I hope all the Americans here enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend, I know I did! We drove all the way out to New York! Which meant... I had a long car ride with which I used to write this.

It's a bit of a character study for Tamora Calhoun, based off her line "Fear is a four letter word, ladies." I then started to wonder about other four letter words, and how they rotate around her. I decided to narrow the field down to thirty two little mini-drabbles, which is Calhoun's fours and Felix's eights (being 8-bit and all) put together, which meant sadly that some had to be left of the cutting room floor.

I also decided to put in a bit of emphasis on the four letter words and the title words, as a bit of an experiment. If you see any words I missed, or anything of that nature, please let me know so that I may remedy the situation.

With that, enjoy! Or some other four letter word with the same meaning!

1.) Dark:

At first, it was dark. Then the lights came on, and she remembered everything.

There is a part of her that wishes everything stayed dark.

2.) Brad:

She didn't mourn him, because he never really existed. Just a few scraps of data made to give her depth. To her, there was nothing worth mourning about.

Maybe if she did, it would have been easier to move on.

3.) Hate:

She wanted to hate him, for making her feel this way, so weak and helpless and vulnerable. But she just couldn't.

And that made her want to hate him more.

4.) Time:

They say that time heals all wounds. But she had only been plugged in one week, so her pain was fresh.

Good thing she found something else to heal her.

5.) Mist:

The big lug's horrible breath must have fogged the glass of the helmet, making it hard to see the differences in his face that she would have otherwise seen.

That's what she would tell herself later, at least. Even though she knows that it was her own anger that obscured her view, not breath on the visor.

6.) Lust:

When she first saw that look in his eyes, the almost over the top adoration in his eight bit face, she thought that it was just lust. She was programmed as overly sexualized, with anatomy that was nearly impossible for any 'real world' girl.

She chuckles now, whenever she remembers that. It seems so silly to think about him as that kind of lustful cad, now.

7.) Nuts:

He... He HAD to be nuts! Bringing a Cybug out of Hero's Duty?! He fought with the troops for at least a battle; he HAD to know the danger he unleashed!

8.) Call:

As soon as he explained that it was his job to watch out for the big lug, she couldn't not let him come with her. Her reasoning was that he was looking for his game's threat, and she was looking for hers. They had mutual goals, and could thus help one another.

It was only later that she finally admitted to herself that she wanted somebody who could understand the weight of the burden that rested on her shoulders.

9.) Pull:

She couldn't deny that something changed when they were in the Taffy Swamp. Whether it was because he was quick enough to figure out the key to the Laffy Taffy, or selfless enough to be willing to get punched again and again hard enough to stun a Cybug just to escape, she just couldn't look at him in the same light.

Might just have been the damned Laffy Taffy, though.

10.) Fear:

There was nothing but a blank, meaningless fear when he said that name, something raw and primal that wanted him gone, to let her relive the trauma on her own.

She just managed to fly away from him just before the tears started to fall.

11.) Duty:

She had her mission: find and destroy all Cybugs. And that was what she was going to do.

As long as she kept doing her duty, she can ignore the ache in her heart.

12.) Hope:

She found the signal, all she had to do was destroy them and...

13.) Less:

...Oh, shit.

...She was going to need bigger guns.

14.) Rage:

She came to warn the citizens about the threat coming upon them, when she saw the big lug. Her rage overcame her training, and she couldn't help but march over there and grab him by the collar.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

15.) Last:

This was it. Her last battle. There was no way she could survive the onslaught of the Cybug hoards, nor did she intend to. To survive would mean giving up, and leaving behind the little girl who was somehow unable to leave the game.

She was going to die a hero, doing her duty.

16.) Drop:

Her opinion on the big lug just kept dropping and dropping the longer this mission kept going. The lug broke into her game, impersonated a soldier, made off with a shuttle and a Cybug, led her on this wild goose chase and worst of all, stole a medal that was in no way earned.

Then she saw, there in the distance, the giant bottle erupt, foam shooting upwards into the darkened sky. Somehow, as the bugs started to be drawn towards the makeshift Beacon, she could tell that the big lug was behind it.

Her opinion on the big guy went up a little after that.

17.) Kiss:

Despite all of her preprogrammed memories, she had never been kissed before. Not in backstory, not in real life.

Judging by the awkwardness of the kiss, and the way he uncertainly tried to move his tongue away from her mouth, she'd be willing to bet he never kissed anybody before this either.

That's okay; she'd be willing to practice with him for the rest of their lives.

18.) Love:

She thought that she was too much of a sensible person to believe in love. True, she was in love with Brad, but that was just preprogrammed emotions, all artificial, nothing she could help. Real love was just a myth, like a perfect family or a loving home.

But she'd be damned if his smile didn't make her heart skip a beat.

19.) Date:

They didn't date, not in the way she dated Brad. When she dated Brad, it was simply going through the checkpoints, just going from point A to point B in order along a specific timeline.

With him, however, it was many little moments; little things that only had as much weight as they chose to put on it.

She definitely preferred the second time around.

20.) Tiny:

He was so tiny; she could just pick him up and carry him around with her.

So she did... When nobody was watching, of course.

21.) Glow:

The first time he talked about having 'honeyglows in his cheeks', she scoffed in her head, finding the idea ridiculous.

She mentally retracted that statement when she felt her cheeks heat up when he first called her 'Tammy Jean'.

22.) 8-bit:

Nobody else really understood why such a complex, high definition woman with a body like Lara Croft and a personality like a grenade launcher would want with somebody so 8-bit, plain, and all around simple man like him. Why would such a high action girl want to be with such a slow paced guy?

They didn't know that was exactly why she loved him.

23.) Name:

"You know," she said one day casually, bending down beside her boyfriend as he knelt on the ground. "When we get married, I'm keeping my last name."

He was so startled he dropped the ring onto the ground.

24.) Ring:

Her first wedding ring was a glimmering circle of gold, with a dazzling diamond twisting eloquently out from the middle. Beautiful, delicate... And utterly useless for battle. She wore it under her glove for the first few fights, but it quickly snapped apart, the remains left in the box it came in, hidden under her mattress.

Her second wedding ring was a simple, thick band of yellow that was presumed to be gold, with a fat, squat, square diamond stuck right in the middle. It was clunky, disproportionate... And it never left her finger after he first put it on at the wedding.

25.) Unit:

She was programmed to view a family as one solid unit. A husband, a wife and two children, one boy and one girl.

For them, they had a husband (who acted more like what she was preprogrammed to think the wife should act like), a wife (who acted as the husband), a little girl (who ruled an entire kingdom, even if it was just a kingdom of baked goods and candy) and then they had the big lug, who fit in as sort of an uncle.

It wasn't a typical family, but it worked.

26.) Kids:

Sometimes, he brought up the idea of having kids. She responded by bringing him to Sugar Rush for the day to visit the racers, to see what they would be getting into.

He tended not to ask her again for some time after that.

27.) Race:

No matter how many patrols she is slotted to do, or how many rouge bugs the Beacon may have left unchecked, she always drops everything and leaves as soon as a certain time hits.

She can't miss the little brat's race. Somebody had to cheer the kid on without wrecking half the stadium.

28.) Sass:

She was surprised when she found out the little brat had such a big mouth. The big lug seemed pretty nervous once the brat opened said mouth and started to sass her.

She only smirked; she liked this kid.

29.) Aged:

The little brat was older than looks would imply. Not in programmed age; she was still nine, just like the rest of the racers. Nor was it how long the game had been plugged in, although Sugar Rush had been plugged in for a decent amount of time, especially compared to Hero's Duty.

No, it was the way the kid spent those years all alone, back against the wall and nobody there to help in any way.

She'd never admit it, but something about that makes her want to tuck the brat in and read the kid a bedtime story.

Too bad that was Wreck-It's job.

30.) Rule:

"Hey, Wreck-It." She called out. The lug looked at her, more annoyed than scared. She considered it a step up from before. "What is it?"

She shoved a bucket and a mop in his oversized hands. "You still have to make up for that embarrassing show with the player. No soldier of mine gets away with breaking the rules without paying the price. Now get swabbing, rookie. I want to see the floor so shiny and bright, it attracts Cybugs like a Beacon!"

He grumbled about it, but she thought she saw the big guy smiling at the ground when she was walking away.

31.) Core:

It was the little brat that suggested the name. "Because our games wouldn't work without us!" The kid claimed, and was right.

Without him or the big lug, Fix-It Felix Jr. is entirely unplayable, either without the hero or the villain. It was what started the whole debacle in the first place, after all.

Without the brat, the candy brained citizens of Sugar Rush are helpless and in a state of panic, even if it was for just a day.

And without her... Without her, nobody can lead the Shooter. Kohut could, maybe, but the boys are there to see 'the hot chick in the armor', and the (hopefully a) rumor that if the game is won, you get a free game with her in a bikini brings in the teenagers like nobody's business. She might not be a player character, but she's vital to her game's success.

It might not have been the most stunning realization in the world, but it brought a smile to her face for the whole day.

32.) Four:

"Who wants to go see what's going on in Street Fighters?"

"Ooh! Me first!"

"Me second, if only so you two don't get into any more trouble with Blanka."

"Me third!"

"Vanellope, you already said it once."

"Well, maybe I want to do it twice, Stinkbrain. It is my presidential decree."

She's the fourth member of the family, the baby when it comes to years plugged in. She's typically the fourth told when it comes to information, mostly by the sheer distance.

Tamora Calhoun is used to being the first in whatever she does. But she'd rather be the fourth in this group then being the first and all alone.

"Me fourth. Let's go ladies; we have ourselves a fighting game to get to."

"Hey!"

"Fine. Ladies and president."