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fandoms-bythedozen · 5 months ago

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This is SO good. Thank you, @shouyuus and @vifilms , for blessing the world with this! <3 🙏🙏🙏🙏

mirror, mirror

braindump for @vifilms and i's "what if vi had a twin sister" oc au; this is so incoherent but if i didn't write it down somewhere i'd go nuts so here we go

her name is ivy. because while vander named vi, silco named vy (pronounced vee) --

"i've always like the name violet." "doctor says i've got twins -- god, when i said i wanted to double down on this zaun thing... i don't know if i meant this." silco grins, "what about the name ivy?" he glances at vander, "because violets are beautiful, certainly, but ivy... i've always admired their resilience. they'll grow so long as there's a surface for them to latch on to, and a bit of water and light." felicia smiles, "violet and ivy... yeah, i like it."

they're mirror twins -- vi's left-handed, vy's right-handed. they've both got a constellation of freckles dotted over their noses, like looking in a mirror. but they've always been kind of diametrically opposed. and the ongoing "joke" is that their names were swapped at birth, because ivy's the one who's quiet and a bit "delicate", and violet's always been the loud one, "resilience" bleeding from her in thick, angry rivulets, manifesting in street fights and bar brawls.

vy's quieter, a bit softer, but anyone who knows the pair of them knows that it's vy who's behind the scenes, her eyes sharp as broken glass, the consummate chess-player, the grandmaster behind all their ever-evolving schemes.

vi crops her hair short; vy keeps her hair long (it's her pride and joy, and there's something to be said about being able to take care of hair that long in the lanes), rolling over her shoulder and down her back in thick, dark pink waves.

when powder's old enough, it's vy who teaches powder how to braid her own hair, though powder always begs vy to do it for her, nimble fingers tugging open the braids just to do them up again. some nights, it's the only way to get powder to fall asleep.

there's a secret kind of language to sisterhood that vi and vy share (and eventually, with powder too) but it's silent -- a series of meaningful looks and micro-expressions, a twitch of the lips, a curve of the brow, a tiny wrinkle of one of their noses. usually, it'll end up with vi rolling her eyes and storming away, vy sighing as she swivels back towards vander on the bar stool, dragging vi's half drunk cup of juice towards her with a sigh.

"hey! i wasn't finished with that!" "finder's keepers," vy singsongs, but makes no move to resist as vi snatches the glass from her hands, chugging down the rest before slamming it on the bar. vander sighs, wincing. "easy on the bar-top there, kid." a second after vi storms back out of the bar, vander turns to vy with a knowing look. "alright kiddo. what did you do?" "why'dyou always think that i did something?" vander chuckles, reaching out to bop her nose. "because... i know that even if you'd never be caught dead at the scene of the crime... if i ever dusted the ten-page plan for fingerprints, i'd only ever find yours. so --" he reaches out to refill vi's empty juice glass with the magnanimity of a practice bartender before nudging it towards vy, "c'mon now -- tell me what happened."

the night of the incident (as vy's started to call it in her head), she'd fussed over vi and mylo and claggor all before they left, a small, niggling feeling in the back of her head as she'd chewed on her fingernails, powder skulking in the corner of the room, pouting, tugging at the ears of vi's old bunny stuffie.

powder had begged, cried and whined and screamed until vy had finally relented, making her pinky promise not to do anything stupid. they'd checked over her little mechanical monkey three whole times to make sure that it'd work just right this time -- not a big explosion, but just large enough to cause a distraction.

vy had made powder pinky swear to keep out of sight, to get in, create the distraction, and get out. and powder had promised (she'd promised, but vy had also broken her own end of the promise, hadn't she? she'd followed powder, even though she said she'd trust her) but she had kept the tiny blue gem a secret, from both her older sisters. for once, she wanted to be the strong one, or the smart one -- for once.

and when it all comes crashing down, vy is watching -- but she's frozen. because she's never been good at jumping in like vi has, she's never been strong like vi. all she could do was stand there, hidden up above one of the awnings at the factory, both her hands clamped over her mouth as everything went up in smoke.

when vi and vander come tumbling out of the rubble, vy hears the whip-crack in vi's voice like a gunshot through her own chest. she watches as powder screams, cries, as vi stumbles away sobbing. it isn't till silco shows up that vy realizes there's salt slicking down her own cheeks, but by then, it's already too late -- silco's got a hold of powder, and vi's already gone.

vy tips her head back, but she does not cry. she lets the rain wash down her reddened cheeks and swallows back a scream -- she thinks that she's long since lost the right to cry, the voice to scream.

things change while vi's locked up in stillwater. and it isn't till vi gets out and stumbles back into the lanes that she realizes things are different -- there's a cold war being waged between silco and one of the chembaronesses -- vi's blood runs cold when she hears of the woman's name --

poison ivy.

"what the hell's going on?" babette sighs, puffing purple smoke, "things changed when vander passed. silco's doing everything he can to flood the lanes with shimmer but --" "but?" babette takes another long drag from her pipe, "but your sister -- oh, she was always so quiet... i never thought... still, i suppose it had to be done. she's the only one who would stand up to him, and the only one smart enough to do it." "how'd she manage to stop him, all on her own?" babette breathes out, leaning back in her chair, her giant yordle ears flapping as she sets down the pipe, "she's figured out the only antidote to shimmer that anyone can get their hands on."

it wasn't easy, in those intervening years; it'd be a lie to say that ivy was the same girl who used to spend all her time with her nose buried between the pages of whatever book silco would sneak her -- because he'd always had a soft spot for her, even after vander's betrayal. and it wasn't her fault that she'd stumbled across him one day, his ankles soaking in the muck of the sump, his bad eye smarting worse than ever.

she'd long since learned that silence is a knife that cuts deeper than most words, and that stillness is the virtue of almost every unsung hero. so she stayed quiet, and she watched. she watched as the mad doctor offered shimmer to silco on a silver platter, the sickly pink of the liquid illuminating their faces from below.

"what's this?" silco had asked, taking the tube of shimmer between his long, thin fingers. dr. reveck coughs, shrugging up his bone-thin shoulders, the prolonged shimmer-exposure already showing in the heavy sag of his skin as he inches forward. "power... if you want it." silco nearly hisses as the doctor extends a hand to try and take the tube of shimmer back, his expression unhinged. vy bites back a gasp; his eye's so much worse than before, the whites completely eclipsed by shadow, an angry gray pulse oozing from it even as silco fights to keep his composure as the doctor jerks back. "it has the power to make someone stronger... though... it still needs... ah... refining," dr. reveck says. silco sighs, tossing the shimmer tube back. vy lets out an inaudible breath of relief. "fine. good. come back to me when you've got something that'll fix..." he gestures at the ruined half of his face with a dull grimace, "this."

ivy stumbles back to the loft above the last drop, the bar now ever more prosperous than it was before (she's since made several very lucrative deals with a few of the merchant families from piltover), but no one ever sees the illusive shadow that runs it anymore, and the old regulars have slowly started to dwindle.

she peels open one of the old herbariums that silco had gifted her, to the first page where a hand-written line is scribbled under the title and edition of the book --

for my favorite ivy-stalk, always remember -- it's the dose that makes the poison. - s

not a week later, a mysterious package arrives on silco's desk. he's tired, and he hasn't got the time for cryptic messages like this, though he thinks (dully) that if it's another ill-disguised attempt to kill him, that it better fucking work this time bc sending sevika after people is starting to get exhausting.

but nothing happens when he pulls open the rough paper packaging, and all that lays before him is a strange contraption that looks like a massive needle, with a tiny vial of sparkling pink shimmer.

he frowns; a note is pinned to the needle of the contraption. he picks it off with ginger fingers.

vy's neat, spikey handwriting (a bit too much like his own) leers up at him from the scrap of paper. all it says is five simple words:

the dose makes the poison.

and a tiny little stalk of ivy inked into the corner of the paper.

that same night, he calls powder (now jinx) over and hands her the strange needle contraption, settling it over his eye, holding his hands over her shaking ones.

"just like this... that's right. no, don't be scared. it won't kill me." "b-but what if it hurts you?" powder (jinx!) asks, peering up at him with those big, watery blue eyes of hers. silco sighs, loosening his grip on her tiny hands, "i'm afraid it will hurt me... but that doesn't mean it's bad for me, jinx. you see... sometimes, it's the things that hurt us... that make us into who we are."

by the time vi finds vy again, she can barely recognize the mirror image of herself -- though her heart stutters at the small tattoo inked into vy's cheek -- two roman numerals in exact replica of hers, except backwards --

"hey." "vi... it's been a long time."

and it has -- but she still sees the shadows of herself in the way vy moves. it's strange, to watch this phantom of herself, all her own features, but arranged every so slightly different as vy tosses a strand of long, pink hair over her pale, moon-kissed shoulder.

"nice tattoo," vi says, grinning, motioning at the ink on her own cheek. vy grins, cocking her head. "yeah. i just... had an urge one day..." her voice is sweet, but the implication is clear. i was watching. i've always been watching. vi swallows passed the poison welling up the back of her throat, "you knew -- you knew i was in that hellhole and --" "i knew you were safe." vy's voice is level, slick as rain-damp limestone. "safe? i --" vi runs a hand through her choppy pink hair, "i spent so many nights in that stone box of a place -- praying, thinking that i might one day get back to you and powder and --" vy scoffs, "you think you had it bad there? please, vi -- i made sure you lived, didn't i?" "y-you made sure --" vi's breath jerks off in an abortive gasp; she stumbles back half a step till her back bangs against the stained glass door of what used too be vander's room. "you... knew what they were doing to me and you... you didn't --" vy purses her lips, steepling her fingers; there's a raw, blood-shot look in her baby-blue eyes. "marcus and i had an agreement," vy says, fighting to keep her voice steady, "i knew you wouldn't be in any mortal danger as long as he kept his word." vi lets out a mirthless laugh, "what happened to you? the twin sister i knew would never have watched someone suffer like that and let it happen!"

vy pushes up from behind vander's old desk, the wood thick and old and worn. and for a single second, vi stares at the mirror image of her own face, framed with longer hair, strained beneath a different expression, and she wonders dully if this is what true heartbreak felt like -- looking into the eyes of someone she'd spent her entire life thinking she knew (better than own her reflection), and finding nothing recognizable left over in their depths.

vi gasps as vy rounds the desk to pin her with a hard-lined look. and in that moment, vi realizes, rather belatedly, that neither of them are children anymore.

"time happened to me, my dear darling twin," vy says, leaning into vi's personal space, reaching out to brush a gentle thumb along vi's cheek, "and after all those years in prison, i thought you would've learned by now that time changes all of us -- even those of us who don't want to be changed."

vi learns quickly after that -- some of it caitlyn tells her, some of it, she learns on her own, just from wandering around the lanes. that vy had taken up the mantle vander had left behind, and that she'd done everything she could to keep silco from taking over the lanes in full.

she'd struck deals with the council members, the most illustrious families up above, with all the enforcers she could get her hands on before silco got to the rest of them, sat in the dark, dank, damp of the lanes and woven her silver-studded web one gossamer strand at a time.

vi had always known her twin was smart, always three steps ahead. she hadn't thought vy capable of this.

"she's a poisons expert," cait had offered, to which vi'd shrugged, grunting in acquiescence. "yeah. she's always been into plants." "she has? that's helpful information to --" "cait -- i just -- this is getting us nowhere -- i've gotta go down and talk to her again. maybe i can --" "vi, you said that the last time the pair of you talked, it didn't go well." "yes, but -- she's still my twin sister -- i know her better than anyone else. i -- i have to at least try."

their second meeting goes better, with the pair of them meeting on neutral ground -- facilitated by the firelights, who else? ekko's grown up too, much to vi's chagrin, though it seems like change is just a constant she's going to have to get used to at this point.

cait insists on coming along and vy lands one look on her before her gaze slingshots to vi's and vi flushes a deep crimson. vy scoffs, grinning as she makes a show of checking over the ends of her long, luscious pink hair, leaning against the massive tree in the firelight's hideout.

"you always did have a thing for the pretty ones," vy remarks. to which vi sputters and ekko sighs, rolling his eyes.

"can we please try to keep things civil?" he asks.

"i haven't even said anything!" vi says, throwing up her hands. but at a single cocked brow from vy, she deflates again, chewing on her lower lip, muttering to herself, her arms flexing as she clenches her fists.

"we're all here to try and come up with a plan to stop jinx --" cait says.

vi and vy both wince, the movement eerily similar.

"her name is powder."

two identical voices speak at the exact same time.

vi looks up; vy's there to catch her eyes. and for a second, they're both twelve years old again, giggling in their shared bunk after they've once again stolen the words right from each others mouths.

"jinx!" they both echo, toppling into each other.

powder peers down at them from the top bunk, her blue hair flipping over her face as she stares at her two older sisters.

"what's that mean?" she asks.

vi and vy share a look, before motioning for powder to join them. powder scampers down the ladder, almost slipping off as she thumps into the bottom bunk and crawls between her sisters, giggling as they each loop an arm around her, the three of them pressing close (vander's always said a triangle is the most stable shape of them all -- and that it can withstand any kind of pressure, any kind of storm).

"it a word people say," vi starts, glancing at vy, who picks up flawlessly --

"when you're so close," vy says, leaning in to press her cheek against powder's head --

"and you know each other so well," vi continues, mirroring the movement.

between them, powder flushes happily, reaching down to take one of their hands in each of hers.

"that you say the same thing at the exact same time!" vy finishes, giving powder's hand a squeeze.

"i thought -- i thought it was a bad thing..." powder murmurs, snuggling further between her two sisters.

vi shakes her head, "nah, that's just mylo bein' a jerk."

vy nods, "and he's always a jerk, so don't you go listening to anything he says."

powder grins, nodding.

"you know that we love you, right pow-pow?" vi asks.

powder nods, her eyes bright and wide and so, so trusting.

vy leans down to tuck a strand of hair behind powder's ear.

"and that we'll always love you more than anything in the world?" vy asks.

powder laughs, crinkling her nose.

"nuh-uh -- i'll always love you guys more."

"well, we'll love you most." vi and vy say, again, at the same time.

powder lets out a delighted squeal of laughter as the three girls fall into each other with a single, bright, triple-voiced chorus of --

"jinx!"

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