Reviews :
Burgie : Thank you! It's been fun deploying the MASS of cat knowledge I have lol. Once what I thought was useless, is actually now coming in handy! Who woulda thunk. Much like Gideon, I've been studying cats, both big and small, since I was in elementary school, I adore cats. The only reason I added the scene with Kepa's nose to the ice cream was because one time, as a child, our cat Peanut was sniffing my ice cream and she accidentally got her little nose onto it, and she like bounced away and was so startled because it was so cold. It was the cutest thing ever, and I never forgot it. I've been littering this story with all sorts of things from my childhood into it, it's been a nice release for me, even though a lot of it is really difficult, painful shadow work.
Song Listened To :
NDA by Billie Eilish - I hate this song so much but I can't stop listening to it. Gave good vibe for the last half of the chapter.
*Chapter 77*
"Coincidence," Gideon spat cutely, they both flinched as Novus grumbled an excited noise and urgently lurched forward and away from him and Kepa, so to chase a few seagulls that were pecking the sand near the base of the light house's tower. Gideon crossed his arms and watched as Kepa twirled in a slow little mosey of shy contentment, her tail cutely curled into a bend of a few spirals up into her spine, a loose little lasso of continued cheekiness she played well. Gideon blurt a laugh and watched as she nonchalantly fumbled for the key in her pocket and began to unlock the front door of their lovely light house, "C'mon. You and I both know there's no such thing as coincidences."
"Do I know that?" Kepa's cute, snarky voice rolled from her voice in teasing confidence as she unlocked the hefty front door and slowly opened it. The sun had begun to set in Turbotime, and though said rays of sun were lost amongst the height of Juniper Forest's massive, lovely jungle-like trees, the tippy-top of their gorgeous light house got the full blast of hot orange. Gideon largely rolled his eyes, his pupils tightened as his eyes drew to said splay of hot sunshine, though Kepa giggled and stood in the gape of the open door way, "You're not the only one with tricks, my guy."
"... Did you seriously manifest my favorite flavor of ice cream into the shop?" Gideon asked tenderly, he narrowed his gaze to further prove his seriousness, though pushed the envelope and side-eyed her in full stillness.
"Gideon, I don't need to say yes in order to have you believe in magic... You're an artist, you surely understand creating is simply manipulating energy, whether that be tangible, on your end, or metaphysical, on my end," Kepa's voice dipped to match Gideon's serious softness, something that never really sprung up between both friends. Usually loud and full of banter, their conversations didn't usually take a dip into this depth of tenderness for long. Kepa clearly looked uncomfortable with said tenderness with the way she stiffly shoved her hands into the gape of her baggy zip-up's side pockets. She flattened her big cat ears, looked off and shifted on her pawed-feet. Her lovely tail swayed with said shift, to which she eventually slumped her left arm, shoulder and side into the opened door frame. She looked down to her feet and scuffed the sand with her scary, intimidating claws with her left foot, "I've been reluctant to test my powers as of late, but... I truly thought I had lost touch with myself until I saw you come over the break of forest the day you found my light house... I don't know..."
Gideon stayed still and gently hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his thick, tattered cotton shorts, of which kissed his knees. He peered to Kepa's figure in a swathe of understanding, and though it was entirely clear to him that she had a world of words sitting on her chest, just begging to be spilled and picked up by an equally as understanding soul, Gideon held his breath and patiently waited for the minute she gave it up and allowed herself to be vulnerable. Knowing they were still mildly strangers, and this was a fast and fun friendship, she eked a different vibe that Gideon couldn't quite put his finger on. Naive with socializing, anxious in settings where it meant cooperating with another being and their feelings, he held his breath and hoped to User he didn't look like a total deer in headlights. He frowned as Kepa shook her head and finally gave Gideon a bittersweet smile.
"I believed again," Kepa's voice just barely clipped above the crashing waves just beyond their vicinity, waves that Novus now began to haphazardly romp in due to finding more seagulls to chase. Kepa eased a giggle and removed her hands form her jacket. She aimlessly opened her hands, an adorable reveal of the padding and toe beans on her clawed finger tips, "I promised myself I'd remain stone and just let you do your thing, but... The day you cried on my shoulder..."
"Yeah, not... My proudest moment," Gideon muttered, he shyly rubbed the back of his head and looked off as Kepa grinned and shook her head.
"My heart went out to you, Gideon, I've been in your position before," Kepa gently assured as they caught eyes, "I almost blew my secret right then and there, I felt so awful that someone had made you so sad... Someone so willing to give. I willed goodness, and you showed up to turn my whole world upside down. The least I can do is put some good juju out into the world and get you your damn ice cream."
Gideon blurt a shaky chuckle, though he furrowed his brow in a pang of gentle sorrow and looked down to Kepa's little hands as well, an aimless little show of potential self-soothe she was deploying on herself, as if giving Gideon eye contact in this conversation was difficult.
"...I wish you'd finally just tell me who this Callum jerk is so I can sharpen my claws and prepare for battle," Kepa stabbed with a snarky little grin and a wrinkle of her cat nose; Gideon stiffened and choked a happy laugh outwards, to which they were both all smiles.
"He's not important..." Gideon shook his head and began to feel himself want to unravel. With strict grappling, he held himself together and began to now feel the tug of vulnerability want to eat him alive. Now in a weird mess of wanting Kepa to be herself to him, he felt the sting and was well aware that'd mean giving her the same thing in return. Not ready to divulge on his Sugar Rush secrets and royal roots, he urgently did what he could to find the brakes on this conversation. Feeling whiplash from previously being desperate to accelerate into vulnerable territory, he inhaled a shaky breath and gave her a nonchalant smile, "He's an older cousin of mine that didn't treat me well as a child, but... I'm over it, it's not a big deal."
"You sure? Cause, we're friends now, I won't just take this shit lying down," Kepa argued with cheeky fervor, Gideon gently waggled his bigger hand in guffawing dismissal.
"Truly, it's no biggie, we hardly cross paths anymore," Gideon tenderly fibbed; he was well aware they did still cross paths, and the wounds between them were very much still raw, he did whatever he could to come across as aloof. Desperate to sneak past Kepa's insanely sharp intuition, he was well aware he only just barely got her off of his scent, and if successful at all, he was also well aware it was only temporary. Happy to have bought time to really conjure up a solid story to feed her and close the conversation for good, he heaved a satisfied sigh and looked up at the sky in an attempt to swing the topic away from him, "Why don't we finish the tower of the lighthouse for good tomorrow. I can rebuild the inside however you see fit, and... You can give me more lessons on the law of attraction. Cause, what you did today was absolutely wild. You manipulated that whole situation with nothing but a few stirs of your coffee."
"It took much more than just some simple stirs," Kepa muttered cutely as she looked off and shrugged, "Sure, that sounds good... To be honest with you, I'm kind of nervous to reveal to you what I'd genuinely like at the base of the tower."
"What? Why?" Gideon prod, he furrowed his brows and broadened his grin as Kepa shook her head and looked to her palms, once more, "C'mon, tell me. I won't make fun of you."
"No, no... I'm going to write that list, like you told me, and... We can just figure it out tomorrow," Kepa stated through a sigh as she put her hands back into the gape of her jacket pockets.
"Why don't you just text it to me?" Gideon rattled nonchalantly, though as the words left his mouth, he grinned as Kepa pursed her lips and looked down in sheepish worry, "Right... You don't have a phone. Why don't we get you one tomorrow?"
"What? Get me one?" Kepa wondered in gentle seriousness, Gideon shrugged.
"Yeah, we can go into town tomorrow and I'll get you a phone," Gideon smiled, he rolled his eyes and looked off, "Look, I can manifest you a phone, but I can't manifest the service that would come with it. No way around it."
"Y-You've... TRULY done enough, Gideon, I mean really," Kepa assured in a full swing of humble apology, to which Gideon grinned in incredulous cuteness and shook his head.
"No, I want you to have a phone, who else am I going to bug at three in the morning?" Gideon firmly rattled, to which Kepa flinched in cute surprise and ushered a shaky giggle.
"Guess it'd be me, considering I'm awake then, anyways," Kepa mumbled as she gently shook her head.
"I thought you turn to stone?" Gideon wondered, he tilted his head and smiled in soft concern, "You got that big bed, now, you sure you don't want me leaving you alone for the next twenty four hours?"
"Hmm? Oh, no," Kepa flagged her hand, sagged her ears in soft regret and looked off, "I... I'm not really sure when I'll ever be comfortable genuinely sleeping, again, it's gunna take a lot of getting used to. Today was a lot..."
"Well... Good thing it's there for you when you find it to be the right time, then," Gideon mumbled in happy warmth, Kepa's eyes curiously caught with him in a swing of her now further-dilated pupils, almost round in shape. It was here did Gideon see the catch of glimmering, nearly-holographic green on the backs of her big, beautiful eyes, the reflective properties her cat eyes were made up of as Turbotime's sun began to sink further down the horizon line to make way for dusk. Striking characteristics, Gideon nearly lost his way with his statement, he swallowed hard and looked off to avoid staring. Although he was firm about eye contact, there was something here, in the little embers of divine secrecy in Kepa's presence, that strangely made his air ways swell, "Is there anything I can do to make the lighthouse feel more secure? Is it just because you maybe don't feel safe enough yet?"
"No, you..." Kepa started her statement in the middle of a breath, concluded said words with a sigh that ran away from her, slumped her arm to her thigh and breathed a shaky chuckle as her long, beautiful, heavy tail thumped the ground behind her in mild exhaustion, "You've genuinely done more than enough, but thank you. This all happened so fast and is so much. I know I'll get to a point of being able to truly sleep, eventually, I just... I need to digest all of this. Last night I was pacing a musty bedroom that had wood rot, and now, it's like a room straight from a faraway palace."
Gideon clenched his teeth in his jaw and could somehow feel the weight of Sugar Rush's whole entire outlet glaring down the back of his head, in this instance. Although he wanted to assure Kepa that all of his inspiration most definitely came from the very architecture and homey ideals the palace was laced with, every single last breath of life Tessa and crew had meticulously pieced together, once upon a time, very easily showed in Gideon's work. It was here did he start to itch, as if to feel annoyed, like Sugar Rush was so engrained into his being that even so much as running away and attempting to exist on his own wasn't enough to fully get away from it, like he wanted. Knowing he'd go home and stew, he stuffed it for now and heavily looked forward to tomorrow; another fun-filled day with his new friend, in town.
"It'll come. You'll probably wonder if I'd died, and you'll just find me sleeping somewhere," Kepa giggled and ran her fingers through her bangs, clawless, "In which... I beg you, don't wake me."
"I wouldn't dream of it," Gideon choked a laugh and gave her an already exasperated look of plea, "You said you haven't genuinely slept in years? Yeah, I'd leave you be, you have my word."
"Thanks," Kepa sighed with a small smile as she looked down to her hands and sighed, "Well... Thanks for taking me into the city today. Lash and Mara are really cool."
"They're pretty great," Gideon smiled as he put his hands on his hips and looked off in the direction of the ocean. Although Novus had calmed down, he begun lightly digging in the sand, potentially looking for more crabs, "Tomorrow should be interesting... Y'ever had a phone before?"
"Never, we weren't allowed to have them at the palace," Kepa sighed as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, Gideon furrowed his brow in cheeky surprise, "You'd be shocked just how little we were allowed to."
"I want to hear all about it," Gideon chuckled nervously, Kepa grinned and looked off in curt apprehension.
"Y'better bring a helmet, then, it gets rough," Kepa urged through an exasperated chuckle, to which Gideon began to look nervous.
"You're worrying me," Gideon grunted, Kepa swat the air in dismissal and smiled.
"Eh, just culture shock, I'll tell you all about it tomorrow," Kepa assured, and though Gideon desperately wanted to welcome himself inside and stay in this peculiar, fascinating creature's presence all night long, he knew he should probably scoot home before his and even Novus's parents started to worry.
"I'll be back in the morning," Gideon reminded kindly as he began to step away, in the direction of Novus, "Sleep well, if you potentially cave. That's a California King I've set you up with, I'll be surprised if you don't at least lay in it."
"... THAT I might do, who knows," Kepa shrugged cutely, and as she gave Gideon a little wave and a sweet smile of pure gratitude, Gideon finally turned heel, mounted Novus's spine and was off.
Novus's gorgeous pelt, however striking it was in the day, also seriously aided him in the night sky. The dark hues of blues and browns in his pelt nearly melted against the evening sky, the only thing being seen was the gradient to a creamy white that his tail was crowned in. Looking as if he was a shooting star in the night sky, his figure eventually soared over the tops of Juniper's tallest trees and was gone for good. Kepa nervously sagged back into her gorgeous light house, and though her eyes gently trailed Gideon's lovely artwork, to her right, they also met with the little stairwell it hung near. Nervous to head upstairs, face her demons, have a proper shower and the tease of the potential of a good nights sleep, she cautiously began to saunter upstairs, curious just where the catch was.
Having parted from Novus in the palace's gorgeous courtyard, Gideon shivered and felt Sugar Rush's winter desperately want to set in. Although he was set to heading home, he instructed the drop off in the courtyard, the entrance to the racer's corridors, so he could easily gain access to the palace's main hub of a kitchen. Having already had a big day full of a very heavy, real amount of manifesting, he felt his coding wiggle in overuse. As if he had just run a marathon, he could begin to feel his fingers twitch a little bit, as if to further signify the idea of overuse. Gideon heaved a long, heavy sigh as he pushed into the racer's corridor, a circular hallway that swooped in a never-ending donut-like shape about the code room, he quietly passed by Taffyta's and Rancis's home. He meanly eyed the front door, well aware that Callum still lived there. Eager to head into the palace's kitchen, he was keen to the idea that his father had a secret stash of goodies in one of the kitchen cabinets. Usually way too high and out of reach from nearly everyone on palace grounds, Gideon sneakily smirked and knew there were only two beings on palace grounds that were taller than him; said two beings were Oliver and his own father.
Fully aware he could just manifest his own goodies for the night, head home and feel the weight of over-manifesting, he grit his teeth and knew that was likely unwise, especially with the sheer amount of lighthouse manifestations ahead of him. Wanting to see just what his father's stash held this week, he inhaled a steady breath and proudly pressed into the dim kitchen area, not thinking about the potential consequences. Having pushed too far into the light already, he grit his teeth in sharp annoyance and, in the swing of his eyes meeting with the small group at the main kitchen island nearest him, all five beings, in this group, tossed their eyes in Gideon's direction and smiled in almost nervous curtness. Gideon sucked in a silent breath, silently cursed himself out for not assessing the room first and begrudgingly pressed into the group of people he really didn't want to be talking to, right now, with this level of exhaustion he was sagged in. Tessa, Zed, Oliver, Koko and Penny all warmly ushered him tender greetings, having lazily sagged out of their softer conversing.
"There he is," Penny mumbled cutely, Zed tilted his head up in a boyish, subtle greeting and was glad to catch Gideon in a small smile and a swing of proper eye contact.
"... User, I can't even remember the last time I saw you, dude, where've you been?" Koko wondered sweetly; although Gideon came closer with the intent of nosing in the cabinets, he slowed his roll and approached with caution.
"We're not cool enough to sit with, at Academy," Oliver muttered, although a loving and teasing notion, Gideon felt nothing but thorns.
"Hey, guys," Gideon's deep voice ushered as he scanned the group; each individual peered up to him in almost hurt, smiling apology, everyone except Tessa. Gideon double-took on her eyes and felt the hit of understanding between both souls. It was in this grip of eye contact, the stern, still look of full, Queenly confidence that held tight to her near-expressionless face, the lace of her bigger fingers underneath her chin, she held a lithe air of all-knowing understanding, and as she narrowed her striking, haunting, hazel gaze, Gideon felt his heart thud in pure fear, pure understanding that she knew exactly what he had been up to lately. Like a lioness in a tight-lip, proverbial power walk of every intention to eventually strike, Gideon felt chills spill down his spine. Knowing this somehow had to be her sharp intuition, he figured Lash hadn't have ratted him out, lest Tessa be climbing all over Gideon's figure right in this instance. Gideon swallowed hard, desperately peeled his eyes from Tessa's authoritative grip and reached for a nearby cabinet's handle, "I think I'm the one that's not cool enough."
"C'mon, dude," Penny muttered in smiling annoyance as she crossed her arms, though she furrowed her brow and caught on to Tessa's suddenly heavy aura, still and latched onto Gideon's soul like a predator to prey.
"It's okay, I relate," Tessa stated with an easy sigh, although she sagged and gave the very convincing illusion that she had dropped Gideon from her radar, her eyes still kept tight to his, as if to now telepathically warn him that she was well aware his secrets and it was only a matter of time before she closed in on him, whether that be publicly or privately, "I can't eat with you guys anymore, either."
"Probably for the better, love," Zed's deep voice assured, he pulled out his phone and tabbed to a few code room checks; Gideon peered hard into the full cabinet and could tell that somehow, both the King and Queen were immediately suspicious, immediately on to him. Without anyone seeing, he sharply clenched his teeth, silently scolded himself for making his presence known, for putting himself back on the radar. He quickly noticed his dad's stash, at the back of this specific, high cabinet and began to claw at it, as if anything inside of it was good enough to snatch and escape this group's sticky, thorny aura. Gidoen pulled from the freezer after grabbing a bag of one of Ralph's few things of skittles, a limited edition Sugar Rush had recently put out. Although Zed looked at his phone nonchalantly, he knew this very casual air, about the group, was a very clever front, "Y'enjoying Academy, bud?"
"Yeah, it's... Very similar to Pre-A," Gideon shrugged; although he had no clue if that was true or not, he felt his stomach drop the second Penny wildly furrowed her eyebrows and looked up in whole confusion.
"... Seriously? Callum swears up and down Pre-A was far easier, far more lax," Penny tightly rattled, to which Gideon began to feel entirely out of his element; typically the master at conjuring up notions and imagining various worlds and scenarios, the ability to snake about people's surfaced intuition like a galactic snake through higher planes of existing, his coding wiggled in a shake of exhaustion and now cutely promised him that he was all out of juice for the day.
"What teachers do you have, Gid?" Koko urged sweetly. Of the group, she seemed to be the most naive about it all, as if maybe she had caught on to everyone else's aura but maybe didn't quite know why everyone was now dancing around Gideon like he was a land mine, "I don't even think I've seen you in passing... I really hope you're making new friends."
"Yeah, I've made a friend," Gideon assured with a nod, truth that his exhausted soul could afford, he desperately rode off of that energy, being simply that he was now mentally and emotionally running on fumes. Although Kepa wasn't someone he had met at Academy, he still fervently hung onto the one raw truth he had to stand on, the sole fact that she was honestly his friend.
"Really?" Oliver tested, everyone's tones was molten hot, baited, hovering suspicion so sweetly laced in light hearted nonchalance. Oliver narrowed his eyes and side-eyed Gideon with a smile of brotherly challenge, "What's his name?"
"... Well, uh, HER name is Kepa," Gideon snipped, grateful to still be riding off of the truth, though he gripped the bag of candy he had come for and began to take a few steps away, to insinuate that he was due to very eagerly seeing himself out.
"Oooo, SHE!" Koko cooed in sweet, girly excitement as she clapped her hands together quietly, "What's she like? Gideon, you should really bring her around and sit with us at lunch."
"Already making nice with the ladies," Zed muttered sweetly; although he, too, seemed suspicious, he was the only one that held onto a genuinely sweet swathe of welcome, as if to truly understand that anything different was what was pushing Gideon away, clearly.
"It's not like that," Gideon choked a shaky, almost mean laugh and did whatever he could to give as little information as he absolutely could. Feeling now fervently protective of Kepa, the light house, his escapades outside of Sugar Rush, he now adamantly removed himself, turned his back and waved a little as he only barely tossed his gaze over his shoulder, "See'yah, guys."
"... I'm telling dad that you stole his last bag of skittles," Koko called in girly tease, to which Gideon darkly rolled his eyes and looked ahead, the direction opposite of the group at the island.
"Save it, it's not like I don't live with the guy, or anything," Gideon muttered, and although he wasn't too loud and proud about his parting notions, he was well aware the group behind him likely heard said snippy words of departure.
Leaving a wake of raw, nervous silence behind him, Gideon's tall, masculine figure confidently left the palace's hub with a very sticky air of proverbial black messages on the palace's pristine, white walls. Messages promising the group he'd be more careful next time to not include himself, a very venomous trail of spite and bitterness hung on Gideon's energetic wake of now becoming-still air, it was here did Tessa finally exhale a shaky breath through her nose. A breath of full irritation, she glowered down the now empty, gaping corridor in which Gideon had vanished down, and as the palace's main teleport hub buzzed with his final departure, Penny slowly turned to peer to the side of Tessa's face. In the stillness of everyone's confused silence, Penny finally broke the upset tension.
"... He's not attending anymore, is he," Penny muttered, to which Oliver largely rolled his eyes, slumped his chin in his much bigger hand, in whole defeat, and caught eyes with Koko's very sorrowful, nervous disposition.
"No," Tessa's voice muttered in deep, still irritation; Zed grit his teeth a little and looked down to his phone in pure apprehension, the silence in Tessa's voice made her anger very loud and clear, "He's not."
"... Well, then, who's Kepa?" Koko worried, Penny heaved a long sigh and, although the group stole glances between each other, Tessa was the only one to hold her stern eyes to the corridor Gideon was previously inside of.
"Probably made up," Oliver grunted in irritation, he ruffled his hair and desperately tried to bounce back, "I mean, that's what he's best at, yeah? Just making shit up?"
"It's more than just making shit up, Ol," Zed mumbled in deflated defeat, as if to very adamantly remain neutral in whatever situation he was in, though even he found it hard to find solid ground in Gideon's camp.
"Guess we'll never know," Penny sighed, and though Tessa didn't verbally agree or disagree, the billowing sparkles of embers, in her eyes, made clear to the group that she was due to rising from her secretive slumber and eventually get to the bottom of Gideon's sneaking-off adventures.
