Reviews :
Burgie : I'm glad you feel that way :D Any sour gumdrop here can be cracked. At least as far as the Schweetz/Kalivar clan is concerned lol
Snake557 : I'm glad you think that! :]
Song Listened To :
The Deep South by Adam Young
The Highest Step in the World by Adam Young
*Chapter 18*
"Dada," Zed's deep voice did everything it could to pitch to a cute tone of love that Berri could easily retain and adhere to. Her incredible blue eyes honed tight to Zed's face, a massive, gummy smile that sprawled her gooey, squishy cheeks, and with such, Zed couldn't help but easily beam back. He huffed an excited chuckle and just barely shook his head, "C'mon... Dada."
"Dada," Berri's adorable little voice stated with ease; although this simply wasn't the first time she had uttered this word, Zed could never get over it.
"Now how about... Mama," Zed encouraged, he cocked an eyebrow and gently began to gather some more of the warm bowl of mushed vegetables onto the little baby spoon he held.
"Dada," Berri now barked, her little chest expanded with a big inhale, and alongside a hard outburst of a giggle, she kicked her feet in her high chair and clenched her fists, "DADA!"
"Well... Now I know how you felt," Tessa grimaced with a hard chuckle as Zed finally spooned the food into Berri's mouth, she easily accepted and ate every single spoonful with glee. Tessa gently readjusted Wren, in her arm and against her hip, she lovingly began to tidy the white hair atop his head, "When Ace couldn't say 'dada' to save his life, I felt so bad for you... But now I guess I'm getting a taste of my own medicine."
"And, 'dada' is far easier for babies to say, I don't know why Ace skipped over almost every single baby's first word," Zed huffed a laugh, to which Berri was all smiles, in a good mood, a full belly and a bright, sunny day of opportunity. She was dressed in an adorable grey long-sleeved shirt, one properly ladened with a cute crown design right on the chest. Her vivid blue hair and eyes matched Zed almost exactly, as if someone hit the copy-paste on him. Zed finally peered to where Tessa was, comfortably stood at their tower's kitchen island, having a tender and loving conversation to Wren whilst she ran through a few things via a remote version of the code room, "Ah, well. Feels good, man."
"What was YOUR first word, Wren?" Tessa asked Wren quietly.
Although Wren was only about a month older than Berri, because aging is rapid and accelerated in the Arcade, Wren's Earth age would be two months, though he emulated that of a four year old. With Berri at just barely one month old, she was pushing that of a one year old. Wren peered up into Tessa's eyes with gentle glee, boyish cuteness, with solid white hair that mocked Taffyta and a whole entire facial expression that was all Rancis, Wren was a perfect dolloped mixture of both of his parents. Having Wren for the day, whilst Taffyta and Rancis were responding to quarter alerts, was a good way for Wren and Berri to have a good amount of bonding time, as well, and even more so when Theo was thrown into the bunch. Wren gestured his hand in an uneducated manner and gave Tessa a white, toothy and goofy smile.
"Tessa!" Wren fibbed, though Tessa playfully rolled her eyes and peered off to Zed, across the way; he furrowed his blue eyebrows in confusion and eagerly peered to Tessa and Wren, across the way.
"No it wasn't, silly," Tessa scrunched her shoulders and softly tickled Wren's belly; he blurt out in laughter and pushed on Tessa's shoulder in playful defiance, though let up once Tessa readjusted him on her hip, once more, "C'mon, my dude, what was it?"
"Berri," Wren eased bashfully as he honed his eyes for his baby second cousin, to which Tessa beamed.
"Which is so nice of you," Tessa concluded, though as Zed continued to feed Berri, he shook his head in gentle confusion and smiled.
"So weird to hear Wren flat out call you your name," Zed chuckled, Berri ate with enthusiasm and held her incredible eyes tight to her dad, "Not 'mom' or 'aunt' or anything attached."
"Why wouldn't he just call me my name? We're cousins," Tessa flatly argued, she gently pulled up the holographic screen she was previously working on, to which Wren's eyes hooked tight to the intricate details before him.
"I keep forgetting," Zed bobbed a lazy nod and shrugged, "Huh, Bear."
"Dada," Berri stated with confidence, alongside a loud blurt of other words, in which were entirely indecipherable.
"Lookie here, bud," Tessa's voice softened for Wren, she began to prod through a few options, "Now, we're going to check the status of all the babies that aren't born, just yet."
"Mara! Beaux!" Wren exclaimed with excitement as he flung his arm and hand out, and although he was close, his arms weren't long enough to grasp at any of the holographic information Tessa had out before her, a small beacon-point that rested on the kitchen island and properly displayed everything she cued up, in front of her.
"Yes, and we can't forget Balba's and Royal's baby, huh, remember his name?" Tessa cooed, she brushed the longer white hair out of Wren's face, once more, though Zed perked up.
"Wait, they picked a name for him?" Zed wondered in a small bout of feeling left out, he eyed Berri, gently spooned her some more food and continued to direct a proper display of puppy-dog eyes to Wren and Tessa, "What is it? I didn't know this, when did you find out?"
"Balba told me a few nights ago, I'm sorry, Bub," Tessa eased in Zed's direction, to which he shook his head and pleadingly peered to the two.
"What did they decide on?" Zed pressed, though Tessa smiled and peered down to Wren, as if to ask if he wanted to do the honors; Wren bashfully peered up to Tessa before throwing his arm up in delight.
"Chester," Wren exclaimed, to which Zed beamed a genuinely excited smile.
"Chester, I like it," Zed nodded, to which Wren and Tessa easily smiled in agreeing.
"Alright, my dude, so let's check on Beaux and Mara, first," Tessa pressed as she zoomed out on the lot of palace individuals; Tessa cocked an eyebrow and peered down to Wren in a quizzical way, "Can you tell me who their mommy is?"
"Libby," Wren stated with confidence, Tessa nodded and gently pushed her larger finger into the holographic button that was properly labelled with Libby's whole, Teltokuan name; something of which Wren couldn't read yet, anyways.
"Yes, sir. Who is their papa?" Tessa quizzed, once more, she pulled up Libby's stats and specifically honed in on the two, adorable little loading bars that read in positive confidence.
"Ace," Wren nodded, to which Tessa smiled again and followed through simple routines.
"Good job... Looks like both Beaux and Mara are doing great, both babies are at about seventy-one percent," Tessa pressed, she gently looked down to Wren and bobbed a nod, "Meaning, they'll probably be born in another month, or so."
"That's far," Wren stated, as if he was confident of his findings. Tessa huffed a small giggle and gave Wren's cheek a firm smooch as he continued on, "So what about Chester?"
"Let's see, here," Tessa pulled away from Wren's cute and cushiony face, she gently thumbed out of Libby's positive reading and came back to the board of hovering, mini code boxes. She bit her lip and scanned for Balba's, and upon finding it, she softly pushed her finger into Balba's box options, "Can you tell me who Chester's papa is?"
"... Royal," Wren uttered in a sag of not being so sure about his answer, he curiously peered up to Tessa and wondered if he was right.
"Good job," Tessa nodded, once more, though as she expanded Balba's options, she froze and felt her heart sink, "Let's... See what we got going on, here, for Chester."
"Yay, Chester," Wren called in delight, though Tessa held her breath and honed her eyes tight to the odd display on Balba's chart.
Tessa felt her pupils tighten in whole entire dread, and it was in this instance was she glad Wren couldn't read. Stamped in hot red were two exclamation marks, aside Chester's still loading bar. Tessa smiled and tried her hardest to seem lighthearted, for Wren's sake; he continued on about Chester's loading bar and pointed out obvious colors and marking inside Balba's code box, though once Tessa expanded on the angry notification marks, she felt her heart sink at the raw sight of a few things that weren't properly loading. In the tiers of functions that Chester, or any gamer, would need to survive and simply live, Tessa wholly frowned at the plain facts out in front of her. Although everything else read in bright green, confident and as clear as day, the two things that were absolutely refusing to load were Chester's eyesight and the ability to talk. Tessa urgently closed out of it, cleared her throat and cocked an eyebrow.
"Wow, everything checks out there, too!" Tessa encouraged to Wren, though Zed furrowed his eyebrows in hard confusion, as to why Tessa's tone was so strange; he quickly peered to her in a roll of dread and stopped spooning food onto Berri's baby spoon. Tessa huffed a small, nervous chuckle, jostled Wren a little and just barely glanced Zed a look of rising terror, "Chester will also be born within a month, or so... Just got a little bit of waiting to do, but it won't be long!"
"YAY! More friends!" Wren exclaimed in excitement as Tessa began to put Wren down, though he squirmed a little and began to hobble to the bathroom, "I-I have to potty."
"Okay, dude, let me know if you need help," Tessa called after him, knowing full well he'd likely be okay on his own, though was still also getting the hang of it and could potentially need an adult's help. Tessa heaved a trembling sigh, straightened her shirt and peered to Zed in a whole slew of sorrow. She shook her head and stepped closer to Zed as she rushed to reveal to him just what was going on, in a tight tone of whispering, "Chester's eyesight and ability to speak aren't loading whatsoever."
"What?" Zed hissed in a spike of gentle sorrow, though they both were glad Berri's babbling loudly continued on.
"I-I don't know what to do," Tessa gestured as she desperately peered into Zed's eyes, "We can try and reverse it, in the code room, and see what we can do, but... Otherwise, we're... Going to have to break the news to Balba and Royal."
"... Chester will be mute AND blind?" Zed whispered in a continued spike of whole sorrow, to which Tessa tucked her hair behind her ears, shrugged and looked off in a slew of dread.
"I was able to reverse your brain coding, or at least the majority of it, all those years ago, but... Just a small shred of it took forever," Tessa rushed, though she grimaced and peered across her home and in the direction of the hallway Wren had disappeared in; the toilet flushed, to which Tessa continued on even faster, "I-I can potentially do a reversal on retina and voice box coding, but, shit... That's going to take an entire eternity."
"You think Ace and Libby can do some User-magic?" Zed wheezed desperately, though Wren came confidently skipping around the corner.
"Tessy, the light in the bathroom isn't there," Wren's cute little voice trailed, though Tessa furrowed her brow and peered down to him in a rise of confusion.
"...Bulb must've burnt out," Tessa stated nonchalantly, though as her and Wren began to slowly saunter back to the bathroom, Tessa flashed Zed a desperate look of rising sorrow, to which he easily received and didn't know just how to box up.
"If you tilt your head sideways, it sort of looks like pac-man," Balba blurt; her, Boss and Marble were all haphazardly sprawled on their furry backs in the snow, smack dab in the middle of Sugar Rush's gorgeous, sprawling palace lot.
In the afternoon sun, the three lazily peered up to Sugar Rush's glorious, sun-kissed clouds with ease and delight. They were aware Lickity and Royal likely should be home any day now, though just which day, they were uncertain.
"Who's pac-man?" Boss pressed in gentle curiosity, though he tilted his head like Balba suggested.
"Y'got a lot to learn, my friend," Marble's telepathic voice floated into Boss's head, something that made his ears twitch, something he was certain he wouldn't get used to.
"We should take you on a tour of the Arcade, sometime," Balba stated with a sigh as she sagged deeper into the fluffy snow, of which clung to her feathers and fur in a frosty, dainty way.
"That one huge station we crossed, from Dead Zed?" Boss wondered gently as he now tilted his head to look into Marble's brilliant, turquoise eyes.
"Yeah, there are a few stations in Arcade we can take a tour of," Balba bobbed a positive nod and sighed in relaxation, though Marble inhaled a sharp breath and suddenly shifted, so to properly get to her feet.
"Incoming," Marble's motherly voice eased into both Boss's and Balba's minds, and in a nervous jolt, both beings tilted their heads up and peered across the palace lot.
In a lofty, silent glide, both Lickity and Royal slowly began to sag into the palace's gravity. Although the stretch was massive, the flight across the lot only took the flyers a minute or two. Boss nervously got to his feet, flattened his ears and knew this was the moment that he had been dreading for days now. He shut his eyes tight, wrinkled his nose and quickly did everything he could to shake the snow off of his pelt, like a dog freeing itself of water. Balba and Marble easily joined him, which caused the area to erupt in a splay of thinly veiled flying snow, in all directions. Although Balba barked a small laugh, due to the now settled chaos, Boss straightened his posture, tucked his wings tight to his body and tried his hardest not to show an entire display of defense.
Once Royal and Lickity were close enough, their silent glides brought them cleanly a few feet above the ground, and once the two caught the ground with their paws in a gentle gallop, that soon sauntered to a finalized trot, they eased their footsteps about a dozen feet from Boss, Balba and Marble. Boss desperately tried not to instinctively bare his fangs and let that urge of a deep, grumbling growl to be let loose. He knew both him and Royal could properly talk out their differences, however foreign that may be to Boss. The five beings stood in a collective show of still, curious silence. The females hung close and watched for a few moments, wondering if they'd eventually have to diffuse a fight that would erupt, though after a few moments of sensing only just mild tension, all three females sprawled their wings and delicately began to head in the direction of their enclosure, so to leave Boss and Royal their privacy.
As another cue to Boss that this situation wasn't nearly as tense as the last, Royal's posture was that of a non-threatening stance, even so much as putting his guard down to look over his shoulder and watch said three females softly glide away. After a moment of watching Lickity, Balba and Marble sag into the distance, Royal finally brought his attention back to Boss. A much heftier built male, Boss's stunning, vivid blue markings and eyes were entirely captivating. Royal got a good look at Boss and was now understanding just why his mother had fallen victim to Boss's call and demeanor; he was an entirely handsome creature, though the formidable look of tense nervousness in his eyes had Royal understanding that he likely should be the one to speak first, due to him previously being the one to sink his fangs into Boss's skin, all those days prior.
"I... Just wanted to apologize for lashing out at you," Royal's deep voice grumbled, he bashfully looked off, though it was his curt and tense demeanor that had Boss solid still in his defensive posture, "I shouldn't have reacted like that..."
"No harm done," Boss's much deeper, fatherly voice coat over Royal like a gloss of honey. Royal perked his ears a little, and although he wanted to fly away and forget this other male existed, he somehow felt drawn to Boss's secretive warmth, "Tessa reset me... I hope I got that term right."
"Yeah, that's right," Royal pressed with a nod; he was well aware Boss was strictly a wild creature, up until now, and all of these new, modern terms that were lofted at him were starkly different than what he was used to. Royal felt that fighting urge to set differences aside and potentially learn from a wonderful, skillful male from the wild of Dead Zed's jungles, though he knew his grudge likely would hold for longer, "My name's Royal... As... You probably already know."
"Boss," He volleyed in tenderness, though he just barely let a snarky smile peak through his demeanor as he shrugged and looked off, "I, uh... Accidentally named myself. I'm not THE Boss... Just a Boss... I guess?"
"Nice to finally meet you," Royal staggered as he desperately tried not to chuckle at Boss's little joke; due to wanting to keep Boss at arm's length, he shook his head, stiffened his posture and gave Boss cold, hard eye contact, once more, "Where have you been sleeping while I was gone?"
"Ace and Libby have kindly let me stay in their home," Boss flattened his ears and now delivered the same amount of coldness Royal was dishing; he knew both boys eventually had to find common ground before any proper amount of warmth were to be conveyed, "They knew it'd put you at ease."
"They're not wrong," Royal grumbled, he eyed Boss before he lofted his gaze across the lot, to where Ace's and Libby's gorgeous tower glinted rays of sunshine off of their bay windows, "You can remain there while the dust settles."
"... Y-You want me to keep sleeping in their tower?" Boss prod in confusion; it was in this instance did Boss feel the hierarchy of the lot begin to sway in Royal's favor. Typically, it was the older and stronger male that would put his foot down and make the rules, though Boss knew not to step on Royal's toes in this weird predicament.
"Was that not clear?" Royal wondered, his tone began to grow a touch sassier, something he desperately tried to rein in.
"I-It is, just... Making sure," Boss figuratively bowed to Royal's request; he knew he had to earn his keep, amongst Royal's fragile heart. He bobbed a nod and heaved a gentle sigh, "Glad you and Lickity are back. I guess... I'll see you guys tomorrow, then."
"We'll be hunting later, tonight," Royal started as he began to turn, so to sprawl his wings and head towards his proper enclosure, "We'll be sure to bring you back something to eat."
Boss sagged, he hoped that maybe Royal was about to invite him out for the hunt, though he was well aware he likely shouldn't have expected something so grand in these raw and fragile moments. Boss heaved a hot sigh through his nose, bobbed a nod of defeated understanding and frowned as he watched Royal softly sprawl his wings high, take off in a low flight and head straight for their enclosure, in the direction of Tessa's and Zed's loft. Boss frowned as he was left in Royal's poof of snow dust, he was well aware Lickity would likely come by and give Boss the lot of love he deserved, though he still wondered just when this rollercoaster would let up.
Royal gently glided low to the snow in a single loft of low altitude. He flattened his ears and honed his incredible eyes for a clearing near Tessa's and Zed's tower, on the ground. Once he reached it, he popped his wings open, caught air and slowly trot to the snow, once more. Once he slowed, he began to saunter into the clearing, a long walk to their usual napping spot that he hoped would give him time to mull things over. He shook his head and began to feel bad for being so cold to his mother's new mate. He was glad she at least understood the difficulty, though he was well aware guilt would eventually get the better of him, and letting Boss into their circle would become a new norm he wasn't sure he was entirely prepared for. Through a long, hot sigh that fogged his gravity, he pushed on, though he flinched the second Tessa's gentle voice was heard.
"Hey, Roy?" Tessa pressed through cupped hands; she stood outside of her little tower's main floor common room, the door hung open ajar.
"Yeah?" Royal blurt as he perked up, peered his eyes in his aunt's direction and halted his footwork, just before he vanished into the thick, jungle enclosure altogether.
"Can, uh... Can I see you up here, for a minute?" Tessa continued on in tender anxiousness, she tried not to seem too hesitant, though she was at least thrilled Royal caught on to her demeanor.
"Sure," Royal huffed gently as he altered his path and made a quick bee-line in Tessa's direction. He furrowed his brow and wondered if this had to do with his interaction with Boss, just now, though as he sagged into Tessa's common room of her's and Zed's tower, the door softly shut in a rise of dread, bad news Tessa wasn't totally prepared to deliver to Royal about his new cub-to-be.
