Reviews :

Burgie : Yeah, he leans real hard on Novus, especially in future chapters, but it's true, having a human-like friend is far different. Novus, as you'll see in this chapter, has his own family events and such to adhere to, so he's not always around.


Song Listened To :

Goodnight Sweet Possums by John Powell


*Chapter 46*

With a gentle croak of their larger back door, Ralph stepped out onto his and Vanellope's back patio deck. Loved, sturdy wood that eventually cascaded down into the bigger field behind their home, on palace grounds, Ralph grimaced a little and took note that Sugar Rush's lovely, pink spring grass had happily sprout its way into golden stalks of summer overgrowth run rampant about the edges of their home. He huffed a chuckle to himself, dusted off his hands and allowed his honey brown eyes to scan his surroundings. Kissed with afternoon sunlight that gleaned off of said stalks of summer grass, Gideon's adorable laughter carried in a reverberating bounce off of the palace wall their home, and said sunny field, was near; the wall that had happily collected Gideon's artwork over the course of this past month.

Ralph adjusted his overalls, cleared his throat and stepped his big, bare feet onto the soft, leftover pink spring grass of his backyard. He narrowed his gaze as sunlight kissed his irises through the big, green twizzler tree that hugged their house, and with the sound of Gideon's happy chatter that filled his ears, Ralph lulled his eyes closed and felt his heart swell. Although Gideon was still technically a child, the past month of growth made solid work of Gideon's transition from bumbling puppy paws into masculine maturity. Still a little bit of a crackly mess, the deeper reverberation of his voice could be heard playfully berating Novus, and vice versa. Novus's now much huger body sprung up, flapped blue wings, a clumsy scamper through the field tailed by Gideon's electric glitch hopping. Ralph blurt a soft laugh and happily approached the two; a lazy Sunday afternoon full of sunny field romping, lazy tv marathons, and now topped with a delicious dinner completed on the stove. Sent out by Vanellope to be retrieved, Gideon's adorable little face and demeanor perked up upon seeing his father across the way.

"Dad, okay, help me win this argument," Gideon's voice urged cutely; he bounced a few steps, allowed his coding to carry him though ultimately continued onward to his father's point on the grid in a scurry, due to Novus now haphazardly barreling towards the two in a clumsy gallop.

"NO, Uncle Ralph, help ME win this argument," Novus's deep voice barked as he stumbled to his big, clawed feet and stood firmly beside Gideon the second all three men were within a dozen foot radius of each other, "It's clear that MY voice is deeper, I mean really."

"It's mine, c'mon, dad," Gideon's clearly deeper voice grumbled cutely; now standing at about Vanellope's height, which was a little below the center of Ralph's broad chest, Ralph huffed an exhausted sigh and rested his hands on his hips.

Gideon bobbed a nod, eager, fiery golden eyes peered hard into Ralph's, he dart his gaze between Ralph's and Novus's with live-wired competition bred into his blood, he gestured to his broadening chest and smiled Vanellope's lovely, charming smile. Ralph sagged a little and tried not to get too lost in this moment of continuing to wonder where all the time went. Gideon now properly at seven months, which would translate to fifteen or sixteen year old mentality and maturity, Gideon was filling out nicely. Still clearly needing to grow a little bit into his Ralph-shaped ears, hands and feet, his jaw line was becoming a bit sharper and more prominent, tufts of facial scruff appeared on his chin, his lower body was becoming more lean due to height added, and with his shifting, becoming-impatient stance of bobbing on his feet, Ralph eyed Novus and grimaced a little as he finally brought his attention back to the argument at hand.

"Well, let's see..." Ralph grumbled as he tiredly rubbed his chin, "Novus, I think your voice is definitely LOUDER, buuut..."

"MINE is deeper, HAH," Gideon's still-crackling voice urged as he grinned a wide smile and pointed a hefty finger in Novus's face. Novus flattened his ears and eyed Gideon in hot, playful annoyance, to which he finally bared his fangs.

"Yeah, but I get more bang for my buck, I'm LOUDER," Novus suddenly shouted; clearly a much huger being, with a much bigger lung capacity and everything that entailed, Gideon slapped his hands over his ears and grimaced.

"Yeah, but it's the silent killers y'gotta watch out for," Ralph's deep voice nearly whispered as he lovingly grappled the back of Gideon's neck and jostled him; Gideon grinned and bobbed a sassy nod in Novus's direction.

"Yeah, well-" Novus perked up the second a loud roar of a call could be heard rolling over palace grounds, and with that, Novus's demeanor changed from lackadaisical to serious business with a small smile, "Oops... That's my dad."

"You flyers got plans?" Ralph wondered with a smile as Gideon sneakily leaned a little deeper into Ralph's side for a side hug, to which Novus nodded and began to look off, in the direction of Boss's call, with a nervous demeanor.

"Yeah, well... Tonight's the night I get to shadow my dad and big brother on a hunt," Novus smiled, to which Gideon nodded and gave Novus a kind look of approval.

"You're gunna do awesome, Nov," Gideon's husky, lovely voice assured.

"Yeah, man, you'll be sure to tell us all about it tomorrow, right?" Ralph wondered with a smile, and just as Novus began to step away and spread his wings, he looked back at Ralph and Gideon with big, eager blue eyes.

"Sure will," Novus blurt with a fang-filled grin of nervousness as he readied himself for flight, "Wish me luck!"

"You won't need it," Gideon cutely called as he flagged his hand downward, and with one last smile sent his and Ralph's way, Novus chuffed a deep noise through his snout, lurched into the air and was off with his majestic, beautiful wingspan that kissed Sugar Rush's minty sky. Gideon heaved a satisfied sigh, sagged his shoulders and watched as the summer grass sprayed a healthy amount of sun kissed leaves and fluffy pollen into the breeze, due to Novus's departure, "Man, I wish I could fly..."

"Only in your dreams," Ralph grumbled with a nod, to which Gideon bobbed a smiling, defeated nod as well, though Ralph cocked an eyebrow and tossed his gaze to Gideon's crazy paint wall, "Mom's finishing up dinner, but, uh... Why don't you tour me your latest pieces of your wall?"

"YEAH, look, I have a few new ones," Gideon hissed in a rush of excitement, as if he had been waiting a century to show some other soul, that wasn't Novus, everything that his heart and mind entailed, "Look, look, look. I've been WAY into big cats, lately."

"Big cats?" Ralph wondered as he tried to keep up with Gideon's swift footwork. Their bare feet scuffed on past the summer grass and onto the colder cobbles of the palace lot, right before the near fifty-foot tall wall that was all Gideon's. Ralph raised his eyebrows as the gorgeous splay of artwork hit his eyes, a splay of beautiful tiger markings that dribbled into different marbleized colors of greys, browns, creams and oranges, "Oh, oh, you mean like the BIG cats. Wild cats on Earth? Outside of Arcade?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Gideon's eager eyes smiled with a nod, he firmly pointed into a nearby painting of his, inside the mess of other paintings that overlapped each other, simply as if the massive wall he was given might not be enough. He pointed to a few paintings he did, they looked like messy studies, beautiful impressions of cat skulls, fangs and all, "I've been way into tigers, lately. You know that cats make what's called a 'stink face' because it helps them smell better?"

"Stink face?" Ralph wondered with an incredulous smile as he put his hands on his hips and nearly broke his neck trying to assess each beautiful splay of artwork Gideon had splashed onto this canvas of a wall.

"Yeah! Like this," Gideon pointed to his face as he sharply grimaced, lightly stuck out his tongue and wrinkled his nose. He sagged to normality and urgently pointed to the cat skull he had sketched on the wall, "Cats have a scent gland on the roofs of their mouths that helps them smell like... A MILLION times better than what they would just using their nose!"

"What do YOU need Academy for, my friend?" Ralph grumbled cutely, Gideon rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Did you know that a cats purr has ACTUAL healing abilities?" Gideon gestured to his chest, "The frequency in vibrations is not just soothing, it's actually a way they deal with stress. It can promote bone growth!"

"Where did you learn all of this?" Ralph wondered with a furrow of his brow, though he rubbed his forehead and looked off in mild knowing, "Ah, right... The phone your mother gave you last week."

"I've been doing so much research dad," Gideon's eyes lit up, he firmly gestured further up the canvas to a painting of detailed, colorful velociraptors that looked as if they might as well belong in Sugar Rush; with candy colored scales and the vivid pops of color all over the piece, Ralph sagged and allowed his eyes to get lost, "I also got to put a name to the thing I had been dreaming of, recently. They're dinosaurs, called velociraptors. Earth's creatures are SO weird."

"Pretty cool, huh? All of us gamers, here, are comprised of these ideas," Ralph bobbed a nod and smiled, "I mean, lookit Novus. That guy is more dinosaur than anything."

"He's a fluffy bat lizard with an attitude problem," Gideon grunted with a stifled chuckle, though Ralph's eyes caught with an equally piercing stare of golden eyes, such as Gideon's.

"This painting's cool, is this a fox?" Ralph wondered gently, he eased the backs of his knuckles to Gideon's dry painting, to which Gideon smiled and rested his palm to the body of the fox's honey brown fur.

"Yeah, this is Finch," Gideon pressed shyly, his deep voice lilted in crackles of maturing delight. He glanced up at his father and looked as if he was admitting a secret.

"Oh, so THIS is Finch," Ralph bobbed a nod and rubbed his chin, though he slyly eyed Gideon with a smirk, "Finch the fox... Gideon Fox's imaginary friend."

"So, my name had something to do with his design, sue me," Gideon's voice reached grumbly depth, the becoming-prominence of his adam's apple slid down his jugular as he tilted his head and looked off with a mischievous little smirk, "He's pretty cool. Comes with me on all my adventures."

"The places where Novus can't go, anyways," Ralph chuckled, though he double-took to something at the edge of his canvas of a wall; a beautiful, sunny structure shroud in dark clouds. Ralph furrowed his brow and gently gestured to it, "Hey, uh... What's that?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's..." Gideon sagged, it was clear the joy deflated from his figure. He looked back to Ralph and then down to his fingers, almost as if to show pure defeat. He mumbled Ralph a meek conclusion, "That's the lighthouse."

"Well, what's wrong with it?" Ralph wondered softly, he bravely stepped closer to it. A beautiful mint and cream swirled little lighthouse, as picturesque as could be, sat on a sunny beach front, though the ocean's horizon was shroud in dark, scary clouds. Ralph peered to Gideon in soft question and prayed he'd open up about this ominous painting. Whilst everything else on the wall was either incredibly imaginative or incredibly informative, this image looked haunting, shroud in frustration and confusion, Ralph felt his circuits wiggle with concern, "It's really good, Gideon, is... Is this a place you've been to while lucid dreaming?"

"That's the problem," Gideon staggered nervously as he gestured outward, "I start out in a lucid dream, on the beach, but... I can NEVER get inside the dang lighthouse. Every time I approach, I just..."

Ralph glossed his eyes to the lighthouse and took note of something; there was a darkened figure standing in the glare of the glass doors, messily painted, as if it were hard for Gideon to do. Ralph frowned and softly peered back to Gideon's disposition. He stared down the light house painting, as if this was premonition reminding him that this place was a destination he was desperate to visit and desperate to rid of his memories. Either way, Gideon looked troubled. Ralph shook his head and gently nudged Gideon's shoulder.

"You approach and then what?" Ralph tenderly egged on, to which Gideon shook his head and firmly rubbed his eye in growing agitation.

"I-I lose all control of the lucid dream, I can't... Move, I can't breathe, I have my hand reached for the door to step inside and I freeze up," Gideon shook his head and gestured to his chest, "It's... It's why I have those night terrors, THIS is why. This stupid light house, I don't know what it's about."

"Weird... I doubt you've ever even BEEN to a light house before, have you?" Ralph wondered with an incredulous chuckle as he rubbed his chin in thought, "Come to think of it... I don't think I'VE even been to a light house, in any of our home games. Weird."

"I don't know where it came from, I don't know what it means," Gideon's voice wavered in nervousness, "There's someone standing in the way of me getting INTO the light house."

"... What if it's yourself?" Ralph wondered in prickled wisdom, he raised his eyebrows and looked down into his son's eyes, "What if YOU are in your OWN way? That's the reason you can't get in?"

"Should I just find another entrance without windows?" Gideon barked in smiling irritation, "It's if ever I catch the reflection of myself in the glass of the windows is when I freeze up."

"Isn't it true not to look into mirrors, in a dream, anyhow?" Ralph coyly wondered, to which Gideon wildly furrowed his eyebrows and looked wrought with questions, "I don't know, rips a hole in time or something?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," Gideon sighed in annoyed defeat as he shook his head and lulled his eyes closed, "I'll get into the light house one of these days... I've been trying for weeks now. Night terror, every time."

"You should cut yourself some slack, Gideon, I don't think that's healthy," Ralph cautioned tenderly, though both boys perked up the second Vanellope's voice could be heard calling them both home for dinner, across the small field of their backyard. Ralph sighed, pat Gideon's broad shoulder and began to warmly lead him away from his painting wall, "Don't worry so much about fighting your way in. Maybe have the light house come to you? Anything's possible in those dreams, y'know?"

"Have the light house come to me," Gideon chimed in renewed hope as he snapped his fingers, "I never even thought about that! I'll try that, dad... Thank you."

"You let me know how that all plays out, you tell shadow man to back off, or I'll personally climb into your dream and beat his ass," Ralph muttered tightly under his breath, to which Gideon blurt a cute laugh and lugged himself into Ralph's side as both men slowly meandered back home. Ralph grinned and wrapped his big, strong arm about Gideon's shoulders, and with as much swift sneakiness that Ralph could afford, he squeezed Gideon, leaned his head down and snuck a firm kiss into the top of Gideon's head, "No one messes with my kids."

"No one in this Arcade is brave enough to mess with you, dad," Gideon mumbled cutely as both men fell into step.

"Damn straight," Ralph assured with a nod as they pressed on, "You excited for tomorrow? Make sure you thank Tessa for getting you into Pre-A early..."

"I did, I was texting her earlier today," Gideon mumbled softly with a nod, he heaved a trembling sigh and began to look as if reality was setting in, and starting school come tomorrow morning was too good to be true, "I'm really nervous... I just hope I can stick with Callum."

"Well, remember, Callum will do what he can to make sure you're content, but he's probably got a world of other things going on, too," Ralph gently cautioned, "Don't be upset if he can't give you undivided attention all day every day, y'know? Surely he'll say hi to you and make sure you find your class."

"A-Are you and mom gunna see me off?" Gideon worried, to which Ralph peered down into his eyes with a narrowed look of soft disbelief.

"Gid, of course, we wouldn't miss it for the world," Ralph blurt an incredulous chuckle, "You're our last little birdy out of the nest. That's not something we take lightly."

"You and mom don't want anymore kids after me?" Gideon switched the subject, he choked a small laugh as Ralph heaved an audibly annoyed sigh.

"It's not that, I don't think your mother would allow me to help with putting a fifth Schweetz child out into the world," Ralph mumbled as they got close to the house; he softened due to the back door hanging open, "Not that I wouldn't mind... If you put the idea in her head, that'd be cool."

"What's in it for me?" Gideon whispered, to which Ralph sagged and rolled his eyes with a grin.

"Keeping your life, my guy, what kind of a question is that!" Ralph blurt as Gideon scrunched his shoulders and swiftly scoot into the house.