Hi. I'm Vanellope. Vani to my friends, Miss Von Schweetz for formalities. This is my story.
Before we were plugged in, I don't remember much. In fact, the first thing I remember is blinking into existence on the race track.
I already knew I was a racer. I looked around, and saw the karts and the track, and I remember feeling like I belonged.
That crashed and burned.
King Candy asked us to find our karts, after he'd told us about the game and we'd introduced ourselves. Our names were engraved on the dashboard. I saw all the other racers finding their karts and getting super excited - even the palette swaps found theirs. But after all the karts had been taken, I still couldn't find mine.
King Candy insisted it was a programming fault. That my kart would come in a few minutes. The other racers seemed uncomfortable. I guess I was crashing the happy party. They went for a few practice laps whilst King Candy and I waited for my kart.
We waited for a few minutes.
Then a few hours.
Finally, I had to admit that it wasn't coming. All the other racers were sympathetic, and King Candy consoled me the best he could, but it was hard to hide my disappointment.
It got worse from there.
Our names were supposed to be written on the doors to our houses. We all said goodnight to one another and went to find ours. Soon enough, all the other racers had found theirs and gone inside. King Candy was waiting for all of us to find ours before he left, but there wasn't a single house on racer's street that belonged to me. He suggested that I was a recolour, because recolours shared houses with their original characters but I didn't look like any of the others. In the end, I stayed in one of the palace guest rooms for the night. What was supposed to be the happiest day of my life had become the worst.
The next day, neither my kart nor my house had appeared. It was the same the next, and the next, and the next. The other racers began ignoring me slightly - it would seem my depression was contagious. King Candy thought it was probably best if I stayed out of sight during game time, so I did. I wandered the candy cane forests, lamenting my misfortune. I started to spend the night in the forest as well. The first few times, King Candy sent out a search party and insisted I stay in the castle, but eventually he just stopped trying. They all did.
Sometimes I would go talk to them after the roster race, just to remind myself that there were other humans out there. But they always seemed put off by my presence. I caught a few whispers: What's she doing here? Why doesn't she have a kart? She can't be a racer.
But I've always known I was.
Then, to make it even worse, I started to get pixlexia. I would glitch randomly. I went to King Candy about it - he was the only one who didn't push me away. He reassured me I would always have a place at the castle, but the staff and other racers started avoiding me, afraid of catching my condition. I eventually snuck away to the forest again, and didn't make contact for about a year or so.
When I finally emerged again, the other racers made no secret of their surprise. They staged a confrontation - they basically told me to stop hanging around the track. But being at the track made me feel alive, so I didn't listen.
Their 'confrontations' turned to accusations. They called me a glitch, and ordered me to stay off the track. I can't blame them for turning to cruelty - they were angry and scared, and they needed to do something about that. So they took refuge in number and status, and bullied me off the track.
Of course, the power you feel is addictive. So they continued to bully me even if I didn't go on the track - they didn't search for me explicitly, but their hiking trips in the forest always seemed to lead past my hideouts, and every time I visited a town they were there. Whenever King Candy caught them at it, he would order them to stop, and I would take refuge in the palace again, but the cycle continued.
That's about it up until now. I don't have a purpose - I drift aimlessly between small towns and forests, and am bullied by the other racers.
Cheerful, right?
Well, here's to hoping it improves.
New story! Yay!
This was requested to me by retro mania - hope you like it!
This is Sticky (a.k.a Miss Wipplesnit) signing off for the night! Goodnight!