Chloe: The Street Rat Part 1: Zaun Life
This is a teaser for a Champion i'm making! Part 2 will come with full kit and small bio, hope you enjoy!
Part 1: Zaun Life
“Hey get back here girl!”
Pilties. Not them again. It was only a minor robbery what was the harm in it anyway, a kid’s gotta eat after all. I look behind me to see who caused the fuss this time. I saw a man with a crooked finger pointed straight at me, he had what looked to be a brass monocle. He was dressed just like all the stiffs in this self deemed “City of Progress.”, Vibrant purple cloth, adorned with various brass sticking out from all his clothes. No doubt one of the techmaturgy merchants around this area. Lucky I ran into such a rich guy on the border, didn’t need to go very far to get a nice pick’in. I shrug, no point in worrying about him I have what I came for. He and some Piltover authorities came and chased me just like they always do. I went to my same hiding place, a little gap between the pipes. We were officially in my territory, Zaun. As I’m watching my pursuers through the bars I reach inside my bag to see what treasures I picked from em this time. I open the bag ever so slightly… the light was blinding. I cry out and quickly cover my mouth again. I crouch and from the little light that was reaching through the bottom bar, I hear the CLUNK of metal shoes. The merchant from earlier was standing right over where I hid. I figure I was surrounded by enough shadows that he wouldn’t see me. “ Street rats.” he had a voice that reminded me of if a rat started gnawing on some o’that hextech. “You took something very precious from me.” Coughing, followed by the sinister ring of steel rang. “Once I get what I’ve come here for, I will never have to live in this mess again.” He kicks the green water right in my face. I spit and cough, I’ve had disease I didn’t want it again. When I look back up again his eye is peering right at me, his monocle extends and stares right at me. I yelp and open the bag at him. Blinding light goes and hits him right in the eyes. He backs up curs’in and swear’in like any regular Bilgewater pirate. This was all I needed I grab my stuff and bolt as fast as I can down the alley. As we Zaunites say, “Every pipe leads to the sewer, and every sewer leads home.” Living here, I can say with a hundred percent certainty that they do indeed lead home. Farther down the alley I hear the hiss of steam, I turn toward the sound and lo and behold a cluster of pipes up and out of a broken part of the ground. “I aint alive til I’ve challenged death at least a couple’o times.” I leap onto one of the pipes and ride it down. Above me I see the man peering over shaking his fist at me as his rickity voice echoed down, “You don’t know what you’ve done! You’ll destroy all of Z…” His voice was cut off as my own screams filled my ear. I was freefalling straight towards a moldy, grimy ground. I hit with a loud thud and a grunt of pain. The pipe I fell from wasn’t terribly high up, a few bruises and scrapes. All in all, a successful pocketing. That’ll make a good story I can’t wait to tell the ol’ man. I bolt upright… which brings on a whole new wave of pain. Where am I anyway? I look around getting my bearings. It was hard through the haze of pain setting on me. But pains a fools master, and I be damned if I was a fool. Your wits are all you have to go off if you wanna survive the street life. I stand dust myself off, got the dirt and such but the polluted puddle I landed in would take weeks to get out. I look around confused at first but I blindly walk up onto the steps to an effective town square. From here I saw Shimmer Bar. I laugh to myself at my luck, this is where I come everyday to find him, ya see he owns the place. I stride in confident and cocky, he calls out to me “ey there, keep walking like that and people’ll think you’re tough or something.” He laughs a hearty laugh. He was a big burly man, arms as thick as the door I walked through. His face was all gnarled up centered around his nose, making him grizzly and menacing. Very few get to on the receiving side of his friendliness. The bar itself was noisy and ruckus. One man in particular seems to be riling everyone else up talking bout how he could take em all. Everyone else obviously disagreed but it was none of my business, simply bar brags. People do questionable things when drinking Shimmer Bar drinks. They say good mead, but I know the secret ingredient to give it that kick. I walk over to him and sit down at the bar. “Keep staying here and people’ll think you’ve gone soft Ol’ Man.” He laughs the same laugh again and sits a drink down. Legally, i’m not allowed to have any, but the pilties don’t ever venture this far into Zaun. “People here know i’ll never go soft, in fact, you see that man in over there” He points to the same man that had been bragging about his fightin’ skills. “He’s going to go a little too far, then you’ll see just how soft i’ve gotten.” I sip the drink, tasting it’s burning sensation once more, I sit back and watch the man. If the Ol’ Man says somethin’ll happen, somethin’ll happen. The man’s posey cheers him on and pushes him towards the biggest in the bar, one o’ the regulars, a noxian deserter who lost everything on a gamble. I’ve never seen him lose a fistfight. The man strides over clenches his fist and socks him right in the jaw. He noxian doesn’t even flinch. He spits then stands and punches him so that he went flying back to his lackeys. His lackeys, for some reason, decided to defend their ruined pride and go fight him. All around me the bar erupted in skirmishes. I take another drink tapping the Ol’ Man. “Guess you were right.” he grunts in agreement. “Wait here little girl, i’ll get this settled.” he goes and grabs his club, full o’ rusty spikes after the brawl in the warehouse. “I aint little anymore.” I turn my head and stick out my bottom lip to show my defiance. He chuckles while slamming his club onto the floor. The deafening sound silences the room. “THERE WILL BE NO FIGHTING IN MY BAR” his voice commands attention, loud, crass and definitely intimidating, then in a more friendly tone “Unless of course, a gamble was set first.” Everyone laughs together raising their glasses and drinking together once more. Zaun might be the most dirtiest, dingiest and have the most lawlessness, but we’re all in this mess together. I raise my glass with em, proud to be a street rat.
