rocketralph | Level 12 [Video]

Level 12 [Video]

_{[For a long minute Ralph is content to let the 'gear take in a shot of the Lake of Rage.]}

Now this is nice! Reminds me of home only less...square. This whole time we've been on the road it hasn't felt like a camping trip, y'know? A camping trip needs a lake and boy have we found one!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[By the time Vanellope returns, Ralph has dragged over a couple of logs for them to sit on. He looks up from pushing the embers around with a long stick.]}

Now we're campin'. We got a lake, a fire, and marshmallows.

_{[He offers Vanellope a stick and holds his hand out for a couple of marshmallows.]}

We even got a haunted forest to tie the whole thing together.

_{[Or so says Envy.]}

[She gives Ralph an amused smirk while handing him the marshmallows.]

Yeah, right. You don't actually believe any of that, do you? [With a shake of her head, Vanellope skewers her own candy Cubchoos and starts brandishing the stick over the fire.] You see anything spooky over here? Nah. This place is great!

[Which might be mostly because it seemed to make Ralph happy and she liked it when her friend was happy, but you know what that's good enough.]

There are ghost-types, y'know.

_{[He pokes one of the colorful little bears onto the end of his own stick and scoots closer to the fire.]}

Somebody told me some pretty creepy things happen around this lake. That there's a monster Bidoof shuffling around in the woods somewhere.

_{[Sonic, Ralph's Bidoof, stops gnawing on a branch and looks around worridly.]}

They say it disappears and reappears without a trace and it's face is upside down.

Well I sure haven't seen any. Not around here, anyway.

[The explanation only gets some laughter out of the young girl.]

No offense to Sonic or anything, but a monster Bidoof is what has 'em all worked up? You could rearrange that thing's face to be rightside up again. Ka-pow!

[With her free hand, Vanellope punches at the air in front of her, then she raises the marshmallow to inspect it. After some careful scrutiny, it goes back over the fire.]

You've been goofing around in the water all day. It coulda been watching you this whole time!

_{[Meanwhile Sonic puts his paws to his cheeks. He doesn't want his face rearranged!]}

I'll bet when he touches you...your face turns upside down!

_{[Something in the woods behind them snapped.]}

[She glances over her shoulder before quickly dismissing it away as a wild pokemon -- a normal wild pokemon, and not these silly hauntings everyone was crazy about. Instead, she smirks over to Ralph.]

You seen anyone with an upside down face before? 'cause I sure haven't.

No, but I see new Pokemon every other day. What, you think you got this place all figured out already, Smarty pants?

Oh come on, Ralph! We've seen a Bidoof, and we've never seen anything with an upside down face! Someone was just probably tryin' to spook you. There's like no way that this place is haunted.

Pff, you're no fun.

_{[He swishes his marshmallow around to get some of the flames off of it. Then he drops it straight into the fire because the most ungodly of screams erupts from the forest behind them. It sounds neither man nor 'mon.]}

SEGA GENESIS!

[That definitely gets a reaction out of Vanellope in the form of a JUMPING JELLYBEANS and a duck behind the log she'd previously been sitting on. Her stick gets abandoned, too, as she steels herself and tentatively peeks up over the log to eye at the forest. When she speaks, it's a squeaky whisper.]

What was that?

_{[Ralph stands between Vanellope and the treeline with his brows furrowed.]}

I dunno, but I don't like it...

_{[He cups his hand around his mouth and shouts into the woods.]}

HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!

_{[For a long moment only Ralph's voice echoed out into the trees. And then the scream answered back. It was closer.]}

Ralph!

[She ducks her head again at the second scream, then climbs over her log to tug at Ralph's hand. Even Diet Cola is looking a tad uneasy, puffing out a spout of nostril smoke.]

Look what you did, now you made it mad!

_{[Ralph grinds his teeth from side to side anxiously. He leans toward the kid's tugging but he doesn't take his eyes off the woods.]}

You gotta...you gotta stand your ground in these kinds of situations!

Yeah, okay, get your face rearranged! See if I care!

[Despite her words, though, Vanellope doesn't retreat, instead inching closer to Ralph and holding his had even tighter.]

HEY! If you're a Bidoof, we're gonna kick your fluffy butt, okay?

[SHE SOUNDS TOUGH, DAMMIT. ...right?]

_{[Sonic, Ralph's Bidoof, quickly covers his own fluffy tail and chatters his teeth. That wasn't very nice!]

[Ralph, meanwhile, pushes up the sleeves he doesn't have and follows the kid's example.]}

YEAH! Y'HEAR THAT? GET LOST!

_{[No reply comes from the treeline.]}

[Sorry, Sonic, she'll make it up to you later. You were a nice Bidoof, after all!

After holding her breath a long moment, she whispers loudly.]

...Do you think it worked?

_{[The silence stretches on. Ralph runs a thumb under his nose and turns back to the fire with a purpose. He sits a little closer to it than he had before.]}

That'll show 'em...

[Vanellope's much less certain, remaining where she's stood for several moments to see if she can try to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that had made the sound. Eventually deciding that was fruitless -- and with the reminder that she didn't really want to know what could scream like that -- Vanellope returns to her own log, gesturing for the Numel to come closer. With a grunt, he does, also allowing the pat to his head.]

...I don't think that was Wrongface McFluffybutt the Glitch-Bidoof.

[Glitchy or not, she certainly couldn't make that noise, and she doubts Sonic would be able to either.]

Me neither...

_{[Ralph hunched his shoulders and focused on putting together a poorly constructed smores.]}

Probably some...some wacko out there tripping on berries or somethin'.

Right. Yeah, probably.

[She sets up her stick with a new marshmallow, her previous one too far gone even for her to appreciate.]

Like I said! No way this place can be haunted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Level 12 [Video]

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