Janitor? More Like Wrecker

[Deleted]

Sugar Rush. Even the name was enough to give Ralph that saccharine sweet taste in his mouth. He'd never been there, and frankly he didn't ever really want to go there. It was a game that was just too cutesie and sweet for his liking. ...It was the perfect home for Vanellope, then. What he didn't know was just how wrong he was in assuming it was perfect. Now that he thought about it, though, there wouldn't be any bad guys in a racing game... Would there? Maybe she wouldn't have thought too badly of him if he'd mentioned it. Oh well; too late now. If he did mention it, though, then maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe.

Ralph's thoughts shifted when Vanellope asked how he would succeed in breaking the bulb this time. He grunted once and tried again to fix the bulb into place. Maybe this time would be the lucky attempt that magically went his way. ...And maybe he would spontaneously be given a medal just for being him. Even Ralph knew he'd have to be crazy for assuming he'd be good at this job. Still, that didn't mean he was going to be deterred by a little girl's remarks about his failure. He got enough flak from the Nicelanders to have developed relatively tough skin in that regard. This time, though, Ralph was going to make sure the accursed lightbulb got where it needed to go. He'd make sure that Vanellope knew that much, too. No way was he going to let her keep getting to him.

"Not going to break it this time, kid," Ralph answered. Slowly, carefully, Ralph went back to work screwing the lightbulb into place. The familiar hurdle that came with the task came up before too long, and Ralph had to move a finger or two to make sure things didn't go awry. He moved his fingers just so, adjusting his hold so that it was concentrated on the bulbous part of the glass object as opposed to the thin end, and he continued.

"See? That was easy..."

Ralph didn't sound all that certain of himself in spite of this. Even if he had gotten over this hurdle, he knew he still had to make sure the bulb got in properly. His process this time was slow, but maybe it was paying off. The lightbulb almost seemed to be completely in place... And after a few moments more, it finally got screwed in place.

"Ah-HA! I got it! Let's see ol' Felix do that," he said. Just as he did, though, heat came to the bulb and he had to pull his hand away before it got burned. The light had come back on, and the hall was, as a result, properly lit once more. He was sure Vanellope had her own thoughts on what she had witnessed, but he didn't care. He actually was kind of curious to hear what she thought.

"What do you think of that, kid?"

[Vanellope]

"Uh-huh." Vanellope smirked disbelievingly as Ralph stated how he wasn't going to break the bulb this time. That was just about as likely as her ever being accepted back home, the little glitch figured. She shifted position slightly, enough so that Ralph's massive hand wasn't blocking the disaster waiting to happen from her view, and settled down to wait for the inevitable.

The inevitable that didn't actually come. Her head tilted slightly with a degree of puzzlement as Ralph managed to get the bulb into its place without the expected tinkling of glass; and even though he didn't sound all that sure of himself when he spoke, he seemed to manage getting the thing screwed the rest of the way in, too. Vanellope blinked once or twice, just to make sure she'd actually witnessed what she thought she had; but the bulb was in place, and was soon glowing brightly enough that she had to squint to even look at it. As the big man spoke again, she turned her attention away from the repaired light to regard him.

"Ya know, for a wrecker, I thought it would cost you a whole load more bulbs." In spite of what might have been expected, Vanellope didn't really sound disappointed about having been deprived of her amusement. More... curious. He was pretty much doing something that was completely against his code, wasn't he? Vanellope wasn't quite sure what to say to the fact that he'd managed to achieve that at all.

[Deleted]

"Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are," Ralph said. He had expected to waste a whole box of lightbulbs before getting his job finished. Still, though, he had to admit that he was proud of what he had accomplished. ...There was no getting around the fact that it was probably a fluke, though. Really, Ralph wouldn't have been able to repeat the performance any time soon even if he'd wanted to. But hey, he wasn't complaining. He'd gotten to finally fix the school's problem and gotten someone to talk to in the process. Granted, Vanellope had only really succeeded in bugging the snot out of him up until that point. Why did he even care about what a little girl thought of his handiwork, anyway? She was just one kid... Right?

"If I had to say anything about it, though, I'd say that that was pretty miraculous. I doubt I'll be able to do that again any time soon," he admitted. ...Now what? He'd finally gotten the job he'd meant to accomplish done, so he really didn't have much business in staying where he was. On the other hand, though, there was just something kind of... Appealing about having Vanellope there. Usually people avoided him. Vanellope, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered by him at all. Maybe there was something to this whole hanging out with a kid thing...

...Nah. People probably would have looked at him even more strangely than before if he started actually spending time with Vanellope beyond this. He wouldn't deny, though, that she wasn't all that bad. Obnoxious, maybe, but somehow Vanellope didn't seem all that bad beyond that.

"...Watch. That thing's going to explode or something and I'll be right back where I started," he said, mostly joking.

[Vanellope]

A little chuckle was given as Ralph expressed his own surprise at the feat. Maybe there was more to him than met the eye, if he really was able to do things beyond what his code said he should do. Kinda like she hoped there was to her. She was more than just the glitch, deep in her code, Vanellope knew it, but there wasn't any way of getting any of the others to see that. Whereas Ralph had just proved that he was more than his programming said, the little glitched girl knew she had no easy way of proving the same of herself. As far as everyone but Angel was concerned, all she was was just the mistake, and the small dog's voice wasn't going to be worth much more than her own back home.

Actually, she was kinda surprised Ralph hadn't called her out for what she was yet. It was true she hadn't glitched while she was with him, not yet - though she knew better than to tempt fate by thinking as much - but still. Either Ralph just didn't know what a glitch was, or she didn't so obviously look like one as the other racers always made out. Not that she was complaining, but it just struck the girl as odd. Though it would be hard to read as much from her face; a bit of curiosity, maybe, still lingered, but not much else showed obviously.

Momentarily, she slid down from Ralph's shoulder, back onto the ladder again. A snigger was given as Ralph stated it was only a matter of time before the bulb exploded, and she glanced up at it in an almost expectant manner. When nothing happened, however, Vanellope turned her attention back to the big wrecker.

"Guess you're off to find somethin' else to break now you're done here, huh?" There was almost a reluctance to the girl's tone, and she made no move to hop down from the ladder. She still had a while until her next class, and Vanellope wasn't sure she was really ready to lose her only company right now; even if she did simply bug the snot out of him more than anything else. He was still someone, after all, and it beat hanging around on her own.

[Deleted]

That would be the reasonable thing to do, wouldn't it? It was only a matter of time before his bosses called him to fix something else, and while Ralph wasn't looking forward to it he realized that it would have to happen sooner or later. But on the other hand... Vanellope was the only one in the school who seemed to be okay with him. At least, that was what Ralph was guessing. He hadn't actually gone out of his way to befriend anyone else on the staff and really didn't care to. This kid, on the other hand, really didn't seem to mind that she was in the presence of a bad guy. She'd bugged the snot out of him, of course, but Ralph was willing to ignore that point. It was almost kind of... Cute? Should he really have been thinking that, though? Probably not. Not that Ralph thought of her as anything beyond a little kid that did seem to have worked some kind of charm on him, but still...

"Nah, I don't think I'm needed anywhere right now," Ralph answered. The ones in charge would have called him if there were, and so far it sounded as though he wasn't needed yet. Maybe it was just a slow day? Ralph could only hope so. He wasn't particularly looking forward to fixing anything else. ...Especially if it had anything to do with toilets. Programmers knew how long it would take for him to screw up fixing a toilet.

"The most I gotta do is take this ladder back to where it belongs, but that can wait. I'm sure the school can survive for a bit without me," he said. It wasn't as if the school would explode without its janitor. Why Vanellope would want to hang out with a guy like him had yet to be seen, but he couldn't really complain. She wasn't quite as annoying as he'd first written her off as. It almost seemed like she was genuinely interested in him and not the fact that he was a bad guy. But again, it seemed like maybe she wasn't aware of the fact that he was one. The only way he'd know for sure was by asking her, and that was just something that wasn't going to happen. Ralph didn't want to chance anything by bringing it up.

"So I guess you're stuck with me for a bit longer. At least until your next class."

[Vanellope]

(ooc: psst, we need to make her glitch at some point. I want to see Ralph's reaction ^^)

He almost sounded like he wanted to spend time with her now. That was an interesting development.

She might have to play things a bit more carefully, Vanellope figured as she idly plucked at her tie knot. Which meant that maybe she ought to ease back on the bugging just a little. While she didn't imagine it would remain the case for long once he found out what she actually was, no-one had ever cared to even pretend to want to stick around her before. Especially not someone who she'd approached with the express intent of bothering the snot out of. Somehow, though, Ralph seemed... well, she wasn't sure he actually liked her, but he clearly was interested enough to not take the first possible opportunity to get away from her. Having another game character be interested in her was actually a nice change, and now that it seemed to be becoming a thing, she didn't want to risk driving him away.

"Ah, I got ages yet." She waved a hand dismissively, not letting on any clue as to her inner thoughts. She essentially had a free period now, whether that had been the intention of whoever had written her timetable or not, and she didn't have to be anywhere else until the present hour ended. That still gave her plenty of time here, so far as Vanellope was concerned.

"So, what, ya still get paid even if you just stand around chattin' to students for ages? Not that I'm complainin'." She hopped one step down the ladder, just so that she could lean back against the higher rung in a position that was at least moderately comfortable. She wasn't going to let up on giving him a hard time completely, but she would ease off a bit. Just to see where that would take things.

[Deleted]

"That's easy," he answered. "I'm getting paid not to break things. ...Okay, I'm getting paid to not break everything in my path. Let's just keep those couple of lightbulbs between us. Okay, kid?"

The whole thing going on might have been considered weird to some. Who in the world would have thought at a kid like Vanellope would want to hang out with a wrecker and janitor like Ralph? Not him, that's for sure. Still, there was something strangely pleasant about the whole thing. Maybe it was just the sheer fact that it was so different from how things were back home. Back home, no one would have wanted anything to do with him. They would have avoided Ralph like the plague and he would have been all alone in his stupid pile of bricks. ...That was as close to a home as he got, sure, but even he had to admit the bricks were stupid. Who int he world had thought that that would be a good bit of programing? It wasn't as if he'd asked to...

...Whoops. Rambling thoughts again. Ralph had to shake his head once to clear away the train of thought before it got any wilder and glanced back at Vanellope after a moment. All things considered, she wasn't a bad kid. Apparently, she just liked teasing people. He couldn't exactly find fault with that much, though. Ralph was probably the easiest person in the whole world to have tormented. He couldn't say that he didn't have it coming. His height and weight gave him plenty of cause to be teased. By that point, he couldn't even say he was bothered by it. He'd kind of grown... Used to Vanellope being there. She'd only been there for the span of time he'd been trying to fix one lightbulb, granted, but it was better than nothing. As the only kid in the school - or maybe even the world - that didn't have a problem with him, he could say that he was going to tolerate her existence.

"...What's a kid like you doing by yourself, anyway? Not that it's any of my business, but c'mon. You've gotta have some friends in this school, right?"

Maybe that was a bit too much of a prying question. Ralph hadn't even thought about that much. It was genuine curiosity that had driven him to ask.

[Vanellope]

A little chuckle was released as Ralph asked to keep the broken lightbulbs between the two of them; nonetheless, Vanellope nodded. It wasn't like there was anyone she was going to tell, after all; she might see if she could make Angel laugh by telling her about the only semi-competant janitor, but beyond that, the girl had no real desire to pass on any description of events. Ralph's paycheck was safe as far as this incident was concerned.

She resumed swinging her legs as Ralph seemed to lose himself in his own thoughts. Evidently he had quite a maze inside his head, and Vanellope sniggered slightly into her hand as she contemplated how best to tease him about that once he regained his focus. There was no way she was going to miss out on the opportunity to give him a hard time about how his train of thought seemed to have completely wondered off track while they'd been in the middle of talking-

Or maybe she would. As the wrecker abruptly returned to himself and spoke again, his question drove all thoughts of bugging him from her mind. Vanellope's legs stilled, and a tiny shudder of a glitch - almost too small to even be recognised for what it was - gripped her as she frowned. As much as she might have convinced herself that he couldn't actually care... he sounded really sincere. For the first time since she'd started bugging Ralph, the girl looked unsure of herself; she rested her chin on her chest for a moment, staring down the length of her legs, then decided she had nothing to lose by being mostly truthful.

"Well, not really. Jus' my dog, an' she's in a class of her own right now." And kind of maybe Sync, but Vanellope didn't even know where he hung out when he wasn't in manners class, or whether he considered her anything even remotely like a friend. She kicked one booted foot against the other, flicked at the tip of her tie, and then continued. "No-one really wants to hang out with someone like me, anyway. Not exactly the popular kid over here."

Just one of the many joys of being her.

[Deleted]

In spite of how small it was, Ralph saw it. There was a very brief flicker of code that seemed to seize Vanellope's tiny frame before she went about answering his question. What in the world had that been? He'd never seen anything like it. Maybe he'd just been seeing things, though. Vanellope hadn't reacted to what had just happened, so maybe it wasn't all that important? Ralph couldn't just pretend that he hadn't seen it, though. He just had to know what that was...

Sadly, he didn't get the opportunity to ask straight away. Vanellope had answered his question, and this caused the massive wrecker to frown a bit. She only had a dog as a friend? That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and it was better than Ralph's own situation of having no friends to speak of, but still. It was kind of sad that a kid her age didn't have friends. How on earth could she not be popular? Apart from the bugging the snot out of people, Ralph couldn't see an answer. He could understand his own not being popular, but Vanellope was a kid. Were kids in this school really so cruel that they just let others their own age go around without friends?

"Well, I don't see why. Unless you've been going around bugging more people than just me, it's not like you're some kinda... I dunno. Bad guy or something," Ralph said. He shrugged off the term. This time, he wasn't referring to himself. It was more of a way to just try and make her feel better... If that was at all possible. He really didn't know Vanellope well enough to guess at what would make her feel better. He could always break more lightbulbs or something. That had seemed like a successful way to amuse her.

"...Unless that weird little flicker just a second ago has something to do with it. What was that, anyway?" he decided to ask. Ralph didn't have a problem with it, as he didn't even know what it was, but he might as well ask. What was the worst that could happen from asking?

[Vanellope]

"Ah, well, now that ya mention it..." This time, she had very noticably glitched as she winced at his question, and Vanellope rubbed one hand around the back of her collar. What was she supposed to do? She always had the 'just pixlexia' excuse, but she had no idea if Ralph would even buy that. No-one back home did; then again, that was because they knew what she was. The big wrecker hadn't instantly cried 'glitch' the instant he'd seen it, so maybe he didn't know what it meant after all; and Vanellope sure as candy wasn't going to tell him that the flicker he'd seen meant that she was an outcast reject who, according to everyone else, wasn't even supposed to exist.

"It's nothing. Just pixlexia, okay?" She missed the presence of her hoodie pockets once more as she made to stuff her hands into them and encountered just the fabric of her shirt, and took up fiddling with her tie tip instead as she shrugged. The excuse sounded hollow, at least to her own ears; but maybe that was just because she'd used it so often back home and always been shot down when she did. To Ralph, it wouldn't sound that way, she was sure... well, she hoped, at least.

She almost wasn't sure why she cared what the janitor thought of her. But... well, the guy had been showing genuine signs of liking her; and even if he was big and smelly and had broad enough shoulders to get him jammed in any doorway in the school, Vanellope didn't really want to jeopardise that. She didn't want him to find out she was a glitch; didn't want him to turn on her they way everyone (bar Angel) always did when that came out.

Not that she really expected him to buy the excuse. It had never worked for her before; still, Vanellope was ever hopeful that maybe it would take, for once.

[Deleted]

Pixlexia...?

Truth be told, Ralph had never heard of it. He'd been in the arcade far longer than some of the other game characters he knew, and yet the term had never reached his ears before then. It almost seemed like Vanellope was ashamed to even admit that it was a problem. Honestly, though? Ralph didn't really care about whatever the problem was. Vanellope was Vanellope no matter what. She may have been obnoxious to a degree, and Ralph was fully willing to acknowledge that much, but there was just something about her that kind of seemed to be calling out to him. Like the girl needed a friend or something. Just having her dog didn't seem like enough to him. Not that Ralph really was one to talk, though.

"All right, so it's Pixlexia. I didn't say it was a problem or anything. Just curious," Ralph said. A casual shrug followed his words. It wasn't as if he was about to start treating her any differently just because she had some disease or something. That wouldn't have been any better than how the other residents of his own game treated him. Besides, treating a kid that way would have been even worse.

"What's the big deal about having Pixlexia, anyway? I don't think it'd be that big a problem. I mean, it just looks like your code flickers and stuff. Nothing too serious."

[Vanellope]

Wait... he actually was buying it? He didn't know that Pixlexia was an entirely fake disease she'd made up to excuse her glitching?

Well, as long as he was accepting that, she wasn't about to enlighten Ralph to the truth. A little grin worked its way onto Vanellope's face as she looked at the big man. It almost felt like... she didn't know, as if they were sharing something special right at that moment, though Vanellope wouldn't pretend to know what. After all, Ralph might have been big and stinky, but he surely had plenty of friends back in his own game; he wouldn't know what it was like to be treated as though he wasn't even meant to exist.

"Try tellin' that to King Candy." It wasn't exactly bitterness that pervaded Vanellope's tone as she scoffed, though she certainly felt her fair share of it towards the ruler. More like resignation. Even if Ralph's attitude didn't change if he ever learnt what she was, it would take a miracle and a half to get the sugar-coated monarch to even look at her as though she was more than something nasty he'd stepped in by mistake. Vanellope kicked the toe of one boot dejectedly against the heel of her other.

"He said it makes me a mistake an' that I can't race because of it, an' all the other kids believe him." Her chest to rose and fell as she blew a heavy sigh through her nose. Vanellope didn't really mean to complain so much as she was just stating facts; still, she couldn't say that the attitudes back home didn't hurt her at all.

"None of 'em ever want anythin' to do with me. But who needs 'em, anyway?" That was a false show of bluster, and even Ralph had to see it. Vanellope's fondest dream was to become a racer and win her fellows' acceptance; but until her Lickity Split project got anywhere, there was little to no way that could ever come true.

[Deleted]

...That just wasn't right. No kid should have to suffer just because some king said that she was a mistake. That was just as bad as the bad guy prejudice that seemed to exist. When Vanellope finished speaking, he realized just how similar the two of them really were. ...Maybe it would be worth telling her that much. After all, she'd divulged some information that had to be personal just then. Ralph may as well try and do the same. Let her know that she wasn't completely and utterly alone in having to suffer like that.

"Boy, I know how that feels," Ralph said. Maybe not the being unable to race part, but he knew what it was like for the other people in his game to hate him. The sheer fact that he was a wrecker should have been enough to convey that much. Ralph still didn't want to let Vanellope know that he was the bad guy. Even if she did seem to not have any problems with bad guys, he didn't want to risk that much. It probably was dumb, though. Who even said that Vanellope knew what a bad guy even was? It sounded like her game didn't have any of them... Unless the kids and king who apparently hated her counted.

"It's kind of the same thing back in my game. Being the wrecker hasn't exactly gotten me a lot of friends, I'll tell you that much. In fact, most people back where I'm from just avoid me. Don't want anything to do with me," Ralph said. The smell was another factor, but Ralph didn't have much control over that. It was just the way the programmers had made things and he had to deal with it.

"But I'm used to it. Who really needs those guys, anyway? They've got Felix to gush over and all that junk."

[Vanellope]

Huh. Really?

Again, her body rippled with blue code momentarily as Vanellope paused mid-swing of her legs and looked up at Ralph, looking puzzled- but also, suddenly, understanding. Comprehension was slowly dawning on the little girl as to why Ralph had been putting up with her so long already. He must have seen something of himself in her, even before she'd explained; that had to have been it. They were oddly alike, now that she heard his story too.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

The girl slipped off the rung she had been sitting on, her feet touching down upon the next lowest as she stood, and for a moment regarded Ralph in silence. Of course, with Vanellope, silence rarely lasted all that long.

"I'd never have figured. I mean, I know you're big an' stinky an' all, but at least you're meant to exist, right?" She rubbed her shoulder with her opposite hand, shrugged. If only she could get into a race, Vanellope knew that would change everything for her. No-one would say she wasn't meant to exist if she went ahead and proved she could win a race, the girl was certain. But she already knew her chances of that happening; and it was sort of irrelevant at the present moment, anyway.

"Sounds pretty much the same as me, though. Everyone avoids me too, unless they wanta play at glitch-baiting." When glitch-baiting had become an actual sport, Vanellope didn't even know; but a bunch of the other racers certainly treated it like it was. She sort of thought Rancis, Gloyd and Swizzle had come up with the concept between them, and the others had joined in; and now they had rules for it and scored points over how miserable they could make her... the little girl fidgeted with her tie knot as she thought back on some of the torments they'd put her through in the name of their 'game'.

"Anyway, I'm glad to be here. Gets me away from most of 'em." At least, she thought it did; Taffyta was the only one she'd seen around the school at least, and while running into her hadn't been pleasant, it beat running into any group of two or more of the other kids.

[Deleted]

A shrug followed.

"Sometimes I wonder. I just do my job, but the other people in the game act like I'm some kind of... I dunno. Bad person, I guess," he said. He would have gone further, but one thing Vanellope had said threw him off. 'Glitch baiting'? What in the world was that? Ralph had never heard of such a thing, but it sounded as if the other people in her game treated her just plain horribly. At the very least, though, it sounded like Vanellope was happy with her present situation. She could easily avoid getting tormented and everything here. ...And maybe Ralph could do something about it, too. He certainly was around the school often enough. If something happened and he happened to be around, maybe he could try to protect her.

"Yeah. Sounds like things were pretty rough on your end up 'til now. But at least we both can get away from the people in our games and not have to worry about what people think of us. ...Well, you probably don't have to worry so much about that now. Not like a janitor is going to get any special treatment," Ralph laughed. He also doubted that Vanellope would want to regularly spend time with him. Still, he wouldn't deny that the idea did kind of seem appealing. The two were alike whether they wanted to admit to it out loud or not. ...But he didn't want to suggest that right away. Just in case Vanellope turned him down.

"Kinda weird, isn't it? I sure didn't think I'd find anyone who would understand what I go through back in my game."