Hello my sweet sweet readers! I've come with a small little project I wanted to share with you guys, so! I have seen plenty of one-shots about Vanellope going back to Sugar Rush and reviving her trauma after Ralph Breaks the internet, with some obscene reasoning such as Slaughter Race betraying her so the ending would be her staying back with the racers.
I don't vibe with that, never did and never will.
This drabble reflects my own idea on how events like Vanellope's trust issues wouid play out in the most realistic possible manner, bear in mind that My native tongue is not English so there may be some hiccups, and get ready 'cause it gets angsty!
Btw, it is suggested that you read this on your phone, the format may look cluttered from your computer,
Now, let's get racin'!
Too Schweetz for them
Slaughter Race, possibly the most erratic and chaotic game anywhere on the internet, and also home for a certain, former president.
Said president was currently crying.
"V!"
Shank, the game's main character, usually tough as nails had become a big role model for Vanellope.
Both of them had developed a sibling-like relationship in the last 2 years they've lived together, not once had she seen the little racer this upset, granted, she's had nightmares before but never to the point of sobbing, usually when this happened Vanellope would get up to get a glass of water pace around and go back to bed.
Today, It seemed, would not be the case.
"V! listen it's okay!" Shank was in her room in a flash, rousing the tossing and turning child's shoulders to snap her awake. "You're safe, nothing and nobody can hurt you"
The little racer's hiccups suddenly came to a halt, a forced breath escaping her throat as she sat up.
"Shank!?"
after a small sniff and a fierce wipe of her eyes she looked up at her idol, eyes wide as saucers "What 're you doin' here? We never bake smores this early!"
"You had a bad dream"
Vanellope's heart sank, she knew? Great, now she would start judging her and calling her weak, she shouldn't have stayed, no, she should go back to Ralph, go back to her old life, go back to the racer-
"I don't judge you for it"
Oh.
"You don't?" Vanellope mused with some skepticism, followed by a small grumble"' am too old for that stupid mushy stuff, crying's for babies"
Shank found herself chuckling at that, kid never changed, nightmare or not. "Oh really?" Now she was definitely smirking. "I have nightmares too you know; does that make me a baby?"
"W-what?! No! of course not!" Vanellope was waving her hands now. "It's just, ugh! It's weird okay?" her hands were on her cheeks now as she whispered "jus' forget 'bout it"
Shank shook her head, now that wouldn't do, that was the last thing she wanted, Vanellope pushing her away and thinking she could only trust herself, she was her big sister, and damn it if she was going to let this kid suffer even more.
She had suffered more than enough.
"Kid" Shank's voice was soft, her eyes filled with what Vanellope saw as pity, but was in fact understanding. "We are all weird here, we're together because we're different from others," her hand rested on Vanellope's head now, "And that's what makes us special, we trust each other"
Vanellope's anger melted away, she wanted so badly to tell her off, to claim that she was wrong and didn't have a clue of what was going on.
Most of all, she was afraid she'd really lose her, lose them all after this.
"Fine!" Vanellope relented, hands stuffed in her pockets, "I had a stinkin' dream that you all secretly hated me! That I went back to Sugar Rush and was happy about it!" she stood straight up now, spinning and looking at Shank "Stink brain was friends with Taff and the others and they were all laughing at me!"
Shank's heart skipped a beat, her fists clenching, mouth forming a firm line at this, It wasn't fair, that a little kid had so much trauma that she thought her own family secretly hated her wasn't fair, seeing her angry would give Vanellope the wrong idea though, and so she forced herself to calm down.
"Tell me V" she was pulling her down to sit on the bed with her now. "How long has this been going on? Did you dream about this before?"
Vanellope shrugged in response, It really wasn't something she wanted to talk about, Shank's expression however didn't seem to change and so Vanellope decided to answer. "Yup, had it since the beginning 'round once a week or somethin'"
"Do your miss your old game?"
Vanellope's answer came so fast that Shank almost fell to the floor.
"NO!"
There was a moment of silence, an air of awkwardness filling the room, the glitchy racer was rubbing her arm and looking back at Shank, who gave her an apologetic look.
"they never cared about me" Vanellope elaborated, now somewhat more calm, "they just hanged out with me cause I was their boss" she muttered "Taffyta is as much of a jerk as ever"
Shank nodded, encouraging her to continue "Do you think they're sorry for what they did to you?"
Vanellope laughed, It wasn't a merry one, not even her usual sarcastic snickering resembled this.
"Sorry ya say?" She snorted "All they're sorry for is that they didn't get to pick on me anymore" clenching her pudgy little hands she continued. "They were never sorry, they just wanted the easy way out 'cause they thought I would execute them"
a tiny part of her almost wished she had done so.
'no' her brain kept whispering to her 'you would be just like him if you had'
she knew, she also knew that to forgive someone they needed to be truly sorry to begin with, she had done so multiple times with Ralph, when he had broken her kart she forgave him, he was after all able to fix it and he never wanted to hurt her, even when he shoved a virus in Slaughter Race to get her to come back she forgave him, her friendship with him had meant more to her than holding a grudge, especially when he learned from his mistake.
This, Vanellope knew, was entirely different.
The racers, all of them lead by Taffyta, had never repented for their actions, when she heard of them being adopted all she could think of was her 15 years of being ostracized, of how nobody had wanted her back then, and yet the same people who pushed her in mud and told her she didn't deserve to live got a free ticket for adoption, just like that.
"pssst, V! yo kid don't space out on me"
Right, she had gone so deep into her mind she forgot Shank was here, Vanellope gave an exaggerated cough as an apology before continuing, "Anyways! They're crummy cream filled morons and I want nothing to do with them"
Shank saw that she wasn't going to talk more about the subject, and so decided to focus on another aspect of her dream.
"Why did you feel guilty in your dream?"
"well" Vanellope mused. "that part's pretty fuzzy, but I know they were all saying I "Failed them" " the nine year old made air quotations for extra sass "Kinda like ghosts but not really? They were there and then they poofed out"
Shank nodded, she was paying rapt attention to everything Vanellope said, not caring that it was over 4 in the morning."Gotcha, say V ever heard of survivor's guilt?"
Vanellope gave her a look that made it seem as if Shank had grown three heads a pair of eyes and three extra legs for good measure.
"Uh, Right" Shank expected that reaction, Vanellope was smart, but she was nonetheless still a kid, a PTSD surviving one. "Survivor's guilt is when you live through trauma feeling guilty about those who have not, it's even worse when the ones you feel guilty about are the same people who made you feel like dirt"
"Well that's a mouthful" Vanellope joked, self-defence mechanism clear as day, "Ever had that yourself? Must kinda suck"
'reflection, removing herself from the picture to make it seem as if It doesn't affect her' Shank was getting more upset by the minute that such a young kid already knew how to use such a coping mechanism.
"Not like you did" Shank admitted. "but do you remember Yesss?"
Vanellope gave a fervent nod. "'course I do! Algorithm lady and you are friends right? She's awesome! Kinda weird with the heart things though, yuck"
Shank smiled down at Vanellope "like you said we are friends, but there was once when we weren't"
Vanellope's head was tilted to the side in obvious confusion, prompting her to continue.
"let's just say she had a really bad accident" Shank went on "her assistant maybe was bringing her more paperwork to do, but when she wasn't looking a virus had sneaked up on her"
Vanellope's eyes widened.
"This game hasn't always been as safe as it is now" Shank continued, oblivious to Vanellope's dismay "a failed update had caused a breach in security and a virus leaked out, she got code poisoning after it went into her office and bit her"
"Wait a sec here!" Vanellope interrumpted, eyes still wide as saucers "That sounds like a cy-bug!"
"I'm not an expert on viruses, you'd have to ask Dan for the name, he doesn't like visitors though"
"You don't say" Vanellope shivered, last time she had gone there was when she and Ralph were getting the steering wheel, the guy and his blob still gave her the creeps "So how did she survive that? viruses aren't exactly merciful you know"
"So I heard" Shank quipped. "she had an antiviral program installed into her office as back-up, the problem is the one day she forgot to turn it on is the day she got bit"
"Right, got it" Vanellope nodded, "chickadee gets bitten and random anti-virus thingy pops up, what bout you two's fight?"
Shank crossed her arms. "She blamed me, thinking I had caused the virus"
"That's so dumb!" Vanellope exclaimed, quick to defend her idol. "You did nothing wrong! It wasn't your fault that a bunch of loopheads didn't know how an update works!"
Vanellope defending her from a situation she wasn't even part of warmed her heart.
"Well, she was hurt, and I was pretty much the only one she could blame"
"Still doesn't make it right" Vanellope countered.
"It doesn't does it?" Shank agreed, "She did, however, decide to apologise once she got surgery done in the hospital, I've known her long enough to know it was sincere, we have had no problems ever since, I even wished I had taken her place"
"Mhm, makes perfect sense" It didn't, to Vanellope at least, "How does that relate to the survivor thing though?"
"Well, while I never got bullied to the extent you did-" Shank tapped Vanellope's head "I also known what is like to feel guilty when you're not in the wrong."
"It sucks huh?" Vanellope's lopsided smile didn't take long to make itself known. "You want everyone to be happy and they spit at you, take your trust for granted and crush it, no matter how much you forgive 'em"
"That's why you're strong V" Shank said "you never give up, that includes on others no matter how badly they treated you, but sometimes you have to let go, realise that they're not worth your time, let alone your forgiveness and move on"
Vanellope's teeth were gritted at this point.
"But they think they're right!"
she couldn't keep herself from snapping, it was unbearable, everything was now coming to the surface, bubbling out in a way that couldn't possibly be held back anymore, all her pain, sorrow, betrayal, and outrage at the gaslighting she's suffered from the racers, peaking back after getting notice of their adoption.
"THEY NEVER THOUGHT THEY DID ANYTHING WRONG!"
Shank remained silent at Vanellope's outburst, interrupting her now that she was opening up this much was the last thing she wanted.
"THEY SPENT ALL THEIR FUDGIN' LIFE SAYING I'M A GLITCH, A MISTAKE THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST, AND WHEN I FORGAVE 'EM THEY DID NOTHING! ALL THEY DID WAS SAY MEAN THINGS BEHIND MY BACK AND WHEN I WENT TO SAVE THEIR CRUMMY GAME AND GOT IT BACK THEY EXPECTED ME TO BE SORRY FOR NOT WANTING TO BE WITH 'EM, ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME?! I'M SICK OF IT!"
Vanellope's hollering was so loud it was heard by the entire house, if the others weren't awake before they definitely were now.
Shank wanted to hug her, she knew it was bad, but she never expected her to blow up like this, "shh!-V! Vanellope!" when she saw the frantic child disappearing in a binary of code and reappearing again a second later she didn't hesitate, she picked her up and hugged her as tight as she dared.
The sobs came out like a waterfall.
…A few hours later…
"Uhmrgh.." Vanellope blinked at the fact that she was in shank's arms, glitching herself back down and looking at a still responsive Shank she ventured into the dreaded question "What are you doing?"
"You passed out" Shank explained with a sigh. "you were telling me everything, the racers, how you felt about them not taking responsibility for their actions and blaming you instead, you got so mad about it you started glitching"
Vanellope was ready to apologise-
"Don't worry" Shank interrupted "I understand V, I really do, no matter how much you try, there is just no hope for some people, they'll always believe they're right no matter what you say or do"
"life lesson huh?" Vanellope chuckled a bit, trying to cheer herself back up "geez, that was a pretty lame night"
Shank rolled her eyes, silly kid.
"got it all out of your system yet?"
"Oh shove it!" Vanellope stuck her tongue right out at her. "It's all your fault anyway! Got me talkin' bout it"
"And I'm glad I did" Shank said, "You really needed to breathe, you can't keep everything in all the time"
"Been doing so all my life an' I'm doing jus' fine" Vanellope grumbled
"By fine you mean breaking down crying twice in a night?" Shank's look was knowing.
Vanellope groaned at that
'touché'
"don' remind me."
Shank smiled. "I won't, but I don't think you're weak for crying, no other kid could go through everything you did and last this long without breaking, most of them are still looking for monsters under the bed!"
"Oh noo! bed bugs!- help me mommy!"
Vanellope's mock terrified scream amused Shank to no end.
"My point is" Shank was poking her now "you can trust me, I'm never going to abandon you and we're never going to hate you, your superpower isn't something we're jealous of, glitching is a part of you, makes you different just like us"
"You betcha!" Vanellope was proudly beaming by now. "It's the coolest superpower ever!" doing a small flip on the bed and glitching onto shank's shoulders she started to bounce "I'm starving! let's get flame guy and butcher butt to flame us some 'smores!"
Shank grinned.
a feast after a nightmare-induced breakthrough, that sounded like a great idea right now.
"Lead the way then, princess, or was it President'"
"It's princessident now!" Vanellope hopped down from her shoulders and started running out of the room, "'mellows and fellows fear not! Vanellope von Schweetz's comin' right up!"
Shank smiled watching her go
"I'll be with you in a minute!"
She was so proud of Vanellope, she knew, Vanellope now knew that she belonged, that she was more than the racers would ever deserve, that Ralph would never hate her, that Sugar Rush was just a memory of the past that didn't need to haunt her anymore.
That she was too Schweetz for them.
And that's a wrap!- please tell me your thoughts in the review section! It really helps to tell me If you liked it or not and what parts you enjoyed the most, have a very Schweetz day!