A Glitch and Her Dog

[Angel]

(ooc: September 5th. Closed to just Vanellope and Angel.)

Finally, the two of them were away from the halls and the prying eyes of their fellow students. Angel couldn't have asked for anything more. At present, she was curled up on Vanellope's bed and her tail was wagging contentedly behind her. Finally, she had someone she really could consider a friend in this school. She'd considered Vanellope one before the encounter with Taffyta, granted, but now it was official. Vanellope had said herself that she'd love to have Angel come and live with her. She'd wanted to give her a real home. That had just about made Angel's day when she thought about it.

Now it was a question of what the two of them were going to do now that they were alone together. The other students had left, presumably to either fight in the matches or to watch them, and they essentially had the dorm entirely to themselves. Not that Angel was complaining. After having to share a junkyard with so many other dogs, it was nice to have some space for just herself and Vanellope.

"Now that we're here together," Angel said at length, "what do you want to do? We could just talk, or we could... Find something to do in here."

[Vanellope]

Vanellope had flopped down onto her back on the bed beside Angel as soon as they'd got in, but she hadn't remained lying there for very long. Within moments, the glitched girl had rolled onto her belly and propped herself up on her elbows, grinning expectantly at her friend.

Her friend.

The thought alone was enough to stretch Vanellope's grin wider still. She'd never even dared to dream of having a friend before. Back home in Sugar Rush, the mere concept would have been thoroughly laughable; she'd been the mistake, the reject, the one no-one would even come near unless it was to pick on her, let alone actually befriend her. She still couldn't quite get over how different Angel was to... well, everyone else she'd ever met before coming here. And to top it all, Angel wasn't just her friend; she was also going to be her dog and come back to Sugar Rush with her.

Vanellope only hoped she didn't let the small canine down. Being a friend was so foreign to her; a small part of Vanellope was scared that she'd screw up somehow and drive Angel away again.

Only a small part, though; the rest of her was completely ecstatic. She had a real friend!

"I dunno," she replied momentarily. "What do friends even usually do?" That had to sound like a bit of a pathetic question, honestly, but it was one Vanellope genuinely didn't have an answer to. Even when she'd very occasionally taken to spying on the other racers, they'd mostly just seemed to talk shop about karts and races, and Angel wouldn't know a thing about any of that.

While she waited for Angel's response, Vanellope reached out a hand to scratch between Angel's shoulderblades; and as her hand met shirt fabric rather than fur, it reminded the girl of something she'd been curious about. Now, she figured, was as good a time as any to ask. "Do ya normally wear clothes? Or is it just 'cuz that's the uniform?"

[Angel]

Angel opened her mouth to answer, but she closed it again after a moment. Truth be told, she didn't have a clue about what it was that friends actually did. She was just as foreign to the idea as Vanellope was. Back on the streets, she could never really call anyone she'd known a friend. The junkyard dogs hardly qualified, as they only looked out for themselves, and she had only briefly gotten a glimpse of pet dogs as they came and went. None of them had ever given her a good idea of what friends did. The best she'd had had been the families she'd had briefly, but still... They hardly counted.

"Beats me," Angel finally answered. "I've never really had any friends before. Back on the streets it was every dog for themselves. I lived with a sort of pack, but we hardly were friends. Most of the time we didn't even work together."

She would have liked to say more, but Vanellope had begun to scratch her in a rather pleasant spot. The feeling of fingers against her fur was something she just didn't have very often. The question that followed, too, wasn't that surprising. Angel gave a tilt of her head and looked up at Vanellope again. She supposed the question made sense. Where Vanellope was from, there was a possibility of animals wearing clothes... or so Angel assumed. So, Angel gave a shake of her head.

"I don't normally wear clothes like this. Back home, the most I'd probably wear would be a collar... If I had a home, that is. So, you'd be more likely to see me without the uniform if I wasn't here," she said. What about Vanellope, though? The uniform didn't exactly seem like it fit Vanellope's sort of style... If that made sense.

"What about you? Would you normally wear something like our uniform?" she asked.

[Vanellope]

"Nah." Vanellope frowned down at her own uniform and gave the end of her tie a little flick. Not that it was too uncomfortable when she wore the shirt's collar open, as she typically chose to; but still, it wasn't exactly what Vanellope would ever chose to wear back home. How weird would that even look, anyway? "None of the other kids dress formal like this, it'd just give 'em something more to pick on me for," she shrugged.

"I mean, here, it makes me feel kinda like I fit in, you know?" Her tone was softer as she glanced at Angel, wondering if that made sense to the canine; then shrugged it off. "But back home, it'd just be dumb."

Pushing herself upright for a moment, the girl began pulling her tie loose, and a moment later it was deposited on the bed beside her. No point wearing it any longer that needed, she figured. Withdrawing her hand from Angel briefly, Vanellope instead leant over the edge of her bed to rummage through the drawer of the nightstand where she'd stashed her few meagre possessions. After pulling her familiar minty-green hoodie free and stuffing her tie in the drawer in its place - she had too few possessions to risk leaving any of them just lying around - Vanellope shoved it closed again and settled back beside Angel.

"This is what I usually wear." Rather than going the whole way with changing, Vanellope simply slipped the hoodie on over her school shirt. Might look a bit of an odd combination; but really, who except for Angel was around to see? Besides, she was more comfortable like this. Leaning back on her pillow, the little glitch motioned for Angel to climb into her lap and make herself comfortable.


"You haven't either?" Vanellope frowned sympatheticaly as Angel confessed that she'd had no friends to call her own either. It still beat her why no-one else would want such a loyal friend as the little mix-breed; but since their loss was her gain, Vanellope wasn't gonna be caught questioning it too far. She ran a hand through Angel's fluffy tuft of hair.

"Well, I guess we're just gonna have to find out for ourselves," she stated at length, her face breaking into a smile again; a smile with a slightly mischevious hint to it. It would be more fun that way anyway, Vanellope figured. "What d'ya reckon?"

[Angel]

The clothing was unlike any that Angel had ever seen, but somehow it looked as though it suited Vanellope. The color especially looked nice for one reason or another. A nod followed when Vanellope put the hoodie on over her school shirt. An odd combination, to be sure, but Angel never claimed to be an expert of human clothing. If Vanellope was okay with wearing it then she couldn't complain. When Vanellope asked if she really hadn't had any friends, Angel had to shake her head to confirm it.

"Like I said, it was every dog for themselves where I lived. Our leader made it his policy that your own trouble was your own trouble. 'Buster's trouble is Buster's trouble', as he put it," Angel said. Why anyone really followed that policy was something Angel was uncertain of, but she didn't mention that much out loud. She'd never been fond of Buster's policies. The only reason she followed them was because she'd be kicked out otherwise. At least, that was what Angel assumed. The golden-furred dog hadn't ever seen anyone kicked out, but she was certain that Buster had the power to do just that if someone succeeded in disregarding his policy or ever dared to tell him that they wanted to be a house pet. That last one had been her dream for a long time... Not that Buster knew it.

"I think," Angel said after she'd taken in Vanellope's next question, "that we should... Play something?"

Truth be told, Angel hadn't really played any sort of games since she was a much younger puppy. Hell, she'd never really had anyone to play with. As far as Angel knew, she'd been an only child. She also didn't remember much about her parents, so whether or not they had played with her escaped her memory.

"I mean, if you know any games. I have to admit, it's been a while since I've really played anything."

[Vanellope]

"That sounds pretty awful. Betcha glad to have that behind ya, huh?" Vanellope continued to pet Angel's fur gently - at least, what of it she could actually reach around the dog's uniform. For a moment, she considered asking Angel if she wanted to take the clothes off, then figured that as long as her new friend seemed alright with it, she may as well just leave her be. Angel had mentioned before, hadn't she, that the tie was the closest thing to a dog collar she'd worn for ages; maybe she actually liked it because of that?

And if not, Vanellope figured Angel would always ask for help if she did want to change out of it. Otherwise, the girl decided, she wouldn't bring the matter up.

"Me neither." Vanellope gave a shrug as the small canine spoke again. None of the other kids had wanted to play with her - 'cept for their favourite game of 'glitch-baiting', which she had heartily disliked being the butt of - and if there had ever been a time before that, the girl couldn't remember it. Still, despite her ignorance of the matter, she was certainly up for trying, and Vanellope scrambled to her feet, causing the bed to bounce just a little bit under her.

A curious expression flickered across her maw. The spongecake she used for a bed back home, while soft, didn't bounce like this.... Vanellope decided it was time for an experiment.

"Hey, Angel, try this!" She crouched, jumped up, and came down hard on the bed, causing everything else on it - presumably including her friend - to bounce upwards. Vanellope chuckled, then experimentally tried another bounce, and another, before looking down at Angel. Perhaps being on the recieving end of being bounced wasn't so enjoyable for the little mix breed; though Vanellope hoped that wasn't the case, because she was kinda enjoying this.

"What d'ya think?"

[Angel]

It was true, Angel was more than relieved to be away from Buster and the other junkyard dogs. Buster especially. Angel couldn't deny that the dog had good looks going for him, but he was absolutely despicable. She nodded in response to Vanellope's question and started to try and remove her tie. As comfortable as it felt to have something that could have been a collar around her neck, she had her limits for how long she could stand wearing it. Just as she had begun to remove it, though, Angel became aware of the fact that Vanellope had made the bed bounce a bit.

...That was new.

Truth be told, there hadn't been all that much that could qualify as bouncy in the junkyard. Sometimes there would be mattresses that had been thrown away, but those weren't all that comfortable. Besides, Angel was used to sleeping in that old dog catcher's vehicle that she'd claimed as her own. It had been made more comfortable with a bit of effort, but even that hadn't been that bouncy. Being bounced around wasn't too bad, though. It was kind of... Fun, actually!

Tentatively, Angel decided to try it for herself. She hopped into the air and landed back down on the bed after a moment. It made her bounce just a little bit. Soon enough, her tail was wagging a bit more and there was a sort of smile on her face.

"Well, I'll say one thing. I never could've done this back in the junkyard. I wonder how high we could bounce..."

[Vanellope]

"Here, d'ya want some help with that?" Though it looked like it had gone forgotten by the small dog, Vanellope hadn't missed the way Angel seemed to have been starting to try and free herself of the tie before she'd begun bouncing. The mix-breed seemed to have got it a little bit lower; but whether she'd been having trouble, or had just been distracted by the bouncing, Vanellope hadn't been paying enough attention to say.

Before she could reach a hand to assist, however, Angel had tried a bounce of her own; and though it the little dog's lighter weight meant it hadn't had quite the effect Vanellope's own bounce had, the girl still laughed as she felt the mattress jump a bit under her stockinged feet. Her offer to help Angel finish getting her tie off went completely forgotten as the pomeranian spoke up again, pondering how high they could bounce. Vanellope's face split into a michevious grin.

"We gotta find out now. C'mon, let's try this!"

So saying, the girl leapt into the air again; putting as much force as she could behind her landing as she tried to bounce herself and Angel higher and higher.

Again, and again, and again, Vanellope came down only to bounce herself straight back up again. She was probably making it tricky for Angel to keep her footing on the bed at all, Vanellope realised, but she was having too much fun to stop herself right now. The girl let out a whoop of exultation as she continued to bounce.

It was a ridiculously simple thing, all told. But it was also the most fun Vanellope could remember having in a long while.

[Angel]

While she would have liked to get her uniform off, the thought was lost on her when the prospect of bouncing as high as possible came to light. Her tail wagged back and forth with sheer delight, and soon enough Vanellope was bouncing up and down as hard as she could. Angel followed suit, though it was a bit difficult to actually keep her footing on the bed. Somehow Angel managed it well enough, though, and the two were bouncing up and down as high as they could. The little dog really wasn't bouncing all that high with everything considered, but she was having fun. She felt like a puppy all over again! Well... A younger puppy. Technically speaking, she still was a puppy.

The sound of Vanellope's laughter only made the experience more enjoyable. From the sound of it, her friend had been miserable for a good long while. The same could have been said of Angel, though. She hadn't gotten to play or have fun like this since the last home she'd had. The street life had beaten out a lot of her desire to have fun, and she vastly envied all of the pets that had come to this school. They had no idea how good they had it.

An idea entered Angel's head after a few moments. Why limit herself to just bouncing? On her next bounce, Angel started to spin about in the air and, after a couple of spins, caught her fluffy tail in her mouth. She landed about as gracefully as she could on the bed once more and let herself have a moment to bask in the glory of her caught tail. She could hardly wait to see what Vanellope thought of that.

[Vanellope]

"Whoa, that- wah! Oof!"

Vanellope had tried to stop herself bouncing to comment on Angel's achievement; unfortunately, her momentum hadn't allowed her such an abrupt halt. The girl's feet slipped out from under her as she tried to still herself; her body gave a little glitch as she scrabbled to try and find a non-existant something to grip onto in the moment before she landed flat on her back on the bed, her legs sticking up in the air in what was probably a pretty undignified manner. She didn't remain that way for long, however; as soon as she got her breath back, Vanellope pushed herself upright again.

"That's so cool! How'd you do that?" She shook a few strands of hair away from her face to better take in Angel holding her own tail in her mouth as though it was some grand prize she'd caught. Some might call the ability a weird one; to Vanellope, however, it was a cool talent that her dog - HER dog! Even if the adoption may not have been completely official, the thought still made Vanellope beam - possessed. Something that made her special. And the way Angel looked so pleased with herself; well, evidently she thought it was an equally cool skill.

Vanellope wished she had something special that she could do like that. But alas, aside from being the best - or was that only? - tree climber in Sugar Rush, all she had was her freaky glitching; and that wasn't a talent, in was a curse. Vanellope fiddled with the topmost button of her shirt for a moment, before realising that her dissatisfaction with herself had made its way onto her face. Hoping that Angel hadn't noticed, Vanellope quickly mustered a smile for the small dog again.

[Angel]

Angel was only thankful that Vanellope hadn't fallen off the bed when she'd seen what she could do. The fact that Vanellope thought her talent was a cool one just made Angel feel even better about it. Whether or not Vanellope's glitching could count as a talent was debatable, but as far as Angel was concerned it wasn't a problem. The two of them could be a duo of odd individuals. She herself was a stray, technically speaking, and Vanellope an outcast. Both were rather similar, at least in her opinion, and Angel wasn't about to think otherwise.

For the moment, her primary thought was the answer to Vanellope's question. She let go of her fluffy tail, at least enough to speak, and the fluffy end of it kind of curled up against the side of her muzzle.

"Talent," Angel answered. That might have been taken as smug, or even arrogant, but that was the first answer that had come to Angel. She decided to offer more of an explanation than that, though. That way she wouldn't be taken as completely full of herself. Truth be told, that was the last thing she wanted to be thought of as. Instead, she wanted to think of herself as a clever little thing... Maybe. It wasn't as if anyone was around to tell them otherwise.

"You learn some tricks when you're on the streets. I guess I thought this one might help me somehow," Angel explained. Her real thought was that she'd hoped it would make her more attractive to potential adoptive families. After all, if a stray had a clever parlor trick that humans found amusement in then the chances of being taken in were higher. It had never really helped, though, and so she just fell back on her trick as an expression of excitement or joy.

[Vanellope]

"I like it."

Rather than get back to her feet to continue bouncing, at least for the immediate minute, Vanellope slid closer to Angel on the bed and smiled down at the little dog. "It makes you pretty cool, you know? Like you're special," she stated momentarily. Though she might actually have sounded a tad envious, Vanellope was genuinely happy for her friend; her friend who she still couldn't quite believe was her friend and her dog. The girl almost felt certain this was going to turn out to be some kind of dream or joke or trick - yet at the same time, she believed Angel was thoroughly sincere and altogether real. It was just... such a new concept to her.

Abruptly, Vanellope found herself with the urge to hug her new friend close. Rather than doing so directly, however, the glitched girl instead laid down on her back on the bed, and gently pulled Angel up onto her chest. Once that was done, Vanellope began to affectionately pet her companion; one hand rubbed the base of Angel's skull, just below the level of her ears; the other slipped beneath the back of the pom-mix's shirt to scratch her spine gently.

By this point, Vanellope decided, she wouldn't trade Angel for anything at all, ever.

"I'll letcha get up again in just a minute," she spoke shortly, in case Angel was starting to feel restless. Vanellope admittedly was herself; as much as she wanted to keep showeing Angel with affectionate pats, she also wanted to get back up and resume bouncing or something; which she'd do in just a moment more, the girl figured.

[Angel]

The hug, needless to say, was rather unexpected.

Angel couldn't recall the last time she'd been held close like she was briefly here. Had it been with the third family? Or was it the family that had that one small boy who had been quite fond of her? Whichever it was, Angel honestly couldn't complain about her present position. Being hugged, even if it was only for a moment so Vanellope could have her close to her, felt really, really nice now that she thought about it. It gave her all the more reason to want a home of her own. Now that she had Vanellope to take her in, though, she wouldn't have to lust after a home any longer. She finally had what she wanted... Minus the treasured collar and badge of respectability. Those two could have come sooner or later, though. For all Angel knew, Vanellope might try her luck and give her the final piece of the home she'd always wanted.

...Okay, it wasn't quite a hug. Angel realized this as soon as Vanellope began to pet her affectionately. She hardly cared, though. It was as close to one as she was going to get for a while. The pets certainly were appreciated. Her tail began to wag heartily and her tongue snaked out of her mouth to brush against Vanellope's fingers. Canine signs of affection were rather strange, she reflected, but who cared?

As long as she had Vanellope, she wasn't going to complain about anything. Her human friend (and owner, she realized) and Patch were the best things that had happened to her since she'd arrived at the school.

"I honestly wouldn't mind staying like this a while longer," Angel said after she'd finished licking Vanellope's hand. She sincerely hoped this wasn't a dream. It was too good to be true, almost, and these sorts of dreams were common enough for Angel to second-guess what was happening. But she'd seen and felt Vanellope for herself. She had to be real. She just had to.

[Vanellope]

"Oh, okay."

Vanellope wasn't gonna make Angel get up if she didn't want to. There was something really reassuring about having the little blonde dog sitting on her stomach, as though she was her guardian who wouldn't let anything happen to her; perhaps she was reading too much into that - Angel was her friend and her dog, but no-one had said anything about her protector - but Vanellope liked the image nonetheless.

Plus, she liked how Angel's tongue tickled her fingers and made her chuckle.

Shifting her hands slightly, Vanellope began to scratch lightly beneath Angel's chin, curious to see how the little dog liked that. For the barest of moments, her fingers slipped to brush the collar of the canine's shirt before she resumed her gentle scratching. The touch, however, was enough to remind Vanellope of something, and a thoughtful look flickered across her face even as she continued to pet Angel.

"I'll make ya a real collar when we get back to Sugar Rush." Under any other circumstances, Vanellope would have had so many plans to make Angel a collar that she would have been tripping over herself in her excitement; but here, she didn't even know where anything would be found, or what sort of thing even made a typical collar. All she could think of was a strip of candy from back home - maybe a lemon drop for the tag? - which wasn't available in the necessary sizes around here. She didn't even know what real dog collars were made from in this world; and besides, a candy one would be more fitting, wouldn't it?

"Until then, I guess you'll just hafta make do with the tie, huh? It doesn't look so bad on you, anyway."

[Angel]

Well, dogs were meant to protect their humans. If the arrangement went through properly, and Angel hoped it did, she would do her best to protect Vanellope from any further harm. The fact that Vanellope was apparently tormented for something she couldn't even help having was enough to make Angel's blood boil a bit. How could any human treat another as though they were nothing more than a piece of garbage? She just couldn't understand it. Dogs could be treated that way, but people? No; Angel didn't like that at all.

Her thoughts drifted away from the subject as Vanellope began to scratch her beneath the chin. Oh, that felt good... Angel's tail began to wag and she had to resist the urge to start thumping her leg. In her present position, that wouldn't have been the best idea anyway. It was in that moment that she heard Vanellope mention making a collar, and Angel blinked once. She'd make her a collar? Really? That thought made her tail wag a bit harder. She really hadn't worn a collar in a long time, and knowing that Vanellope wanted to go to the trouble of making one made the gesture all the more wonderful. The only downside was that she'd have to wait until they got to Sugar Rush. How long would it be until they got there? She really didn't know.

"That'd be great, Vanellope," Angel finally said. If only she had something she could do in return. ...Wait, she did have something. The fact that she was willing to live with Vanellope when others wouldn't want to spoke volumes. That was the best thing she could have done for Vanellope. Yes.