Just saw Wreck-it Ralph yesterday and it is brilliant. Of course, I had to write a fic. It started as a one-shot but as I thought about the idea it got longer. It probably *crosses my fingers* won't be more than a few chapters although we'll see.
Vanellope still feels 12 and it sucks. She is not 12 and she does not appreciate the fact that she feels like she's 12. The only thing that makes it even remotely better is the fact that the other girls seem to be stuck younger as well, all of them still without their memories. But Vanellope already lived through an entire year of being 12. She's a teenager. At least, she's supposed to be. She's supposed to be a teenager and she can't figure out why she's not and why she knows she's supposed to be and it's all just so confusing.
It's an odd feeling, knowing that she's supposed to be a teenager. She has these odd memories, feelings that important things happened in her life that she just can't remember. She has flashes, sometimes. She knows that she's 16 years old, remembering a big party with all of the girls dressed in their very best and, of course, the very best cake that had ever come out of the bakery.
"Vanellope?"
Hearing her door creak open, Vanellope sits up, thankful for the distraction. After King Candy… Turbo, had been defeated she had invited all the girls to move into the palace. Something just feels right about having them only a few doors away. Well, that's not entirely true. Something just feels right about having Taffyta around. "Taff? What's wrong?"
Taffyta steps inside slowly. She looks a lot like a candy cane in her striped nightgown and Vanellope finds it hard to hold in a laugh. "I can't sleep. Why are we still like this?"
Vanellope frowns at Taffyta, beckoning the blonde to come inside. Her own nightgown makes her look like an ill ghost, green sleeves falling well past her wrists. It's not her fault that she's been living in hot springs and is cold all the time now. Taffyta comes further in, closing the door with another creak and Vanellope vows to remember to ask to have that fixed in the morning. "Why are you asking me?"
"You're the princess," Taffyta responds, standing next to the bed, her tone making it clear that she thinks her answer makes it obvious. Vanellope, long having given up on trying to get Taffyta to drop the princess thing and call her president, looks at her, raising an eyebrow and laying back, putting her hands underneath her head. Rolling her eyes, Taffyta pushes at Vanellope until she can lay down, kicking the covers halfway down the bed and not protesting when Vanellope pulls them all the way back up. "Shouldn't we have gone back to normal once the game reset? I feel so off."
Rolling onto her side, Vanellope looks at Taffyta. She doesn't remember her years after she turned 12 besides the flashes, just knowing that she had them. She supposes that it's part of the "glitch," part of what Turbo did to them. "Let's just get some sleep," she murmurs, rolling onto her other side, letting Taffyta know that the conversation is over. She doesn't want to think about it anymore tonight. She doesn't want to think about it at all.
Vanellope can hear Taffyta open her mouth, prepare to say something but she obviously thinks better of it. For a long time, Vanellope lays awake, listening to the sound of Taffyta settle in and then breathe softly. She wishes that she could fall asleep as easily as her friend did.
Racing is exhilarating and Vanellope can't get enough of it. She had known all along that being a racer was in her code and she enjoys her time as undefeated champion. Every day, she races again and again, one of the more popular players. She blows kisses to the crowd and sometimes, when a racer is lucky, she even wears her gown for the race although it makes it very hard to press down on the peddles when she does and she almost always loses.
The best part is the racing takes Vanellope's mind off the fact that her citizens need her. They all want their memories back as well. They have families, lives and none of them can remember anything from the past few years. Sour Bill has told her it is probably due to the reset but Vanellope refuses to accept that. To accept it would mean accepting that they were, in fact, reset and that their memories are gone. Vanellope doesn't know how to tell her citizens that they'll never remember.
Two months after the reset, Vanellope has to admit to herself and to the others that she doesn't know what's going on. She knows the entrance to the code but it scares her, messing around with their code. She doesn't want to turn anybody else into a glitch even though she knows that she wouldn't allow them to be exiled like she was.
She takes her council and her very best friends and calls a meeting at Game Central Station. It's open to all and she waves at the people that she knows. Some of them, like Princess Peach, she knows are just there because they have nothing better to do. Others are there because she specially requested them like P.F.S.L. Hacker from the new hacking game that had only been plugged in recently. He has sunglasses on and she scoots a tad closer to Taffyta when she sees him, unnerved as she always is when she sees him.
"Everybody requested here? Good, good." Arc Ade stands up on one edge of the circle, looking around at the people seated around him. "We're here on behalf of Princess Vanellope and Sugar Rush. Vanellope, would you like to explain why you have called a meeting?"
Vanellope nods, taking a deep breath and swallowing hard. She tries to remember everything that she had rehearsed, everything that she wants to say. It all seems to fly out of her head. "We… we have a problem, you see," she finally says, looking into each of their eyes, avoiding looking at P.F.S.L. "As most of you know, two months ago, I crossed the finish line of my game. When that happened, the game was reset. Because of this, we have regained all of our preprogrammed backstories that had previously been locked up by Turbo. Unfortunately, we can't remember anything that happened before Turbo came into our game.
"My citizens are most displeased and… I have to admit that I am as well." Vanellope smiles as she sees Ralph amble in, late, and sit down next to Felix and Calhoun (who gives him a mighty glare for being late). "I'm back to thinking that I'm 12 years old and I know that I'm not. I've celebrated birthdays. I'm 16 years old. Things have happened in my life. And maybe the arcaders never noticed the difference but I did! I don't know how to manipulate the code and I'm scared to. I don't know how to regain our memories. I'm asking for help."
Looking over at Arc, she nods respectfully and sits back down, straightening her sweatshirt. Taffyta pokes her in the leg and she smiles widely at her friend, thankful that she has her support. She had asked Taffyta to come with, crossing her fingers in her sweatshirt pocket and telling her that she didn't really need her but that Taffyta might find it interesting. Taffyta hadn't even thought about it before telling Vanellope that of course she would go.
Arc's smile is kind and he looks like an old grandfather to Vanellope. "Well, you've heard Princess Vanellope's request. For the new games, I will explain a few things. As our game ages and as years pass in the gamer's world, years pass in our world. Our bodies do not change. We are programmed the way that we are. However, we do grow older, even if it's just in our minds. We are programmed at a certain age and count the years from there. You see what happens, even if you've only been plugged in a day. We fall in love, get married. Felix and Calhoun are the perfect example. We have lives. To be reset is a great tragedy and it's been the undoing of many great colleagues but… to remember that you had a life before the reset is unheard of. Is there anything anybody can do?"
"I can look at the code," P.F.S.L. says, pushing his sunglasses up over his head, revealing another pair of sunglasses on his face. Taffyta stares as he looks over at them. His voice is rough but quiet, a perk of the job he always said. He is the one who tells his gamers all about how to play his game and sounding mysterious is his way of business. "Turbo probably damaged it."
Vanellope tries to smile at him although she has a feeling that it's quite shaky. "Thank you. Will you be able to find the rest of our memories in the code?"
P.F.S.L shrugs, flicking his sunglasses back down over his eyes and Vanellope realizes that they're two shades darker than the originals on his face. "I dunno but it's worth a try. You all remember that there are memories so your memories are somewhere. You just have to find them."
Feeling a nudge against her leg, Vanellope looks over, seeing Taffyta smiling encouragingly at her. She doesn't feel quite as optimistic but she smiles back. "Well, I'm willing to do whatever needs to be done to find our memories," she says after a moment.
"I'll be coming with of course," Taffyta says, nudging Vanellope's leg with her own again. Vanellope's smile widens, turning real.
A few of her other racers, and of course, her royal guard and some of her council, speak up, saying that they'll do anything too. Vanellope is too busy thinking about the fact that Taffyta's smile makes her stomach feel like she ate too much candy.