever take from her, including herself. In this moment of bliss that she chased all her life, Jinx basked in her kingdom of blue.