Chapter 7: Born In This World As It All Falls Apart

Ch. 6: Small Steps "Low Lays the Devil in Me" CaitVi Fanfic

“Tell me, Officer Kiramman, do you find fulfillment in your occupation?” “Fulfillment, ma’am?” Caitlyn asked as Corina weaved through rows of colorful plants. “Yes, personally, I mean. Do you wake up every day with a sense of purpose and go to sleep every night with the knowledge that you are making your mark on this world?” Caitlyn thought about her answer carefully and decided to play it safe. “Would you even believe me if I told you that I do?” she replied with a sardonic smirk. Corina stopped and pulled out a few weeds from a beautiful batch of yellow bulb plants that Caitlyn recognized as tulips. When she was finished, she looked at Caitlyn. Her dark eyes, Caitlyn realized, were speckled with beautiful gold flakes that anyone could get lost in, should she choose to weaponize them. “If you were an ordinary citizen, perhaps I would believe you,” she finally answered. “But to go from the pinnacle of Piltover political power to the banality of chasing down petty criminals in the Undercity? Then no, I don’t believe that someone like you would find that fulfilling.”

Low Lays the Devil in Me - Chapter 6 - Phoenix314 - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

Caitlyn makes small steps towards proving herself to Corina’s operation.

Ch. 27: Short Change Hero "Heart Made of Glass, My Mind of Stone" CaitVi Fic

She felt as if something in her mind turned off. Vander was here. He would make everything better. He always does. She stood up to go to him, but caught herself on the counter as a wave of dizziness hit her like an airship. “Vi? You’re covered in blood!” he exclaimed in horror. “I think I—I think I hit—” Vi stuttered, the room spinning more and more and her vision became spotted. The dull throbbing in the back of her head she had been ignoring for the last thirty minutes began to suddenly get worse. She felt Vander’s fingers run through her hair and pulled them back, crimson staining his hand. “I think I hit my head,” she muttered. Her eyes rolled back and her world turned black.

Heart Made of Glass, My Mind of Stone - Chapter 27 - Phoenix314 - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

The aftermath of the face off with Deckard.

Post About a Certain Acane Character in "Heart Made of Glass, My Mind of Stone"

I've been getting a lot of questions about a certain character from the show that hasn't been mentioned or introduced in my fic yet. If you want to know more/be spoiled a bit for this fic, more below the "keep reading" line. The spoiler will be about who that character is and why they're not in it/why I made that decision. The spoiler itself won't tell you anything I plan on doing for the story, though it will spoil you if you haven’t caught up on this fic, but will tell you what I don't plan on doing with the focus on this character.

Silco will not be in this fic. At least the first one. I hate to say "never" when writing, but he will most likely not be in the sequel either.

I think Silco is one of them most well portrayed villains ever written for television and the fact that we got him for just 9 episodes is fucking bonkers to me. He is one of the most incredibly well written characters in the whole show. He is a deeply complex character with sympathetic motives, but horrific means. It's a classic villain trope, but fuck does Arcane practically perfect that in Silco. I love to hate him and I hate to love him.

Now, that plays into why I don't want to write him:

I know myself well enough that I would not be happy with any kind of portrayal or twist I could put on him and it would frustrate me to the point that I could see myself abandoning the fic or not being happy with it like I am right now.

I don't see a need for him in my story. I am doing a different take on the story of Zaun vs Piltover, of the shimmer plot, and the political intrigue. Silco's story in all three of those areas was told already in the show, brilliantly. I have no want or desire to basically do what was in the show. The whole point of me writing this fic was a "what if" (more on this below)

Since I am drawing on a bit more LoL lore, I already have people other than Silco that I want to explore in this particular story/setting that I've changed up, twisted, what have you, but that will come up a bit more heavily in the sequel. In this one, the foil to Cassandra and her alliance are currently the Chembarons. They weren't really featured all that much in the show, save for few key moments, but overall, it was not much compared to Silco/Ambessa, and that makes me want to explore them more than Silco. I wanted them to be the antagonists of this fic. (You might notice that my fic has a lot of people featured in it that aren't primarily explore a lot in the show: Cassandra, Shoola, Grayson, etc. to name a few).

To state the obvious: this story I'm writing is similar to what the writers did in the Timebomb episode in season 2. My own "what if" story.

What if Caitlyn and Vi met as teenagers? What if Cassandra was the one who wanted to end corruption of Piltover instead of Jayce? What if Vander ended his revolution not because someone he loved took it too far, but because he took it too far and many more people died, including his best friends? What if Vander lived and helped Vi off of her dangerous path of rage and violence?

Etc., etc.

Lastly, I will just say that I use the tag feature on AO3 very, very intentionally! If you don't see a major character's name in the character tags, then they either haven't been introduced yet or they won't be in the fic at all. But typically, if I know they'll be in it, I will add their name to the tags as soon as I can.

Silco just won't be one of them.

Thank you all! <3 <3 <3

Ch. 23: Epilogue "Low Lays the Devil in Me" CaitVi Fanfic

This is the final chapter of the CaitVi series "I Will Give You My Rebel Heart."

Low Lays the Devil in Me - Chapter 23 - caitlynkirammansrifle, just-a-pleb-les (caitlynkirammansrifle) - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

See below for a little sappy message on wrapping up this epic, massive series.

I'm copying and pasting this from the end note section of this final chapter:

Okay, so let me be a bit of a sap for a moment.

I never, ever, ever in my wildest dreams thought I could ever actually complete a fic (or any piece of writing) of this length, let alone 2 in a series that make up 350,000 words! According to Google, the average word count for a book is 70-100,000. So, since I started this fic in December of 2024, I have spent the last six months almost to the day writing over 3 novels' worth of words. Now, working in an established world with established characters (a lot of which I also used from official LoL lore) definitely helped with world-building and character creation. However, that is still a wild feat to accomplish, and I’m not so humble as to not be proud of myself for writing two semi-coherent stories with 350,000 words and making them up, for the most part, as I went.

That all being said, I’m not 100% sure if I would have done this at the pace that I had with the excitement that I had if it weren’t for how amazing and kind you all have been. The fact that there about 1200 comments (that’s halved from what the actual number shows because I’ve replied to almost every single one, so I’m not counting mine) and I’ve only had 2 hate comments that I’ve had to delete is absolutely wild given that this is the internet and that CaitVi can be a bit of a controversial pairing in the fandom. What I’m trying to say is thank you to every single person who has read this, left a comment, left a kudos, subbed to the fic/my ao3 account, bookmarked, followed me on social media, been inspired by this story to write a fic/create a piece of art, and everything in between. This has been one of the most creatively fulfilling things I’ve ever done, and I appreciate every person who was kind enough to give it a chance and more.

This story is not perfect, I’m sure there are more than a few plot holes or underdeveloped parts and other issues that come with fanfic writing without an editor and problems that come with making it all up as you go along, but I don’t care. This story and this version of these characters mean so much to me (looking at you, my queen Cassandra Kiramman), and this will forever have a special place in my heart. Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this wild ride. It has meant the world to me ❤️💙

Ch. 19: Assault on Stillwater Part I "Low Lays the Devil in Me" CaitVi FanFic

Caitlyn laughed again and shook her head at Vi, who could only grin at the happiness that radiated off the other girl. Vi suddenly wished she could freeze time in that very moment of Caitlyn laughing in Vi’s childhood bedroom before everything would change and there was no going back. She raised her hand and pushed Caitlyn’s hair behind her ear, then cupped her cheek. Caitlyn sighed and gripped her fingers, pulling Vi closer as she kissed her palm so tenderly it made the back of Vi’s eyes burn. “I could never have done this without you, Cupcake,” Vi whispered. Caitlyn shook her head. “You are so strong, Violet,” she replied and brought a hand up to Vi’s chest, laying it over her heart. “And you love so fiercely. You are the daughter of revolutionaries. You never would have taken everything my people did lying down. At one point, sooner or later, you would have acted. You love your people too much.” “No. No more of this my people and your people,” Vi said, and the intensity of her tone made blue eyes widen in surprise. “Our people. You and I have bled and lied and killed and sacrificed for this moment. Soon, this will be over, and we can begin building a future that all our people deserve. We can be the ones who show them what they are capable of when we work together. We will show them, Cait. We will show them all.”

Low Lays the Devil in Me - Chapter 19 - caitlynkirammansrifle - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

The alliance begins its assault on Stillwater while Vander and Cassandra confront Bolbok.

I know I'm not the only one but by God your writing is incredible. Low lays the devil and Heart made of glass have been my favorite CaitVi fics of all time. Everything you've written has been pure magic! ❤💙

The fact that I only just got back into writing, after almost a decade, a few months ago makes this comment even more incredible to me. Thank you so much. The fact that any of you love it is insane, but to have it be anyone’s favorite? I’m on cloud nine. Thank you so much! ❤️💙

Almost forgot I have dnd prep to do for my session tomorrow night, but I also have writing I want to get done for work. So my prep consists of 6 sentences, one of them reminding me what time of day it currently is for my players. The chokehold these fics have on me is unreal lolol

CaitVi Writing Prompt

Okay, so I've never done this before, and I'm not promising anything, but here goes. I will take a CaitVi writing prompt for a one-shot fic to do as a palate cleanser once "Low Lays the Devil in Me" is done. I've always wanted to try a writing prompt and now is as good a time as any (if anyone manages to inspire me with a prompt, that is). Please leave them either in the replies of this post or as an anonymous ask if you'd like.

Rules:

Must be a non-canonical setting, preferably modern day, as I have spent a lot, a lot of time in Piltover/Zaun/Runeterra and will do so again in the Pirate AU that's next and in "Tethered."

Not completely ruling out smut, but it can't be the sole focus. I'm a character-driven writer first and foremost, and want to keep it that way, please.

Please keep the prompt to three sentences, max 350 words.

Must be one-shot worthy, and I'll probably not make it more than 15,000 words, so nothing that would require a complex, multichapter storyline.

I am doing this as a writing exercise, not an obligation to the people who suggest any prompts. Fanfic writing is for fun, and I want a little short break between "Devil" and the Pirate AU, which is my next long-form fic.

I will NOT do any requests for anti-ship/anti-character fics.

Thanks everyone! We'll see how this goes and if anything grabs me. Please don't be hurt if I don't choose yours. This is just a little exercise for me, and you never know, maybe I'd do one later if you suggest one now.

I am 4500 words into the next chapter of Low Lays the Devil in Me and it might be my favorite one yet of this fic! I'm having so much fun!! I think a lot of you will really enjoy it, too 😁

Ch. 2 "Tethered" CaitVi Fic

"Normally, stealing from a councilor is a minimum of ten years in Stillwater. However,” she said, ignoring Vi’s choked gasp, “given her age and the fact that she made me aware of Jayce’s illegal research, I have decided to not press charges.” Vander snorted, which obviously threw the councilor off as she raised her brow in surprise at the reaction. “You can’t let word get out that your boy was doing magic with your money and name, you mean, and are hoping for our silence in exchange for her not being carted off to prison,” he stated. Cassandra blinked at his words and Vi could tell she was taken aback at how easily Vander could read in between the lines. She quickly recovered and sat up even straighter, if it were possible. “Yes,” she simply responded. “I would prefer, if possible, to maintain a level of discretion regarding this incident.”

Tethered - Chapter 2 - Phoenix314 - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

Vander visits Vi at the Kirammans and Vi gets on Caitlyn's nerves.