Luxurious Anarchy (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 33: Rule The World

Jinx blinked, and looked around the room before turning back to Garen. "Eh? No no no, I said no more demands, none, zilch! Ta-lk-ing, we're just T, A, L, K-"

"Sunflower?"

Jinx's jaw closed with a click, and she turned to face Lux, shifting her grip on the chains restraining Prince Jarven.

"Yes, Sunshine?"

Lux waved her arms, the weighted netting and heavy ropes that shrouded her body barely moving, "A little help, please?"

Jinx looked from the chains wrapped around Jarven's neck, to Lux, then back to the chains, muttering, "Uh, well, I would, but this guy doesn't seem like he'll play nice if I let him go so like-"

"I got her, I got her," rumbled Vi, limping over to Lux, wincing as blood trickled down her side.

Jinx nodded, then turned to Garen and the assembled councilors. "So anyway, I'd love to quickly hash out an emancipation of the glorious nation of Zaun, then we can go on our merry way and stop killing each other, yeah?"

Councilmember Bolbok stepped forward, hands clasped behind their back. "You do realize that this is rank coercion? No treaty, no agreement could possibly be valid under these circumstances."

Jinx furrowed her brow, "I'm sorry, but coming from you, that sounds like bullshit. You're just salty that the shoe is on the other foot."

Looking around the room, Jinx shouted, "Does this mechanical jackass speak for you all? Cause I'm happy to leave and try again later. Maybe after a few more graveyards worth of dead, how's that sound?"

"No, they do not speak for us," said Mel, her voice filling the room.

"Councilwoman Medarda..." hissed Bolbok in a warning tone, but the Noxian expatriate sliced one hand through the air like a blade deflecting a strike.

"No, you've had your say, Councilmember. In fact, you and yours have run roughshod over dissenting voices for weeks now, and look where it's gotten us!"

"So you're going to parlay with this, this impetuous upstart of a filthy trencher?" shouted Hoskel, spittle flying from his lips as he gesticulated wildly, and Jinx narrowed her eyes.

Lips pulling back in a snarl, Jinx adjusted her grip on her chains, "You know, I'm not an expert, but is kicking off negotiations with insults the norm?"

Mel smoothed out her dress, "No, but I'm sure you can find it in your heart to forgive Councilman Hoskel's outburst. This has been a... trying day for all of us."

A few heads bobbed around the room in agreement, and here and there, the soldiers of Piltover and Demacia picked through their wounded, lining up the bodies of the fallen while a handful of medically inclined souls did their best to triage.

"So," said Mel after another moment's silence, "do you have a list of terms you'd like to go over?"

Jinx opened her mouth, then turned to Bolbok, "I dunno, did you just shoot the messenger or did you also go through the poor sap's pockets?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the mechanical councilmember snarled, their posture rigid.

"I've got a spare copy here," Ekko rasped, limping across the council chambers with a crumpled sheet of paper held in one hand.

"Give me that," snapped Hoskel, all but ripping the paper out of Ekko's hand, only to have it pulled from his own grasp by Councilman Salo.

Furrowing his brow, the slender councilman fended off Hoskel with one arm, as his eyebrows climbed higher and higher.