Reviews :
Burgie : thank you! Aw I agree~ they're definitely fast friends because of it.
Song Listened To :
Mulberry Mouse by Alan Gogoll
*Chapter 76*
"Please don't be out, please don't be out, please don't be out," Gideon rushed through his teeth as he clasped his bigger hands together in a pleading way.
"What's out?" Kepa chirped in curiosity as her big, glassy eyes eagerly looked about Lash's gorgeous confectionary, the two scuffed to an easy stop on the tiling just to the left of the entrance, they both made way for customers coming and going from the shop; Gideon groaned a noise of pure, disappointed sorrow.
"Noooo," Gideon complained as he slumped his bigger shoulders, hunched and longingly looked across the gap of the golden-tiled confectionary. To their right was a huge splay of an ice cream counter, of which swooped about the back end of the place, hooked to a proper bar area, huge displays of the most delicious candies and pastries, all of which boasted Sugar Rush's glory, though Gideon seemed to fixate on a certain machine, behind the counter, that had a sign dangling on the front of it which read 'sold out'.
"What's out!" Kepa repeated with a fervent giggle as she yanked her left hand from her baggy pocket and waggled it about in playful frustration.
"Uhg... So, Lash has every flavor of ice cream made in-house, EXCEPT one flavor... It's brought in by another ice cream shop across town called After's, they've cut a deal with Lash to sell one of their top-selling flavors in his store," Gideon hurried to explain with cute, dewy disappointment still fresh in his eyes, he finally peered down to Kepa and frowned, "It's this insanely good coffee... White chocolate peanut flavor, and it sells insanely quickly."
"You've had it before?" Kepa wondered, Gideon nodded and longingly peered across the way to the shiny machine; although he daintily waved 'hello' to one of Lash's workers, that recognized him across the way, he still frowned and glanced to Kepa.
"Yeah," Gideon sighed.
"Well, why don't you just manifest it?" Kepa wondered with a shrug.
"No, that's... That feels wrong, Lash gives me free-bees from time to time, but I mostly pay for my food, here," Gideon mumbled, he smiled and looked to be sliding out of his mild disappointment as gracefully as he could, "I'll live..."
"You could always manifest it the old-fashion way," Kepa shrugged with a cute, sneaky little smile, she glossed her intelligent gaze about the gorgeous confectionary and finally landed back to Gideon's curious, golden eyes, "It's not nearly as easy as doing it from your own coding, but, hey... Worth a shot."
"I'm no good at that kind of stuff," Gideon mumbled, Kepa stepped closer to Gideon and softened as more customers began to come into the shop and worm about the two, so to get in line and order their own cups of ice cream.
"I told you I'd mentor you, didn't I? First thing's first, remember what I told you... You have to believe it's already yours, you have to be grateful for what you already have," Kepa instructed, her big, nearly-orange colored eyes hooked tight into Gideon's with a swathe of rapid-fire information, "Your first mistake was giving negative words out into the atmosphere..."
"Negative words? I didn't," Gideon complained in gentle defense, Kepa grinned and side-eyed him with the twinkle of her beautiful, sharp fangs.
"If I DO recall, you barged into the shop saying... 'please DON'T be out'," Kepa cued, Gideon sagged his shoulders, rolled his eyes and firmly looked off in full defeat. Kepa erupted into sweet laughter and swat at Gideon's bigger arm, "You're already BEGGING for the universe to work against you! Really, this all needed to be premeditated, anyways, before we left the lighthouse."
"I'm supposed to think about the coffee ice cream that far in advance?" Gideon complained, Kepa shrugged.
"I mean, it helps if you've been positively marinating in good thoughts, the longer the better," Kepa's ears rested at an easy sag on either side of her head, her cute, choppy bangs dangled in her big, dewy gaze, the wetness of her cat nose lightly glistened with the warm house lights overhead, "The key is to say things like... 'I'm going to enjoy the coffee flavor ice cream today' or, 'they have the coffee ice cream in stock today'. Positive words, avoid the words no, or don't."
"... What if I do that and then it's not in stock anyways?" Gideon rushed, Kepa looked up and sighed.
"Then it truly wasn't meant to be today, and you can try again tomorrow," Kepa eased, she blurt a giggle as Gideon crossed his bigger arms and looked about in stewing contemplation, "It's not stuff you have to say out loud, either... Will your wants into existence by acting as if you already have it in the bag, be confident about the desires you have. You'll be blessed."
"You think you could work your magic on it, then?" Gideon mumbled, he cocked an eyebrow and gave Kepa a smile of friendly challenge, "Since you've seen me manifest the crap out of the things I want, why don't you show me what y'got, then."
"Alright..." Kepa nodded in nonchalant certainty, to which Gideon flinched and watched as she sweetly tucked her arms behind her back, perked her ears in curiosity and looked about the shop.
Although it was insanely brief, an easy toss of intuition she laid over the place, Gideon stiffened his spine a little and felt a tug of energy draw all stars aligned in Kepa's direction. Gideon furrowed his eyebrows and wondered if maybe he was just feeling the placebo of it all, and as Kepa confidently stood to full height and pressed herself to the ice cream counter, Gideon felt suddenly as if he was in the presence of a being far more powerful than him. Clearly having been in Arcade for a decade longer than him, Gideon sweetly tailed Kepa both physically and mentally, and it was here did he proudly come by her side at the base of the ice cream counter, said sweep of pride had him cutely smiling down to their bare feet. Although she began to politely rattle off her order to the employee behind the counter, Gideon eyed her in tenderness and was well aware she was already working her magic behind the scenes, well-kept secrets he knew she would never spill, secrets he had to keep his eyes peeled for lest they escape him entirely. Like catching shadows, he sagged into her lovely, haunting aura so full of rich warmth, so full of wild, childlike surprises, he stumbled on his words the second it was his turn to order his own bowl of ice cream. After a few minutes, both beings cutely began to scour for an empty table.
"Didn't you have coffee this morning?" Gideon wondered, taking note that Kepa had not only ordered herself a bowl of ice cream, but a frothy cup of steamy, creamy coffee to go with it.
"Yeah? And?" Kepa chirped in mild irritation as she lofted a sassy look over her shoulder; in the toss, her hefty tail thumped the side of Gideon's thigh, to which he almost stumbled.
"Ow," Gideon choked a laugh, he nervously slowed his roll and gave Kepa a little bit more space as she finally came to a table, stood at it and set her items down, "Damn, that thing packs a punch... I would've never guessed."
"Yeah, think of it like a third arm," Kepa smartly cautioned, "Instead of two arms for punching, I got three."
"... Don't pick fights with you, check," Gideon muttered, though before he sat down, he perked up, softened and smiled as he could see Lash lazily approaching.
"Yeah, this thing's got a nearly-eight foot reach, too, so I'd mind the business that pays me, if I were you," Kepa muttered as she looked down to her long tail over her shoulder.
"Hey dude, you bullying my employees again?" Lash argued playfully, Gideon sagged.
"No, what the hell," Gideon complained, Lash guffawed, wagged his hand and wrangled Gideon into a brotherly side hug.
"Just yankin' your chain. Y'brought your friend," Lash cued kindly as him and Kepa met eyes. With a swathe of politeness he had been honing ever since he had gotten together with Mara, Lash sweetly held his hand out to Kepa for a handshake, "My name's Lash, I'm glad Gideon brought you, welcome to my shop."
"Kepa," She kindly returned as the two shook hands. Her lovely eyes looked up and about the beautiful shop, full of life and alive with the smell of Sugar Rush, "Yeah, man, this shop is beautiful... Dangerous."
"Yeah, grab an apron and clock in to gain twenty pounds," Lash muttered as he firmly pat his lower stomach; all three friends laughed with each other as Lash gently swat Gideon's chest with the back of his hand and began to step away, "Y'guys sit and enjoy, I gotta go relieve Mara. She'll probably come hang with you guys, if that's cool."
"Yeah, of course," Gideon nodded, to which Lash pointed back at the two.
"It was nice to meet you, I'll come back and bug you guys in a bit," Lash called kindly, and as they issued each other temporary goodbye's, Gideon and Kepa finally sat down across from each other.
"So, tell me how you know him, again?" Kepa cued as Gideon picked up his spoon and began garnering himself a bite.
"He's my cousin's swap mate, Mara's my cousin," Gideon rushed before he took a bite of his toffee ice cream; all littered with toppings, he did what he could to get it as close to his favorite coffee flavor that was temporarily out.
"I see," Kepa bobbed a nod, she, too, began to garner herself a bite of ice cream from her own little bowl, "Well, thanks for bringing me... Been awhile since I had ice cream."
"'Course," Gideon chirped before he took a bite of his ice cream. He eventually swallowed and carried on as he twirled his spoon in Kepa's direction, "We don't have to come by every single day if you don't want, but this is just my routine."
"We can, I previously had no other reasons to be in the city," Kepa shrugged.
She flattened her ears and brought the ice cream to her wet little nose, and with a lap of her long, flat tongue, Gideon did whatever he could to not watch her so cutely sniffle at her food, habits she was doing whatever she could to minimize, especially in public. Nonetheless, she fixed her beautiful, narrowed gaze to the delicious glob of ice cream of her spoon and, in an unfortunate turn of cautious sniffling, she accidentally pushed her nose too close to the ice cream on her spoon and splayed it to her wet, black little nose. With a firm flinch, she pulled away from her chore and peered to Gideon in soft shock, ears perked at full mast. Gideon sharply choked on his ice cream and erupted into stifled laughter, to which Kepa's ears quickly flattened in whole embarrassment. She firmly lapped her long tongue to the whole of her wet nose and was successful in freeing herself of ice cream as gracefully as she could, though Gideon's laughter continued.
"Don't laugh at me," Kepa whined as she did what she could to stifle laughter, herself.
"It's just funny that you tried so hard to hide the fact that you were smelling your food, and it back-fired," Gideon's deeper, contagious laughter filled her heart with warmth. He grinned and continued to spoon up another bite of his own ice cream. He shook his head and cutely eyed what he was doing before he gently dug his sunny gaze into Kepa's embarrassed demeanor, "Y'know... You can be yourself around me. Novus smells my food all the time, I don't think it's weird."
"Thank you," Kepa chirped gently, almost in a dismissive way, and it was here did Gideon fully understand that said notion was a sore spot and he likely shouldn't prod any longer. He figured the more they got to know each other, she'd either open up about said sore spot or become more comfortable truly being herself. Although in a lull of mildly awkward silence, Kepa heaved a shaky sigh and relaxed in Gideon's non-judgmental presence, "Besides... I'd like to see YOU try and lick ice cream off of your nose."
"I can," Gideon urged in forced assuredness, and as he firmly splayed the tip of his nose with ice cream, with the backside of his spoon, he nearly went cross-eyed now doing whatever he could to desperately lick the ice cream off of his nose, very clearly failing at said task; with such a sight, Kepa was now the one to fully erupt into teary laughter.
"Hey, this is a no-fun zone," Mara firmly snapped as she came up to Gideon's right, in front of the empty seat at their four-seater table, and as Gideon firmly peered up to Mara with his tongue lightly stuck out of his mouth and ice cream splayed on his nose, Mara wildly furrowed her eyebrows and joined Kepa in a full show of hard laughter. Mara eased the widest grin as Gideon firmly rolled his eyes and now angrily swiped the ice cream off of his nose with the back of his hand. Kepa was now entirely lost in laughter with tears nearly streaming her face, to which Mara tried to speak through her intense giggling, "Uhh, do you two need to be left alone, then? Y'good, Gideon?"
"I'm FINE! It was her idea," Gideon loudly complained as he gestured to Kepa, to which she uncovered her face and desperately came up for air.
"I take full responsibility," Kepa's grin was as wide as could be, she sweetly held out her hand to Mara and also tried to reign in her heavy amount of giggling, "My name's Kepa."
"I'm Mara, I'm Gideon's cousin," Mara delivered through an equal amount of giggling, Gideon rolled his eyes and now begrudgingly continued to eat his ice cream. Mara firmly nudged Gidoen's shoulder after both girls shook hands, "Oh, stop pouting, it was funny."
"It WAS funny," Kepa urged cutely with a nod as Mara sat down next to Gideon.
"What have you two been up to today?" Mara questioned sweetly, she heaved a tired sigh and slumped into the seat next to Gideon with a full-show of making clear that she was now purposefully glueing herself to this seat and would not remove herself unless the building was on fire. In her true routine, she had a frosty, already half-finished iced coffee she continued to sip on.
"Just spruced up Kepa's home a bit more," Gideon bobbed a nod and tossed a smile in Kepa's direction as she took a few bites of her ice cream, this time fully-avoiding the urge to sniffle at it; Gideon was now certain this was because she was in front of a brand new stranger, being Mara. Gideon nodded and smiled into Mara's eyes, "It's comin' along. Got a proper bathroom installed, y'know. The works."
"Always good to have a bathroom," Mara rattled nonchalantly, she sipped her ice coffee, "Y'guys hit the beach? You look burnt."
"I do?" Gideon frowned, he furrowed his eyebrows and peered to his right, into Mara's icy eyes of which crawled all over his sun kissed cheeks.
"Yeah, you have cute little freckles under your eyes, too," Mara wrinkled her finger into Gideon's temple, to which he rolled his eyes and shrugged her arm away; she giggled into the straw of her iced coffee and peered her lovely gaze tight to Kepa's, "So Kepa, you got family in the city or anything?"
"No, I... I lost everyone in Castle Run's unplug," Kepa mumbled with an apologetic little smile and a downward toss of sorrowful eyes into her steamy coffee; Gideon stiffened, to which Mara's face sloped into full apology.
"Oh, I'm... I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have assumed you were from the current version of Castle Run plugged in," Mara rushed in genuine tenderness, of which Kepa cued to in the show of a gentle shake of her head and a loving smile.
"No, it's okay, honest mistake," Kepa sighed, she returned her gaze to her cup and picked up the spoon she had in her nearly-empty ice cream bowl, "I've been okay on my own. Gets lonely, and... I HAVE considered restarting a new life inside the new version of Castle Run, but... I'm just not ready."
"It's all good, I think giving yourself time to grieve is the best option," Mara so sweetly tended to Kepa's feelings, though Gideon furrowed his thicker brow and patiently watched as Kepa meticulously sagged her spoon into her steamy, untouched coffee and held both her clawed paws about the girth of the porcelain cup. Mara's gentle voice continued on, despite Kepa's silent concentration and Gideon's sneaky observing, "And, in the meantime, you have Gideon, and well... Now, us! Y'know?"
"Yeah, it's about time I start making some friends," Kepa sighed, she gave Mara a warm smile and eased every single last ounce of Arcade's warmth, every last byte of carefree rays of sunshine seemed to lazily ooze out of Kepa's being, and with tenderness, Kepa began to stir her coffee with slow, meticulous stirs, "I had been heavily dwelling on it, lately... Right in the peak of my loneliness is when I met Gideon, so I'm just taking it all one day at a time, y'know? I know not everything just happens for no reason."
"That's a good way to look at it," Mara stated through a sigh as she got a bit more comfortable in her chair, "It's always darkest before the dawn. Gideon's not had an easy go with making friends, anyhow, so, seems this new season of life has come about at just the right time."
"I agree," Kepa sighed with warm conclusion, and as Gideon meticulously counted the steady stirs Kepa's metal spoon delivered upon the coffee she was about to drink, she stopped at the ninth stir and lifted the spoon from her coffee.
With a steady deep breath and a lazy long-blink of seemingly bracing herself, she finally sagged the spoon back into her nearly-empty ice cream bowl and looked as if she was due to gripping her cup and taking a sip of her coffee, once and for all. Mara perked up in tender confusion as the bell to their shop cutely chimed with the entrance of a patron, though she pointed in delicate cuteness and narrowed her gaze. She gently nudged Gideon's shoulder and huffed a surprised chuckle.
"Oh, hey! After's must've gotten an extra shipment of your coffee ice cream, there, Gid," Mara chirped nonchalantly.
It was here did Gideon sit up a bit straighter, furrow his brow and watch as one of After's employees, the lone ice cream shop that sold out of Lash's and Mara's shop, came to the ice cream counter with a single box of product. The two, at the counter, began to cutely discuss said delivery, and after a moment, After's employee handed over the box of product, stated his farewell and left the shop. Lash's and Mara's employee then began to unload said product into the temporarily powered down ice cream machine, one of which was now up and running and ready to serve Gideon's favorite ice cream flavor shortly, here.
"Cool! Must've had left overs they weren't gunna use at their own shop, I'm sure Lash must've gotten the call just now," Mara shrugged, she nudged Gideon once more, and it was here did he sag his gaze deeper to said ice cream counter in shell-shocked stun, "That's... WILDLY unheard of. Go getchu a bowl, Gid! Hurry before it all sells, y'know?"
"What a coincidence," Kepa's soft and sweet little tone delivered in a prickle of dainty unawares, and as Gideon cocked an eyebrow, he held his breath and slowly dragged his bewildered eyes tight to hers; she raised her eyebrows, held her diamond pupils tight to his unwavering gaze and took a healthy, slow swig of her hot coffee, though not without sniffling the rim first.
