Ekko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ekkoeffect) wrote2023-01-12 10:35 pm
ekkoeffect) wrote2023-01-12 10:35 pm
[OOC] January AU 2023 (Deer Country)
For the Shedding Ceremony Ekko will be going through quite a transformation, so I'm compiling the main points of the AU here. This AU can be summed up as "What if Silco killed Vander years ago and took in the kids instead?"
Content Warnings: Violence, Death, Murder, Police misconduct/corruption, Manipulation, Childhood trauma, Poverty, Organized Crime, Systemic Corruption/Discrimination, Discussion of Mental Illness, Bigoted behavior about mental illness. Generally any CW you would expect for Arcane.
-- Vander and Silco fought over the course the Zaunites should take while building their rebellion. Instead of Vander "killing" Silco to keep the peace, the rebellion happens and then Silco kills Vander to cross that threshold and prove to himself he's ready to control Zaun his way.
-- Sevika and her crew stand by Silco because she believes he has the right path for Zaun.
-- Benzo is allowed to live because he's not a proactive rabble-rouser himelf, but he also has a level enough head to keep the people who were Vander-supporters in check in this new system
-- Benzo ends up raising Ekko and all the other orphans Vander took in, aka Vi, Powder, Mylo, and Claggor, which is another thing to "keep him in line" for Silco. Silco shows up regularly and is a benevolent Uncle in a way to all of them. Mylo really looks up to him and is very focused on joining up with Silco's people. Vi doesn't trust him completely but appreciates that he is so nice to Powder and Ekko and their engineering projects, which of course Mylo is extremely jealous about. The kids are still thieves, but a lot more cautious about what jobs they take since the Enforcers are more aggressive and brutal even on minor offenses.
-- Silco has been working with Marcus, second-in-command of the Enforcers and helps engineer a dangerous accident that Grayson the captain steps in to help someone only to be seriously injured. She survives, but is trapped to a desk-role and can no longer go out into the field. Marcus saved her life and she trusts him to follow her orders. He's actually been on Silco's payroll for a long time and knows every other Enforcer who is, too.
-- Powder is not allowed to go with the group to rob Jayce's apartment, but when Mylo finds the hex-crystals, he almost causes a problem. Vi stops him and is like DON'T TOUCH THAT SHIT, but too late. Nothing happened so she snatched it from him and gave it to Claggor to hold and she was like "It glows and looks tech-y, I'm sure Powder and Ekko will love this shit." They got away, but not without some damage when Jayce came back. No huge explosions, but enough that Enforcers were called by neighbors.
-- A couple years down the line, Silco thinks that the Vander-supporters have become too close to being Benzo-supporters instead of neutral and thinks Benzo has lost his usefulness so he stages him being killed over a false accusation by the Enforcers that Benzo was involved in black market dealing of stolen Piltover property after recent break-ins of some wealthy homes in Piltover (which Benzo knew about but wasn't selling the goods from, he let the kids do their own fencing after a while). Considering the kids who were doing these thefts lived with him, it wasn't hard to pin this on Benzo (and Silco knew that).
-- Vi, Mylo, and Claggor weren't home. Ekko and Jinx were and Ekko witnessed the whole thing. He made Powder cover her ears and close her eyes, but couldn't do the same himself. They basically huddled together traumatized until Vi and the others rushed back, too late to do anything.
-- Ekko told them what he saw and Vi took them into hiding for a few days. Then rumors started about Enforcers being on the look out for the kids who lived with Benzo as they could have been "underage accomplices" to his "crimes." As they had nowhere else to go and Vi didn't want Ekko and Powder to be at risk she took the only option she really had left and when to Silco for protection in return for working for him.
-- Kids are raised by Silco, Vi becomes one of his right-hand people with a very Confusing And Complicated Rivalry with Sevika, and stews in the guilt that their theft is what led to Benzo dying and Ekko and Powder dealing with even more trauma. Ekko and Powder become increasingly codepedent in unhealthy ways but also refuse to be left on the sidelines. They train and train and build and Silco is not above taking advantage of their grief and loss to draw them into his R&D team.
-- Piltover does have some gains in technological advancement, thanks to Jayce not being dead or completely ousted, but without Viktor (who stayed working with Singed in this AU), he doesn't have the other-half of his team to crack the case of the hex-crystals and lead to the drastically quick growth that Piltover had over seven years. Instead Zaun can be seen to see more and more advancements in technology, but in dark and twisted ways thanks to the increasing influence of Shimmer and enhanced body-mods.
-- But Silco plays favorites as usual and he adores Powder above all else and she thrives under this and Vi haaaaaates it because she feels like he's trying to steal her sister and turn her into someone else. Ekko also hates it because it feels like they've been attached at the hip for years, but then they start being pulled apart as Powder is spending more time with Silco and Ekko is training more under Vi. They call themselves the Firelights, because they found a special hideaway in the sewers full of them and that's where they do a lot of their engineering experiments until Silco gifts Powder her own warehouse to use however she sees fit.
-- Mylo is super jealous of all of the attention Powder is getting and starts calling her Jinx more often which she hates and Vi punches him for. He's turned into a much worse version of who he was to the point Claggor doesn't even like being around him most of the time and Mylo spends a lot of time with Sevika's crew.
-- Powder and Ekko find the hex-crystal that Claggor had been holding onto for them all those years ago and had kind of forgotten about because of the shit that went down and Benzo dying. They start a secret project to figure out how to use it and spend months working on it, only to have it all stall when they start getting pulled in separate directions and Vi is worrying about WTF is going on with them. Ekko ends up meeting up with Viktor and asking him for advice but in a vague way because he doesn't want to betray the secret pact he has with Powder about it.
-- Ekko finds some information that makes him question exactly Who was the real mastermind behind everything that happened and Benzo's death and he maybe lets a bit too much slip while talking to Viktor and Singed is listening in enough to relay some of it to Silco. Silco is starting to wonder if Ekko's time is about to be up too, no matter how productive he and Powder can be together. He doesn't want Ekko getting in the way of his plans for her.
-- Ekko and Powder end up having a big fight about all of it, some shouting happens, the hex-crystal is mad unstable, but they are starting to calm down right when who walks in on what they are doing--Mylo. Mylo who points out they've been hiding all of this from Silco and he'd be So Disappointed they would keep something like this from him and even tries to grab the hex-crystal from the machine they had built. Ekko tries to stop him, gets punched in the face, Powder is telling them both to calm down but she's already stressed out. Mylo calls her Jinx again and tells her to get over herself because "she's not special, she just fakes it because she knows if Silco knew how crazy she was, he'd get rid of her like he does everyone else would." So Powder finally starts going off on Mylo to the point even Ekko is trying to calm her down because Holy Shit Holy Shit. Powder had been struggling with mental health issues already and Ekko had promised to keep a lot of it under wraps so that Vi wouldn't worry, so he doesn't even know how Mylo was so aware of what was going on, but this is a whole other level. Then she slams Mylo into the machine herself, pulls out her gun and about to shoot him, except Ekko is begging her to not to go through with it and try to pull her out of the spiral she's gone into, at the last second she redirects her shot--only it hits the machine and it...explodes.
-- Mylo dies, Ekko is badly injured and infused with hex-energy from trying to pull Powder away and shield her from the explosion. She's badly injured from the fallout. And Silco gets there just in time. He wants to save Powder and is willing to use Shimmer on her to do it. If it wasn't for Vi being right there, he would have been cool with letting Ekko die because of how worse off he was. Instead, he takes them both to Singed and Viktor and when Silco implies Powder should be saved first and foremost in whatever way they can, Viktor insists they will save them both.
-- So guess who pumps both of them full of Shimmer and is shocked by the Very Different Results? Yep, Viktor. Jinx goes Full Shimmer Mode (with a teensy bit of hex) whereas Ekko has a reaction a lot more like what becomes of Viktor himself in Arcane.
-- Powder and Ekko both survive, but neither is the same anymore and Powder might have gone through the bigger change because she refuses to let anyone except Vi call her Powder anymore. She's Jinx.
-- Ekko isn't even sure if he's human anymore, what with so much of his body taking over by the combination of hex-crystal and Shimmer, and he's dealing with a lot of identity issues because of it. And irony of irony, Silco takes an interest in him because the change is So Massive and he wonders if there is a way to recreate it, but not one they know of without anymore hex-crystals around to use. So Ekko is the only subject they have to study it.
-- So Silco is paying more attention to Ekko, Powder is turning into Jinx and jealous of that attention (with her delusions of Mylo's ghost whispering to her about how it's exactly what he told her would happen), Silco thinking major plans for the use of the techniques that saved their lives in a way that could finally topple Piltover and give Zaun power back, Ekko is trying to find his humanity and figure out why "Jinx" is pushing him away and Vi wondering how the fuck she's going to save her family and keep them all from falling apart--and maybe that means making deals with someone who isn't Silco.
Content Warnings: Violence, Death, Murder, Police misconduct/corruption, Manipulation, Childhood trauma, Poverty, Organized Crime, Systemic Corruption/Discrimination, Discussion of Mental Illness, Bigoted behavior about mental illness. Generally any CW you would expect for Arcane.
-- Vander and Silco fought over the course the Zaunites should take while building their rebellion. Instead of Vander "killing" Silco to keep the peace, the rebellion happens and then Silco kills Vander to cross that threshold and prove to himself he's ready to control Zaun his way.
-- Sevika and her crew stand by Silco because she believes he has the right path for Zaun.
-- Benzo is allowed to live because he's not a proactive rabble-rouser himelf, but he also has a level enough head to keep the people who were Vander-supporters in check in this new system
-- Benzo ends up raising Ekko and all the other orphans Vander took in, aka Vi, Powder, Mylo, and Claggor, which is another thing to "keep him in line" for Silco. Silco shows up regularly and is a benevolent Uncle in a way to all of them. Mylo really looks up to him and is very focused on joining up with Silco's people. Vi doesn't trust him completely but appreciates that he is so nice to Powder and Ekko and their engineering projects, which of course Mylo is extremely jealous about. The kids are still thieves, but a lot more cautious about what jobs they take since the Enforcers are more aggressive and brutal even on minor offenses.
-- Silco has been working with Marcus, second-in-command of the Enforcers and helps engineer a dangerous accident that Grayson the captain steps in to help someone only to be seriously injured. She survives, but is trapped to a desk-role and can no longer go out into the field. Marcus saved her life and she trusts him to follow her orders. He's actually been on Silco's payroll for a long time and knows every other Enforcer who is, too.
-- Powder is not allowed to go with the group to rob Jayce's apartment, but when Mylo finds the hex-crystals, he almost causes a problem. Vi stops him and is like DON'T TOUCH THAT SHIT, but too late. Nothing happened so she snatched it from him and gave it to Claggor to hold and she was like "It glows and looks tech-y, I'm sure Powder and Ekko will love this shit." They got away, but not without some damage when Jayce came back. No huge explosions, but enough that Enforcers were called by neighbors.
-- A couple years down the line, Silco thinks that the Vander-supporters have become too close to being Benzo-supporters instead of neutral and thinks Benzo has lost his usefulness so he stages him being killed over a false accusation by the Enforcers that Benzo was involved in black market dealing of stolen Piltover property after recent break-ins of some wealthy homes in Piltover (which Benzo knew about but wasn't selling the goods from, he let the kids do their own fencing after a while). Considering the kids who were doing these thefts lived with him, it wasn't hard to pin this on Benzo (and Silco knew that).
-- Vi, Mylo, and Claggor weren't home. Ekko and Jinx were and Ekko witnessed the whole thing. He made Powder cover her ears and close her eyes, but couldn't do the same himself. They basically huddled together traumatized until Vi and the others rushed back, too late to do anything.
-- Ekko told them what he saw and Vi took them into hiding for a few days. Then rumors started about Enforcers being on the look out for the kids who lived with Benzo as they could have been "underage accomplices" to his "crimes." As they had nowhere else to go and Vi didn't want Ekko and Powder to be at risk she took the only option she really had left and when to Silco for protection in return for working for him.
-- Kids are raised by Silco, Vi becomes one of his right-hand people with a very Confusing And Complicated Rivalry with Sevika, and stews in the guilt that their theft is what led to Benzo dying and Ekko and Powder dealing with even more trauma. Ekko and Powder become increasingly codepedent in unhealthy ways but also refuse to be left on the sidelines. They train and train and build and Silco is not above taking advantage of their grief and loss to draw them into his R&D team.
-- Piltover does have some gains in technological advancement, thanks to Jayce not being dead or completely ousted, but without Viktor (who stayed working with Singed in this AU), he doesn't have the other-half of his team to crack the case of the hex-crystals and lead to the drastically quick growth that Piltover had over seven years. Instead Zaun can be seen to see more and more advancements in technology, but in dark and twisted ways thanks to the increasing influence of Shimmer and enhanced body-mods.
-- But Silco plays favorites as usual and he adores Powder above all else and she thrives under this and Vi haaaaaates it because she feels like he's trying to steal her sister and turn her into someone else. Ekko also hates it because it feels like they've been attached at the hip for years, but then they start being pulled apart as Powder is spending more time with Silco and Ekko is training more under Vi. They call themselves the Firelights, because they found a special hideaway in the sewers full of them and that's where they do a lot of their engineering experiments until Silco gifts Powder her own warehouse to use however she sees fit.
-- Mylo is super jealous of all of the attention Powder is getting and starts calling her Jinx more often which she hates and Vi punches him for. He's turned into a much worse version of who he was to the point Claggor doesn't even like being around him most of the time and Mylo spends a lot of time with Sevika's crew.
-- Powder and Ekko find the hex-crystal that Claggor had been holding onto for them all those years ago and had kind of forgotten about because of the shit that went down and Benzo dying. They start a secret project to figure out how to use it and spend months working on it, only to have it all stall when they start getting pulled in separate directions and Vi is worrying about WTF is going on with them. Ekko ends up meeting up with Viktor and asking him for advice but in a vague way because he doesn't want to betray the secret pact he has with Powder about it.
-- Ekko finds some information that makes him question exactly Who was the real mastermind behind everything that happened and Benzo's death and he maybe lets a bit too much slip while talking to Viktor and Singed is listening in enough to relay some of it to Silco. Silco is starting to wonder if Ekko's time is about to be up too, no matter how productive he and Powder can be together. He doesn't want Ekko getting in the way of his plans for her.
-- Ekko and Powder end up having a big fight about all of it, some shouting happens, the hex-crystal is mad unstable, but they are starting to calm down right when who walks in on what they are doing--Mylo. Mylo who points out they've been hiding all of this from Silco and he'd be So Disappointed they would keep something like this from him and even tries to grab the hex-crystal from the machine they had built. Ekko tries to stop him, gets punched in the face, Powder is telling them both to calm down but she's already stressed out. Mylo calls her Jinx again and tells her to get over herself because "she's not special, she just fakes it because she knows if Silco knew how crazy she was, he'd get rid of her like he does everyone else would." So Powder finally starts going off on Mylo to the point even Ekko is trying to calm her down because Holy Shit Holy Shit. Powder had been struggling with mental health issues already and Ekko had promised to keep a lot of it under wraps so that Vi wouldn't worry, so he doesn't even know how Mylo was so aware of what was going on, but this is a whole other level. Then she slams Mylo into the machine herself, pulls out her gun and about to shoot him, except Ekko is begging her to not to go through with it and try to pull her out of the spiral she's gone into, at the last second she redirects her shot--only it hits the machine and it...explodes.
-- Mylo dies, Ekko is badly injured and infused with hex-energy from trying to pull Powder away and shield her from the explosion. She's badly injured from the fallout. And Silco gets there just in time. He wants to save Powder and is willing to use Shimmer on her to do it. If it wasn't for Vi being right there, he would have been cool with letting Ekko die because of how worse off he was. Instead, he takes them both to Singed and Viktor and when Silco implies Powder should be saved first and foremost in whatever way they can, Viktor insists they will save them both.
-- So guess who pumps both of them full of Shimmer and is shocked by the Very Different Results? Yep, Viktor. Jinx goes Full Shimmer Mode (with a teensy bit of hex) whereas Ekko has a reaction a lot more like what becomes of Viktor himself in Arcane.
-- Powder and Ekko both survive, but neither is the same anymore and Powder might have gone through the bigger change because she refuses to let anyone except Vi call her Powder anymore. She's Jinx.
-- Ekko isn't even sure if he's human anymore, what with so much of his body taking over by the combination of hex-crystal and Shimmer, and he's dealing with a lot of identity issues because of it. And irony of irony, Silco takes an interest in him because the change is So Massive and he wonders if there is a way to recreate it, but not one they know of without anymore hex-crystals around to use. So Ekko is the only subject they have to study it.
-- So Silco is paying more attention to Ekko, Powder is turning into Jinx and jealous of that attention (with her delusions of Mylo's ghost whispering to her about how it's exactly what he told her would happen), Silco thinking major plans for the use of the techniques that saved their lives in a way that could finally topple Piltover and give Zaun power back, Ekko is trying to find his humanity and figure out why "Jinx" is pushing him away and Vi wondering how the fuck she's going to save her family and keep them all from falling apart--and maybe that means making deals with someone who isn't Silco.