#but i did it with animaniacs too and that only lasted a month

[justpollux]

i SHOULD work on my nanowrimo novel or at least crocheting but I just wanna daydream about go nitro

[theonethatyaks93]

Hi everyone!! I’m not dead, I’m back!! I apologize for the lack of posts recently; I was taking a break. But now, I’m ready to make regular posts again. But before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming, I have some exciting news! Last night, I attended both performances of Animaniacs in Concert!!! I finally got the opportunity to see this after two years of wanting and wishing. I was so excited!! Both shows were absolutely amazing and there were so many incredible songs, both recognizable and unreleased. I also laughed so hard that I got a minor headache. But it was worth it! I had the time of my life and it was so cool to see the number of fans who also love this show. So many people were wearing t-shirts or carrying the Animaniacs Loungefly backpack around. There were even some younger fans there and that was so awesome. I, of course, went all out, wearing an Animaniacs t-shirt, Pinky and The Brain leggings, a Pinky and The Brain sweatshirt, Pinky and Brain socks, my own Animaniacs backpack, and my cool Nike Air Force Ones which I’ve christened my “space shoes.” I got to sit in the third and second row at the venue (which I’ve been to many times) and I cheered and clapped as loud as I could. The talent here was unbelievable. Rob was incredible and I can’t believe he can sing this good. He is truly my inspiration. Randy was amazingly talented and it was great to finally see him. I was ecstatic when Maurice came on stage since I’ve never seen him in person before. The real Pinky and Brain were right in front of me!!! Ahhhhhh!!! This show was not only entertaining and hilarious, but I also learned a few new things and got to hear a few songs I’ve never heard before (I can’t get that song about things getting smaller out of my head!). Even my parents, who aren’t as into the show as I am, had a great time. Seriously, whenever they come back, I’m buying tickets pronto! This was incredible and I loved it so much. However, the best part of this experience would come before and after each show.

(This is kind of a real name reveal so surprise!!)

I met both Rob and Maurice not just once, but twice!!! OMG!! This has been a dream of mine for a long time and it’s come true. I hope I can meet them again soon! So, I’m going to get into a little story about what happened and what has happened in the past few months. Back in June of 2022, I got a surprise Cameo message from Rob, which made my entire summer! I actually started crying when I got the surprise and I thought that my dream of meeting him would never come true. I mean, he did respond to a few of my questions on Instagram Live back in October of 2022 (I stayed on for four hours!) but I really wanted to meet him. Thankfully, I got my wish when for an early Christmas present from my parents, I got to meet and talk to Rob for over an hour on Cameo. It was a great experience and my parents enjoyed it, too. I still wanted to meet him in-person, but this was close enough. And then, Animaniacs in Concert came around. I got tickets to both shows as a Christmas present back in December and I expected just to have a fun time. I did not expect to meet both Rob and Maurice twice! I met Rob before the first show. My mom pointed him out just walking into the lobby and I, of course, rushed over to him. It took a minute, but he did remember me and my family from the Cameo. We took some pictures and he was just the sweetest person you’ll ever meet. We even hugged! I was so excited and I was even shaking a little. After my family went home for an hour after the first show, we came back and though I’d seen it before, I was still excited. And then, when we were pulling into the parking lot, we saw Maurice walking down the street!!! We rushed to park and we got to meet him! I was so ecstatic! He was really nice and I got some pictures with him. It was an honor!! After the second show, my family waited so we could maybe meet Rob and Maurice and get them to sign my book (Which was in fact Rob’s book, Voice Lessons). We were about to leave when my mom said that they were just hanging out in the auditorium. We rushed in there and waited a few minutes. Rob even remembered my name! Eeeeeeeeeeeee! We got to meet him again and the Maurice showed up and joined us! They both were the sweetest things and they both signed my book! We got some pictures and I even got to show some of my impressions to them. They liked my voices especially when I did both Yakko and Pinky. Some people were even surprised! I told them how much Pinky and Brain meant to me and it was so cool of them. They were so sweet and nice. I was so excited and I didn’t want to leave. It was a true honor and of course, I hugged Rob goodbye. I hope I can see them again, maybe for a convention. It was a dream come true and I’ll never forget it.

So, yeah. All that happened in the span of about 8 hours. It was crazy and I’m actually still processing it currently. My dream came true and I had so much fun! I hope to see both Rob and Maurice again and maybe, Animaniacs in Concert will come around. Alright, that was my experience! It was so amazing and I couldn’t recommend it more. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to regular posting either tomorrow or the next day! Thank you guys for sticking with me!!

[321spongebolt]

Next to the "Animaniacs" episode, "A Christmas Plotz", I'd also make him a villain in "Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt" as a boss character, and he would have two boss battles so to speak. And like video games such as "Scooby-Doo!: Night of 100 Frights" and even "The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge" (which ironically turns 20 years old this month if you consider it was first released in Japan), Oogie Boogie Background Singer's theme song would play on loop (or at least in cutscenes where the verses can be presented in a certain order). Here's how I would present this version of Oogie's theme song down below.

[LYRICS]

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: Well, well, well! Yakko, Waldo, Wakko, and Dot! I've been expecting you fools! So how do you like my Oogie town!? (Evilly laughs)

Background Singer/King Egon (Spoken): ♪It's over! It's over! This time, you've gone too far!♪

♪It's over! I'm FURIOUS! Just who do you think you are!?♪

Yakko (Spoken): ♪Just because you stole the Edgars doesn't make you king!♪

Wizard Waldo: You'd better give up!

Dot: Surrender now!

Wakko (Sung): ♪We're fixing everything!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪That's what you think!♪

HA!

♪But you couldn't be more wrong! And this will be the last time, you hear the Boogie song.♪

Ha ha!

♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer and his army: ♪I'm/He's the Oogie Boogie Man!♪

(Instrumental solo)

Background Singer/King Egon (Spoken): ♪I see you're pretty proud of all your kidnapping schemes.♪

Background Singer/King Egon (Sung): ♪But let's just say, you'll kill me ONLY in my bad dreams.♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Spoken): ♪That's true, Singer! It was your dream! But now, it's coming true!♪

♪'Cause even my mere shadow knows your singing days are through!♪

Oogie's Henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's Henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

(Oogie Boogie Background Singer evilly laughs)

Oogie's Henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: Yeah.

Oogie Boogie Background Singer and his army: ♪I'm/He's the Oogie Boogie Man!♪

Background Singer/King Egon (Spoken): ♪Release me now, or you will face the dire consequences!♪

♪My fans want me to sing tonight, so please! Come to your senses!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Spoken): ♪You're joking! You're joking! I can't believe me ears!♪

♪You're joking me, you've gotta be! Best laugh I had in years!♪

Dot (Sung): ♪I hope you did amuse yourself. My head is getting hot!♪

Yakko and Wakko (Sung): ♪You better pay attention now, 'cause she's our sister, Dot!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪You think that you're a winning, but that's a lot of noise!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Spoken): ♪But just to be a sport, dear Dot, I'll share some vulture boys!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie's henchmen and Vultures: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer and his army: ♪I'm/He's the Oogie Boogie Man!♪

(Instrumental solo)

Background Singer/King Egon (Spoken): ♪The Edgars for these feature films must right now be set free!♪

♪Release them all at once or you will have to deal with me!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪You foiled my plans!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Spoken): ♪So what? Big deal!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪You even ran the maze!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Spoken): ♪You still can't stop me! I'm the king of all your films and plays!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer (Sung): ♪Whoa!♪

Yakko, Wakko, Dot, and Wizard Waldo: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Yakko, Wakko, Dot, and Wizard Waldo: ♪Whoa!♪

Oogie Boogie Background Singer: ♪Whoa!♪

Yakko, Wakko, Dot, and Wizard Waldo: ♪Whoa!♪

Dot: ♪I'm the Warner sister Dot!♪♪

(Song repeats on loop until C.C. DeVille is defeated in his boss fight)

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

The Thrilling Saga of Connie paying real life money for the Worst Sonic TV Show

Let’s begin with the simple fact that me and my sister, @birdsareblooming​ “Cori”, have both been hyperfixating on Sonic the Hedgehog since last March. During this hyperfixation, I was on Sonic Wiki to copy-paste song lyrics onto my stolen mp3s, and I called my sister in and pointed at the template at the bottom. 

“What is this Sonic Underground thing?” I asked. “It has one shit billion songs.” 

So we clicked on the page to read about it, and each sentence we read was a punch in the gut and this quickly became the funniest thing we’d ever read. Highlights include:

It looks like this:

“Sonic[...] is known to be a prince” 

Sonic has two siblings who actually have good characterization but their names are literally just Sonia and Manic. Like. Sonic split into two names. jesus christ 

Also Sonic and his siblings all share a voice actor. honestly Jaleel White does his best with it but 

“The three siblings possess enchanted medallions that transform not only into musical instruments, but also into weapons.”

“Some fans consider Sonia to be a clone of Amy Rose, minus the attraction Amy feels for Sonic.” YEAH I SURE HOPE IT DOES

“Manic is the most often captured of the siblings” himbo king 

Knuckles shows up, and for the first, like, two sentences his description is very similar to the game, and then you get immediately pulverized by “He has a pet Dinosaur called Chomps.”

Literally so many sentences on Sonic Wiki are lowkey salty about this show. The page features lines such as “Sonic Underground bears little relation to the often complex Sonic universe (including previous animated series, as well as Sonic comics and games), and shares only three established characters” and “many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in Sonic the Hedgehog are completely left out (including Tails).”

“The show met with mostly negative reviews.”

*checks air dates* It only lasted two goddamn months

So after seeing this we thought it was the funniest thing and we showed our older sister, @patema-introverted​ “North.” To our surprise, our at the time “knew nothing about this sonic bullshit” sister recognized the show. Turns out she’d seen trailers for it as a child and that was her sole exposure to Sonic canon. 

We were in quarantine at the time, so we ended up finding it on YouTube and binge-watching it all together as a sibling bonding activity. It was just as hilarious as we thought it would be- some stuff was legitimately good, like the sibling dialogue for instance, but good lord were the character designs ugly, the plot all over the place, and pretty much every song, um, not great. Also there was one episode that we skipped because it got, um, I think “stereotypical” is the nicest word I can use here. 

But the point is, we had a jolly good time watching it, and afterwards we binged all the other Sonic shows and bonded as a family. 

After quarantine, North and I go back to college. My roommate gets groceries at Walmart, while I get them elsewhere, so while she and North collect food I wander the DVD aisle to look at the cool movies and also dumpster-dive in the bargain bin for Cats (2019). I am also short as fuck, so the top shelf of movies I cannot see, I can only read the labels. 

So one day I was browsing the DVDs, and glancing over at the labels for the top shelf. I read over the final one before the shelves end. 

And then I stop, do a double take, and have a heart attack, because there is a label that reads “SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74″

I immediately climb the shelf but there aren’t any DVDs atop the shelf. However, the label is still there. I excitedly tell my sister and roommates, freak out with them a bit, and then give myself a mission statement:

I will buy the $4 Sonic Underground DVD from Walmart

I did not want it as a gift, I did not want to find it online. I wanted to walk into a store, pick up the Worst Sonic Show on DVD, walk it straight to the checkout, and in front of the cashier and God, pay for it with my own money. I did not care if it was the whole series or two episodes; I needed to do this for my own serotonin.

We would go to Walmart about once a week. Every time, I would go to the DVD aisle, and go right to the end of the shelves. I would stare at the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74 and empty space above it and wonder who the fuck was buying this other than me. I would occasionally ask employees if they had any copies in storage. I would build a shrine to Manic in my room. Okay, no I didn’t, but only because my RA would have murdered me. 

Christmas break comes, and we have to go home. We have a nice Christmas, and Cori and I infodump at each other about how we would make Sonic Underground a good show (note: we’re both galaxy braining) and also play Bendy and the Ink Machine. Fun times. 

When we finally get back to College, it’s late January- long story short we have a very long winter break. My roommate who gets food at Walmart got food without us the first week cause she showed up first, so we take her out to Walmart the first time in the year of our lord 2021 on January 29. 

I wander the Valentine’s aisle, immediately grabbing a sequin puppy. I go to the DVDs and see Animaniacs Season One, also grab that. 

And then.

There it is.

The Holy Grail. 

Above the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74, is one DVD left. 

Already I am losing my mind. It’s roughly seven hours of episodes- I couldn’t find an episode list, but I think that’s half the show, for $4! And the cover is amazing. 

That’s a png of Sonic from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) with a medallion badly photoshopped over it. The medallion is too small. 

Manic is shoved into the corner. He doesn’t have his medallion at all. 

Sonia isn’t even pictured on the front cover, probably because they realized she was the worst designed of the bunch. I’m not ragging on her though, because she’s still one of the better designed characters of the show. Those background characters make me cry 

So you bet your ass I finally paid my hard-earned $4 for this shit. Upon getting home, I discovered that there was even wilder shit with this DVD than I thought. 

For starters: the bonus features listed are as follows:

Original Concept Art - did not expect that these character designs were the final draft

Storyboard-to-screen - did not expect they bothered to storyboard this 

Music Video Jukebox - that’s cute, they thought we liked the music 

Interviews with original screenwriter & executive producer - I fully expect the only questions to be “why.” 

On the left of this list are screenshots from the show, where people can finally see Sonia, who we Know™ is a girl because she is pink and has hair and also an actual body shape instead of just circles like her brothers. 

But wait... what’s that in the lefthand corner? 

That looks like some kind of robot. But it’s not a robot from Sonic Underground! That didn’t appear once. Why is it here? 

The mystery continues upon opening the DVD case: inside are advertisements for other collections, including other Sonic DVDs: two volumes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) and the final episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog “SatAM” (1993)

First of all, the first volume of AOSTH has the exact same PNG of Sonic as the Underground Volume 1. Not even trying to hide it. But second... the second volume of AOSTH also has this robot on its cover. 

And THIS ROBOT IS ALSO DECORATING THE THIRD DISC IN THE SET?

So you may be asking, who is this robot? Is it from AOSTH or Underground?

IT’S FROM FUCKING SATAM. The one show that doesn’t have it decorating the DVD covers.

Also, not only is it from SatAM, it only appears in one fucking episode. Not a major character! AND IT HAS A DIFFERENT DESIGN ON THE PROMO ART, WITH HAIR AND FANGS.

Why is it showing up everywhere? What is going on? 

I have not yet had the opportunity to watch this glorious piece of animation, but I am so glad at the confusion I have felt upon receiving it. 

But before I go, I must share with you the best part of this DVD purchase. And it was flipping to the back, scanning the details, and discovering the exact runtime of the episode collection. 

Guys, gals, and enby pals, friends and enemies, Nintendo and Sega, the first Volume of Sonic Underground has a runtime of...

420 MINUTES.

Maybe I’m wrong and this IS the best Sonic show. 

[popculturebuffet]

Hilda: The Yule Lads Review (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Ho Ho Ho all you happy people! I’m jake I review stuff and today we have what’s somehow become a christmas tradition: Kev throwing me into a series I haven’t seen before and saying swim bitch. 

Last year it was the post apocalypstic sitcom Woops!, basically The Last Man On Earth if the showrunner was a drunken homer simpson on a riding mower.  We had Santa unable to save his loved ones due to not knowing how doors worked, renaming himself clem and various lukewarm jokes about christmas.  This time around though it’s a complete 180: instead of a show that was rightly buried 50 feet below earth that was then heavily salted, scorched and exorcised by a preist, we have a show that’s highly praised and has a loyal fanbase, one i’ve been meaning to check out for years but simply haven’t because more often than not I struggle to get shows started on streaming let alone finish them when i’m not watching them with someone else. To illustrate this point here’s the list of animated shows I’m either behind on , haven’t finished or haven’t seen period that I’m trying to get to before the end of the year for my best episodes of the year list next month. 

The Ghost and Molly McGee Animaniacs Infinity Train Solar Oppisites Kid Cosmic Centaurworld Maya and the Three Big City Greens F is For Family (Seasons 4 and 5)  Craig of the Creek Hit Monkey M.O.D.O.K.

Pretty big names on there right? It’s not even out of malice or anything i’m just busy and my brain is weird so while I can breeze through some shows (Jellystone and Inside Job were both cleared in around two days), others I stumble with. My point is this is something I wanted to dig into for some time and only watched one episode of years ago and simply never bunkered down and kept going with. As such it was a bit of a shock to realize Kev had asked me to cover the tenth episode of season 2 rather than season 1. Thankfully this one’s mostly standalone and what little I DID know about the show and it’s season 2 arc allowed me to get up to speed with almost no confusion. Almost. As such this instead worked as a nice holiday treat that got me to want to finish the show.. you know once I get through some of that backlog up there,  re-watching all the pre-mcu spidey films to pre-game for no way home, and finish venture bros season 1 for my brithday review next week. See what I mean about being busy?

So as you can probably guess this episode is really good and again I fully intend to check out the series, and it’s upcoming movie, at some point soon. But for now let’s unwrap what i’ve seen already and see what makes it great

We open with our heroes: Hilda, our plucky protaganist in her beret, her strong willed friend Joana and their friend David whose one of nature’s natural sticks in the mud. The three are headed to do a function for their group the Sparrow Scouts, though not in uniform because...

Or the Trolberg equilvent which involves watching a giant tree come into bloom.  Our heroes are doing their part for their troop at the local festival by selling Vegtable Broth. My american ass tripped over this a tad, feeling they were just sharing vegtable flavored bowls of hot water basically, but it turns out no they actually made a small soup because apparently in the UK they use Broth as a term for this type of soup too. As confused as this made me I do love how british the series is, owing to the comics it’s based on also being british, with the cast, setting and everything around it screaming britian to me. Given my two favorite comic writers period, John Allison and Al Ewing, are both british and close third Grant Morrision is scottish, it’s not a suprise that I really enjoy this aspect. 

The kids are selling it to help the troop but get to keep any tips they make, something David is very excited about to the point it’s his character for the entire episode. He approaches Hank Venture levels of taking this way too seriously but without Hank’s penchant for charm, good customer service or paper hats. 

We do get flecks of the season’s ongoing conflict though which I did know about and does color parts of this episode: Hilda’s mom found out what she’s been up to and is now not happy her daughter was lying to her while Hilda’s fiercely indepdent nature and need for freedom only exacerbate things. The two still very much love each other, as Hilda’s main quest in the episode is to earn enough to buy her mom a present to make up for things being so tense, but it’s just something that happens: sometimes a relationship with someone you love just gets strained and pressure just builds and builds till explode. Part of what makes this painful despite ONLY having watched this episode and the first episode of season 1, is that it’s realistic. Even with minimal context, I can still feel the two are struggling and while they love each other, they don’t know how to fix this.

Hilda gets distracted though and finds a cottage that wasn’t there yesterday and decides to come on inside. Thankfully instead of bears she finds the Yule Lads, 13 elve like beings who hide from her at first before their leader says their cool guys, their cool. Their leader is Kertasnikir played by of all people, Andy Serkis. Aka Gollum and most recently the director of the delightfully over the top Venom: Let Their Be Carnage. Not a cameo I ever expected but here we are. 

Kertasnikir explains their deal. The 13 Yule Lads are magical beings that search for naughty children, while giving the good ones candy. I loved the creativity of these characters... and loved them even more when it turned out their based on an actual icelandic yuletide tradition, with kids leaving shoes out and getting candy.. or rotted potatoes if they’ve been bad. So the fact the writers here took such a concept and reworked it like this is really fantastic.

The Lads ask the kids if they’ve been naughty and they really haven’t been bad enough dudes for them to take away in a sack in the middle of the night. The Kids invite them to the festival though since every kid in town will be there, thus giving them an opprotunityt o sample. The lads all agree.. but only Kerta gets to go as it’ sa shift change, a gag I just utterly love. 

Kerta explains to Hilda at the fair he works always because he’s the big brother of the group, keeping the others in line and such. As a result he’s always working. Our heroes set up their broth booth, right across from local dickhead Trevor and his mum. Trevor wants to settle up with our heroese, his mom scolds him and the public humilation makes two things clear: his mum is part of the reason he sucks so much, and that he now wants to get revenge harder to make up for that because he’s clearly been bathing in toxic masculinity the little shit. 

Buisness goes well for our main trio, who sell plenty of broth and make plenty of tips, while on break the heroes find a perfect gift for Hilda’s mom, she just has to save for it. The lads had less luck though, not finding anyone ACTUALLY naughty, and thus despiare. Hilda, being a kind hearted soul, offers up their money to give the lads some broth.. only for Trevor and his violence gang to snowball that plan to hell and pelt our heroes inside. Kerta investigates further, and we get a nice show of Hilda’s character: She’s claimed no one is REALLY naughty, their just people who slip up.. but Trevor’s about as close as she can think of to someone actually bad. It shows she truly thinks the best in people even people who are currently trying to entomb her with ice because shut up. 

The Lads however help turn the tide with snowballs, making our heroes think that’s the punishment for naughty kids. Yeah... sure kids.. notttthinnng horrible is about to happen.. at.. all

At home hilda gets chewed out gently by her mom for leaving her teabags out, something she quickly corrects, rattled by the idea of being naughty, to the point of asking her mom if she is. Her mom Joanna, being a good person and parent, says no of course not, and gives her daughter a bedtime story about a horrifying creature: Gryla, a horrifying Krampus like monster that appears once a year to eat naughty children in a stew. Gee I wonder if the the little elve boys gathering children have anything to do with this. WHAT A CONCIDENCE. Unsuprisingly the next scene has the Yule Lads grabbing Trevor and his mom. 

The next day Hilda noticers her mom left her teabag out and calls her out on it. Her mom points out that her slipping up once isn’t the same as Hilda doing this all the time, Hilda dosen’t listen, it’s clear this isn’t just about teabags. Onto the festival. 

At the Festival our heroes make more tips, and notice trevor is gone.. and Rejoice. Hilda tells the lads about her troubles, and i’m sure nothing horrible will happen as a result. 

That night Hilda makes a picture of the globe since she’s short for the real thing, and hears her mom calling her, having found out more about Gryla.. only to then scream. As you probably predicted, the lads kidnapped Joanna.. and are working with Gryla, finding kids for her to eat. Hilda dosen’t take this well and this is where the show utterly floored me. See Hilda’s deer fox, her elf friend, those were things I was aware of and were fine with.. but then suddenly we’re introduced to.. this thing

This is Tontu. He can  open portals in time and space, using a pocket dimension type place to travel form Point A to Point B. He lives in Hilda’s house. Why?

But here’s there and threw me off. And if you suddnely watched a later episdoe of a show where for no reason there’s a bob ross monster man living in the main characters house you’d be stumped too. 

So Bob Ross Monster Man teleports Hilda and Co to the square to stop the lads. When then find out two things: 1) their also naughty children (though the feeding other children to a giant monster woman should’ve been a giveaway), and 2) they don’t LIKE doing this. Gryla offered them their freedom after capturing them in the act.. and then didn’t let them go when they held up their ends of the bargin. Their trapped feeding the beast and don’t see a way out

Hilda does though: since the boys enjoyed the broth once they got some, Gryla likely would too and it could be a handy substitute for flesh. I mean i’m not a canibal scientest but the one who tried ot eat me last june told me carrots taste almost as good as my achelies tendon, so it checks out. Hilda agrees to give the Lads the scouts secret recipe which confuses Trevor since it wasn’t okay earlier why not now. 

Our heroes make broth for the beastie, and successfully get the other humans put back, and with that the lads depart, as Gryla gladly takes it in exchange.  At home Joana is naturally nettled about the whole kidnapping and worries about her daughter. Bob Ross Monster Man tells her it’s cool bro their at the tree and she rushes there, just in time for it to glow in pretty lights. As parents and children all hug, awwww, Joana finds Hilda and they have a firm embrace. Hilda almost apologizes for a lack of gift, only for Trevor to do the one useful thing he did all episode and give up his tips for her.. though he wants candy in exchange. 

Hilda gives Joanna a wonderful gift, they hug again, and we close out as the Yule Lads go off into the distance int heir Tardis hut. MERRY CHRISTMAS. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode was excellent and really made me regret sleeping on this show. It was whimsical, creative and throughly enjoyable. Maybe I was tired of kids getting into magical shenanigans for a second I don’t know. But this episode was truly stupednous and I assume the same of the show and look forward to checking out it and the movie in full when I get the time

That does it for this review, if you enjoyed it a bunch consider joining my discord or patreon, have a happy holiday and thanks for reading. 

[pines-troz]

Weekend With The Warners Chapter One - Animaniacs & Pinky and The Brain

Summary: When the CEO tasks Pinky and the Brain with the important task of watching over the Warners for the weekend, Brain is prepared for any antics that the children have in store. What he didn’t take into account was forming a familial bond with the kids.

Word Count: 1,868

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27849962

This is a found family story with a good combination of fluff, humor, and mild angst. Contains Brinky and Non-Binary Wakko

Beginning AN: This is probably the most self-indulgent story I’ve ever written

On a dark and stormy evening, a mysterious figure entered a castle that overlooked a provincial village. Deep inside the gothic estate’s stone walls, the figure snarled as he trudged up the winding stairs, leading to the top floor. He let out a vicious cry as he opened the large wooden doors to the laboratory. 

Dr. Brainenstein, the lord of the castle, stood behind his chemistry set, the glass beakers obscuring his face. Upon hearing the door open, he dropped his studies and gazed upon the visitor with an eager smile. 

“Ah, Pigor, you’ve returned!” Dr. Brainenstein greeted his assistant with a confident grin. The scientist emerged from his chemistry set to reveal himself. He wore a fancy black coat, a satin purple shirt underneath a white collared shirt, and black pants. 

The monstrous shadow revealed to be a lanky and chipper mouse wearing a brown hood and a muted yellow tunic. “‘Ello, Dr. Brainenstein!” Pigor replied merrily, waving to his boss. The mouse carried a large brown sack with something moving about. 

Dr. Brainenstein slid down the table leg and eagerly approached his assistant. “How was the graveyard scavenging?” He inquired menacingly, whilst rubbing his hands. 

Pigor strained as he carried the large sack with his findings. “Oh, brilliant!” He cheerily answered. “You know, you would be surprised what the dead leave lying around.” 

“By the way, I’ve probably been in here a thousand times, but I’m always amazed at how beautiful your castle is!” Pigor complimented. 

“Thank you, Pigor.” Dr. Brainenstein acknowledged. “I employed only the top masons. Those schooled in the latest techniques of wall-stone craft.” 

The scientist curtly shoved his assistant off to the side. “Now, let’s see what you brought me!” 

Dr. Brainenstein eagerly opened the sack, expecting a horde of body parts for his latest scientific experiment, but was surprised to see the Warner children. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot huddled together and smiled at the mouse. 

“Hi!” They chorused, but Wakko belched loudly, blowing the scientist’s fur and jacket backwards like a strong gust of wind. 

“Sorry.” Wakko apologized, their cheeks turning a bright shade of pink. 

At that moment, Pinky and The Brain broke character and started laughing. The Warners soon joined in, and the five rode out their bout of laughter together. 

“Oh, classic Wakko.” Brain sighed as he wiped a tear from his eye. 

Pinky went by Brain’s side and wrapped his arm around the smaller mouse’s shoulder and turned towards the camera. “You better add this to the blooper reels! Zort!”

But the primal yell from the director brought the joyous moment to a halt. The five actors immediately huddled together as they were about to face the wrath of the man in the director’s chair. 

“What is this?” The director irately shouted. 

“Hey, Wellesley! Hope you don’t mind the surprise cameo!” Yakko replied with a playful smile to humor the irascible filmmaker. 

“Yeah, we just wanted to give our favorite mice a surprise visit.” Dot explained as she gently patted their heads. Pinky contentedly closed his eyes and began tapping his foot a mile a minute upon receiving the girl’s affection. Brain, too, was endeared by the Warner sister’s pats and smiled at her. 

“So I ate all the potatoes and we hopped into this sack!” Wakko concluded, happily stimming by flapping their hands around. 

“But the script says for Pigor to carry a large sack of potatoes and have Dr. Brainenstein to open up the sack and be squished by a pile of potatoes!” Wellesley angrily explained. “Now can someone get those pesky kids out of here and get back to the scene!” 

But before any of the crew members could intercede, Brain stepped forward, taking a defiant stand against the director. “Forgive me if what I’m about to say comes off as a crushing blow to your fragile ego, but I wholeheartedly disagree with your creative vision.” Brain argued. “I say we should keep the Warners in the short.” 

The intelligent mouse quickly retrieved the script from his coat pocket. “And one other minor criticism I have with the script is that I find the ‘wall-stone-craft’ pun to be awfully misleading.” Brain added with a stern frown. “While Mary Wollstonecraft was an illustrious writer, she did not pen the classic gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote the book that this segment is parodying.” 

“Hey, the studio isn’t paying you to be a walking history book.” The director fired back. “And besides, potatoes are very funny.” 

“Perhaps in Idaho, but having a cameo appearance from the Warners would be keeping in the comedic spirit of Animaniacs in regards to rapid-fire visual gags.” Brain argued. “The kids are staying in the short, and that’s final!” 

Unbeknownst to The Brain, the Warners smiled as they watched their fellow co-worker stand up for them and make a compelling case for their inclusion. 

Pinky then rushed over to Brain’s side and faced the director. “Can the Warners stay in the segment? Pretty please, Mr. Director?” Pinky pleaded, using his best puppy dog eyes and simpering pout. 

Wellesley rubbed his forehead and gave in. “Alright, we’ll use the Warners, but the ‘wall-stone-craft’ pun stays. Now can we get back to filming please!” 

Brain smugly smiled, satisfied with the compromise. He then turned to face his dearest co-star. “Well Pinky, it appears that my excellent debate skills and your irresistible cuteness have saved comedy yet again.” Brain complimented, ruffling the taller mouse’s head. Pinky relished the small and gentle display of affection from Brain. 

“Aww, I thought I was the cute one!” Wakko sadly interjected. Dot merely rolled her eyes at her sibling’s protest. 

“Places people!” The director yelled. 

“Come on, sibs.” Yakko said as he stood up. His younger sibling followed suit and the three pulled up the potato sack and hopped their way towards the door entrance. Pinky followed the Warners and Brain immediately returned to his place behind the laboratory equipment. 

-                      -                              -                      -                        -   

Filming the rest of the segment went smoothly for the mice. Brain was able to ad-lib his rant after seeing the Warners in the sack, comparing their cameo to ‘layman’s detritus’. The mice were able to strike up a friendly rapport with the actress who played Drusilla in between takes. They listened to her fascinating background starting out as an extra on daytime soaps before making the move to horror movies and acting with heavy special effects make-up. Brain also managed to work in some improvisation near the final scene where he almost smooched his assistant in an earnest attempt to comfort him, knowing that the viewers would have a field day with that moment. 

Once they wrapped up filming the segment, Pinky and The Brain collected their paychecks and made their way through the Warner movie lot, holding hands as they strolled through the studio together. After years of wrestling with his repressed emotions and attending many therapy sessions, Brain finally professed his love to Pinky, and Pinky happily reciprocated his romantic feelings to Brain. The two started their courtship four months before they received the news that they would be returning to Animaniacs for the reboot. 

Brain ignored the curious stares from the other workers on the studio lot, instead focusing his attention on his hand, which was interlaced with Pinky’s. This was all so new to him. He was trying his best to navigate the challenging terrains of a serious romantic relationship. Thankfully, Pinky was ever so gentle and understanding with him. The taller mouse possessed strong emotional intelligence and he was able to help Brain let his guard down and help him come to terms with his own emotions. The smaller mouse was still slowly getting used to public displays of affection from Pinky. 

Pinky recognized Brain’s nervousness and started to make small-talk to keep his mind occupied. “Oh, that ‘Bride of Pinky’ segment was so much fun, Brain!” The buck-toothed mouse proclaimed. 

“Indeed it was” Brain politely replied with a small smile. 

“And your improv was on point!” Pinky praised. “Dr. Brainenstein trying to kiss Pigor after the loss of his monster wife was brilliant!” 

“Well, your performance was believable as always, Pinky.” Brain kindly complimented. 

“Yeah, I’m glad those last couple segments were more on the fun and heartwarming side.” Pinky added. 

Brain nodded his head. He was still bitter at the writers who penned that dreaded ‘Mousechurian Candidate’ script for a number of reasons. The material had angered him, but deeply disturbed Pinky to the point that he had been hiding himself in his trailer after each scene. Brain and Julia did their best to reassure their poor co-worker that they were only acting. But once they had received the scripts for ‘The Babysitter’s Flub’ and ‘Bride of Pinky’, Brain was relieved that the following segments focused on the comedic and affectionate relationship the two leads shared. This renewed Brain’s hope that the reboot would manage to retain the magic of the original series. 

Meanwhile, the Warners bounced around the movie lot, looking for a way to let out their energy. Yakko spotted Pinky and The Brain walking together. He stopped Wakko and Dot and gestured over to their co-stars. The three made one long leap towards the mice. 

“Hey, fellas!” Yakko greeted. “Listen, we just wanna thank you two for vouching for us earlier.” 

“We really appreciate you two standing up for us.” Wakko added. 

“Oh, your welcome.” Brain said. “It’s awfully rare that we cross paths in the show, but Pinky and I welcome your enthusiastic presence.” 

“Personally, I’ve always been an admirer of your sophisticated wit and earnest comedic chemistry.” Dot complimented. 

Pinky looked bashfully at Dot. “Zort! Oh you’re far too kind!” 

“Oh, I have something important to tell you two.” Wakko announced. “So I told my siblings this a while back, and I want you to know that I’m Non-Binary!” The middle child turned their hat around to reveal the pin of the Non-Binary flag on the front of their cap. “Egad, you have zero binaries? Why that’s incredible!” Pinky exclaimed as he eagerly shook Wakko’s hand. 

“That’s wonderful, Wakko.” Brain congratulated. “And could you kindly inform us of your pronouns?” 

“I currently use he/they pronouns.” Wakko answered. 

“Well, Pinky and I are very happy for you.” Brain kindly told the middle child. 

“Aw, thanks!” Wakko said with a sincere smile. Yakko playfully ruffled his sibling’s head, causing Wakko to give their older brother a soft shove. 

“Well, as much as I would love to converse with you further, Pinky and I need to go to the bank to deposit our checks, and return to the lab to discuss our plans for world domination.” Brain explained, tugging his taller partner along. “See you soon, children!” 

“Bye-bye kiddies!” Pinky addressed the kids with a friendly wave. 

“Bye!” The Warners chorused before bouncing about on their merry way back to the water tower. 

Unbeknownst to the mice and the Warners, they were being watched by Warner Brothers CEO, Nora Rita Norita, from the top floor of the WB office building. The businesswoman looked through the blinds and noticed the great rapport between the five actors. 

She flashed a menacing smile before releasing her grip from the blinds. 

Additional AN: So this chapter is mostly set up, establishing the friendly rapport between the Warners and the mice. 

Like my previous story, Those We Hold Dear, Pinky and the Brain work as actors and that most of the segments were filmed on the Warner movie lot (the period piece ones like How to Brain Your Dragon, Pinko and the Brain, Bride of Pinky, 1001 Narfs, and I added Mousechurian Candidate because of how poorly executed it was and the writers really did those characters dirty. And I was inspired by a post by @themurphyzone about episode 8 while referencing that episode in the story. While other segments like Ex-Mousina and Roadent Trip will be referenced later on in the story, occurred in-universe. 

And I chose to start the story with the characters filming Bride of Pinky because I loved that little cameo from the Warners and thought it would be fun to play around with the idea of what went on behind the scenes. Also, I decided to expand on that director who kept yelling when something went wrong while filming, and decided to name him Wellesley after the one of the producers of the reboot, Wellesley Wild. 

I also made the self-indulgent inclusion that Brain finally attended therapy because I love that grumpy little mouse and I wanted to at least have some of his emotional issues straightened out. 

As of now, this multi-chapter story is mostly complete, and I just need to add in some details in certain scenes, so I will do my best to post new chapters frequently. 

Thanks for reading! 

[enderbird]

Anniversary Special

Summary:  The 65th Anniversary Special for the Warner Siblings happens. Yakko learns some things that, in the end, don't matter.

Words: 1808

Warnings: talk of the canonical neglect of the warners : i am staring at the water tower :, mention of attempted murder? that is. kinda it. 

Notes: I watched the 65th Anniversary Special of the original Animaniacs yesterday. I had some feelings and shoved them on through Yakko tgyhu  They’re probably OOC as I have never written the Warners before. I threw in the beginning of the story from Wakko’s Wish in here because I thought it’d be cute. and I also have no idea when they actually started working on the movie. we out here.

AO3

This wasn’t beta-ed... or like. yeah. It’s probably got a few mistakes in it because I did start this at 1am today. but yeah.

He shouldn't have been surprised as he was, not that it was clear he was surprised about anything. Yakko was drawn an actor and, even though he can't die, he likes to say he'll die one too. It's just... everyone knew they were in the water tower. Everybody. Other toons, the staff, the big man upstairs too.. probably. Everyone except the public seemed to know they were locked up in a water tower for sixty years of their toony lives. 

 He can't express his anger, of course, it's their 65th Anniversary Special! He should be celebrating sixty-five years of wonderful time with everyone, not wishing he hadn't spent most of them locked away with his siblings. 

 Yet here he is. About to explode he's so upset. 

 Yakko always thought maybe the other toons were working on trying to free them and such other things. They were fellow toons! Trapping children in a space with nothing but their half-formed hammerspaces and imaginations in a fucking water tower isn't how toons should be treated. He'd hoped someone, maybe Bugs, the very face of the company, had tried to get them free or something, you know? But no.

 In the end, it seemed  everyone  at Warner Bros was happy to have been rid of them for sixty glorious, glorious years. Not a full sixty, though, they still got to be free one day every few years so the tower could be checked for termites and whatever. He never bothered to listen to what they were let out for because it honestly never mattered. For one day, even if it be only every few years, he got to be somewhere else. 

 That was something they all had always looked forward to. Running around in search of new things. Everything was always changing and it was so hard to keep track of it all when you only get to see snippets of it every few years. But it was okay! Even if they always got caught at the end of the day after the company was done doing god knows what, they still at least got to see something new. Something exciting.

 Yakko grabbed his siblings' hands in an attempt to pull himself away from his thoughts as if they wouldn't just return later in the night when they got back home. Back to the tower.. back in his ball pit. For now, though? He might as well enjoy what was left of the show, as much as his revelation hurt him. He really did hold onto the hope the other toons would try and free them. 

 Honestly, when they were first locked away, he'd thought it was a joke. He sat there for almost two months just waiting for the punchline to kick off. He'd only actually thought that because everyone just seemed so excited and happy when they were put in the tower.. he wanted to hold onto that, not that he was able to for long.

  When he'd looked back up at the screen he saw Daffy, talking about their original nonsensical cartoon. The one about the flypaper or whatever it was. Complaining about how it went on for eight hours. This was kinda rude to show at an event that was supposed to celebrate them, right? It felt rude at least. Whatever. 

 He just squeezed his siblings' hands and ignored the show, seeing as nothing good had come from actually watching it so far.

 --------------------

 Hours later, he couldn't sleep. The night had gotten better after they got back home. After Buddy tried to kill them out of jealousy for his old, ruined reputation, and after he'd found that no one cares about them stuck in the tower. You'd think Yakko would be a little more shaken up about the dying thing, but no. 

 It seems he was the only one not able to sleep so far, as he could hear Dot moving around in her sleep above him, and Wakko making noises in their sleep on the top bunk. He'd probably wake them up so they could all sleep together if that didn't just make him feel a little iffier. He was the oldest, right? The oldest doesn't need to ask his younger siblings if they could all sleep together because he couldn't just sleep alone. That's stupid.

 He just gave up and got up. Wakko would probably be up soon, as the middle child always got up for something at some point in the night. Dot would follow after Wakko accidentally wakes her up, etc etc. Yakko probably knew his siblings better than anything, more than any song he's had to memorize the lyrics for or the very backs of his paws. 

 He placed any balls that had fallen out when he got up back in his ball pit bed, rubbing his eyes and wandering off in the dark towards their little kitchen. He might as well wait there... it's where everyone ended up at some point in the night. 

 --------------------

 A few hours later, give or take, Yakko heard the unmistakable sound of Wakko climbing down the bunk bed ladder and making their way around the water tower. They sometimes sleep-ate or talked.. or walked.. so if that ended up being the case tonight then he'd wake up Wakko, but only then. 

 He'd pulled a light out of hammerspace to read with, but ended up messing around with and breaking it. How he broke the light didn't exactly matter as he saw, heard more than anything, his sibling finally stumble into the kitchen. 

 What really sucked about the dark was, even if they were supposed to be animals and such, they had terrible night vision. It didn't help with gags, and they weren't any specific animal, so they didn't have the luxury of most other toons when it came to the dark. That was what really got him about being stuck in the dark for so long. 

 He squinted at the other toon from his spot at the kitchen table, only to find he was being squinted at back. 

 "What're you doin' up?" Was the only thing he found Wakko saying, who now standing in the doorway and waiting for an answer.

 Now obviously he can't just answer with "Oh I was thinking about all our time stuck in here with no clear way of being able to ever leave" because that's upsetting. This was one of the last people he could ever find himself trying to upset, not that'd he'd want to go and just do that anyway. It's against his very purpose as a toon, isn't it? 

 "Just couldn't sleep. Thought I'd come in here and run into you sooner or later, you know? Did you wake up Dottie?"

 Both brothers knew never to call their sister Dottie, it was Dot or Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third, and she made sure it stayed that way.. but it didn't seem she'd wake up yet tonight. Maybe later. It should, at least, be safe to joke about until then. 

 Wakko seemed to accept that answer as they continued their journey to the fridge, blinding a very tired Yakko when they opened it. They pulled out a giant cake from god knows where before going over to sitting across from their brother.

 "I didn't hear her getting up this time. Just her normal movin' around. Did you wanna talk to her or somethin'?" Is what Yakko finally got in response, but only after Wakko had taken a huge bite out of the cake.. as well at their plate. 

He just shook his head, laying it down on his arms. "Thought maybe we could spend the day after our 65th Anniversary Special doing something together. Only if you guys want to, of course."

 It took longer to get a response, as Wakko had just swallowed the cake and plate whole, which wasn't anything new. "Maybe you could tell Dot the story from that script we got a few days ago. She'd like getting to practice.." 

 "I'd like to get to tell you both the story, even if it's mostly about Dot. You're not there for it in the movie, are you?"

 Wakko just shook their head, laying it on their arms as their brother had done a bit before.

 "Well, that just can't do. How about.. we all sleep in my ball pit tonight. You could go grab Dot after you're finished snacking, and I'll see about finding those scripts to look back over, yeah?" 

 Wakko nodding along, seeming pretty happy with the idea before running off to get their sister. 

 While Wakko did that and about got their fingers bitten off for it, Yakko just continued to sit there, looking happier than he had earlier. Not that anyone could see his face. Wakko probably knew he didn't have to look over his lines but agreed so he could be alone a little longer, or maybe they were just that tired. He didn't care which.

 Yakko probably needed Wakko and Dot more than they needed him. He was okay with that, but it's not something he'd tell them. All that mattered right now was getting to his siblings before Dot or Wakko got impatient and came looking for him, which he was completely fine with doing. 

 He stepped into the little spot they'd sectioned off from the rest of the water tower and called a room before clearing his throat, which he mostly did just to let them know he'd finally gotten back. 

 "Dot, if you didn't murder Wakko over your 'cutie sleep', I'm gonna go ahead and say sorry for waking you up. If Wakko did perish by your hand I'm taking it back." 

 That was mostly a joke. They'd never kill over sleep, not usually at least. Dot did just get annoyed if woken up for almost any reason. 

 He slid into the ball pit he, for some reason unknown to him, called a bed. The last time they were out he found some kind of time-traveling dohickey Brain had made for one of his failed schemes and decided to go and mess around for a bit. See what the future was like. Just found some ball pit laying in the middle of some convention hall.

 He can't remember what it was called now (Mashcon? Stashcon? Dashcon??) and it didn't matter. What mattered now is he could feel both of his siblings with him that he needed to start on a story for. 

 "Alright, you two. Here we go," he cleared his throat again, with no real need to... again. "Once upon a time, a brave knight married a beautiful princess-" 

 Yeah. This would turn out okay, even if he wasn't too happy with the other toons right now. He'd always be just fine with these two. That's all that was important.

[randowolfwriter]

Been working on this forever, but here’s my take on the Older Warners au, mostly with Wakko and his family. Basically, this relates back to the rockstar!au I thought up for Wakko a while back where he joins a band a few years after the original Animaniacs ended, only now he also starts a family along the way. Currently, Wakko is a single dad raising fraternal twins named Jojo and Smakko and teaches them both how to be zany toons like him. Eventually, he moves his family back to the Warner Bros lot during the production of the Animaniacs reboot, where Yakko and Dot also help out with raising the twins. 

More details about the story and the twins for anyone’s that curious, because I’ve been thinking about this au for a pretty long time. 

Given that they’re toons, the Warners shouldn’t be able to age, and yet if they did then it would be completely unexplained. One day they woke up and realized that they were aging just like humans. Of course this haunts each of them, including Yakko, who does all that he can to reassure his siblings that eventually this will pass and they’ll go back to being kids again. However, that wasn’t the case, and the three learn to accept that growing up was just a part of life. Even so, age wasn’t going to stop the Warners from serving justice to the unjust and wrecking havoc on adults with massive egos, which would go on until their late teens. 

During these years Wakko’s love for music also grows, and eventually he ends up forming a band with a few other toons around the studio. At first, their performances consisted of causing chaos around the lot and crashing production shoots-- infuriating Plotz to no end as the current CEO at the time-- yet when they noticed they were receiving positive attention from curious onlookers and angsty teens that liked their approach in fighting against the system, the band decided to become official. With this, Wakko is the first to leave the Warner Bros. lot and pursue his dreams of becoming a rockstar just like his idols. At first, he played as the band’s chaotic drummer, but as the years went on and he grew more confident, he also had the chance to man the front and sing a few solos for their band that would be named Toonz. 

A few years later, Dot is the next to leave as she goes on to become a successful business woman and leave her child actor days behind. Yakko is the only one who ends up staying on the lot and continues to call the water tower home. At first, he started out as a comedian who did shows regularly, but as time went on and he became a little tone deaf with his audience, he started doing small acting bits around the studio. Yakko’s biggest achievement yet was creating a small web series where he posted educational songs to teach children certain topics, including a video that was an updated version of his iconic “countries of the world” song. 

Meanwhile, Toonz takes the nation by storm. The attention they get is astounding, so much so, that they’re nearly invited everywhere in Hollywood, or if not then they’d crash it anyway. One party they crash in particular is where Wakko ends up meeting the twin’s mother. The party was held by a popular British singer named Jojo who was living in the states at the time and the twin’s mother so happened to be one of her stage managers. Jojo is unamused by the party crashers antics, yet tries to make the most of her night by introducing the twin’s mother to Wakko. One thing led to another and strangely the two began hitting it off, that is, until Wakko drunkenly sings “Wakko’s America” and crashes through a glass table. 

Thank to Jojo and Toonz doing tons of collabs between each other, Wakko and the twins’ mother saw each other constantly. Eventually their random encounters turned into dating, and already two years had gone by. She was different than the other women he dated, and by that, really one of the only people who could put up with his cartoony antics. Not to mention, she also had a long-time hobby in drawing and sketching, which Wakko always loved posing as her muse. Eventually, Wakko decided to take their relationship to the next step and the two got married in Vegas. 

One night, after Wakko and his wife returned from a long night of drinking and partying, the twins’ mother found herself drawing two twins that looked like Wakko from the original Animaniacs series. She didn’t now what possessed her to come up with them, but for some reason, she really felt like drawing them. As usual, Wakko being made of ink provided color for the sketch and gave them their black fur and red noses. All was going well until the twin’s mother accidentally got a paper cut and bled onto the page. After this, the two decided to call it a night and went to bed, unaware of what was happening to the page as they were sleeping. 

Later that night, the two heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen. Afraid that it was a couple of robbers, Wakko goes to investigate, claiming that he wanted to greet his new “special” friends. What Wakko ends up finding instead are two little toon babies with puppy dog ears, cat-like tails, black furred with white faces, and tiny little pink noses that looked exactly like him. Upon further investigation, they soon discovered that the page they drew the twins on earlier was blank, which meant that for some reason, the twins came to life exactly the same way Wakko did (except they came out as babies.) Thus, Jojo and Smakko Warner were brought into the world and Wakko and his wife were now parents.  

For the next decade, Wakko continued playing in the band while his wife stayed home to take care of the kids. Whether it’d be at practice or having yearly tours, Wakko unfortunately couldn’t be with his kids as much as he wanted to, yet, when he was able to spend some quality time with them, he gave it his all. He got to see what an adorable and excitable girl Jojo was, what a mischievous nature she held in courtesy of the Warner name, and what a big heart she had for those around her. As for Smakko, though he was timid and shy he was also very inquisitive, and with inheriting his Daddoo’s toon abilities the boy was practically the spitting image of him. 

For years, it seemed as if nothing could tear the family apart. Sure, the twins had their moments, as well as most kids did; if anything they were more well behaved than the father they came from. Not only that, but barely were there any arguments or secrets kept between parents and children. Yet, nothing could have prepared Wakko for the day his wife died in a tragic accident, leaving him alone as a single father. Knowing that the twins had no one else to care for them, Wakko retired from the band to commit himself full-time in raising Jojo and Smakko. 

A year later, Wakko buys an RV and decides to take his kids on the road. He wanted to teach them everything he knew when they were his age, get the chance to see the world, and help them get in touch with their toon heritage. Though Jojo was more than excited to spend time with her Daddoo as much as possible, Smakko on the other other hand was less than thrilled. All the boy wanted was for things to return back to normal; when their mother was always around and their Daddoo seemed more concerned with his band. 

Months into this family entourage, and Wakko gets a call from Yakko:  Animaniacs was returning, and they wanted all three of the Warner siblings to come back. With this, Wakko moves the twins to the Warner Bros. lot and gives them the chance to see where he grew up. They move into the water tower with Yakko, who is more than happy as he’s been rather lonesome for the last two decades. Dot however is a little less than compliant to return to her roots, but eventually she warms up to the idea that the reboot would be willing to work with a more mature version of herself. Now that the three Warner siblings were reunited plus two, the family works together to bring back the joy and laughter that the original series gave to many. Though they’re a lot older, the three siblings are convinced they still have it in them. Eventually once the reboot runs its course, Wakko intends to get him and the kids back on the road, but for now, they’re content where they’re at. 

Now, about the twins!

Jojo Warner:

Birthday: June 8th, 2009 (11 years old) 

Fraternal twin sister to Smakko. 

Since the parents were brought together by the singer, Jojo, she had the honor of being the girl’s godparent. With this, she named the baby after herself in defense of saying that “Jojo” wasn’t her real name, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be their daughter’s.  

Her ears are bigger than any of the other Warners, which is why they usually need to be tied back. Not like they cover her eyes or anything, but when she was little she used to chew on them constantly, causing concern for the new parents.

The heart hair tie she wears is from her mother and she treasures it dearly.

Out of both her parents, she has a stronger relationship with her Daddoo due to their mischievous and childlike personalities. 

Just like Wakko, she has a ravenous appetite that only got bigger with age. As a toddler, if she didn’t get to eat right away, she would run around the house and throw a giant tantrum until she got her way. Sometimes, she still has a tendency to do this if her heart is set on something. 

The only Disney movie she’s ever seen is Frozen, which proved her Daddoo’s point about them being mindless garbage when she wouldn’t stop singing Let It Go for months. Because of this, the kids were banned from seeing anymore Disney films.

When she was five, she ripped off Wakko’s tail while rough housing with it. Though it wasn’t that big of a deal thanks to Wakko being part salamander, that didn’t stop him from tricking Jojo into thinking she tore it off for good. Of course, the prank went too far when Jojo broke down in tears and begged over and over about how sorry she was, so Wakko finally decided to show his kids their amazing regenerating abilities and grew his tail back. Smakko immediately threw up after this. (I swear, that tail scene in the reboot was hella nasty) 

One of her favorite hobbies is collecting weird things she finds on her adventures, whether it be a strangely shaped rock, a piece of trash, and yes, she even still has her Daddoo’s tail. 

Another one of her favorite hobbies is playing with the small guitar her Daddoo gave her. On warm summer nights, Wakko and Jojo will sit on the roof of the RV or the water tower and sing into the night. Some of their favorites include songs by the Beatles, or songs by various rock groups. While her Daddoo strums on an electric guitar, she comes in with her acoustic to create a beautiful yet strange harmony. She hopes to be the lead singer of her own band one day. 

Despite living up to the Warner name, Jojo didn’t inherit any of their cartoon abilities, which bugs her to this day. The only way she can keep up with her family’s antics is by engaging in witty banter and annoying the heck out of her victims. Sort of a mixture of Yakko and Dot’s form of humor.

She gets along well with her Uncle Yakko since both of them can’t keep their mouths shut. During the Warners’ escapades, she looks to Yakko on how to strengthen her form of humor.

As for her Aunt Dot, the two are slowly forming a relationship. Due to Jojo’s tomboyish nature, Dot has a harder time getting on her level of understanding-- though that doesn’t mean the two don’t confide in each other if they ever need to rant about the boys of the family.

She’s considered the leader of the twins due to being more confident and does most of the talking during their escapades. 

She’s also very social, which leads her wanting to engage in more activities with kids her age such as going to school or trying to find her own niche of friends. Luckily, she ends up finding her own group when she befriends some of the child stars at the Warner Bros. studio.

Since her mother’s death, she believes that her mother looks down on them from the brightest star in the sky and grants them wishes. Every night, Jojo makes the same exact wish, not for herself but for her family:  She wishes for Wakko to have all the happiness in the world while she wishes for Smakko to be more confident in himself. 

Smakko Warner:

Birthday: June 8th, 2009 (11 years old) 

Basically my take on the forgotten character, Smakky from the original drafts of the Warners but like, less angry and more anxious. 

He was a fussy baby. Most nights, he refused to be left alone in his crib and cried for hours into the night until his parents surrendered and consoled him. Usually this was an inconvenience for both Wakko and his wife, as well as the neighbors when they used to live in an apartment. One night, Wakko nearly got in a fight with a neighbor after they complained about the child’s insistent crying.

Out of both parents, he favors his mother the most. Her soft voice and reassuring words were always his form of comfort throughout his childhood. Due to Wakko always practicing with the band or going on tours, Smakko didn’t gain that much of a connection with him. Most of the time, Smakko found his Daddoo to be a little scary due to his brash cartoon nature. 

Out of both twins he’s the shyest and will usually cling onto his family members whenever he meets someone new. He also has a tendency to get nervous real easily. Opponents are to be wary when they back him into a corner, lest they want to face his fearful wrath.

Unlike his sister, his toon abilities appeared the minute he was born. Upon naming him, he summoned a baby rattle and smacked his uncle on the head with it until he was given back to his mother. Hence, the boy was given the name “Smakko.” 

Nowadays, the boy is able to summon mallets to his whim, cream pies to his choosing, and is able to teleport from place to place— however, this only happens whenever he’s frightened or really stressed. If anyone gets him extremely anxious, they either get pounded with a mallet or blown up with dynamite. In a way, his cartoon abilities act as a defensive reflex. 

Another conundrum the parents faced during Smakko’s first years was being able to keep track of him. Most of the time, the boy would hide constantly either because he felt uncomfortable or something scared him. Sometimes, he’d end up in the most bizarre places such as in the freezer, in a load of laundry, or even in the ceiling. The only reason his parents knew where to find him was if they heard crying. 

While his sister’s form of comedy is vocal, his is more physical like his Daddoo’s. 

He also has a really small appetite compared to his Daddoo and sister. Most days, he can last with just a bowl of cereal up until dinner. He’s just not as passionate about eating like the rest of his family. Adding onto that, he’s a vegetarian. He gets sick at the thought of eating meat or harming animals to get his meal.

He’s very fond of animals, mostly smaller animals that he can pick up. He’s considered many times getting a pet, but due to the Warners active lifestyle, it’s something that’ll have to wait. As for now, he’ll help move bugs from getting crushed or summon food for hungry strays. (Rita and Runt go to him constantly for free food.)

He likes his Aunt Dot more than his Uncle Yakko. His uncle talks too much which overwhelms him. Meanwhile, Dot has that toned down personality that sort of resembles his mother’s, that is, until her brothers get her riled up.

Though Smakko loves his family, sometimes their crazy antics can get a little much. He misses his mother dearly considering that she was the only form of normalcy in his life. Now that she’s gone, he feels rather lost and doesn’t know how to open up to his Daddoo. Wakko on the other hand tries all that he can to calm himself around Smakko and assures him that his Dadoo will always be there for him. However, the boy’s anxiety is one that Wakko will have to learn to work with. 

[tymime]

So, having seen all 13 episodes of the new Animaniacs, I can say without question it’s a very good show. Not perfect by any means, but definitely worthy of your time if you’re a fan of the original.

Most comments I’ve seen have praised the show, but I’ve also seen some criticism. Mostly from people who haven’t watched it. Now, I seriously believe that it’s perfectly okay to criticize something you haven’t seen the entirety of, but if you’re going by the trailers and clips released online, well… I can’t see what there is to complain about. It’s fantastically animated, well-drawn, and I actually laughed when I heard the first joke. I actually felt some tension release when that happened!

But I would like to talk about some unfair (and also fair) criticisms from people who actually did watch it:

-Too much cynicism/mean-spiritedness One thing I didn’t realize when I was a kid is how often the original show made fun of things that really didn’t deserve being made fun of. The tradition of the Warner siblings pestering historical figures included the likes of Beethoven and Einstein, who as far as I know, never did anything to warrant being cast as villains in any kind of fiction, much less a cartoon. I think probably the most egregious of these was the episode where they torment a thinly-veiled parody of Wolf Blitzer. I don’t know much about the guy, but all of the people on CNN seem like pretty upstanding folk, so I can’t imagine why the writers chose him of all people to target. Sometimes I wonder if the whole “make fun of it because it exists” thing that so much modern humor relies on actually started with Animaniacs… If anything, the new show is actually more light-hearted in some respects.

-Too much political/topical satire Yet again, the original show was not shy in taking occasional jabs at the government and social issues. Cartoons doing that kind of humor goes back as far as Looney Tunes, and of course both that and Animaniacs contain plenty of dated pop culture references, some of which I still don’t understand. And I was alive during the ‘90s!

-Too much gross-out “humor” Now this here is the major flaw of the new show. The original never did any jokes that could make you feel queasy, and if it did talk about anything gross, it was more of a “ugh, don’t you hate that?” thing rather than the grossness being the joke itself. I will never ever understand people who like this sort of thing, and every time it happened my mood immediately went way down and sometimes wouldn’t go back up again until much later.

-Not enough characters I can sort of understand this, but not really. Just think about it- did anyone ever really find Rita & Runt or the Goodfeathers particularly funny? And I feel so sorry for Buttons’ constant suffering I can’t even stand to watch them. (Plus, I’m certain that no one ever liked Katie Kaboom.) One character I definitely want to see return though is Slappy Squirrel. Slappy is an icon as far as I’m concerned, and one of the funniest cartoon characters ever created. It was a shame they didn’t include her in the new show beyond a small non-speaking cameo.

-Not enough of the original crew This is the real tragedy of the new show. I can’t imagine why in the world the WB execs didn’t want to hire any of the original writers or artists, and it’s an insult to all the people who created and developed the characters. That said, it’s quite obvious that the new show was a labor of love, done with a lot of care and thought, written and animated by fans of the original and classic animation in general. This is the first time ever a major production has acknowledged ‘90s kids, and actually given them something worthwhile- something more than just an empty gesture to capitalize on our nostalgia. And after so many years of dealing with internet trolls who think my childhood was worthless, it’s such an incredible relief to know that there are others out there who feel the same way.

So yes, the new Animaniacs has its problems, but to say it’s a travesty is going too far. Like I mentioned in my last post, I was genuinely worried that they would do the same thing they did to the Powerpuff Girls or DuckTales. It was a good two years or so before we even knew who was going to do the voices, and it was literally only two months ago when we saw any animation at all. To say that it’s a relief to finally see it and enjoy it is an understatement.

I think it’s a bit foolish to go chasing after an X factor. Sure, there are many quibbling criticisms I have, like perhaps the timing could be tighter and more snappy, and maybe the storytelling could be refined, but the original wasn’t exactly entirely consistent in those regards either.

And we’ve got remember that the people who worked on the new show are not the same people who blackballed Tom Ruegger and Sherri Stoner. Throw your hate at the WB execs, not the show itself, and especially not the new writers and artists. The folks who hate the new episodes don’t seem to want to let the people who enjoy it have nice things, I guess. A line from the Pinky and the Brain episode “1001 Narfs” actually summed my feelings quite nicely: “We could use a little less cynicism, and a little bit more childlike wonder.”

All in all, I’m looking forward to season 2, and I hope it’s even better than the first.

[doodle--writes]

Hellooo Nurse!- Adult Eddie Kaspbrak X Reader

Word Count: 2,833

Warnings: Blood, Injury, Cursing, Sexual Jokes

Request: could i request an 2019!eddie kaspbrak x wife!reader where reader freaks out when eddie gets stabbed by bowers and she's the one to patch him up and he gets all cute and asking her to kiss it better and stuff but also being his usual self freaking about all of the germs and instructing her on how to stitch him and stuff? if that makes sense?

_____

It was barely afternoon when you got home from a half shift of work. The rest of your day would be on-call, meaning whenever someone needed help, they'd call you.

You opened the fridge, looking for something to eat and settle for leftovers of grilled salmon and rice before throwing it onto a plate and heating it up in the microwave.

You slid your shoes off and placed them on the rack in the closet.

You heard the microwave and your phone go off at the same time. You rushed over, opening the microwave to shut it up and accepted the phone call, putting it on speaker.

The plate was hot so you carefully pulled it from the microwave, giving your normal line.

"Hello I'm Y/N L/N-Kaspbrak from Grand Central Donor Center, how may I help you today?"

"Hey Y/N, it's Mike Hanlon."

You paused. "Excuse me, who?"

"Mike Hanlon. We're old friends from high school. Derry, remember?"

"I remember Derry, yes, but no Mike Han-"

"Y/N, It's back."

You felt as if the world had suddenly flipped, your whole sense of gravity and strength diminished. The plate dropped to the floor; the sound of shattering glass sounded nearly like an explosion in the quiet kitchen.

"Y/N? Are you alright Y/N?"

In reality, you were not fine. The only thing that kept you on your feet was the counter digging into your hip.

"Yeah, I just dropped a plate is all."

Mike started to talk more, letting you know what was going on, but you ended the call without warning because another pending call popped up at the top of the screen.

You answered it without an inkling of hesitation. "Eddie? Eddie, are you okay? I just got a call from-"

"Mike. Yeah, me too."

Something's wrong. Eddie talked sluggishly instead of his typical jabbering pace. You didn't trust his response at all.

"Eddie, baby, are you sure you're okay?" You put the phone on speaker once again so you could clean up the mess of salmon, rice, and broken glass.

He sighed, but a small chortle followed. "Our insurance premium is going to be pretty high this month."

You couldn't help but smile although you were worried. He just had a way of making you smile, even in the worst moments. "Eddie, just tell me what happened."

You heard a little hum that Eddie always made when he was nervous, but it was followed by a snicker. "Alright, I may have crashed the limo."

"Eddie! Oh my God wh- shit," you winced. You looked down to see that you cut yourself while picking up a shard of plate.

Then he was the one who was worried.

"Y/N? What happened? Are you alright?"

You stood to walk over to the sink to clean off the wound and grabbed a band-aid.

It had been Eddie's idea to have a box at every sink in the house and you didn't mind that considering your finger didn't look nor feel pretty.

"I'm okay Eds, just a tiny cut. I was trying to clean up a broken plate and well- you know how clumsy I can be."

"You're the clumsy one? I drove right into a taxi!" He paused for a moment. "Wait did you use peroxide on the cut? Did you pet pressure on it to clot the blood? Did you-"

You tried to keep yourself from laughing, but you couldn't. A loud giggle escaped and you heard Eddie make a small 'hmph' noise on the other end of the line. You smiled. "Eddie, honey, I'm an RN, I know what to do for a tiny cut. Stop worrying so much."

You could imagine Eddie going from a pout to a sheepish smile. "Yeah, yeah I know. I just worry."

"I know you do."

The blithe air quickly diminished, leaving a somewhat heavy and thick feeling in your throat.

After a moment Eddie asked, "We have to go back, don't we?"

By habit, you nodded even though Eddie wasn't there to see it. "We swore. All of us did. We're older now; it'll be easier."

After another moment of silence to gather his thoughts, all Eddie said was: "I'll be home soon."

___

When Eddie got home, the first thing he did was wrap his arms around you, squeezing tight as his stubble rubbed against your cheek.

You were safe there, wrapped up in the scent of his cologne and the warmth of his hug.

It was hard to tell how long you two stayed like that, but when he pulled away, he still kept a hand on you. It proved to him that everything he was going through was real.

You two booked an early flight the next day to Maine. Your airport was about a half an hour south of Derry.

Then came packing your bags. Now, being married to Eddie for thirteen years, you were used to how much he packed, but part of you was always surprised at how that list seemed to grow each time you took a trip together.

So when you saw Eddie coming up from the basement trying to carry four luggage bags, you ran over, taking two of them from him.

"Oh my God, honey, we don't need this many bags!"

Eddie beamed, setting two of them down at the top of the landing. "You're right, we need one more." He turned on his heel to march back down the stairs, but you stopped him by tugging on the collar of his shirt, making a small 'tsk tsk'.

"Eddie," you purred, "look at me."

Eddie obeyed, turning back towards you with wide, curious eyes. He wanted to hear whatever you had to say and you knew he'd listen. "We're only taking two of these with us and one backpack. Got it?"

He nodded and you giggled, running your fingers through his hair. "You're so cute, even at forty."

"You're even prettier at thirty-nine."

Your smile grew as you pulled him closer, wrapping your arms around his neck.

"You know," you traced a circle on the back of his neck with your nail, sending chills along his skin, "now that we remember our teenage years, how about we act like teens for a night? We do have until tomorrow."

Eddie's hands playfully squeezed your rear end. "I don't think I could ever turn that down."

______

Both you and Eddie were in fairly high spirits as you drove to the airport.

Last night may have (okay, it most definitely did) put the both of you in a better mood.

The entire drive to the airport was filled with the two of you singing along to songs from when you were kids and the sounds of impatient New Yorkers in traffic, which wasn't even a quarter as pleasant as the music.

Getting onto the plane was easy but once the mostly empty flight began, silence swelled between Eddie and yourself.

The both of you were thinking about the same thing.

"How did we end up together if we didn't remember our childhoods together?" You looked at Eddie, wondering if he had any sort of answer.

He looked to you. "We started dating when you were sixteen, I was seventeen. Didn't we?"

You nodded. "But I also distinctly remember starting to date you at twenty five."

Eddie thought for a moment, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His eyebrows knitted together in thought.

"Well, if we take things we've confirmed are true, then after I moved away from Derry, I think I forgot about you, and you did the same. So when we met again years later, we thought we were strangers."

The thought of forgetting Eddie, someone so God damn important to you, made you feel queasy.

Eddie's hand moved onto yours, fingers intertwining. He smiled small. "We found each other. Even after forgetting and having a fucking clown mess with our minds, we found each other."

You smiled and kissed the ball of his nose. "I love you."

"I love you too. So much."

______

Jade of the Orient, that was the place. You looked up at the sign before walking inside, being greeted by a petite hostess.

She led you to the back of the restaurant and there were two figures you found vaguely familiar. Their features were ones you recognized, just aged from years of absence from each other's lives.

You found yourself in the warm embrace of Mike, who went on about how he knew 'you'd keep your promise'.

Next, you were nearly tackled into a hug by Bill, whose eyes were just as bright and as persuasive as they were as kids.

All of you sat and got to talking for a few minutes.

"So Y/N," Bill began, "what do you do for a living now?"

You smiled. "Oh well, I work at a medical donation center, but I work with plasma donations. Essentially what we do is draw blood, extract the plasma, and give you the blood back. The plasma is used to create medicines for diseases like HIV."

Mike nodded. "Sounds like an interesting job."

You nodded as well, thinking of what else to say before you heard a booming impression of Yacko from The Animaniacs.

"Well helllooo nurse!"

Your head snapped towards the entrance to see a man whose comedy specials you adored and who was your best buddy as kids.

"Richie fucking Tozier," you cheered, jumping from your seat and tackling Richie square in the chest for a hug.

"Well hello Y/N a God damn milf L/N!" He laughed, mocking the tone of your voice.

You smacked his arm. "Oh come on I'm not a milf!"

He put his hands up defensively. "Sure, sure says the milf."

You rolled your eyes, drawing him into a hug again. "Dude, I can't believe you made it! You're a god damn comedian! You did it you lucky bastard!"

Richie laughed, starting to make a joke, but you looked over to Eddie. His lips were drawn into a thin, unamused line and his arms were crossed in front of his chest like a little kid. You had forgotten about that too; whenever Richie made you laugh, Eddie would become pouty. The weird part about that was that Eddie only got jealous when it was Richie specifically.

You chuckled and strutted over, seating yourself in his lap. "Oh c'mon Eddie, don't pout." You pressed a soft kiss to his temple.

The others put the pieces together quick. Richie's jaw drops.

"Wait wait wait, you two are married?! How?! We all forgot!"

You laughed and nuzzled closer to Eddie. "Well, we found each other by accident. We didn't even realize that we had known each other in the past."

He looked at you, smiling soft.

"Man, you're whipped for her, huh Eds?"

Before Eddie could respond, Ben and Bev walked in. You jumped to your feet, running to give Beverly a hug.

"Now the party is really starting!"

_____

You wish you could say the remainder of your time at Derry was as lively as seeing your friends once again. You wish it was as peaceful.

It wasn't.

You were in your motel room answering a phone call from work. Shit. You forgot to tell them that you had a 'family' emergency.

During the middle of explaining, you heard a thud. You apologized before hanging up and stepping into the hallway. "Guys? Is that one of you?" The sight that hobbled out in front of you made you scream, making everyone in the townhouse run up the stairs.

Eddie waddled towards you, blood pouring out from his mouth and the side of his fucking face! You ran over to him, and he fell against you. He looked up at you, eyes wide. "Is it bad?"

As he asked, a fresh glob of blood spilled from his cheek. You looked to everyone behind you. "Anyone have anything fabric I can use to hold against this?"

From a lack of response, you assumed no and placed your hand snug against Eddie's cheek. They questioned him about what happened before running off to find Henry Bowers.

You ushered Eddie into your room, assuring them that you could handle it.

You carefully sat Eddie on the bed and pulled your hand away, strings of blood running from his cheek to your hand. Your palm looked like Beverly's bathroom twenty seven years prior. Eddie made a breathy noise like he was lightheaded. "You washed your hands recently, right? Because if any germs get into my blood then-"

You moved off of the bed, letting Eddie ramble while you searched for the first aid kit. "Yeah sweetie. It's habit for me to wash my hands constantly. Part of working in healthcare."

After a little more shuffling you found the kit and tore through it looking for a needle, thread, gauze, and athletic tape. Not to mention peroxide and cotton balls either. As soon as you had everything, you were sitting on the bed by Eddie's side. You handed him two cotton balls. "Stuff these in your cheek without pushing them through the wound, alright baby?"

He looked at you uncertain. "Are you sure that's sanitary? I mean think about the cotton fibers that could get stuck-"

You cut him off with a small kiss to his forehead. He then does as told, carefully placing the cotton balls in his mouth.

Next, you put peroxide on a cotton ball. You were about to dab it on the wound, but paused. "Eddie, if you need to grab me or squeeze me, you can. This is gonna hurt like a bitch."

He placed his free hand on your knee, but as soon as that cotton ball made contact, he winced, squeezing about five times as harder.

You hated seeing him in pain, so you tried to be as fast and thorough as possible.

After a minute or so, you were done you prepared for another painful part.

But you decided he could wait a little longer for stitches as you found a pain relieving medication. In no way was it over the counter, but Eddie usually took the children sized medications because he was afraid of becoming reliant on any normal drug. Considering his childhood, you understood why. But you grabbed him two Benadryl and had him wash them down the hatch with some water. You had him be extra careful considering the cotton balls in his mouth.

So then you waited for them to kick in.

The signal for that was when Eddie began to compliment you to an overbearing extent. Yes, you were flattered but also, your husband could be embarrassing.

He jumped a little and wriggled while you tried to give him stitches, but it was nothing you couldn't handle.

"My face feels weird," he hummed, going to feel his stitches.

You quickly moved his hand away. "Be careful honey. It's fresh."

He pouted and you couldn't help but giggle. You had a feeling you'd be taking goofy videos of him all night for him to see in the morning.

You walked to the bathroom to see that everyone disappeared and a few patches of blood remained on the floor. You shook your head and grabbed a washcloth from the closet, dampening it before returning to Eddie.

As soon as you walked in, he started whining. "Y/N, it hurts," he puffed out his bottom lip. "Kiss it better."

"You are such a baby, but not the whiny kind; you're just cute," you giggled and walked over to him. You sat, pulling his head into your lap.

His cheeks turned pink and he gave you the same nervous smile he would as kids. You pushed his hair back and looked down at him. You show him the washcloth. "Now, this is to clean the blood off of you. After that, I'll kiss everything else better."

He laid there quietly, staring up at you adoringly while you cleaned the blood off of him.

After that was done, you set the towel on the nightstand to take care of later. You laid down next to Eddie and took his face between your hands. At first he looked confused. You laughed  quietly, calling him silly before pressing your lips against his; not too hard but filled with love.

You pulled away, smiling proud. "I told you I'd kiss it better, but I'm not done yet!" You proceeded to pepper kisses all over Eddie's face, earning giggles and squeals.

Finally, you put the gauze and tape over his cheek for good measure. You kissed the top, humming. "Alright, now I'm done."

Once you announced the completion of patching Eddie up, he pulled you down next to him without a sound. You moved so your head rested on Eddie's chest. Neither of you said it, but you both thought it.

I love you.

Requests OPEN

[reggiejworkshop]

Animaniacs: The Trip (part 2)

It was in the middle of the morning as the beautiful sun shone directly over the Warner Bros studio in Burbank. Everyone was out and about, enjoying the day. However, three people were not taking advantage of this.

"Oh, here it comes!" Yakko groaned.

Both Wakko and Dot winced as they heard their brother heave for the third time in a row. They would have been more sympathetic had his puking not sounded like the Tasmanian Devil trying to sing death metal. The sound almost made them want to puke again for themselves. Yakko finally came out of the bathroom, a wave of relief spread across his face.

"Who thought it looked better going out than in?" he groaned.

"I don't get it, I thought it would have tasted a lot better than that" Wakko said, confused that he made a food item that he himself couldn't stomach. He along with the rest of his siblings' mouths were still burning.

"Well, now that nightmare is over, what should we do today sibs?" Yakko asked with a peppy tone.

"Let's go see what our favorite psychiatrist is up too." Dot proposed.

"Good idea" Wakko added.

The Warners climbed down the tower. The bright rays from the mole tipped sun beaming down upon them. They reached Dr. Scratchensniff's office in no time at all.

"Oh, Scratchy!" the trio chirped. They stood outside the door to his office, waiting for him to shoo him away. But nothing came.

"Scratchensniff?" Wakko asked. He slowly opened the door. The person they were looking for was not here, instead, another person was lounging in the sofa, barefoot.

"Oh, hello boys…" she replied.

"Hello, Nurse!" Wakko and Yakko whistled.

"Boys," Dot said, rolling her eyes. The trio watched the dainty nurse get up from the sofa, stumbling on her bare feet. Both brothers' hearts began to beat as her curvaceous body loomed up above them. Hands on her hips, she stared down at them.

"Uh, Nurse did you happen to see where Scratchensniff went?" Wakko asked, slightly taken off guard by her posture. Nurse knelt down to his height with a coy grin.

"No, but I just happened finally see how cute you really are," she said slowly with a husky voice. She puckered her lips. "Well, go on"

Wakko eyes widened with disbelief before shooting a glance at his confused siblings. Without a moment too soon, he puckered his own lips and slowly leaned in. The middle sibling gleefully prepared for what would be up to this point the best Friday morning ever!

BURP!

The blast of her mustard gas smacked Wakko down to the floor, sending Dot into a fit of laughter.

"Oops, must be the beans," Nurse said, as she bent down over him. She barely noticed her lower posterity was facing the other Warner, and that particular Warner was enjoying the view.

"Um, Nurse you sure your feeling alright?" Yakko asked, trying his best to see past her bulbous rear. She cocked her head to look back at him.

"Were you staring at my ass?" she snapped with an odd mischievous grin. Yakkos face dropped, he had not expected that response.

"Uhh…. Not exactly"

"Oh I think you were"

"Nah, I think I wasn't. Whoa!"

Yakko stopped mid-sentence when Nurse grabbed him by the hand and friggin threw him into the sofa. After a dizzy spell of stars and drumsticks, Yakko looked up to see the nurse's butt looming right above his head.

"Would you like to get a closer look?"

"Yes, Wait I mean no!" Yakko began to protest before she planted it right onto his face. He flailed his arms helplessly as he was losing air. Unfortunately, that would be the least of his problems.

BLLLLRRTTTT!

The loud foghorn-like blast rumbled the sofa underneath her. Yakkos body went limp as Nuse finished giving him the royal Dutch oven. She got up and fanned sewage scented vapors towards the siblings.

"Whew, that was a good one!" Nurse complimented herself. Both siblings reeled in disgust.

"When did this turn into a Ren and Stimpy cartoon?!" Dot whined. Green faced and ready to puke, Yakko crawled away from the smoldering sofa and right towards his siblings.

"Ugh, now I know how Smollett's career feels like now…" he uttered breathlessly.

"So, boys…" Nurse said. She pinched the tip of the tongue with her teeth and scratched underneath her armpits "What do you say we do some time?"

"Okay, first off that sentence made no sense, second of all what's up with you today?" Yakko asked, genuinely concerned.

"Is that time of the month?" Wakko whispered.

"Come on Yakko. I thought you wanted me. And I want you too" Nurse cooed, continuing to advance towards them.

"Uh, Aren't you coming on a little too strong so soon? After all, according to Ruegger I'm only 14!" Yakko protested.

"That's never stopped you before…" Dot remarked.

"Not helping Dot!"

"That's okay, age is nothing but a number. I can have fun with all three of you" Nurse said, staring them down with a lustful gaze. She whipped out a stick red lipsticks and smeared the gooey stick all over her luscious lips.

Faster than you can 'Goodbye Nurse!' the Warners vanished out of sight. They stood outside the psychiatrists building, trying to ignore the moaning coming from inside.

" I think we lost her!" Dot uttered breathlessly.

"Whew, I am a man of the pursuit but this isn't what I had in mind!" Yakko complained.

"No kidding! That wasn't the Nurse we know!"

"I wish Scratchy were here, hed know what's going on!" Wakko added.

A loud ringing came from Dot's Ipad on the ground. She picked it up to answer it when she froze in realization.

"When did I get an Ipad?" Dot asked herself.

"Just answer it," Yakko told her, ignoring the plot hole.

Dot pressed the device and suddenly the three of them were seeing their favorite psychiatrist on screen in a Skype connection.

"Hello, there kids" Scratchy greeted. His large gourd-shaped head took up most of the screen.

"Scratchensniff, your assistant has turned into a blond-haired Pepe le Pew! What should we do?" Yakko asked with impatience. The psychiatrist groaned with agitation.

"I don't know, maybe it's her time of…" An indistinct voice came from behind him, cutting him off. "Be right there Serena!"

It was here the Warner's noticed that Scratchy didn't appear to have a shirt on.

"Uhh… Scratchy, what's going on over there?" Yakko arched an eyebrow at the screen.

"Yakko, I was actually very busy with a session right now" Scratchy replied. Right as he said that a voluptuous bronze skinned harlot passed by in the background. "An in-depth session. Bye"

The IPad shut off with an electronic sizzle.

"I don't believe it! Scratchensniff just blew us off!" Dot said incredulously.

"Hey, you kids!" A rough voice yelled at them. The Warners turned around, completely surprised to see it came from Ralph. The fatback guard came marching towards them, his gut jiggling over his ammo belt with each stride.

"What the hell are you kids doing out of the tower?!"

The Warners were barely fazed by his hostile demeanor as they simply walked past him. Yakko greeted him with a cheer.

"Hey, Ralphie boy! We'd love to mess with you, but we got a bit of an issue to sort out. Catch you later. Byyeee!"

The Warners gasped simultaneously when the guard snatched up by their tails in one swipe. He yanked them till he slammed their backs into the wall, pinning them to it with his meaty hands.

"Hey, easy with the fur Ralph!" Dot yelled at him.

"I- Is this about the liquid heat incident last week?! We told you we were sorry!" Wakko blabbed nervously.

"Shut up! I wasn't done talking to you damn freaks!" The guard bellowed, causing both of them to shrink. The eldest sibling bore an angry glare at the guard, not liking his sudden mood swing.

"How nice, cause we sure are" Yakko retorted. "Wakko… if you may"

Out of Wakko's hand came his trusty oak mallet. Within nanoseconds, the swinging weapon swooped in the air like a graceful piranha before landing in gracious hands of the mall cop security guard.

Wakko paused to read the run on sentence above him. " What…? Wait STOP!"

"Hammer Time!" said Ralph.

BAM!

The Warners exploded into a restroom inside, causing drywall and porcelain to shatter everywhere. The trio's toony bodies slammed against an open stall. Its occupant hobbled out of the room in fear, not even bothering to wash his hands.

The trio got up from the ground, still seeing stars and drumsticks. They laid their eyes on Ralph who happily whistled in the center of the hole in the wall, slinging the mallet over his shoulders. something seriously wrong was happening today.

"I don't know what hurts worse, getting hit with the mallet or that cheesy line?" Yakko groaned.

"As if you have to ask," Dot said with annoyance.

"Gee, that was fun," Ralph said with a sardonic smirk. "What do ya say we do something else?

"Yeah buddy, if its 'Whack a Warner' well we're not interested" Yakko spat back. He and his siblings broke out their own mallets, ready to pile drive him at the slightest move towards them. Out of character or not, they were not going to let this slide.

"Nah, I want to play a different game …" Ralph replied before pulling something big and black out of his back pocket. And no it's not what you're probably thinking of. The guard began wiping off the barrel of an old fashioned Colt 45 in his hands.

"Ralph, when did you get a gun?" Wakko whimpered. A malicious grin spread across the guard's face.

"Ah, Ever heard Russian Roulette, well this is the California Crapshoot!"

Bang Bang Bang!

"Yikes!" the Warners shrieked as Ralph fired several random rounds in the restroom, obliterating the tile floor beneath them.

"You had to say that in this room?!" Dot screeched. They bounced off the walls like orbeez balls, popped in and out of the stalls and bunny hopped on the sinks, barely avoiding the projectiles.

"You're looking at the original parkour experts folks!" Yakko said to no one. He was immediately thrown off balance when another shot destroyed a nearby sink. A hard jet of sewage water swept the trio off their feet.

Ralph stood over them and aimed the intimidating weapon directly at them.

"Any ideas?" Dot said nervously.

"Wait! Let me try something! Wakko jammed his finger into the barrel of the gun right before Ralph could fire.

BLAM!

Without warning, the colt 45 disintegrated in a large shock wave, sending the guard flying into an open stall. The toilet was liberated from the floor and landed right onto the guard's bald head.

"Whoa! That actually worked!" Wakko said with a delirious chuckle.

The Warners ran out into the hallways, which were unusually empty despite that it was in the middle of the day.

"Help Help! Ralph's gone rogue!" Yakko yelled out right before he froze mid-air, "I can't believe I'm actually saying that!" he resumed running with the others.

They screeched to halt when Nurse appeared at a doorway in a dirty crusty covered wedding dress.

"Oh, you're back!" she moaned before puckering her red lips. "Ready for the honeymoon?!"

"Hit reverse sibs!" Yakko yelled. The trio ran backwards to the point where they were nearly moonwalking out of the damaged building. At this point, the trio had zipped clear across the movie lot. Above them, the dark blemish on the sun above had gotten larger.

"Yakko, what's going on?!" Dot said, pulling at her bow. A stumbling giraffe mooed at them.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"" Looks like we'll have to go to the one other person who can help!"

A quick trip to the park was all it took for them to reach the person they were trying to find. They stopped in front of the largest tree in the park and ran right up to its front door.

"Slappy! Slappy!" the trio yelled as they banged on the door. The door opened.

"Hello, Godchild!" Slappy greeted them at the door in an oversized light blue robe. The elderly squirrel looked at them blankly with a sickly yet sweet smile across her lips.

"Geez Slappy, you heading to a Dugger's convention? What's with the robe?" Dot said, staring into the squirrel hazed eyes. Slappy simply took out a wreath made of daisies and poison ivy and planted it right on top her head.

"No children, I'm heading to the town square for the peace ceremony. Care to come?" she replied in a monotone voice.

"Oh no. Not you too!" Yakko whined as his siblings smacked their heads. Slappy shrugged.

"Oh well, you're missing out on enlightenment," Slappy said before she carefully scooted past them. Birds and doves swirled around her as she frolicked out of the park and into the busy street.

"Oh shit!" A driver yelled as he narrowly swarmed out of the squirrel's path and crashed into a beaver dam.

The Warners stared at the scene, completely slack-jawed and befuddled.

"Did someone finally make opposite day a real holiday?" Wakko asked.

"Doubt it. This has to be a dream…" Yakko replied.

"Warners?! What are you guys doing here?" an irritated voice came from behind them. In a rare blue moon occurrence, the Warners were actually relieved to see that it came from Mr. Plotz. The grumpy CEO stood at attention, waiting to hear whatever excuse they would have for today. But today was not one of those days.

"T.P., I can't believe I'm actually happy to see you," Yakko said, graciously hugging him. This moment of tranquility soon ended when the CEO, actually hugged back.

"Well I am happy to see you three, you three always make this studio great around here!" Plotz said with pleasantness.

Yakko recoiled from him instantly, his blood running cold. Shivers ran up Dot and Wakko's spines.

"You three look like you need your frowns turned upside down!" Plotz pointed them. His nose had gotten larger and turned a bright shade of red.

"No… no" Dot said while shaking his head. The words that came from Plotz's lips plunged the Warners siblings into a fuzzy pit of despair.

"You're not Plotz! You're not supposed to be encouraging!" Yakko pointed an accusatory finger at him. The CEO giggled, yes giggled, as the pale-faced man approached him.

"Oh, Yakko you seem tense. Maybe you should let me give you another hug."

Plotz held out his frilly cuffed arms. His custom fitted blazer turned into ghastly bodysuit of slime green and mustard yellow. his balding hair turned into a twisting mess of orange fur. When the agonizing transformation was nearly complete, the pupils in his demented turned a jaundiced shade of yellow.

"Maybe a game will suffice, a balloon animal possibly?" Plotz continued, his voice sounding more higher pitched and nasally.

"So this is what you see whenever you come across clowns?!" Yakko said to his younger brother while he trembled. Dot held onto him tightly.

"Uh huh, but he's that not that scary, to be honest…" Wakko stated, waving him off.

"Froinlavin!" Plotz exclaimed with a demonic sound. The content smile on Wakko disappeared.

"… but now he is! Hide!" Wakko rushed for the front door to Slappy's house, his siblings were right behind him. Inside the house was Nurse in a revealing Harley Quinn cosplay.

"Hey, there puddin! I'll be your Harley and you can be my Batman!" The nurse said before she pulled a nearby lever which showered her body with cottage cheese. Teeming with ecstasy, she ran for the door.

"Uh… how about neither?!" Yakko uttered before he slammed the door and reinforced it with extra padlocks and chains.

A piercing brumm of a chainsaw came to life eviscerating the California smog around them like butter.

"Seriously, who's writing this?!" Dot said, looking at the statement above. Ralph popped out of the bush nearby with the lethal weapon ready to shed.

"Heeeres Ralphie!" the guard sneered with crooked teeth.

"Ahh! Duck!" Yakko screamed. He yanked Dot out of the way just as the metal from the chainsaw kissed the side of the tree where she stood. All three of them ran away, nearly stumbling from the shower of acorns and bird residue falling from the glorious old oak tree. The large tree shuddered and shook before it came falling down. Both Ralph and the clown unwisely happened to be standing within its shadow, the latter holding a long yellow balloon.

"Who wants to see a sword?!" Plotz said.

Crash!

Meanwhile, the Warners hid inside a nearby booth a few blocks away…

"Wait, phone booths still exist in Burbank?!" Wakko wondered.

They hid inside a nearby phone booth and anxiously watched the guard come down the street a few seconds later, cackling at the top of lungs. The chainsaw still running in his hands. Yakko added in a couple of coins and picked up the phone. It rang.

"Hello?" Scratchy responded.

"Scratchy, you got to get back here now!" Yakko said to him.

"Ugh, why?"

"The whole studio seems to be going crazy, it's like everyone we know has contracted Nicholas Cage fever!"

"Yakko Puh-lease, I'm very busy!"

"Doctor? Sire are you ready for another round?" another voice answered.

"Hey, wasn't that Michelle Phiffer?" Wakko asked. Yakko jaw dropped in realizing that he was right.

"What the- Scratchy! That's my crush!" He huffed with indignation.

"You snooze you lose Yakko," Scratchy said before he hung up. Again.

"This dream better end soon, it's giving me a headache…" Yakko rubbed his forehead. He barely noticed the red glowing dot on his temple.

"Aw, let me fix that," said Ralph.

BLAM!

Yakko ducked his head just in time. The entire phone fixture exploded from a projectile blast that came from across the street. They looked up to see Ralph had ditched his uniform and was now in full camouflage and commando gear, complete with grenades on his belt and a smoking Uzi in his hands.

"You got to be kidding me!" Yakko exclaimed.

Ralph unloaded on them with nonstop fury, all while letting out a guttural wail that would have made John Rambo tremble. They bolted out of dodge, seconds before the rest of the phone booth and the surrounding area was peppered into minuscule pieces.

The Warners ran all over the place, desperately trying to find someone who hadn't gone full retard just yet. The dark blemish on the sun covered more than half of the sun.

They spotted a crowd in the center of the town. All of them were wearing more of the ghastly light blue robes Slappy was wearing. Without a moment too soon they muscled their way into the crowd. A sea of blank faces and drooling smiles were all they could see.

"Hello, all you glorious creations, time of reckoning has revealed itself unto us" A speaker bellowed above the crowd, one the Warners immediately recognized as Brain.

"Oh no- looks like those years with Pinky finally made him snap" Dot whispered.

"Oy, potato Oy, potato" The crowd chanted.

"Give us not your money, but your unwilling duty ship to love everything with peace and cheese sauce"

"Oy Laredo, Oy Laredo!"

"And let us forever be together through whatever obstacles may appear, let push them into One Direction!"

"Fried tomato! Winnebago!" the crowd chanted.

"Surprisingly these guys are less nuts than Flat Earthers" Yakko muttered. He winced briefly when a larger cult member completely covered in robes brushed past them, stepping on his toes.

"Hey, manners are still a thing you know!" Dot snapped at him. The man looked back to give an evil grin. Their faces dropped when they realized it belonged to Ralph.

"Yeah, we're not sticking around for this!" Yakko commented before he and his siblings climbed onto various cult members, not caring that they were ruining perfectly good haircuts or giving full on concussions. None of that mattered. They had to get away from Ralph, for the first time in a while they were actually scared.

The fat guy whipped off his robe, revealing that he had on nothing but a roll of dynamite around his waist. Yakko's eyes widened in shock as he made a mad dash to catch Wakko and Dot. All while The Brain continued to preach.

"And as we pray to out suns who we rejoice from afar. They bring us enlightenment as we say…"

"Admiral Akbar!" Ralph yelled.

BOOM!

The Warner hunched together, shielding themselves from the blinding light that came from the nuclear explosion searing the air around them. It rumbled the ground like fruit roll up's on a hot day, and vaporized anything within its path.

When it finally stopped. The Warners got up to see the entire yards of nothing but a scorched flat wasteland. And its only occupants were the Warners themselves and Ralph's sparkling blue spirit. The dimwitted guard looked at his own predicament with shock.

"Huh, I guess those old instructional videos were right. All you have to do is duck and cover." Wakko said.

Ralph could nothing but pout as a flying nimbus cloud lifted him high into the heavens, all while he glared at the Warners and gave them the middle finger. He disappeared in the cloudy marmalade sky, barely missing the sun which was now fully eclipsed by the dark spot. The Warners didn't care as they gleefully waved him goodbye.

"Bye bye!" the trio chirped.

"Whew, glad that's over," Yakko said.

"Yakko …" Nurse's voice cooed from a distance, hearing it made the eldest Warner flinch with an ugly grimace.

"Oh no!"

"Oh boys, I have enough toys for everybody!" The nurse came sprinting at them like a drunken gazelle. This time she wore spike studded leather boots and lingerie. And draped around her neck were anal beads and ball gags.

"Yakko, what were those two things the narrator just mentioned?!" Dot asked, her face wrenched with disgust.

"Something Fifty Shades of Grey probably touched on in better detail," Yakko replied. They quickly started moonwalking away from the potential blond dominatrix in making.

"Kids!"Mr. Plotz yelled. Behind them, Plotzo the clown came running towards them with an army of multicolored balloon animals in his wake. One of them, a pink giraffe, brayed at them. "Do you want to sing a happy song? Froinlavin!"

Just above the trio, the blue spirit of Slappy Squirrel came flying down from the sky carrying peace doves and unicorns. The Goodfeathers dive bombed with her, ready to decorate the Warners like old statues in a train station. The Warners trembled together as they watched the pandemonium descend upon them.

Suddenly, as if their prayers had been answered, a car pulled up nearby. Not bothering to check who it was, the Warners seized the opportunity. They burst through the car window action Bond style and face planted into the backseats.

"What can I do for you?" the driver replied with a Brooklyn accent.

"Take us anywhere but here! And step on it!" Yakko told him.

"The car driver slammed on the gas pedal and breezed away just in time. Nurse, Plotz, and Slappy's armies all collided into a shower of shrimps and clams.

"Will this dream ever end?!" Dot sighed, as she threw her head back in the seat.

" I hope so, I don't how much of this randomness I can take" Yakko replied.

"Can I change the radio?"Wakko asked the driver.

"Sure" the driver replied. Wakko tuned the radio dial to different stations.

"...Despite the growing hole in the sun's surface, it is getting hotter than MY MOOOOM…!

"...Get Scwifty...!"

"...Mississippi Queen, if you know..!"

"And now, this is Mordecai and Rigby live from LA with our musical guests today, Rita the Cat and Eddie Vedder will be performing a song."

Wakko sat in the back with the other two Warners and sighed in relief. "Oh good, something normal for once."

The hair on the back of their necks rose as they heard first few guitar notes of Black Hole Sun eerily plucked from the speakers.

"In my eyes, indisposed, In disguises no one knows...", Rita sang.

Realizing this was a sign of worse to come, the driver looked down at radio with dread.

"Oh fuuuck no!" The car screeched to a stop. The driver kicked them out with a swift kick. "You kids aren't roping me into this craziness."

"Hey come back!" Wakko and Dot shouted at the guy as he speed away high speed, barely missing a semi-truck skidding across an intersection. Somehow they could still hear the music.

"...And my youth I pray to keep, Heaven, sent hell away"

"We're not giving you 5 stars!" Yakko yelled at him.

An ambient drone undercut the music with a vibration that rumbled the entire ground beneath their toes. The large dot on the sun had completely overtaken and had now blocked out all of its bright rays. Instead, the head of Flavio the Hippo appeared in the dot, smiling down at them with a toothy grin. It then opened its mouth and began sucking in air like a straw. And the music at this point was deafeningly loud.

"...Black hole Sun, won't you come. Wash away the rain…"

Trees and skyscrapers squished into purple pus-like orbs, floating their way into the ginormous void above them. Bloodshot eyes in the skies stared down at them, screaming for vengeance and lustless agony. Tears filled with clams and shrimp glistened down its victims.

"I think whoever is writing this dream has officially checked out!" Yakko said, covering his ears.

"We're dreaming? Then how come I can actually taste this shrimp?" Wakko held up a half-eaten shrimp he'd picked up off the ground, it was the size of his head. For extra measure ,both Yakko and Dot pinched their cheeks. They hurt.

"Oh, God…"

The sun descended in the west upon the sparse horizon, the Flavio shaped star widened his gaping mouth and increased its gravitational pull, sucking in anything in his path. People, prairie dogs, pets, and including the Warners themselves.

"Hang on!" Yakko yelled over the apocalypse, his terrified siblings clutching to him tightly. The ground below them pulled away like crumbled cookie crumbs, spilling away into a sea of a dark blue ocean.

The water tower they'd come to call their home had smashed against a nearby gas station. Some of the gas began leaking out and flooding into the street. In a desperate attempt to stay afloat, they grabbed onto the broken legs of the tower and held on with their feet helplessly dangling in the wind.

The girrafe knocked into the trio, loosening Dot's grip on her brothers. She could do nothing but scream as she disappeared in the swirling dark void.

"Dot!" Yakko screamed.

"Yakko, I don't feel so good." Wakko croaked. He started to disintegrate in a haze of chili powder and pepper. Yakko watched his brother disappear like an open KoolAid into the black hole.

"...Won't you come, won't you come..."

"Wak...?"

The final guitar chords were coming near. An earspiltting rumble came just above his numb head. He looked up. On top of him was a planet-sized pitcher of the Mississippi Queen drink falling from the sky, topped with a nice Molotov cocktail. Yakko closed his eyes just before it connected to the ground with a final earth-shattering smash.

original link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13263720/2/The-Trip

[purenguyening]

Tagged by @lumos-of-pi

Uh, if you want to do it, consider yourselves tagged. It’s not like I’m going to hold your feet to the fire. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Name: Mary; but on the internet I often default to my Middle name, Thanh.

Gender: Female

Star Sign: Sagittarius

Height: 5′2.5″

Sexuality: Bisexual seems to be the most accurate at the moment? I honestly have zero clue.

What image do you have as your lockscreen? 

A drawing of Seiga I did. I kind of want to update it at some point since my style’s changed again.

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? 

Not a teacher, but I did have something resembling a crush to a Ph.D candidate at university. It’s hard for me to say whether or not it really was a crush since really all I wanted him to do was to pet me on the head when I made an major accomplishment in physics (by that I mean like, getting a degree or publishing a really big paper or something like that). 

I don’t really have a good reason why I really wanted this, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He and I are occasionally in touch and we talk about the mathematics of origami. It’s great.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When I was fifteen I thought I would be working my way towards a Master’s/Ph.D

I’m still sitting here crawling my way to just get a B.S. while being barely functioning.

Ten years from now I’d like to at least finish school and working to pay off the debt through a job that lets me play with really cold magnets.

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would it be?

I’m always constantly salty about never getting a Linguistics degree from Stony Brook University. I felt like it was a missed opportunity.

What was your coolest Halloween costume?

I once cosplayed as Aya from the Touhou Project, with wings and all. Walked around like that all day. Kind of weird to carry the backpack though... 

What’s your favorite 90s TV show?

I remember cartoons more distinctly, but Animaniacs and Time Squad. Cyberchase was early 2000′s I think, but I still remember liking that too.

Last kiss? 

About four months ago now. Thinking about it kind of bogs me down so I tend to keep that memory shut away.

Have you ever been stood up?

I once stood outside my assigned Lab Classroom only to at the last minute get a memo that the classroom location was changed. Does that count?

Otherwise, not that I can remember at least in terms of a date...?

Have you ever been to Las Vegas? 

No.

Favorite pair of shoes?

I have a very beloved pair of boots that I reserve for Autumn. I haven’t really worn them too much because I just want to walk in them when there’s a lot of autumn leaves. There hasn’t really been too much in my area in the past couple of years.

Favorite fruit: I don’t know why but I’m craving for the texture of Jackfruit. I also personally enjoy mangos from Southeast Asia too. 

Favorite book: I don’t have a favorite book right now, but I am currently reading So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister by Anna Akana. 

A friend bought it for himself to read and highly recommended me to read it. I have a feeling it’s because the book was a collection of pieces of advice I needed to hear, but this just my suspicion.

Stupidest thing you’ve ever done:

Story time!

So way back, c. 2005, Pope John Paul II was on his death bed and I was watching the breaking news from the Vatican about his decaying health. 

At the time I was fidgeting with a rosary that was a hand-me-down from my mom. The area I specifically fidgeted with was a piece of metal clamped on the side of the rosary indicating the starting point. After bending it back and forth a bit part of the maker broke.

I didn’t really think much of it until the next day, when my dad was driving me to Gamestop to pick up my preorder of Pokemon Emerald when I heard on the radio the Pope passed away.

In that moment I thought Oh no, I killed the Pope. 

For some reason I genuinely thought I killed the Pope for five long years.

This thought was so pervasive, during a Confirmation retreat my class was reading letters our parents wrote. In mine my parents wrote how they’d always loved me. I broke down crying thinking they’ve discovered by dreaded secret of how I killed the most important religious and political figure to them. I also couldn’t tell anyone there because I thought I’d be arrested on the spot for sure.

So I ended up crying in the bathroom and unable to explain what made me break down.

Sometime after I got oil slapped on my face, I started to realize how absurd the idea was. 

Still makes a great story to tell just because it’s so bizarre.

Yes, I still have that rosary, no I don’t really use it much. I don’t really practice Catholicism (nor believe in it really).

I just go wherever life takes me.

Does that make me a taoist? I honestly have zero clue.

[merlinsmushrooms]

Salt Lake Con Report!

{{I’m finally home, and thus it’s time to ramble about my adventures with my partner in crime... Warning: This is essentially nothing but fanspazzing and bubbly excitement. I have a large number of folks I need to give con stories to, and it’s just easier to put all of it in a post and link it than repeat everything over and over.}}

There’s nothing better than finally meeting one of your closest internet friends in real life, and that’s exactly what happened over the weekend. @sorceryandjellybeans pitched in to help me come down to Utah for the weekend to join them in a group cosplay, and oh boy was it a weekend I’m not going to forget. 

Thursday was the first real day of the con and I whipped Cedric back out for it. I didn’t really get photos of him since it wasn’t my main focus, but more people recognized him there than ever before. It was really nice since it doesn’t seem like Sofia’s really popular where I live.

^ literally the only photo we took outside a dorky one Sorc asked me to do that I am not putting on here for reasons {maybe later}

The first thing we did when the doors opened to general admission was plop our butts down at Jess Harnell’s both. Our main focus was for Sorc to meet Harnell because she had been waiting far too long for the opportunity, and we joked about if he’d remember me from CCEE or not. He did.

I don’t think it’s possible to describe the feeling you get when one of your idols says you’re one of his favorite cosplayers, but it happened and I practically internally exploded. I also don’t think I can describe the mutual reaction that was had when I pulled out a Loud and Clear CD from waaaaaaaay back in the day, and then his reaction when I pulled the entire set out of Sorc’s bag. It was my goal to get all of the ones that weren’t signed already signed by the end of the weekend. I think he appreciated the absurdity of it rofl. After several hugs and me being unable to cope with the words of praise coming out of his mouth, I got my autograph and Sorc got her turn. I’ll let her share her own experience, because to be perfectly honest I was starstruck in the moment, and can barely comprehend what was going on. Grats on having him borderline sign your chest though.  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) {Also, he pulled out the Wakko voice because she brought an Animaniacs shirt.}

grats you all know my name now

Earlier in the day we noticed that one of the panel rooms had a panel for him. It was apparently scheduled at the very last second, and it wasn’t in the guide book or anything. Of course we went.

It was absolutely hilarious. I’m crossing my fingers a video of the panel is posted sometime online soon, because holy crap. I couldn’t breathe half the time because we were laughing so hard. If you haven’t been to a panel with him yet, do it. {Honestly, if you haven’t met him yet and get the chance, do that too. He LOVES his fans. Literally everybody who meets him walks out beaming, and trust me, I met a lot of people this weekend who got the squishes from him.}

Jess may or may not {aka: did} force me to stand up in front of the audience after somebody mentioned something about Sofia . It’s up there on one of the most awkward moments of my life. I just don’t take praise well, and here I am constantly getting it from the man himself? I honestly have no idea how to feel right now.

Hotel room evenings essentially looked like this:

No complaints. Marathoning StF with Sorc’s smol was a welcome evening break~ Lots of hot tubbing too— leaking glass roof included!

Friday turned to chaos quickly as an accident happened, and my buddy was unable to attend due to a serious concern that I’d rather not share. {They might, but privacy is important.} I wound up going by myself in my normal{ish} clothes to get both our daily autographs done, and the volunteers and Jess both seemed extremely concerned when I mentioned what happened. Luckily, I got a text saying everything was okay while I was chatting with him about the incident.  Lots of hugs were exchanged and he gave me a very heart touching second autograph after giving me many many many words that I’d honestly never heard from anybody else before in my life. {The one he gave Sorc was also adorable as heck. POST IT. PLEASE GIRL.}

Now onto the 2nd most important thing we did over the weekend. The Rock Sugar concert. 

I’m gonna brag because Sorc did something amazing and I still can’t even what we got away with.

Best. View. Ever. THE SOUND SYSTEM GOT BLOWN OUT BEFORE THEY EVEN PLAYED. THEY PLAYED NEW SONGS.  THEY HAD TABERNACLE CHOIR PEOPLE COME OUT FOR SHOOK ME LIKE A PRAYER?!??! THEY SHOT A MUSIC VIDEO!? WE GOT POINTED AT AND I SWOON. THEY FOUND OLD T-SHIRTS AND WE GOT SOME. CROWDSURFING RED SHORTS GUY. NIKKI CAN’T THROW. THEY’RE GONNA GET SUED. MAGIC PANTS.

FSDKFLSDMFSLKFDNSDKLFNSDKLFNSDKLGNKLGNSKL NGFLSNGD.

I honestly never thought I’d be able to see this show live again, but I did. And I can’t even.

Saturday was the main day of the con for us. That’s when Sorc whipped out all the costumes she made, and things got crazy. I was cosplaying Sofia in a dress that I watched her stress over for months, and I still feel I didn’t do that amazing piece of art justice. Words cannot describe how talented she is with her cosplay. This dress is going to be my new treasure and you know it, girl.

The reception we got was insane. It felt like we couldn’t walk for more than 5 minutes without a child waving out to us. I’ll be honest and say I felt entirely uncomfortable in the role at first. I didn’t know how to pose as I’m not a “girly girl” at all, but the kids really helped calm me down and reassured me I was the real deal to them.  Seriously, the very first thing that happened before we even got inside was a child came up to me and asked me for my autograph. I was not expecting anything like that to happen.

Sorc interacting with her daughter - who was dressed as Calista - was also the most adorable thing ever. Nothing beats Calista and Cedric cuteness. Nothing. Her mom was also dressed like Winnifred. The whole group dynamic was just beyond cute. 

We went back to visit Jess for the final time as a group, and it was just... I have no words. Photos were taken. The smol got loved. The costumes were praised. It really felt like everybody’s hard work paid off. 

Also two words: Booth. Babe. {For like 5 minutes. Inside joke.} I got to wait around at the booth in full cosplay for Chuck {the guitarist} to come around and sign the old Loud and Clear CDs. He’s so nice. I laughed when he saw them and exclaimed that he didn’t even have some of these CDs. Heck, even a lady in the line asked to see them because they were so old and she hadn’t seen them in a very long time. These things are treasures to me now.

Please excuse me as I scream and also point out cheezy 90s packaging.  My goal of getting all my CDs signed was not only completed, but he wrote the nicest things?! ANFJKSDFSFSDGSF.

Smol went down for a nap after all this {her mom was babysitting}, and Sorc and I got to wander around by ourselves until the costume contest started. Our photographers batteries apparently died so he had to cancel on us, but he hooked us up with a new one and we pretty much spent an hour with that guy running around the convention center doing all sorts of awkward stuff. We felt really bad that we had to decline photos with people {especially the little ones} while were were trying to run between shoot locations, but he was super nice and let people snap shots as he was working once we got to our spots.

I seriously cannot wait to see some of these photos. I’m kinda self conscious and worried that I’m squinting in them  or I’m looking down and ruining my chin - it’s a huge problem I have in general and I have to really focus to not, and it’s hard when you’re that hyped up - but I should shut up and focus on all the fun we had posing instead. Books. Ravens. Wand chases. Recreating a friend’s drawing. Some of the shots might come across as a bit shippy, so we really need to sit down and figure out how we want to handle some of them, but we’ll be sharing whatever photos we both agree turned out once we have them. Just a reminder that anything we post together is platonic; do not force ships onto us, please. Keep with our intentions of cute uncle/niece stuff. <3

We eventually got to do the costume contest, and that was nerve wracking. I felt a bit silly because again, I’m not the Princess type, but as soon as our little Calista walked on stage and the crowd went nuts, everything fell into place and things just felt as they should. World’s cutest wizard family goes to Sorc!

I honestly didn’t want to go home or for the weekend to end, but it is as it is. It’s back to being a grumpy wizard again.

We’ll get those cosplay photos from Saturday up as soon as we’re able! 

ps: cedric no hoverhanding

[drabblers]

Awakening

Prompt: “You’ve got to choose; you can’t eat your cake and have it too.”  Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin Setting: Yet another time travel AU, Second chances 1 Characters: Kenshin Himura, Kaoru Kamiya, Megumi Takani   Word count: 999

Something was making an odd, beeping noise close by.

It was annoying.

Kenshin turned to his side, burying his face into the soft pillow...

Someone inhaled sharply.

Close! Too close! The deeply ingrained reflexes sprung into action and Kenshin sat up, reaching for his sword…

…which wasn’t there.

Thankfully, the stranger didn’t have a sword either. Or any weapon, not if her form-fitting – western style? – garment was anything to go by. She stared at him, both thrilled and hesitant. “Good morning?” She started. “How are… uh, um – please, just wait here. I’ll get Doctor Takani. Just a mo’.”

Her words must have been in Japanese, because Kenshin understood their meaning, but the way she spoke was as strange as her clothes.

Left alone, bewildered and off-balance, Kenshin tried to make sense of his surroundings. The room was eerily white, from floors and walls to the ceiling. Even the blanket in his lap was the same unnatural shade. And the elevated mattress and the loose garment he was wearing.

What was this place, where everything needed to be white?

Maybe one of those recently built houses that had been done according to the westerner’s tastes in Yokohama? Some passersby had gossiped about them only a few days ago, when he had passed them on the Tokaido road.

But if he was in Yokohama, why had he been brought here? And by whom?

Katsura-san had passed just a few months ago. Their old allies shouldn’t have caught his trail so fast...

And what had happened to his sword, clothes and travel gear?

“Oh, you’re finally awake. Very good!” Another woman walked in, tall and imposing. She was followed by the young lady who had dashed off so suddenly.

“So this one is,” Kenshin agreed blandly. “Where are we? And why is this one here?”

“You are in Tokyo, in a private hospital. As to why you are here… let’s get back to that later, shall we?” The tall lady answered briskly, her focus stolen by the beeping machinery next to Kenshin. “Let’s start with something easier first. Do you remember your name?”

Kenshin blinked. “Oro?”

“I’m Doctor Takani Megumi, the young woman skulking in the background is Kamiya Kaoru. Now, isn’t it a basic courtesy to introduce yourself in turn?”

If these women were employed by the westerners, or his old allies, shouldn’t they know who they had?

“Well?” The doctor lady, Takani-san, prompted.

“Himura. Himura Kenshin, that’s who this one is now, that he is.”

“Very good, Himura-san.” Takani-san nodded. “And what’s the last day you remember? Be as specific as possible.”

“Thirteenth of Natsuki, Meiji 10,” Kenshin said. “But why would that matter?”

“Natsuki, in Meiji 10? That would be September 1877 by the Western reckoning.” Takani-san hummed, and tapped something to the flat object in her hands. “Very good. That proves that you remember who you are, and that your memory recovered fully.”

The doctor looked up. “Now, do you think you can stand, Himura-san? I think Kamiya-san has an easier time answering you questions if she can show you around.”

“Me?” The younger woman startled. “You want me to explain it to him?”

“Who else? It’s not my job.” Takani-san retorted. “Now, if you two don’t mind – other patients need my time.”

As they bickered, Kenshin stood up and tested how well his feet could hold his weight. To his surprise, nothing hurt, not even the dozens of old scars that usually ached in the mornings.

“Himura-san,” the younger lady, Kamiya-san, interrupted him. “There’s a change of clothes in the bathroom to your left.”

“What about this unworthy one’s sword and clothes?”

Kamiya-san cringed. “Sorry, we don’t have them.”

“Ah.”

The adjoining bathroom was even stranger: white tiled floors, a curtain covering the corner, and a porcelain seat and bowl attached to the wall. On the seat, a bundle of cloth waited – a proper kimono in formal gray. No clan insignias, though.

Even odder, there was a large mirror over the bowl. An expensive investment for any house.

Kenshin almost didn’t recognize himself from the reflection. He looked so – young. His red hair was sleek and neatly brushed, his violet eyes unringed by shadow… and his cheeks smooth, untouched by years and violence.

Tracing his cheek in disbelief, he drew the lines of the scar that should have been there, but wasn’t.

That… that wasn’t possible.

Panic curled in his belly, and he took a deep breath, forcing himself to focus. They had promised him answers. That young lady Kamiya, she was supposed to answer his questions.

She had waited for him. But when she saw him, she frowned. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Kenshin said. “But please, you promised this one answers?”  

“Ah, yes.” She paused. “Well, um… follow me, please.”

She lead him through long white corridors, until they reached a chamber with walls made entirely out of windows. At least, no painter could capture a scenery that detailed…

...But no city he had ever heard off, not even in the great Western countries, could have a city like that.

Kenshin swallowed dryly. “Miss Kamiya… where are we, really?”

“In Tokyo,” She hesitated. “But it’s been a while. Um... they said you died in an ambush on the Tokaido roadside, 143 years ago.”

That- that was... Feeling faint, Kenshin had to ask, “...died?”

“Yes. I don’t know much about it, but apparently, they found your remains and used a lot of time and money to recreate your body and bring you back.”

Kenshin tried to take that in calmly. He really did. But… “Why? Why this unworthy one? Why not…” Gods, didn’t they know who they had summoned from the afterlife?!

“I don’t know why, but does it matter?” she asked. “I know they say you can’t have a cake and eat it too… but why not? You are alive again. Your troubles and griefs are in the past. So why can’t you just take this chance and live again?”

Continues in “The job”

AN: I had trouble to focus on writing, so I didn’t want to continue any existing verses. But as @animaniacal kindly reminded me, I do have a liking for time travel stories. So let’s try out another way to spin that familiar scenario. :)

[thejinichan]

Under the Circumstances Chapter 1- An Animaniacs Fanfic.

“Can someone change stations? Because that show is as stale as yesterday’s bread.” Yakko said with a long groan, when he saw what was playing on the TV that hung over the fire place in the dining area of "Chez Le Pu."  

"Just how many times did they have to broadcast that in a year?" He thought with a shudder, dropping a stack of dirty dishes into the cart before him. He hastily dashed through the large swinging doors to the safety of the kitchen. Away from all the prying eyes and away from the questions he was always asked while waiting tables. Most importantly though, to escape from the biggest slap in the face that had ever been aired on TV. 

 

And of course, it had to play on a Friday night during the dinner rush.  

With a heavy sigh Yakko pushed on ahead without paying attention and wound up hitting the wall. With a thunderous crash, the mountain of stacked plates came cascading down before he could grab them. The dishes shattered onto the floor, scattering pieces all over the kitchen.  

The chef and cook, froze in place from their tasks, and all eyes were on the toon.

 

Yakko furrowed his brow, scratching the back of his head as he snickered quietly to himself. Yup. It was going to be one of those nights and his shift had just scarcely begun.

 

“Everything alright in there?”  

 

Yakko snapped out of his daze to see his boss poke her head inside the kitchen. She frowned when she saw the wreckage of broken plates on the checkered floor. With small beady eyes glancing up from under her glasses, she took a step in. The sound of crunching porcelain under her heeled shoes made him wince.  

 

“Uhhhhhhh,” He hesitated, as he reached behind himself awkwardly for the broom. “We needed new China anyways."

Abigail remained unfazed by Yakko's failed attempt to make a joke. Punch lines like that might have worked with the customers, but it certainly didn't work on her as her expression remained unchanged.

"Oh well"  Yakko thought. You couldn't blame an out of work toon for trying.

 

“Yakko, I don’t know what has gotten into you lately, but clean this up right now.” She sighed, forcing the creases in her forehead to become more prominent. “And when you're done with that, please, for the love of god take a break or something.” She muttered with a wave of her hand.

 

“Yes, Dear Abby.”  

 

"Yakko?"

 

“Yeeees?” The Warner brother casually smirked.

 

“Please don’t call me that.”  With a turn of her pointy black heels, she exited the kitchen with the doors swinging behind her.

 

Yakko tried to settle the weariness in his stomach with a small chuckle."Might as well get this cleaned up." he thought. And after that he could sneak out the back, have a smoke, and maybe be back just in time for that damn “News reel of the stars" special to be over. Then at least that way, he wouldn’t have to entertain the customers with the story of the downfall of his acting career.

 

“Seriously, Yakko?"

 

Yakko swung his head up to see Skippy on the other end of the kitchen, sitting on a stack of crates, phone in hand. Shit. He hadn’t even noticed he was there. A few years his junior, Skippy was one of his old co workers back in his acting days on the Animaniacs. And here they were, all these years later, working together once more. Only this time the circumstances were much different.

 

“Hey, Yakko, you know better then to piss off the boss riiight?”

 

Yakko swept up some of the broken china and threw it into the trash receptacle behind him. “What can I say Skips? It’s a tough crowd out there tonight."

”

" You're telling me! I swear to god if another person asks me to do the where’s Bumbi’s mom? thing one more time I think I might spew.” The squirrel stuck out his tongue to get the point across even more.

 

Yakko shook his head. “Story of my life Skips, story of my life.”

 

Skippy hopped down off the pile of crates he’d been sitting on. “Ugh, break's over, wish me luck out there.”

 

“Uhhhhh, Good luck?” Yakko didn't mean it though, and Skippy knew it. They both were aware of the things that lurked past the safe haven of the kitchen. He quickly swept of the last pile of debris from the floor, eager to get out. The soup of the day was boiling away on the stove, filling the room with a humid haze.

 

Skippy adjusted his white bowtie and smoothed his hair over. He gave Yakko a quick salute before stepping out into the noisy restaurant.

Just over the people outside, happily chatting while eating their meals, Yakko could hear a part of the segment. Why didn't anyone change that God damn channel like he asked? He should have just done it himself.

 

“With the introduction of computer animation, and its rise in popularity, many toons, like the Warner Bros, and their sister found themselves being served layoff notices with no warning at all.”

 

Time for that break.

 

Yakko crept quietly past the window out looking the dining area, hoping no one saw him. He turned the corner down the hall and stepped out the back door. The cool air hit his face and he took a deep breath, happy to be outside at last, and not stuck inside the stifling place he now called his livelihood.  

Taking a seat on top of one of the trash cans in the dimly lit alleyway, he loosened his white tie. It always was too tight, but if he wore it any looser than that, Abigail would be sure to notice. The strict uniform rules were only the tip of a long list of things he despised about his job. There wasn't a toon he worked with that didn't feel the same way either. To the outside world, being served drinks and food while being entertained by your favorite cartoon characters might have seemed like a great way to spend an evening. But it was a living hell for anyone employed there. But any other places that hired toons didn't even pay close to what he was able to make in tips. As much as Yakko didn't want to admit it, unless he ever got back into acting again this was the only way he could support his family and stay off the street.

 

 

 

He pulled a smoke from his front vest pocket, lighting it up . He had a pack stashed in his locker for occasions like this, and he knew if Dot found them on him, he’d never hear the end of it. Yakko was planning to quit. One of these days.

 

"Just when did things start getting so shitty? "

 

He took a long  drag off his cigarette, blowing a large trail up into the sky. The toon sat in the silence and watched the smoke swirl further upwards, dissipating into the hazy clouds above.

 

Maybe it was when, he and his siblings were told that, due to budget cuts, they would be producing half the episodes they normally did in a season. Or maybe when they were told if they wanted to remain in the water tower they would have to start paying rent.

 

Or maybe it was when Mr. Plotz brought them up to his office years ago, while they were still in their teens and informed them that the days of the Animaniacs were now over. It was time for Warner studios to move on with the times. Ratings were at an all-time low for 2d animation  and they were beginning production on their first computer animated series. There was no room in the budget for hand drawn cartoons, nobody had interest to watch them anymore. Mr. Plotz had told them, "Its time for you children to embrace the change, and try something new."The director assured them they were more than welcome to remain in the tower, so long as they continued to pay their rent. After all those years on the show, after all that revenue He and his siblings, had brought in for the studio. After all the awards. Mr. Plotz kicked them out after 2 months, because they were unable to find jobs.

 

Yakko took another puff.

 

That was 9 years ago.  

 

So where did that leave him now? At 23 years old with no prospects for the future, working the same shitty dead-end job he'd had for five years. At a  throwback cartoons restaurant that only hired washed up and out of work toons. Doing the same impressions, answering the same mundane questions, and doing the same dance routines over and over again. Every day, a reminder of the star he once was, and never would be again. He would have left Burbank and all the memories a long time ago had it not been for his younger brother and sister.

 

They were worth it.  There wasn’t a thing Yakko wouldn’t do to help Wakko and Dot make it out there. Even if he didn’t.  

 

Yakko flicked what was left of his cigarette into a puddle near his feet and watched it sizzle out, much like his career as a toon. He chuckled to himself in the irony of it all.  

 

Here one minute and gone the next.

 

“Ummmm, excuse me?”

 

Yakko jumped up from where he sat when he felt someone tap him from the side.

 

“Hello?”

 

Startled, Yakko glanced at the figure. It was a girl.

 

And she wasn't too bad on the eyes either.

Part of him wondered how a fan might have found their way to the back alleyway but he didn't question it, feeling too lazy to care.. He gave her his signature flirty smirk that always got the women going. “How’d you find your way back here? Lemme guess, you sneaked in just to meet me?" Yakko joked. He felt around his shirt and pockets, “If you’ll just give me a sec, I’ll get a pen and give you my John Hancock.”

 

She giggled lightly. " An autograph?" She said in confusion. "Actually all I need is that." She gestured at the trash can he was sitting on top of.

 

Yakko gave her a puzzled look. “Oh wait, haha, the garbage?”

 

She nodded with a smile, rustling the black plastic bag in her hand. “Bingo."

 

“Well, if you didn’t want my autograph, babe, all you had to do was say so." Yakko teased, hopping down off the metal canister. He removed the lid while bowing deeply. “And here you are, fair lady.”

 

She tried to hold back a snicker with her free hand as she dropped the bag into the can. “I have a name you know, it’s Kori, if  you're curious, and lemme guess, you're Ya-"

 

“Yup, Yakko, the one and only,” He boasted, not even noticing he cut her off. “And what brings you out here amongst the rubbish like myself?”

 

“I, uh, actually got a job at the restaurant next door, been there a few days now.” She laughed “I was wondering when I might run into a toon...never in a million years did I think it would be you, though.”

 

"Well I guess today is your lucky day, then." Yakko said slyly while raising an eyebrow.

Yakko took a moment to check out the fellow food server. Her uniform wasn't much different from the one he wore, spare for the fact it was red and done up the front with gold buttons. Her chestnut Brown hair was thrown up in a loose ponytail, with a few stray pieces framing her face. Across her nose was a light dusting of freckles. Her emerald green eyes glanced at him in confusion. 

"Dammit." Yakko thought. She was really, really cute.  

"Keep it cool." Yakko told himself. The thumping of his heart told him that it was not going to be easy, though. Toons were never very good at hiding their feelings and thoughts, with them often coming out in exaggerated ways. The whole hello nurse thing was funny on the show, but this was real life.

"Umm, are you ok?" She questioned.

The toon pointed at himself. "Uhhhhh me?” He glanced away, hoping she wouldn't notice the sweat that was now dropping down his forehead. He silently cursed the fact that toons emotions showed so easily.  "Nope, everything is all good here, just been a super slow shift that's all...”

"Tell me about it.” 

"Think fast." Yakko's mind raced. "Think of something funny to say to break the awkwardness.

"So are all the girls working over there as cute as you?" 

"Wait. Why say something so stupid? "He sighed inwardly. 

"Your still a giant flirt, aren't you?" Kori teased. " Just like the old days when I watched your show as a kid."

"Yeah, just like the old days," Yakko muttered somewhat quietly. He didn't enjoy being reminded of his former career even if the comment had been made by a cute girl.

"Oh poop!" She said nervously ,sensing the sadness in his voice. " I'm sorry, If I said something wrong."

"No offence taken." Yakko chuckled, seeing how apologetic she looked over a small comment. He felt almost guilty now. "But oh poop'? Hah, who even says that?”

"Umm I do?.”

"Shit. You mean, Oh Shit.” Yakko teased.

"Pretty much" She giggled. "I have younger siblings back home that are still in grade school so I'm trying to clean up my language? My parents are always complaining about it. I got a swear jar and everything. My co-workers are always teasing me though."

"Well, if you hang around me any longer you might have to start over." Yakko said  sarcastically. "Now wouldn’t that be poopy?"

Kori burst into giggles. "Oh my God! you are so much funnier in person!"

Yakko laughed with her, their laughter rising into the cramped alleyway that separated the two restaurants. It felt like ages since he had last shared a laugh with someone and  actually meant it. It felt so refreshing, to just have a normal conversation with a person who didn't ask him to sing nations of the world for the millionth time.  

"This is so cool!" Kori said cheerfully. "If someone had told me as a kid I'd be sitting in an alleyway behind a restaurant with Yakko Warner I'd have called them crazy.”

Yakko leaned up against the wall and pointed at it with his thumb. "If someone told me I'd be stuck working at a joint like this I'd have called them crazy, too."

"Well..." Kori murmured quietly. "At least-"

She never got to finish the thought.

Just then, Abigial burst through the doorway., glaring at Yakko with the same blank expression from earlier.

"Yakko, I said a break? It's been over 20 minutes now."

"I'll be right in Abbey." Yakko reassured. "After all I know my adoring crowd awaits."

"Save the sarcasm for the fans Yakko, that's what your paid to do" She said coldly. " I'll see you inside." Abigail slammed the door behind her, the noise echoing through the brick walls of the alleyway.

The two of them stood in awkward silence for a moment before Kori finally spoke up. "Wow, and I thought my boss was cold? He's got nothing on her."

"My boss is so icy that if she went to hell it would freeze over."

"Hah, good one! Kori remarked. " I'll have to remember that one for later."

"Thanks! Yakko smiled, even though he was feeling annoyed he had to leave. Especially since all he wanted to do now was stay and chat with this girl he just met. "I'm only speaking the truth though."

"Well, I'm sure we'll bump into each other again." Kori said shyly. "And maybe we can gab over garbage again?"

"Sounds like a trashingly good time to me," Yakko winked. He opened the door but hesitated a moment before shutting it.

“Guess I’ll see you around then?” Yakko asked with a grin. "I'm out here most evenings."

Kori gave him a small wave. “As long as there's trash to be taken out, then I guess you will.”

She walked backwards waving, towards the door of her own workplace and backed herself into the wall. “Oops,” She chuckled. Kori reached behind herself blindly for the doorknob.  

“Need a hand there?”

“No, no, uh, I got it!”  Finally her hand made contact with the door and she awkwardly opened it. "Have a good night Yakko, and it was awesome to meet you."  

“Likewise Kori.” He grinned, and he gave her a small wave before she stepped out of the alleyway,

When Yakko walked back into the kitchen, a lineup of orders was already on the warming shelf, ready to be brought out. The kitchen staff had been cooking up a storm.  

Skippy gave him a confused look.

“Dude, what’s with the dorky grin?”

“Uhhhhh, no reason really.” Yakko said dreamily.  

“Yeah, ok then.” The squirrel rolled his eyes. “You might wanna bring extra napkins over to table 14.” Skippy warned him. “This monster of a kid thinks it’s hilarious to spit juice at the toons.”  Also, there’s a table of crazy fan girls that just walked in. They asked for you specifically.”

“All in a day’s work, my friend.” Yakko smiled while patting his co-worker on the back. “Let the games begin.”

Yakko tightened up his bow tie once more, and grabbed the large tray of orders for table 14. He stepped out into the dining area of "Chez Le Pu." with a large smile plastered on his face. Only this time it wasn't as fake as it normally was. The restaurant was packed to capacity, with toons running all over the place trying to meet the demands of the hungry crowd. But for once, he wasn't feeling as bitter about it. He quickly served the table their orders, then waltzing over to the table that had asked for him. It was a typical scene. Three woman in their early thirties who could barely contain their excitement.  

"Helloooooo Ladies!" He chimed, " Yakko Warner here, and welcome to Chez Le Pu! Can I start you beautiful women off with some drinks?" He pulled a notepad out of his vest pocket to write down their requests.

"OHHH MY GOD ITS YAKKO GUYS!" One of them screamed. "CAN I TAKE A SELFIE WITH YOU BEFORE WE ORDER?"

Yakko did his best to smile sincerely at their request. Even though he was so tired and done with all this, maybe, for tonight at least, he would make it.

[nataliej-animation]

Black Animators

I’ve been on a hunt to find black animators (especially because female coloured animators were definitely hard to find). I have noticed that it’s rare that black animators win awards. Why is that? 

I did a poll on instagram to see if anyone knew of any black animators... it’s safe to say that there are no well known black animators because all the responses were people saying that I am the only one they know of. 

A. that is so bias. And B. I’m not famous...yet! 

Floyd Norman was the first black animator at Disney studios. Though he never saw it as a big thing, to some of us, it is!  Floyd E. Norman (born June 22, 1935) is an American animator, writer, and comic book artist. Over the course of his career, Norman has worked for a number of animation companies, among them Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.

Frank C. Braxton, Jr. (1929–1969) was a pioneering African-American animator and director. Braxton started his animation career at Warner Bros. Cartoons in the 1950s as an assistant to Ben Washam and was one of the very first African-American animators with any Hollywood studio. He stayed at Warner Bros. for two years. Allegedly Washam went to his boss and essentially demanded the hiring of Braxton at Warner Bros. Cartoons. With no prior animation experience Braxton was brought on as an "inbetweener" with one or two other new hires, but his talent rapidly propelled him up to being an "assistant animator", and to none other than master animator Ben Washam, in the already legendary Chuck Jones unit at Warners. Thus many of the incredible Jones cartoons of the mid-1950s contain substantial amounts of Braxton's work. Later, he worked under animation director Bill Hurtz and briefly managed a cartoon studio in Barcelona, Spain.  Braxton died of cancer in 1969. He is interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles. his last animated project is A Boy Named Charlie Brown that came out in 1969

Dan Haskett (born 1952) is a veteran animator who designed the character Belle for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as Ariel for The Little Mermaid and Tod as an adult for The Fox and the Hound.

Haskett was the main designer of the characters Minerva Mink for Steven Spielberg's Animaniacs and Radio AAHS' mascot disc jockeys Ozzie and Kazoo. Haskett also has credits for Toy Story, The Prince of Egypt, Sesame Street and The Simpsons.

Here’s an interesting interview with him: https://cedricstudio.com/2010/04/interview-with-character-designer-dan-haskett/

Now this next animator is definitely an inspiration to me! All my childhood favourite films, Bruce worked on them! 

Bruce Wayne Smith (born September 6, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American character animator, film director, and television producer. He was the creator of Disney Channel's The Proud Family, as well as the supervising animator of Kerchak in Tarzan, Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, and Piglet, Kanga, and Roo in Winnie the Pooh.

Smith studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He joined the Walt Disney Studios an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and various other Roger Rabbit shorts that the studio produced. Soon after, Smith was handpicked by producer/director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) to direct the Paramount Pictures animated film Bébé's Kids.

Smith also served as co-director on the Warner Bros. live action/animated film Space Jam before returning to Disney as supervising animator on such films as Tarzan (Kerchak and Baboons) and Emperors New Groove (Pacha).

While working animation on the feature film side, Smith started feeding into his love of television animation and created The Proud Family for the Disney Channel. He co-founded Jambalaya Studio for the production of the series and crafted over 50 episodes of the hit series along with The Proud Family TV movie. Smith then rejoined the Walt Disney Studios and Duncan Studio Production to supervise animation on The Princess and the Frog (Dr. Facilier) and the Winnie the Pooh Movie (Piglet, Kanga and Roo) and as the lead animator on the short Tangled Ever After. Smith's knack for unique character design led him into the visual development of other projects at the studio such as Wreck-it-Ralph and Frozen.

Jim A. Simon is an artist and animator. With his animation company, Wantu Studios, he created animations for Sesame Street and other shows. After graduation, Simon began working as an animation background artist at Paramount Pictures' animation studio. It closed four months after he joined, but his time there had allowed him to join the animators' union. A Paramount colleague then brought Simon in as an assistant animator on the 1960s Spider-Man animated series. After a year-and-a-half, Simon left in order to freelance, recalling in 1975 that, "I was turning out so much work, they had to promote me, because I was earning more money than some of the full-fledged animators. But it got to the point that I was just too excited about the things going on inside my own head, which I could not release while working for someone else." Circa 1972, he formed Wantu Animation Inc., initially based in New York City and then Los Angeles. Simon's clients included the PBS children's educational series The Electric Company, for which his first short film, "Hey Diddle Diddle", won an award at the International Animated Film Association's 1975 Animation Awards Festival; WNET's children's educational series Vegetable Soup; Sesame Street; the Black Psychiatrists of America; and the New York Public Library.

LeSean Thomas was born 1975 in The South Bronx, New York City) is an American television animation producer, director, animator, comic book artist, writer, character designer, and storyboard artist, based in Los Angeles.

His recent, notable projects include the TV series, Black Dynamite, Legend of Korra for Nickelodeon Animation, Aaron McGruder's The Boondocksfor Sony Pictures Television, "Children of Ether" on Crunchyroll & the upcoming Netflix anime original series Cannon Busters and Yasuke.