Cheri J. Lee was a racer whose head was in the clouds. Sure, she wasn't distracted during races like Muffintop or going out and about most often, but she was focused on the most peculiar thing: dreaming. Dreams were not a regular thing for video game characters. Dreams usually happened if preprogrammed of old memories, or things to come. If dreams weren't programmed in, they were usually of things in the past, like replaying old events. During the nights, some characters would sleep, just if they liked it. There really was no need for it.
But, the cherry-themed racer became fascinated with the concept of dreams ever since meeting NiGHTS. He came from a game all about dreams, and she enjoyed learning about players' dreams from him. After meeting up with him so many times, she began longing to have her own dreams. Thus, she would start becoming distracted on the track, daydreaming. It didn't cause any problems until about two days ago. It was the Random Roster Race, and Cheri was off thinking about...things. She wasn't entirely sure how daydreaming worked just yet. As expected, a kart is not the best place to go off thinking about things. Just near the segment of the race known as Cakeway, Cheri crashed straight into Malty Milkshak, sending small bits of lollipop goo and glass flying. The race had to be delayed until the wreckage was cleared. It was so bad, Almonda and _ had to be called in to clear up the crash site.
"So what happened here, anyway?" Almonda asked as she began turning over the cars with the help of _. The front tires of both vehicles had fallen apart.
"I was…." Cheri tried to find the right words. Was the crash really just daydreaming gone wrong, or sheer stupidity? She just decided on the former as a good enough answer. "I was daydreaming."

"Daydreaming?" Almonda pulled out the front axles so she could replace them. "What's that?"
"It's like...letting your mind drift off."
"In the middle of a race." _ added bluntly. "That's really dumb."
"Y-Yeah, I know. But it was fun to try."
"Fun to try!?" Malty shouted, even though all four of them were close together. "I could've fallen off to my death!"
"Well, you would've respawned, and our karts wouldn't be in this mess." Even though Cheri was right, Malty was grumbling over the cherry racer's ignorance. The cherry racer was asked to help with her kart's repair, but just then, Sour Bill tugged her hand.

"Miss Lee?" Cheri turned around to face the small sour ball as he spoke.
"Y-yeah?"
"The princess would like to see you." Cheri bit her lip. This was no doubt about the wreck, but she needed to help clean up. She turned back to her friends. They seemed too busy cleaning up to notice. That, or they thought she deserved to have a talk with the princess. It wasn't like she had a choice anyways. Princess Vanellope would talk to her no matter what.
"Okay," Cheri finally replied, hanging her head down a little, just enough so she could still see Sour Bill guiding her.
-

Vanellope sat in her kart-throne, waiting for Bill to bring back the distracted driver. She wasn't going to punish one of her own racers, especially since Cheri hadn't even gotten on the roster in the past week or so. The princess would hear the explanation, maybe give some advice, and just give her a small punishment of not being allowed to race in the RRR once it was back on. Just as Vanny thought she would fall asleep on the steering wheel, she heard the sound of the double doors opening.
"Your Highness, you requested to see me?" Cheri asked as she came up to the throne, Bill walking over to the left side of the princess' kart.

The princess nodded. "Yes, I'm sure you were busy cleaning up the damage, but Cheri, I'm afraid there must be consequences for this." She got out of her kart-throne, showing off a long evening dress of pale pink, and got closer to the cherry racer. "Now, before you recieve punishment, can you explain why this happened in the first place?"
"I, er, it's hard to explain."
"Do the best you can then."
Cheri nervously wrung her neck until she could summarize her situation. "Well, I learnt this 'daydreaming' thing from NiGHTS, and I-I tried it...at the most inopportune time. I'm sorry for being so stupid, Princess."

After hanging her head in shame, the cherry racer looked to the princess. She looked almost surprised. "Oh, yes, you were pretty foolish. But, I think I may something that can help."
"You do?!"

"Yes." The princess began to pace, as she normally did when making speeches, and Cheri followed with her eyes. "President Vanellope has told me of a form of dreaming that follows memories of all different types of Vanellopes, and probably other characters as well. I've tried it a few times, with little success. I've only been able to reach to the other Vannellope, and…" She sighed, "we dream like normal players from there. I've heard of others around here who've reached further, meeting their own from other cities, even across countries!" Cheri's eyes were wide at just the thought of it. "Of course, you can do this with the plenty of time you have for punishment."

"Wait, what?" In the ecstasy of the moment, the racer nearly forgot she even had a punishment.

Cheri J. Lee saw the sun dipping over some chocolate mountains. It had only been a day of punishment, and she was already bored; "house-arrest" here meant you literally had to stay in your tiny house, for three days! She'd probably go insane in that time, but she'd spend at least two hours of that time sleeping. With the hints given to her by the princess, the cherry racer went into bed, closed her eyes, and concentrated. She thought hard, and thought of what was beyond the arcade. Many systems and many pieces of code interconnected, and linked to her.

After what felt like hours of concentrating, she found herself in a white void. It must've gone on forever; is this where all game characters met to talk with themselves? Cheri scoured around for something, anything, that might be her other self. She saw something that was mostly brown. As she got closer, she made out peach skin, and yellow accents on the brown clothing. The girl-no, this was a woman- was a brunette, her hair styled the same way as Cheri's. They had to be the same character!

"Wow, you're tall!" Cheri marvelled at her older self; it was then the older self finally noticed her. "You're as tall as one of those Street Fighter chicks!"

"Uh, kid, you lost me at 'Street Fighter.'" The lady snickered. She knelt down to Cheri's height. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I-I'm you but younger. Don't you recognize me?"

"No…" the older one shook her head. "I don't think we're the same."

"We have to be!" Cheri frowned. "Otherwise, the dream-link wouldn't have worked."

"Wait, what?"

"I'm asleep right now, and are you asleep too?"

"No...actually, this is the only time I've ever felt awake." The older Cheri looked around the void, almost fascinated.

"Have you been sleeping...forever?"

"I guess. I don't remember anything before this…."

"Wait-a-minute, has your game even come out yet?"

"What-what's a game?"

Cheri gasped; she was trying to contain her excitement. She had actually met a beta version of some sequel! Her words flew out a mile a second. "Ohmygosh you're all-new and you're gonna be in a new game that hasn't even come out yet and I just-!"

"Whoa, slow down, kid! I can't understand you…"

Cheri suddenly clutched her older self's hand. "I know you'll do great things!" Before she knew it, the cherry racer wasn't clutching a hand, but her bedsheet. She let out a whine; the dream was over before it had even started! But, the sun was shining outside; it couldn't have been that long since she fell asleep! Could it? Cheri tried to recall her dream, especially what the other her wore. Did she have a different theme? Whatever it was, maybe she'd find out soon, when the sequel was released...