sugarglitch | first gear ; action

[It was early morning when Vanellope woke up and found herself staring up at a dreary, overcast sky. Huh. That was weird. Cotton candy clouds were always pink, sometimes stripey and vaguely stringy - the ones up there were fluffy and boring and dreary and grey. Even more curiously, she hadn't had to nap outdoors in a long while - she had a castle now, and it was pink and sparkly and covered in sugar crystals...

She turned over and gave a surprised yelp when the world suddenly dropped several feet around her. She glitched on reflex, appearing a few feet down and landed pretty painfully on something hard and brown - a branch, she realized, when she sat up. Was it chocolate? Most trees she liked to climb were peppermint flavored. At least the one she landed on wasn't double striped! It still hurt though - way more than it should, really - was there something painful on her back? She got up, feet planted squarely on the tree branch and rubbed the back of her neck as she craned her head to check on what that ache was -

and stepped back again in surprise when she saw the minty green feathers fluttering behind her - not that there was anything there for her to step on! She'd fallen several feet down the tree before she even thought of glitching down to safety, and so was a flurry of pixels and feathers and candy bits when she was closer to the ground. Hopefully she doesn't crash into anyone! Though to be fair, landing on someone would prooobably be better than hitting the forest floor. Well, better for her, anyway.]

Owww... Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the candybar...

[Later in the afternoon, when she was somewhat settled and finally convinced that she wouldn't be going home for a while, Vanellope can be found in the middle of town! She's mostly hanging around the bakery, hovering by the window and peering inside at all the the sweet treats ( "Why are they all so freakishly tiny!" ) - but at some points can also be found glitching from shelf to shelf at the grocery, item shop or clothes store at all the things that weren't made of candy!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's my name, don't forget it! [She smiles brightly and seems to prefer standing to sitting. It's like she's always moving, shifting weight from one leg to the other.]

And yeah, I guess you could say that. The arcade isn't weird, though. It's a pretty great place!

For me, it sounds pretty odd.

Vanellope, have you got the journal you woke up with, and have you read through it?

That ratty old book with my name on it? I think I got it here somewhere... [She pats down on her hoodie until she reaches into the hammerspace of her front pocket - yup, there it is.]

It was being loud and weird so I shut it. Ralph said I should try to read through it eventually though, or something.

Well, there's something you SHOULD read.

[She takes it and opens it to the guide]

It's important. Just so you know. You aren't in your own world anymore.

[She takes one look at it and pulls a face.] All I see are words words words words... isn't there a faster way to be told all this?

Alright, sure.

[She sighs]

You're stuck in another world. There are these bad guys called the Malnosso who keep us trapped in a bubble called Luceti. They do weird things to us, experiments and such, and sometimes they make us fight for them. The wings on your back may be from them too, nobody knows. But if you lose the wings, you die.

There may be people, like me, who exist in your world but are actually different versions. I live in a regular world, not in a video game, but apparently in your world I'm in a game called Street Fighter. The same could be true of anyone.

You follow me so far squirt?

[If you lose your wings you die... Vanellope's only been allowed out of Sugar Rush about a week, but she can hear Sonic's PSA voice pretty clearly in her head.] And since we're not in our home games we can't regenerate... [That's... that's a scary thought. She swallows.]

That's weird... And it's Vanellope, not squirt!

Actually, you will regenerate. In a week, here. It's one of the weird rules about this place. But, you'll lose something. Like, you might lose an arm, or come back unable to talk. It's...pretty scary, but I'm not going to lie to you, kid.

[She gets serious]

So, be careful Vanellope, ok?

[Man, that's pretty dark. Vanellope isn't built for a game like this! But she nods, face serious for once.]

Yeah... yeah, okay. [She frowns, troubled.]

But... we can go home eventually, right?

In time, yes. The trouble is, we don't know when. Or how we get home.

[But she smiles gently, not wanting to discourage the kid]

We just have to make the best of it while we're here, and it's really not so bad. Just have to keep on the sunny side.

And don't worry, I'll look out for you too.

Edited 2012-11-17 09:07 (UTC)

Not so bad? But we're stuck here and the bosses in this game are gonna makes us do things we don't wanna do! How's that any good at all?

Because there are lots of really kind people here. Good people, who'll help you whenever they can.

You'll have a chance to learn things about other worlds too, things you maybe never even dreamed of.

And...the food's pretty good.

[Well, at that Vanellope has to smile a bit. She didn't know Chun Li very long back home, but this Chun Li was just as nice.]

Good food, huh? Well, I guess the bakery's okay, even if everything's really tiny...

[She picks up a big bagel]

This is tiny?

Uh, it's normal sized I guess. But where are all the big huge ones? Can't make a cart without wheels, and these are way too small to be decent wheels.

Well, we'd use rubber for wheels, Vanellope. It's tougher than bread.

Rubber wheels? Bo-ring. Next you'll tell me carts don't run on pixie sticks.

No, they run on gasoline. How would a car work with candy?

I dunno, maybe when it's programmed to run on candy?

Well, like I said before, we're not in a video game. I know it might be weird, but hey, it is what it is.

[A small, dramatic sigh.]

I guess so. It's just kinda weird to see how normal people live, y'know?

It's just as weird for me talking about pixie-stick fueled cars, kiddo.

first gear ; action

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