A Glitch and Her Dog

[Angel]

She imagined that, if her tail had been wagging any more than it already was, she'd have flown off somewhere by that point. Not that there was any rhyme or reason for such an imagine in her head, but it was amusing enough since her tail was wagging as fast as it was. She wouldn't have to go back to the junkyard ever again. No more Buster, no more scavenging for scraps in alleyways... She'd finally have a home to call her own. Not that she imagined Vanellope's life was any better than her own, at least based on what all she had gathered from Taffyta's treatment of the girl and her own thoughts, but it was still miles better than what she had been through before. Angel wasn't about to inquire about that much, either. Whatever Vanellope's life had been like, it was about to be a lot better.

"I'm glad," Angel confirmed. "I wouldn't ever want to go back to that life, anyway. I've got something much better than that now."

Angel could have said at any given point that she'd like to be let go of, but in reality she didn't want the embrace to end. She rather liked being in Vanellope's grasp, anyway. It was comfortable and warm... Angel didn't even mind that it was a bit tight. She was still somewhat afraid that she'd end up waking up somewhere and find that none of this had happened at all. It just felt too good to be true. Still... Vanellope hadn't vanished. Angel felt confident that things were going to be okay. This wasn't a dream at all... It was a wonderful reality.

"And you won't have to worry about those other kids. I'll protect you if I ever have to," she said.

[Vanellope]

She still couldn't believe it; that Angel would willingly do that much for her. It was true, the little dog had stood up to Taffyta on her behalf earlier, but Vanellope had never really... never expected her friend to want to make that a regular thing. For herself, Vanellope wouldn't have asked at all; the small canine had given her so much, just by being her friend and her dog, that the glitched girl wouldn't have dreamt of expecting anything more from Angel. But here her newfound friend was, promising her protection on top of everything else too... Vanellope could only give her head a tiny shake.

"You don't hafta do all that for me, Angel. I'm used to 'em, and I wouldn't want you to get hurt standin' up for me."

She continued to fondle Angel's ears as she spoke; particularly the right one, that stood errect while its counterpart drooped forward. She didn't even want to imagine what any of the other kids might try and do to Angel who, besides being her one and only friend as of present, was such a good and loyal little dog; Vanellope didn't want to her have to share in the torments that had been a part of her own life ever since the game had been plugged in. Or at least she thought they had; she wasn't rightly sure if it had begun right from the start, but she couldn't remember any time when she hadn't been jeered and pushed around by the racers.

[Angel]

"But dogs are supposed to protect their humans," Angel pointed out. She wasn't about to back down from this point, either. It was true the other kids might try to hurt her, but Angel was fast. She had outsmarted dog catchers before and she felt confident in her ability to outsmart a few kids. She contemplated bumping her nose against one of Vanellope's hands, but the girl seemed preoccupied by messing with her ears. Angel didn't mind, though. It felt nice enough, and it was Vanellope doing it. She hardly minded the fact that her human found her ears fascinating enough to do the 'floopy floppy' trick with. In fact, it was kind of amusing.

"I've gotten out of worse situations back home. If I ever have to deal with those kids that bother you, I think I could manage."

Not that Angel liked to sound overconfident, but who was she kidding? She was plenty confident in her abilities. Whether or not she actually was as capable as she thought she was remained an entirely different matter.

[Vanellope]

"Jus' don't get hurt on my behalf. If it comes down to it, you're worth more'n me."

That might have sounded awful to hear, especially coming from such a young child, but it was simply the way Vanellope had come to believe. She did have some worth - deep down inside somewhere, maybe - but years and years of hearing nothing but 'glitch', 'freak' and 'mistake' took their toll. As far as the girl was concerned, Angel had much more value to the world than she did; there was no way she would allow the little dog to come to harm if she could help it.

Truth be told, however, Vanellope was genuinely touched by Angel's words. The idea that the canine would be so willing to put herself in potential harm's way, even if she had got out of much worse before, simply on account of someone like her... it was indescribably special to Vanellope. In spite of her latest words, the glitched girl found she couldn't muster the will to protest any further. Angel clearly actually wanted to do this for her, and Vanellope knew better than to protest too far, lest the offer be revoked. Part of her wanted to shout and scream and leap around ecstatically at the fact that she had a friend who cared for her so much; but a bigger part of her was just concerned about what would happen if Angel did end up taking the brunt of the kids' torment. She tilted her head a little bit downwards, resting her chin gently in the fluff of fur that crowned Angel's skull.

"I don't understand how come you wanta do this for me. But thanks." She gave Angel a squeeze that, given how tightly she had already been holding the dog, might have been slightly painful, and then finally allowed her grip to slacken some. Still holding Angel, just not pressing the little canine quite so tightly to her chest. That probably had to be quite enough brooding over her value, or lack thereof, Vanellope figured; the best evening of her life so far was hardly the time to let such matters get to her.

"Do ya want to do something again? We could try bouncin' a bit more?" she suggested, a mischevious sort of smile working its way back onto her face. Vanellope was sure the beds here weren't meant for bouncing on; but she had found the experience far too fun to not experiment with it further.

[Angel]

Hearing that much from Vanellope was rather troubling. The girl couldn't have been much older than nine, so how on earth was it normal for her to think that she wasn't worth anything? Did the people back from where she called home hate her that much? The fluffy golden girl frowned, but she didn't say anything about it. There was little point in arguing over that much, anyway. Angel believed Vanellope had worth whether she liked it or not. Still, Vanellope's statement did deserve some kind of an answer. Angel wasn't just going to leave her hanging on that much.

"I can't make any promises. If they try to hurt you, I may just have to do something about it," Angel finally said. That said, she was grateful that Vanellope appreciated that she wanted to stick around. She soon felt Vanellope's grip slacken a bit and she looked back up at the girl in question after a moment. What could they do right then? Bouncing around on the bed had been fun, it was true, but surely there was more for them to do beyond that. What to do... What to do?

"We could... Play tie tug-o-war?" Angel asked. She had only ever really seen the other dogs in the junkyard having a tug-o-war with old hats that happened to lay around, but maybe it was worth a shot. It would give Angel an excuse to take off her tie. Alternatively, Vanellope could have volunteered her own tie for the game in question. Either way, it would have been fun to see who the victor would be. ...Did Vanellope know how to play, though? That was the question. Maybe Angel should provide a bit of insight on how to play.

"I've never played myself, but I've seen other dogs doing it. They take something - a hat or something like that - and both hold onto it. Whoever gets the other person to let go first wins. ...But we'd have to be careful. I don't think either of us wants a torn tie as a result of this," she said.

[Vanellope]

There didn't seem to be much answer she could give; aside from protesting more, which Vanellope had just decided that she wasn't going to. A small tremor of glitching ran the length of her body as she realised just how serious about this Angel was. It was such a foreign feeling to Vanellope, to hear someone telling her she was actually worth something, that she wasn't just 'the glitch'... if a stranger had tried to tell her it, Vanellope would have simply scoffed it off, but from Angel, she actually felt as though she could almost believe it. The girl smiled, and gently scratched Angel's cheek with her fingers.

She tilted her head slightly as Angel spoke again, about what they could do. "Doesn't that make the knot all weird, though?" Her left hand dropped from the canine's cheek to Angel's tie knot, as if to emphasise her point. Not that she was particularly going to complain; if Angel thought it was a good idea, then Vanellope was all for it. But she had observed the results that came from the process of pulling on someone's tie. While doing that to each other might have been fun, it seemed a bit of an odd thing for Angel to suggest; unless that wasn't actually quite what she had been getting at at all.

"Or didya mean while we're not wearing 'em?" Having stopped to think, that sounded like a more likely suggestion, all told, and Vanellope was starting to imagine that this could actually be fun. Even if, as Angel mentioned, there was a chance the tie used might get ripped, Vanellope didn't think it was that big a deal; they'd been given the uniform free on arrival, so they could always just pick up a new tie from the same place, right? Still, she intended to follow her friend's advice and be careful so that wouldn't even be neccessary.

She had her own tie in the drawer beside her bed, of course; but for the immediate moment, Vanellope didn't make a move for it. Though Angel hadn't shown any discomfort in her tie at all, there was a chance that she was hoping this would give her the opportunity to be rid of it for a while. Not that Vanellope would blame her if that was the case; wearing it right up to the shirt collar like that couldn't be comfortable.

"Sure, that sounds fun!" Enthusiastically, Vanellope bounced back to her knees and began to set the canine down beside. "Do you wanta use my tie or yours?"

[Angel]

"Yeah, we'd take it off before we started," Angel answered. She supposed she could have explained it a bit better, but it went without saying that untying the ties would make it easier for them to use. She was perfectly willing to volunteer her own tie, too. She still had hers on, and it was the perfect opportunity for her to start getting out of the uniform at last. The only reason Angel hadn't been taking the uniform off sooner was because of all that had been going on... And her comfort in Vanellope's grasp. Now that she had her chance, though, she was going to take it.

"Let's use mine," Angel said. She lifted a paw to try and start undoing the knot, but her claws didn't seem to make much of a dent in it. This seemed as good an opportunity as any for Angel to ask for help. Normally she didn't really like asking for help, but after how she'd accepted Patch's help in the training class and all it seemed okay enough. Just this once.

"Do you mind giving me a hand?"

(ooc: Whoops, short post is short.)

[Vanellope]

"Can't blame ya for wanting to get it off." Though she wasn't sure how Angel managed to be comfortably with her shirt collar buttoned and the tie right up to it at all, Vanellope figured there was no point questioning that much; it was the way the uniform was meant to be worn, after all, even if she had yet to go along with it. Apparently other students didn't find it so choking as she did. Good for them, Vanellope figured, but unless she actively got in trouble for wearing her collar open and her tie looser, then it wasn't something she was going to do anytime soon.

"No problem." Crouching to Angel's level, Vanellope quickly worked the tie off from around her friend's neck. For a dog, Angel could sure tie a neat knot, the girl noted with some surprise as she slipped the loop off over Angel's head; but that fact didn't stop her from swiftly pulling the tie undone anyway. Vanellope smoothed down the strip of green fabric, which was more or less identical to her own tie, then glanced back at Angel. The canine's shirt collar had, the glitched girl noticed, got completely rucked up when she had freed the tie from beneath it, and now looked rather silly as it stuck up. Snorting a slight chuckle, Vanellope set the tie down a moment and leant towards Angel again.

"Here, let's get ya outa the rest of that, too," she offered. While Angel had been happy in the tie, Vanellope had been disinclined to comment on any of it; but now that was off, she figured there wasn't much reason for the canine to keep the rest of the uniform on either.

[Angel]

Really, Angel wasn't entirely certain of how she'd managed to figure out tying a tie in the first place. Street smarts had gotten her far enough, but she'd never really known how to deal with clothes before coming to the school. Thankfully, she'd worked out how to do that much before ending up in trouble somehow. Now that she had Vanellope to help her get it off, though, she wasn't going to object to it. There was only so much comfort she could have wearing clothes that clearly were meant for humans. Vanellope worked nimbly to get the tie off, and Angel shook her head a bit once it was off. Her ears flopped about for a moment and finally came to a stop when Vanellope asked if she wanted help with the rest of the uniform.

...That actually was fine by her. She wanted to feel the collar around her neck for herself, and the uniform was keeping her from doing that. So, Angel nodded once more.

"All right. I'm kind of tired of wearing these clothes, anyway," she said. Besides, she wanted to actually show Vanellope what she looked like in full. She knew Vanellope could probably get a good idea of what her fur looked like even with the clothes on, but it just seemed a bit better for her to see it all for herself. Angel didn't want clothes getting in the way of further games, anyway. Just for the sake of comfort.

[Vanellope]

"I gotcha." Within moments, Vanellope was unbuttoning Angel's shirt, and very soon after, both it and her skirt were lying discarded on the bed as the girl got the first look at her friend's whole body without the addittion of clothes. It was more or less what she'd expected; the same blonde fur, with the cream highlights from about her muzzle running all the way down her chest and stomach. Said chest was extra-specially fluffy - and Vanellope took a few moments to rub her hands through the lovely soft fur - and Angel's frame looked ever-so-slightly emaciated in a way the uniform had hidden; otherwise, she looked fairly standard. No scars or anything that would tell of her struggles on the streets; or at least, no noticable ones.

"I didn't know your belly was gonna be all extra-fluffy." Vanellope grinned as she massaged that particular part of Angel's fur, and then withdrew to gather up her friend's clothes and stuff them into the drawer with all her own things. Call it instinct; after owning so very little for so long, Vanellope almost couldn't leave something out where anyone else could get their hands on it. She didn't think there was anyone here who'd steal Angel's shirt to make things difficult for the small dog come Monday; but better safe than sorry when it came to possessions, so far as the little girl was concerned.

As she shuffled back towards Angel on her rear, Vanellope picked up the dog's tie from where she'd dropped it. Now that was out of the way, she figured they could get on with the game, and she placed the tie down between them, ready for Angel to give the signal to start. While it didn't occur to her that they might be better off getting down from the bed to do this, what did occur to Vanellope was to give Angel the narrow end of the tie to pull on; just in case the dog's teeth should damage the fabric, it meant that any tears would be on the end that wasn't seen when she was wearing it.

"Whenever ya want to go for it, O tug-o-war-master!" Vanellope smirked slightly as she took ahold of the wide end of the tie for herself. She had no idea how this was going to end - though hopefully not with them holding half a torn tie each -, but it was certainly going to be fun anyway.

[Angel]

Oh, yes... That felt very nice indeed. Taking off her uniform at the end of the day was always a pleasant thing for Angel. How she managed to get the thing buttoned up and put on was a mystery, but she assumed that no one bothered to think about that much. The best part was that she could finally feel the collar around her neck properly. Angel spared a moment to look at the rainbow strand of candy and nodded approvingly of it being against her golden and cream fur. Now she really couldn't wait for the next day to come. Showing off her new collar to Patch was going to be a very interesting experience, indeed. Would he be happy for her having stumbled upon a home? The only way to find out would be to wait until the next day when she arrived on the field.

As much as Angel wanted to say something, she stopped herself when she felt Vanellope's hands against her fluffy, cream colored chest fur. The comment about the amount of fluff present wasn't too bad, either. Her tail wagged in approval of the words as she prepared herself for the tug-o-war match to follow.

"What can I say? I'm all fluff," Angel remarked. As soon as Vanellope had taken up her hold on the wide end of the tie, Angel snatched up the thin end in her teeth and crouched down into a play bow. This would ensure that she was able to maintain her hold and back up a bit on the bed if she needed to. How would the match go? Well, they were about to find out. A playful, muffled growl followed and, after just a brief moment, Angel tugged back on the tie to begin the game. Her tug wasn't too hard, as she didn't want to simply pull the tie out of Vanellope's grasp without a fight, but it wasn't incredibly weak either.

[Vanellope]

Without a thought for how silly it must look, Vanellope mimicked her friend's pose for a moment, crouching on the bed with her backend stuck slightly into the air, and she gripped the wide end of the tie tightly in one hand, grinning. While this was all entirely new to her, the girl could be a fast learner when she put her mind to it, and already she thought she had a pretty good idea of how to play this. She would wait for Angel to make the first move, and then...

A moment later, Vanellope found herself lying flat on her face on the bed. Her outstretched arm still gripped her end of the tie firmly; but what had happened was that Angel's first pull had jerked her hand enough that it slipped out from under her, and deposited the girl face-first into the mattress. Vanellope didn't stay down for long, however; after just a moment or two, she was already pushing herself back upright, clearly unhurt. Returning to her kneeling position, instead of the awkward four-legged crouch she had been attempting, Vanellope this time gripped the tie in both her hands and began to pull back.

All things considered, Vanellope idly supposed, it was likely she was stronger than Angel. She was significantly bigger than her friend, at the very least, so she figured that probably translated to physically stronger as well; in that case, she would end up having to throw a few games to Angel in order to make the thing fair. And she would, in due course; however for the present, Vanellope was much more concerned with giving the game her all rather than worrying about who actually won in the end. For now, she just kept on tugging on the green tie as she waited to see what Angel would do next.

[Angel]

With tie muffling her voice, Angel's sniggering that followed became harder to hear. What in the world had Vanellope actually been attempting just then? Mimicking her own position, perhaps? Well, it hardly mattered. Angel still had her grip on the tie and, once Vanellope had adjusted her position and gotten out of laying on her stomach like she had, resumed trying to tug on the tie. She hardly cared that holding the tie in her mouth was making the end of it a bit soggy. All Angel really cared about by that point was enjoying herself. Playful growls continued and she shook her head a bit. What was she hoping to accomplish? Angel didn't rightly know. It was all latent instinct by that point, and she was just having fun with the whole thing. Maybe it was a tactic to try and make it harder for Vanellope to hold on? She really didn't know by that point.

What would Vanellope attempt to try and make it harder to Angel to hold on? That thought idly reached Angel without real warning, and she didn't really try to push it away. The whole point of the game was to see who would let go first. There was nothing in the rules, if there were any, about not trying to make it difficult for the opponent to hold on to the thing being tugged around. Really, this was a lot of fun for Angel no matter what happened. She wasn't about to go back to just sitting around and doing nothing. Not now that she had an owner that was willing to play with her.

She shook her head again, trying once more to make things difficult for Vanellope, and wanted to see for herself just what the little girl was going to do next. In the end the whole game was kind of pointless, but who cared? All that really mattered was that the two of them were having fun.

[Vanellope]

If Vanellope had had the tie in just one hand, her grip might indeed have been shaken by Angel's attempts; with her two-handed grip, however, Vanellope managed to keep a tight hold even as the tie twitched about like a wild thing under Angel's shaking and tugging, and the girl had to smirk slightly. So that was how the little dog wanted to play it, trying to make her let go? Well, she'd be only too happy to play just as 'dirty' in returm. Vanellope let Angel continue to pull relatively unopposed for a moment longer before deciding to switch tactics.

Rather than just pulling back on the tie, Vanellope began to yank on it a bit more violently; first pulling to her right, and then switching to pull from her left, wondering if the change of direction would be enough to throw Angel and maybe slacken the canine's own grip some. The glitched girl laid off her tugging for a moment, almost as if she was giving the small dog a minute to recover; no sooner had she paused, however, than Vanellope was back to jerking on the tie. Once again, yanking first from one angle, then from another; as well as making things more tricky for Angel, the girl had to admit to being curious. How was her new friend even going to handle this particular strategy? Angel had to have some more tricks up her sleeve, Vanellope was certain.

"You're not gonna give up easily, are ya?" she laughed momentarily, grinning. This might have been a silly little thing but, aside from their previous stint of bouncing on the bed, this had to be the most fun Vanellope could really remember having in... well, ever. It was just great, being able to mess around with Angel, and not worry about being found by the other kids or having to fend for herself, or anything anymore. Even in spite of pointless classes, uncomfortable uniforms, and real-life Mortal Combat, Vanellope was starting to think that coming to this school had to be close to the best decision she had ever made.

[Angel]

Her muffled response was a 'no way' in answer to Vanellope's question. While she'd never played much with the other dogs back home, Angel wasn't about to miss out on the opportunity to potentially win here. The fact that Vanellope was tugging and jerking the tie around just gave Angel more resolve to try and do the same. She held on as best she could while Vanellope attempted to make her let go and tried to take a step back to give herself a bit more room for error. There wasn't much room for her to do so, granted, but Angel didn't care. She was going to keep trying regardless of that fact.

In turn, Angel continued to try and use her tactic. Playful growling continued and her tail wagged back and forth behind her. This was much too fun to give up so quickly. Apart from the bouncing around on the bed they had done, this was as much fun as she could have hoped for. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. Angel wouldn't quit straight away. Not while she was having fun.

Just what would Vanellope try since it was apparent that Angel wouldn't give up? That was the fun of it, she supposed. Whatever happened, Angel wasn't going to complain.