Reviews :
Burgie : Aww, well thank you for checking in on me! I'm wondering if all the uploading I did, with the Saga Collection, made people upset and not want to tune in. I'm used to sort of being abandoned and forgotten about so it's okay, I do feel bad for exploding people's inboxes. I hope the people that are still keeping up are still enjoying the story, such as yourself. I really appreciate it.
Song Listened To :
So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth (Art Mix) by Grimes
*Chapter 117*
Callum's barren bedroom echoed his grunt of a struggle, he lugged a small box tight into his chest and allowed his shoes to scuff the tiles underfoot. He raised his eyebrows in a gentle swing of almost nostalgic sadness and peered about his dim, empty childhood bedroom. Although he was remaining on palace grounds, he was happy his parents were on board with him having his own home. Stationed on the opposite end of the palace lot from Tessa's and Zed's new tower abode, Callum got the spire furthest away from the King and Queen's home. Although there was a humble spire nearly a hundred feet from Tessa's and Zed's home, spires that reigned higher over the lot, including the code room, he was glad to be removed enough. Understanding that he had ruffled feathers, due to slicing Gideon a week back, he knew now was the time to keep his eyes down and stay out of everyone's sights, for now. In the rush of wanting to stay home and sag into familiarity, he was excited to have his own home, a space to exist and to grow, a space to call his own in the hopes of potentially making friends, hosting house parties, and the possibility of new love due to attending Academy. He lurched in a final kiss of a goodbye to his bedroom and silently stepped out into the hall, though within doing so, he heard his father's and Turbo's deep voices from the kitchen, their tones had drawn into seriousness, a palpable air of worry that had Callum halting his movement so to eavesdrop.
"I don't know when the next time I'll be able to really sit down with Lash, and I gotta run outta here within the next twenty minutes for rehearsal, but... I figured it'd be better to allow palace side in on the nonsense," Turbo's voice cautioned, Rancis grunted and got comfortable in the kitchen, Callum could also hear his mother moving about, the only four beings inside Rancis's and Taffyta's home currently being them two, Turbo and Callum, though Callum now tried to piece together just when Turbo had arrived.
"When is it appropriate to get Tessa and Zed involved?" Rancis worried, Turbo shook his head and shrugged, as if to show nonchalance.
"I don't think it's THAT serious, we're leaning towards the whole thing being one massive coincidence, but..." Turbo looked off and narrowed his gaze in aimless searching, "Lash didn't personally know Vye, he's told us that he only briefly met her, once upon a time. Lash was best friends with Aroq, until it came time for Lash to turn me in. We don't know Aroq's relationship with Vye..."
"Did Lash get a good look at her? Was there any instance where Lash had better views of her than the whole world did of the very terrible footage caught of her for Game Over?" Rancis grumbled in searching, "For User's sake, we got every single angle of her incredible game play, in Game Over, but for some reason, could never get her face..."
"Except her glowing blue eyes," Taffyta chimed in, her tone was that of dull dismay.
"No, he never got a solid look at her, I've never been to the dark web, but Lash said it's... Not to be cheesy about the whole of it, but I guess the areas where he visited were, indeed, dark," Turbo choked a small laugh and adjusted the coat over his broad shoulders, as well as his zipper, "The lore of it is that... Vye never put down what game she was from, on her application. There'd be no way to really find out if she was from Castle Run, but... It's suspicious, the way she looks, the shape of her face, the design of her, as a whole, is very much... Castle Run."
"Do we know her entire name? Does it sound very 'Castle Run'-esque?" Taffyta wondered.
"Vye Ketton," Turbo grumbled, he eyed Rancis through the dull of yellow-matte eyes, he almost held his breath, "Vyekindra Nanuko Ketton."
"And... Kepa's?" Rancis droned nervously, though it was here did Callum raise his eyebrows in a prickle of shock and lean deeper into the wall he was cementing himself to.
"Kepa Sezeke Ketton," Turbo volleyed, the group audibly sagged into silent grumbles of sighs.
"It's either the hugest coincidence in Arcade, or..." Rancis muttered, "Has Lash been able to scrounge up any information from Kepa's coding? Or, even by hanging out with her?"
"No, her coding comes up clean, she's just a pure-bred, three-ability lion gargoyle from Castle Run. Unfortunately for anyone, your coding doesn't have a counter for how many siblings you have," Turbo concluded gently, "It's strictly something we'd have to take her word on."
"That's not information she's ever given, is it?" Taffyta pressed quietly, Rancis choked a chuckle.
"It's probably stuff she's told Gideon, but like hell he'd ever divulge to US, especially after..." Rancis rolled his eyes and gestured to the hallway in which Callum had vanished down, and though Callum didn't have a visual of the three beings in the kitchen, he still furrowed his brow in dismay and looked off in full understanding of what his father was referring to.
"Can't imagine the insult to insinuate that your new girlfriend is sisters with an absolute nightmare of a legend," Taffyta muttered, Turbo eased a chuckle in her direction and bobbed a nod of agreeing.
"Lash has done a billion scans on her coding, User powers and all, the only way we'd get answers is if we had our hands on Vye's coding," Turbo stated in a downswing of regret, "Names line up, physique almost lines up..."
"Lion gargoyles don't have glowing eyes though, right?" Taffyta volleyed, "And, if I do recall, from watching all the footage of Vye, her tail isn't nearly as cat-like as Kepa's would be. She doesn't look like a lion gargoyle at all."
"Tatum told us that dragon gargoyles, in Castle Run, have glowing eyes like that," Turbo bobbed a nod, having been around Tatum and Theo daily due to their band and living situation, "Even Tatum is stumped. She's a weird mixture of a few things, I think, if she WERE to be from Castle Run."
"But even then, this is all speculation," Taffyta argued, "You know how many countless games there are on the internet? How many Arcades across the WORLD that have Wifi?"
"That's why I'm thinking it's probably just one massive coincidence," Turbo assured, though Rancis narrowed his gaze.
"Why, then, would Vye be helping Aroq get rid of self-programmed gamers, starting with Litwak's?" Rancis darkly wondered, everyone fell silent, "Castle Run's original version was plugged into Litwak's..."
"Why would Vye want self-programmed gamers to be extinguished if she, herself, was one?" Taffyta urged, "If she has siblings..."
"I mean, I have siblings and I'm a User-made gamer," Turbo politely retort, Taffyta looked down in thwarted contemplation.
"True," She mumbled.
"I think... I'm glad Lash and Mara are in so good with Gideon and Kepa," Rancis mumbled, "Sucks that he's holding everyone else at arm's length."
"He seems to think we don't care about him or his artwork, or that he was left out or something," Taffyta mumbled nervously, "Vanellope and I have only briefly chat about it, but... I can't get too deep into that topic because she gets pretty defensive of him."
"He's the youngest, you know how that goes," Rancis stated quietly, to which Callum now lulled his eyes closed in annoyance.
"I mean... Berri's the youngest, and she doesn't ever worry about these kinds of things," Turbo retort, Taffyta grinned and rolled her eyes.
"Loverboy, that babe has millions of screaming fans that ADORE her, a baddy-husband that stole the show and a whole clan of misfits at the luxurious Thunderbird Arena," Taffyta tightly rattled as Rancis began to laugh, "That girl has all the attention she could ever want. Her mother and father are King and Queen... Shall I go on?"
"Gideon, on the other hand," Rancis tried to reign in his laughter, "He's just... Hard to be around. One wrong move and it's like... He can see right through your soul, and refuses to forgive any mishaps."
"Berri and I aren't allowed to hang out with him and Kepa, so... I really wouldn't know," Turbo mumbled with a smile that proved he wasn't offended.
"Wait, why?" Taffyta said with a lilt of offense.
"Because, he's... He's trying to keep his identity as Sugar Rush royalty under wraps," Turbo stated in an almost annoyed tone, "Kepa's already met Mara, and now even Koko... If she meets Berri, and discovers our music and that Berri is Sugar Rush's future Queen, surely the poor girl is gunna connect the dots that... Gideon is a Prince."
"Why is he going to such lengths?" Taffyta stated again with a bit more feverish offense in her voice.
"He's punishing us, that's all this is," Rancis grunted in full annoyance as he rolled his eyes, "He's only letting in those who he deems worthy, those that won't blow his cover. Poor girl's in for a rude awakening, the sheer cliffside Gideon is sitting atop trying to pretend it's a mole hill."
"Yeah, Koko and Nox are hanging out with them, currently," Turbo heaved a long sigh and shook his head, "Would be cool if more of us could worm our way in and maybe try and uncover answers. I don't think Kepa is a threat to anyone, from what Lash says, Kepa has no entire idea who Vye even is."
"She told Lash that?" Rancis volleyed.
"She told Gideon that," Turbo corrected.
"Well, of COURSE she's going to feed the man she's with that spoonful of info. If it were true, he'd probably run for the hills," Taffyta urged with a hard giggle.
"I don't know," Turbo raised his eyebrows and looked off, "Gideon's not technically happy, palace-side."
"...You're saying that if Gideon discovered that Kepa knew Vye, that Gideon would be OKAY with Vye's desire to wipe out all self-programmed gamers? Including himself?" Rancis's voice lilted sarcastically.
"Is Kepa User-made?" Taffyta inquired.
"No, she's self-programmed," Turbo mumbled.
"Even worse!" Rancis barked, he trailed it with an incredulous laugh, "Hi! I'm interested in you, my sister is a self-programmed gamer who weirdly wants our kind dead."
"Yeah, it doesn't check-out," Turbo rubbed the back of his head and heaved a long, tired sigh, "Well... Figured I'd come over and give you this nugget of info. I don't think we need to drag Tessa and Zed into it, cause... I know Tessa and Gideon have a fragile relationship, she's really the only one, palace-side, that's in good with him, so if that relationship crumples, there's really not much emotional connection Gideon would have to ANY of us, y'know?"
"We should at least try, you guys," Taffyta mumbled in gentle authority, Rancis sighed and shook his head.
"How do you try to make nice with a guy that won't lift grudges?" Rancis wondered, "On top of that, ask him the billions of questions we have? It'd take the work of an intellectual god, I mean, truly. A madman."
Callum held his breath and aimlessly peered down the hallway he was stationed at. His father's words rung loud and clear in his ears, and though he felt the weight of the universe bow at such an incredible task placed before him, he cocked an eyebrow and looked back at his childhood bedroom. Now feeling as if this new chapter opened, one of moving out and being able to have a further swathe of privacy, somehow was now going to aid him in this silent task Rancis had unknowingly given him. Though deep in his heart he truly wanted to gift Gideon genuine brotherhood, he rode off of the desire to get answers, first and foremost. He inhaled a deep breath, stiffened with the chore laid over his heart, lugged the box a bit deeper into his chest and wondered just how the hell he was going to win this uphill battle of not only apologizing to Gideon for last week, but then turning the tables and making nice with him. Daunting to say the least, he lulled his eyes closed with the countdown to reanimate with purpose and knew this was all for the greater good, for the safety of Sugar Rush, to arrive a winner with no gamer-powers, for the selfish desire to be a hero with nothing but the weight of cunning intellect and gumption.
