Reviews :
Snake557 : she's pretty great!!! Ora's a sweetie, her and Gideon have a cute bond.
*Chapter 161*
"No, mom, I didn't suspect anything happening, he acted like how he normally does, he never even SPOKE of Gideon," Wren stabbed in heightened, flurried irritation, to which Penny shot him a bit of a look as if to sternly request to not take such a hurried, angry tone with their mother.
"Ralph won't even look at me," Rancis croaked, the family of now four sat on Rancis and Taffyta's home balcony, a gathering that they dread. Though the sun was setting, it was hidden behind thick, late winter clouds, instead of the threat of snow, it was clear spring was shortly on its way with welcomed, impending rain showers. Rancis and Taffyta looked haggard with dread, Rancis dragged his exhausted gaze in a gloss about his sat family and landed on Wren. The palace had continued to take hits, two men that were priceless, kin they couldn't imagine living without now torn from them in ways that could've been prevented. Rancis caught with Wren's gaze, the unfortunate, abrupt cancellation of their tour, due to all of this, had fans left in prickled, confused concern, though the band, on top of everyone else, was frozen in despair. Rancis continued on, though his tone was dry, he squeezed a grimace of full remorse, "I can't bear this separation anymore... I can't bear being treated like a criminal, here."
"As much as this sucks, as much as I love and miss my baby brother," Wren started through a croak of impending tears he had been nicely avoiding, until now. Taffyta scoffed a noise of grief and shoved her face into her hands, her shoulders began to tremble as she silently wept, to which Penny sighed a teary sigh and rubbed her mother's upper back. Wren rubbed his nose and collected himself, though his voice crackled, "If what Tessa and crew are saying is true, and he soared through Pre-A bullying Gideon and leaving him out, only to pull this wild reversal and garner his trust to THIS massive extent... He had to have said some pretty damn good things to get Gideon into his corner THIS hard, which is fucked up... A hard pill to swallow."
"You think they're working together?" Penny wondered nervously, Wren shrugged.
"Anytime I hung out with Callum, ALL he ever wanted to discuss was sword fighting, which I am all about, don't get me wrong," Wren narrowed his gaze and shrugged, "There has to be something said for it... He constantly gravitated towards his own special interests, he constantly bragged about not needing powers to be great, it was boastful. Gideon's special interest was humble, he was just existing, he was confident in himself. Callum spoke over people about his special interests... As if he couldn't get a word in, ever, but always was successful with it anyways."
"It's not our fault Ralph and Vanellope have wicked-awesome gamer abilities and we have nothing!" Taffyta's suddenly erupted, as if this has been a silent, potential strain for a long time, though now due to this predicament, its been magnified tenfold. Everyone nearly leapt clear out of their skin due to her outburst, though Penny firmly gripped her shoulder and shook her head, "It's not OUR fault Callum decided to push Gideon into this nonsense-"
"It IS your fault!" Wren suddenly erupted, and though Taffyta deflated, Rancis grit his teeth and began to look angry as Wren pointed to the two and carried on, "It's your guys fault for neglecting him, it's Ralph's and Vanellope's fault for neglecting Gideon. It's usually the middle children that get overlooked but do you SEE the common denominator here? Both Callum and Gideon are the babies of this palace... Even worse for Callum, he's powerless! Gideon at least has these INCREDIBLE powers to rely on."
"Powers don't make you a man," Rancis growled, a notion that hit Wren in a weird sideswipe of a compliment and an insult, due to garnering telekinesis powers upon his code swap with Throttle, Wren glowered his father down.
"I'm fortunate enough to have an understanding from both angles... I always felt incredibly left out, the heirs of the palace have all the good shit, and at NO fault of yours or our own, we didn't have powers," Wren tightly rattled as he held his fingers up, as if to firmly instruct that he wasn't done speaking, "It is INCREDIBLY isolating. They bounce off in a glitch-hop, they can see their coding, experience exterior swaps at ease, they live in a world above us and it sucks being on the outskirts of. We want to sit here and think Gideon was seen and purposefully left out, left and right? Callum was included and then ignored! What's worse?!"
The whole group fell silent and peered to Wren in nervous understanding, the raw fact that both boys were neglected in one way or another, he pointed his finger firmly to the ground and glowered his family down in full frustration.
"NONE of us kids asked to be here, none of us should have to ask for attention, you don't go into parenthood with the idea that you'll just 'do your best'," Wren sharply stabbed, he nearly snarled with the feverish frustration that currently was his life, the loss of his own brother, the loss of his baby cousin, the loss of the rest of his tour, he nearly glowed hot red, "You go into parenthood KNOWING you WILL make mistakes... And owning them! Look your children in the eye and apologize for it! Don't sit here and tell me that none of this is your fault. It absolutely is your fault! Your children are your responsibility! YOU made the loading bar!"
"Wren Edward," Rancis stabbed sharply, Wren clenched his fists and now freely allowed tears to fall as he challenged his father in a stiffer stand.
"And you KNOW I'm right!" Wren's booming voice glossed the palace's grassy lot below, Rancis flinched as Wren stepped closer, "We just had a massive conversation with Kepa's father, not an hour ago... A man that has been in and out of the section of the dark web the Game Over Arena is in. Callum's going to approach those walls and be shot on sight unless granted special access, you can't imagine this makes him a hero. There's NO way you just were okay with him waltzing his happy ass to the internet with no idea what having a death wish means."
"I've already given Zed all the information he needed in my trial," Rancis muttered darkly, Wren narrowed his gaze and shook his head.
"So what about us? You just leaving out information? You neglect Callum to the point where he runs away with his own insecurities and you HELP him to it for no-ass reason?" Wren uttered loudly, to which Rancis squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
"Both men made their own decisions," Rancis muttered in defeat, though this only riled Wren further.
"Of which you and Ralph inadvertently allowed to spread like wild fire!" Wren hollered, no one was now courageous enough to reign Wren in as he bravely got in Rancis's face, "Our baby brother is missing because his sorrows went ignored and unchecked, Tessa's baby brother is missing because his sorrows went ignored and unchecked... My siblings aren't my responsibility... Sure, I have an obligation to check in and make sure we're all staying afloat, but whose job is it to guide and to nurture?"
Rancis was silent as Taffyta continued to quietly weep into her hands, to which Penny remained stiff with her own pour of tears as she rubbed Taffyta's upper back. Rancis glanced to them in trembling regret and finally revisited his defeated gaze into Wren's.
"The adults that chose to give life to said sad and ignored individuals," Wren hissed, "Ralph and Vanellope aren't free of this. None of you are... Sure, everyone played some sort of a part, we get caught up in our own lives, having to relate to wildly different children you have no hand in rearing is uncomfy and foreign, but Sugar Rush will answer for this MASSIVE misstep... Sugar Rush bred two incredibly powerful individuals who are now happily traipsing the dark web. THE DARK WEB!"
"I KNOW, Wren, I know," Rancis bellowed in an eruption of frustration and tears as he wildly gestured to his chest and shook his head, "We fucked up, okay? All those times I went sword fighting with Callum, I never felt the need to ask if he was insecure about it, or anything else, he never brought it up. I understand I could've dug deeper, I understand I could've been more emotionally present, I get that!"
"It only took him and Gideon vanishing to see, huh," Wren whispered meanly, Rancis's lip quivered as he looked off in glowering frustration. Wren shook his head and tossed his eyes to Taffyta and Penny in the decline of wanting to be in this mess, "The Schweetz are all fighting, Tessa quit her job at Arcadia Academy, everyone hates each other for what the OTHER person has done, or hasn't done, to make Gideon's and Callum's destiny sealed... No one is owning up and taking responsibility. The faster we can all get together and make clear just how wildly we all fucked up, the faster we can grieve and move on. The faster more loading bars can crop up, the faster more innocent children can be emotionally neglected."
"Leave, Wren," Penny stabbed firmly through the trail of a teary whimper.
"I'm glad I can have these examples," Wren muttered as he took a step backwards and was prepared to leave. He knew these venomous words were due to heightened anger, though he shook with fervent truth that spilled out of him, "Gideon and Callum would've known not to follow bad examples had they had some attention, some shining, good examples that eclipsed it. I won't be making the same mistake with my own children."
"I said GET OUT!" Penny suddenly screamed as she flagged her arm and pointed to the balcony's gaping door, to which Wren put his hands up and swiftly left in a huff.
Rancis's deadened, teary eyes peered out to the grassy lot in full regret. How far he had come to rid bad examples from his own coding, to rebuild with Taffyta, to earn Ralph's and Vanellope's trust, all of it was so swiftly down the toilet. He felt awful keeping Callum's true reasons for leaving from his family, though he grimaced and understood he couldn't possibly bear the truth of it all. The raw idea that he allowed Callum to waltz out of his life with the promise of potentially bringing Gideon back to overthrow Sugar Rush, somehow the sick notions of Callum's grandeur fueled the raw, unchecked insecurities so deeply buried inside Rancis that the second he was pulled into Callum's gravity was the second he turned his back on the palace and wondered just what would also be in it for him. Siding with a beast like Gideon, a beast that won Game Over, was the wisest move to do, lest Gideon return with said vengeance he had promised. Rancis rubbed his forehead in confused, terrified remorse and wondered how he could ever show his face around the palace any longer.
"I-I'm moving out," Rancis whimpered as he rubbed his forehead and caught with Penny's teary, tender eye contact. Rancis croaked a nervous noise and shook his head, "Your mother and I have talked it through, love..."
"Y-You guys aren't..." Penny uttered warily as she pointed between Taffyta and Rancis, to which Rancis heaved a long, hot sigh of full dread through his nose and squeezed his eyes shut in the hurt he was about to continue delivering onto his shattered family.
"It'll be a temporary separation, but... Yes," Rancis uttered tearfully as Taffyta continued to sob, "I'm... Not well. I can't possibly continue day in day out, my presence brings everyone nothing but bitter disgust."
"Mom," Penny whined tearfully, to which she finally lifted her face and inhaled a stuffed-up sniffle and a wary nod.
"It's what's best while the dust settles," Taffyta cried quietly, Penny looked back and forth between her parents and shook her head in full despair.
"Y-You guys aren't gunna divorce, are you? You can't split, you need each other," Penny began to unravel, "Wren and I need you guys, c'mon, please... Please don't say it."
"We're not divorcing, your father is just getting distance," Taffyta whimpered as Rancis heaved a trembling sigh and stepped closer to the two most precious women in his life.
"Dad, you don't have to punish yourself like this, Wren was just angry," Penny pleaded, Rancis shook his head and sighed.
"No, Wren is right," Rancis huffed with remorse, "The palace has severely dropped the ball. Gideon was begging for help... Had we heard Gideon's cries and adhered to it, Callum's issues would've surfaced with it... They're gone because we didn't say anything when we saw something."
"Please don't leave," Penny whimpered in terror, to which Rancis sat down next to Taffyta and reached into their bubble to grip Penny's hands.
"I'm going to stay in Sugar Rush, we've arranged for you and Orph to stay with your mother, now that your trip around Dead Zed is over with," Rancis gently instructed as he gave his eldest daughter's hands a solid squeeze, "I'll be nearby, you guys can come to me... I just can't be in and out of palace grounds, enduring Ralph's looks of rage, his glowers of pain that I couldn't even begin to understand, I need to grieve in a way that doesn't fuel my anger, in return. I have to separate..."
"When will you come back to the palace? Mom, should you go WITH dad?" Penny urged, to which Taffyta shrugged and eyed Rancis in a swing of contemplation.
"We considered, I have some loose ends to tie with Vanellope, I think it'll help the split not feel so jarring if I hang back for a few weeks," Taffyta staggered through her crying, "I don't know when this wound will be healed... Hopefully one day, but I can't see that happening anytime soon. It'd take a whole miracle, the universe would literally have to dump a ten-ton bomb of fairy dust."
"Space, breathing room, I'm grid-locked to Sugar Rush anyways, my title as Zed's right hand man is on a temporary hold," Rancis whispered nasally as he aimlessly looked off, "Absolutely nothing is going to change, right now. I can see Ralph and I having a level-headed conversation once we've both been given enough time to process this shit show."
"Where's your new home? Have you told Ralph or Vanellope yet?" Penny worried, Rancis shook his head.
"It's on the outskirts of Orion City, closest to the palace, it's about a ten minute drive from here," Rancis answered as he inhaled a shaky breath, "And, no... Ralph and Vanellope won't know, they'll likely find out through the grape vine. I can't bear looking Ralph in the face, I just can't. I can't imagine the black void of pain he's fallen into, we lost our son in the hopes that maybe one day he'll be back, but... Competing in Game Over? That's a colossal amount of pain I can't begin to understand. I can't bring myself to look him in the face..."
"Looking back and being reminded of all the things you could've done to prevent all of this, is..." Penny grimaced and rubbed her face in teary dread for the loss of her little brother, "I-I can't see light at the end of the tunnel. I just can't."
"No one can, there is no light," Rancis muttered, he heaved a trembling sigh and glanced to Taffyta, "Unless that ten-ton bomb of fairy dust actually comes through, it's... Gunna be a long, dark tunnel for awhile."
