Chapter Text
A light breeze blew on Jinx's face. Her eyes closed and still unconscious, though not for too long.
The blue haired girl was splayed on a cold stone platform, surrounded by other four people who seemed to have ended up in the same questionable, worrying position. But they were still unconscious, unlike her.
This certainly made her raise her eyebrow.
She could at least recognise most of the people there. They were dressed... Not normal. But she couldn't she didn't like what she was wearing, at least. A revealing pink asymmetric top, pink shorts, a lot of belts, leather boots, mismatched gloves and pink stockings.
The top was a little uncomfortable and kind of heavy. (And kinky. Were the bullets on the band only for decoration or could she actually use them? )
There was Yasuo. Unconscious, laying on the platform with his sword in his hand.
Jinx knew this man had a habit of drinking. Did he pass out from alcohol? This possibility and the sword in his arms worried Jinx.
There's Ekko, her boyfriend. What were the chances of them being here together?
Jinx kneeled down to take a closer look, see if he was alright. Her nails touched his face, turning it to her.
Luckily, she couldn't see nothing but a few light scratches, probably from the rough ground.
Jinx got up, wondering if they were forcibly thrown here on the ground like ragdolls while they were unconscious.
Ekko also had his weapon. Just like Yasuo.
Well wait. Jinx turned to her back, seeing her weapons on the ground. She never spotted them there until now.
'Wait, I have my weapons too!' Jinx told to herself, seeing that just now.
Those were a lot compared to what the other had. Yasuo had his blade, Ekko had his bat. But Jinx had 3 kinds of guns. A whole ass rocket launcher, a minigun and a zapper.
That sounded like fun to her. She equipped every weapon of her, rocket launcher named Fishbones on her shoulder, minigun hanged on her shoulder and zapper in the leg holster she had.
There were other 2 people on the platform, but Jinx wasn't familiar with them.
One of them was big and muscular, overly well built and strong, had no shirt on. He had a shield besides him ad big as him and a glorious moustache on his face.
Jinx hated to assume but he looked like someone from Freljord.
Rule of thumb, she was gonna try not to anger the man.
The fifth one was a blonde girl, dressed in light armor. She radiated warmth even when unconscious, that made Jinx assume she was a really, really big softie.
She had a staff of sorts besides her. That was interesting to the blue haired girl, maybe the other girl could be a powerful mage?
They had to wake up at some point right?
Around them were a bunch of blue turrets, shimmering in the sun. After them, something that resembled a jungle of some kind, and 3 lanes.
"Eyy, good mornin'!" Ekko nicely greeted Jinx.
He got up, still a bit drowsy. "Good mornin'! Since when are ya awake?" She asked Ekko, turning to him.
"Since you gently scratched my face with your nails. Cut them. Trim them. Please."
"Mm, never." Jinx smirked, not planning on shortening her nails anytime soon. Do you know how hard it is to have an appropriate nail care routine? Do you know how expensive good nail polish is?
"Fine but uh.. Do we wake them up?" He asked, curious.
"Sure, give me your bat." Jinx agreed. They had different ideas of how waking them up would go, however. She swiftly got his bat from the ground, while he wasn't looking.
Next time Ekko blinks, he sees Jinx with his bat, about to slap a poor, asleep Yasuo (who he also knew).
"NO VIOLENCE" he shouted, eyes wide open, throwing himself forward to her to take the bat away from her, stopping her from severely in juring Yasuo and probably herself as well. And probably the other ones.
Yasuo did not deserve to be hit.
Jinx and a melee weapon will never get along well.
"Well then how am I supposed to not be bored here?" She asks, visibly losing her temper little by little.
"Why don't we just go and explore?" Ekko suggests, curious about this whole place himself.
She seems to stop and consider this idea for a brief second. "Yeah, looks like a good idea." She shrugs.
Well at least now they didn't have to worry about Jinx being left unsupervised.
She comes close to him, extending her hand in a cutesy manner, expecting him to take her by the hand and guide her around (like he knew this place better or anything).
And so he does, takes her by the hand and walks around. They find out, however, soon enough that there was a barrier surrounding the stone platform. Not any barrier, an invisible one.
It was rather curious. How does it even work?
Jinx tried to touch it, which was a mistake. It felt weird to touch, and painful too, like you were not supposed to leave this platform.
There was another thing, luckily not outside the barrier. Something of a small shop, ran by a little creature of sorts who seemed asleep. Jinx and Ekko couldn't help but take a closer look.
In the back of the shop that anyone could clearly see, were tons, and I mean tons of extraordinary looking weapons, powerful and ancient artifacts, dusty books, simple swords, shiny wards, potions and... A whole bunch of sophisticated boots.
"Hi?" Ekko tried to start a conversation with the shop owner.
But no one answered. The shopkeeper was asleep.
Jinx rolled her eyes in amusement. "Let me show you how you professionally wake someone up." She whispered to his ear.
"Hellooo!" She shouted, ringing the bell on the counter repeatedly, in a manner of an annoying, deranged toddler.
"Wh- Greetings! May, you've woke up early.." The creature spoke, its voice very different from what they imagined. It was so... High and chipmunk-y.
The fact that they supposedly 'woke up early' confused and worried both of them. This shopkeeper knew something, probably. Why not try and ask it nicely?
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ekko asked, ready to throw hands in exchange of answers.
"Were we SEDATED?" Jinx panicked, her eyebrows furrowing and her expression turning into one of confusion and panic.
"Only a little, I promise i didn't do it!" The shopkeeper admitted. Truth be told, he wasn't going to willingly hide stuff away or lie to these two: they were heavily armed, especially the blue haired wiry girl.
"What do ya mean only a little..?!" Ekko's eyes widened, not exactly sure if he wanted or not to get to know the whole story.
"It's not dangerous. It's a.. A game of sorts. I can hand you some instructions if you'd like!" The owner of the shop kneeled down behind the counter as it spoke, searching those instruction papers.
"Yes please that would be absolutely great." Ekko spat out under his breath, dropping his face on the counter, already tired.
Jinx didn't enjoy seeing Ekko like this at all, all down and tired.
Long, colorful nails of hers touch his soft hair, gently scratching his head in a comforting manner, and he just can't help but smile.
"Here it is!" The shopkeeper handed them their instructions.
Ekko raises his hand from the counter, taking the small, folded piece of paper. "Great."
As he unravels it, it just gets bigger.
"Can it be any bigger?" Ekko stopped to look at Jinx, who was also questioning if the size of the paper was absolutely necessary.
"Bet it's gonna be taller than that blonde girl over there by the time you finish unfolding it?" Jinx smirked, being contagious as her boyfriend began smirking too. "For sure it's gonna be."
...
It actually was.
"Okay, time to stop messing around and uhh... Let's read this thing."
Ekko cleared his throat, ready to read that whole ass piece of printer paper.
"Welcome to League of Legends!" He spoke clearly, imitating a daring narrator.
"Welcome in our lives, i guess." Jinx mutters, crossing her arms. She indeed had NO idea what they were getting into. And that's true, take it from a hardstuck plat player. (Actually emerald, i only play wild rift cuz the models look so much better. And the chromacrash jinx skin? Perfection. Fuck pc lol)
Ekko snickered at Jinx's cheeky comment, continuing to read. "This is the sacred user's manual to League of legends, a game about honor, team and strategy. Everything you, summoner, need to know as a beginner, will be found here, from choosing your champion, all the way to defeating your worst enemies and gainung honor as an undefeated hero among othe-"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, no, not really actually, but if this 'manual' is filled with this kind of pompous introductions and stuff... It's clear why the paper's so big." She comments, already fed up with the manual.
Ekko wasn't a big fan of manuals full of purple prose neither... He enjoyed reading it to get a reaction out of Jinx, though.
"Let's just skip to the stuff that looks important." Ekko decided.
Best decision since he woke up.
He gestured Jinx to come closer and help him decide what was important and written on the paper.
"How about you read about the general info?" Jinx suggested, knowing they did need a basic idea about all this. While avoiding that introduction. She pointed on the paper the start of a ideally sized paragraph, definitely not two pages worth of purple prose, and not an one liner, neither.
Ekko cleared his throat and took a deep breath.
"League of legends is a game of teamwork and communication, essentially. A team of 5 people will battle against another team of 5, everyone having a special role in the team. Only one of the two teams can be the winner and speaking about winning, a team can do so by invading the fountain of the enemy team and -" Ekko just had to stop, running out of breath.
"Slow down there, bud." Jinx patted his back in a friendly matter.
"And destroying the enemy nexus! THERE, I am NOT reading anymore!" Ekko crumpled the huge piece of paper, dropped it down and kicked it far outside the barrier. It flied so far away Jinx couldn't even see it anymore while it was still in the air.
"You could've carried the French team against Argentina with that shot!"Jinx exclaimed. The shot was impressing and even for Ekko, he didn't knew he could do that.
"I thought you didn't watch the finals?"
"No, but it's impossible to NOT know about it. Keeps appearing in my recommendations, y'know?"
"Well I guess so. Anywa-"
"WELCOME, TO SUMMONER'S RIFT!" A female announcer spoke loudly from afar, nobody knowing clearly from which direction.
"HOLY CRAP, WHAT THE HELL" Jinx shrieked, not expecting that. It was loud as hell too.
Ekko raised one eyebrow in confusion and slight nostalgia. "Well that sounded oddly familiar."
Jinx got then a strange feeling someone other than them was there, making her turn back and look in the fountain, quickly discovering the others had woken up.
"Hey, good morning y'all!" She greeted them all nicely, approaching them smiling.
"Hello!" The blonde girl waved to Jinx. Incredible, she was a walking sunshine, everything from her expression to her enthusiasm screamed that. "Good morning to you all!" The tall, muscular man greeted, following the blonde girl. Two walking sun shines.
Yasuo sighed. "I did not get paid enough for this." He mutters, knowing he had other things to do. At least he knew one person here, and that was Jinx. I guess it was nice.
"Hey, over here!"
"Over here!" The shop owner called after the five. "Take these. You'll need them to communicate while playing." It placed on the counter 5 portable communication devices for each one of them.
Everyone was a little bit hesitant to take one. So of course, Ekko was the first one to try and see up close what those were.
"These are cool and all but do we really...?"
"Yes, absolutely! Didn't you read the manual? It's a game of communication and team work!"
Ekko looked over his shoulder, seeing Jinx shrugging. Well, no, not entirely. They figured out they'll get the hang of the game while playing.
Ekko sighed and put one on. It was basically a little mic attached to a left earpod.
"Whatever you announce will be heard by everyone in the team." The shop owner informed.
"Cool. Can we mute?" Yasuo asked, sarcastically.
"Well actually yes! There's a little button on it. Pressing it will mute the mic, pressing it again will enable it."
"Neat." Yasuo replied, one hand falling on the handle of his weapon. He had no intention to attack, however. At least not yet.
"Right about now, 5 arrows with your names should appear on the ground. These will show you where your respective lanes are."
As it spoke, like on cue, 5 glowing arrows with one name written on each one of them appeared on the ground near the fountain. The barrier broke down, allowing everyone to pass freely past it.
The blonde mage didn't quite catch that however. "I'm sorry. What?"
"Your respective lanes! For example, your buddy here Yasuo is a top laner, so he goes on the top lane. That would be the left one."
Everyone was about to go and give it a shot, but Ekko was confused.
"But where do I go? My arrow literally points to that jungle over there." He faced the shop owner, confused about what he was supposed to do.
"You're this team's jungler. You go in the jungle, you know?"
"Aight, cya!" Ekko ran away from the fountain, an idea clear in his head. He was gonna try and survive the jungle. The rest? He'll improvise. What could even go wrong?
~
"Thirty seconds until minions spawn!"
Braum shared the bottom lane with none other than Jinx.
He saw her as a little child: she was thin, short and looked like a slap would absolutely decimate her. So, naturally, he took it upon himself to protect her from any danger that might pop up. He didn't bear that shield for nothing!
"Braum thinks we should get to know each other better!" He spoke, smiling to the smaller girl.
"Yeah, you're right." Jinx nodded, pressing the button on her little headset. "Hey y'all, my buddy Braum here says we should get to know each other better so... I'm Jinx but feel free to call me crazy bitch. And I want your names. And by your names I mean the blonde mage's because I already know everyone here."
"She who knows everyone but the blonde mage." Yasuo joked around.
"Minions have spawned." The female narrator announced, not really getting the attention of anyone.
"My name's Lux, I'd like to know everyone here, if that's alright!" Lux spoke into the mic, just as a wave of 4 red, curious and weird small creatures made their way in front of her.
From behind of her, another wave of similar creatures but blue.
The two waves clashed into each other, fighting at the middle of the lane.
"Well uh, call me Ekko, y'all. I'm not really sure of what I am supposed to do in the jungle so if anyone needs help, call me." He said, walking around.
He saw the biggest fucking toad sitting around, seeming to be asleep.
You see, Ekko wasn't really the man to see a frog and yell 'OMG A FROGGIE I LOVE IT!'. He in fact does not like them that much. They were kind of gross to him and the only kind of cute froggies were the frog earmuffs Jinx enjoyed crocheting occasionally.
He turned his back at it, considering it a dead end. Just as he was about to walk away he felt something wet and large land roughly on his shoulder.
Something made a cartoonish pop sound above him.
He raised his head hesitantly, seeing something resembling some kind of healthbar... Almost half empty.
He turns back slowly, the thing that landed on his shoulder dissapearing.
The frog had awaken.
"Oh...shit." Ekko was on thin damn ice.
Only two options he could think of, fight or flight, basically either fight thid creature or just run.
He of course thought running would be much better, he could confuse the frog by running around a tree or a rock or corner. It sure sounded like a good idea.
Too bad he started running away too late.
The frog ran after him, its long tongue attacking Ekko, taking this time a whole half of his total HP.
"Yikes-" Ekko gasps, trying to get away from it, but it was way too fast. Before he could even react anymore, the giant frog's tongue kicks him again, sticking to him and taking him in the frog's mouth, where he loses whatever crumbs of HP he had.
"Executed!" The female announcer spoke.
In few seconds, Ekko finds himself again in the fountain, where he first was.
"Really, Ekko?" Yasuo sighed on his mic.
"It ain't my fault that giant frog needs a nerf! Why am I so squishy, anyway?" He walked off the platform awkwardly, going back in the jungle.
~
Yasuo didn't know who his adversary was yet. There were bushes around, so the enemy could've been hiding in those, for sure.
But for now, Yasuo decided to watch the curious little minions crash into each other.
They had little HP bars over their tiny heads, which Yasuo found quite cute.
Out of pure curiosity, he tried hitting them with his sword when they were just about to empty their health bars.
In front of him appeared a floating announcement saying "+14 Gold!" And few gold coind dropped on the ground before him.
They looked nice, and Yasuo thought it would be useful to have some, just in case, so he kneeled down to take them. As soon as he touched them though, they dissapear. "Coins transferred to inventory." The announcer spoke, only Yasuo being able to hear as he was the only one to discover farming minions.
He unmuted his mic and announced his team "Y'all, fun fact, did you know you can earn golf by killing red tiny creatures that come on your lane?"
And at this Jinx stares at Braum in confusion. "Oh! That's what these guys were for. Thanks, Yasuo!" Jinx thanked, starting to shoot minions left and right.
"What is the gold useful for, though?" Lux asked, starting to last hit enemy minions as well.
"I don't know, but I guess we'll see." Yasuo responded.
Ekko sighed, hiding in a bush from the jungle, in hopes the frog wouldn't find him again. "So whose minions can I steal?"
"Why steal, friend?" Braum asked, frowning slightly.
"There are no minions 'round here." Ekko crossed his arms. "So how should I earn gold?"
"Try hitting small creatures that attack you!" Jinx recommended, thinking that if minions are small and can attack, all creatures that give gold are the same way.
She was right, to some degree.
Ekko approached what looked like four red chicken. Those were small creatures, so who knows? Maybe it drops gold when killed?
He took his bat and prepared himself to abuse animals. He hated doing that.
But he needed gold.
With a deep breath, he hit hard one of the little red chicks and the healthbar immediately appeared above it. It was already like 1/6 gone, too.
Yay, Ekko only had to hit it 5 times more!
Closing his eyes and trying to avoid the fact he was abusing an animal, he continued hitting the little chick who was screaming in terror.
He hit hard and with his eyes closed, hitting every thing he could touch with his bat. The only signal to stop was the abrupt silence in the jungle, meaning there was no little creature to scream anymore.
Because they died.
Ekko only opened his eyes when he heard coins clinking, falling to the ground.
He took the gold, sighing, still feeling awfully bad because of what he did.
Ekko is one true chad.
He went back at the starting point, the fountain and healed himself up.
He took one step away and lightly tapped the shop's counter.
"Hi?" He greeted, not seeing anyone on the chair.
Ekko didn't spot the shop owner. He was about to turn away and leave.
"Hello!" The shop owner popped up from below the counter. "I was merely sorting some warding totems, what can I do for you?"
"I uh.. Got some gold. Can i buy anything with these?" He said as he dropped every golf piece the red creatures in the jungle killed by him dropped just minutes ago.
The shop owner got a pair of simple glasses from its pocket and counted the coins.
"It seems you're able to buy this Sheen™!" The shop owner went under the counter and grabbed a glowing blue, long sword.
"That's real nice. What do I do with it." He asked, confused. He already had a bat.
"You put it in your inventory."
"Inventory?"
"That would be the little pouch sewn onto your belt!" The creature pointed to the pouch Ekko just now observed it exists.
"How do you even fit it in here?" He asked, thinking the shop keeper was capping and telling him this nonsense just for the lols.
The creature sighed in annoyance, hopping on the counter and then on the ground, taking Ekko's sheen and opening his pouch. It put the sword's tip in the pouch, then fitting it whole inside that little inventory.
"Is this normal??" Ekko asked, unsure if what he saw was true at all.
"Course it isn't. Now go, you have a jungle to take care of! And the drake is spawning soon, so be on the lookout." The shopkeeper went under the counter again, its hand remaining up in the air, waving at the still somewhat confused boy as he was leaving, thinking he was gonna figure it out on the go.
"EKKO, WE NEED A GANK ASAP" Jinx screeched loudly in her mic.
"GIRL WHAT THE HELL" Lux engaged, almost throwing her headset on the ground. Was there a way to turn this thing down?
"Coming, hold on." Ekko responded, turning to the bottom lane to help Jinx. By the way she was screaming, she was in deep trouble, for sure.
But what could even happen? Braum was there, and he was clearly more than physically able to protect someone.
Ekko entered the jungle, thinking it would be smarter to hide in the river and wait for an opportunity to attack Jinx and Braum's opponents.
The spot was dark and there were no wards around the bush, perfect for him to attack.
Ekko got in the bush and turned to the lane, observing everything that happened.
"Jinx, I'm waiting in the bush, try to lure the enemy towards your tower." He whispered in the mic, making sure he was stealthy as ever, not getting heard by the enemy.
"Aight..!" She whispered back.
"HEY, HAT LADY!"
She started hopping on one leg, waving her hands right under the range of her tower.
'Wait, who..?'
Maybe he didn't hear right?
Was there really Caitlyn there or was he tripping?