Reviews :
BanannaSammich : Aww thank you so much! They mend, obviously, just some discourse for plot reasons :)
Lyssdoodle : Woohoo! :) Thank you!
Burgie : True! Literally everywhere she goes, I didn't even realize that haha
Snake557 : Aw, seriously! It's weird to look back and see how far it's all come :)
A/N : I want to say one HUGE thank you to my readers, reviewers and lurkers! 10 chapters in and Favor's Game already has 1k views! I appreciate your guys support and for sticking with me for so long. It's almost been 10 years, guys. TEN! o_o
Song Listened To :
Power by Ellie Goulding
*Chapter 10*
With a pop of Turbo's, Lash's and Vanellope's coding, all three beings came to a desolate, black, empty void of a room. Vanellope's eyes widened as she desperately tried to take in light, the swallow of gooey warmth encompassed her senses, the hug of dark easiness somehow soothed her soul, though as Lash stepped forward to approach a gentle, vibrant glow of his and Mara's glorious, coral colored coding, a holographic hover of what looked to be a simple box with an old fashioned keyhole on its face. Although Vanellope assumed some form of a key was going to be inserted in said keyhole, the golden key Turbo had gifted Lash the day Turbotime and Sugar Rush was won, she was surprised to see him push his palm flat to the face of it and cue a chime of a futuristic noise, a blip of affirmation that suddenly unfurled Turbotime's beautiful, upgraded code room. Vanellope flinched in gentle shock as a web of beautiful coded orbs began to hover about, as if the three beings were the sun and the web of goodness about them were the orbiting, planetary subjects.
"Alright, Lash, I'm going to let you lead this one," Turbo's deep voice so gently carried, and though Lash raised his eyebrows in humbled surprise and shot his older brother a mildly bewildered look, Turbo rested his hand to his own broad, sculpted chest, halted any further notions and peered tight to Vanellope's. Gazing, haunting golden eyes that held so much care, "That is, if you're alright with that, Vanellope."
"Should I not be?" Vanellope wavered with a soft, nervous giggle, to which Lash rubbed the back of his head in anticipatory shyness and eyed Turbo.
"I know what I'm doing, I've just never done a reading or alignment on anyone that either wasn't one of my brothers, or Mara," Lash mumbled cutely, Turbo lovingly swat Lash's lower chest with the back of his hand.
"You'll be fine," Turbo assured gently as Lash bobbed a defeated nod and began to cue up a few displays before him, as well as a few glowing, orange colored orbs that came bobbing his way.
"What makes me so different, then? You seem nervous," Vanellope inquired delicately, and though she was anticipating Lash to simply shoo away her notions and assure her that he maybe was just new to this and didn't want to fumble through such a delicate task, she recoiled as Turbo's and Lash's creepy, golden eyes halted any form of other thought and gripped tight into Vanellope's soul with almost bittersweet purpose.
"What makes you different?" Lash's deep voice repeated her question, as if he had heard her wrong, Turbo peaked a curious, bashful little smile, the show of his prominent canines glistened in their dim lighting.
"You're kidding," Turbo mumbled in playful annoyance as he waggled his hand, though both him and Lash shot curious glances to each other, as if to silently question if maybe she weren't kidding.
"I'm not, I want to know why you're acting nervous to align my coding," Vanellope asked in tender adamancy, as if now it were becoming the elephant in the room, though both boys glued their prominently glowing eyes tight to her with sweet, humbles smiles.
"... Vanellope, when's the last time you were told that you're important?" Turbo's deep, raspy voice questioned in delicate goodness as he narrowed his eyes and lightly side-eyed her in serious question, "I don't think you understand... The only reason Whiplash and I have our women is due to you."
"We owe our swapped codes, literally to you," Lash mumbled cutely, Vanellope sagged her shoulders and allowed the further splay of flattery hit her, though she had no clue how to receive it.
"Oh, well... I..." Vanellope staggered a few inhales, as if to wonder just what words should surface first, though as Lash breathed a happy chuckle and caught eyes with Turbo in an ogling glance of cute incredulousness, he began to cue up Vanellope's code orb; having programmed everyone important to the integrity of Sugar Rush's hierarchy, to Turbotime, he was successful in pulling up her information as Turbo sagged his hands into his black sweatpants pockets.
"It's shell-shocking enough whenever Tessa or Zed come knocking on my door," Turbo grumbled cutely, he shrugged and smiled sweetly into Vanellope's eyes, "Any being, in Arcade, that had a hand in Berri's whole existence is a being I make sure is handled with the greatest care. You're the end-all, to that. You're my mother-in-law's mother."
"Huge deal, if I do say so myself," Lash muttered tightly through his teeth, he chuckled in nervousness as him and Turbo caught smiling glances, once more.
"Well, I'm... I'm honored," Vanellope stated bashfully as she looked down to her feet, she shrugged and shook her head, "I'm... I'm more nervous what you guys are going to find in my core coding. I'm sure it's gunna look like an absolute wreck."
"... Is that an innuendo for-"
"Shh-shut it, seriously?" Turbo hissed as he shot Lash an authoritative grin of full irritation, to which Lash scrunched his shoulders and sagged into himself.
"No, it's fine, it's fine," Vanellope choked a laugh and flagged her hand, "It... Wasn't an innuendo, but that was funny. Ralph and I haven't swapped in forever, so... No, no new wrecking coding, unfortunately. Just... A wreck of a place, all on my own."
"... Vanellope, how have you not had an entire breakdown yet?" Turbo questioned gently with a confused smile, he shook his head and inhaled a shaky breath, "It was maybe 3 weeks into life without Libby where I started to really itch... I go longer than a week, without swapping with Berri, and I'm incredibly grumpy."
"Heard," Lash grunted in hot irritation as both boys caught eyes with a feverish will to endlessly tease, a brotherly love they were more than in sync with.
"Okay, YOU'RE not one to talk," Turbo retort with an annoyed laugh.
"I don't know, I genuinely don't know," Vanellope sighed as she crossed her arms; taken Turbo's advice, she was dressed in a cozy, long t-shirt and dark, minty colored leggings. She shook her head, tucked her long, black hair behind her ears and shrugged her shoulders amidst the tight cross of her arms, "I think... Game day has distracted me. It's sort of easy to take my mind off of it when I'm racing every day."
"Adrenaline," Lash mumbled knowingly, he glanced to Turbo and shook his head, "It's different, for us guys. I think women have a longer threshold for abstaining."
"Either way, don't be nervous... I reversed Gunner's code block," Turbo grit his teeth and shook his head, a notion that immediately had Vanellope relaxing, "NOTHING could be worse than that jumbled visual. Poor guy's coding was about to start eating itself."
"User," Vanellope mumbled, to which Lash crowned a dorky grin and lulled his eyes closed.
"Yyyyes?" Lash droned, though he choked a hard laugh as Turbo swiftly caught his shoulder in a firm swat and man handled him in a brotherly grapple of attempting to pull him into a choke-hold. Both boys cutely laughed in the wrestling struggle and quickly settled, though not without a few snippy, sarcastic, notions of verbal abuse muttered under their breath.
"I'm glad you boys are able to have a normal relationship, again," Vanellope stated in sighing sweetness, Turbo and Lash softened amidst her calming words, "All of this has been a long time coming. I'm just glad we're over all the internet drama."
"There's no wood in here to knock on, I wouldn't go jinxing us like that, your Majesty," Lash muttered tightly through a dreaded look of playful sarcasm, Turbo rolled his eyes and looked off.
"You SAID the router outlet was plugged in elsewhere, so..." Turbo shrugged.
"Yeah, BERRI had that under control," Lash urged, "She plugged the router into an outlet shared with a mini fridge. Hopefully Vye got the hint : grab a snack, leave a message after the tone."
"Beep," Turbo squeaked, Lash and Vanellope erupted into laughter as Lash grappled his phone out of his pant's pockets and sagged it to his ear.
"Heyyy Turbo, it's me, Vyeeee. Hey, uh, I can't seem to find Arcadia Station anymore?" Lash pitched his voice to sound more like Vye's would potentially, he daintily pretended to twirl his hair, "If you could call me back so I could destroy your life, that'd be GREAT. We should hang out! Love you, Pops!"
"Pops?" Turbo mocked as he wrinkled his nose and shook his head in grinning disgust.
"Y'think that'll be in the sixth story?" Lash daintily wondered.
"She can keep her corner of the dark web," Vanellope blurt through the trail of her giggling, she shook her head and allowed her eyes to trail Turbotime's dark, beautiful code room, an endless void of warm, midnight blue, all beautifully kissed with the peachy, coral User coding shared between Lash and Mara. She finally dragged her eyes back to Turbo and Lash and narrowed her gaze, "Can't imagine any of us rushing off to the internet to get rid of her for good, eh?"
"It'd require shedding light on their branch of the dark web, literally breaking the glass ceiling, if Vye chose to take the high road," Turbo grumbled as he rubbed his face, "Berri and I have had long conversations about this. Game Over's hierarchy would crumple in the event... However reaching said event would be."
"Far-fetched," Lash mumbled sorrowfully; words out of a full-blown, fully-fledged User that assured to Vanellope that likely nothing could be done, though he shrugged and smiled into Vanellope's eyes, "No matter, we're not concerned. What I AM concerned about, however, is conducting this alignment whilst flying from the seat of my pants."
"I forgot you don't operate well under stress, you poor, fragile little thing, you," Turbo muttered in smiling annoyance, though before Lash could get a solid retort in, Turbo shook his head and gestured to his own chest, "Why don't you align me first, then. Show Vanellope the process, I'll be put on the spot, it'll make things easier for everyone. OR, I'll conduct Vanellope's alignment, if it genuinely bothers you that much-"
"No, no, I'll do it on you first, good idea," Lash firmly flagged his hand to Turbo's figure and quickly began to switch gears in the form of cueing up his big brother's code box; Vanellope continued to laugh, having enjoyed being a front row spectator to the comedic stand-up that was Lash's and Turbo's loving, brotherly banter.
"Alright, since I know the drill and Vanellope doesn't, why don't you walk us through the process," Turbo stated warmly to Lash as he cued up Turbo's code orb. Upon the unfurl of a few indexes, the orb cutely dipped to a rosy gold, the color of his and Berri's combined coding. In the drop down, before Lash could push further into sensitive information, it cued a gentle notification of coded consent, from Turbo, to affirm that Lash had Turbo's go-ahead for diving into deeper, more sensitive coding. Obviously something Turbo was willing to, he sagged his thumb into the form of consent whilst he carried on, without Lash having to ask, "You've done this enough times that I think you're ready to fly solo. If anything you say is drastically wrong, I'll correct you, but... I'm positive you'll be fine."
"Okay," Lash stated through a shaky sigh, and it was with the gentle blip of Turbo's coded consent did suddenly the stressor points, on his body, flare in a dim glow of rose gold honeycombs. Vanellope widened her eyes and eagerly watched the situation unfold as Turbo stood still, prepared to be Lash's points of demonstration, Lash cutely cleared his throat and directed his sweet gaze to Vanellope's inquisitive aura, "For coding, Turbo has taught me that there are three tier-like rings of depth, three classes. The Cognizance Class, the Visceral Class and the Quintessence Class."
"I only got that far, in Turbo's dissertation, the depth of the three classes," Vanellope stated gently, she shook her head and eased both Turbo and Lash a knowing look that was well on its way to being a frown, "Ralph and I sort of stopped reading anything after that... I think he unfortunately got overwhelmed."
"It's a lot," Turbo mumbled with an understanding nod.
"You're telling me, I'm currently in a crash course," Lash muttered as he eyed Turbo in smiling cheek, "So, since you know all about the classes, I'll expand on the points... Turbo's, here, all are cued, though... They're all glowing the same intensity because Turbo is well-aligned. Yours will look different, in intensity, and from there, we can really pin-point problem areas."
"What would be considered problem areas? What do these points represent?" Vanellope tenderly wondered, her hazel eyes hooked tight to the beautiful, large points on Turbo's body, they calmly surged in a dimming and brightening show with the rhythm of his heart beat.
"These points are stressor marks... When blocked, they won't glow, though, when overused, they'll be really bright, upon cueing up your core coding," Lash gestured, all of Turbo's continued to glow the same intensity, "Males have fourteen stressors, where as females have thirteen. Don't be like Turbo and withhold the importance of the thirteenth stressor from your swap mate."
"Dude," Turbo grunted in a raspy, high-pitched lilt of hot irritation.
"Wait, what?" Vanellope blurt a laugh, to which Turbo firmly rolled his eyes and looked off.
"... Turbo was teaching Berri about her core coding and left out the fact that she had thirteen stressors, he told her she had twelve," Lash rushed with a laugh as he very luckily got away with gifting this information to Vanellope without being shut down; Turbo playfully seethed, nonetheless.
"Look, Berri was dating Gunner at the time, there's no way I was going to tell her, whilst we were alone, in a dark code room, that both of our thirteenth stressors grip together during intercourse," Turbo rushed in smiling embarrassment, to which Vanellope covered her mouth with a grin, "They're not really used in alignments, anyways. More like... An 'in the moment' kind of stressor."
"Y'got away with it," Lash mumbled, though it was clear here that now the stressors on Turbo's jugular and heart were glowing a bit brighter; Lash widened his eyes with a huge grin, the urge to further teach and show Vanellope all the new things he had recently learned, "Oh, oh! See, these three stressors are flared now. The two on Turbo's jugular, as well as the one on his heart, they cued to stress in Turbo's body."
"Well, what does that all mean, then?" Vanellope prod, Turbo lulled his eyes closed in further stewing irritation, though he smiled and shot Lash a sneaky side-eye.
"The stressors on either side of your jugular aligns with voice," Lash instructed as he gestured to Turbo's on his neck, thick, coded, glowing arteries that surged a bit brighter than his other spots, "It's clear Turbo likely has a lot he wants to say and is choosing to stuff it. I'll get an earful later, it's fine."
"Don't be embarrassed, Turbo, it's fine," Vanellope wheezed through her laughter, to which Turbo sagged his shoulders and tried to relax.
"His heart stressor is brighter due to it being the root of love," Lash shrugged and gestured to Turbo's chest; you could see the glowing stressor flared in urgency under the cloth of his shirt, "We were just discussing someone Turbo loves, he's protective of Berri and her feelings. This is a natural response."
"I'm sure Berri understood why you kept such a controversial stressor from her," Vanellope assured cutely, still trying to contain her giggling, to which Turbo lulled his eyes closed and bobbed a nod.
"Yeah, why don't you tell Vanellope how it all went down?" Lash stabbed with a boyish grin, Turbo popped his eyes open and glared his little brother down with a grin.
"Why don't you just PANTS me while we're at it, dude? I'm not giving EITHER of you a play-by-play! It went well! I have Berri's coding! What more information do you want!" Turbo shrieked through laughter, everyone easily crumpled with his contagious chuckling, he shook his head and gestured his arms out, "We baked a cake and brushed each other's hair. You're seriously asking me how our first code swap went?"
"I'm kidding, holy shit, this is so fun," Lash wheezed as him and Vanellope wiped tears of laughter from their eyes. He swallowed hard and did whatever he could to compose himself, "I-I'm kidding, holy User. You should ask me to do this more often."
"Yeah, I'll choose 'never again' for four hundred," Turbo muttered tightly, though he still smiled.
"I can give you a whole run down on all of the stressor points, if you'd like," Lash directed his still chuckling demeanor to Vanellope's, to which he finally heaved a cute sigh and shook his head amidst a bright grin, "Like said, Turbo's are all basically balanced. Can we expose yours now to carry on?"
Vanellope inhaled a steady, shaky breath and caught eyes with Lash. Haunting, vertical, rectangular pupils that honed tight to Vanellope's like she was prey, with the blur of Turbo's equally as haunting gaze to Lash's right, Vanellope felt absolutely mind blown that she was in the presence of these two Arcade legends, lores of bad guys that once had Litwak's in a grip of paralyzed fear. The raw fact that both men now honed tight to Vanellope's Queenly authority with such care, the lurking aura of two vultures now properly sifted to the sight of two honorable men that wanted nothing but the best for their swap mate's elder, Vanellope bobbed a gentle nod of final approval and succumbed to Lash's and Turbo's incredible knowledge, coded information she was almost frustrated she had yet to obtain. With their willingness, she promised herself that, from here, she'd be more than an open book. Masters of code, in their own right, who now shared Vanellope's glitching powers, she was well aware she now needed to get on their level and stay there.
"Yeah, I'm ready," Vanellope gently assured with a nod, and with the switch up, Turbo's golden stressors dimmed and Lash calmly cued for Vanellope's code orb, once more.
Upon the unfurl, Vanellope's cute little code orb dipped to that of her's and Ralph's code color, a prominent, electric purple that nearly glistened with ceruleans, a gorgeous, marbleized sheen that could be seen upon close inspection. Lash gently issued her a small, holographic index that hovered before her, the thumbprint scan of consent, Lash patiently peered into her eyes.
"This is basically a physically signed consent form," Lash eased patiently, his deep voice pressed the code room with his humbled authority, he lulled his eyes closed and shook his head, "This is just your given consent, to me, to cue up and prod your core coding. This isn't permanent consent... You have full control of this situation, and if at any time you want things to end, just say the word. This coded thumbprint of a signature is open ended."
"Thank you," Vanellope eased with becoming-confident clarity as she eased her live-wired, purple coded thumbprint into the pad, and as it quickly vanished, upon her coded approval, Vanellope sagged her shoulders and took note of the thick, steady breath Lash's powerful rib cage took in.
With a flicker of his incredibly tangible, scary User coding, his honeycombed circuits kissed the soles of her feet with a tiny zap of gained information. Vanellope gasped a small, silent inhale of amped energy that suddenly coursed her, and like her eyesight was now upgraded, ten fold, she flinched in shock and glossed her curious eyes about Lash's face and chest. High resolution eye sight she wasn't used to, she huffed a shaky breath and could see Lash and Turbo's demeanors sag in a prickle of shock; obviously aware to the fact that her stressors were now properly cued, she tried to steady her breathing and took note of the raw fact that Lash and Turbo sharply shot each other looks of teeth-gritted dread.
"... Yikes," Turbo mumbled gently, though Vanellope furrowed her brow in sorrow and desperately peered to Turbo.
"M'kay... Do you want the good news? Or the bad news," Lash wondered cheekily as he cupped his hands together and finally stabbed his eyes into Vanellope's, after sourcing her stressors.
"Bad news first," Vanellope mumbled sorrowfully, her heart raced; she was certain her stressors made it clear.
"Bad news is... I've never seen a wilder misalignment," Lash stated with a shaky chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head, he tossed his gaze to Turbo and grimaced, "Bo?"
"I think Gunner's was worse, but yeah... The scale is scarily tipped," Turbo mumbled, though Lash perked up and shrugged as his hopeful gaze pierced Vanellope's scared demeanor.
"Good news is... The source of your issue is easy to reverse," Lash chimed, as cautiously as he could, he stepped into Vanellope's bubble and allowed both of his hands to reach up to Vanellope's much daintier jugular. Her circuited, vivid purple stressor marks, on her jugular, beamed like headlights in a black void, so bright that Vanellope could see the glint of it against Lash's lighter grey skin. He huffed another chuckle and gave her a loving, apologetic smile, "The only stressors you have on full display, right now, as you stand, are the ones on your throat."
"Meaning?" Vanellope worried, though Lash grit his teeth and tried his hardest to deliver this news with as much delicacy as possible.
"It... Means you're... Doing way too much vocalizing, blind words, strong, heavy handed opinions, nagging, pestering, negative spewing," Lash tread carefully, though he was glad to get a sag of understanding from Vanellope's sorrowful gaze, "Remember, just a second ago, when Turbo's vocal stressors got a bit brighter?"
"Yeah," Vanellope prod as she glanced in Turbo's direction.
"It was because he had strong opinions he wanted to voice, it was fueled from negative emotion because I was goading him and prodding on sensitive topics," Lash explained tenderly, "He wanted to take a verbal swipe at me. It's nothing bad, or fatal or anything... Just will cause your stressors to come out of alignment, a tiny bit. Yours, on the other hand..."
"I can see it against your skin," Vanellope tried not to allow her voice to tremble with the reveal of tears, she shook her head and gave Lash a desperate look, "So... H-How do I reverse it?"
"Welp... It'll take some trust, on your end, but if you give me a chance, I can get you to a good spot," Lash stated sweetly with a nod, "You just have to bear with me, I'm still... New to this."
"Could've fooled me," Vanellope mumbled, she sadly peered to Turbo and was almost relieved to see Lash's teacher cross his arms, stand back and act as if his confidence in Lash was as good as gold; Vanellope relaxed and bobbed a nod, "Yeah, I trust you. Please help me."
"Alright, well, first... Let's get these stressors to calm down, for User's sake," Lash mumbled cutely, and with as much care as he could, he pressed his first two fingers, on each hand, tight into Vanellope's jugular, on either side. With a gentle flood of his own incredible coding, Vanellope flinched in shock and felt a shockwave of energy course through her, tight into nooks of dead coding that was desperate to be used. Lash inhaled a steady breath and allowed his voice to soften, even more, due to their tight proximity, "Focus on the soles of your feet. Focus on feeling grounded. Feel the cool tiles on your skin, imagine your feet have grown roots and you are simply a tree growing from the ground."
Vanellope lulled her eyes closed and allowed the aided visualization inside of her's and Lash's platonic exterior swap, and with success, she felt the hot stressor points, on her soles, come alive with energy. She could practically hear Lash smiling as he patiently pressed on.
"Let go of heavy opinions, forget what you think is permanently right about the tiny, unimportant details of your daily routines. Allow your inner voice to find normality," Lash's wise disposition splayed all over Vanellope's heart, echoes of Turbo's priceless, valuable teaching so fervently utilized Lash's smarts as a slippery vessel, Vanellope sagged her shoulders and began to feel a solid peace crawl all over her, "Don't think of all of the things Ralph isn't... Instead, focus on your conjoined love. Tell me what that means to you?"
"He's my oldest friend," Vanellope mumbled through the onset of tears, and as Lash patiently opened his eyes to assess Vanellope's figure, the dart of his surprised gaze caught with the flare of her heart stressor under her shirt, as well as the ones on her hip bones. Lash inhaled a steady breath and was thrilled to feel Turbo's figure slowly make his way behind Vanellope's body, so to continue aiding in Lash's chore; not typically a three man sport, Turbo knew this was a special, drastic case, and his aid was only going to speed along recovery. A few tears slipped down Vanellope's cheeks as she carried on, "H-He brought me out of such a dark place... As much as I hate to say it, he got rid of YOU, for the time being, and selflessly brought peace to Sugar Rush."
"Not my best moment," Lash murmured cutely, the cy-bug markings on his face wrinkled in delight as his eyes caught with Turbo's, he hovered back to Vanellope's left and gave Lash an annoyed little smirk. Lash inhaled a steady breath, and with his left two fingers still firmly pushed into the stressor on the right side of her jugular, he patiently brought his right hand down to press into the stressor on Vanellope's left hip bone, over her clothes. With the further sap of his incredible User coding, Vanellope flinched in surprise Lash firmly kept his hands in place, "The stressors, on your hips, serve for a few purposes... Main ones are sexual energy, and outside of that, physical and emotional drive. You don't have to expand on it, but recall memories where you partook in the positive aspects of the things I just listed."
"Memories," Vanellope repeated as tears continued to spill her cheeks, and though her eyes were closed, she furrowed her eyebrows in bittersweet delight and shook her head as the stressors on her temples gently flared her's and Ralph's lovely, electric purple coding, "I-I... All of my favorite memories are with Ralph. Old and new. He forced me out of so many comfort zones."
"What any good spouse would do," Lash's grumbly voice eased in sincerity, he tossed his eyes to Turbo as he hovered at the ready, knowing, full well, the last accessible stressor, between her shoulder blades, was likely the hardest to cue, "Surely, you trust Ralph. You trust that everything will eventually balance out, much like how your soul is currently reversing damage."
"I don't have that answer," Vanellope begged in nervousness, her teary eyes opened to peer tight to Lash's face in their close proximity; Lash frowned as Vanellope shook her head, "I wish I did..."
"You do, though... Things are already changing," Lash mumbled cutely, and though he didn't go nosing around, he was able to get glimpses of Vanellope's fragile thoughts, "I can see he's more intentional around the house... He went running with Zed and Ace, which... Is one of the hardest things ANYONE could do."
"I wouldn't even," Turbo muttered cutely, to which Vanellope heaved a shaky chuckle through her nose and allowed her eyes to aimlessly gloss Lash's collar, though he ducked his head down a little to meet her eyes with a warm, loving smile.
"I can see, here, recent memories of Callum," Lash's voice was coat in delicate wonder, his eyes twinkled with their platonic exterior swap, "He's adorable... And, I've never seen Ralph hold a baby, but this image of him, that you're gifting me, is out of this world."
"I had the pleasure of seeing him hold Berri as an infant, a few times," Turbo mumbled in warm, sweet humility, to which Lash shook his head and grinned, "The cutest, most ironic sight ever."
"Things are changing, new things are coming," Lash eased tenderly, he narrowed his gaze and, although not the first person to very blatantly show a swathe of said tenderness, he felt safe with Turbo and now Vanellope, "You have to trust... Turbo and I are living, breathing proof that good things eventually present themselves."
"You have to let go of control," Turbo so kindly reminded, and as his eyes caught with the gentle flicker of a larger stressor between her shoulder blades, he carefully pressed his first two fingers into it and allowed the flow of his own coding to be added to their exterior swap, one of which both beings visibly flinched two, "It's easier said than done, but... Looks like you're well on your way."
"That's surely something someone of your stature can afford," Lash hissed quietly with a kind, brotherly smile, and as Vanellope's teary eyes glistened with renewal, the stressor on her forehead finally flickered with enlightened easiness, something that had Lash nearly tucking into a backflip over. He eased a happy chuckle and, with as much caution as Turbo and Lash could afford, they removed their hands from Vanellope's figure and both took two or three slow steps away from her. Lash grinned with success and gestured his arms outward, "Eh? Not too shabby, I'd say I have the magic touch. Maybe not on par with Turbo's, yet, but..."
"You did good," Turbo humbly eased, he gave Lash a kind nod and a smile, though they honed their eyes tight to Vanellope as all of her stressors equally glowed at a dim, slow-surging, easy state of pure balance. Turbo cautiously returned his hand to the stressor between her shoulder blades, "Alright, Vanellope, take a deep breath..."
Upon the full expansion of her rib cage, she slowly let it out as now Turbo's coding rushed about hers in a snaking surge of solidified goodness, and with a flicker, Vanellope's purple stressors dimmed for good, as if to seal them away in their fresh, new, balanced state. Vanellope reopened her teary eyes and peered hard into Lash's eyes, as well as Turbo's as he rounded about her front. Both boys peered to her in doughy, sweet, curious delight and smiled.
"Well?" Turbo cutely wondered.
"How do you feel?" Lash pressed, to which Vanellope looked down to her hands and body, feeling as if she had downloaded a fresh, brand new set of circuits.
"Like a million one-ups," Vanellope hissed in refreshed, humbled delight.
