Hello, hello! Chapter twenty already? Wow! You'd think actual action stuff would have happened by now... but no, this is almost as boring as Flashback!
(I'm kidding. Nothing is as boring as the Fitzphie sleepover. Except Geography class.)
But yeah. For the next few chapters, you will be seeing a lot of triangle-y stuff- but I'll try to include some action to balance it out. And only after the triangle is resolved can the real plot stuff begin. Trust me, I've got it all planned out.
Speaking of planning, and triangles, I have planned out four conversations between Sophie and her suitors (two each). As of right now, they are mostly unedited dialogue. But here is a sneak peak for each one!
Keefe #1: "Keefe! Come back! I-"
Fitz #1: Fitz paused, hesitant to continue his thought. "...Unless you're choosing me."
Keefe #2: "No matter how fabulous I look, Foster, you can't deny that I'm bad for you."
Fitz #2: "Here." Fitz very delicately touched his finger to the corner of Sophie's mouth and wiped [the frosting] away. His fingers lingered on her cheek.
Like them? 'Course you do. I bet you can't wait to see them in context!
Crowd: To be honest, I don't give a sparkly alicorn feces.
Me: OH SHUT UP.
Anyway, how about we respond to reviews?
Sokeefe54355: Okay! We're all going crazy, but thanks!
Eva L: I KNOW RIGHT! ME TOO! Hopefully, yes. Ew, quarantine. And sanity? wHaT's SaNiTy!? Lol. Thanks!
Eva L: Oh my gosh. That was so beautiful. I am deeply impressed with your DEH reference skills. (Side note: DEH IS GLORIOUS!) But seriously, that was amazing. I'm screenshot-ing that review. Loved it! And thank you so much! Seriously, though, you SHOULD get an account! :)
KotlcForeverandever: Thank you so much!
ArrowOfTheMoonlark: Thank you! Yay cliffhanger! The fourth wall is the invisible barrier between a character and an audience. So "breaking the fourth wall" means making the character(s) aware that they are fictional or exist as part of a book/movie/play. i ThInK nOt! I KNOW! The love triangle is a bit aggravating, but sadly necessary... no matter how much I want Sophie to get over herself, kiss Keefe, and then move on with the plot. YEAH FITZ. LISTEN TO ARROWOFTHEMOONLARK. I kant spel iether. Ugh, quarantine. Yay, rainbow! Wow, this is pretty long. Anyway, adios!
Mallowmelt: :) Thanks! Eventually...
FlowerGirl15: Yes it is! Whoo! Welcome to the Sokeefe side, we have mallowmelt! Yeah Fitz, stop lying to her! We're all going insane here.
Cary Swirls: AHH! Long! Fourth wall? *Explosion in distance* It is no more. XD me too. And yay for Sophiana, and BIG YAY for straight puns! YEAH, FITZ. 1, 2, and 3 are all correct. YOUR LUNGS HURT! IS IT... cOrOnAvIrUs!? Nah, I'm kidding. 2,222 is great- and my friend LOVES the number 2 so I have to love it too- as well. I did add some conflict- as you may have discovered from the sneak peak lines. WHO THE PINEAPPLE! Love it. I think everyone know's I'm 100% Team Keefe, but whatever! I can't stand not planning everything- whenever I try to wing it, it's a MESS. FLUFFINESS! Yeah, this is pretty long! But that's okay! i'M tOtaLLy GoInG pSyChO tOo! Very subtle. Anyway, thanks for reviewing- and a HUGE thank you for all the help with the love triangle- I think I might actually be doing okay with it thanks to you! I'll dedicate a chapter to you at some point. :)
Thesirensong: Yeah! Thanks! It's okay- I'm half moving into a new house as well, so I understand the struggle! Ugh, quarantine. The key is e-books, audiobooks, or possibly Wattpad (another site similar to Fanfiction but it has original stories). Maybe you could also write some? And oh my gosh, totally! I never realized how much I needed that in my life until now! Songfic to ten duel commandments, maybe?
Wow, this A/N is looooooooooooong. Time for the chapter! Enjoy!
Dex, Sophie, and their respective bodyguards stood at the entrance to Ravirral. Through an excessive amount of stalking, Dex had found the place where Axel (Hopefully also known as Jayden Hammers) lived and its leaping coordinates. "Wow," Dex breathed when they saw it. Sophie could understand why- it was a technopath's heaven, basically. The house had everything from a crazily well-designed security system (dang it!) to some mechanical arm holding a watering can and watering the flowers. (Side note: Why did an evil genius have a garden outside his house?) Sophie and Dex could only imagine the kind of crazy/awesome (depending on who you asked) gadgets inside. "Once the council kicks him out and puts him in jail, I want to move here." Dex declared.
"Sure. I assume your first invention will be some sort of sibling repellent?" Sophie joked.
"Definitely. Man, I really need to get started on that one." The two elves eyed the house.
"Who wants to knock?" Sophie asked finally.
"You're the moonlark," Dex answered.
"Yeah, but you found him."
Sandor resolved the argument for them by rolling his eyes and pressing on the doorbell. Sophie and Dex held their breath as they waited for Axel to come answer it.
A minute passed, and then another, but Axel still didn't come. Sandor rang the doorbell again. After a few more minutes, they were forced to give up.
"I don't think he's home," Sophie sighed.
"It's the middle of the night. Where else would he be?" Dex asked. Then he slapped his forehead. "Right. At a Neverseen meeting. I'm dumb. Just ignore me."
"You're not dumb," Sophie chided, even though she knew he was kidding. "You're way smarter than everyone else in our group."
"Yeah, but that's hardly a high standard, is it?" Dex joked. Sophie shoved him in response. The two lapsed into silence as they starred at Ravirral again. "Think we could break in and steal the caches?" Dex asked finally.
"Um, am I the only one who noticed the security system this guy has?" Sophie asked. Not that it didn't sound effective or anything (It definitely sounded fun- things were started to get a bit boring with no action or adrenaline rushes lately), but the risks seemed a bit too high- especially for Miss I Worry About Anything And Everything On The Face Of The Earth. (Acronym: MIWAAAEOTFOTE. What was with these terrible acronyms? First EBWSATBJFWBMSLSNS, now this.) Considering Axel's security system, she doubted they would make it even into the house without getting caught. Then, of course, they might not even find the caches. And even if Sophie and Dex found them, Sophie assumed that Axel would have put lots of protective measures into place to prevent the caches from getting stolen. Then they would have to get back out of the house undetected, if they miraculously made it that far. And, of course, there was the possibility, however small, that Sophie and Dex had the wrong guy. That would go over well: "Sorry, Mr. Hammers. We thought you were the Neverseen member Axel, so we broke into your house and tried to steal the caches we thought you possessed. Deeply sorry, good sir." Yeah, that wasn't going to work. And Sophie was trying to avoid doing more illegal things after the myriad of tribunals she'd had towards the beginning of her time in the Lost Cities.
"I could probably hack into that," Dex said.
"True, you probably could."
"Regardless of whether or not you could," Lovise started. Both elves groaned. Of course the bodyguards weren't going to let them do this. "You are not under any circumstances going to."
"But-" Sophie and Dex both started, before spitting out protests that honestly the bodyguards didn't even seem to be listening to.
"Nope." Sandor agreed.
"Oh, come on!" Dex groaned.
"Sorry. How about we leap away and come back later?" Sandor suggested.
"I'm sure Dex the stalker could find out when Axel would be home," Lovise added.
Dex, who had been pouting up until now, perked up a little at the mention of stalking. "I guess," he muttered.
Make sure you TELL ME once you find a good time to come back, Sophie transmitted to Dex.
Dex jumped a little, but overall, Sophie thought he did a pretty good job of keeping a poker face. Of course. Maybe Keefe, too? Since he can tell when someone's lying?
Sounds good. Sophie replied. Then, a little while later: Make sure you get some sleep. Don't stay up all night working.
Get some sleep, Dex repeated. What, like you do?
Sophie rolled her eyes, but she could not deny that he did have a point. Just- whatever. Sleep at least a little. And hail me once you find something important, she reminded him.
The grin Dex gave her as they glittered away to their separate houses made her think he would hail her well before she found anything.
Her suspicions were confirmed at about two in the morning when she received a hail from Dex. As quietly as she could, she accepted it.
"Hey," Dex whispered.
"Hi," Sophie kept her voice equally quiet.
"Want to go steal some caches?"
Sophie hesitated only a second before replying "Yeah. But Sandor's right outside my door."
"You have windows," Dex said, dimples showing from the way he grinned wickedly.
"I do. But-"
"You know you can levitate, right?"
"Right," Sophie whispered, though of course she forgot. Years after coming to the Lost Cities, and she still sometimes forgot the crazy stuff they could do. Sophie wondered if she would ever really get used to being an elf. Somehow, she doubted it. The moonlark had spent twelve years living in the human world, and with a photographic memory, it was hard to forget all that. Whether she liked it or not, her time as a human had been permanently internalized in Sophie. Somehow, though, she didn't mind so much. Her human upbringing was a part of her, just as much a part of her as being the Moonlark. Sophie felt a pang of longing for her human life- even when she was wildly unpopular, at least she didn't have some crazy terrorist elf group after her- and an even sharper pang missing her human family. She wondered if, maybe when the war was over, she would be allowed to let her parents remember her. And even if not, Sophie hoped she would be able to see Amy more regularly.
"You coming?" Dex asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Um..." Sophie remembered the alicorn pajamas she was wearing and decided it would probably be a good idea to change first. "I'll be at your house in five minutes."
Wow! That chapter was a little more than eleven hundred words, but it felt way shorter! (With the A/N's, it is more than 2,000. Wow.) Anyway, I hope you appreciated this chapter- it was all Dex and no triangle! Don't get used to it, though. Next chapter, I'm planning on incorporating Fitz Scene #1. And also some action, don't worry. But still. Fitz. Blargh.
Also! Um. 6,000 views- YAY!- and we're beginning to approach 150 for reviews. How about we meet that goal for this chapter? I know you can do it- I've gotten more than seven reviews on a chapter before!
Iggy is, right now, strongly in favor of rainbow (and sparkles, because I'm adding sparkles no matter what. As our queen Biana said, sparkles make everything better. What was I saying? Oh yeah.). Rainbow Iggy! If you feel strongly otherwise, please speak now or forever hold your peace! The Iggy poll is closing on April 1st.
Since this is already too long, how about we make it longer! I have a story on my other account, Glitter-Fangirls-23. It is a very angsty Dexella story entitled "Assassin." Please do check it out!
Still losing my mind, but whatever. Stay safe from coronavirus, don't lose any more sanity, and above all...
PLEASE REVIEW!