A/N : I want to thank those of you reviewing on here and AO3 - if I don't respond, it's because I do not have time or mental headspace to do so and I apologize. I'm so grateful for everyone reading and commenting along. If you have a genuine question, please ask, because I DO read my reviews! I'll do my best to respond. Thanks guys!
*Chapter 11*
There was something about this seemingly ancient, original society that had Gideon nearly hugging the walls in well-concealed giddiness. Pristine, perfect edges on pearly white golds, the dim, gentle glow of ground lights that gave every pixel of this place a sense of luxurious peace, such a luxury that was subtle enough to not be boastful or overt. Inside the very large circular structure in which the hundreds of exit and entrance Sundog portals hugged was a dome of a room connected by a dimmer, cozier corridor both wide and tall, arched and just barely splayed with said glowing ground lights, such lights snug and secure inside the floor's delicate molding. Gideon was loosely tailed by his team as the five followed the seven bodies of authority, here. As the group silently pressed down the long corridor and into this massive, glass-dome of a room, once and for all, Gideon suddenly felt his ears prickle at the very strange sensation that just soaked over the group in a hug of what seemed to be sound protection. Gideon flinched, as did Mara, Kepa, Novus and Lash; the hum of the Sundog's portal station suddenly faded into a zip of the most peaceful shush of much-needed silence. This had Gideon visibly sagging in relief as he curiously peered to his teammates and then down the longer corridor they had just come from.
Gideon took note that the public could easily just saunter in here, at any time, this surely being a place of decision making, a place for these seven bodies of authority to make rulings and keep the Sundog in full, proper operation, though it nearly stunned Gideon numb at the thought of the general Sundog public, Users in their own rights, of having very blatant, easy access to these seven leaders. Such openness wouldn't be even thought on anywhere else in any Arcade, any branch of the internet. Gideon seriously considered just what this said about the Sundog, and all of its User and User-proxy citizens. No one here had any shred of malice, nor could they even properly access it. Similar to sleeping with your front door wide open, everything unlocked, and still feeling total security, Gideon continued to sag in full relief as his eyes finally scanned said dome of a room. Similar to the glass-dome of Sugar Rush's code room, this much lower-laying, flat glass covered a majority of the stretch up until a gaping circle right at the middle. Built sturdy with white-barked wood, velvety tans and swirls of gold, the center ground of this room was a span of a three-dozen foot wide zen garden with stepping stones and boulders that lead out to the center in a meandering way. The very thing a the dead center of this room was what looked to a glowing white teleport pad, dimly lit. This glowing pad looked as if the light was just barely pulsing, as if it was in a sleep mode of sorts.
"Is this a temple?" Gideon patiently wondered, he looked up and out of the glass dome and was met with, once again, the much vaster, huger dome just outside of this room, the blackened atrium that proverbially stretched to the moon and then some.
Even though the corridor had no door on it, even with the gaping, architectural design of a gap in the glass's low-laying dome, no noise was present outside of this room. A pristine, still-energy room with gorgeous kisses of golden green foliage all about. Hugging this circular room were specific arches stationed behind what seemed to be lovely, messy work stations, thirteen of them to be precise. Only about half of them looked to be in use. The main walk way, that encompassed the sandy zen garden and the hug of foliage about the place, was wide and lightly cobbled with iridescent tan and white tiles. Swillah chuckled a little and looked back to Gideon with a warm smile, the seven other colorful individuals he was with now began to lazily part into different directions along said cobbled path, en-route to finding their own stations seemingly.
"It's... Kind of our work area, but yes, meditation and spirituality surely play a part to this room, this integral building," Swillah's wise demeanor ushered into the shush of warm now near-humming silence. Gideon and crew glanced up, once again, said blackened atrium above them seemingly swallowed their field of vision and only barely promised the kiss of bare-naked sky at the very top of the opening, hundreds of feet above them. Swillah gestured out to the room, as well as the other source-natives he had so eloquently referred him and his team as, "If I'm being honest with you, Gideon... None of us prepared any sort of material for any of this. We're all blindsided by the fact that, not only is this all actually happening, but... We now have to fill you in on literally everything. Not that that's a bad thing, I think we all just had assumptions about this meeting and we shouldn't have."
"I'm sorry to disappoint," Gideon mumbled sorrowfully, to which Swillah squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
"No, no, I don't mean like that. No disappointment here, trust me," Swillah cupped his hand to his chest in earnest warmth and hovered with Gideon's crew right at the gaping entrance into the stepping stones of the zen garden, "We just weren't anticipating the Sundog, of all people, to have to be briefed on all of this. We were certain the return of unified color would be, well..."
"... Again, I'm sorry to disappoint," Gideon huffed with a shy chuckle, to which Swillah now grunted in irritation towards himself and shoved his palms into his forehead.
"I'm not conveying what I want to..." Swillah mumbled sorrowfully, a few of the other individuals that had previously parted, came curiously sauntering over, once more.
"I think I get it," Mara hummed, "Yeah, Gideon has the umph that you guys were expecting, but now you're stuck having to explain just why he has said-umph, when you're probably certain he should've known all along."
"Yes," Swillah snapped his fingers and perked up with a smile, his gorgeous matte-black skin glistened with the little hits of red ribbons of light far above their head, held tight to the blackened walls of the narrowing dome and atrium above them.
"I can give you the run down," Came a happy voice to Gideon's left; as these other seven individuals loosely hung around, meandered their work areas and returned with contemplative looks of varying amounts of delight, the one who seemed to want to show excitement the fastest was appropriately the more brightly-colored individual. He had a gorgeous splay of creamy-tan skin, freckled with little kisses of hot yellow and orange, the markings all down his chest and collar bones were bold and beautiful whites and creams. He had a happy smile, brilliantly vivid yellow eyes and a demeanor no one could be sad around. He waved his hand a little as he came into Gideon's vicinity, and although he did so with confidence, it was easily obvious to see that he had a healthy amount of fear for Gideon. He wafted his pristine, short, choppy white hair out of his eyes and reached for a handshake, "Name's Mahni, by the way."
"Mahni," Gideon repeated, the two shook hands, this brightened Mahni's already bright, happy smile. Gideon chuckled as the two continued to shake hands, due to Mahni's adorable, boyish excitement, "I'm Gideon."
"I can't believe I'm shaking hands with the Sundog right now," Mahni geeked with a grimace of a sheepish smile as the other source-natives about him began to annoyedly guffaw at him in chuckling tease, him and Gideon finally dropped hands.
"Just... Gideon's, fine," Gideon pressed with a shaky chuckle as he glanced to Swillah, "If I'm being honest with you, I'm having a hard time swallowing and accepting all of this..."
"Understandable," Swillah sighed, Mahni frowned and peered to Swillah in forlorn uncertainty.
"Well... Should we just send Gideon and crew on their way then?" Mahni now respectably suggested, as if Gideon leaving was definitely an option, to make clear that if he did not want this crazy amount of responsibility, they were eager to accept this unfortunate fate. Such a concept had Gideon's mind totally blown, the fact that he had suddenly somehow upgraded himself straight into the lore of this clan's deity, and even if that wasn't enough, they were willing to accept if said deity was too overwhelmed by such notions and would humbly allow Gideon to be free of this very heavy responsibility laid over him and his team, all of the sudden. Mahni sighed, looked down to his open hands, twiddled his fingers and furrowed his eyebrows in a pang of nervousness that Gideon was sure he didn't sport often, "I-I guess I'm just surprised that..."
Gideon frowned as Mahni narrowed his eyes for emphasis and fervently peered into Gideon's in a swing of mild dread.
"You have no idea the lore, you have no clue who you are or how important all of this is," Mahni stated with the most tender amount of grace he could afford, and with all of this, Gideon fully understood that nothing said inside of this dome held malice or ill intent. Gideon was thrilled his own team could pick up on this too, and their silent, observing demeanors were held patiently in the wings. Mahni continued, his voice finally lilted in uplift, "Maybe if you just... Let us explain everything, from the very beginning. We had no clue original light and color would be returning to us in the form of an actual person, or people."
"What is 'everything'?" Gideon loosely used air quotes and now couldn't shake the feeling of dizziness.
"Everything from... The first spark of the internet, to the internet's succumb to human Users, to... Them manipulating the internet's grid and forming the dark web," Swillah rattled loosely, he gestured with his gangly hands and arms as he talked, "All the way down to the lowest, most foul place on the dark web, the deepest pits of hell."
"Where?" Gideon huffed nervously, Swillah frowned and stabbed his eyes tight into Gideon's in fervent knowing.
"The Block... The Game Over arena," Swillah murmured, Gideon held his breath and felt every single pore on his body raise in a roll of goosebumps.
"To which The Sundog is the reversal to that," Mahni murmured, the six other individuals that Gideon was patiently waiting to be introduced to, looked as if they were warming up to the idea of chiming in amidst the fresh new faces of tight-knit camaraderie they were now wanting to saddle themselves in, "The internet may not have been around for any longer than forty years, but due to rapid growth on this digital plane, due to the billions of lives that forever come and go, at such a quick pace, the timelines here are all expedited."
"In one year, a self-programmed gamer is fully grown," Swillah murmured in knowing, to which Gideon nodded with understanding and was patiently met with Mahni's final deep breath of preparedness.
"With the internet's first spark came all seven of us colors," Swillah swung his hand out a little and gestured to an individual in the group, one of which was assertive enough to speak up previously, "We have Red, or... His mantra name, Mula."
"I get the feeling you don't like being called any ranking title," Mula muttered; he was a grandfatherly creature, he looked a bit older, more rugged, and even though each of these individuals were beautiful and striking in their own right, in terms of their appearances, Red's was the scariest. He had lovely dark red skin with little speckles of intricate cream and teal-colored markings all down his long arms, all beautiful and bold, though his head and a majority of his face eventually faded from said lovely dark red to a stark black that Gideon nearly couldn't even see. A pitch blacker than even Swillah's already very dark, flawless skin. In this, Mula had striking red irises and beautiful black hair that had an ombre effect down his roots and eventually came to a blunt, rusted-red color nearly at the backs of his knees. Mula shifted on his feet, crossed his arms and gave Gideon a kind, cheeky little smirk, "I think I'm probably the best person to set a foundational ground of just what we should all call each other."
"Gideon," He urged nervously, he chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, please no... Your Majesty nonsense."
"Mr. Sundog," Lash snorted a laugh and looked off, to which Gideon donned an annoyed grimace and eyed him.
"Sunny-boy," Mara joined.
"Hotdog," Novus garbled, they quietly stifled laughter that Kepa had to forcibly remove herself from in the form of pursed lips and flattened ears, a desperate attempt not to join their laughter.
"Oh, I like these guys," Mahni whispered to Green, whom of which giggled.
"Gideon, Gid, Mr. Favor," Gideon listed, to which Kepa perked her ears in a prickle of gentle surprise and swiftly caught eyes with Gideon.
"You guys would be okay with us calling you your color name? Or actual name?" Lash pointed to each individual, it becoming clear that each body here represented a color or an integral part of this process somehow, "We don't want to offend."
"No, they only aim to offend me," Gideon mumbled as he looked off, the group roused into warm laughter.
"Colors, actual names, we respond to either," Red kindly assured, to which Swillah nodded and gestured to Orange.
"We have Orange, or S'vadi," Swillah gestured, S'vadi waggled her fingers a little and bobbed a nod.
"Pleasure," She hummed, even though her skin was a delicate color of pale peach, it had streaks of marbleized cherry-red and hot orange. With equally as vivid eyes, all glean with beautiful, wavy, darker grey colored hair that sprout hot orange roots from her scalp and in a spill down her shoulders, Kepa flattened her ears a little and felt a wave of weirdness fall over her with the way S'vadi eyed Gideon's whole figure over the second he greet her and looked away.
"You've met Yellow, or Mahni," Swillah murmured as Mahni waved his hand in cheery excitement, "Then, we have Green, or Koa."
"Welcome home," She stated with such warmth, her lime-green irises glistened in the warm lights about them, she had beautiful black hair that could only barely be seen transitioning into a midnight green down to the ends, her earthy brown skin had bold, lovely green markings all up her arms and legs.
"Thank you," Gideon smiled, Swillah gestured onwards.
"We have Blue, or Visha," Swillah carried on, Visha gave Gideon a small nod and politely stayed quiet; him and Koa stood close, he had beautiful dark grey skin that eventually swirled to vivid blues the further down his body it all went. His stark blue eyes scanned Gideon's in pondering, something that had Gideon feeling mildly insecure in this instance. Swillah stepped back a little and gestured to the near-glowing being behind him, "We have Ania, or Indigo."
"We're glad you're here," She stated lovingly, the pierce of her near-glowing indigo eyes had Gideon feeling pierced straight through, it was a similar look Kepa donned. A powerhouse of intuition, Gideon felt the nerves in his spine wiggle, feeling surely women with this superpower were not to be underestimated. Even with her small figure, her beautiful, nearly iridescent skin looked like a cosmic spill of stardust amidst a blue black.
"Me too, User," Gideon scoffed with a small laugh, to which Swillah swung to the final individual and smiled.
"Last but not least, we have Sansahra, or Violet," Swillah hummed, Sansahra bobbed Gideon a polite nod, his aesthetic was very similar to Ania's, a spill of purple and blue cosmic stardust amidst the creamy white, his eyes nearly glowed with a simple ring of violet about his black, haunting pupils. Each of these individuals were incredibly striking in their own right, though Ania, and especially Sansahra, looked to be one step above. This all swung back to Swillah, who now almost began to look sheepishly sorrowful, "And, then there's me... Swillah, or... Yang."
"Yang, I guess that's not a color," Gideon mused, he rubbed his forehead and peered to Swillah in a hit of shock that finally coursed his system. He held his breath as the whole group fell quiet, everyone watched as Swillah and Gideon held eyes in a pin-prickle of feverish stun, something Gideon was now nervous to step into, "Yinyang... Yin would be..."
"My sister, Ora," Swillah hummed, he looked down to his palms and inhaled a trembling breath, "Yeah, we... We lost her to the dark web a few years ago."
Gideon long-blinked, looked off and now didn't give any one of his teammates any eye contact, for he knew he didn't need to. He sucked in a huge breath through his nose, turned around and began to step away in meandering steps, as if he now needed a minute to collect himself. Kepa, Lash, Mara and Novus all knew who Ora was, they knew Ora was the reason Gideon was able to get home, they knew that without Ora, Gideon wouldn't even be here. In the gawking shock, the full circle realization drowning the group, everyone urgently peered to Gideon in frozen stun, though only Lash, Mara, Kepa and Novus knew just what was around the corner. Only they knew that Gideon now had to fess up to being a dreaded Game Over winner. It was here did Lash suck in a trembling breath and gloss his eyes across the group of eight powerful individuals they were being introduced to. None of them looked reactionary, though Lash grit his teeth and now wondered if Gideon's confession would make the lot of his group here entirely unwelcome. Bracing for the worst, Lash sucked in a huge breath and figured he should likely cushion the blow for Gideon, as best as he could.
"Gideon knows Ora," Lash hummed, almost regretably, though this notion had Swillah brightening in almost teary shock. Lash furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head through closed eyes, "You guys probably aren't going to be too thrilled as to just why Gideon knows Ora."
"Ora's the fourth Game Over winner," Green blurt in a spike of dread as she shook her head and cupped her hands to her heart, Koa's trembling little voice continued, "There's no way you, of all people, went to the deepest pits of the internet and actually met her..."
"She saved my life," Gideon's deep voice croaked with the promise of onset emotions to come, he continued to face away a little, his teary eyes aimlessly scanned their gorgeous, still, pristine temple, "I promised I'd go back for her..."
"There's no way," Mula muttered in disbelief as he shook his head and shrugged, he firmly glanced to Visha, whom of which narrowed his intent gaze and gave Mula the same look of bewildered disbelief.
"How could you possibly know her? There's no way enlightened coding will partake in dark web activities," Mahni worried, his yellow eyes nervously dart about his new friends.
"I know her because I am Game Over's fifth winner," Gideon croaked in warm regret, he lulled his eyes closed and heaved a long, hot sigh through his nose as the group behind him fell painfully silent.
"Y'can't be serious, though, this is silly," Mula muttered with a widening, annoyed smile, as if surely Gideon was on about self-important tales of grandeur, though Gideon reopened his eyes, cued the coding on the soles of his feet, whipped said rainbow, gridded goodness through the pristine white cobbles and confidently grappled with the soles of the feet of his new, colorful friends.
All eight of them stiffened in the umph of shock suddenly coursing through their own coding, each being harbored their own respective color coding, though as Gideon peered hard into Swillah's eyes and allowed his rainbow coding to dance alongside Swillah's lovely, perfect white coding, Swillah sharply tilted his eyebrows in the hit of bittersweet shock amidst being gifted imagery of the full truth Gideon was displaying. Every image of Game Over, every chitchat he had with Ora, down to the last ounce of love and safety she gave to Gideon in his darkest hour, Swillah crumpled, covered his forehead, looked off and choked a cry of entire, heartbroken sorrow. Gideon sagged, he gently let up on his exterior swap with his new group of teammates and sadly looked down to his bare feet. Koa urgently pressed into Swillah's bubble and began to hum sweet words into his presence. Mahni joined, though Swillah eventually lifted his teary gaze to Gideon's and shook his head.
"Holy shit," Swillah whispered with a shaky chuckle, to which the group brightened in shock; it was apparent that Swillah was a rather innocent being, one that likely never swore or did anything too radical, this little show of bewildered shock had his group of colors now erupting into stunned laughter. Swillah nasally choked a laugh as well and wiped his cheeks, "Well, uh... Alright, I think it's safe to say that NONE of us could've guessed how this day was gunna go when we got out of bed, this morning."
"Game Over, eh?" Sansahra murmured, he cocked an eyebrow and gave Gideon a look of wild impress as he crossed his arms and nudged Ania, who looked equally as impressed, "How the hell did you get here of all places?"
"I'm telling you, I nearly have no idea," Gideon stabbed with a trembling laugh as he tossed his gaze to Kepa; although he had some semblance of knowing, he nodded in her direction and smiled, "I have this one to thank..."
"Not me," Kepa muttered cutely as she waved Gideon off and lulled her eyes closed, though Gideon sucked in a readied breath and felt a huge hit of knowing course his coding.
"I may not be one for titles, I may not feel it necessary, but I do have one request for all eight of you," Gideon began, his tone was cautionary as he looked to what seemed to be this brand new team of elite, complex beings, all securely safe in the sky's paradise, he narrowed his gaze and knew that even in his incredible powers, even with this insane amount of stature he now had over the entire internet, he sighed through his nose, lulled his eyes closed in contemplative thought and finally revisited their gazes, all while pointing to Kepa, "You see this woman?"
"... Gideon," Kepa pawed in a murmur of humble guffawing, as if to silently tell him to knock it off, for she knew where this was going.
"This is the woman I answer to," Gideon proudly declared, such a declaration that had Gideon immediately putting Kepa's stature, as an elite User, now above Gideon's word. Kepa perked her ears and was absolutely not expecting Gideon to take this route. She froze in her stance, she could've sworn Gideon was simply going to brag about her and claim that Kepa was the love of his life and all that other honeymooning, fresh-lovers nonsense, though she felt the coding in her spine do a giddy wiggle with the very blatant insinuation Gideon was making not only to his new crew, but to Lash, Mara and Novus as well. His strong voice carried on as all eyes held to him in deliberate, unwavering obedience, "I'm the oil to this machine. I'll eventually find my footing here, and I'll eventually come about to wrapping my head around all of this, but if there is a tippy top to this totem pole, I promise you, it ain't me."
Kepa sagged her ears, smiled down to her hands and humbly wrapped her lithe tail about her ankles. Lash chuckled a little, jostled Kepa's lower arm and was lucky enough to get a wide, fang-filled smirk out of Kepa's shy demeanor.
"This woman is the reason I am alive, she is the reason we have this coding," Gideon pressed firmly, he pointed to Kepa for full emphasis, "Whatever this woman says, goes. If it's my word against hers, you are to listen to her. Am I clear?"
"Sir," The group collectively announced in murmurs of immediate agreeing.
"Yeah, I won Game Over. Yeah, I'm imperfect and make mistakes and can be cranky and absurdly sensitive," Gideon listed, Lash rolled his eyes in full agreeing and looked off, to which Gideon let slide, "We came to the internet for the sole purpose of just finding a safe place, with the weird intuition of a Sundog in the backs of our minds. We had no clue we'd get here, and so fast... Especially from where we've come from and what we've been through."
"On top of all of this, we still need to know what you all are doing here. Where do source-natives come from? What does this all mean for Ora's hopefully safe return?" Lash patiently wondered, Swillah shrugged and heaved a long, shaky sigh.
"We're the original light and color. The plane of the internet was soured by human Users somehow finding their way into our world and, thus the dark web was born. Color scattered, us eight lost our main Sundog and the respective appointed four Sundogs, and... Well, if it weren't for us uprooting this land and being shroud by the internet's source light, well... I don't know what would've happened to us."
"You're saying... This land was uprooted from the ground," Gideon started, he began to piece it all together in clumsy swipes of puzzle pieces.
"Only this main city was uprooted, and unfortunately... The other four cities are still buried into the dark web. This center source of light is the main one of five," Swillah sorrowfully explained, "This sun creates a ring, a sundog above the internet... There are four other light sources, four other cities, lost to the dark web."
"It was the only bit of land we could save," Koa mumbled sorrowfully, "Us eight couldn't possibly lift all five cities on our own, not with Ora gone, the main Sundog and its appointed four."
"Who was the Sundog prior?" Gideon worried, Swillah shook his head.
"It was just light and color, source energy keeping everything running," Swillah mumbled, "We only nicknamed it after a sundog due to the nature of the city's positioning around this main land, above the internet."
"So, these cities were accessible to everyone?" Gideon prod, Swillah and Mahni firmly nodded.
"Everyone had access to User powers, everything was perfect!" Mahni cried in outward frustration for this situation, "Everyone got along, there was no unrest... And then..."
"A human climbed aboard," Swillah muttered sorrowfully, "Humans lean into greed... Within the first few years of the internet being alive, a human climbed inside and started building downwards, such a climb downwards that now is what we call the dark web."
"Even though I've experienced the deepest pits of it, I still am in full understanding that the dark web sprawls for leagues," Gideon mumbled in dread, all eight beings nodded in an equal amount of dread.
"Soon enough, more humans came about, then they were swapping with other gamers, the dark web is now crawling with all sorts of passed down, darkened User coding," Swillah stated as he tucked his brilliant white hair behind his cute ears, "Returning to source light and color, becoming a light User, finding your truest self and unlocking the ability to physically access your coding, all rolled into one, gives you access to the Sundog. Even if we wanted to include normal gamers into the Sundog, it's impossible, because they cannot see the path there."
"... That explains Novus," Mara mumbled, she reached back and pat Novus's snout.
"It's not uncommon for us Users to make friends on the internet, in fact, it's perfectly normal," Swillah hummed with a shrug, "However... It's a process to get them approved, and their coding is under a strict watch. If there's even a hint of deceitfulness or malicious intent to our society, the source energy, here, will not hesitate to remove them from existence."
"... That explains Novus," Mara mumbled again, though this time everyone roused into playful laughter towards Novus.
"He just wasn't added to the Sundog's grid, no one here has the wherewithal or desire to smuggle in someone, but it's still a safety precaution," Swillah shrugged, Koa nodded.
"Once you're here, you may still feel imperfect emotions and have what we like to call 'human moments', but..." Koa trailed off, to which Gideon bobbed a nod and felt relief course him.
"Thinking of doing or saying anything beyond innocent human moments isn't in you, any longer," Gideon mused warmly with a nod, "That's why you guys didn't immediately shun me upon telling you all that I'm a Game Over winner."
"You've been to the lowest, darkest pit of existence and have somehow skyrocketed to the very source of forgiveness and warmth," Swillah stated in such reverence, he gave Gideon a loving smile and nodded, "You telling your story has given me hope for Ora..."
"I promised her I'd rescue her, there's a handful of people, from the dark web, that need rescuing," Gideon assured, Swillah nodded and sighed.
"Well... We have time, believe it or not. We have time to now figure out a game plan and make moves," Swillah cooed as he brightened and gave Gideon a knowing look, "But, for now... I'm sure you guys would like to get settled."
"Very much so," Gideon sighed, he politely nodded and peered to his own crew of four, they peered back to him in smiling pride.
"Before we pull up the Sundog's map and figure out just where to safe keep you all... I do have one question," Swillah side-eyed Gideon with a bated smile, "Which celebrities are you bringing here?"
"Archived Chaos," Gideon stated, surely thinking no one would know who they were, though the dreaded realization of their two-year gap suddenly hit him between the eyes the second Visha finally brightened, stiffened, bugged his eyes and grappled Koa's arm; the group of seven now loudly began to gawk and coo in Visha's direction.
"No you are not," Visha barked, the first time his voice was apparent, it loudly bounced about the place in a spike of confidence Gideon wasn't prepared for. The group howled with excited laughter, and though everyone looked absolutely floored, Visha looked as if he was about to cry. He grappled the chest of his black linen garb and began to fan himself in shock, "No, like... You're joking, you're not actually bringing Berri Black here, like, you can't say stuff like that."
"Berri Black is my niece, Lash's sister-in-law," Gideon pointed to Lash, and then blurt a louder chuckle the second Visha now diverted his tight attention to Lash's shy glance, "Lash and Turbo are brothers."
"C-Can we meet them?" Visha stabbed excitedly as tears welled in his eyes, Gideon grinned and bobbed a hefty nod.
"It looks like you'll have to! What a shame," Gideon guffawed, the temple sung with perfect, blissful laughter.
"User, no, I can't," Visha squeaked as Koa and everyone else doted on him in the form of understanding smiles and pats to his shoulders, "I have every single one of their songs memorized, even Gunner's stuff."
"You can meet Gunner, too," Gideon nodded, Visha bugged his eyes and now firmly stepped far away from the group, said group continued to howl with apologetic laughter, "Welp... We got a lot of work ahead of us, clearly."
"Let's just start with getting you and your crew officially settled," Swillah covered with an insatiable, happy smile, one that Gideon could surely see Ora donning as well, "We can worry about the autographs later."