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*Chapter 101*
Although palace meetings had previously been a strict affair, tightly concealed in a dome-dimmed code room and privatized for only certain figureheads, Berri was delightfully surprised to see palace meetings morph from a scary, confidential thing, to that of a more relaxed meeting and gathering of the important people inside Sugar Rush's inner workings. Due to a bigger, heftier crowd this go around, Tessa and Zed successfully materialized a massive swoop of a couch and a handful of comfortable chairs to sit on. Cozily sat about the half circle of a massive sitting area was Ace, Libby, Mara, Beaux, Theo, Wren, Berri, Turbo, Rancis, Taffyta, Oliver, Koko, Ralph and Vanellope. Stationed right in the center of the half circle was Tessa and Zed, and although Berri desperately tried to keep hers and Turbo's very prominently unwavering friendship under tight wraps, she caved and was floored that her and Turbo got the chance to sit next to one another, with Wren and Theo on Berri's other side.
Although Tessa and Zed were the head of the conversation, the hot topic of the deleter simply doomed to approach at any minute, Berri relished in letting her mind aimlessly wander up until she likely was due to being pulled in front of the crowd. She sagged her shoulders and relished in the scent she drowned in; the ease of fresh, clean clothes, the smell of Turbo's either cologne or body wash that sapped tight into Berri's pores, she fluttered her eyes and let her gaze aimlessly peer down to the dark denim of Turbo's jeans, the frays of thick, sewed seams on the sides of his thighs, his still, patient and quiet disposition hovered like a warm ball of paused energy. Berri was well aware she needed to be paying attention here, just how Turbo diligently was, though she couldn't help but allow her eyes to gloss his bare hands that peeked from the thick sleeves of the cozy black hoodie he was draped in. Seemingly soft, dark grey skin that looked like matte porcelain, the thick veins in his hands secretively snaked to even thicker knuckles, hands that certainly been through it all.
Turbo's strong chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm of serenity, his striking, attentive golden eyes hooked tight to his King and Queen in patient listening, the hook of his pitch black, pixel-cubed pupils was nearly that of a predator to prey, something Berri was certain he would likely never be able to shake, due to his traumatizing past. Berri bit her lip and finally pried her eyes from the gentle rest of Turbo's hands, in his lap and on his thighs. Her larger fingers began to fiddle with the unravelling seams on her worn hoodie sleeve, and although it wasn't her favorite hoodie, the one with Turbo's name down the left arm, it still was one she had nearly worn to death. A faded grey hoodie with Sugar Rush's logo splashed across the chest in a popped variety of fun colors, though due to being so loved and worn, the logo had begun to fade and crackle as well. She heaved a gentle sigh through her nose and tried desperately to rip her mind away from the being that was nearly glued to her left side.
Berri fixated her eyes to her mother and father at the center of the group. While Zed had a few code room boxes pulled up, all displayed with their own menus and indexes, Tessa diligently spoke out to the group. Previously, the land about the palace had begun to see foot traffic by hikers. Although this typically wouldn't be a problem, Tessa was adamant about the safety of the castle, due to everything her and her crew had previously gone through strictly trying to defend it. Although wanting to cater to the hikers, she began reaching out to a few individuals in the group for their ideas, how to properly compromise so that the hiking trails weren't deleted, and the castle could remain at a safer distance from said Orion City natives. Berri jolted in a shock the second Turbo's deep voice glossed her ear drums, he sat up a bit, and although Berri was certain he'd be doing a bit of talking in this group, her brain was fuzzy from her previous daydreaming and had completely missed the instant where Tessa had potentially reached out for Turbo's advice, plain as day.
"It just would take a bit of landscaping, really, no harm done," Turbo shrugged, he lofted his more confident gaze across the group and then back to Tessa and Zed, "These hikers aren't, like... Sentimentally attached to the positioning of their hiking trails, are they?"
"Not the journey, just the destination," Tessa sighed, she shook her head, turned around a little and zoomed in on an arial view of the palace grounds and all of the acres it entailed. She pointed to a smaller lookout point near the edges of the flyer's enclosure and gestured her larger hand in mild frustration, "We can rearrange the paths all we want, resident's opinions state that they'd be upset if this particular lookout point was deleted, or moved."
"Why not just move the palace a few acres away from the lookout point, then?" Berri suddenly eased, though she sank inside herself the second everyone fell silent.
"Pray for the code room's RAM," Ralph grumbled as he rubbed his face and sagged into his seat a little; Vanellope and Taffyta stifled giggles.
"I was thinking the same thing, but," Zed's quiet voice eased to Tessa, making it clear that he was aware she had the floor. He shrugged and smiled in Berri's direction, "It'll mean the lot of us will have to cram into the code room for about an hour or so, while everything is being moved."
"That's no easy task," Tessa rubbed her forehead and sighed, though she shrugged and allowed her eyes to get lost in Sugar Rush's map, "It's doable, just... A pretty tall order, for the code room."
"The last time everything was moved, it didn't require all the details the palace grounds have now," Turbo eased, he tried to make clear to Tessa that he wasn't here to steal her podium, either, "Think about it... Everyone's home, inside the palace, has a set amount of amenities, dishes, clothes, furniture, and every single little thing in between."
"The pool," Wren grumbled with a shrug.
"Rec hall," Theo added as he cocked an eyebrow and lofted his assured gaze to Turbo, who in turn glossed his eyes from Wren, Theo and Berri back to Tessa and Zed.
"With such move, like that, it'd be better if there were as few bodies on the lot as possible," Turbo suggested softly, "Something like that wouldn't be safe to do, during quarter alerts, either... User forbid the game decides to reboot right in the middle of a race."
"Maybe we can all just disperse, maybe next Sunday or something," Rancis chimed in warmly, he shrugged and peered about the group with a small nod, as if to encourage a response out of everyone; to his delight, everyone followed suit to his idea, shrugged and nodded in easiness as Rancis peered to Tessa in kind continuation, "Maybe just spend a few hours in the city, or something. A lot of us are off palace grounds on Sunday, anyways, so... Shouldn't be too hard."
"I can just send a mass text once the move is over," Tessa nodded and heaved a gentle sigh, though she gestured to Ace and Libby, and then again to Mara and Beaux, "I'm going to need the extra umph from our Users, though, if that's okay."
"We'll be there, mom," Ace assured sweetly, Libby equally bobbed a nod and softly averted her gaze to their two nearly grown children.
Mara and Beaux, only a week and a half ago, were made aware of their incredible User powers and just how they wound up with said amount of responsibility. Although Beaux nervously smiled and looked to Libby for assurance, Berri cocked an eyebrow and peered to her niece and nephew in soft curiosity. The look on Beaux's face was that of almost apprehensive readiness, they were well aware that Ace and Libby wouldn't simply throw them to the wolves and make them crap out a miracle, though Berri felt her heart stop at the nearly scary, frozen look of poised readiness in Mara's eyes. Something just a touch below quiet scheming, as if she maybe was entirely ready to boast her newfound abilities, the rawness in her eyes had Berri holding her breath in a sting of almost mild jealousy, though she reeled and knew she needed to take a step back and understand that this was not a competition. Berri heaved a soft sigh through her nose, and although she was certain the castle meeting would take a turn into deleter territory, she was surprised to find her mother cut the meeting to a close and thank everyone for joining.
Berri felt relieved, although she was past the initial trauma of the whole incident, she didn't like reliving the whole thing via story telling, or even the feedback of the event being brought up on display, due to researching purposes. Even the idea of Tessa or Zed revealing the severed arm, from said deleter, still safely preserved and bubbled in the code room, was something that made Berri's stomach clench with anxiety. Although Tessa, Zed, Turbo, Rancis, Ralph and Vanellope were hard at work trying to find a way to make it so the entirety of Arcade was safe from these horrible creatures, Berri chalked up the cut-short meeting to the fact that maybe the higher ups didn't have enough information to properly fill a palace meeting with. Upon assuming said information would be brought up in a future palace meeting, she gently stood, as did everyone else in slow succession of random easiness. The group began to loosely chatter, a routine everyone typically fell into; though palace meetings were very important, they eventually dribbled into a big hang out, something Berri was floored to find Turbo would actually stay back for, instead of peeling out of there the second the meeting came to a close.
"I saw a few hikers the other day when I was flying back to the enclosure with Balba," Libby chimed to Berri, she smiled to Turbo and gave him a kind greeting.
"I'm sure they're harmless," Berri shrugged, though she glance to Turbo in mild question and shook her head, "Guess you can never be too careful."
"That's right," Turbo's deep voice glossed her, he hooked his eyes to his authority, something Berri was still trying to come to terms with, the sheer fact that she was technically in charge of him, as a princess to a palace knight.
"I mean, those walls are way too high to breech," Berri pressed, though she froze once Turbo cocked an eyebrow and looked down in mild disagreeing; he caught eyes with Libby as the two shared a laugh of tender understanding.
"I don't knowww," Libby nervously pressed, they eased into laughter, though Berri furrowed her eyebrows in nervous curiosity.
"We've seen some shit... This poor castle has been through, quite literally, everything," Turbo grumbled, he lofted his eyes to where Tessa and Zed stood, confidently continuing conversation with Ralph and Oliver, "Tessa's wise to take extra precaution."
"You may not be able to tell, Bear, but we're all pretty on edge, when it comes to castle security," Libby's soft, Teltokuan cadence eased through Berri's ears, her gentle demeanor was wise and patient, "Because, not too long ago, it was something we didn't have the luxury of. I mean, simple hikers could turn into castle spectators."
"Which, could in turn become discovering castle weak points," Turbo dragged, he motioned his hand to Libby and sighed, "And, so on and so forth."
"We're safe here, though," Berri almost questioned; somehow, she felt defeated by the sheer fact that she wasn't involved in the huge show-down, the massive battle for Sugar Rush's code room ripped from Lash's greedy hands, she sagged her shoulders and wondered just how she could even properly hold the title of Princess without having experienced the castle's hardships, "I don't want this to go over my head, here."
"It won't, you know of Sugar Rush's past through us," Turbo assured gently, he glanced to Libby in confidence and warmly averted his whole attention to Berri, "You may not have been around for all of it, but you're one of the most important people inside Sugar Rush's hierarchy... Of course we're going to keep you up to speed."
"Thank you," Berri eased softly as she looked down, she tried not to fall into typical, flirty behavior with Turbo; partly because she had a solid audience, and also due to the gentle guard Turbo had put up not a few nights back. She nervously peered to Turbo and tried her hardest to keep her cool, "That's really nice of you."
"Just doin' my job," Turbo stated kindly, though he peeled from any shred of warm romance, that would typically follow, and began to touch a different conversation with Libby and Koko, who had just strolled up.
Berri sagged her shoulders and lightly took a step to her left, upon doing so, she sagged into a conversation that Wren, Theo, Beaux and Mara were having. All three boys loudly laughed and chattered whilst Mara stood quietly, almost painfully. Berri peered to her niece and frowned. Almost of age, a seemingly fragile little thing with beautiful, shoulder length pastel blue hair. She had Ralph's wavy hair, though not nearly as chaotic, her gentle, doe-like demeanor easily mocked Libby's, though she had powerful wrecking genes that she looked as if she had no clue what to do with. Likely the shyest, quietest being on the whole lot, Berri felt a wave of confidence soak through her, she knew she needed to potentially take Mara under her wing and make her feel included. She smiled to Mara, the second they caught eyes, and although Mara continued to look entirely shelled away, Berri was thrilled they at least held contact for more than a few seconds.
"You excited for the palace move, then?" Berri wondered warmly, she desperately tried to dial back her peppiness for her fragile niece, one that was nearly of age, though still looked like an unsure adolescent.
"Maybe," Mara eased, her tone was strangely chirpy and positive as she inhaled a deep breath and looked off and up, almost in a snotty sort of way; Berri shrugged it off.
"It'll be fun to really see the inner workings of it all," Berri smiled, she tried her hardest to let go of any minor feuding her and Mara had previously had, she did so with great success, a new leaf that was beginning to turn over. She prayed Mara would follow suit, "Hopefully it won't be way too much of a challenge for the code room, y'know?"
"I think you should leave all the hard work up to the Users, your highness," Mara snipped in tender delight, a voice as lovely and as dainty as Libby herself, though somehow Mara's was laced with bitterness, venom that Berri was entirely uncertain the source, and in the sting of said attack, Berri felt her pupils tighten with a rewind of now billowing, wreck-filled purpose.
With how desperately Berri wanted to bite back, and likely win, she bit her tongue, held her breath and peered hard into Mara's incredibly beautiful, icy eyes. As if looks could kill, Berri finally peeled herself from Mara's presence before her soul could potentially turn to stone, and in turning heel, she felt it entirely foreign that she was the first being to eagerly seek the code room's exit of a teleport pad. Falling tight into Turbo's old and tired routines, she sought immediate escape, though not due to wanting to strictly be alone, she peered up to the code room's glorious, sunny code room dome of glass and silently told it a little secret - if she left now, the whole of the code room would stay in tact, though one more second inside the same room as Mara would result in a game-ending fiasco of wrecking destruction. Although not nearly as fueled by her wrecking powers as the lot of the other wreckers on palace grounds, she could feel it in her coding this go around. With clenched fists and silver coding that was searing hot, the teleport pad eagerly whisked her away, and not a moment too soon.
