Reviews :

Lyssdoodle : I know, the poor thing. He hangs on for dear life up until the bitter end, trust me. As for Callum, you eventually get his whole side of this nonsense! You sort of learn it all as Gideon learns it, which will end up being much later.

Burgie : Aw thank you! He definitely does what he can to find the good and beauty in all of it, for sure, but you're right, this is a darker turning point for him.

ThoreLB : I genuinely cannot thank you enough for your statement about the whole 'song listened to' thing I do. I often wonder if I'm doing that in vain and if no one cares to listen along with me. Truly, one hundred percent, the music always matches the mood of the chapter, and it is genuinely what I listen to as I write for said chapter. So, hearing that you're listening along with me and adding songs to your own playlist, I mean seriously, that makes my heart sing. Music is such a powerful tool to bring creatives together and I really appreciate what you said! Also, my Spanish is rusty, so I uh... I'm going to assume you said something nice but I'm also assuming it's an idiom that doesn't translate to English very well lmao.


Song Listened To :

I Lived by One Republic (dead middle of this chapter only)


*Chapter 54*

"Game day's gotta be drab, today," Chase cutely muttered as him and Gideon lazily stood together in front of Academy's massive, swooping stoop.

"Yeah, User, it's pouring," Gideon added as he narrowed his curious gaze. Due to Arcadia's glass-like, dome ceiling that seemingly stretched into infinity, everyone inside the station could clearly see out into Litwak's Arcade and the glass front doors to California's typically sunny atmosphere. Today, it was pouring and grey outside, and Arcadia radiated the same energy. Although not much shorter than Gideon, Chase tilted his head and smiled up into Gideon's eyes as he continued on, "Don't worry, Sugar Rush will be sunny."

"Got a weather app on that shiny new phone of yours?" Chase grumbled cutely as he crossed his arms, he eyed the sleek red phone in Gideon's bigger palm.

"I do, actually," Gideon stated in tender humility, not aware that Chase was mildly teasing him, "Sayyys... It's eighty-two today, partly cloudy. I only have my location for Sugar Rush, though."

"Well, I can tell you DigDug is a balmy four thousand degrees Fahrenheit with sun for years to come," Chase blurt a hard laugh, to which he bared his sharp, black fangs, ones of which were mildly dull now, though due to the family photos Chase has shown Gideon, Gideon was well aware Chase's gamer breed grew to be seemingly terrifying looking lizard beasts.

"So, my place today, your place tomorrow," Gideon chirped cutely with a nod, "My sister said that we should head to my house, once we get into Sugar Rush, and we can head outside once she comes home and is able to code you to the code room."

"That'll be so cool," Chase hissed as he long-blinked in eagerness, "Well, what about you? You safe to come to DigDug tomorrow? We can't code you for the code room without getting the permission of higher officials, and... Unfortunately, for DigDug, getting their attention is actually pretty hard."

"I don't know, my mom said something about deleter protection, or something, it's supposed to keep me safe," Gideon shrugged, though he finally furrowed his brow in a sting of rising annoyance and took note that, once again, Oliver was late to come collect him. Pushing at least fifteen minutes now, to which both Chase and Gideon had been cutely waiting for Oliver's arrival, Gideon shook his head in mulling exhaustion and largely glowered down Sugar Rush's outlet, far across the stretch, "This is the third day in a row my big brother has been late..."

"... Do we really NEED him to cross the station?" Chase politely wondered, his deepening voice crackled in sweet delight as both Chase and Gideon held eyes, "I mean... It's RIGHT there. DigDug is further and my parents let me go back and forth all the time."

"Yeah, my family has a different idea of what babying looks like, apparently," Gideon tightly muttered in rising irritation, though he raised his eyebrows in inquiry as his phone began to tinker an alerting ringtone. He pulled his phone from his pocket and smiled as he peered to the caller ID, "Oh, it's Tessa."

"... Professor Kalivar," Chase gently whispered as he gestured his thumb back to Academy's doors, of which they hung near.

"Hey," Gideon eased as he sagged his sleek phone tight to his ear.

"Hey, babe, you still on campus?" Tessa softly wondered, Gideon bobbed a nod and tried not to roll his eyes.

"Yyyep. Hanging here, waiting on Oliver, like usual," Gideon droned in rising annoyance, though Tessa heaved a shaky sigh and allowed seriousness to coat the call.

"Bud, you can go ahead and take yourself and Chase to Sugar Rush, Oliver's not gunna make it," Tessa mumbled in sorrowful regret, to which Gideon sharply furrowed his eyebrows and noted her tone. He opened his mouth to hurriedly wonder if something was wrong, though Tessa carried on, "I would just scoot you over to Sugar Rush, myself, but I have a meeting with Mr. Favor in literally thirty seconds and I just got off the phone with Oliver."

"Why didn't he call me, instead? Why did he have to call you?" Gideon barked in smiling irritation, he eyed Chase as Chase's confused grin broadened.

"It's... Because he just got word that Tatum miscoded her's and Theo's baby," Tessa stated in a downswing of mildly trembling regret, to which Gideon's facial expression immediately wiped of any irritated sass he was previously donning; this caused Chase to soften in concern, as well.

"What?" Gideon hissed in hot sorrow.

"Yeah, it's... Not a good time for them, right now, he has Theo and Tatum at their place to console them, and Ace is running some code room tests on her to source the issue, but, yeah... They lost the baby," Tessa mumbled quietly, it was clear, here, that Tessa was getting choked up.

"User, I... I-I'm sorry," Gideon huffed nervously, not truly knowing exactly what to say or how to even convey his true sorrow felt, though he eyed Sugar Rush's outlet with a new swing of gentle regret and felt bad for being previously bitey about Oliver being late.

"It's okay buddy, just go ahead and take Chase, you two scoot home," Tessa gently instructed in a softer tone just above a whisper, "Maybe... Think about shooting your big brother a text sometime later. He's pretty upset. Losing coding, like that, is... Devastating."

"I will," Gideon mumbled sadly with a nod, he bit his lip and fervently eyed Chase, who began to equally looked rocked with concern. Gideon long-blinked and ushered Tessa conclusory notions as their call came to an end, "Love you too... Bye."

"What happened?" Chase worried as Gideon heaved a shaky sigh, sagged his phone into his pocket and gently gestured for Chase to follow.

"I guess... My nephew's girlfriend miscoded her baby," Gideon ushered in soft, sorrowful seriousness, to which Chase sagged his hands into the loose gape of his jean's pockets and looked down in bug-eyed, hot shock.

"... Wow, I'm really sorry, dude," Chase mumbled, and though both boys slowly sauntered to Sugar Rush's outlet, he gestured off to DigDug, in the distance, "If me coming over today isn't a good idea, it's no biggie."

"No, it's okay, they're... They're all at Oliver's house, anyhow, we'll be at my place," Gideon shrugged, "... Sucks. Now I feel like an asshole."

"Why?" Chase wondered.

"Well, I was previously upset over the baby's announcement because it overshadowed my first day of Pre-A, but... I would've never wanted THIS outcome," Gideon eased in a continuous downswing of broody sorrow.

"No one could've predicted this outcome, it's not your fault, y'know?" Chase mumbled, he tossed Gideon an apologetic smile and shrugged, "I'm my parent's rainbow baby."

"Rainbow baby?" Gideon wondered, Chase nodded.

"It means that my mom was previously pregnant before me, but miscoded. I guess mom and dad tried again and, well... Got me! Surprise," Chase gestured his arms out with a cute, toothy grin as both boys rounded into Sugar Rush's outlet, "I wouldn't be here had they given up. Maybe your nephew and his girlfriend will try again. There's always that option. Don't beat yourself up about it, you clearly had no say."

Gideon bobbed a tired nod and felt as if his stomach was about to fall out his backside. He sagged his shoulders and bit his lip, now feeling entirely guilty for being so needy and sassy towards the elders around him, such a wonderful, new thing now gone from their existence, he was well aware he was now not welcomed to his own feelings towards being outshined. He furrowed his brow in hidden frustration towards himself as Chase cutely trailed on about nothing incredibly important, and it was here did Gideon understand that likely opening his mouth, about his emotional needs, was only going to give him a swift kick in the pants via the universe. As if to properly and irritatedly assure said universe that this was all dutifully noted, him and Chase traipsed into Sugar Rush and to palace grounds with Gideon's secretive promise to only speak up about things that were positively affecting him.

With all the ease in the world, both boys head to Gideon's home and did what they did best; in a hyper rile of boyish excitement, they devoured whatever food they could, fuel for the shenanigans they were due to getting in, and though they happily and loudly chattered their way through cute musings, in Gideon's sunny bedroom, they easily found their way to Gideon's backyard. Upon coming outside, Gideon's handsome eyes trailed all along the sunny, grassy area, to which connected with his paint wall as well as the palace's outdoor loop of a corridor that hugged the entire lot. With the flyer's old, jungle-tree enclosure just tucked off to the left of their open-field backyard, and the cobbles to the main courtyard off to the right, Gideon assessed just how much space they had to romp around, for the first time. Although used to running around with Novus, Gideon had never had a full-on hang out with a friend that wasn't apart of his family, and with that, he was excited to share every last ounce of his shining soul with Chase.

"This place is massive!" Chase exclaimed happily as he lazy stumbled in a haphazard circle on the freshly cut grass, one of which dribbled to the acres of grass that splayed the majority of the palace lot. Gideon bobbed a nod and grinned, though just as he was about to introduce Chase to his paint wall, however splashed with angry swipes of paint from the night prior, Chase lit up and nervously pointed to the sky, "Uhh... Gideon, what's that?"

"Huh?" Gideon nervously whirled around and looked far beyond his and his parent's home in time to see Novus's gorgeous, blue and cosmic colored ventral side of his wingspan lofting him over to said two boys. Gideon perked up in hot excitement and grinned, "Oh! That's Novus!"

"Holy shit, I forgot you have a dragon!" Chase exclaimed as he held the side of his head, near small nubs of spikes that would one day be grown in and sharp.

"He likes to remind me that I don't own him," Gideon muttered cutely as Novus's massive, lofty wingspan billowed like a parachute catching wind, and as his bigger, bumbling paws trot to the grass, Novus perked his ears high and gave Gideon a cheeky grin.

"It's because you don't!" Novus cheekily reminded as he stood proud on his four legs, he tucked his wings tighter to his body and gave Chase a zealous, fang-filled smile, "I'm Novus! Are you Chase?"

"That's me," Chase gestured his thumb to his chest, he wore a faded, lime green tank top, "What powers do you have?"

"I can fly and breathe fire," Novus rolled his big blue eyes and looked off in mild disappointment, "Juuust your standard bat lizard."

"You said you have poison powers?" Gideon wondered with boyish thrill, to which Novus perked up as well and peered down to Chase.

"I do," Chase stated with a wide, cocky, fang-filled little grin, "I can spray poison... I also have a jump aid."

"You can jump really high?" Novus wondered, all three boys hovered in a held-breath of tireless anticipation, wide, dewy eyes of excited wonder.

"I can, but... Mom won't let me use my poison powers until I turn one, and... I haven't learned to fully catch myself, after jumping, without the aid of something squishy underneath me," Chase mumbled apologetically, as if to provide Gideon and Novus with reasons as to just why he wouldn't be able to show either of them his powers, yet.

"Your mom's not here," Gideon whispered deviously, Chase blurt a chuckle and flagged his hand in playful dismissal.

"And, Gideon has manifestation powers," Novus whispered as well, tight camaraderie all three boys now shared, the sun shone down on them in eager, energetic, blinding encouragement, "He can manifest you a pool of jello to fall into."

"Jello!" Chase choked on his word and held his stomach as he erupted into laughter.

"My dad said I couldn't have mom's homemade jello until I finished my broccoli... So I would manifest bites of jello while he wasn't looking," Gideon rushed through all three of their howling laughter, "I didn't even finish my broccoli, I just pretended that I gave up."

"He still has no clue," Novus largely sat on his rump and doubled over with hefty laughter.

"So, y-you can just... Create stuff? Out of thin air?" Chase ogled as he took a few steps closer to Gideon, and as Gideon gently lowered his hands and flared the lovely, powerful purple circuitry all over his bigger hands and arms, Chase's eyes bugged in boyish wonder, "Holy crap, dude, how are you doing that...?"

"I'm a glitch, remember? My mom is the original glitch," Gideon bragged, he tried not to be too boastful about it all, though he was glad Chase took it in stride, "I... I can't just create stuff out of thin air, whenever I think it up, I have to really want it, or really feel it."

"It has to come from the gut," Novus's deepening voice grumbled with a nod, to which Gideon beamed a gentle smile and narrowed his eyes a little.

"I don't know, let's test it out, then," Gideon hissed, to which him and Chase bravely caught eyes, "What's the one thing you've wanted? If there was one thing you could have, or experience, right this second, what would it be?"

"Snow," Chase stated without a single form of hesitation. He lulled his bigger eyes closed and reopened them with a twinkle of rising wonder, "I've never experienced weather any colder than seventy degrees, please make it snow."

Gideon lifted an eyebrow and caught eyes with Novus with a cocky little smile of delight, to which he inhaled a deep breath, expanded his broadening chest and took a cautious step back. With a solid, thick exhale through his nose, the peak of his thick, hefty clavicles that rose through his skin, Gideon lulled his eyes closed and allowed his incredible, raw ability so easily sway in his favor. With the rush and surge of a beautiful display of Ralph's and Vanellope's electric purple coding, Gideon managed to allow his, Chase's and Gideon's direct surroundings to bend to his liking, to be whisked away into his imagination, and with said fifty-foot radius of an alternate environment, the wind whipped around them with frozen licks of fluffy snow. Gideon flinched a little as flutters of lovely snowflakes began to gather all in his hair, on his long eye lashes, to which Novus's fluffy mane began to frost as well, Chase gaped in unadulterated exhilaration and through his hands up in a pump of fists.

"Gideon this is the coolest thing EVER!" Chase hollered as all three boys eagerly bound out into the fluffy, lovely snowy scenery that was Gideon's once sunny, grassy backyard.

"Snowball fight!" Gideon urged loudly, and as Chase's easy, snake-like slithering, on all fours, caught Gideon by surprise, Chase dove head first into a nearby snow mound and cutely erupted from the top of it, utilizing his incredible jumping powers. With such an eruption, he easily twirled mid air and pelted Gideon with a rapid-fire pelt of three snow balls, to which Gideon grunted and wobbled on his feet, "Hey! I wasn't ready!"

"Y'snooze y'lose!" Chase hollered, to which Gideon grappled the hugest snowball he could and rocketed it Chase's way, ultimately hitting him mid air and sending him into a nearby, fluffy snow mound.

"Y'should come back in the winter, Chase, it snows for two months straight on palace grounds!" Gideon called excitedly, to which Chase bobbed a nod and hobbled a little on his feet.

"Bet!" Chase urged with a grin, though before Chase bound up into the air, once more, utilizing his incredible jumping powers, Gideon took note that Chase was only using his left foot to gain liftoff.

"Jello, jello!" Novus urgently called from across the small stretch, having previously flopped into the snow and rolled all in it, so to truly feel the cold of it all; it was here did Gideon grin in eager delight and watch as Chase reached his maximum height of well over forty feet, midair.

Gideon grit his teeth, inhaled a tight breath, held it and thrusted his hands outwards. With a huff of a grunt, and the willpower to give Chase a messy, cushiony landing, Gideon flinched in entire surprise as he was successful in manifesting a massive, perfect square of blue jello large enough to easily swallow Chase whole. With a hard, excited cry of a free-fall, Chase flailed as he plummeted into the jello, tail and feet first, and with said plummet, the blue jello nearly exploded upon impact, sending snowy, mushy jello in all directions. After everything had settled, and Chase peered his head from the mess he was consumed by, all three frozen figures eagerly grinned in bewildered, elated shock before erupting into hard, howling laughter with one another. Gideon fell to his rear at just how hysterical of a sight that all was, and though he desperately did what he could to catch his breath and begin inquiring just how this whole experience was treating Chase, a voice from deep inside Gideon's home called into the snowy blue.

Gideon raised his eyebrows in a prickle of surprise as him, Chase and Novus froze dead in their tracks, and with a coded-snap of Gideon's bigger fingers, the snowy environment, jello and all, immediately vanished from existence, something of which had Chase and Novus laid on the sunny grass in stunned surprise. Gideon inhaled a shaky breath and urgently peered to the lovely back patio of his parent's home just in time to see Tessa casually step out into the sunshine. Mere seconds within missing the entire snowy, jello fiasco, she hadn't a single clue that all three boys were up to no good whilst Chase wasn't in game over-safe territory. She had taken her blazer off and was wearing a casual button up rolled to her elbows, her nicer, professional dark grey slacks looked mildly wrinkled from a day's work at Arcadia. Although Gideon brightened, he immediately felt a pang of sharp sorrow coat his heart the second he could see that Tessa had previously been crying due to glassy, red eyes and lightly swollen skin. Even through it all, Chase hadn't noticed and cutely bounded up.

"Tessa," Chase chirped excitedly, to which Tessa donned a happy grin and gave Chase a loving side hug as he approached.

"Hey, bud, you three staying out of trouble?" Tessa cooed cutely, having met Chase previously, she noted that him and Gideon were attached at the hip whenever she had previously snuck to Pre-Academy side, to simply check up on Gideon.

"Mostly," Chase muttered deviously as he gave Tessa a sneaky side eye, to which Gideon raised his eyebrows and sheepishly looked off; all four beings began to file into the building, straight for Ralph's and Vanellope's lovely, homey kitchen.

"Alright, boys, I'm here to code Chase to the game and then I gotta run back to Arcadia because I forgot some paper work I'm due to filling out," Tessa heaved a nasally sigh and casually brought up a hover of a silver slew of holographic indexes on the splay of glossy countertops nearby; being Queen adhered to cueing up code room commands no matter where she was inside Sugar Rush in its entirety.

"Hurry, I gotta pee," Chase muttered in a hobbly kind of way, and as Tessa successfully glued his coding to the grid, thus easing a cute chime of completion and a blip of his red-orange pixels, Chase and Gideon blurt boyish laughs as Chase urgently began to hobble away in search of Gideon's bedroom, which ultimately led to his bathroom. He urgently called back to Tessa from down the long corridor, "Thank you Queen Tessa!"

"Just doin' my job," Tessa loudly grumbled in return as she lazily shot Gideon a seemingly exhausted smile, though with the way Gideon's golden, piercing, intuitive gaze held fixated to Tessa in stern maturity had Tessa slumping her shoulders in soft realization. She knew Gideon had fiercely adopted their family's very sharp discernment, a sixth sense of empathy Gideon was already a master at. Tessa rolled her eyes in smiling defeat and looked off, "I'm fine, Gideon, I'm fine..."

"Tell me," Gideon's gentle, deepening, maturing voice so patiently eased to her, a tenderness Tessa knew she shouldn't be surprised by, though she lofted Gideon her teary gaze and gave him an apologetic, crumpling little smile as bigger tears welled in her eyes.

"I-I was at Oliver's checking all of Tatum's vitals, and stuff..." Tessa grimaced a little and held the back of her hand to her mouth as she desperately tried to conceal her sorrow, "The baby was almost at fifty percent... She was named and everything, it's just... It's not even fair."

Gideon held still in Tessa's bubble of sorrow, and though he wildly had no understanding of the situation, he remained still for her and was well aware she was in desperate need of a shoulder, no matter how disconnected from the situation Gideon was. Gideon inhaled a shaky breath and bobbed a sorrowful nod, and though he opened his mouth to try and find the right words, Tessa whimpered and continued on.

"I miscoded between Ace and Berri," Tessa tenderly admitted, though she shrugged, wiped her eyes and shook her head, "Granted, my loading bare was barely even in existence, it was a measly two percent, or something close to that, but... It still was enough to take my legs out from under me. I can't imagine Tatum's and Theo's pain, right now."

"I'm really sorry," Gideon heaved a shaky breath and lulled his eyes closed, "I was... A total jerk about it, too."

"What? No you weren't, what do you mean?" Tessa wondered as she wiped her tears and shook her head, she gave Gideon an incredulous little smile.

"I... Was upset that she was the focus on my first day of school," Gideon shrugged and peered to Tessa in stark apology, "I guess she'd never know I was upset, but, this is the last scenario I wanted."

"Your first day at Academy is going to be the real special occasion, Gid," Tessa assured, though she did so in mild, exhausted irritation, "I could tell you were sore over that... You shelled up and refused to include yourself."

"...Include myself?" Gideon volleyed darkly, he felt a weird bout of confusion hit him.

"You'll understand the importance of all this nonsense, one day, Gideon," Tessa stated through a sigh of defeat and a small nod, "I have to head back to Arcadia, and then I'm going to get Tatum and Ace in the code room just to make sure Tatum's coding is stable."

"Okay," Gideon walled, once more; the notion of understanding issues, once he was older, began to sound like pandering nonsense, at this point, and though he was heated over the words coming from Tessa, of all people, he swallowed his frustrations and was very well aware Tessa was currently going through a wave of emotions in this, as well. Gideon tenderly shrugged and tried his hardest to not come across too apathetic, from this stand point, "Well, I'm... Really sorry. Truly."

"It's alright, bud," Tessa hissed in exhaustion as her and Gideon sagged into a small side hug before she began to step closer to the front foyer of their parent's home, "I'd maybe shoot Oliver a text sometime within the next few days... We're all knocked on our asses, over this, and I'm sure he'd love to hear from you."

"Is... He not picking me up from Academy any longer?" Gideon wondered dryly, to which Tessa shrugged and shook her head.

"I almost doubt it, bud, I'd check with mom and dad, and also Oliver, just to make sure," Tessa eased in tender exhaustion, and as she began to leave Ralph's and Vanellope's lovely home, she ushered Gideon a kind notion of love and departure.

Gideon heaved a shaky breath from his nose and could hear his bathroom door, from across the stretch, open alongside the sound of his toilet flushing, and with Chase's slowly approaching footsteps, Gideon looked down to his hands and felt a weird wave of coldness coat his heart. Desperate to feel sorry for Tatum and the situation at hand, he almost felt as if he now wasn't welcome to even feeling his feelings, due to Tessa's likely blind notion of assuring Gideon he'd surely understand one day. Desperate to really prove to everyone that he was becoming an adult and definitely understood adult emotions and feelings, he felt patronized and thwarted every single time someone reminded him that he simply mustn't be there yet, even though he had been doing everything to prove everyone otherwise. Fully eager to dive into this topic with empathy and tender loving care, he held his breath and eyed his front door in stewing frustration, as if feeling guilty for being upset, in the first place, wasn't confusing enough for him to swallow.