Reviews :
Snake557 : Shortly, now! Next chapter ;)
Burgie : Yes, it's definitely what he needs to stretch out and find a place of belonging.
Song Listened To :
Iko Iko ft. Small Jam by Justin Wellington
*Chapter 69*
Though not his favorite place to paint anymore, Gideon figured being present on palace grounds was a good way to keep up the facade of actually attending Academy. Knowing his parents would be home soon, his strong arm swiped back and forth on the palace wall he had been designated as a child. His golden eyes glossed the gorgeous seascape he had painted, the beautiful light house he now had the pleasure of technically calling his own, the swirls of the minty and cream spire had his heart soaring in excitement. Keeping it all extremely close to the vest, he bit his lip and began to feel his imagination crawl outside of himself. Desperate to stuff it, he satiated his mind by painting Pebbles in the higher balcony on the backside of the painting of his infamous lighthouse. Having just spent a good four hours with Lash and Mara, putting the finishing touches on his tiger painting on the back of his shop, as well as discussing appropriate designs for the public to see, on the front of their shop, Gideon's core rose back from the depths of his rushing mind the second he could hear his mother's buzzing, glitch-hopping skills press his way from across the grass.
"Hey, dude," Vanellope cutely chirped, her racing shoes scuffed the concrete they now both stood on; Novus perked his big ears, having been resting in the shade about a dozen feet away, polite to give Gideon some quiet time with himself.
"Hey, mom," Gideon's voice ushered in gentle warmth, he heaved a long sigh, his shoulders sagged, he stepped away from his painting and smiled up to it. Although not entirely done, it was beautiful, very similar to the painting he had done for his art show a few months back.
"That pesky lighthouse of yours," Vanellope cooed, she crossed her arms and marveled in his work, "This is beautiful, Gideon. Y'ever think to talk to Tessa about maybe building this thing somewhere inside Sugar Rush? Maybe a little getaway house, for you and Novus?"
"I've thought about it, but..." Gideon shrugged, he did absolutely everything he could to keep his secret just that, "I'm okay with it remaining in my mind. I know that if I ever tried to replicate it, it wouldn't turn out exactly like how I wanted."
"Well, why?" Vanellope worried, she narrowed her gaze and gave Gideon a little, sneaky smile of suspicion, "I struggle with putting down what's in my mind... Somehow, the imagination behind it all doesn't ever fully come across the second I put it on canvas."
"Yeah, it'd be something like that," Gideon confidently pacified, he looked down to his hand and the tattered paint can in his hand, the trusty one he had found in front of Academy a few months ago, "It's okay, I enjoy painting it."
"... Oh, lookit," Vanellope chirped cutely, she stepped a little closer to Gideon's painting and pointed. She brought her happy eyes back to Gideon's humbled draw of show and tell, "You put a gargoyle in the window! Cute. Was that apart of your reoccurring dream?"
"No, it wasn't, I just figured I'd put it, thought it was fitting," Gideon chuckled, now feeling his secrets begin to come undone, he held his breath and desperately did what he could to avoid the topic, "How was game day?"
"Eh, game day is the same 'ol, y'know," Vanellope waggled her hand as her and Gideon took a few steps away from the huge, shaded wall they were near. Novus laid like a lazy pile of wings and fur nearby, though his vivid blue eyes held tight to the two, to express he was happily including himself in on the conversation even though he wasn't verbally participating, "You race once, you race a million times. It's fun when Taffyta loses, she's a sore loser."
"I can see that," Gideon blrut a chuckle, grinned in warm delight, bobbed a nod and looked down to the paint can he aimlessly fiddled in his much bigger, masculine hands.
"How's Academy, bud? You've been rather quiet about your first week," Vanellope cooed as softly and sweetly as she could; well aware he was entirely ditching, and was in Lash's care, she was hoping somehow Gideon would eventually stop the lies and come out with the truth all on his own. By the way he raised his eyebrows and did what he could to force a very believable front of easiness, she knew today was not that day.
"It's good, I'm just... Laying low," Gideon mumbled, "Callum invited me to sit with the lot of them..."
"Oh! Good! Have you done that?" Vanellope patiently wondered, knowing the facts anyways.
"No, I've... I've found a place to sit by myself," Gideon grumbled darkly, he eased his haunting gaze tightly down into his mother's sweet and innocently worried gaze, she nearly recoiled at the sheer amount of power behind his intense stare, "It's just too little too late. I'm not here to be pitied. I don't care if he thinks I'm now good enough to hang out with, because I'm an adult."
"Gideon," Vanellope mildly scolded as she sagged her arms; she had to swiftly remind herself that Gideon wasn't even present at Academy, anyways, for any of her words to make a difference.
"Mom, I'm sorry. He's really hurt me," Gideon affirmed with a rise of gentle strength, "A lot of you guys have. I just need to be alone, they can handle eating their food without me, y'know? I don't have classes with any of them."
Vanellope heaved a long, tired sigh through her nose and peered hard into Gideon's lovely gaze, so full of love, so abundant with tenderness and care, though so shielded and glossed with hurt Vanellope had no clue how to even begin navigating. She looked down to her hands in thwarted defeat, bobbed a gentle nod and frowned. She brought her gaze back to Gideon's and was thrilled to catch with it, once more. As intense and fiery as it was, he was as frozen as still water, as if to assure to Vanellope that he definitely meant what he was saying. Piercing intensity, Vanellope could practically feel every last pixel of his power begin to engulf her with electricity that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. With a gentle smile of disarming love and a swipe of her motherly touch to Gideon's lower arm, she closed her eyes and eased him a hushed notion of warm defeat.
"I hear you, love," Vanellope nearly whispered, she could feel Gideon soften, "I'm proud of you for sticking up for your beliefs... I think you should go a little easier on your family, but, if you feel that strongly about it, I'm glad you're doing what you feel you need to be doing for yourself."
"Thanks, mom," Gideon continued to soften, he slipped his bigger hand into her little one and squeezed, "It's good, otherwise. Not much different from Pre-A."
"Good," Vanellope chirped with a small smile, "Welp... Your father is gunna order a pizza. Y'come inside soon, yeah?"
"Yeah, I'll be in shortly," Gideon assured, and with that, Vanellope stepped away in the easy sag and release of their conjoined hands.
Gideon watched his mother leave and felt his heart begin to hurt. He was well aware he'd have to tell everyone the truth, eventually, and though he was definitely set to keeping the light house a secret, as well as Pebbles, he breathed a long sigh through his nose and looked down at his hands in a swing of defeat he could feel coming his way. Knowing this journey to finding himself and growing in the face of adversity was his own to carve, he softened a little with the reminder that he wasn't truly alone; Novus huffed a long, hard chuff of a sigh, grumbled getting to his feet and sauntered over to Gideon with a look of annoyed cheek written all over his bat-face. Gideon furrowed his eyebrows in prickled nervousness and tried to give Novus a smile of challenge, to hopefully stay on top of Novus's very quick, sharp intuition.
"Alright, my guy, I don't know how Vanellope doesn't see right through you," Novus grumbled quietly, as soon as Vanellope was long gone.
"What?" Gideon pressed, Novus wrinkled his face and stuck out his tongue to mock Gideon.
"What?" Novus fervently repeated in a nasally tone of darkness, Gideon rolled his eyes and stiffly looked off as Novus choked a laugh at his expense, "So, y'don't attend Academy. Where do you go during the day? Without me, to boot?"
"I was going to eventually tell you," Gideon murmured with a defeated little smile, Novus side-eyed him and waggled his long claw in Gideon's direction.
"Eventually NOW or eventually NEVER," Novus gawked, Gideon finally grinned a full, handsome smile and shook his head.
"Eventually now, dude, I just... Needed some space, but," Gideon eyed the light house and felt fervor coat his soul in excited goodness, "Would you believe me if I said that I had actually found the light house?"
"What? Wait, really?" Novus hissed in a show of gentle stun, Gideon quickly nodded.
"It's on Turbotime's Eastern shoreline, just beyond Juniper forest," Gideon whispered, he gestured to the light house and gave Novus a look of floored disbelief, "It's... It's EXACTLY the same light house in my lucid dreams. Isn't that weird?"
"Wait, were you able to get inside?" Novus whispered, Gideon fervently nodded, to which Novus flattened his ears and allowed the air between them to rile into an electric frenzy of hyped excitement, "What was inside...!"
"Literally nothing," Gideon choked a laugh, Novus sagged, "But, it's fine, man... I've fixed up the downstairs, I've made it this cool hang out spot. There's a gargoyle, too, it's really cool."
"No one lives there? Really?" Novus inquired nervously, Gideon shook his head.
"No, I've been the past three days and no one has showed up," Gideon shrugged, "There's Pebbles. I named the gargoyle, she watches over it."
"SHE?" Novus drawled in a flaunt of tease, he waggled his eyebrows and grinned, "Ooo, la-la, Gideon's got a live-in girlfriend."
"... Right. The stone gargoyle," Gideon grumbled cutely with a laugh, "I'm absolutely nuts for her, what can I say."
"How do you know it's a girl?" Novus pressed, he dropped the teasing act, though Gideon furrowed his brow and was well aware said gargoyle had the stereotypical female anatomy.
"I guess I shouldn't have assumed, but... The boobs were a bit of a give away, I thought," Gideon shrugged, now becoming softly embarrassed; Novus erupted in laughter, causing Gideon to shove on his snout, "I'm being serious! She's cool, she has these huge wings and a long cat tail."
"Cat tail? Is she a lion gargoyle? Like what Tatum is?" Novus pondered, to which Gideon furrowed his brow.
"Well, no, I mean... She would be alive, if that were the case, the statue looks old, like she's been there awhile, kind of was previously covered in dirt and sand," Gideon rattled, he shrugged and shook his head, "It doesn't matter, I was planning on fixing up the upstairs tomorrow morning. I go there while Lash is racing, and when he's relieved at two, that's when I head to his shop. I want you to start coming with me, y'think Lickity or anyone would notice?"
"I mean, yeah, but I occasionally go on long flights about the game while you're at Academy," Novus eyed Gideon knowingly, "Or, at least while I THOUGHT you were at Academy."
"Just fly East directly from Turbotime's entrance, straight to the shoreline," Gideon explained with an annoyed grin, "Y'can't miss it."
"Aye, captain," Novus mumbled with a side-eyeing smirk.
As the ocean breeze ruffled Gideon's handsome, now properly wind-tossed auburn hair, he inhaled a thick, steady breath through his nose and eyed the lapping ocean waves not fifty feet from his brand new front door. With a grin and a push into his lovely little lighthouse abode, he drew the key out of the key hole and stepped inside with purpose. He smiled and looked about his sunny new home, the warm yellow walls and stark white accents sung with beachy-harmony. He shut the door behind him, locked it and lazily thrusted his sling back to the kitchen island. Everything left exactly where he had left it yesterday, he turned to the thermostat and was eager to turn on the air conditioning. As he neared the interface, he furrowed his eyebrows in soft confusion and took note that the heat was on. He scratched his chin and mumbled to himself in confusion, feeling certain he had left the thermostat off. Shrugging it off, he hustled to get upstairs to cutely greet Pebbles.
"Hey, little dudette, good news," Gideon blurt happily, he stepped over to Pebbles figure and grinned. With a grunt, he simple knelt down next to her and hovered on the balls of his feet. With a careful swing of his strong arm, he cutely sagged his side-embrace about Pebbles' little shoulders and slender neck, "Novus is on his way. You'll love him. Maybe he can teach you to fly."
Gideon grinned, cutely pat Pebbles' in between her little, though strong shoulder blades, in between the gorgeous sprawl of the origin of her wings, though as his eyes caught with his precious light house necklace, of which he left for her, his eyes drew to her paws with a held breath of rising concern. Gideon had left Pebbles a green apple, an offering for permission to renovate her lighthouse perch, though said apple was nowhere to be found. Gideon snapped his jaw shut, eyed the stone statue, clearly unmoved, he eyed the sky and the upper part of the exposed balcony and quickly came to the conclusion that seagulls surely got ahold of her apple. Gideon huffed a shaky breath and felt a tingle go down his spine, though as he thought to manifest more food for Pebbles, he decided against it and cutely pressed on to her, doing everything he could to convince himself that he wasn't feeling just a little spooked.
"He's really sarcastic, though, so... If he says anything to hurt your feelings, he doesn't mean it, he's just a big bully," Gideon mumbled cutely, only playful notions for his best friend. He perked up, jolted to a stand and grinned, "Hey! Speak of the devil."
Gideon firmly waved his hand and grinned like an idiot as Novus's gorgeous wingspan flapped in slow, easy lofting waves. His gorgeous blue belly melted into the sunny sky about them, and as he came near, he hooked his eyes to Gideon, on the balcony, and loudly ushered him a notion down to the earth below him.
"Damn, y'weren't kidding!" Novus yelled, his lovely, huge wingspan banked about the whole of the light house.
"Why would I kid about this!" Gideon loudly volleyed in return, though he scrunched his shoulders tight to his head and sharply grit h is teeth as a huge, crumbling thud could be heard, the sound of Novus very carelessly landing on the roof of the building attached to the tower of the lighthouse. Gideon fervently cupped his hands over his mouth and felt urgency gloss his figure, "Novus, I have yet to make the roof stable, y'idiot! Get off the roof!"
"Oh, sorry," Novus called over the sound of the ocean waves and rushing sea breeze. In a hefty flap, he came about the exposed balcony, hovered in heavy, windswept flaps for a second before his big paws and fogure sagged to said spacious balcony, "Heyyy, here's the gargoyle you were telling me about. Your girlfriend."
"Meet Pebbles," Gideon cooed, Novus furrowed his brow and shot Gideon a wide, teasing grin.
"Not Rocky, Stoney... I don't know, something cool?" Novus barked, he carefully circled Pebbles and assessed said figure in an easy sway, though he finally stood directly in front of Pebbles, mocked her pose, gaped his mouth and furiously bared his fangs so to mirror Pebbles.
"Uncanny," Gideon mumbled as he crossed his arms and blurt a chuckle.
"She's badass, man, y'should paint her," Novus mumbled nonchalantly as he sagged out of his stance, he grinned and tossed Gideon a kind smile.
"PAINT her? You mean paint on her? That feels disrespectful, doesn't it?" Gideon worried, Novus sagged his ears in softer approach and shrugged, along a shake of his head.
"No, I mean like... One of your masterpieces, paint her to look really cool, y'know? Give her stripes or something, you like tigers," Novus rattled, "Don't just paint ANYTHING on her, give her a design. She's basically a blank canvas, right here for you. Give her badass markings, she's clearly about to go to war."
"I guess I could," Gideon rubbed his chin, cued his purple coding and was successful in pulling up his coded inventory. With a proper reach, he unveiled his trust spray paint can and jostled it about a bit. Upon the topic of artwork, he perked up and pointed to Novus, "Oh! Speaking of tigers, let me show you the downstairs, I started a mural inside. It's gunna be so awesome."
"Yeah?" Novus perked up; knowing, full well, he wasn't going to fit down the much smaller stairwell that lead downstairs, he lofted to the ground, from the exposed balcony, and patiently waited for Gideon to open the front door for him. Upon being let inside, Novus sagged in soft surprise and looked about the airy, lovely abode, "Wowww, you did all of this?"
"ALL of it. Wasn't easy, I was so exhausted," Gideon chuckled as he put his hands on his hips and watched as Novus strolled about and assessed each detail, "I didn't realize the extent of my manifesting powers until I was manifesting... Get this... Kitchen appliances."
"Damn, nice ones, at that," Novus muttered cutely, he eyed Gideon and, although he technically fit in the space between the kitchen island and the stove, cabinets and fridge, it was still a bit of an awkward squeeze of body, tail and wings. He gripped the fridge handle and yanked it open, though his face sloped in surprise, "Oh, shit! I was fully expecting the fridge to be empty."
"No, I'm not an idiot," Gideon muttered with a chuckle as he slouched to the other side of the island; now feeling relieved that he had invited Novus into his sacred space, he began to feel purpose rush him, "Okay, so today, I want to focus on cleaning the outside of the lighthouse, as well as fixing up the upstairs and balconies to go with it."
"What about the actual light house tower?" Novus questioned as he shut the fridge door and moseyed over to the mural wall Gideon had referenced, near the front door; a half-painted gorgeous mural of an artistic rendering of a white tiger, clearly not finished.
"I figured we'd get to it tomorrow, we only have until two," Gideon mumbled cutely, "I meet up with Lash, then."
"You could just text him and tell him you're going home? Or you're gunna hang on the beach and will see him tomorrow?" Novus pressed; having seen the extent of Gideon's heart, through his artwork, he silently admired Gideon's work, on the wall, and assessed every detail, clearly knowing Gideon's intentions like the back of his paw.
"... Guess I could, huh," Gideon heaved a heavy sigh and shrugged in easy nonchalance, "I'll want to work a bit, then we can take a dip in the ocean."
"YES, I'd love nothing more," Novus perked up, his brilliant blue eyes lit up with glee, "Alright, how about I help you get all the shit off the side of the building and off the roof. There's a century's worth of palm leaves collected up there."
"Alright, you get the outside, I'll do the upstairs and we'll break after an hour or two, yeah?" Gideon stated with a knowing lilt, to which Novus grinned and bobbed an eager nod, "Awesome. Thanks for helping me."
"Yeah man, as long as I'm allowed to come here every day and hang," Novus teased as he pressed out the front door, sprawled his wings and leaped into the air, so to begin properly assessing his work from the sky.
"Fine, fine," Gideon mumbled to himself with a cute smile, though he bit his lip, shook his paint can about in vigorous back and forth and pressed up the smaller stair well, to Pebbles' abode.
The marble clacked about the interior of his spray can, and as he came to the second floor, his eyes caught with the cute little stone gargoyle he had been diligently protecting. He furrowed his eyebrows and felt a pang of nervousness come over him; although the thought to paint Pebbles never crossed his mind, he hoped somehow spray painting a protective gargoyle wasn't disrespectful. He figured his intentions were pure, and hopeful that he was able to do her incredible, meticulously crafted design justice, he neared her with a small, humble smile and readied his finger over the nozzle of his spray can. With a heavy inhale and an easy sag into his imagination, he clenched his jaw and began to so carefully spray Pebble's wings. With the easy flow of handpicked, carefully planned colors, he crowned Pebbles' wings with a gorgeous splay of browns, creams and blacks, easily kissed with the draw of tiger stripes that were properly and thoughtfully placed. With easy strokes that coat her beautiful white stone and crossed with lovely, airbrushed stripes that came to a perfected, sharp point all down her wings, arms and legs, he wormed his way about her sat structure and finally began to spray her long tail.
Having put in his earbuds, escaped into his own little world of painterly goodness, he faded the lovely creams and browns along the base of her tail and eventually dragged the stripes darker as he came to the tuft end of her tail. Finally crouched directly before her, he returned the lighthouse necklace to his own neck, for protection, as he so carefully crowned her face, temples and neck with gorgeous drags of stripes. Beautiful streaks of creamy browns, tans and blacks, his heart began to thud with excitement over the sheer fact that Novus had a very daring, yet brilliant idea, here. Happy to cover every aspect of her body with gorgeous drags of tiger stripes, he finally stood, after what felt like hours of crouching, and circled Pebbles a handful of times in meticulous scanning, careful to see if he missed any spots. With the cheeky final touch to this project, he very cutely hid an artistic 'G' right at the base of her tail, where it met with the bend of her lower back and further extension of her spine. With a grin, he stepped half a dozen feet away, put his hands on his hips and peered to Pebbles in rocked pride.
"Damn, I was so scared that wouldn't turn out right," Gideon mumbled cutely to himself, "Alright, Pebbles, y'got yourself a glow-up. I might have to put you inside, I don't want you getting rained on, or anything."
"Y'say something?" Novus wondered loudly from the ground below; although Novus had been diligently swiping away the huge amount of beach grass growth for the past hour or so, Gideon nearly forgot that Novus was here, due to how diligently he had been working on the opposite side of the house.
"Oh, no, nothing, I finished painting the gargoyle," Gideon called excitedly, to which Novus grunted with a few more swipes and finally lofted his gliding, gorgeous wingspan to the deck of the exposed balcony.
"Ohh, damn, that looks SO awesome!" Novus exclaimed as he, too, began to cutely circle Pebbles in eager assessment. He bobbed a nod and grinned his fangs, though after a moment, he fingered his lip in contemplation and allowed his blue eyes to dart about Pebbles' face in further assessment, "Hmm... Her mouth looks really blank, though."
"... I mean, yeah, I didn't want to put stripes in her mouth, of all places," Gideon mumbled, as if that was the end of that conversation, though Novus beamed Gideon a confused little smile and shrugged.
"What? Why? I have a huge birthmark on the back of my tongue, as well as freckles all along the roof of my mouth," Novus tightly rattled with frozen, baited anticipation for Gideon's surprised nosiness.
"What? No you don't," Gideon barked, though in said look of annoyed, grinning stupor, he pressed closer to Novus as he eagerly opened the whole of his mouth, large enough to engulf Gideon's head times three. Gideon sharply furrowed his brow and assessed the huge gape of Novus's extremely intimidating setup, huge fangs, terrifying canines and dagger-like molars at the back of his mouth, his flesh was a beautiful blue and marbleized turquoise. Just like promised, the back of Novus's tongue had a very prominent dark blue splatter, as well as the roof of his mouth. Gideon sagged in surprise, caught eyes with Novus as Novus closed his shark-like jaws and, in the swing, both boys peered down to Pebbles' much smaller mouth, though still agape with very pointy, intimidating fangs, "Welp... I stand corrected. Didn't know that was possible."
"She's a cat, surely cats have all sorts of markings inside their mouths," Novus rattled, he waggled his paw in Pebbles' direction and sprawled his wings a little, "I don't know, you do you man, I just think it'd make the whole setup more believable and complete."
"Lemme think about it, feels kinda degrading," Gideon mumbled as Novus was set to lofting himself off of the sunny balcony, to continue his chore.
"Why?" Novus barked, almost half-heartedly wondering due to the sudden leap he took off of the balcony and gentle, swooping bank he took to get to the other side of the house.
"I don't know," Gideon huffed in a sighing whisper all by himself, now. He scratched his chin and peered down to Pebbles' little, though intimidating figure crouched on the balcony ground, "Feels dirty, but... I guess for continuity's sake."
Gideon grunted, popped a squat to Pebbles' right and sharply jostled his paint can so that the marble inside stirred up all the freshly manifested paint, fuel for Gideon's imagination. He peered tight to Pebbles' mouth, agape and bared fangs, her cat tongue was curled up, back and in a proper 'taco' like shape, as if to signify that maybe she was in mid-hiss. He assessed the thicker veins on the side of her flat, cat tongue and figured maybe spraying a few freckles, there, would suffice. He bit his lip, jostled the can once more and got up close and personal to Pebbles' face, his pointer finger began to flex to add pressure to the nozzle, though just as he was due to splaying little hits of paint into Pebbles' mouth, he was suddenly jarred out of his dainty, still and readied reality the second Pebbles' arm suddenly flung forward, caught with Gideon's wrist and yanked the spray can clear out of his grip, rendering his brain in a total flat line of eternal, arcade-altering shock.
