Reviews :
Snake557 : Yeahhh Callum is unfortunately the one unhinged at this point... We haven't seen the last of him.
Burgie : Yes! The story, from here on out, is all wishful thinking and manifesting on my part... I wish I had a tight knit unit of a family like this, where wrong-doings were properly owned up to and needs were met. Alas, life isn't fair.
Song Listened To :
Child by CHPTRS
*Chapter 184*
Yet another jolt awake of pure, adrenaline pumping terror, Gideon lurched to a firm, upright sit and uttered a loud, messy yell of indecipherable fear. Although not nearly as horrific as yesterday morning, Gideon sharply squeezed his eyes open and shut, haphazardly scoot firmly into the pillows at the head of his section of the bed and slammed his back into the code room's sturdy wall. Visions of pooled lava firmly blobbed in and out of Gideon's eyesight, and even though this all was horrific and said visuals desperately tried to soak his brain in hallucinations, he sharply shook his head and was mostly successful at reassuring his mind that this wasn't real. Even still, he quickly panted through his nose, he was grateful Oliver was a light sleeper, he was the first one to jolt into the action of laying his bigger hand firmly to Gideon's broad chest in a scurry of an upright sit next to Gideon, on their massive shared bed.
"Easy, hey, you're okay, you're okay," Oliver sleepily rushed, having suggested Gideon sleep on the outside edge of said massive sleep space, next to his puke bucket in case of an accident, Oliver also made clear that due to being such a light sleeper, being the one to sleep next to Gideon was wise; this was further solidified proof due to his very worries now unfolding, once more. Gideon's chest heaved as he firmly stabbed his terrified eyes hard into Oliver's, and though both men were jarred from sleep, they were stiff with action that held into frozen readiness, save for Gideon's heavy panting. Oliver shook his head and allowed his voice to shush all of the beginnings of Gideon's terrified falter of words, "You're safe, you're in the code room. Can you see me?"
"Y-Yeah," Gideon whimpered as huge tears suddenly cascaded down his cheeks, he silently crumpled and finally allowed the rigidity of his spine and arms to sag, it was here did Oliver gently grunt to a more proper sit and maneuver Gideon's spine to come away from the wall due to the awkward crumple his code-room tether was now in.
"Sit forward, y'okay?" Oliver cooed gently, soft shushing Oliver continued to let fly, and though this was all easily a hearty splay of brotherly love, Oliver fervently babied Gideon as if he were an adult child of his, something he was seasoned at due to Theo's existence. Gideon's arms, hands and neck firmly trembled, his teary, golden eyes nervously scanned for his now clean puke bucket right next to him on the ground, something Oliver eagerly cued to, as well, "Y'gunna be sick? It's okay, you do whatever you feel you need to do, I'm right here."
"I-I don't know," Gideon murmured sweetly, and even though he wasn't sure, he still swung his legs over the edge of the bed, grappled for his bucket and shakily held it in the gape of his spread knees. He nervously panted as he hung his head, he shakily continued as Oliver grunted and swung his legs over the edge of the bed as well, so to firmly sit snug into Gideon's side, "I-I had the same nightmare about Callum."
"You did?" Oliver asked sorrowfully, his much bigger hand rubbed up and down Gideon's whole back, stopping directly underneath the glowing code room tether, which was hooked into Gideon's spine right between his shoulder blades.
"And Flint... I-I never got verbal confirmation that said huge, scary beast behind Callum was actually Flint, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't," Gideon messily continued on through shaky staggers of sharp inhales through his nose, his terrified eyes scanned his empty puke bucket, and though Oliver was certain Gideon would eventually start throwing up, no such action happened.
"Take it easy, you don't have to talk if it's too overwhelming," Oliver shushed as he shook his head and lulled his tired eyes open. The sun had barely come up, Oliver tossed his eyes over his shoulder and took note that their stirring and talking had woken Tessa up, though she lay half-propped on her elbow with her eyes sleepily closed, as if to insinuate she was awake and prepared for anything, though was also aware that the three still had a handful more hours of sleep. Koko had returned to Turbotime for the next few nights due to not wanting to make Kepa or Sezeke suspicious of her absence. Oliver heaved a shaky sigh and glossed his eyes to his and Gideon's empty spaces, their billowy sleeping burrows were irresistibly warm and cozy, and though Oliver wanted Gideon to hopefully continue throwing up more of the corrupted coding in him, he lulled his eyes closed and allowed a handful of minutes to pass of Gideon's panting coming to a rolling stop. Oliver bobbed a gentle nod and pat Gideon's lower back, "Nothing wants to come up this time?"
"I-I don't think so," Gideon whimpered through his tears, Oliver firmly sagged the padding of his thumb, pointer and middle finger snug into Gideon's sweaty forehead and could feel warmth, though due to the sweat, Oliver figured that if there were any shred of feverish symptoms, the sweating was a good sign.
"Y'wanna try going back to sleep? You're gunna see Ace later this morning, I'm wondering if he can bring about you ridding yourself of the rest of the corruption," Oliver mused gently, to which Gideon bobbed a shaky nod and hesitantly set his clean puke bucket down.
"Y-Y'think he'll think poorly of me?" Gideon sleepily worried, though as Gideon sagged and looked ready to lay back down, Oliver choked a small, quiet laugh of disagreeing and was delighted to hear Tessa exhale an equally as disagreeing little laugh through her nose as she, too, laid back down to continue sleeping.
"No, none of us do, no one does," Oliver grumbled as he laid in between Gideon and Tessa, though as Gideon laid back down, Oliver firmly swiped the billowy mess of blankets to drape the both of them, and without speaking on it, he gripped Gideon's upper arm and began to tug him into a snuggly burrow into his broad chest. Gideon heaved a trembling sigh and happily complied as he firmly buried his face into the center of Oliver's chest. Oliver beamed in sleepy delight as he practically drowned Gideon in his embrace, blankets and sheets, "He's your nephew... Sure, y'got a road of recovery ahead of you, but you've come a very long way even since yesterday."
Gideon fluttered his teary eyes shut and deflated into Oliver's bigger body for good. As Oliver tucked his chin tight to the top of Gideon's head and equally deflated with a huge sigh of relief and the snuggly embrace of a lifetime, both boys laid in quiet silence in preparation to drift back off to sleep. Not typically ever one to be caught in this type of a situation, snuggling with a family member in the act of going to sleep like this, Gideon marinated in this raw, rare incubating-like season of his life, a season for true healing and fresh familial love he was deprived of for so long. He knew the code room was a safe place, the dim code boxes smiled down on the three as warm, silent love was what they succumbed to. Gideon eventually shifted to get even more comfortable against Oliver's bigger, snuggly body and dared to drape his arm about Oliver's midsection. Oliver smiled into Gideon's hair, and though he could feel himself slipping, he rested his hand to the back of Gideon's head and so gently ran his bigger thumb across the back of his head in methodical stroking. Like honey, Oliver whispered quiet notions into Gideon's messy auburn hair.
"...Is your favorite Sugar Rush candy still the honeydew rock candy on Honeydew Ridge?" Oliver questioned lightly, Tessa exhaled a raspy, whispery giggle, such uplift that had Oliver feeling Gideon's face sprawl into a smile deep against his sternum.
"Yeah," Gideon sighed as he went limp and relished the sound of his big brother's tender voice.
"...Y'remember when-"
"You chipped your front tooth on one? Yeah," Gideon's whispery voice interrupted Oliver as a cute giggle now shook out of him, to which Oliver grinned and squeezed both arms about Gideon's head in playful tease.
"It's why I like the cotton candy clouds," Oliver chuckled, he could feel Tessa warmly pat the middle of his back, as if to silently make clear that she was conscious for said tender, innocent conversation.
"Why do you ask?" Gideon questioned tiredly, Oliver shrugged.
"Figured once you're outta here, we could take a trip again," Oliver returned, Gideon bobbed a nod and felt a spill of shivers come down his spine as Oliver induced an easy roll of a calm exterior swap, between the two. Oliver sweetly continued on, "Include Kepa... Just us four and our significant others."
"I'd love that," Gideon whispered, though just as he was about to open his mouth and continue on with more notions about all the things he missed about Sugar Rush, somehow he could feel Oliver open up his own imagination just for Gideon to play in.
Gideon fluttered his eyes and allowed the two to go tumbling into a fluffy cloud of slumbering, nighttime dreaming, an easy toss of golden stars and periwinkle skies all beautifully kissed with Sugar Rush's candy clouds and minty mountain tops. Although nothing was truly coherent or made any sense, the next few hours of deep sleep was steadily held secure by Oliver's diligent exterior swap, an act of defiance against the torture Gideon's brain had been putting him through, Oliver was adamant about him getting a good night's sleep, once and for all. Eager to quell any turmoil, any shred of hallucinations that could easily come to Gideon, it wasn't until sharper sunlight glint down on their bed, through their thick, cozy sheets and blankets, did Gideon suck in a silent inhale through his nose and allow consciousness to come to the flutter of his eyelids in an easy spill of waking instead of the violent tumblings he was now used to. Although he had the knee-jerk reaction to jolt into panic and wonder just where he was, his eyes peered head-long into the center of Oliver's chest and soft green sleep shirt, a mess of draped arms and steady breathing all encapsulated by the kiss of near-noontime sunshine. Although the exterior swap had dropped, who knows how long ago, Gideon fluttered his sleepy eyes closed and allowed his ears to proverbially broaden in his surroundings.
Gideon sighed and laid still in the drape of Oliver's huge embrace as Gideon did his best to source just who was talking, clear across the code room. Deep in quiet conversation was Ace and Tessa, from what Gideon could hear, and although words weren't decipherable due to the distance and the echo the code room provided, Gideon sagged a bit harder and now understood that Ace had arrived to aid Gideon in the structure of his circuits. Due to being totally man-handled, Gideon wondered if his mainframe would ever lay stick-straight ever again. He knew Ace had easily corrected Nox's frayed coding, years ago, though Gideon also understood said mild fraying was only in Nox's hands. Gideon knew his coding was mangled and coiled from head to toe, there was a mild sense of dread that swept over him, the raw idea that he likely would lay mangled like this forever. Whatever that looked like, in terms of swapping codes, Gideon was hoping Ace had the answer. He inhaled a thick breath and gently removed his face from the warmth of Oliver's broad chest, and though mentioning any notion of code swapping or deeper inner workings of coding was awkward, especially within his own family, he knew this was all for his benefit and in order to feel better faster, he needed to just suck it up and cooperate.
With a careful sit, Gideon quietly grumbled and crawled to a lazy sit tight in Oliver's presence. He sucked in a thick inhale and peered across the code room in the stillness, his eyes met with Tessa's across the way, and as Tessa lit up a little upon said connection of eye contact, Ace's gentle gaze tossed over his broad shoulder in equal, brightened delight. Gideon huffed a shaky exhale and flinched as Oliver's much bigger hand rubbed up and down Gideon's spine, and as both men grunted to get their legs off of the edge of the bed, like previously, this time it was coupled with Oliver's groaning, clumsy stand and the grunt he uttered to help Gideon to his feet, as well. Without saying anything, the gratitude in Gideon's eyes was enough to thank Oliver for the thorough night's sleep for a hundred lifetimes. As if Oliver was urgently setting him up for success, from here on out, both men quietly began to cross the gape of the sunny code room. They approached Ace and Tessa's calmly sat figures in silence, the warm, humbled knowing in the air was palpable, as Gideon neared and collected his gaze with his handsome nephew, Ace grunted a chuckle and got to his feet, no hesitation to welcome his uncle back into the fold.
"Uncle Gideon," Ace's deep voice chimed knowingly, Gideon lulled his tired eyes closed and gave Ace a cute little closed-mouth smile as both men tightly squeezed into an embrace. With both men being equal size and nearly equal height, the snug was tight and gripped in the cute, mixed ruffle of muted dark blue and auburn hair, an equal amount of messy. Ace grunted a cute laugh and so lovingly pat Gideon's lower back, careful not to mess with the tether he was connected to, a tether that lilted up into the dome of the code room, "Welcome to the tattoo club, my guy. You look freaking awesome."
"Oh, c'mon," Gideon's raspy voice grunted, and as the two pulled apart, Gideon's tremors began to mildly act up, though Ace paid no mind as both men held eyes in a swing of loving delight, "You earned yours in an honorable way. Me, not so much."
"Well, it doesn't make you any less of a good man," Ace mumbled warmly, and though the two bold rings of his tattoos, across his own strong shoulders and clavicles, were indeed earned due to Libby's Teltokua traditions, one tattoo for each child he had, he side-eyed Gideon in smiling warmth and shrugged, "Lash's weren't earned honorably either, and yet... You wouldn't think any less of him, would you?"
Gideon heaved a long sigh through his nose and sagged his eyes down to Tessa, and now Oliver, who both sat next to each other at the cozy dining table. Tessa and Ace had half-empty cups of coffee, it was clear they had been sitting here for some time, just patiently letting Gideon and Oliver sleep. Ace narrowed his gaze and assessed his uncle in warmth, and due to Gideon's silence, he chuckled and continued on, knowing he had thwarted Gideon's complaints.
"Same goes for you," Ace concluded with a nod as he took a step back and returned to his chair. With a grunt, he sat down and pulled the chair out next to him, insinuating Gideon to sit with him, "Mom filled me in on everything that's been going on, every last detail. I'd say I'm pretty much caught up to speed, but I do definitely have a few questions for you, before we begin any ideas of code healing, if you're okay with that."
"Sure," Gideon mumbled shyly as he sat down.
He was still dressed in his black hoodie and grey sweats, he cautiously sat down in such a way that the code room tether wasn't pressed against the back of the lazy dining room chair each of the four were sat at. He nervously ruffled his messy auburn hair and shyly glanced into Ace's eyes. He was floored that Ace had this still, welcoming disposition about himself, so full of humility and acceptance, it was something Gideon also has seen in Beaux. Being in Ace's presence immediately made tears rush to Gideon's eyes, the desire to get with Mara, Lash and Kepa once more, for innocent outings and fun beach get togethers, he suddenly hiccuped a soft noise of despair and looked down to his clasped hands on the table. He grimaced a small noise of apology and urgently rubbed his thumb and pointer finger into his eyes, so to desperately compose himself, though he failed the second he could feel Ace's hand warmly begin to rub the middle of his back.
"It's okay, no rush," Ace lovingly assured as he tossed his prickled, curious gaze to his mother and other uncle, to which they bobbed Ace small nods of reassurance.
"Seeing you makes me really miss Mara," Gideon squeaked through his tears, he did his best not to crumple, though Ace broadened his handsome, gap-toothed grin and lulled his eyes closed.
"That's a huge compliment," Ace assured cutely with a chuckle, to which Tessa and Oliver joined. Ace bobbed a nod of assurance and continued to rub Gideon's back, "She knows you're home... She loves you, she really wants to see you, too. Her great uncle Gideon."
"I can't imagine how hard it is for all of them to keep me and Elkuorra a secret from Kepa and her father," Gideon wiped his tears and began to collect himself, he sighed a nasally sigh and as Ace ceased the back rub, Gideon leaned back a little and smiled into Ace's eyes, "I appreciate everyone's support, here... I'm worried the ugliness of my recovery isn't over, but... You all have helped me feel closer to it. Thank you."
"We love you, bud," Tessa assured gently, to which Ace and Oliver mumbled warm notions of agreeing.
"Hopefully whatever work we get done today only furthers your recovery," Ace started with a lilt of positivity, he inhaled a huge breath and shifted so he was facing Gideon a little more, "So, mom obviously told me everything that's going on, the black vomit, the coiled circuits... We've gone ahead and have unmuted your glitching powers. Can you try and cue your coding on your palm and tell me how it makes you feel?"
Gideon felt his pupils tighten, he huffed a silent breath of surprise, stabbed his eyes to Tessa's and then Oliver's, and with a raise of his left hand, he narrowed his eyes, winced and allowed the rush of his purple coding to swarm his hand. Although it tingled and stung for a moment, he scoffed a huge, smiling breath of relief and tearfully watched as his coding swam all over his palm with a great amount of easiness. He heaved a trembling sigh through his nose and was grateful the three allowed him a few minutes to marinate in the feeling of truly using his powers, once more, he watched as the usual stick-straight lay of circuit and grid lines now were coiled in beautiful spirals, an unusual formation for such an electric being. He narrowed his eyes and watched his own beautiful, electric purple coding surge through the vein-like circuits under his own skin, pushing through the brights that nearly peaked to electric pink, then sagged and softly kissed to royal purples, he lulled his eyes closed in a huge amount of relief and finally began to feel like himself, once more.
"I feel new, this feels amazing," Gideon whimpered, he peered into Ace's eyes and glanced to Oliver and Tessa, "Thanks for trusting me, guys... This means a lot."
"You've come a long way since wanting us to bow down to you, a few days ago," Tessa murmured with a small giggle that had all four beings cutely laughing, even if Gideon's face turned red in mild shame.
"Yeah dad put a stop to all that REAL quick," Oliver muttered in dread through the grit of his teeth, though as Gideon lay his hand palm side up on the table for Ace, Ace gingerly sagged his equally as alive-palm into Gideon's.
"Welp, you've given me a different answer than I expected, to be honest," Ace murmured cutely, though Gideon sucked in a huge breath of flooded shock as Ace's powerful golden honeycomb coding urgently grappled Gideon's into a gripped hug, a loving squeeze, though it was very clear that Ace's coding had far more authority. Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and recalled the last time he was meshed with a User's coding, being Lash. Walls and defenses were down, Lash lay open like a book, it made Gideon feel remorse for even thinking about sucking the powers out of him. He was grateful Ace had defenses up, though it immediately made Gideon feel like beating himself up for such villainous thinking. Ace sweetly lulled his eyes closed and open in long-blinks of pondering, he finally allowed his wise words to pair with his silent musings, "This is really interesting... So, from what I gather, you went through a really similar experience to what my mom went through, when Lash tried to delete her and Berri. You know the story, yeah?"
"Yeah," Gideon mumbled sadly as he tossed his eyes to Tessa, and though Tessa looked to be long past the trauma, she still looked down to her fingers as Oliver sweetly rubbed her upper back for camaraderie.
"Mom's coding was going through deletion, though... Yours went through something I've never seen before... Code slicing, really," Ace murmured, his aimless gaze down into the back of his and Gideon's conjoined hands proved to everyone that he was seeing through his coding, he was finding out everything he could about Gideon's coding while doing what he could to be physically and verbally present, "Callum seemingly took your DNA, uncoiled it, shredded it of any gamer powers, and then messily threw it back into your body... That's why it's all swirly, like this. It's quite beautiful."
"Your coding doesn't hurt at all? I can't imagine my circuits all coiled, like that, it makes my skin crawl thinking about it," Tessa inquired as she hugged her arms and shivered.
"The pain, in the moment, was... Unimaginable," Gideon mumbled sorrowfully as he shook his head, though he shrugged and tossed his eyes to Ace's, "But, now it just feels like how I did, previously. Nothing feels different... I mean, aside from the black vomit and... The shaking is annoying."
"That's what I was going to ask, Ace, is the shaking due to withdrawals? Or the corruption?" Tessa inquired, Ace shrugged and narrowed his aimless gaze.
"It's a solid mixture of both, though I'd say that has a little more to do with the corruption," Ace intelligently pressed, "So... Y'got about eighty percent of your healthy coding, and twenty percent of it is just corrupted, confused black coding that has no purpose in your body. My dad told me that you expelled a mass of it yesterday, yeah?"
"Yeah, it sucked," Gideon huffed shakily, he warily peered to Oliver, who equally nodded.
"It looked like fresh asphalt," Oliver muttered in dread, Ace grimaced.
"Yeah, it... It doesn't look much different, from inside here, either," Ace mumbled sorrowfully, he glanced into Gideon's eyes and shrugged, "So... I have a solution to get the rest out, it's all crap you'll have to throw up, unfortunately. There's no easier way to get rid of it. You could wait for your body to slowly digest it all, you'd remain miserable and you'd eventually just poop it out, but... I'm assuming you'd rather just barf it all up in one go and get this show on the road, yeah?"
"Yeah, I hate this," Gideon muttered shakily, the tremors in his head got a bit worse. He gulped a swallow and did everything he could to just marinate in the healing feeling of Ace's lovely coding.
"So, I can get together with Lash and go over a game plan, I'm going to need more User-power than just myself. It would require laying hands on you and basically forcing it out of you," Ace mumbled nervously, he eyed Gideon and wondered if he'd be on board with all of this, "It'd have to be after Lash's game day, if you're okay with that."
"Yeah, I'll do anything," Gideon assured weakly.
"You don't think we should try and iron out the lay of his coding? Like... Back to stick-straight?" Oliver wondered, Ace shrugged and shook his head.
"Well, no, the only reason I went through those weeks of coded therapy with Nox is because the coding in his hands were frayed and he could hardly use them, he couldn't even form a fist," Ace explained, "Nox's hand and arm coding was damaged while the rest of him got along fine... Gideon on the other hand? It's all working properly, nothing is damaged, it just got weirdly rearranged."
"Nothing hurts, bud? At all?" Tessa pressed to her baby brother, Gideon shrugged and shook his head.
"No, like I said, in the moment and the day after it sucked, but when dad killed me and I was reset, I instantly felt better," Gideon stated with assuredness, Ace nodded and smiled.
"Yeah, seems as if the reset just flood the lay of circuitry with your coding, no matter how the circuits laid, though... I will warn you," Ace eyed their conjoined hands and inhaled a shaky breath, "Being conjoined in this exterior swap with you, I can feel that your coding is far more exposed and susceptible to mild alterations."
"What do you mean?" Gideon worried.
"Well... I guess it doesn't really matter in this moment, but I'm going to think that it's safe to assume you'll want to eventually code swap with someone?" Ace wondered delicately, Gideon felt his face immediately heat up.
"A certain someone?" Tessa mused, Oliver choked a hearty laugh and crossed his arms.
"A certain Kepa-someone?" Oliver continued, and though Gideon's face had turned red, he uttered a shy laugh and looked down to his and Ace's gripped hand.
"Yeah, given she's ever willing," Gideon concluded in gentlemanly warmth, Ace bobbed a nod and nervously peered into Gideon's eyes.
"Well, if ever that time is upon you, whenever that happens in the future, I'd definitely consult Lash before you carry on," Ace cautioned, "Me, Libby, Beaux and Mara are what I like to consider as healers... We use our User powers for medicating, healing, soothing, correcting. Lash? He's the brawn of it all... He has a stupid amount of coding-knowledge all backed with my User powers, gifted through Mara."
"What should happen if Gideon swaps codes and doesn't consult Lash first?" Oliver worried, Gideon sucked in a nervous breath and tried not to be shy about this topic.
"I don't know, I'm not predicting anything, I just worry that because your coding seems so susceptible to change and alterations, somehow I feel like gamer powers and inner-musings wouldn't be the only thing swapped or grappled onto," Ace continued cautiously, he shrugged and blurt a chuckle, "Physical features could easily be adopted... THAT'S how raw and exposed your coding is. Because it's been through so much, so many defenses are down, the immunity of your coding is shot, so say if you and Kepa were to swap prior to consulting Lash, I either worry HER coding would warp, like yours, or you'd start adopting any physical traits she has."
"Gideon, if you sprout wings and a tail, I will die happy," Oliver erupted into contagious laughter, such laughter that had the whole group roused into it.
"User, this sounds... Hellish, I mean I love the girl, but damn," Gideon grinned and gave Ace wary eye contact, to which Ace shrugged and continued through his laughter.
"That's why I say, consult Lash when you get to that bridge... I'm doing what I can to help, right in this moment, but I'm positive he can do better structural work to boost the defenses of your coding. Code swapping takes two code-healthy beings, and right now, although you're on your way, these swirls and lay of your circuitry makes it so there's more bends and wiggly avenues for a code-mishap to happen," Ace diligently continued on, he shrugged and lulled his eyes closed as he kept Gideon's hand gripped, "It's all apart of your journey, it's not needed right now, your coding is healthy and in decent standing. After tonight though, you'll be well on your way. Given you consent to Lash and I officially getting this corruption out of you, for good."
"I-I do, I'd rather violently throw up one more time than... Well, it coming out the other end over an extended period of time," Gideon grimaced and tightly caught eyes with Oliver, who loudly erupted into more contagious laughter the group fell into.
"It's a date," Ace muttered cheekily with a grin as he gently removed his hand from Gideon's. He gently grunted to a stand, rested his hand to Gideon's right shoulder and gave the group a swoop of loving eye contact, "I gotta go, Libby, Royal, Balba and I have a double-date planned."
"Aw, that's cute," Oliver mused as the four came out of their laughter.
"Thank you," Gideon eased up into Ace's loving presence, his tender hazel eyes peered into Gideon's with a swathe of full acceptance.
"'Course, uncle Gideon... We're so glad you're home, seriously," Ace looked off and muttered Gideon a conclusion, "It's no exaggeration when I say the palace was just about to fall apart, without you."
"It's true," Tessa mumbled as she sagged her face into her hands and heaved a long sigh.
"Bye, dude," Oliver called as Ace began to step away, Ace waved his hand and looked back as he approached the teleport pad, across the way.
"Bye guys," Ace returned kindly, his golden coding whisked away shortly after.
"User, y'got yourself a throw-up date, with TWO Users," Tessa chirped excitedly, to which Gideon donned an annoyed facial expression and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I love that each of my friends and family members get turns watching me turn my stomach inside out," Gideon muttered, "Not my favorite thing ever..."
"No one thinks differently of you, love," Tessa cooed warmly, she tapped the table and perked up a little, "C'mon, let's make lunch. Mom said that she'll be bringing Elkuorra over later tonight, she said Elkuorra wants to make sure Gideon is doing okay."
Gideon sagged out of the bad attitude he was now sloping into, he brightened and peered up to Tessa in a swing of disbelief.
"Sh-she said that?" Gideon huffed in soft shock as the Oliver and Tessa began to slowly make their way into the kitchen area, leaving Gideon at the dining room table in a swing of shock as sunlight glinted down on him in a full, springtime embrace.
"Yeah! She's now living in the flyer's enclosure, I guess mom and Lash got her set up there yesterday morning but she kept asking about you," Tessa lovingly mused as all three now moved into the kitchen, shaded by a bundle of code boxes high above, "Bud, you're the only one of us four with potential in-laws. I don't think she ever envisioned her future including Kepa, let alone the potential for Kepa having a life-long mate. I think she's holding onto the day you and Kepa reunite..."
"I hope it's soon," Oliver grumbled.
Although Gideon sagged his arms crossed and leaned his hip against a nearby counter, he aimlessly looked across the code room and peered to the huge, bolted code room door across the way. He wondered just what would happen, in this instance, if Kepa were to erupt from that door, and though he knew he still had a bit more distance of healing to endure, he could finally feel his heart begin to flutter with the idea of holding her, once more, just how close it felt. He scoffed a small little noise of nervous cuteness and looked down to his bare feet in musing contemplation. He took note that Oliver and Tessa had equally fallen silent in Gideon's fervent contemplation, they peered to him in frozen, baited wait.
"...I mean, I can go get her rIght now, if that's what you want," Oliver rushed, Tessa bugged her eyes as they both peered to Gideon.
"N-No, no... I-I want to rid myself of this corruption before I see her," Gideon inhaled a trembling breath and bobbed a nod, "I've been thinking long and hard about it... And now that you've given me at least my glitching back, I'm starting to feel like myself again. I-I don't... I don't think it's wise you give me my manifestation or wrecking."
"Yeah, we've... Covered those topics, without you," Tessa grit her teeth and peered to Gideon in a swing of sorrow, "We figured wrecking was too aggressive and, with manifestation, you could... Well..."
"Manifest the drugs I'm desperate for," Gideon's voice darkly croaked, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, "I... I don't want any temptations. I don't want Kepa to have to deal with that side of me... It was horrifically dark, and I've already put her through hell. I love her too much to torture her, anymore than she already has been."
"...Isn't she skilled in manifesting, as well?" Oliver prod curiously, he shrugged and smiled into Gideon's eyes, "Might not be exactly like your version of manifesting, which is entirely immediate, but... I'm wondering if she could build you back up. She could reteach you the art of it, and once you're ready, you can turn your manifesting back on and have her solid teaching, she would be your foundation."
"That's such a beautiful idea, Olly," Tessa mused lovingly, to which Gideon bobbed a confident nod and took in a huge, deep breath of relief.
"It is beautiful, I'll... I'll definitely make sure that gets brought up," Gideon sighed in warm conclusion, the swarm of nervous butterflies in his stomach now began to intensify with the idea of being in Kepa's presence, once more, "It'd be an honor to be underneath her teaching, once more."
