Reviews :

Awesome Stories May Occur : Hey, don't worry friend. It's all good. And sure, you can send me whatever you'd like and I'll take a look at it as soon as I can. As for your question, hmm.. It could go either way. Writing for Ralph and Vanellope is definitely 'easy' because the ground work for their characters has been defined, anything I do beyond that it just adding to it. Building OC's is harder work, and I take a slow-burn approach to my babes to make their characters leveled and believable... I'd say THAT is far harder, but the pay off is so much sweeter. I'd rather write for OC's any day, but for the people that really like Ralph/Vanellope, the beginning of my 5th story will center around them again :) Thanks again, for everything.

faolan1230 : LOL! Yeah same, I think that'd be awesome. I owned two katanas at one point, but never learned how to properly wield them.

Snake557: That's true, it'd be awkward though lmao

Lyssdoodle : Hahahah I never even thought about that. I'd assume she'd be just as cool though, cause Taffyta's already a really badass aunt.


*Chapter 222*

Dolled up, dressed to the nines, sore from another fantastic show of just a handful of heartfelt, electric songs, Berri felt her coding come to an easy sift of concentration. She sat in a lazy gathering of her band mates, including Throttle and Tatum, behind a curtained-off area. Although Arcadia's station was massive and glorious, golden and pristine with it's glass ceiling, the alluring draw of sunshine that spilled into each and every single outlet, the band was surprised to find Arcadia's smaller train station, and atrium of a gathering area attached to it, almost rivaled in Arcadia's incredible beauty. An atrium that towered for several stories high, the white and golden walls of untouched goodness, the luxury that surrounded this whole entire power outlet, Berri pondered the notion of her royal status; had she not a single spec of royal coding in her pixels, she cocked an eyebrow and knew, full well, setting foot in Arcadia was enough to make anyone feel like they owned the world.

Relishing in the echoey, dreamy sound of the crowd that hovered about, towered on the levels of the atrium's floors, the golden rays of sunshine that beamed down on to the group, in their privately sectioned off area, Berri mindlessly wrote autographs on gorgeous, glossy prints of professional phots of their new, rebranded structure, which included Turbo and excluded Gunner. Although they didn't claim themselves to be Archived Chaos anymore, Berri bit her lip in quiet concentration and thought on the notion of coming up with a new band name. Trailing through the thoughts of adding Tatum to the team, eventually helping Gunner with that nasty code blocking, the lovely thought of finally being able to go on that much needed vacation, all while her hand aimlessly swirled about her crafted autograph in careful grappling for the next picture to sign, she furrowed her eyebrows in soft confusion and finally allowed her brain to come back to her immediate surroundings. With the sound of the crowd's echoey murmurs, the lovely, calm chit chat of her family and band group about her, she narrowed her gaze and pinpointed that Wren was silent; his electric gaze was also honed to her, eagle-eyed, and had been for at least a few minutes now. Berri cautiously cocked an eyebrow and, without being conspicuous, or moving her head a single inch, she looked up.

"Wren," Berri stated flatly, rising annoyance that was palpable, she finally furrowed her brow in full and shook her head at him, "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

Wren gently snatched one of the many pictures Berri was autographing, he grabbed an unsigned one and daintily flagged it around, though he raised his eyebrows in sly, cute prodding, leaned back in his chair with an easy grunt of a croak, and swung his left ankle atop his right knee in further, sassy relaxation.

"You, Queen Black, have a secret," Wren mumbled quietly; the group about them continued to calmly chit chat with Bedgy, she ran through a few preparations for the group to follow once they stepped out from behind their point of safety and were, thus, due to meeting VIP fans that were in line, patiently waiting.

"You've lost your mind," Berri stated through a nonchalant sigh as she shook her head and allowed her gaze to return to her signing; she desperately did what she could to remain cool and unreadable.

"It doesn't matter if you tell me, or not, cause... I'll find out sooner or later," Wren chirped as he shrugged, he continued to flippantly wave about one of the glossy photos Berri hadn't signed yet, of the many.

"You're not going to find anything out, I don't have any secrets, Wren," Berri muttered in rising irritation, the marker she wrote with squeaked as she cleanly, and quickly, gave each photo a gentle lull of her lovely written name.

"Why don't you exterior swap with me whilst saying that, then?" Wren eased cutely, and although he was firmly prodding, his air and attitude was light and lovely, as if to express to Berri that he was secretly doing his best to sink his way into reverse psychology, something she caught on to.

"I'm a little busy," Berri sweetly chimed as she raised her eyebrows and grinned down to what she was doing, she shook her head in soft irritation, though she flinched the second Wren successfully zipped the marker out of her grip with his telekinesis powers. Berri jolted, looked down to the now ruined photo she was signing and finally shot Wren a frustrated look of Queenly dominance, "Wren Eddie."

"It's fine, you don't have to tell me," Wren's voice lilted in calm warmth, though he shrugged and gently set his own photo down in front of Berri, as well as the marker, "Can I please have your autograph? I'm your hugest fan."

Berri remained still and peered Wren down through a tight-lipped show of frozen frustration. She narrowed her gaze, inhaled a deep breath through her nose and gently tossed her long, gorgeous, straightened blue hair over her shoulder with a flippant amount of girly sass. She long-blinked and shook her head in sighing irritation, as if to shake off the weird conversing Wren was trailing her through, though just as she was about to continue signing these photos, she lulled her eyes closed in hot irritation the second Wren murmured a small noise of sarcastic discovery.

"Well, now, wait a second," Wren hissed sarcastically, to which Berri sagged her bare shoulders, stiffened her spine and drew her now icy gaze tight to Wren's, making blatantly clear here that Berri was doing her absolute best not to bust at the seams, "You wouldn't be getting so annoyed of me, so quickly, if you really DIDN'T have a secret."

"I'm getting annoyed so fast because I'm trying to concentrate," Berri mumbled, she began to feel defeated at just how unconvincing she was coming across, though Wren readjusted his sitting position on his chair, tidied his bow-tie in aimless grappling and firmly rubbed his scruffy, blonde chin hair. His gorgeous eyes looked up to the incredible atrium they were merely swallowed by, the sunlight hit his face as if a lightbulb had gone off, and just before he could speak, Berri hurried to beat him to it, "Wren, there's nothing to tell. And if there was, you'd be the first girl I'd gossip to. Okay?"

"Okay, perfect, so... Spill," Wren pat his thighs and bobbed a nod, though as the two held eyes, Berri sagged her shoulders and knew she should just quit whilst Wren was so incredibly ahead. Berri finally breathed a long, annoyed sigh through her nose and capped her marker, and although this immediately revealed that she did, indeed, have a secret, she still knew to stick to her guns; her's and Lash's plan was not something she wanted getting around.

"It's... Really private, Wren, I really don't think I want to say anything whilst outside of Sugar Rush, like this," Berri mumbled, almost whispered, it was here did Wren notice her demeanor change. He gave her a furrowed, incredulous look, one of which included a few long-blinks of entire bewilderment, as if he potentially was en route to giving up pursing this, though upon the last second, Berri finally opened up and revealed that there was a secret to be had. Wren leaned closer to her, his chair loudly croaked with the movement, though Berri gestured her hand and nervously glanced her shy eyes to Theo, Tatum, Turbo and Throttle beyond Wren, who all continued to nonchalantly chatter, "Stop, Wren, stop. Not here."

"I can't believe I actually struck gold," Wren hissed in an unsuspecting whisper as he sat up straight, tidied his bowtie, once more, and looked about in a sly motion of being quite pleased with himself, "So, you'll tell me later, right? You don't just give Lash those kinds of loaded looks without there being something up, right?"

Berri froze and now felt as if Wren was a mind reader, either that, or she was absolutely terrible at keeping secrets off of her sleeve, where they don't belong. Berri rolled her eyes, pulled out her phone and pretended to busy herself, to which Wren eased a chuckle of understanding.

"You can sing and dance in front of a crowd over ten thousand people, twice, but you don't have the courage to look me in the eye and play subliminal messages with me?" Wren eased a soft, understanding chuckle, his deep voice was as sweet as honey, as warm as the sun, Berri caved into his lovely, irresistible charm, "C'mon. What ISN'T it about? Just speak in code."

"It ISN'T about feeling safe," Berri mumbled nonchalantly, she did everything she could to feed Wren enough to satiate him, without revealing too much for listening ears.

"What, like..." Wren frowned and felt the air between the two become thick and almost cold with unforgiving tension. Berri softly lofted her gaze to Wren's in a swing of apologetic nervousness, though she smiled, adjusted her hair once more, and continued to happily sign autographs; she was entirely grateful that neither Turbo, Throttle, Tatum, Theo or Bedgy decided it was high time to dive into Wren's and Berri's conversation. Wren tried not to look suspicious by leaning forward, he whispered,"Like... Now?"

"Wren, I'm... Not going to indulge, here," Berri almost mouthed, she raised her eyebrows, kept her eyes down and continued with her autographs, "We have a meet'n'greet to carry out, in fifteen minutes, I'm trying to remain calm."

Wren furrowed his eyebrows sharply and now felt a weird sixth sense of heightened worry come caving in on him, something he wasn't previously experiencing here in Arcadia Station. With a hard swallow, Wren finally peered about with the unfiltered, weird bout of pieced together information he had been given, and with the gloss of his eyes, he assessed his surroundings, much like prey would do on a barren savannah. What looked to be empty playing field, Wren knew predators were masters at hiding in plain sight. Wondering if he was maybe reading too far into Berri's words, he assessed Turbo's chatty group and was thrilled none of them seemed on edge or worried in the slightest. Wren sagged and meticulously tidied his bowtie, yet again, out of pure anxiousness, though something else sat in his core; the very end of this mess was Whiplash. Wren finally sagged his eyes back to Berri and fully understood that her and Lash had become close, thick as thieves, and the notion of Berri putting full trust and confidence in someone truly meant the world. Wren began to feel his veins wiggle, and it was here did he narrow his gaze to Berri and wondered if he was just becoming a hypochondriac to this mess, or if his intuition was trying to warn him of something.

"Berri, are you talking like..." Wren trailed quietly, he gestured his hand and was glad he now had Berri's full attention, though she halted mid-autograph to give him a frozen look of anxious anticipation. Wren swallowed and shook his head in a swathe of becoming engulfed by sudden worry, "I-I just need clarity here, are you talking like..."

Berri froze and now felt weird subliminally talking about deleters out in the open, outside the safety of Sugar Rush. She looked around and wondered if there was potentially wood to knock on, superstitions came flooding her rosy coding, and it was here did she inhale a shaky breath and begin to form the word with her mouth. Scared that somehow saying the word out loud would summon them, Berri barely mustered the courage to mouth the word 'deleters' to Wren, though after the two hung in a few seconds of almost nervous cuteness, as if Berri was now confident that she could spill her heart out, to Wren, once they got home, the echos inside the atrium began to climb. Berri and Wren held locked eyes as murmurs turned to louder chatter, flustered calls turned into calls of worry which eventually spilled to horrible, haunting screams of pure terror, screams that climbed the echo chamber that was the golden, gorgeous atrium. The group about Berri and Wren froze in a show of unmitigated, blindsided terror, and as everyone eagerly shot looks of rigid, concealed, energetic shock to each other, it was only until the word 'deleter' could be heard, loud and clear, did the group of six immediately jolt to their feet, to somehow clumsily brace themselves for User knows what.