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Detective Sergeant Violet Lanes is playing mine-sweeper on the main data access console in the Sumpshore Police Station on the island of Zaun.
It’s not a particularly entertaining way to spend her day, especially since the flickering screen only registers each click about two seconds late, but since there has been absolutely no criminal activity on the small tropical island for almost three days now, she doesn’t really have a better way to be wasting her time.
It’s possible all of the criminals are taking a holiday considering that the usually pleasant temperature, around 28 degrees, has risen to a blistering 35 in the latest heatwave that has been smothering the island as of four days ago.
Vi’s just happy she isn’t required to wear a uniform, the sleeveless tank top doing wonders in the way of keeping her cool, and no doubt making Ekko, who’s sitting across the room in his partially unbuttoned pale-blue shirt and jet black trousers, rather jealous.
The station does have air conditioning, but it would actually be more annoying to turn it on and face the constant rattling that it makes in its fruitless fight against the heat than it is just dealing with the weather itself. Instead, the doors are wide open and the twin ceiling fans are slowly rotating above. It doesn’t actually help, but at least you get to look at the view outside.
Zaun truly is a beautiful island. There are palm trees dotted about the landscape that Vi can see out of the open double doors, getting smaller and sparser as they make way for a white-sand beach, and ocean waves that sparkle in the light of the midday sun. She can see people milling about, trying to stay in the shade as they walk around the market stalls a short way from the station itself. Fragmented pieces of conversation float up through the humid air alongside bird calls and ocean waves. Vi can’t imagine ever wanting to live anywhere else.
She flicks her gaze to Steb to see if she can catch his eye, but he’s engrossed in whatever’s happening on his own screen, occasionally waving a hand to swat away a fly that’s buzzing around his head.
Vi turns back to her game, searching for squares that she can remove without accidentally blowing up. She’s pretty sure that this game can’t reach a point where it’s impossible to solve, but she’s not 100% on that and it’s not looking great. She’s about to just guess a square at random when she hears a loud groan from the front of the room, and looks up.
Her eyes land on her new boss, Detective Inspector Caitlyn Kiramman, tugging at the neck of her turtleneck jumper as she slowly boils alive inside it. She was sent in about a week ago from the MET in Piltover, and she’s about the least suited person Vi can possibly imagine for this job. As far as Vi can work out from their very one-sided interactions so far, which have consisted mostly of the Inspector complaining about something and Vi trying very hard not to snap back at her, she’s worked out quite a few things.
More accurately, she’s worked out a lot of things that the woman doesn’t like, inspector Kiramman seemingly hates the sun, sand, insects, heat, and anything that would fall under the twin umbrellas of ‘loosening up’ or ‘having some fun’. She’s also mentioned enough times to warrant being hit that she can’t get a good cup of tea around here, and that she misses the ‘predictably miserable weather’ of Piltover.
All in all, Vi hates the Detective Inspector, and the fact that she’s the hottest woman Vi’s ever met really doesn’t help. Between her neatly squared-away navy blue hair, and perfectly pressed clothes, she’s the image of strict Piltovan propriety. Her face is made up of sharp lines with a perfectly symmetrical nose and the most piercing blue eyes that Vi has possibly ever seen. She has legs for days, trapped inside skin-tight black trousers, and she towers over Vi in the most alluring way possible. All this paired with her deep, melodic accent, and perfect diction has left Vi entirely ruined.
Too bad she’s an infuriating asshole, who doesn’t seem to care for anything besides making sure Vi knows just how little she thinks of her home.
Her being completely stunning does at least make the moaning slightly more bearable, she thinks, as she watches the Inspector adjusting the collar of her midnight blue turtleneck jumper with a light sheen of sweat coating her forehead. There’s something about getting to see her composure slowly collapsing throughout the day while she claws at her perfect neck, where it’s trapped inside the collar of that stupid jumper that really does it for Vi.
Maybe she has found something better to do after all.
“Everything alright, Inspector?” she asks innocently.
The Inspector looks up, glaring, which somehow manages to make her look even hotter. “Yes, thank you DS Lanes,” she says coldly, dropping her hand from where it was fidgeting at her collar so that it can fidget with her sleeves instead. Seriously, long sleeves in this heat?
Vi tries to hide her smile, sharing a look with Ekko as they both wait patiently for the outburst they know is coming.
“I just don’t understand how it can be so bloody hot all of the time on this gods-forsaken island,” she starts ranting. “I don’t see why in the hells they can’t just install some actually functional air conditioning for this place. I mean I can’t think in this heat, I don’t see how they expect me to actually do my job on this infernal bloody hellscape of an island.” She puts her head in her hands, groaning loudly.
Vi smirks at Ekko, and even Steb’s looking up from whatever work he was so engrossed in earlier to laugh silently at his new boss’ outburst.
“You know Inspector,” he says with a slight smile. “You could try wearing something with shorter sleeves.”
She lowers her hands from her face, a few strands of hair sticking to her fingers, and being pulled out of her perfectly neat bun. “Officer Tallow, what I choose for myself to wear isn’t any of your business, thank you.”
“Right, of course Ma’am.”
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps, tucking the loose hairs back behind her ears so they don’t hang in front of her face. “Sir or Inspector or DI are all fine.” She sighs loudly. “I just need a distraction,” she says, pulling at her collar again. “Too bad nothing ever bloody happens here.”
Vi suppresses a snort. “Oh sure, yeah, I hate it when no one's getting murdered,” she replies sarcastically.
The Inspector lights up. “Exactly!”
Vi blinks. “That was, er, sarcasm, Ma- Sir. I was joking.”
The Inspector stares at her for a further few seconds. “Right, yes. Obviously. So was I,” she says, sounding slightly defensive. Vi wonders if the Inspector might not be familiar with the concept of a joke.
There’s nothing on the Inspector’s face to indicate what she’s thinking now other than that she’s irritated, which is always true. Without another word, she looks down at her desk to continue in whatever it is she’s doing, shuffling around some papers and continuing to make quiet frustrated noises.
Vi glances up at the clock, and determines that there are worse ways to waste five minutes than poking fun at your boss before the phone rings loudly, and Ekko blinks out of his daze, halting his chair-spin mid way, to answer.
“Sumpshore Police Station, how can I help?”
Vi turns back to continue staring at the Inspector as she presses a water bottle to her temple, scowls at it, and drops it again. She seems to have her jaw almost constantly clenched, and Vi absent-mindedly wonders what it would look like if she were to actually relax it and smile for a change.
“Shit, seriously? I mean.” He pauses. “Yes, sorry commissioner.”
The Inspector looks up at where Ekko’s talking on the phone, pinning it to his ear with one shoulder as he grabs a notebook from his desk to scribble something down. She looks as if she’s trying to read what he’s writing upside down and from across the other side of the room.
“Of course, thank you Ma’am,” Ekko finishes, putting down the phone with a click. He looks up to face the Inspector, now being watched by everyone in the room. “There’s been a murder,” he explains, already pulling his hat from his desk, and fixing it to his head.
“Finally,” exclaims the Inspector, shooting up from her desk. She freezes. “I mean, um, that’s terrible, but we should get there at once. Lanes, with me.” Having recovered her composure, she strides out from behind her desk, grabbing a black leather briefcase on her way.
“Lucky me,” mutters Vi, standing, and sharing a tight smile with Ekko.
The Inspector doesn’t hear her, stepping outside and swearing at the sun like it’s shining for her discomfort in particular.
Vi sighs. This is going to be a long day.