Arcane: The Young Hound

(LN- I've been busy, don't yell at me please! 😭)

The next morning, Nyx took a not so hot bath before heading over to The Last Drop. Sighing as he strolled in the door, Nyx was met with the usual chaos that was an undercity bar.

There was a mild amount of violence, but it was short lived and usually in good faith. Stepping over an unconscious man, Nyx slid into his usual seat before finally making eye contact with Vander, who had been staring into his soul from the moment he had stepped into the place.

"Hey Vander, you sleep well?" Nyx smiled as best as he could, which only served to make one of Vander's eyes to twitch.

"Did I sleep well? I don't know, Nyx. Why don't I start from when you left?" He said with vaguely contained anger. "First, the kid of my dead best friend went running out to do who knows what, them the rest of the kids here also go running out to do presumably much worse. Then, I find out that a building blew up and 89 ENFORCERS WERE BEATEN IN THE STREET!"

...

You could hear a pin drop. Not a single word was spoken as everyone turned to see Vander towering over Nyx.

"They will come down here, they will come knocking, and they will demand blood!"

Nyx didn't back down though. "I had no choice, Vander! What was I supposed to do, let them get captured?"

"No! But you could have stopped them in the first place!" Vander shouted. "And you didn't have to beat a hundred enforcers half to death!"

"..." Nyx had nothing to day to that, as he knew that he could have escaped after the first smoke pellet exploded.

Vander, having vented his frustration enough, sighed and leaned up against the bar. "I'll handle the enforcers when they come knocking, but you have to promise me that you'll stop being so impulsive, Nyx. I've already lost so many people in my life, I can't afford to lose any of you too."

"I know Vander, bit I'm not just gonna stand by as Zaun falls apart around us... actually I wanted to talk to you about something."

Vander sighed, picking up a glass and filling it for himself before taking a big swig. "What?"

"I wanna set up a legal business up top. I've saved up enough to buy a building, a staff and set up a brand new bar up in Stiltover (At this point it'd a verbal tick), maybe even become an engineer."

Vander didn't say anything, just listening, slowly smiling down at the kid.

"And after I get enough, I wanna start coming down and giving out free meals. Ya know, to those who can't get it themselves, so they don't have to fight and kill for it."

"Maybe I'll even start giving jobs to people down here, make it so it's not so dark and dingy, help out wherever I can so other people can start helping out."

Vander nodded. "You want to be the spark that lights the flame."

Nyx shook his head. "No. I want to be the one to show the people of Zaun that we can still hope for a better future. A light so bright that they don't have to feel afraid of walking through the dark alleys. So in a way, I guess yeah, I want to be the flame so bright and hot that they can light their torches, and go off on their own paths."

Vander bobbed his head again. "Those are some big dreams, kid. You sure you're up for it?"

Nyx looked Vander in his eyes, showing his father figure how enthralled he was by this idea. "Have you ever known me to back down from a challenge?"

Vander locked his head back and started laughing heartily. "Haha! No, not even once! The whole lot of you are stubborn as mules, I swear!"

Nyx chuckled, taking the drink that Vander held out for him and taking a swig. Immediately, a comfortable heat bloomed down his throat.

"Cough, cough! Damn Vander, you trying'ta kill me?" Nyx laughed.

Vander chuckeled again, but shook his head. "No, just thought you needed it."

Shaking his head, Nyx downed the rest of his drink before getting up. "Thanks fir the reality check, Vander. I think I needed that. Oh, and please let me help you when the Stilties start lurking."

Vander laughed again, shooing him away and serving a drink to another customer.

---

Sitting down in his workshop again, Nyx sighed to himself, rubbing his face with his hands. "Sigh, Vander's right. As usual. While I did what I needed to, I didn't have to go that far."

See, he was originally planning on playing multiple personas. The one he had shown recently was the villan, who had no name, and the other was still in the works. And by villan, I mean for Piltover.

Though now that he thought about it, right now Piltover would see just about anyone as a villan.

Shaking his head of the restless thoughts in his head, Nyx turned to another part of his plans: some blue prints as well as a prototype.

For what you ask? Great question, I'll tell you!

"I wonder how the Kirammans will react to the electrical engine?" Nyx muttered to himself, 'unprompted'.

This was truly just a small sample of what he had cooking up in his head, and this was just to get the family hooked on what else he had floating around up there.

This one was pretty simple too, because it was a tesla coil with a hand crank on it to generate the charge. Though, he had also created and added a rudimentary lightbulb that would last longer for this type if charge.

Smiling to himself, he stood up before he walked over to Axel, who was strangle enough, slowly changing shape and seemed to be dormant.

Raising en eyebrow, Nyx tried to make out what kind of shape it was trying to be, but it was too vague to recognize any features. It was just a vaguely oval shaped nub with six smaller nubs growing out of it.

"Some kind of animal? But why would it take that form? Is it because it's soul wants to take a shape, so it's body follows? Sigh... too much to learn and not enough hands or brains to do it all at once."

"...seriously though, I should make a second pair of hands... I might just tinker with that idea for a bit... fuck it."