Shimmer and shine

Beloved daughter or hated ward?

After her sister had abandoned her, Powder had just stayed frozen in place, crying and begging for forgiveness until the enforcers finally descended into the bowels of the undercity.

She hadn't even noticed their approach until one of the monsters was putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Where's your family?" came the raspy voice of the uniformed monster in front of her, and the question had her crying again, "Dead. They're all dead, and my sister left without me."

She cried harder when the monster picked her up and gave her what must have been a hug. One arm supporting her weight, while another held her close as she sobbed.

The enforcers looked at each other and then looked around at the carnage. A small spark of mercy and compassion lit inside them. They agreed with each other that the child had dealt with enough, the senior enforcer spoke to her.

"It's okay. We'll take you back with us and find some nice people for you to live with. What's your name?"

Her mind flashed to Vi and her angry exclamations, "Jinx." She sniffled, "My name is Jinx." She didn't deserve the name powder. Let that girl die with the rest of her family.

--

"Jinx!"

She groaned at the annoyed tone coming from downstairs and left her room to look down over the balcony at the woman in question who was staring up at her and tapping her foot impatiently.

"yes mother?" She said tiredly, her own fault for spending most of the night experimenting.

The woman frowned, "Why aren't you dressed?"

Jinx looked down at the apron she had on over her blouse and pants.

"Honestly Jinx. I told you to be ready. We never have this trouble with your sister."

Jinx shrank back at the criticism, it was always about Caitlyn, 'look at Caitlyn', 'be more like your sister.', 'your sister is excelling, why are you so far behind.'

Jinx grit her teeth. "It is always perfect Caitlyn." She thought bitterly. "She couldn't care about her little ward if you died." Mylo's shadowy form commented. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Junx looked down at her self-styled adopted mother. "I already told you that I didn't want to go Mother, Surely you remember how bad it was the last time."

She'd blown up in the middle of an event, screaming at some old man who'd told her she should be thankful that the Kiramman's had taken in undercity rubbish like her.

She'd much rather stay in her room tinkering for the night.

The councilwoman's brow furrowed, "Yes. You did cause a horrendous scene." She agreed, "but we've paid for private tutors so that you don't repeat it. Besides people will expect to see you."

Jinx closed her eyes as Mylo started needling her. 'they just want to show off how kind they are to take in undercity scum like us.', ' you really think they took in the poor orphan girl who killed her own family for no reason? It's no wonder they always compare you to their real daughter, its not like you'd ever be worth anything to them past making them look generous.'

Jinx clenched her fist, nails biting into her palm and grit her teeth as she tried to push the voices back. She wasn't allowed to let their effects show. Doing that meant weeks in a care facility having people needling her for answers on what was happening in her head.

The last time had only made it all so much worse. So she'd learned fast how to mask normality for these people. Having to deal with her mental health was apparently the straw that breaks the generous Pilty backs.