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Live in the Sky by Tritonal & Eric Lumiere

*Chapter 10*

Narrowed eyes, a flutter of newness that soaked Gideon's retinas, he shielded his face from the intense light that beamed down onto him. With a tight, rainbow exterior swap to Novus's snout, who kept close proximity to Gideon, everyone slowly sauntered through the portal, once and for all. Gideon huffed a choke of a breath and could hardly even take in everything he was seeing. Outside of the warm, all-encompassing sunlight, Gideon gathered that the five had arrived to what seemed to almost look like a game station if it were covered by a colossal dome, was out in the clouds, swimming in a sea of lovely sunlight, this area's architecture was such a pristine color of gold that it was nearly a pearly, iridescent white. The five had come out of a massive circular station, of which had surely hundreds of said golden portals hugging the walls of the entirety of it, said station was secured to the center of this open-aired dome. The dome eventually narrowed and extended upwards for leagues. Gideon lulled his head back and, upon looking up into the narrowing tunnel of a massive atrium, he grew dizzy with attempting to see the very tippy top of said atrium. The atrium was a beastly, intimidating tunnel of black, though in electric bands of white, lovely goodness, it seemed as if energy was attempting to move upwards and into the sky, though stopped short about a quarter of the way up, about thirty floors.

Gideon and crew were entirely speechless. They spun in dainty, slow, sauntering circles of awestruck confusion. Said gorgeous dome, that eventually narrowed and crawled upwards into a blackened atrium just barely kissed by ribbons of energy and sunlight in a tiny spec at the very tippy top, eventually spanned downwards into flattened, open-aired arches, hundreds of them, surely lining up with each and every single portal inside the hub of this gigantic, warmly-lit dome. Beyond the arches was scenery beyond Gideon's imagination, something he had a hard time coming to grips with, it was as if he had stepped into the most hyper-realistic fantasy painting he could somehow hope to conjure up, even with hundreds of hours painstakingly given. A lush, golden-leaf valley so securely hugged by gorgeous, tan, jagged, snow-peppered mountain ranges. This floating island was about fifty miles across from nearly any angle, the whole of it was nestled in a misty cloud of sunlight and stardust, surely a mass of galactic, cosmic paint that catered to the time of day, it was all about two minutes of silence before Gideon shakily expelled his grinning findings.

"The Sundog," Gideon choked an incredulous chuckle, he kept his hand firm to Novus's snout as the five slowly sauntered about this massive portal station, their heads and necks still cranked and tossed back in awestruck humility.

"Probably the easiest mission into the internet ever," Lash muttered with a cheeky smile, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, "Yeah, if you would've told me two days ago that my best friend would up the ante and we'd be finding User-topia ABOVE the internet? I'd ask what you were smoking."

"Heard," Mara quipped in chuckling, bewildered agreeing as everyone got a good look around.

Although this massive dome and portal station was barren of potential public commodities, it looked as if this was a portal to mimic the send and receive station down on the sprawl of internet below. It was a quick flow of come and go, the station was big enough that the mass of the public about them was very loosely spaced out in bustling and equally not-so-bustling bodies. Gideon firmly looked back to the wall of portals that eventually bevelled out of his view, in a proper circular form, he took note that gamers of all kinds were coming and going. These gamers looked just like typical internet bodies, though as Gideon furrowed his eyebrows and assessed each one, he took note that not a single being looked as if they didn't belong here. The air was filled with nothing but peace, the hit of warmth and full understanding was what the group marinated in, in full silence with each other. Gideon peered to his teammates in bewildered stun, tossed his eyes back up to the darkened atrium and now swiftly understood that this was all reality, everything happening to them in this instance was real, ready, theirs.

"W-we need to find whoever is in charge of this place," Gideon's voice delightfully shook, this caused his small group about him to broaden happy smiles.

"...Methinks it's probably you and Kepa, bud," Lash mumbled warmly, to which Gideon scoffed a noise and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, lookit, everyone's flocking to us," Gideon muttered sarcastically as he gestured his free arm outwards while keeping his left hand planted inside his exterior swap with Novus; although there was no general public within a two-dozen foot radius, he broadened his voice with a cute laugh and lulled his eyes closed in full tease, "I'm in charge, clearly, I just got here and I call the shots."

Lash sharply cocked an eyebrow, peered hard to Gideon's face and then looked off in a wide-eyed bug of sarcastic, impending dread.

"You, uh... You clearly know how true manifesting works, my guy, be careful what words you're putting out into the air," Lash jeered, everyone erupted into happy laughter as Gideon slumped his bigger arm to his side and gave Lash a deflated little smirk of guffawing defeat.

"C'mon, seriously, there's gotta be some sort of an information desk or something around here," Gideon murmured cutely, he rubbed the back of his head and gingerly began to remove his hand from the exterior swap he was keeping with Novus, "All we need is a big enough place to house us and the band, and then... We can figure out about adding waypoints between here and Sugar Rush."

"That's a massive undertaking, babe," Kepa cautioned, Gideon nodded to begin expanding on the potentiality of the group working together for such venture, though a flicker of angry red lighting suddenly jarred the five from their tender conversing.

The group largely took a few steps away from Novus the second a blip of a flicker of red coding suddenly encircled him, on the soft, pearly-gold ground they stood on. Novus perked his ears, stiffened his posture, looked down at said huge circle that closed him in and nearly didn't even have a second of time to speak before a flicker of a coded red forcefield domed over top of him, closing him into said red-coded trap entirely. Gideon huffed a loud, shaky noise and felt his coding immediately kick into high gear. He swathed his palms with his incredible rainbow coding and went to furiously swipe his hands through said red coding, so to grab onto Novus's coding and pull him out of said red dome of a sudden enclosure, though much to his whole surprise, his knuckles firmly resisted against said forcefield and buzzed in a jolt of a shock to get him to immediately jump away. Gideon shook his head, felt the electricity buzz down his spine and peered hard into Novus's eyes in full terror.

"What's going on?" Gideon now loudly urged, though just as Kepa, Mara and Lash were about to equally dive into action, so to rescue Novus, suddenly a calm, robotic voice came over the whole of the dome.

"Unauthorized User, beginning disintegration process," It ironically called in a gentle tone of near-disappointed authority.

"Disintegration," Gideon called in disbelief as he planted his live-wired palms to the red dome Novus was trapped in.

"Gideon, help," Novus begged in terror as he flattened his ears and urgently began to pace in circles in his enclosed dome.

"I-I authorize him!" Gideon warily yelled, he urgently looked about and shook his head, and although other individuals passing by shot nervous glances in Gideon's direction, it took half a millisecond for Gideon to gather that the culture here was of divine correction, tenderhearted goodness easily dolloped with following precise, divinely coded law and turning up and away from thwarted, potential threats to their lovely, utopian society.

Novus was surely the outlier, due to not being a User, and with this, they accepted that someone was smuggled into their precious home, and they immediately trusted that whatever greater force above them was due to dismantling Novus or sending him back to the internet. A ploy Gideon wasn't going to sit and watch just to see which outcome would present itself. Gideon sharply flinched the second Novus's circle blipped with a go-ahead, and much to Gideon's whole terror, the flooring Novus was standing on glitched out of the ground, and like a lift into the sky, he began to slowly raise away from the four. Novus now loudly began to panic in scuffles of his wings, tail and claws as Gideon urgently peered up to Novus's rising platform of a trap.

"Let me out, let me out!" Novus messily called as he began to fiercely claw at the red forcefield, to no avail, though Gideon sucked in a sharp inhale through his nose and allowed a terrified role of adrenaline just sap every last ounce of his fresh, unlimited User powers.

"I authorize him!" Gideon now loudly shouted in full confidence, and as Novus's platform was now nearly a dozen feet above the four, they all took a few scrambling steps back as Gideon tensed his arms and hands upwards and clenched his fingers, a readied position Lash, Mara and Kepa knew that Gideon now meant business and staying out of his way was likely best, lest a good opportunity to jump in and help presented itself.

Gideon grit his fangs, lulled his eyes closed in a prepared squeeze, and with the sudden flick and stiffen of his tail, he held his breath and allowed his rainbow coding to urgently grapple the underside of the platform Novus was being lifted away from. Although whatever magical coding here urgently fought against Gideon's, Gideon largely grimaced and began to feel the platform just barely give way to his strength. As if he had a steel-cabled tether to the bottom of Novus's platform, he began to strain in the tug of war he was now having with surely the energy of the entire Sundog. Gideon squeezed his eyes shut, clenched the tightest grimace and urgently did everything he could to tug his arms and hands down to the ground, of which began to confuse and convince the platform to give way to his incredible instruction, though just as he began to hoarsely call out in the near-ligament tearing pain of the strain of this massive game of tug-of-war, the platform finally gave up. Similar to lifting something incredibly light surely thinking it'd be heavy, Gideon viciously thud his hefty knuckles to the ground in a sudden slam, and though the ground underneath him split with a loud crackle of thunder, he scoffed a hard yell of terror and began to urgently stumble backwards as Novus, and his platform, now loosely unglued from said rigid red coding and came colliding back to the ground.

With the explosion of pearly golden tiles, the massive thud Novus and said platform now emit into this huge dome of a station, dust kicked up amidst the shake. The massive sprawl of this portal station now had onlookers urgently either fleeing or rushing over to assess the damage, and in this huge kick of adrenaline, Gideon felt a whole entire universe of protectiveness now just drown him silly. Such a feverish feeling encompassed his heart and allowed him to adorn any feral, instinctual notions to immediately burst forth. With Novus now splayed helplessly amidst the destruction of the station's beautiful, pearly-golden tiles, Gideon bared his fangs, emit a sudden bark of a choke of a growl and urgently dove to stand over Novus's head and before his face. His own beautiful wings sprawled, his long tail held in a stiff drape that spilled over the top of Novus's head and down the back of his neck and mane. Gideon largely held his live-wired hands out by his sides, wings sprawled, a full threat display for the rapidly approaching individuals, both commoners and authority, he glowered everyone down in a bare of his fangs and a core-shaking guttural of a growl to surely be heard all over. In his scuffle amidst the settling dust, he was floored to feel Kepa, Mara and Lash urgently bounce into Gideon's gravity, soak into his and Kepa's beautiful rainbow coding and cue a proper, protective dome about all of them, Novus and mess included.

"Who's in charge?!" Gideon loudly shouted, the veins in his jugular bulged, he fiercely narrowed his incredible, hawk-eye gaze to a handful of nervous individuals rushing his way. Blind with protective rage, he bared his fangs harder and upped the power on the forcefield currently encompassing his team. Catching eyes with one of four individuals approaching him, this main person made Gideon's mind do a million back flips. He scoffed a shaky breath and desperately tried to hold onto his powerful front. Gideon pressed on, though his voice began to shake with the potential downswing of loosened adrenaline now mixed with obvious fear for this whole ordeal, "I authorize Novus to be here, he's not here to cause harm, none of us are, you can't have him!"

"Take it easy, let's just take it easy," This approaching individual urged over the murmurings of the bystanders loosely about the group. Gideon heavily panted as he peered hard into this individual's eyes; a seemingly-genderless being, a gorgeous creature with iridescent, black skin, the golden sheen the whole station was doused in didn't hold a candle to this individual's glean. Gideon sharply panted through his nose and didn't dare let the billowing tears in his eyes escape, though as he met eyes with the person closest to him, a person of interest, surely someone in charge, Gideon shook his head and was floored to collect cosmic verification that this individual was, without a doubt, somehow related to Ora.

Gideon choked a nervous noise, his broad chest heaved, he shook his head and was almost terrified to allow his repetitive notion to, once again, escape his mouth, for he knew the answer, "Wh-who's in charge..."

"... You are, you manipulated the Sundog's grid, I-I mean... You are, hands down," This individual scoffed with a trembling little laugh, though as the group of a few dozen individuals loosely gathered about looked on in awestruck joy, Gideon sagged his shoulders, dropped the forcefield him, Lash, Mara and Kepa had been diligently keeping about them and urgently looked into the eyes of the tons of civilians hovering two dozen feet about them.

Although everyone about him looked just like typical gamers, people from all sorts of different walks of life, the looks in their eyes, the air in their demeanor was everything Gideon craved. Full acceptance, tenderhearted joy, innocent, childlike curiosity, it was as if Gideon was a comet from outer space that had crash-landed into heaven's playground. There were individuals that wanted to humbly approach and tend to Novus, to soothe worry, Gideon could somehow feel nothing but all of these loving, tender intentions just hitting his heart head on. Such a stark kiss of unconditional love had him reeling, so much so that he didn't even hear Mara and Kepa soothingly tending to Novus's grumbling figure, he didn't feel Lash take a gentle stance to Gideon's right hand, he sharply flinched the second Lash's shaky, humbled, boyish little laugh soaked into Gideon's ears amidst the murmuring of the strangers surrounding them.

"I literally told you so," Lash muttered sarcastically, to which Gideon furrowed his eyebrows and begun to shake his head in guffawing, disbelieving annoyance, though just as he opened his mouth to toss Lash a denying statement, a hill he was adamant about dying on, he flinched in surprise the second the nearest individual to him, the one that surely was related to Ora, clumsily buckled to their knees in a downswing of a bow that conveyed a world of humility, such a huge hit of it that had Gideon reeling in apologetic confusion. Gideon grimaced, shook his head and tenderly outstretched his hand in almost embarrassed dread.

"Th-that... Won't be necessary," Gideon grumbled nervously, though just as Gideon was about to take a step out of Lash's presence and hopefully add his presence into the bowed individual before him, so to get them back to their feet, Gideon flinched in halting surprise the second Lash delicately stopped him.

Gideon firmly furrowed his brow, peered back to Lash and took note that Lash's strong hand was delicately laid to the back of Gideon's much bigger right hand, so to politely stop Gideon in his tracks, though the second Gideon's fiery eyes met with Lash's glowing, golden gaze, Gideon held his breath and was hit with such a stark wall of emotion from Lash that Gideon had never endured before. The softest, warmest, doughiest look of loving knowing was all-encompassing in Lash's facial expression alone, he cocked an eyebrow and gave Gideon a look as if to beg Gideon to just give it up, to stop refusing being appreciated and wanted, to let go of the idea that he wasn't worthy of wonderful things. It was in Gideon's firm stare into Lash's did Gideon sag his shoulders and turn back to the crowd in time to see every individual, within their vicinity, take humble, kneeling bows. Such a slow, easy motion of unity that didn't feel boastful or cocky, the energy that hit Gideon dead on was that of sudden, sheer responsibility, such a hit of sudden, higher importance than prior had Gideon taking a nervous step back and tighter into Lash's presence. Lash blurt a small chuckle and warmly rubbed Gideon's right shoulder blade in an encouraging way. Gideon panted, the hit of that fated memory of him inside of Sugar Rush's code room, screaming at his loved ones to bow and grovel, soaked his retinas, it wasn't until he released it all with the image rewrite of just what was actually in front of him, and finally accepting at least a little bit of it into his heart.

"We are so happy you're here," The individual before him said soothingly, Gideon was certain they looked way too similar to Ora to not be related to her. They continued on, the twinkle in their eye was as if they were in the presence of a magician they were largely anticipating, something that had Gideon reeling in confusion. Said individual had beautiful black skin with a laden of long white hair with lovely black roots that cascaded down their slim figure and dainty shoulders. There were a few individuals around them that looked very similar, though they had splashes of color and all sorts of intricate markings, on top of unique colored and styled hair. Gideon now began to feel dizzy, though this individual pressed on as they, and everyone else, drew to a stand, "Welcome to Sundog. Thank User you're here, we were worried the dark web was potentially becoming too strong, and... That was due to being ours and the internet's fate, one day."

"You were expecting me?" Gideon wondered dryly, as if to seem mildly irritated that anyone would even remotely think this, though as the notion hit him, he was firmly reminded that two years had been put between everyone, two long years where he had raised a rainbow beam out for the universe to see, only to simply just vanish for two years afterwards.

"Of course, I mean... We didn't technically know just who it'd be, but... You have rainbow coding," This individual now began to look sheepish and confused, as if Gideon's confusion on all of this was now beginning to worry the individuals gathered. They twiddled their fingers and peered to Gideon through a narrow of an even further confused grimace, "Y-You... Do know what this all means, right?"

"We're really happy you're here," One civilian, from nearby, warmly encouraged, to which the group of about thirty people, who were loosely stood together, began to lovingly and excitedly agree with an rouse of gentle, murmuring agreeing.

"Welcome home," Another person happily called, though just as the group of seemingly familial, welcoming beings began to ever so cautiously close in, one brave soul opened up his hand for a handshake from Lash, who was nearest them; this immediately plucked on the already tense strings of Gideon's fried brain stem, and in the roll of protecting his own brood, he dipped back to feral instincts, bared his fangs, flagged his wing out before Lash and let loose a choke of a terrifying snarl to said individual who innocently had their hand out for a handshake.

"Gideon Fox," Lash stabbed with a hearty chuckle as he suddenly grappled the bend of Gideon's larger, sturdy wing, jostled him in a shake out of his snarling and was floored to catch eyes with him in Gideon's slope of nervousness. Lash laughed in cheeky annoyance towards Gideon, though the group about them froze in halted, nervous confusion as to just why Gideon was acting out and not simply marinating in being welcomed. Lash rested his hand to Gideon's chest, stepped out before Gideon and understood Gideon was emotionally compromised here, and taking the lead with conversation was probably best, "Forgive us, we've been through a lot within the last twenty four hours. My name's Whiplash, I'm at Gideon's right hand."

"Whiplash," Ora's proxy murmured in delighted warmth with a nod, they held out their hand after Lash finally was able to shake said other individual's hand. Lash set a tone of welcomed receiving while he balanced Gideon's emotions, he could also hear Mara and Kepa helping Novus to a stand behind the two. Ora's proxy kindly continued on as they and Lash finally shook hands, "My name's Swillah."

"Nice to meet you," Lash chimed, he gently gestured to Novus, Mara and Kepa, "Uh... This is Novus, he's okay to be here, right?"

"Oh, yes, it's just... Anyone that isn't a User, or isn't a User by proxy, doesn't have the ability to see Sundog portals, so..." Swillah mumbled cutely, the group of gamers, as well as about six of Swillah's people, stood loosely around and gawked at the Sundog's newcomers. Swillah tucked his long white hair behind his ears and shyly glanced to Gideon, now feeling nervous in his reactive presence, "We're sorry for the drama... To be honest, this event scared the pixels out of all of us. Nothing like this has ever happened, no normal gamer has ever been able to just wander into a Sundog portal, so... We all had an episode of panic, huh."

"Yeah, disintegration? Novus is my best friend, I'd never forgive anyone here if that happened," Gideon muttered darkly, the group now began to look mildly confused that said happy, rainbow magician now upon their doorstep, the thing they've seemingly been waiting for, was a cranky misfit of a mutant. Everyone close to Gideon meant well, though Lash now nervously dart his eyes between Gideon and Swillah and was desperate to fill the gaps.

"Look, either way, we're thrilled to be here, I can't believe we actually found this place," Lash rested his hand to his chest and now beamed a happier smile than usual, hoping to at least not dash the dreams of the people around him entirely. He pat Gideon's upper back in such a way that subtly and silently asked Gideon to play nice and to understand that no harm was meant, "I guess what I want to know is... What do you mean that you've been expecting us?"

"Well, you guys have the rainbow coding, no? There's four of you, one of you surely knows where the Sundog went, he or she appointed all of you, right?" Swillah hummed as he pointed to the four individuals being Gideon, Kepa, Lash and Mara with Novus as the clear outlier, due to the near-disintegration.

"Oh, no no, I'm just a normal User, and so is my swapmate Mara," Lash explained with a smile as he gestured to Mara, to which her and Kepa perked up a bit and made their presences a bit more known, "Gideon here and his swapmate, Kepa, are the ones with the rainbow coding."

"Well, surely you've spoken to the Sundog, that's how you were appointed," Swillah stated with a nod of certainty, and though the public now began to slowly disperse, they did so with lovely, kind parting notions that the group of five returned, Gideon still stood stiff and nervous. Swillah twiddled his fingers and now anxiously pressed on as the six of his own kind remained amidst the much bigger crowd that finally cleared the surrounding area, "I mean, right? Sundog finally appointed their first..."

All five individuals were frozen with looks of blistered confusion, of which Swillah and his people were now very fervently and silently cued to. The swing of confused dread now coursed their colorful faces, they urgently peered to each other in murmuring confusion as Gideon shrugged and finally felt as if he could converse without getting upset.

"Well... Kepa and I appointed ourselves by accident, if I'm being totally honest," Gideon blurt a chuckle and rested his hand to his broad chest, him and Kepa caught eyes in cheeky knowing as Gideon returned his gaze to Swillah's bewildered grey eyes, "I have no clue who is this Sundog person that you speak."

The group fell silent in stun, it was as if everyone had finally got it except Gideon and Kepa. Swillah shook his head and scoffed a breathy, incredulous chuckle.

"Y-You brought this rainbow coding upon yourself?" Swillah nearly whispered, Gideon shrugged and nodded.

"I have no clue how, but yeah," Gideon murmured, Swillah rubbed his forehead, tossed his eyes back to the few individuals behind him, of his kind, and was floored to catch stunned smiles from his crew. Gideon held his breath and now felt as if he was en-route to succumbing to the spins.

"It's you," Swillah hummed in enchanted shock, "You appointed yourself?"

"Yes," Gideon assured.

"... You gave yourself this coding, there was no other being that came to you and appointed you?" Swillah pressed the issue, as if he could hardly believe his luck.

"Yes, if you want the non-kid friendly version, Kepa and I swapped codes in my ability to have a shared lucid space," Gideon explained, Swillah and crew still looked wildly bewildered, as if they wanted to fully believe this all to be true but needed a vast amount more of Gideon's explaining.

"You never came to the internet to find the being of rainbow coding above you that mentored you and deemed you worthy of the appointing?" Swillah rushed, Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and laughed.

"No, it was just Kepa and I," Gideon emphasized, he started to show signs of becoming cranky, to which Lash rested his hand to Gideon's shoulder and gently shook his head, as if to now sternly remind Gideon to keep his cool in this confusing time.

"S-so, in your's and Kepa's union, that unity means you two collectively are the Sundog," Swillah repeated, these words meant nothing to Gideon.

"Well, cool," Gideon stated plainly with a shrug, "I have... Zero idea what that means."

"You were chosen," Swillah volleyed, though Gideon now rolled his eyes and looked off, though even he had to admit that anywhere he looked in this glowing, isolated island of sunny delight was teaming with warmth and goodness.

"Great, now I'm the chosen one," Gideon lulled his eyes closed and shook his head, "I'm just Gideon, I may have stupidly scary User powers now, but I'm still me."

"Oh, no doubt," Swillah encouraged, "You're not THE chosen one... You're A chosen one."

"... So there are more gamers like me out there, then?" Gideon hummed in mild disinterest, though Swillah shook his head, squeezed his eyes shut and shrugged.

"I'm saying... There are those of us that are called," Swillah emphasized as he gestured out to the general public about him, though as he hovered in the gap for further emphasis, he gestured gently to himself, Lash and crew, and then to Gideon and Kepa as he allowed a lovely smile to sprawl his face, "And those of us that are chosen."

Gideon softened and glanced to Kepa, who gave him an equally as bewildered look, to which Gideon now peered to Lash in becoming-feverish stun and was floored to find that no one in his group could properly understand just what was going on.

"Look, we're just here to... Seek refuge, really," Gideon mumbled as he rested his hand to his chest, once more, and was now softening to proper sincerity, something Lash finally sagged his shoulders in relief over, "This is going to be a lot of information all at once, but... We're a tight-knit family unit from an Arcade that just got remodeled and upgraded. We're currently looking for a safe place to live, big enough to house a group of celebrities that require imminent safety and security."

"The Sundog is the safest place in existence, so there's no danger there. Surely building a safe haven of a home is going to be no issue for you, you're in charge of this place, I mean," Swillah shrugged and blurt a chuckle, as did the now six individuals behind and about him. Gideon furrowed his brow as Swillah softened in a continuous roller coaster of confusion, "Y-You can just... Pick any place to build a home or a safe spot for you and your crew to live in. If these celebrities aren't Users, you'll have to file their invitation of proxy, bring them here and equip their coding so they can properly see Sundog portals without you or any other User to aid them."

"This is so they can come and go without a User having to be physically with them," Another deep-voiced individual, nearby Swillah, spoke up. He had lovely dark red skin with little speckles of intricate cream and teal-colored markings all down his long arms, and though these individuals wore clothes, they were all soft, pristine, expensive-looking linens. It took up until this moment to realize that Swillah was wearing a hot pink hoodie, causing hits of awesome and terrible memories of Gideon's time in the block, to hit his brain head on. This darker, bigger, deeper-voiced individual carried on, "Forgive me, Gideon, but... We were not expecting this kind of reaction from finally meeting the Sundog."

"Lore always said that he or she would collect with the beacon to source," Swillah murmured confusedly as he gestured upwards, and it was here did everyone crank their necks to look directly up the colossal spire of an atrium they were dwarfed by. Said atrium had the ribbons of red light that barely stopped not even thirty floors up and dissipated, "This beacon would activate, we've been waiting for nearly forty years now, ever since the dawn of the internet, ever since... Light and color was scattered."

"I-I can't digest all of this, I feel as if I'm inside a dream that is teetering on the edge of becoming a nightmare," Gideon muttered as he held his forehead, he now looked as if he was finally due to becoming overstimulated, something Kepa greatly cued to in the form of grounding techniques, such as holding his arm or reminding him to take a deep breath.

"Come... Let's get Novus added to the Sundog's grid as proxy, we'll discuss the arrival of the rest of your family, and..." Swillah paused and warmly smiled into Gideon's eyes, to which they collected gazes in a swing of bewildered, curious confusion, "I guess us source-natives have a lot to fill you in on, then..."