"Please, please!" A shrill child's voice cried out across the room as she struggled between the arms of her capturers. Tears dotted the edges of her wide eyes as she frantically squirmed around, her coding shaking and jerking along with her.
"Now, now, my dear.~" A voice sweet as candy broke through her pleas and whimpers, a small man dressed regally, swinging a peppermint laced candy cane in between skilled fingers. "We go through this again and again, don't we?"
"But I'm tellin' you!" The child's sporadic code became static again as she jerked against the men holding her- two donut policemen, who managed to keep their hold on her. "I know I can race, I just know it, all I need is a chance!" Her voice cracked as she tried to keep the tears from falling. It was like this every time, for every roster. It just wasn't fair!
"Penellope, my dear, sweet little gummy worm!" The man approached her, a tiny crown bouncing atop his head to signify his royal status.
"Vanellope!" The child insisted, her struggles ceasing as she became more tired.
"Hoo-hoo!~ Whatever, my dear." He swung the candy cane around her neck in a smooth motion before tugging her head forward. "I know that all you want to do is race, don't we all!" He grinned at her before jerking the candy cane against her neck again, eliciting a grunt from the girl from the pressure. "But it's just simply not in the code for you! Do you see all of this?" The King prodded a lingering pixel of hers that had failed to regroup itself. "All of you, my dear? Your programming is a doozy, you know, just no good, hoo-hoo!~"
"You're wrong!" Vanellope snapped, a small sniffle following. "You're all wrong, I'm in this game for a reason!"
He rolled his eyes before yanking the candy cane away, setting the bottom of it against the floor. "I know you think otherwise, sugarplum, but I'm the adult here, not to mention king, and as such, I expect all of you little gumdrops to listen to these rules I put down! They're there for a reason, you know!"
"Adults don't know everything." Vanellope mumbled under her breath, her teary eyes locked on his castle floor in a glare.
"I think you'll find that we know a lot more than you kids, hoo-hoo!~" His grin fell a few notches as he turned away from her. "I'd love for you to be able to race more than anything, Pene- er, Vanellope." He bit down on his lip, trying to contain his giggles, "It pains your king's heart when he has to watch one of his little racers have to be banned from the track, and the bakery, and from touching the trophy and getting her sticky, grubby little handprints all over it." His octave rose slightly as he turned to face her. "Eh-heh. But you know! It's all just to make certain that you don't hurt yourself…or others. What with you glitching all over the track, why, you could get into a wreck!"
"I-I could control it!" She reasoned, "Sometimes I don't glitch for a really long time unless I think about it…"
"That's neither here nor there, Vanellope." The King shook his head quickly, "No, I just can't take that chance with you. You're an accident waiting to happen!"
"Not any more than the other racers are!"
"Try to see it from everyone else's perspective, cupcake.~" The King was visibly growing more and more frustrated in his attempts. "I let you race, you have lots of fun, everyone else is terrified of you, eh-heh. The next thing you know, maybe, just maybe you cross the finish line, MAYBE! And then what?! You'd be added to the roster for players to choose from!"
"I-it'd be amazing!"
"NO!" The King yelled right in her face before pulling back with a nervous giggle. "No, it would not, because you'd still be a glitch. And you'd glitch, and glitch, and glitch, all over the screen, and do you know what? The players wouldn't like it!"
"Th-they might!"
"No, they won't. And because of you, the players will get mad, and they won't play our game anymore. Do you want that, Vanellope? Do you want to ruin everyone's lives and stop everyone else from racing?! DO YOU?!"
The child shrank back from his accusing advances, tears dribbling down her face. "N-no…" She barely mouthed, her shoulders slumped as she cringed.
The King finally drew back, a small grin of triumph on his face, "There, you see? My little sugar cube, I don't blame you for your flaws. You can't help them, after all. But when you start interfering with the safety of others…do you understand why we need to obey the rules?"
She was quiet for the moment, but managed to nod, trying not to let her sobs escape. The King was satisfied with this though.
"Now I hope you'll put all of these silly little thoughts of racing to rest! Or the next time you interfere, I'll put you in the Fungeon again." He tenderly placed his cane under her chin to lift her face. "And this time, I'll never let you out." His eyes glared into hers, causing her to flinch as she caught a mere glimpse of the man beneath the sugar-coated ruler.
She could only sputter out a weak response, to which he took as her glitching again, and he quickly withdrew his cane, looking disgusted for a moment before slapping a grin on to mask it. "Ta-ta my little cookie-monster!~ Try not to get into any more trouble, hoo-hoo!~"
The donut policemen finally turned, holding onto her tightly as the pulled her away, leaving the King there to lean on his cane as he watched her leave through the large doors.