alisha-on-arcane

[alisha-on-arcane]

Y'all know Alt. Timeline Ekko had to write the hottest Notes App Apology the minute he got his body back

"To my friends, partner, and loved ones, I sincerely apologize for my behavior these past few weeks. My words and actions were uncalled for, and there is no excuse. I would especially like to apologize to my beautiful girlfriend Powder for throwing an object at her face and for accusing her of killing her dead sister, and to my father-in-law for bringing up the time his husband tried to murder him. I genuinely do not know what came over me and I will do better in the future. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding during this time 🙏🏿 As many of you know, I have struggled with my mental health in the past--"

[alisha-on-arcane]

HAPPY NEW YAOI MOTHERFUCKERS

[alisha-on-arcane]

The real challenge of plotting any Arcane fic is pretty much the same as Arcane s2 has: too many characters have a lot of agency as part of their very nature. It's a whole cast of People Who Will Do Crazy Things Given The Chance, or at least people who wouldn't do nothing about a Situation (exceptions: Heimerdinger, Vander, maybe Mel who is also crazy but also capable of quietly playing the long game). Part of the delight of s1 is that most of the characters have a lot of agency and their own very special way of using that agency to drive the plot, or respond very actively to the actions of others. But that's a hard pace to sustain. At some point you have to remove the agency from some of the characters - by putting them in captivity / prison, or rendering them unconscious, or having them work on something notable offscreen. The real viktim of this in s2 is Viktor.

I am currently grappling with similar issues and I have sympathy (even though I cheated by eliminating several storylines and characters). My interactions do not cohere.

[alisha-on-arcane]

you might have already talked about this but I can’t find it in the tags so forgive me if I’m just asking you to repeat yourself but what are your opinions on jinx becoming zaun’s symbol/hero in season 2? It’s quite divisive as many ppl think that it destroyed her chaos-agent/villainous status and turned her into a boring hero and others think it deserved a lot more screen time and was supposed to be the main focus of her arc? I love reading your thoughts, hope I’m not annoying you

I love getting questions, so thanks for asking! I don't think I've posted about this per se.

I will admit that when I watched the season the first time, I was a little surprised that the show moved on so soon from Jinx's relationship with the rebellion. But I just accepted that they were going somewhere else with the character, and once I saw what they were doing with her, it made sense to me.

Jinx becoming a hero/symbol is almost entirely about the psychological impact the experience has on her, imo.

Jinx's relationship with the rebellion is not about politics. She says outright that winning independence for Zaun was Silco's thing, it wasn't what she actually cared about. She cared about Silco, not Silco's politics. That's made very clear. If her arc was going to focus on politics, then her journey would need to involve starting to care about the struggle. But that's an entirely different journey than the one that she has been on.

Jinx's core trauma is accidentally killing the people she cares about. More broadly, it's the feeling that she's doomed to always screw up and hurt the people around her. Her journey is about dealing with that.

In s2e5, Jinx tells Vi that she sees helping Vander as a kind of do-over. But I think the idea that she could successfully have a do-over started with s2e4, and that was fundamental to her deciding to try to keep up with the do-overs.

Becoming a symbol for Zaun is meaningless to Jinx, because it happened accidentally. But what's not accidental is when she breaks everyone out of Stillwater.

In s2e4 people are in trouble, including someone she cares about. She makes a plan, and successfully executes it. No one is accidentally killed due to her actions. In that way, the experience is a step towards her overcoming her trauma.

At the beginning of season 2, Jinx thinks of herself as a curse. When Sevika tells Jinx that Isha was arrested, Jinx has an episode, again feeling like she jinxes everyone she's close to.

But then when she rescues everyone from Stillwater, there's this moment where everyone looks at her. Jinx is used to putting on a persona, and she tries to do so in this instance as well. "Here I am, your big fat hero." But then everyone looks at her like they really see her. They acknowledge her not as a symbol or persona, but as a person.

She did a good thing. She did a massively good thing. And she was acknowledged for it.

And you can see the impact it has on her. When Gert first puts her hand on Jinx's shoulder, she starts breathing heavily like she's about to panic. She looks both confused and emotional. Like she's never felt something like this before.

(I had to include Jinx's face journey here, it makes me cry).

So yeah, I think the point of Jinx becoming a symbol for Zaun and a hero was to give her that experience. So that she's able to approach Vi again, but this time with a stronger sense of herself, with a greater confidence. So that she and Vi can rebuild their relationship on a new foundation, one where Jinx doesn't invest everything in Vi.

And to a lesser extent, I think Vi seeing other people see Jinx as a hero was important too. And that the chaotic destruction that Jinx tends to bring with her isn't alway a bad thing. When Vi sees that mural of Jinx, placed next to Vander as a hero, that causes a huge amount of dissonance for her, which then pushes her into a confrontation with Jinx, as she struggles to understand who Jinx even is as a person.

Jinx becoming a hero/symbol was not an arc, and it would have never fit organically within what she already had going on. It was a moment in Jinx's ongoing struggle with her identity and trauma. It would not have made sense for it to get more screen time after it had served its purpose for Jinx's character development.

Regarding the notion that Jinx becoming a hero/symbol ruined her chaos agent/villain status, I have very little respect for that opinion, frankly. First of all, Zaun itself is a certain embodiment of chaos, Jinx becoming the hero of Zaun in no way undermines her chaoticness. Second of all, and more importantly, the opinion that Jinx should have been more of a villain, or more chaotic, seems to be based on the expectation that she was going to be a re-skinned version of Harley Quinn (as one semi-popular critical video essay explicitly said). An absolutely MCU-poisoned opinion. A take fit only for babies and philistines. Wild to be mad that Jinx is a complex and layered character.

Jinx's story was always about dealing with her trauma. Both the opinion that she should have been a revolutionary leader, and that she should have gone full-villain, ignore the substance of her story. Jinx being seen as a hero gave her the opportunity to see *herself* in a different light, so that she would have the ability to start making amends with Vi. It was always in service of her personal, individual story.

And like I mentioned above, it makes me cry, so I love it.

Thanks again for the question, I enjoyed answering it!

[alisha-on-arcane]

vander gotta die idc

[alisha-on-arcane]

In my mind the bridge and the drowning (and then Vander regretting the drowning) incidents happened in pretty quick succession, and the girls would probably have wondered why one of the Last Drop residents isn't around

[alisha-on-arcane]

writers be like, i can fix him! *gives him pneumonia* *has him lose a limb* *has him almost drowned* *has him barely avoid execution* here, fixed.

[alisha-on-arcane]

I know s2 suggested that Silco's development into an evil drug lord could be seen as a corruption by Singed (and Shimmer), as a result of Silco never going back to the mine shack and finding Vander's letter. I maintain that Singed's perspective is "we all know that one person who has one too many drinks, or gets horny, and wants to go find their abusive ex 'just to talk'. And when the ex is literally murderous, you have to stop them. By sedation, if necessary. He always thanks me afterwards."

[alisha-on-arcane]

Something very joyous about Jinx's self expression and Silco. Silco is a very controlling and cold man in a sense. He's not someone with a good reputation both IRL and in the show. His appearance is always ridiculously neat and fancy. Not an inch of skin is revealed and he always looks his best. One would think that under his care Jinx would be forced to present herself in a similar fashion but it's the exact opposite. Jinx is running around the undercity, committing crimes in Silco's name, in a crop top that doesn't even count as a crop top, a pair of overalls that are ripped and halfway down, and a pair of years worn boots. She has fucking tattoos along the side of her body, huge tattoos. Her nails are painted miss-matched colors. Her hair is at such a ridiculous length it would be considered unmanageable AND she has literal bullet casings in her hair.

Arguably NOTHING is serious about Jinx's outfit. She has the hair of a child and the makeup of an adult. Instead of wearing practical clothes that would cover herself against harm and the elements she opted for arm warmers. She has a fucking choker on. The more I look at her the less serious she becomes and the more hysterical it is that this man raised this girl. This man who's so obsessed with perception and looking good doesn't care at all about the amount of skin Jinx reveals or the paper-thinness of her pants or the floppyness of her boots. Not only does Silco have absolutely zero qualms about the way Jinx dresses, he also supports her style. He's the one that bought her those clothes and braided her hair. The gloves she wears were once his. And this could be interpreted in several ways. Maybe Silco genuinely does not give a shit it's her life she can do what she wants. Maybe Silco is understanding because he knows he used to dress similarly to her. Maybe Silco is encouraging of Jinx finding her style because it took him a long time to find his. It's just so fascinating to me because both of their styles are very different but they both get along very well and have no issue with each other's fashion. Additionally Jinx's adult outfit is very different from how she dressed as a child so that's interesting too.

[alisha-on-arcane]

Not an artist but here's some angst-comedy Zaundads mild smut starting in this carriage. In terms of chronology it's an AU to chapter 23 of Only Zaun's Future Is Ours To Be Changed, but all you really need to know is: old Silco and Vander are working together on negotiations with Piltover, but they're not romantically together. Vander knows Silco has been having sex with someone, is unreasonably jealous about it and assumes incorrectly that the someone is his doctor, while Silco really does not want to talk about it, for reasons. Or, Silco gets drunk and high for a party, and makes a pass which Vander isn't about to turn down.

Silco, flushed with drugs and success but lucid on logistics as usual, said "you two will be terribly cramped in one vehicle. Corin, why don't you ride with Benzo?"

Vander was about to protest that he had no wish to separate any pairs, but something stopped him. Maybe Silco just wanted to ride home alone to think. But no, he climbed into the second carriage and beckoned Vander in with him.

Maybe he wanted to talk about Council business.

"You all in?" The Piltie driver called back, and when Silco answered in the affirmative, she got out to check the door was closed, and then their ride set off.

"That seemed to go well" said Vander. "The kids behaved, at least."

Silco nodded. The carriage was so narrow that their thighs and shoulders were forced together. "It is good to show them our children" he said seriously. "It is much easier to dehumanise someone out of sight, to imagine the mine workers as a different species. We should perhaps make it happen more often."

He reached up to try to take off his handsome silk eyepatch, but it was knotted tightly behind his head. In his struggles to untie it, his elbows flailed bonily in Vander's face. "Let me do that" said Vander.

Silco turned his head away to the window and let Vander pick at the knot. Some of his hair had got caught in it, which wasn't helping. And the carriage ride kept throwing him back against Vander's body in the tight space.

"Maybe we should send some youngsters to the University every year" said Silco with animation, to the street outside. "Or have some kind of joint... sporting event."

He was, Vander thought, very intoxicated indeed to be expecting good outcomes from that. "Mmm" Vander said, finally getting a purchase on the knot, and loosening it. "There, that should come off now. Is it uncomfortable?"

"Slightly" admitted Silco, pulling the eyepatch over his head. It had tangled slightly in the hair at the front at the side facing the window, and he yanked it to get it free.

"Hey, careful there" said Vander, and turned Silco's face towards him to work on the small knot of twisted hair. The empty eye socket stared at him accusingly, but the other eye was blue and bright and had an unusual warmth to it.

When the eyepatch finally slid free, Silco did not turn his head away, and their breaths mingled. They were both very still, except for the jolting of the cart. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for Vander to kiss Silco on the lips. And suddenly one of Silco's hands was around his waist and the other on his breast, and Silco was panting enthusiastically into his mouth.

"Would your doctor mind me doing this?" Vander asked gently between kisses.

"No, he says it's fine" said Silco hastily.

Well, Vander had made appropriate enquiries, he was not to blame for any resulting relationship complications. He adjusted his position slightly to more comfortably allow Silco's hand access to his chest, where it seemed happy. He tried a little tongue, and was rewarded with an open mouth and a tiny gasp. He ran one hand down to Silco's flat ass, then traced round to the front, fumbling questioningly at the complex fastenings.

Silco's glazed eye focused with an effort. "Should stop that" he said unconvincingly and with a very slight slur that had not been there before. Vander had always been able to have that effect on him. "We're the leaders of Zaun. Can't undress where the world can see us, like dogs in an alley."

Vander grinned. "Okay" he said, and slid to his knees on the coach floor. At that moment they crossed from the relatively smooth streets of Piltover to the cobbles of Zaun, with a jolt that threw Silco back against the upholstery with his arms wide.

Vander's hands opened Silco's fully clothed legs easily, and he nuzzled his face into the hardness there. "I missed your cock" he said earnestly, planting firm kisses on the outline of it. His thumbs rubbed slow circles on the inside of Silco's trousered thighs.

Silco threw back his head and whimpered wordlessly. His hips ground up against Vander's face.

"But I shall note your request to not undress" Vander teased, his nose and lips soft on the tough fabric. He did not know what his endgame was here, but the resulting noises were delightful.

It took a long time for Silco to say desperately, "please..." and it made absolutely no difference. He put a hand down from the seat back and started undoing his own trouser fastenings, but Vander trapped it in his own hand.

"Leader. No undressing where the world can see us" Vander said mock-sternly. Silco's other hand crept to his head, into his still-thick hair, and ground Vander's mouth into his crotch.

At that point the coach door opened. "You have reached your destination" said the driver. She was pointedly looking away from the activity inside the coach. "It's traditional to offer me an extra fee to do a few laps of the area for more time, if you need the privacy, but I'm not doing that in the undercity. My insurance wouldn't cover it."

Vander glanced upwards. Silco's eye was half closed and his breathing was still fast and shocked. He did not take charge of the situation.

The driver sighed. "This is the bit where one of you says "would you like to come back to my place"" she prompted. "And then you both get out of my vehicle and I wish you a good night."

Vander said obediently, "would you like to come in?"

"Yes" said Silco instantly.

They disentangled their limbs from one another and climbed awkwardly out into the street, and the carriage rumbled away back to the bridge.

The Last Drop was closed, so Vander led them to the back door and fished around for his keys. He stepped into his pub as quietly as possible. Silco snuck after him, and for a moment they were teenagers again, trying to take an unauthorised break from mine work. Vander locked the outer door, reached for Silco's hand and led him in silently towards the stairs.

"Oh, hi Vander" chorused the kids cheerfully. They had been huddled in the bar playing some card game, silent because it was serious.

"Uh, hi" said Vander.

"And hello Silco" said Vi.

"Hello" said Silco. He took his hand from Vander's quickly.

The kids stared at them both. Vander felt himself blushing.

"Where are you two going?" Ekko enquired, his innocent face wrinkling in puzzlement. "Are you..." - he struggled for an unfamiliar word - "dating?"

"No" said Vander hastily. "I just... have to give Silco some... paperwork."

"We could have run it over" said Mylo helpfully.

"Urgent paperwork. To discuss" said Vander, and he gripped Silco's arm and pulled him up the stairs.

Once in Vander's room - which had once been their room, and was very little changed - they wasted no time at all. They stripped themselves and pressed together, hands reaching for cocks, jacking each other off with no regard at all for delaying gratification. Silco was frantic in his arms, his fingers running up and down the shaft of Vander's cock while he thrust into Vander's hand, and they came almost together with a brief mutual grunting.

Afterwards, they lay together on the bed, the smell of semen and sweat heavy on the air, silent. That had been very quick, thought Vander guiltily. But if Silco was disappointed, he said nothing of it.

Vander wished he had washed the bedding more recently, or that the dimly lit room did not have so much dust at the corners. He wished there was hot water in the shower tank. This evening he had caught a glimpse of quite another Silco, a charmer and a diplomat, someone attractive even to wealthy Pilties who might see the cracked mirror of his personality as glitter, not brokenness. Silco not as half-starved miner's brat but the sort of person you might offer a long, luxurious shower or bath before laying him down on clean pressed sheets. Someone for whom you might make sure you had something in the house that would be particularly good for breakfast. Measures which would have bemused his less-insane, but also less suave, younger self.

Well. At least Vander hadn't offered to fuck him in the alley behind the pub. And breakfast was still an option.

"That was nice" Vander observed.

Silco stirred, sat up. "I'd better go. Do you even have any papers up here for me to carry past the kids?"

Vander felt the words like a lash. "Hey. Stay. We can do it again if you like, later. Or not."

Silco stood, started to dress. "I got what I came here for. After all, we're not dating."

Vander thought about that. You couldn't actually date Silco, surely. Either you were fucking him, or he was trying to kill you, or you were just neutral colleagues. There was not really an inbetween situation where you were casually assessing romantic compatibility. "Do - do you want to date?" he asked.

"No" said Silco firmly. "What nonsense that would be, for people like us."

"Is there someone else?"

"None of your business."

Once again, Vander wondered if he had intruded on someone else's expectations of fidelity. It made him oddly proud to think he had been an irresistable temptation.

Maybe the other person wasn't the doctor. Maybe they lived in Piltover, and he'd just been used as a bit of rough. But that still meant someone else was getting to properly fuck Silco on clean sheets, which made Vander oddly unhappy.

"Well" said Silco, pulling his boots on. "Goodnight."

Vander got up, tried to kiss him on the cheek, but Silco evaded him and left the room. Vander, dressing quickly, heard him tell the kids that the paperwork was in order, and then he evidently disappeared into the night.

plea to artists: please draw silco fucking someone inside the arcane season 2 carriage concept art

ps: if you have a twitter, i'd love to retweet it

[alisha-on-arcane]

old sketch of my silly lil guy…. whos skull is that

[alisha-on-arcane]

I watched Arcane and I am unwell about these two.

[alisha-on-arcane]

The difference in these pictures is that he's a terrible shot, and she isn't.

Like father, like daughter...😔

I know Connol is her biologocal dad but the similarity between her and Silco in some scenes is just striking

[alisha-on-arcane]

We know that at some point in Season 2 Act 3 Sevika ends up in the good graces of the Firelights or at least allied with them (from the concept art that showed her alongside Ekko and Jinx, the fact she's standing with and clearly in agreement with Scar after Jayce's speech, and she's leading the ground charge of Zaunites), and I'd like to think that that goodwill remains as Sevika is pushed into her roll as the councilor representing Zaun. I'd think these two would have a lot to talk about if they'd open up, although IF they can both managed that I don't know (especially considering her history as Silco's right hand and her roll in dispatching of Firelights). I do think they can be civil though, especially as their goals align.

I think Sevika's work is exhausting and often fruitless, although there have been small, slow improvements. It will take more time. Its not ENOUGH but she's still willing to play the game she's been dealt into, since she's last man standing. Ekko has been busy at work in Zaun, I'm sure (dealing with engineering, mechanics, all that stuff he's good at, despite the, yanno, crushing grief). They don't often cross paths but she needed a little mental reprieve here (you know the first time she saw that tree was... a moment to be sure, even with everything going on - to think that there was something that incredible in the undercity, well...).

[alisha-on-arcane]

(Sorry, turned off notifications for this post and was just reading now, I know it is much later). I'll be honest: the reaction of Vander and Benzo to Silco looming out of the alley is not "there is our friend to whom we owe an apology", it is "there is the monster Vander created, who has been doing awful things ever since". And he has! He let Singed experiment on Deckard, maybe in a technically consensual way, but not without pressure. He told Marcus about Vander's kids. Vander and Benzo don't know the specifics, but I very much think "worse things than Enforcers" refers to Silco, and it's not even wrong.

I did write an entire series based on "Vander rolls the dice on trusting Silco again when he re-emerges from hiding, and it works out surprisingly well" (Stillwater Marriage) but at the time I thought the premise somewhat crack-y. I also maintain that the very last moment for reconciliation was before Silco had Benzo killed. So yeah, I also think Vander would feel fear, rather than relief. And that fear would have been justified; by the end of the cannery scene, Silco is triggered nearly out of his mind and, whatever his original plans were, he ordered the kids killed. Only the very particular combination of small, unthreatening child saying things that reminded him of himself and throwing herself at him managed to divert him. I think if Vi had been there instead, he would have done his best to kill her (and tbf she would also have done her best to kill him).

If Vander had survived long enough to hear the "we'll show them all", he might have had a little hope for Powder. But given what Silco's brief mentorship meant for Deckard... I think he would still have been extremely concerned, as is the viewer until Jinx surfaces in act 2 and we become concerned for slightly different reasons.

One of Vander's last actual memories of Silco is this:

but the (first!) image that surfaces when Viktor looks into his mind is this:

...I have to forgive everything I didn't initially like about Arcane season 2. I got what I have been writing fanfic of for years, really.

[alisha-on-arcane]

I may be a rare person who actually liked the Caitlyn-Silco aesthetic parallels in season 2.

To me, they're there to illustrate a basic similarity between the characters: even someone relatively pure of heart, with ample good in them, can end up doing terrible things for no good reason. Trauma and fear and having to be a leader will do that to you. A hero can become a villain (and I am sympathetic to main timeline Silco but he did not have to beat up his random henchman, dob in Vander's kids to the Enforcers, kill Benzo, or use Deckard to death. To me the main difference between pre- and post - Drowning Silco is that he becomes willing to hurt Zaunites for the cause, and sometimes just out of bad temper).

Caitlyn's corruption is very different, and we could argue all day if it's more / less sympathetic (I don't care who had it worse; but I understand why Caitlyn was desperate and her privilege has notably failed to protect her). But it's still a corruption arc, and season 2 is imo trying to be about how the tragedy of a corruption arc can be averted, even at the expense of justice.

Alternately they just have one aesthetic for Powerful Evil, and the main question is 'who wore it better?'.

[alisha-on-arcane]