Song Listened To :

Nocturne by Daft Punk Tron Soundtrack(first half)

Winter by Joy Ngaiw (last half)


*Chapter 133*

"You still adamant that your coding is perfectly aligned, like you claim?" Lash's deep voice wondered, Gideon stood nearby in patient, nervous wait. The code room hovered about them like a hug of still, humming electricity, a black abyss, a gentle hand of authority. Lash's haunting, golden eyes peered down to his chore as he brought up Gideon's stats and collection of coding reserved and safe in Turbotime's code room. What usually was a gentle, coral orange of delicious bliss, being Lash's and Mara's conjoined code color, the boxes all hovered in a dim state of cerulean blue. This piqued Gideon's curiosity, though the realness of said exposure of stressors to come had him biting his tongue. Lash cheekily continued, "I'd be willing to put money on the fact that it's not."

"What information are you basing that off of? You stereotyping me as the lonely lost boy who clearly is wrought with mental illness, SURELY my stressors aren't even recognizable?" Gideon skillfully volleyed, so much so that Lash almost flinched and peered to Gideon with a gentle sting of realization. Lash was shocked at just how confident Gideon was in this venture, how sure he was to be right, even if he was secretly bluffing, and it was with this information did Lash now worry that Gideon likely was way more in tune than he gave him credit for. Gideon's tired glower of a handsome, rugged face tilted a subtle, cheeky nod in the direction of Lash's code box workings and cocked an eyebrow in a volley of authority he was beginning to crown nicely, "Go'head... Run 'em."

Lash held still and peered deep into Gideon's soulful eyes. Haunting gold that easily matched Lash's glowing fervor, it was here did Lash understand that Gideon was slipping. There was something about the look in his eye that was beginning to show signs of full blown jaded apathy, as if something dire could happen and Gideon could be seen shrugging and turning heel. Gideon took in a deep, raspy breath through his nose, the peak of his thick clavicles that sank into his powerful chest and shoulders exuded every ounce of Ralph's power, and then some. It was power that Lash was almost nervous to dip into, in this coded stressor session, and though he was very skillfully lofted with those very same powers, due to Ace's relation to Ralph, and Lash's combined coding with Ace's daughter, Lash still felt a gulp gather in the base of his throat at the sheer idea of his User powers now being totally rivaled by this incredible anomaly that was Gideon's raw ability to manifest quite literally anything at will. Eager to dive in and nose about, to see just what made Gideon tick, was also the very thing reserving him from even doing such. He wanted to flesh this all out, though doing so made Lash feel as if he'd rip a hole in time and space, and what would come spilling out would be unhinged, wrecking destruction in the name of vengeance and grief.

"Just allow your coding to settle," Lash tenderly instructed, and as he cued his beautiful, warm colored coding and stepped closer to Gideon, he could see Gideon want to visibly recoil and retreat from Lash's press. He moved slower than what he felt he should, and as the two held eyes in a string of hot and cold, Lash cautiously presented Gideon with dry facts, "I'm going to place my hand on one of the stressors on your hip bones, and my other hand into one of the ones on your jugular. Is that okay with you?"

Gideon bobbed a nod, held his breath and almost now felt eager about this situation, he very quickly recalled the instances where he was able to adopt Nox's invisibility powers, something he still kept close to the vest to this day. As Lash pressed in, Gideon felt harrowing, intrusive thoughts plague the back of his brain. The urge to slip Lash's incredible User powers right from under him, to now have the ultimate bounty of manifestation powers so beautifully paired with the unlimited plethora of power right at his own finger tips, Gideon held his breath and could hardly wait. Though, as Lash's warm hands sagged to Gideon's skin and both boys connected in a platonic exterior swap, Gideon was proverbially smacked with the one, singular thing that could bring him to his knees, the one singular thing that tamed his secretively villainous heart, that nagging thing called love that Flint had warned about. Gideon sagged and felt the urge to explode into sorrowful, disastrous weeping surge through his veins, and though he certainly didn't physically reveal such, he was well aware Lash was cued in.

Gideon closed his eyes and hovered in Lash's patient, close presence. Gideon grit his teeth and battled with himself, the feel of Lash's insanely powerful User coding now delicately sourcing all fourteen of his stressors, the whole of it was as if Gideon's two hands were desperately trying to grasp at every single last pixel. One hand was kindly welcoming Lash in with gifts of light, tenderness and love, though the other hand was coat in black, toxic goo and was desperate to trap it and use it for Gideon's own sick and twisted version of the greater good. Gideon desperately did whatever he could to reign all of this in whilst Lash began his skillful coded work, though Gideon sucked in a shaky breath as his own coding was somehow successful in wrangling Lash's coding into a death grip, the venomous hand that Gideon was sure didn't have the whole strength to do so. In the act of Gideon's coding now feverishly trying to rewrite and download a copy of Lash's powers, Gideon gasped a startled noise as Lash suddenly yanked his hands away from Gideon, took a hefty step or two backwards and eagerly jarred his precious coding out from Gideon's suddenly devious tendencies.

"The hell, man!" Lash yelled in solid, terrified authority. Gideon hiccuped a gasp of a breath and now felt slapped with hot reality, the tender hearted aspect of his loving personality now realized just how awful, devious and non consensual his actions were just about to exhibit. This was even further realized with the stark, sudden show of a vivid minty glow from Lash's eyes, proof that Lash was now suddenly extremely worried in a heightened way. Lash gripped his wrists in nervous fidgeting, cued his coding and assessed his glowing palms for affirmation before he sent a hot orange glower tight into Gideon's now nervous, apologetic gaze, "What were you just trying to do to me!"

"N-no, nothing, I was just..." Gideon staggered nervously, suddenly every single inch of venomous, delightfully sinful thoughts vanished clear from his being. Gideon desperately peered into Lash's eyes in full apology, "I-I was just trying to see how it felt to be a User, just stand in it, is all."

Lash sharply side-eyed Gideon, what solid trust both men had built for each other was now something Gideon was terrified to see waning, right before his very eyes. Guilt immediately plagued Gideon's fragile heart, he took a thud of a step away from Lash, thus broadening their gap, though as he pressed into Lash's full eyesight, once and for all, Lash sloped in whole shock and eyed Gideon's figure. As if sat in a separate reality, he was absolutely mind blown to see every single one of Gideon's stressors were entirely aligned, just as Gideon predicted. Not a single stressor was glowing brighter or dimmer than the other, everything showed a tried and true scale of near-perfection, and as Lash huffed a confused falter of a breath and covered his mouth, Gideon shyly peered down to his body, lifted his shirt a little and got a good look at the product of his incredible coding. It was here did Gideon even furrow his brow in shocked confusion, as if his big words were merely bluffs, and now that he had somehow briefly manifested that wish into a reality, he hovered in full shock as both men peered tight into each other's eyes, wrought with a million different emotions.

"I've never felt something like that before," Lash darkly muttered, he shook his head and continued to slowly and nervously rub his wrists and the backs of his hands, as if Gideon's coding was so delightfully laced with thorns, "I-I only ever felt that way when Mara and I swapped codes... The rewriting of coding, the copying and downloading of each other's information. That kind of a transfer isn't possible outside of a genuine, full-on code swap. The hell were you up to, just then?"

"Truly, I just wanted to see how it would feel," Gideon nervously expressed, "That's something you can accomplish in an exterior swap, the temporary exchange of powers, as if it is a code swap..."

"Yeah, but that's a proper give and take, there are so many coded doors that have to consensually fly open, and STAY open, in order for something like that to be successful," Lash skillfully rattled, "Y-You just... Bypassed so many doors, and trust me... As a User? Mine are made of steel, ten feet thick."

"I meant no harm," Gideon nervously begged, though he looked back down at his aligned stressors and now felt as if he was worth a million bucks, as if the problem, all along, truly wasn't him. He furrowed his brow in contemplation and peered tight into Lash's eyes, "I was just... Bluffing. I wasn't actually confident my stressors were aligned, like this."

"Trust me, I KNEW you were bluffing, but this is..." Lash shook his head and slowly began to circle Gideon, and though he opened his mouth to continue speaking, he froze in hot surprise and fervently took note of one glaring issue. The stressor between Gideon's shoulder blades was glowing, though it was the dimmest, angriest red Lash had ever seen. Lash froze and felt incredible dread gloss over him, the urge to dive in and desperately help reverse the severe damage on this one stressor was now battling with the idea of ever tangling with Gideon's coding ever again for the sheer idea that his powers would be sucked out from him in seconds flat. Lash scoffed a shaky chuckle of irony and shook his head, "Uh... Y-Your trust-fall stressor is entirely unaligned, bud."

"It is?" Gideon staggered nervously as he sharply looked over his shoulder, and though he couldn't see said stressor, due to it being between his shoulder blades, he could trust that what Lash was saying was definitely true, simply by the look on his face, "Well... Wh-what does that mean?"

"This is... Unfortunately something I'm going to need a night or two to do some research on," Lash sighed regretfully, and though that was mostly true, he also knew he had to somehow make a game plan, a way to help Gideon all while keeping his untamed, angry coding at bay. Lash now understood that maybe Gideon did have good intentions for what almost took place, though his coding certainly did not. The fact that everything is nearly so perfectly aligned had Lash's head swimming. He shook his head and gingerly pressed into Gideon's bubble with a renewed show of warmth, he placed a brotherly hand to Gideon's right shoulder and drew in loving eye contact, "Look... There's a guest studio in the arena's ground floor, it overlooks the courtyard, it's really peaceful and quiet. I want you to stay there for at least tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Gideon mumbled with a nod.

"The band are all heading out tomorrow morning on tour, so it'll be pretty dead around here... Guess this gives you an opportunity to maybe even bring Kepa around, maybe you need a new environment to be in, kind of reset your mind," Lash gently explained, "I spoke with Mara about this, earlier this morning, but we might also be having Beaux stay in the guest studio across from the one I'll be putting you in."

"Beaux?" Gideon prod gently, a soul to mirror Mara's, her twin brother, he tried not to feel too guilty for not spending enough time with his great nephew, but now was glad to have the opportunity.

"Yeah, he's... He's going through some tough times, I'm sure he could fill you in on it all," Lash heaved a long, tired sigh, it was becoming obvious to Gideon that Lash and crew were seemingly becoming a safe spot for lost souls, "Gideon, what just happened scared the shit out of me, I mean, really. I'm a User, for crying out loud, and that... Wasn't cool."

"Dude, I'm really sorry, truly," Gideon pleaded, his deep voice almost shook, it was clear to Lash that he was genuinely sorry for what had happened, "I was just curious."

"I was entrusted these powers, bud... Let's get ALL your stressors on board before we can begin to even tempt the idea of sharing coding and powers through an exterior swap," Lash pressed cautiously, and though he was now segueing into gentle banter filled with loving smiles and tenderness, it was very obvious that Gideon had likely hacked at a decent portion of trust between the two. Guilt began to plague him, he felt the urge to hang his head and wallow for weeks, he was somehow excited to hull away in the ground floor of this glorious arena and get his mind right. Lash squeezed Gideon's shoulder, once more, and garnered a swing of brotherly eye contact, "You need to have some time alone, maybe chat with Beaux and lean on him, too. Both you boys are going through similar things, believe it or not."

"Really?" Gideon prod with a twinge of gentle hope, Lash nodded and lulled his eyes closed in impending exhaustion.

"I'm going to do some research on how to better help you, and your unaligned stressor... We can reconvene with this in a few days," Lash patiently revealed, knowing full well his brief telling of research was actually a very heavy act of garnering Sugar Rush's heads and Users for likely the hugest pow-wow of the century. Lash was grateful to see Gideon's shoulders sag with finalized relief as Lash delivered a gentle conclusion, "For now, let's go hang with the crew and have some dinner... It's time you're treated to a proper hang out."