Reviews :
Bananna Sammich : I know, it's hard too cause Gideon goes through teasing and bullying remarks that I personally went through. These chapters suck to write, to be honest, I just have to power through. I've added your request to the list! Thank you!
ThoreLB : Thank you SO MUCH! I've added all your requests to the list :D
Burgie : Thank you! I have one doodle of Flint drawn already, I really want to do a proper painting of him sometime soon. He's pretty beautiful, in my mind's eye.
Lyssdoodle : IKR lol! It snuck up on all of us, I think xD I've added your requests! Thank you!
Song Listened To :
Chosen Last by Sara Kays
*Chapter 51*
"So? Tell me everything," Tessa eased with a solid amount of warmth, she lovingly nudged Gideon's upper arm as the two casually strolled away from Arcadia's gorgeous, massive Academy doors securely tucked above Arcadia's train station. Tessa lofted her sunny disposition up into Gideon's and was glad to get a genuine, happy smile out of his expressions. She cutely shrugged, skipped on her bare feet a little, which caused her lovely, long, auburn hair to bounce and glisten in California's sunshine. She gripped Gideon's bigger, lower arm and giggled, "Tell!"
"Today was great, not much to report," Gideon shrugged, he smiled down to his sister and felt his heart swell, how safe and secure he always felt with her.
"Y'like your counselor? You make any friends?" Tessa quickly prod; due to escorting Gideon back to Sugar Rush's glistening outlet, she eyed said outlet from across the way and knew she didn't have a ton of time to converse with Gideon. Because she was a professor, she had to return after school had let out so to finish up her admin work. Happy to walk Gideon home, she was expecting Oliver to meet up with Gideon to then conclude said escort back to the palace. She rubbed her forehead in mild agitation over the fact that Oliver was no where to be seen. She fumbled her pants pockets for her phone and sweetly continued on, "Tell me how you like Flint, Gideon. You enjoy your class and such?"
"I LOVE Flint, he's so cool," Gideon bobbed a nod and eagerly smiled to Tessa's figure, though Gideon furrowed his eyebrows as Tessa began to tab her bigger thumbs to her phone in mild agitation, "I made a friend, his name is Chase. He's a gila monster hybrid of sorts."
"Oh, shit, from DigDug? Those guys have poison powers," Tessa rattled knowingly as she kindly caught eyes with her little brother; he immediately lit up.
"Yeah! He's really awesome, he's the other seven-month Flint's taking care of," Gideon nodded, though he softly frowned in confusion the second Tessa tucked her phone to her ear. The two slowly moseyed into Sugar Rush's outlet, furthering the notion that Oliver truly wasn't here.
Gideon bashfully looked about, grappled the rungs of his back pack, on either sides of his upper chest, and flinched as Tessa suddenly barked a quiet, snippy notion into her phone, "Where are you, dude? Our little brother is waiting."
Gideon heaved a shaky sigh and eyed Sugar Rush's darkened wires. Although a few gamers came and went, game day was still in full swing and would be for the next few hours. Due to Academy always having an earlier release than Arcade's game day, Tessa set it up to where Oliver would meet up with Gideon in the outlet until Gideon was comfortable traveling to and from Academy by himself. Gideon could hear Oliver's deep voice urgently rush Tessa a few notions on the phone, and though he wasn't on speaker, Gideon furrowed his brow in confusion as he could hear Oliver continue to explain himself for a lot longer than what would be deemed necessary. Gideon suddenly flinched the second Tessa inhaled a sharp gasp and covered her mouth.
"No, you're joking," Tessa dragged in pure, elated excitement, she bounced on her feet and urgently peered up to Gideon with joyous, exploding certainty, "YOU'RE JOKING!"
"What happened?" Gideon whispered in a sting of rising excitement; surely thinking something grand happened, gamer scores beaten, one of the dragons caught a rare animal, someone delivered a million cookies to the palace's front gates, Gideon silently racked his brain for the endless, amazing possibilities.
"Okay, that's fine, yeah I can take Gideon there this time, you okay to do it tomorrow?" Tessa wondered, she covered her forehead and blurt an excited giggle, "Holy shit, Ol, congratulations! Are they there with you?"
Gideon furrowed his brow and took to Tessa's cues, though with said congratulatory swing of elated cuteness, and the notion of other beings being in Oliver's presence, Gideon felt his shoulders sag a little as he put the pieces together. Although genuinely feeling happiness swing his way, somehow he felt the sun very quickly set on the excitement of his very first day at Pre-A. Now understanding that Oliver's news likely had something to do with Theo and Tatum, loading bars, nursery colors and baby planning, Gideon heaved a shaky sigh through his nose and sweetly reminded himself that this was genuinely important, much more important than a silly day at school. Gideon perked up a little as Tessa gently gestured for Gideon to follow as they began to press into Sugar Rush's wires.
"Yeah, yeah, we're on our way. I have to head back to my office to finish my admin work, but I can spare a bit," Tessa assured as her and Gideon swiftly pressed on, "Okay, see you soon. Bye."
"... What happened?" Gideon prod softly; although he knew the answer, he somehow prayed something less exciting was about to come rolling out of Tessa's mouth.
"Wow! Tatum's pregnant," Tessa ushered excitedly, to which Gideon happily raised his eyebrows and further clutched the straps of his backpack.
"Oh, cool!" Gideon exclaimed gently, a genuine show of excitement, though he somehow prayed maybe even a slice of his first day didn't get robbed from him.
"I was gunna say... VERY unlike Oliver to be forgetful, like this," Tessa huffed a giggle, and as her and Gideon pressed into the wires, he jolted with the shock of her powerful, silver coding attaching onto his mainframe.
With a whisk of pixels and glitch-hops, the two immediately were thrusted into Sugar Rush's glorious, rainbow road entrance. Gideon gasped a little with the recoil, and though he only had a second to view the palace from the miles and miles of distance, between the entrance and said palace grounds, Tessa cued their coding once more and were finalized on the palace's main, secure teleportation pad. Gideon choked a small, shaky laugh as their inner ears popped, the gorgeous, round, silver teleportation pad hummed with lively electricity, and as the quiet palace hub flit little flickers of pixels up to the ceiling, Tessa cued the main drop down menu of every single way point on palace grounds. A well oiled machine, one that bowed to Tessa's every single whim, she shot Gideon a knowing smirk and shrugged as she hovered her finger over Oliver's teleportation pad.
"Whiplash?" Tessa smirked, to which Gideon blurt a shaky laugh and shyly rubbed the back of his head.
"Only a lot," Gideon mumbled, though he flinched once more as her powerful coding whisked them away to Oliver's and Emery's lovely abode.
With yet another inner-ear-popping experience, Gideon fluttered, scrunched and then bugged his boggled eyes in a head shake of trying to get his bearings once more. Stood in Oliver's and Emery's lovely front foyer area, the sound of excitable chatter could be heard from deep inside their home. Gideon felt a twinge of hope coming back to him. Now that he had this wonderful information, and now that it was immediately becoming real with the raw emotion alongside it, he felt a solid hug of excitement hit his skin. Tessa cutely nudged his arm, gave him a flash of a grin and began to excitedly skip into Oliver's home. Gideon huffed a chuckle and jolted to keep up, and as they rounded the corner, Gideon flinched with a widening grin as Tessa urgently let loose a loud, happy squeal of floored delight, as did Tatum. Both girls excitedly glommed into a massive, swaying embrace.
"Lemme see, lemme see!" Tessa urged excitedly as both her and Tatum pulled away; looking entirely smitten, alive with glow, Tatum and Theo looked as if they had no clue even how to frown. Tatum pawed at her shirt, lifted the cloth and revealed an adorable little lime green loading bar, confidently read at a one percent. Tessa squeed and wrangled Tatum into another hug, "Oh my User, so new! SO new."
"One percent," Theo's deep voice blurt a chuckle.
"Congratulations, you two!" Tessa urged happily as she grappled Theo into a big hug, as well.
"I can't believe I'm going to be a grandpa," Oliver grunted as he grappled the hair on the sides of his head, "I'm too young to be a grandpa."
"Tell that to Zed," Tessa mumbled, she put her hands on her hips as her, Oliver, Emery, Tatum and Theo began to mosey into the kitchen, so to gather around the kitchen island, "We're grandparents times two..."
"Once we tell the band, I'm sure everyone will be quickly following the trend," Tatum stated with ease; although mildly disregarded, Gideon still jolted to keep up with the big kids and segued into the kitchen with everyone. He eagerly held his eyes to Tatum. Curious about her breed, no matter how much or how little of it she had in her, she still exhibited very faint, cat-like traits and appearances. Quiet, due to not knowing entirely how to even begin to be included in this conversation, he decided to focus on Tatum and her delicate way of talking, the way her smaller, pointy ears did what they could to flare and move alongside her mood, she grinned with a show of fangs and sweetly continued on as she crossed her arms, "We're probably going to keep the news on the down-low, for the next few days."
"Probably smart to wait until the bar gets past seven to ten percent," Emery's lovely, motherly voice ushered with a nod, to which Tessa eagerly joined, "That's when you know it's solid."
"I'm so excited," Oliver wheezed, it was clear he had previously been crying. Knowing full well that Tatum and Theo had likely been over for at least a half an hour, it was obvious that this was going to be a hot topic for quite awhile, "I wonder what the baby will look like, considering he or she will have traits of a lion gargoyle."
"I know, we were previously discussing this," Tatum's voice lilted in a rushed, excited breath of grinning delight as she cutely linked her arm with Theo's, to which he smiled a beam of smitten delight and nodded in return.
"He or she will only be a fourth that, but it'll still be exciting to see what kinds of cat-like traits they'll have," Theo's lovely, deep voice ushered down to Tatum, to which Tessa heaved a satisfied sigh and drew her eyes about the group; she raised her eyebrows in a ping of remembrance as her eyes landed on Gideon's still, patient disposition.
"Wow, big day... Got first days and babies," Tessa rattled cutely, in Gideon's direction; said revival of Gideon's accomplishments finally lifted everyone into a show of almost sheepish, apologetic energy.
"Right! I'm really sorry for not being at the outlet, Gideon, tomorrow will definitely be different," Oliver rushed in a show of pure apology, he and Gideon caught eyes in a swing of understanding to which Gideon nodded, smiled and looked down to his hands as he stood patiently at the other end of the kitchen island, "How was your first day, dude? Tell us."
"Yeah, you make any new friends?" Theo sweetly encouraged, to which Gideon felt warmth return to his skin.
"Y'sit with Callum at all?" Tatum's lovely, maroon-colored cat eyes narrowed in inquisitive delight, straight into Gideon's shivering soul.
"N-No, I didn't find Callum," Gideon mumbled; now not sure how to even begin to find his feet in his own excitement, he began to feel entirely extinguished by Tatum's news. Although extremely exciting, he still sagged and was well aware that anything he did would never measure up to something so delightful and important. Nonetheless, he desperately tried to convince the group about him that his day was still somehow remotely worth talking about, "I-I... I made a friend from DigDug. His name is Chase."
"Y'guys play tag?" Oliver volleyed cheerily, to which everyone eagerly lofted Oliver long groans of grinning irritation. Oliver largely held his hands up and peered about to the other adults in the group in grinning defense, "WHAT! His name is Chase? He got chased, surely."
"You're such a dad," Emery muttered as she tidied her hair, her, Tessa and Tatum loudly erupted into a giggle fit.
"I gotta start taking notes," Theo said in a cute show of boyish shyness as him and Tatum so sweetly caught eyes, to which Oliver cleared his throat and donned a dorky grin.
"User, I'd be happy to gift you ALL my dad jokes," Oliver rushed, to which Emery playfully rolled her eyes and sagged her hands into her forehead, "Better yet, get MY dad involved, your kid won't know what hit 'em."
"Double-dad jokes overload," Tatum flattened her hands and tried to contain her giggling, as did all the girls.
Gideon huffed a shaky chuckle alongside them and bobbed a nod, a desperate mask of fitting in he had begun to perfect. Although metaphorical, Gideon could feel the quicksand so tenderly engulf him from the knees down. What typically was just a worm and a wiggle free from its deathly sweet grip was now a crippling show of awkward bending, a twinge of fear and mild desperation began to climb up his throat. He heaved a shaky breath and looked down at his bigger hands on the island's counter as everyone's happy chatter so quickly breezed through Gideon and returned to the main topic at hand - babies. The urge to, once again, roll his eyes heavily sat at the base of his eye sockets, and though he skillfully avoided it, he still felt a bigger swell of frustration soak the bottom of his heart. He was well aware his first day at Pre-A didn't hold a candle to that of a pregnancy announcement, though somehow, he could feel said bitterness in his heart begin to turn into some rare form of vengefulness. Promising himself he'd be floored if he never had to hear another pregnancy announcement in his life, he could feel his heart immediately harden to the whole of it, a proper dollop of a sour situation that easily hardened into a core memory. Although his head was tilted down, his fiery eyes sharply stabbed across the island and glowered Oliver down, unbeknownst to Oliver. Feeling robbed, he allowed this feeling of mulling, pacing agitation stew to a bubbling boil.
"C'mon, dude, don't let Oliver catch you giving him THAT look," Finch's gentle voice suddenly stated; with the melt into Gideon's imagination, he perked up in solid shock and looked down to the tiles, across the way, where Finch cutely sat.
"Finch," Gideon's voice lilted through his own head. Though he wasn't physically speaking or showing any signs of even remotely seeing or having a conversation with Finch, the two sagged into his waking imaginary scenarios. Gideon almost laid a frown out to the group about him, at the mere sight of Finch. Although nearly his normal self, he had splashes of black across his fur in angry splotches of voided nothingness. Gideon shook his head and gestured to him, "You... You okay? Last night was really intense, I was really worried about you."
"You were worried about me?" Finch wondered, to which Gideon urgently bobbed an honest nod, "I mean... I'm you. You know that, right? You were worried about yourself."
Gideon flinched as new information hit his brain in hot confusion. He peered hard into Finch's lovely, golden eyes, and although they were in the form of fox eyes, creepy slits of devious delight, Gideon still felt a huge embrace of reality hit him head on.
"Y-You're... Me?" Gideon tenderly and cautiously wondered. His imagination warbled in and out of disassociation as the group of older adults, about him, suddenly erupted into a laughing fit with one another as they carried on with their lively conversations, well out fo Gideon's reach, "I-I don't understand, how can you be me if you're... You?"
"I'm your inner voice, Gideon. Your inner fighter, your soul at its core," Finch assured lovingly, his big ears folded to his skull in a further show of love and softness, "Last night was... Not easy. We tried bringing the light house to us."
"Yeah, I was SURE that would work, but it didn't," Gideon narrowed his gaze and shook his head, "Why?"
"It's probably not the right time," Finch shrugged, he seemed sure of himself, "We still have yet to discover just who that freaking shadow man is, though..."
"You really did go to bat for me," Gideon stated with humble gratitude, he bobbed a nod and lofted Finch a loving, relieved smile, "I've been wanting to thank you all day."
"... Gideon, you went to bat for yourself, that was all you," Finch stated with great cheek as he side-eyed him, "I may be able to intelligently converse with you, and I may seem separate from you, but you need to remember... You're your own best friend. I'm your core. You're just the vessel in a tangible space, a space where you can utilize said soul. Me."
"You're me?" Gideon repeated, as if somehow he still couldn't come to grips with it, and as Finch bobbed a nod, Gideon's imagination began to warble out of the plane of existence him, and everyone else, was on.
"Thick as thieves," Finch's voice ushered in a hug of loving camaraderie, and with said conclusion, Finch jolted in a small trot into a solid poof of moon dust that fogged into the air and out of Gideon's line of third-eye sight.
Gideon huffed a shaky breath and felt realization come over him as he silently panted through his nose. His mind tenderly came back to the noisy conversation happening around him. Still very fervently plastered in the topic of babies and the like, Tatum and Emery loudly trailed on about pregnancy and whatever else that all entailed. Gideon's eyes did a quick scan of the beings in the room, to simply see if they were potentially cued to his dissociative episode, though no one was the wiser. He sagged, opened his palms once more and felt a strange sense of pride come over him. Knowing that he was the one to morph into that huge beast that defeated the shadow man, in his nightmare, somehow fueled him with a world of confidence. Feeling as if he was entirely steamrolled by Tatum's pregnancy announcement, with no single leg to stand on, he swallowed the urge to flaunt his frustrations on the topic and let it burrow deep into his heart. Knowing what he now knew about himself made him feel like he was a pile of gold sitting in a room full of blind people, the feeling as if he had a vast, wonderful sense of self made him certain he was the winner in this show of arms. As if to be sure that everyone here was blind to just the kind of person they were disregarding made Gideon's sad heart vengefully sing, and with this feeling, he itched to get back to Academy tomorrow, a place he could grow without feeling left behind.
