A/N: Hey, guys! It's been a while since I touched base with the WiR fandom, though this idea has been in development since 'A Couple of Weirdos', which was published way back in July of last year. This was actually hinted in the aforementioned story, once with a small insert introducing Crumbelina's characterization, and then later during Rancis and Swizzle's in-depth conversation. Why not go back and see if you can find them?

The 1st and the 3rd stories I wrote for WiR explored Rancis and Candlehead's friendship as they both slowly came to terms of how deep it truly is. Now, we'll give them a break to dive into the lives of some other characters and their personal plights. For such minor characters in the movies, there is an amazing amount of potential for all of them if you dig deep enough. Why, oh why did they delete that dinner scene with the Sugar Rush kids? This story does follow the others chronologically, so it'd be worthwhile to read 'To Light a Candle' and 'A Couple of Weirdos' first before diving into this one if you want the full experience and background of the universe that I've set up for these arcade characters. But if you want to skip straight ahead to read Crumbelina and Gloyd's story, read on! Depending on how I choose to split up the story, it should run to 4 or 5 chapters.

Also, I recently watched Bride of Frankenstein for a film class. That gave me some inspiration.

And above all, enjoy!

As a fun little game, can you count all the nicknames that Gloyd receives for himself in this story? Leave your answer in the comment roster.

Violin's Song

January 12 – February 29, 2020

Part 1 - Gloyd's Perfect Prank

Crumbelina DiCaramello had an interesting status in the Sugar Rush universe. She was hard competition, not as serious as Taffyta nor as graceful as Swizzle, but well-versed on the track in her own way. Skilled and smart, she could dodge giant gumballs with ease and drift the difficult turns without suffering a wipe out. Her aiming with the Sweet Seekers was sharp and precise, and her quick-calculating mind could target the best moments when to use them. Plus, her special core ability embedded in her code was a very valuable one for the players: having the highest attack-strength with power-ups used against her opponents. Unfortunately, even with such an advantageous ability, she ironically wasn't the most popular racer to the arcade's patrons. The game popularity wasn't the issue, as Sugar Rush was one of Mr. Litwak's most loved games, what with it being one of the only ones existing in America. With bright flashy colours, fun candy themes, fast-pace racing, and realistic graphics, who wouldn't want to insert their quarters into the machine's slot and play all nine of the day's playable racers? Most visitors to Litwak's Family Fun Centre and Arcade were kids who would play as many games per day as possible. So that wasn't the issue here.

Crumbelina's real problem stemmed from the fact that all the other available avatars during gameplay were far more colourful and vibrant in appearance than her and drove much cooler-looking racing karts than her Tira-Missile. Kids tended to be attracted to things like these more than racing skill and power-up advantages, so Crumbelina often found herself racing solo without a player if she was even lucky enough to be an option on the leaderboard to represent her game for the day. Not that it bothered her all that much, as it meant she could drive freely without having to obey the players' commands. Despite this though, there was the subtle feeling of rejection and disappointment lingering within her candy heart that was undeniable.

It was out of her control too. Her candy theme was programmed to be based upon the finest Italian desserts invented with the fanciest creams and coatings. Decked in rich beige, metallic gold, and glossy brown, she dressed to represent her theme, and her kart was no exception: the Tira-Missile was adorned with intricate drizzles of dark chocolate atop a beautifully carved slice of tiramisu. She was very proud of it, but the colours that decorated her just did not stand out in the same way as the rainbow-coloured candy themes of her friends. Snowanna and Swizzle were extremely popular candidates chosen by the players for this exact reason. Not to mention that most players had never even heard of the desserts that revolved around her circles; heck even some of her friends had trouble identifying her fancy confections. Tiramisu and biscotti just weren't as popular with the general public as chocolate peanut butter cups and strawberry lollipops.

Thankfully, this empty feeling in her stomach only existed during races. Off the track, the girl enjoyed spending time with her fellow racers and her adoptive parents, Fix-It Felix and Sergeant Calhoun. A natural social butterfly, Crumbelina was very approachable, and everyone liked her. She continued to grow closer to her friends and took it upon herself to get to know those she knew little about. Even in the Turbo era, when all of the racers, herself included, were quite snarky and kept to themselves, she knew that everyone had a story to share and she delighted in being a potential new friend's audience, giving anyone the chance to speak.

To top it off, she was also the richest racer in the entire game. Of all of Sugar Rush's citizens in fact, a title once belonging to President Vanellope, but now handed down to her since the former was no longer with them. Her programming had surrounded her by wealth and grandeur since the day they had been plugged in, giving Crumbelina all the luxuries an average 10-year old girl could only dream to have. She lived in a fancy four-storey mansion at the very end of Racers' Ave., the street where all the racers resided along. She owned a chocolate fondue hot tub and a king-sized salt water taffy bed. She had stocked up some of the latest and fanciest upgrades for her kart in her 3-kart garage. But such extravagance did not make her think lower of the others. She was happy to share her possessions with her friends and frequently invited them into the mansion to hang out and enjoy her hot tub, which she knew was the envy of everyone in her life. As opposed to your average snooty rich-girl, she remained loyal to her official bio; she was truly a 'down-and-dirty racer', never afraid to get her hands grimy as she performed routine maintenance on own kart and participated in the races just like everyone else. While certainly more sophisticated than the others, she was still a kid at heart.

And ever since Felix and Calhoun had taken the kids under their wings as their own children, it had fallen upon Crumbelina, who admittedly was the most mature of the group, to adopt something of her very own: the role of an honourary big sister. Yes, she had slowly taken it upon herself to look out for her new family, defending them from harm and making sure everyone stayed under control. These were instincts that, although new to her, fell quite naturally and she was proud to own them.

All in all, the girl believed that she was leading a good life. But sadly, nothing seemed to fill the empty void present inside her that remained unpleasantly vacant every passing day when she was not selected to be played by an arcade gamer. She hid this depression deep inside her; she didn't want to burden her friends over a matter that she felt was so trivial and not worth minding over, no matter how much she did anyway. But she had to do something to release the grey cloud of disappointment that often grew within her.

And so, after the days' worth of quarter-alerts and races was over, arcade closed, and the Random Roster Race out of the way, Crumbelina would retire home and do what she often did when she was feeling this way: step out onto the wide balcony of her mansion's top floor and play her violin. She was one of the few citizens of Sugar Rush who had developed an interest outside of their programming, the others being Candlehead and Jubileena, both of whom now possessed a passion for crocheting, thanks to Nicelander Deanna from Fix-It Felix Jr.

Snowanna, who had been programmed with a liking for all kinds of pop and funk, was the only other citizen that she knew of who enjoyed music. Their shared interest was one of the leading factors to why the girls were such good friends, though Crumbelina preferred the classical type and more gentler tunes than her wild-haired sister. Nonetheless, besides Snowanna, not many people knew of her passionate ability to wield her violin like an attachment to her body. Too bad, because she was exceptionally good at it too.

Sugar Rush had recently been bought by a new company that decided to keep up with the game's development with regular updates, much to Mr. Litwak's – and the game citizens' – happiness. The first one received was a big update that not only introduced three new exciting racing tracks, but also a regular night mode, allowing for even greater challenges for the players during races. Following this, Fix-It Felix had reworked the system such that night would fall naturally during standard nighttime hours, an order from the kids' mother that her children get their proper hours of sleep each night, best enabled with proper natural darkness. Since Fix-It Felix Jr. and Hero's Duty were both permanently set at night, this wasn't too unexpected. Thus, Sugar Rush now had a night mode. And it was during late nights such as tonight when Crumbelina would take out her violin and play out her deepest feelings out on the balcony for the entire game to hear. Perhaps as a fruitless attempt to help others understand how she was feeling, or to somehow release her sorrow and glumness to the sugary breeze that whistled lazily past, carrying her lamenting music out to the open lands of chocolate milk and honey.

Crumbelina sighed wistfully as she stepped out, facing the neighbourhood dotted along Racers' Ave., her instrument in hand. From up here, she could see literally everything, yet no one could see her. "All right, little guy," she murmured, a slight glimmer of a distinct Italian accent lacing her downhearted voice. "Let's hear where you're going to take me tonight." She placed the bow across the strings and began to release a new sound.

She had no idea that things were about to change.

Gloyd Orangeboar was also experiencing a problem. But his was unrelated to avatar selection. He didn't have to worry about players not choosing him, for they loved his vibrant splashes of orange mixed with his sparkly streaks of black and green, and couldn't get enough of his Halloween-themed treats. No, his problem lay far from that.

He was bored.

And for a natural-born prankster such as himself, this was a dangerous situation. Being bored meant that only one thing would cheer him up: unleashing his famous pranks.

HEAD FOR THE HILLS. Wild Orangeboar on the loose!

Zap. He filled Jubileena's Cherriot with gummy spiders. He actually made her pass out.

Splat. He sabotaged Adorabeezle's Ice Rocket, making it belch out purple jelly in all directions when she tried to start the ignition.

Whoosh! He replaced all of Snowanna's hair products with identical bottles filled with green dye. That one was good. And he even managed to escape her angry wrath that exploded immediately afterwards.

But as hilarious as these pranks were (at least on his end), there was nothing that could erase the feeling of boredom rising fast in Gloyd's gut. And the boy felt he had a good reason for this.

Unlike Crumbelina, Gloyd wasn't exactly the social type, even after growing closer to his fellow racers and the other characters in the other arcade games thanks to Vanellope and Ralph's mishaps and antics almost a year ago now. He had a hard time making new friends and now, after months of gaining several, it felt like he was losing them. His rogue reputation of being a master prankster and habits of tactlessly relishing in others' misfortune weren't exactly overlooked factors towards this. He couldn't help it. Practical jokes and being troublesome were all over his code.

The two friends that truly stuck to his candy heart were the other boys in the racing crew: Swizzle Malarkey and Rancis Fluggerbutter. Even in the Turbo era, when all the racers were purely rivals and raced to win (meaning that friendships were barely existent), the trio had remained thickest thieves and stuck to each other like the sticky goop from the molasses swamp. After all, in a world where the high majority of your population was girls, it was only natural for the boys to stick together. After their memories had been restored and the peace returned to their game, Swizzle and Rancis became far more pleasant and less stuck-up, permitting themselves to socialize with their female companions a bit more. Gloyd, however, remained more or less the same character he had always been, keeping to himself. And after a year or so since the infamous unplugging, somehow the fates aligned enough that his friends had found something in one another that drew them closer together. Swizzle was now officially dating Minty, the brown-eyed, green-haired racer with a mind and the moves like a steel trap. Word of the newest couple spread quickly around the arcade and everyone was happy for them. Gloyd was too, but this new development made him feel sick. Then again, he secretly knew Swizz had been crushing on Minty for years.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Gloyd – and pretty much everyone else – had noticed that Rancis had been spending a lot of his free time lately with Candlehead of all people. That just confused Gloyd. Candlehead was kind of weird, not very bright, but kind enough he supposed. Rancis' sudden interest in the girl was rather out of the blue though, so he didn't know what could have brought that on. *

(A/N: *See 'To Light a Candle' for details)

Minty and Candlehead were both nice girls and his friends too, but he just couldn't understand why his best buddies were so into them. But the end result was that Gloyd, for the most part, was left on his own, with no one to hang out with as the only other members of his dudes group seemed too busy to be bothered with him now. And because of this, he was bored out of his mind.

And perhaps just a little lonely.

That night, as Sugar Rush's newly programmed marshmallow moon rose high into the inky-blue sky, a dark flash of orange darted its way towards the side window of a lavish, intricately decorated tiramisu building at the very end of Racers' Ave. Gloyd poked his head out of the candy floss bushes and snickered quietly to himself.

"Crumbelina's not gonna be in any racing mood after she gets hit with this," he chuckled devilishly to himself as he flicked a tuft of pink floss from his large pumpkin hat. He secretly gave thanks to their new nighttime darkness, which now granted him the ability to sneak about in the shadows and prepare his traps and pranks undetected, something that had never been easy in the daytime light.

His plan was simple: the moment Crumbelina stepped out of her house tomorrow morning to head to the races, she would get dumped with the contents of a large industrial sack of flour hanging from her porch canopy. Immediately after this, his pressure-activated cherry syrup pistol, hidden in the nearby jelly bean shrubs, would trigger and fire, splattering the white ghost of a girl with sweet red sauce. A classic mess prank never harmed anyone and it was downright hilarious to see the effects when it was all over. The little pumpkin jokester found utmost thrills in hearing the screams of terror and the murderous threats elicited from his pranking victims every single time. And this prank would be no exception: it was going to be awesome and he knew it. His tricks had never failed him before.

He began securing the pistol in its position, paying careful attention to release the safety catch only after it had been propped in an accurate angle. Now activated, it would only take the lightest of steps in its general vicinity to trigger the sticky detonation. Though his hands were busy, his mind was not. And as such, it began to wander. Out of all the girls in his game, the one he had interacted with least was the owner of this mansion and for whom he was setting up his latest prank. Not once had Gloyd ever given consideration that the posh and sophisticated Crumbelina DiCaramello would even think to have anything to do with him. They shared virtually nothing in common. All he knew was that she was rich and way more mature than any of them. He was the exact opposite of all that and wasn't afraid to admit that he delighted in all things wacky and troublesome. He loved this kind of stuff.

In spite of this, though, it had never left the back of his mind that he had secretly always wanted to get to know Crumbelina better. She was a nice girl, saying hello and the like in the rare times when they crossed paths, but that was about it. She was not the stuck-up, arrogant type like he had always expected, given that she had more than enough gold coins to buy all the latest upgrades and kart parts if she really wanted to and make even Taffyta bow down at her feet. Since he usually hung out with the boys while she tended to mingle with the girls, usually Snowanna or Jubileena, he really didn't know all that much about her. Still, he secretly hoped to one day become a good friend with her; perhaps sometime in the future he would have a better chance to connect with her.

But never mind that now…back to the prank.

"That should do it," he said to himself triumphantly as he stood on tiptoe upon a stool that he had brought along to tie up the sack of white thick powder to the decorative arch that stood above the front door. It wasn't an easy task, as the sack was very large and equally very heavy. He had to use a liberal length of licorice coil to secure it up there above his head. It was a sack of the large sizes too, ones only used in the Kart Bakery, which was exactly where it originated from. Gloyd was notorious for stealing parts and baking ingredients, and sometimes even rigging the minigames so that the players ended up with malfunctioning karts. Vanellope and Ralph's record for breaking-and-entering and making a kart without permission was nothing compared to his long list of wrongdoings that Beard Papa had kept pinned to his office wall. He was surprised that they didn't ban him from the bakery by this point.

He hopped down carefully to proudly admire his handiwork; no one could set up a great trick like the Halloween-themed prankster that was Gloyd Orangeboar. "Now to sneak away unseen," he said to himself triumphantly. He was about to leave, to let Crumbelina enjoy his 'gift' for her tomorrow bright and early, when he heard something that made him freeze. A strange, yet oddly pleasant sort of sound was filling the air in a faint whine. This made him frown. Was he hearing things?

Then he looked up; there was some kind of music coming from the balcony three floors above his head. It was almost like singing, but not quite. Not wanting to be seen, the boy edged his way out from the front door's archway just a few inches to see if he could detect the source. His brown eyes spotted something leaning just over chocolate-drizzled railing of the balcony. He didn't know what it was, but he did see a small hand grasping it gently. Gloyd stared as he listened to the music. He had heard music before, sometimes when he hung around The Sweet Spot lounge in the village to listen to Candlehead or Snowanna sing karaoke backed by some of the latest tunes, but nothing like this. It wasn't wild or full of beat like what he often associated music to be surrounded by. It was different. It was calm and delicate, but also a little sad, sort of like a lament. And even though he was no expert with music, he was…captivated. He inched another step forward to see if he could hear a little better.

That one careless step was all that was needed to trigger the cherry-syrup pistol. A full blast of thick red liquid fired right into his face, making Gloyd yelp in shock as the sticky stuff got into his eyes; he stumbled backwards, blinded, and ended up tripping and falling upon Crumbelina's porch, the sudden force shaking the bag of powdered flour suspended directly above his head. Before he could figure out what was going on, the bag suddenly broke free from its licorice restraints and came plummeting down…