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Chapter 1
Something Off
Queen De Minthe enjoyed helping out Sour Bill with the chores around the Castle during the day – they chatted pleasantly, shared a fun story or two – mostly he told her of the happenings down at the track that she missed, which was quite a bit. Being often overlooked ( and ignored ), he was in on almost all of the games current gossip.
De Minthe giggled as he told her a story about Rancis and Vanellope nearly crashing each others karts the last race he had been too.
"Oh, that's too funny, Bill." she laughed lightly as she handed him down one of the larger Bubblegum Drops from the tree – even at his protesting, she had insisted that she helped him gather candies from the garden for the day. She was currently up on one of the tree branches, reaching through and climbing carefully from branch to branch, again, even after Sour Bill's warning that the trees limbs weren't exactly the strongest around.
"You worry to much sweetie. Besides, I must do SOMETHING fun around here, if I am to be stuck in this Castle all day. As much as I love working with you, something a little dangerous now and then never hurt anyone." she smiled as she reached out to a tall branch, stretching as far as she could on her tip toes.
Sour Bill kept his eyes covered – and not just because he was worried she would fall, but more so she WAS wearing a dress and kind of above him at the moment, despite the giant amount of frilly layers underneath (not that HE would know, of course).
"PLEASE be careful, Ma'am!"
"Almost-?!" she froze – something, she wasn't sure what, was horribly, terribly wrong, somewhere in her game. She got a sickening feeling in her stomach, and she thought it might be bad enough to make her codes fuz – and she was right. She let out a gasp as her feet fuzzed out. It wasn't like a normal 'glitch', so much as more of a badly tuned old TV set. She felt herself fall, but managed to get a hold of herself long enough to grab the same branch she had just been standing on.
"B-Bill!" she cried, feeling herself losing her grip, but the candy man had been alerted by her sudden lack of words, and had snatched the ladder she had used to get up into the tree in the first place. He scaled it, and held out his jelly bean hands – her waist was just a bit above him.
"Let yourself drop, I've got you Your Majesty!" he said, and she nodded, trusting him wholeheartedly, after all. She let go, and he caught her, making sure she had a steady place to stand before he let go of her.
"Are you alright?" he asked her, climbing down so she could climb down as well. As she made it to the grassy ground, she wrapped her arms around herself – it was still there. Something was wrong, very wrong. She could feel it in her codes, swirling around at a rate that might be the equivalent of a Players heart racing.
"Your Majesty?" Sour Bill asked again, placing a hand on her arm, concerned. She hadn't realized she had walked a ways away from him, and her head shot up a bit before she looked down at him. Seeing the worry in his eyes, she wished she could tell him it was nothing, but she hated to lie to him.
"I'm... not sure. The games coding feels like..." she really had nothing to compare it too. All she knew was that it was not good. They both looked up, hearing the familiar chime signaling that the Arcade was now closed. She looked back down at him, and motioned for him to follow her.
"I must speak with my husband, maybe he knows what's wrong." she told him, and he jogged as fast as his legs would carry him behind her as they left the gardens and made their ways into the kitchen.
It took them a short while to make it to the Throne Room, and that was where they waiting.
Sour Bill glanced at a Sherbet clock on the wall, frowning deeper then usual – the King was late. He was NEVER late.
"Where IS he?" De Minthe muttered to herself, worry colouring her face as she kept glancing at the large entryway that he usually drove his kart up through to park as the Throne for the evening.
"I'm sure he's probably just talking to Vanellope, ma'am." Sour Bill replied, trying to console her as she strode past him for the tenth or so time, going between the empty Throne and one of the windows to gaze down at the road leading up from the track.
"I don't like this, Bill. Not at all. Something is wrong in the game, and my King is missing..."
"Should I send out the guards to look for him?" Sour Bill offered, and she turned to him, mouth opened – when she heard the sound of a familiar engine echoing up through the Castle walls, and she heaved a sigh of relief. She and Sour Bill stood off to the side, out of the way as it approached, and soon enough, the Royal Kart burst up into the Throne room, spun around, and backed into the Throne, like the King drove it every day. She immediately ran up to it as the King took off his racing goggles and hopped out of his Kart, tossing them back in onto the seat. He had his back to her, initially, but she couldn't wait.
"Oh, thank GOODNESS you're home! Something terrible has happened, and I-...I..." she faltered, taking a few steps back as he turned to her, her eyes wide in shock.
He looked the same as he always did – the same white hair, bushy gray eyebrows, high, white collar, purple jacket... everything. There was nothing that, really, anyone looking at him, would say was off – but she knew.
He regarded her with a surprised look as well, though set in a different tone. His eyes quickly looked her over, before they set on her silvery crown – and he broke into a wide, cheerful grin.
"Well hello there thweetie! H-how wath your day?" he asked her, but didn't move to embrace her, like he usually did.
She continued to stare at him like he was one of the cannibal Sour Patch kids from Gummy Mountain, until she caught Sour Bill's glance from behind him, and recomposed herself. She forced a smile, and flattened her dress out a bit.
"Fine, just... fine. You're... a little late, this evening, hun. I was... worried." she explained, hoping he would believe that that was all there was to it.
"Oh, thorry about that! I wath, er, caught up with thome of the other racers after the latht round for the day, my apologies." he said, striding up to her to take her hand. He placed a kiss on top of it, and she had to fight against her better judgment to not recoil from him or make any sort of face as he did so.
He glanced up at her, and again, she forced another smile, even though the look in his eyes quite plainly spoke of nothing but ill intent.
"That's fine, I'm just glad you're okay." she replied, more composed with her lies this time, and he seemed to accept it a little better as he let go of her hand and yawned, stretching a bit.
"Well, thorry to cut thith short thweet heart, but I'm a little worn out from the day. I think I'll head to bed for the evening. Good night!" he said with a small bow, before he started walking down down the Throne Room to the large, double doors at the end.
She watched him until he shut the doors, and Sour Bill had made his way over to her. He glanced up, seeing her tremble slightly.
"What's wrong, ma'am?"
"...that's not King Candy."
