towerofanimus | Definitely not a "vurp" and definitely not something she wants to taste

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Definitely not a "vurp" and definitely not something she wants to taste

Characters: Vanellope and anyone who's willing to talk to a brat with dirty hair!
Setting: First floor cafeteria.
Format: Either or! I'll be starting with action, but I'll follow your lead if you want something else.
Summary: Vanellope has discovered that she has to eat oatmeal and she is not amused.
Warnings: May be vaguely spoilerish if you haven't seen Wreck-It Ralph yet. Also, Vanellope gives inappropriate nicknames.

_{[This day was already turning out to be way weirder than Vanellope wanted to deal with. The last thing she remembered-- those creepy bugs coming out of the ground, and a crash, and Ralph yelling, and then--

...waking up here, and finding that weird note. Luckily the words were all simple enough for her to understand. Unluckily... the words were all simple enough for her to understand. No way could Sugar Rush have been destroyed! Glitches couldn't leave their game, right? And... and...

But those bugs, A small, nagging voice in the back of her mind whispered. Remember those bugs?

She didn't want to deal with it.

Another thing she didn't want to deal with? The jumpsuits. Uh, hello? Totally not her style! Her hoodie was much better racer material, thank you. She'd changed clothes and grabbed a handful of candy from her trunk ASAP.

Exploring the tower was something she definitely needed to do. She found herself at the bottom floor cafeteria more quickly than she would have thought - idly bringing a piece of licorice up to her lips to chew on, she passes through the doors.

A moment later, just after swallowing, she gags. Both hands fly up to her mouth and she makes a dash for the nearest trash can, jumping up to empty her stomach into it.]}

What--?!

_{[When the vomiting subsides, she hops back down onto the floor and eyes the licorice suspiciously.]}

...bad licorice.

_{[With that, she pops a mint into her mouth. A moment later, she has to jump back up to the edge of the trash can. This is not okay. She's sure she could have some fun with it if it didn't make her stomach hurt so bad... but it does hurt. And it's not just one or two candies. She's trying it out with everything she's got, and the result's the same every time. Finally, she collapses on the ground next to the trash can, her face a little green.]}

This really stinks!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dunno. Luck. Hoping on a wish and a prayer it happens and it manages to.

Your mom does it for you.

...

I don't have a mom.

.....

Lucky.

They're not as great as people would make you think.

...ya think so?

[She hunches her shoulders. Maybe a mom would have made being a glitch easier. Maybe it wouldn't.

Could glitches even have moms?]

...Yeah. I do.

It's not great to be alone - well, it is sometimes - but parents are.

Parents kinda suck.

...

I don't get it... I always thought maybe it'd be nice to have someone.

It's not always that great coming home and knowing that even if you say, "I'm home!" ... you won't get any reply at all.

You're right. Loneliness sucks but

[He hasn't been home in a long time. A long long time. But having come from an abusive household with the only person he cared about being his brother, loneliness had been something Pokey had taken to quickly.

And he'd found during his time in Mayfield it was nice to have others to be with. But it's still hard to say.]

Sometimes there are things worse than it.

This is dumb. Why are we even talking about this? You still gotta eat your stupid disgusting oatmeal so you aren't barfing everywhere. Go do that idiot.

...

[It seems like that topic of conversation is closed. Right, on to the next bit of what he said!]

But I don't want oatmeal...

Can you eat it for me and then we'll tell them I ate it and maybe they'll let me eat other things?

Pleeeeeeeeeease?

[Whoever "them" is, anyway...]

Nice try but I don't think they're that stupid.

I kinda hope they aren't, honestly, if they can do all this.

Sorry kid. You're on your own. I ate my oatmeal already. I ain't doing it again.

But it's yucky.

[She frowns a little and crosses her arms. Obviously she needs to eat at some point, but she really really really doesn't want to eat the oatmeal.]

Isn't there something I can do instead? Like promise them I'll do something else... maybe clean the toilets! No one likes doing that, right? If I clean the toilets do you think they'll let me skip the oatmeal?

....

[Pokey just stares at Vanellope, and stares, and stares, before extending a hand out to try and flick her in the forehead.]

You've never been in actual danger before, have you?

..!

[The flick to the forehead makes her back up a little, and though she did say something, the words are garbled as she glitches. Once the pixels settle down into her usual form, though, she puts her hands on her hips and shoots Pokey a look]

Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing!

[She's deliberately avoiding the subject of "danger." She thinks the things she's been through in the past couple of days - since meeting Ralph - definitely count, but she can't see any reason to broadcast them to this person she's just met.]

[That's cool because as of now the talk he was going to give about danger can take a back seat. Pokey was an old hand at having weird and bizarre things happen in front of him, but there were still things that could manage to take him by surprise.

Seeing Vanellope do the equivalent of forcing herself out of focus like....well, a bunch of pixels readjusting though he knows that sounds stupid...was not one of the things Pokey expected. He tilts his head a bit in curiosity.]

Just as long as you watch how you look, stupid! It's like you were trapped inside an old television for a moment. Thought I'd have to hit you to get you to readjust, y'know?

I wasn't doing it on purpose. It's just something that happens sometimes, okay?

[Though she can't help but snicker a little at his "thought I'd have to hit you" bit. That's not a reaction most people have when they see her glitch.

Though the "old television" remark is waaaay more accurate than he knows.]

What, like you've never had things you couldn't explain happen to you?

[It was weird, but weird on the scale that Pokey was used to. In a weird way it felt kind of nice seeing a version of weird he knew how to deal with after two years of utter insanity.]

Yeeeeaaah but it doesn't tend to make it look like I'm being projected on some cheap TV in a Waffle House.

It was almost cool. But I guess that's not right if it just happens.

Yeah? What's it "tend to do" when it happens to you?

[She shoves both her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie and stares up at him.]

Eh. Not much. Itching mostly.

Oh. Not aging for a few hundred years is another one.

So you're going to be a kid forever too?

[Oh. Wow. That was....kind of depressing to hear.

He had managed to trade it away in the last place he'd been in. That had been one of the few perks he had found about Mayfield itself, the fact he was able to give something like that about himself up. He had no clue if that'd hold true here, as much as he'd like it to. He opens his mouth once, a false start, and closes it. He nods a little, before saying.]

Yeah. I will.

It's pretty cool huh?

...

[She looks up at him for a few moments, quiet, and scuffs at the ground with the toe of her shoe. Then she nods.]

Yeah... cool.

[Though it would be a lie to say she hadn't sometimes wished she would get at least a little older, so when people were picking on her it was easier to stand up to them. Sometimes it made her chuckle to think of how King Candy might react if she were taller than him and able to just put out her hand and keep him from coming any closer because her reach was so much longer than his.]

...soooo, what kinda stuff is there for an eternal kid to do in this place, anyway?

[Pokey can make some guesses as to what she really thinks. None of the specifics, but he can guess the general idea of it. Saying you won't grow up at first can seem cool. In a lot of ways when it starts out it is cool. But as time goes on you begin to get bored of it. Tired of it. And you realize how much it is you'd like to be able to change.

Sometimes it can take a long time to realize that. It did for him. But when Pokey did realize it, it hit him hard. He has to wonder how long Vanellope has been like this, but even he has the sense to not out and out ask her that yet.]

...Eh, not much. Least not if you leave things like they are. Place like this, you've gotta use your imagination.

When you do that it can be a lot of fun.

...But this is a dangerous place, runt. I'm not kidding on that if you haven't been someplace like this before.

Imagination? I've got heaps of that!

[She stumbles back a few steps and spreads her arms wide to demonstrate just how much. Sigh, less talk, more action, Vanellope!]

And I'm not scared of danger. You shoulda seen it right before I woke up here! There were these big, evil bugs trying to eat everyone, and popping out of the ground! Some of them were indestructible 'cause they were made of jawbreakers! And then--

...

[And then she crashed.]

And pow, pow! I led them on a chase and lured them over and my friend got 'em, lickety-split!

[She doesn't actually know if Ralph actually bashed them in or not, but it comforts her to think that if he's not here, he's there. And he's good at wrecking things, so he should definitely have been able to have wrecked those cy-bugs.]

We made a really good team!

[Mutant bugs? Are pretty cool. The made of jawbreakers part he isn't sure how to process yet but sure why not. He's seen monsters made of weirder things. And even as dangerous as that sounds....]

...It's a different type of danger here. And sometimes you don't get a choice but to get hurt.

Look. You're a good kid. Noisy and kinda slow, but good. So if you find anyone like your friend back home who's strong enough to protect you - and you should be able to - you need to go to them when things get bad here.

And trust me. You should be able to tell most times when things are getting bad.

If you only have one choice it's not really a choice, is it?

[She goes quiet for a few moments though, maybe to think about what he said about danger and finding someone like Ralph, or maybe to prove that she's not loud all the time. Or both. Finally she looks up at him again, a slightly quizzical look on her face.]

Are you someone I can come to?

...Naw. I guess it isn't.

If you've got no one else? Try and find me.

But there's not a lot I can do to protect anyone here, let alone myself. There'll be someone better you'll find.

Definitely not a "vurp" and definitely not something she wants to taste

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