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[chaospirals]

She is so lovely, and so kind. They could tell that at a glance, but with each word, Hwei's suspicions are confirmed. There is a darkness to her, yes, they can see that clearly enough, but her laughter and the way she speaks to him shows her kindness instead. Hwei smiles, shy; they're not used to being praised. They've always been too much, or been told to reign their powers in tighter, but Ahri tells them that any version of them would be lovely.

Perhaps she doesn't see the darkness that grows in them, the ink blot that Jhin left behind. Perhaps she doesn't see the battle in them. Hwei has always believed in kindness, in the goodness of people, but Jhin unlocked a selfish, greedy thing inside them. Were it not for the time they spent together and the discussions they had, Hwei would never have left Koheyn. They would have stayed behind and helped to rebuild. Even knowing that, though, they wouldn't go back and change their decision. Not after everything that Jhin taught them, about art and about theirself.

"Someone you once knew?" Interest sparks in his eyes, changing them from a melancholy indigo to a bright topaz. He can tell at a glance that she's lived a complicated life. Hwei knows now, having been out in the world, that he's lived a sheltered life, and he has so much to learn about the way others live. "Mmm... intoxicating is a word for it. I knew someone who was the same, who changed the way I saw my own art. It's difficult not to get caught up in it, isn't it?" Darkness bleeds into his eyes as he remembers walking side by side with Jhin, and follows that thought all the way to the destruction of everything he's ever known... but Hwei catches himself and blinks it away. "Tell me about yours. I would love a story."

to see the world in color is a gift that nearly every soul upon runeterra and beyond possessed, but hwei . . . it goes beyond the simple colors of someone's hair and the way it dulls beneath shadow and brightens beneath the sun's attention, greater even than the shimmering hues that shift and wane in the depths of a person's irises. their world is a vivid masterpiece stricken by an unimaginable wash of color upon canvas to degrees ahri couldn't even begin to fathom, though she certainly tries. the way hwei speaks of their gift is reminiscent of the way she can sense the emanation of someone's auras, the palpable feeling of their joy and their fear and their anguish ripe beneath her delicate fingers. in consuming the very essence that runs through someone's veins, however, ahri succumbs to a similar experience, still, yet inexplicably and undoubtedly different. she could feel them, hear them, relive memories as though they were unfolding in the present, and most of all, she learns the etchings of their souls, the intimacy of each stitch sewn into seams that tether body and spirit.

though hwei could not see the inkblots of his own being, perhaps one day ahri could tell him. an unequivocally dangerous thing, a tempting thing, a burning flame that draws in the moth aching for the familiar haunts of comfort in the descent of the moon come the rise of the sun. ahri minds her tongue and threads the silence between her teeth, keeping her fallen gaze drawn to the ground. it's not an offer she should make lightly, no matter how steady her hands may be, no matter how many decades it has been since she buried the remains of gluttony and avarice into a field long lost and razed with salt and fire. the tips of ahri's ears wiggle, attentive, curious. she's always listening keenly, leaving her honey-gold eyes glistening as a smile pulls over her rose petal lips. " change isn't always so awful, " ahri says at long last, smiling bright as she allows herself to meet hwei's eyes. she wonders if they could see the centuries of history, the carnal desires to consume and devour, tempered by the rot of tragedy and the despair of decay. absentmindedly toying with her tails, her gaze wanders as she once again begins to scrutinize the budding wildflowers yearning for reach between the grass and stone. " if you ask me, i think any version of yourself would turn out lovely. i just get that sense from you. "

she can't help the bells of laughter chiming bright in her throat, grinning so wide that when her lips stretch and lift, her canines poke softly into the skin of her mouth. " i guess i just have one of those personalities, you know? " ahri teases, gently shaking her head while her hands fall still in her lap. " and, you're incredibly easy to listen to. " for a moment, she's silent and stares down at the sharp pointed tips of her claws. " you remind me a little of someone i once knew. you're vastly different people, but you share the same intoxicating passion for art. it's easy to fall into. please, you hardly need to be sorry! really, i enjoy listening to what you have to share. "

[chaospirals]

is anyone interested in. plotting?

[chaospirals]

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧: 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲

❝ Art is empty without empathy.

Empathy is a keystone of Hwei's character. It's mentioned numerous times in his character insights and in his voice lines and, along with his imagination, is both his greatest strength and his fatal flaw. Even before he could clearly see emotions, Hwei was fascinated by them, both his own and others'. He would often get in trouble in Koyehn for prying too much into the emotions of others, and eventually learned that people get upset when their emotions are dug into, but it did nothing to quell his interest — only taught him to hide it.

As his visions developed, Hwei could often be caught staring past the person he was talking to — or, more accurately, staring at the colours they were giving off, committing them to memory so he could paint them later. He was fascinated by the way emotions blend into each other, and often coped with his own emotions by painting them as he imagines they would look, or by losing himself in the emotions of another.

It's in his hyper empathy that a lot of his problems arise. Because he can understand others so well, he can justify their actions. The same way it's easier to justify one's own actions because the person committing them knows the reasoning behind it, Hwei understands, intrinsically, why people act in the ways that they do. To him, no one ever acts 'irrationally' — if he connects the dots in the visions he sees, he can figure out, at the very least, the emotions that caused them to act that way.

This means he can empathize with people who do truly terrible things, and though he has a strong understanding of right and wrong, it often gets muddied in the how and why. He understands criminality enough to target mostly criminals, but he's never able to look at just their actions — everything becomes subjective the moment he sees that person face to face. Sometimes, even before he encounters them, he has already begun to spin possible reasons why they act the way they do. This, understandably, gets him into some heated debates that he has to get his way out of afterwards.

It's also possible for Hwei to get overwhelmed by the force of others' emotions. If it's one person he's usually okay, but the more people around him who are feeling strongly, the more overwhelming it can be. Extremely busy settings such as markets are very overwhelming for him, because it's hard for him to focus on his surroundings rather than the colours and emotions of everyone in the area. Oftentimes, Hwei tries to avoid these busy situations, as he'll often get trapped in them if he can't tune out the emotions long enough to get himself out. Someone save him.

[chaospirals]

Hwei fanart hehe.

He's just like me fr („• ֊ •„)

[chaospirals]

Her sheepish smile is met by one of their own; Hwei isn't the type to share their visions with just anyone. Too many times were they told to tamp down their own powers, to curb what made them unique. After a while, it's impossible not to take it to heart. But Ahri is easy to talk to, and Hwei finds themself talking too much (and yet it doesn't feel like too much when it falls upon eager ears). "Yes," Hwei responds eager, earnest behind all the hesitation. And then, at her next question, Hwei's eyebrows pull together and they look almost sorrowful. "No, I can't. I should like to, though. It might give me insight into my own self." They're wistful, dreamlike, ever lost in thought. "Fitting, isn't it? I can tell so much about others at a glance, but nothing about myself. All of that, I have to figure out myself."

Hwei wonders how much of their own portrait is joy, how much is peace or pain. Is there kindness at its very center, like Ahri's? Or has Jhin twisted them right to their core? The thought makes them ache, all the way down to their marrow, eyes turning a deep, tormented purple. Still, the smile on their face is not so far from bliss. The emotions that Jhin evokes in them are fascinating. Devastating. "Though I suppose that seeing my own colours would only make me want to change them. As an artist, I am never satisfied, and if I were confronted by something I was unhappy with every time I saw myself, then..." There's something sharp in Hwei's smile then, something bitter. "I would learn to hate myself, or seek to change myself irrevocably. Neither of which would be productive uses of my time."

"... No, as much as it pains me, I think it's better that I cannot see myself. All the better for me to sink into the background. The artist should not distract from the art, after all. Unless they are part of the art which, so far, I have no interest in." Brushing the hair out of their eyes, Hwei laughs a little. "I admire artists who can put themselves in their art, but each time I try, I end up in black and white while the rest of the painting is in full colour. What does it mean, I wonder?" Their hand comes up to roll their bright pink earring between their fingers, contemplating that which they have contemplated so many times before. "Ah, I'm sorry. I'm rambling again. You're so easy to talk to. It's dangerous."

so much life, so much death — her eyes have bore witness to so much bloodshed, and her feet have felt the violent quake of the earth's immeasurable sorrow for the lands torn asunder — amongst fire and flame — and souls lost from senseless wars and petty violence. her own hands have plunged deep into twisting sinew, so thick with blood and strung with rot stuck beneath her claws, and though centuries have passed with those dark, somber days long behind her, some of the memories remain fresh. ahri cannot remember everything : a consequence of her own doing in a moment of vulnerable desperation, but even so, she feels the deep wounds of her every sin, all her anguish, etched into her soul.

but for every soul she has consumed, a lesson was learned. perhaps with great sacrifice, and not always born of the best place ( well, not at first ), but lessons learned nevertheless. they'll wonder if it was all worth it, and ahri tells herself that each life lost hadn't been in vain. after a while, at least. in hwei's words, she finds a growing stem of comfort rooted betwixt the moss - filled cracks of dirt and stone, resilient, persevering in a place it'll surely outgrow. ahri blinks slowly, clutching her tails tight before allowing her fingers to set them loose again. " i've never thought of it that way, " she softly admits. she grins, unable to keep her lips from twisting up. perhaps, in a way, she did keep children safe at home with the fearsome tales of her legends of eld.

ahri falls silent, listening intently, clinging to hwei's every vivid description and closes her eyes in an attempt to put color to darkness in her mind. when her eyes open again, she watches his hands as he paints shapes so convincingly that she thought they might just manifest right there in front of them. her heart sinks into the pit of her stomach, cavernous and warmth into cold. all that death, lives stolen and the earth forever marred by her blighted hands. as she continues to listen, ahri smiles again, though this time it's a little more sheepish, almost hesitant in a way unbecoming of her. " you can see all that, huh . . . it's kind of you to say that. " she has grown beyond all that she once was, and she exists with blinding compassion and care for those around her, but even still, ahri is haunted by her past. " can you see your own colors? i bet they're lovely, to suit you. "

[chaospirals]

@danceblades from 🎨

He wears the same vague smile, his eyes shifting from blue to indigo as she comments on his own scars. It's true that Lukai Hwei has not escaped life without injury, but he has been able to find beauty in even the worst moments of his life. Especially the worst moments of his life. He peers into his teacup, fascinated by how the leaves dance in the liquid, listening to Irelia's words even as he's lost in his own thoughts. The world is so much bigger than he ever knew. Full of so many different people, Hwei feels like he could lose himself in their smiles and their sorrows and never lift his head above the surface of their dreams again.

But he has a mission now. A purpose. A calling. A muse. As much as he may wish for the peaceful days of Koyehn, for the schedule and restrictions, for the rules he learned to avoid, those days are beyond him now, closed forever. He's accepted that, even if some days the yearning in his heart seems strong enough to drag him right through the past to his old home.

Hwei's eyes lift. Irelia has always been kind to him, and so he is kind to her. He holds her gaze, steady, and when she mentions Khada Jhin, his eyes go from an airy lavender to a deep, anguished purple.

"Ah, Jhin." Propping his elbow on the table, Hwei rests a soft cheek against his palm. "The source of so much pain, and beauty. He ended my life and began it anew in one dread stroke of his brush." He cannot keep the admiration from his voice. He knows that others see only the pain that Jhin causes, so he tries to hold his tongue, but ... "The memories of that day are still so fresh. I could paint them, but I would never do it justice." Quietly, Hwei's free hand traces shapes on the wooden table, painting with colours only he can see. "Without him, I would be stuck in the same cycles. He freed me and chained me to him. No matter what I do, I can't step out of his shadow." His eyes, lifting from the painting only he can see, flare with a dark red. "Not until I wrench the answers I seek from him."

[chaospirals]

no longer accepting! please dm me

hello new followers ... like for a weird ask from hwei!

[chaospirals]

The breeze stirs the tips of his raven strands, as if nature itself was moved by her words. He sees the way his words sink into her, twisting the colours around her like a rough brush, and Hwei watches the way they change. His eyes, a deep reflective blue, read the air around her like words on a page as he listens to Ahri speak. Neither her words nor her canvas give specifics, but Hwei feels like he understands one better through the other.

Humour is not his strong suit, but he recognizes it when it comes, and his lips pull into a faint smile, eyes lifting in genuine appreciation of her words. He has learned so much in his journey, and yet he learns more with each person he encounters. The Koyehn practitioners taught him that his visions were something to be cautious with — that not everyone was ready to have their secrets laid bare, and that admitting that he can see them would get him in trouble — but Ahri is kind to him. She shares her joys and melancholies without Hwei needing to resort to dire measures.

His smile is faint, airy, but it's kind. "Perhaps, though those stories aren't just horrific. Think of all the children your shadow kept from wandering off. Even in the tales of a monster, there is serenity to be found." Naïve words from a naïve mouth, though Hwei has always been one to find positives amidst strife.

But, more importantly, she asked him about her colours. Hwei's eyes light up as flecks of excited yellow glint in them. "There's so many colours on the periphery," he starts, gesturing with osseous hands like he's painting a picture with the air. "Intricate blues and oranges, vivid greens and reds, all the lives you've lived like static around the edges. But the closer it gets to the center, the more blue you become. Deep blue, like sorrow. Like grief." A pause, as if out of respect, and then Hwei draws an oval in the air with one finger. "There's a ring of black. Death and pain deeper than even the midnight around it, and then, at your very core," a flash of teeth, a smile. "Pink. Love, or kindness. That's how I know I can trust you."

@chaospirals sent : "So many colours trail after you. I could paint for a lifetime and not capture all that you are. What's it like to hold so much life within you?"

so much life within her, he says . . . but he does not see the wells of death she has consumed in order to get to where she is now. thousands of souls, the very essence of what makes a living being alive, devoured as if they were nothing, all in gluttonous greed until one day the burgeoning floodgates began to crack from the swelling tides surging deep within. eventually, the pressure became far too much, and ahri was encumbered by the overwhelming emotions, every memory, and it dawned upon her that, perhaps, she could not live as she had been, stealing soul after soul, life after life, without thought or remorse.

ahri smiles at hwei, now, though she doesn't quite meet his eyes. it's a broken little thing, crooked and eerie and weak, a worn down door thick with the scent of rot hanging pitifully by its hinges, and even then, that untouchable air of otherworldly beauty doesn't falter. her bundled tails rustle, soft and slow with the gently rolling breeze, and she stretches an arm out to catch them, carefully drawing the plumage of thick, white fur into her lap.

her gaze remains distant, as though she's silently pondering the capsizing seas of void and darkness grasping for her limbs to drag her down into depths she cannot escape in penance for the sins she has wrought upon this earth. " what colors do you see? " she asks, at long last. ahri absentmindedly strokes the fur of her tails, dragging her clawed fingers through the fine hairs and between the tails. her breath stills in the pit of her lungs for but a moment as she considers her answer.

ahri releases her tails and sets them loose behind her, and once more they sway with the wind in tandem with the branches and leaves. " when you live as long as i do, you learn the lessons the centuries bring. the lessons of life in its sweetest moments, and the lessons in the mistakes you make in all of their tragedy and loss. " a melancholic note cuts into her voice, clinging thick with a heaviness that digs its claws in deep. " you learn to appreciate life for what it is, live in respect to the world around, let go of the things that burden you, like petty revenge. and it helps, you know, that i'm not the same cold - blooded killer mothers used to tell their children horrific bedtime stories about. "

that, she adds with a smile, coy and teasing. even ahri has to find a way to pepper humor into something sorrowful that would otherwise cloud the mood with inescapable darkness.

[chaospirals]

The Visionary

[chaospirals]

Obsession keeps the mind awake

[chaospirals]

Hwei Short Story: "Paintings Framed in Half-Light"

[chaospirals]

[chaospirals]

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧: 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

More than just paint magic and an extremely vivid imagination, Hwei also experiences visions as he navigates the world. They're similar to how Shen (and through him, Akali) can see the imbalances in the world in The Lesson, but Hwei's visions almost exclusively involve people. On top of generally being very empathetic — fascinated by the intense and intricate emotions that drive every person on Runeterra — he can often see colours radiating off them. Though he cannot read minds, the colours are similar to auras in that he can get a sense of who they are as a person, as well as a sense of their emotions.

In the hands of someone else, this could be a dangerous power — if cultivated, it could be used to sniff out a traitor, or manipulate someone to bend them to his will, but for Hwei, it only serves to enhance his experience of the world. As someone who generally leans towards kindness, he has learned not to poke or prod too much, lest emotions like discomfort or anger muddy the air around them and disrupt his appreciation.

Still, Hwei is a little ... peculiar, and has been known to remark on the colours he sees, sometimes making people uncomfortable without meaning to. Often, it will just make him seem odd, but sometimes his analysis of a person hits too close to home. So he does his best to keep it under wraps. Though there's no promises he won't paint the colours he saw later.

[chaospirals]

hello new followers ... like for a weird ask from hwei!

[chaospirals]

I'm about to write so many ellipses.

[chaospirals]

𝐈 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐈 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈'𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤…

independent & selective 𝐋𝐮𝐤𝐚𝐢 𝐇𝐰𝐞𝐢 from league of legends | 18+ for adult themes | written by R

rules / headcanons / lore / verses under construction, mobile rules below the cut

writer and muse are 25+, and mature themes will appear on the blog. no one under 18 please!

I have no tolerance for bigots of any kind.

yes you can continue an ask, yes you can send me dms. please do whatever your heart desires.

I’m not interested in shipping hwei/jhin romantically at this time.

we’re all adults, let’s have fun!