Reviews :
Snake557 : Yeah, Callum... I want to openly say he means well but it'd be half-hearted. In some strange, sick and twisted way, he genuinely does mean well. Kinda hard to see through. And, as for the deleted files, it wasn't anything detrimental to the integrity of the game, nor does it affect game days, but that wasn't the last you'll hear about it.
Burgie : She's full of good advice! The issue is getting Gideon to fully hear/trust it lol
Song Listened To :
When the Party's Over by Billie Eilish
-WARNING- This chapter briefly mentions drug usage.
*Chapter 141*
"Was the party really that awful?" Rancis's deep voice croaked into his phone, his equally as raspy, croaky sigh eased from the back of his throat as he sagged his elbows to the rim of his blackened balcony edge, the lookout over palace's still, snowy night scape.
"It wasn't bad, I just..." Vanellope started quietly, her meandering footsteps could be heard crunching snow up to her's and Ralph's front patio. She approached her empty home, having just come from a girl's night in Orion City, she had left the hang out early. With Ralph out with Zed, Ace and Oliver, Vanellope opened her front door with a croak and invited herself in to her warm, dim home as she carried on to Rancis with the tuck of her phone between her shoulder and her cheek, "My mind is elsewhere. I can hardly concentrate on anything anymore..."
"...Gideon?" Rancis mumbled knowingly; said girl's night included Taffyta, which meant he was also home alone.
"Gideon," Vanellope whispered in a sigh of defeat as she schlepped her shoes and heavy winter coat into their dark mudroom, she cued her purple coding and adhered to the thermostat on the wall, so to turn the heat up. She shivered a little, her teeth chattered into the phone as she cutely carried on, "Ralph told me all about Lash's impromptu meeting, this morning. I might need to have a little chat with him, to be honest."
"Wait, why? Talk with Lash?" Rancis dryly wondered, he brought his lit cigarette to his mouth and took a silent inhale, an occasional smoke he allowed himself on dark, cold Sugar Rush nights.
"Yeah, I mean, he really thinks Gideon is a threat to everything and everyone?" Vanellope rattled in nonchalant irritation, she slowed her footsteps into the divergent between their front foyer, the main room and the corridor that lead to her home's bedrooms. Her eyes scanned her dark, still surroundings with sagging hope, "Not my baby."
"Van, I'm with Zed every single day, I can see the stress and toll Gideon is putting on the heads of the game," Rancis darkly grumbled, he exhaled a long stream of white smoke, bigger and fuller due to said hot air being spilled into near-frigid temperatures, "I think, as parents, we're certain our children can do no wrong, will never turn against us and slash back. Generational cycles have to start and end somewhere."
Vanellope was quiet. Rancis lulled his eyes closed in mild regret and knew, in this statement, he likely hurt Vanellope's feelings, though with their closeness, with the warmth in their friendship, Rancis could tell that Vanellope was methodically mulling over his words and discovering it all from every angle. He glossed his gaze across palace grounds with a knowing air about the two, the line was prickled with continued silence, though Rancis knew she was there, eager to obtain anything else he'd have to say.
"It's safe to say our childhoods were filled with ease, we had a blast... The fiasco that Lash caused, as King Candy, has obviously given him horrid trauma, his villainous arc into greatness is a rollercoaster in of itself, but... I know for a fact the toll it paid on your well being, Vanellope," Rancis mumbled into the phone, he was thrilled Vanellope only sighed and remained silent for his loving voice to bridge the gap, "Lash banished you, he sickly wanted you out of the picture... Sure, he was operating on protecting Turbo and wanting the spotlight for himself, at all costs, but I know that psychological damage has stuck with you. You were hated, you were left out, you were different, you were entirely misunderstood... Who does that remind you of?"
Vanellope's now teary eyes stabbed across her home in hot knowing and felt now entirely exposed, raw and scared. She huffed a gentle, silent hiccup of a cry and shook her head in full, dreaded realization. She opened her mouth and bravely uttered the name this all ended with.
"Gideon."
Rancis bobbed a single nod, tucked his dwindling cigarette to his mouth and tried not to ease a smile of twisted, dark irony, a dreaded show of sarcasm he knew was the only thing carrying him through this harrowing hover over limbo.
"Gideon Fox Von Schweetz," Rancis warmly concluded, "Generational trauma. Maybe Tessa got hit with something different, in you, the fight for what's right. Maybe Oliver got his quiet, moody nature from Ralph, maybe Koko feels the need to keep a happy facade knowing at least someone's gotta do it, and maybe all masking stopped short right at Gideon... He doesn't know the meaning of masking his problems, he's desperate to be unapologetically himself and take us all down with the ship."
"What about you?" Vanellope whipsered in a trembling croak as she composed herself, she wiped her cheeks and shook her head, "Penny, Wren and Callum are..."
"You can erase Callum from whatever the hell compliments you were just gunna say, babe," Rancis grunted with a nervous laugh, he shook his head and looked down, "Poor kid is like looking in a mirror... Somehow, both of our youngest babies got dumped with our own generational trauma."
"You?" Vanelllope prod in confusion; although she knew Callum to be wildly unpredictable, she had a hard time finding Rancis in that mess.
"Callum shows desperation to feel important," Rancis muttered, "No matter what Taffyta and I do, no matter what Penny and Wren say, I can see my own desire to be in the spotlight deep in Callum's eyes."
"I've never taken you for that kind of a person, Ranc," Vanellope whispered with a nasally giggle as she slumped her side against a nearby wall in her home, she crossed her arms and aimlessly looked off.
"I am," Rancis admitted quietly with a nod, he lulled his eyes closed and felt his heart begin to pound with uncertainty, "You remember that dreaded New Year's Ball..."
Vanellope felt her pupils tighten as she looked up, her skin prickled in uncertainty, she opened her mouth to say something though Rancis smoothly filled in the blanks.
"Sure, I was messily merged with Turbo's and Lash's mesh of shelled coding, we were keeping each other alive, but the desire to feel important has never left me," Rancis mumbled in regret, "Vanellope... You were the Queen of Sugar Rush. You ran off with Wreck-It Ralph, as much as us three tried to keep the guy at bay, he wormed his way right into your heart with little to no effort, just honey-brown eyes and bear hugs galore."
Vanellope felt her face get hot in full confusion, she shook her head and allowed a youthful little smile to peak through her plump, pink lips, she wiped her cheeks free of tears and felt the urge to laugh brim at the back of her throat, though she only barely squeaked an incredulous giggle.
"Rancis, what are you saying?" Vanellope murmured.
"I never admitted it to you because it wasn't relevant, I never admitted it to you because Vanilla Lake swallowed me, and by the time I got back, you and Ralph had up and swapped codes and I finally had headspace," Rancis muttered darkly, he looked down to his dwindling cigarette and felt a warm smile of nostalgia crown his face, "It's all feelings in the past, and this is nothing I would keep from Ralph or Taffyta, but... There was a long season of time where I was in love with you."
Vanellope scoffed a little noise of disbelief and stiffened to a full stand of confusion, she looked about and gestured her hand in cute curiosity.
"...Rancis, you KNOW you're talking to me, Vanellope, right?" She giggled, she shook her head and shrugged, "I'm not Taffyta. Wrong girl."
"I know, trust me, feels weird saying it," Rancis laughed cutely, "Years and years have swallowed the feeling, I wouldn't say it was fleeting, and I obviously am incredibly happy with Taffyta... Between the four of us, we have like two hundred children. I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad, nor to confuse you or even say that I feel that way anymore. I'm telling you this to hopefully help you understand Callum a little bit, and in turn... Gideon."
"How does this pertain to both boys?" Vanellope prod, her hands shook, she rubbed her forehead and had a huge inkling that Rancis had always felt the way he did, though actually hearing the words come from him, once and for all, felt like the final seal on a closed book.
"I was desperate to feel important, to you. I was desperate to be important to Sugar Rush. Between me, Turbo and Lash, we did everything we could to keep Ralph at bay for our own selfish reasons, and... Mine was because I loved you, different from the way I love you now, obviously," Rancis seemed cool and nonchalant about this conversation, reassuring Vanellope that these feelings that Rancis had were entirely long-gone, "Our lives played out just exactly how they should, and I wouldn't go back and change anything, but... Just understand, that's unresolved trauma and behaviors Callum's coding somehow grabbed onto. There was a season of time where I had gone nuts, all I wanted was Sugar Rush's reign, with you at my side. It was all I ever thought about... Was to feel important to the masses."
Vanellope sagged once more and now felt nervous to reach into the depths of her own heart, to really source just why Gideon was acting the way he was. She lulled her teary eyes closed and heaved a long, dreaded sigh through her nose as Rancis's darkened, raspy voice carried on in her ear.
"Did you ever feel angry? Did you ever want vengeance for being so aggressively banished?" Rancis almost whispered, Vanellope reopened her teary eyes as a spill of chills plagued her, "You did whatever you could to make the best of your own situation, but... If there's anyone who understands being left out by literally everyone important to you, it's... You."
Vanellope huffed a grimace of a silent cry and tucked the back of her hand to her mouth, so to compose herself, though failed. She eventually sagged and covered her face with her palm, in full regret.
"...Gideon needs you," Rancis grumbled warmly, "I'm doing my best to do a work on Callum's heart, but... These boys are exposing us beyond belief. Every day I look at Callum and see the shattered mirror of my own self. Vanellope, I hate to say it, but you and Ralph are doing everything in your power to be blind to it, and I fear that if we all don't work together, it's going to be our detriment. Lash nearly had all of us in a headlock, this morning..."
"I know, I know," Vanellope whispered as she wiped her tears, she inhaled a deep breath and bobbed a nod.
"Tessa may be Queen, but you need to understand that you're her predecessor... You hold a significant amount of power over Tessa and Zed, even still, you and Ralph," Rancis complimented warmly, "What's the one thing you would've wanted in your banishment? Before you met Ralph? What's ONE thing you would've killed for?"
"Understanding," Vanellope whimpered, "A hug, a smile... Conversation."
"I know Gideon has temporarily moved out, but... Give him those things, give him everything you needed when you were hurting," Rancis wisely eased into their phone call, to which Vanellope bobbed a nod of listening and hugged her rib cage in a squeeze, with one of her arms, "I'm around Turbo often, and with that, I see Lash quite a bit... I've never seen him so angry, even when we were all one weird configuring of brain coding. He meant business, and currently, the people who know Gideon best are Lash and Kepa."
"Kepa," Vanellope whispered in bittersweet regret, "I wish we could meet her..."
"No, you don't wish that," Rancis grunted, "Not right now, anyways..."
"Whynot?" Vanellope questioned.
"Whose side do you think she's on? A fire breathing she-beast prepared to fight tooth and claw for Gideon's well being?" Rancis erupted into cute laughter, "You raise boys to find women that'll be their number one... To find women that will hold places in their hearts above their own mother. Kepa is that woman, Kepa wouldn't take prisoners. I hear she's extremely protective of Gideon... Which tells me, you've done well to parent Gideon. I just think we all need to push it a bit further and seal this all with a bit bigger of a helping of love."
Just as Vanellope opened her mouth to politely reply to Rancis, her purple coding zipped about in a fit of startled confusion as she stiffened and peered her scared eyes down the corridor of bedrooms, in her home. Her ears immediately picked up on the sound of Gideon erupting into a coughing fit inside of his darkened bedroom, at the end of the hallway. Vanellope felt her heart immediately pump fast in full confusion, though she gripped her phone and listened to Gideon's gentle coughing carry on, now assuring to Vanellope that Gideon had likely come home to potentially collect some things from his childhood bedroom in preparation to move in to his new, temporary abode. Vanellope began to step down the hall, she whispered into her phone.
"I-I think Gideon's here, actually," Vanellope muttered, and as she got closer to Gideon's bedroom, she could see one of his much dimmer bedroom light shine through the crack of the door, hung open just barely.
"Oh, really?" Rancis prod with a gentle layer of happiness, "Good... This will be a good opportunity to really talk with him and hopefully settle this."
"Wish me luck," Vanellope mumbled nervously, though as she scuffed her heels to a stop, she looked down to the tiles beneath her and allowed a warm, nostalgic smile to sprawl her face, "Thank you, Rancis... For opening up, like that. I'm sure that wasn't easy."
"It wasn't, I've been trying to find the right time to get that off of my chest," Rancis blurt a chuckle, "I love you. That has never changed, it never will. I'm proud of all of us, we persevered and made beautiful lives for ourselves, with beautiful children... It's now our job to see it through, smoothly."
"You're right," Vanellope sighed, "I couldn't do any of this without you and Taff... Truly."
"The feeling's mutual," Rancis gently assured, "Go chat with Gideon. Let me know how it goes, surely this will put everyone at ease."
"Here's hoping," Vanellope stated as she brushed her bangs aside and pressed closer to Gideon's bedroom, "I'll text you, okay?"
"Sounds good," Rancis mumbled with a smile, "Bye, Van."
"See yah, Ranc," Vanellope concluded, and as they ended their phone call, she gently sagged her phone into her pocket, politely cracked Gideon's bedroom door open a little and took a wary, shy peek inside.
She flinched as she took note that Gideon was laid across the width of his bed, at the foot of it, almost haphazardly. He looked to be asleep, though Vanellope stiffened a little and took note that his dresser was lined with a few beer bottles, his wallet and a few other questionable items hung about his dresser and nightstand, as well, though as she got closer, she stiffened in shock and noticed a few little colorful tabs next to his phone. Said colorful tabs had cute, tiny little pixel-like pictures on them, and though Vanellope had never been interested or keen on hallucinogenics of any kind, she knew for certain what it all looked like, as well as it's effects, though as her horrified eyes drew to Gideon's figure, she felt her heart drop clear to her core in full, mortified dread. She felt time stop, the room was suddenly frozen cold, she scrambled for words or ideas or movement, though her confused coding somehow lost connection to her nervous system, thus eradicating even the idea of getting her limbs to work. Grateful Gideon was at least home and in good hands, she sucked in a trembling breath through her teeth and fell into the motion of approaching her son in preparation for the rather nasty task of hopefully getting Gideon to cooperate his way out of a coded drug trip.
