A/N:

Hellooooooo Readers! Well, here it is, the first of hopefully many chapters of the latest in the Reality Check series! Well, what can I say here? Thanks for all the support and you all know how much I love you all for it, I wouldn't have completed anything without you guys! XD Keep an eye out for the one-shots still to come and I hope this instalment lives up to the others!

Okay, where we left off at the end of Inkstained; Flynn and Poppy had been injected with toon ink, joining Talia in a half-toon state, giving them minor toon abilities as well as not aging. The Warner's had regained their memories from their times living with the Fleischer's and all the years in the studio, and they are still going strong and sticking with the Nolan's. All for one and one for all times six forever, right! And with R.J back in jail, and Jared (now going by Jack after trying to regain his own identity and freeing himself from R.J's control, hoping to find an alternative cure to the toon-state) has taken his place as CEO of the studio. Everything seems pretty good, so where am I going with this?

Let's find out shall we? Ok, this looks more at Talia and the grown ups, next chapter will be the kids, bare with me, you know what I'm like. I do the first few chapters as stage setters so sorry if it's a little slow. It'll get better!

*Jack's POV*

Okay, well that's another thing sorted. For now at least. This job was getting more stressful by the day, and yet I wouldn't give it up for the world. But the secrets I was forced to keep were building up by the minute. When I signed up to this, I knew that I was taking on a colossal responsibility with the toons, but I didn't know just how far that stretched. Plotz should have informed me of this a long time ago, heck, anyone should have informed me of this!

Not that I would have turned it down if I'd known earlier, not a chance! But, there were just so many secrets around here. It was like living in a puzzle, as soon as you thought you had the answers to one question, it sprouts off into multiple other tricks for you to solve. It was great; but challenging. And when I look at it from someone else's perspective, it kind of seemed unfair. But who was it most unfair for; the one's who were kept totally in the dark, or the one's who were only aware of half the truth?

And then again, what about those who thought that the half they knew, was all there was to know?

*Talia's POV*

"No."

"But you said -"

"I said nothing."

"So if you're saying nothing then -"

"I'm saying no."

I wasn't being cruel. On the contrary, I was using a joking voice that made Poppy scowl, "Not fair…"

Maybe not to her, but considering I was saying no to her going ropeless bungee-jumping over the toon lot then I think that I'm well in my rights. Sure, I know she wouldn't get hurt considering… past events… but I still didn't like the idea of it. Call me old fashioned, but plummeting over a hundred feet to the ground with only a half-hearted toon reflex to cushion the fall. Although, I admit that she was getting pretty good. She was better than me by far, but then again, that wasn't difficult.

Thinking about it, how long had it been since everything had come out of the bag? Time felt different now, it had for a while. It hadn't been long, a few months maybe. Yeah that's right, because we'd had Flynn's thirteenth not long before. And now summer vacation had just begun. Wow, that had gone fast. Summer vacation, that meant… Never mind. Hey, I wonder if it's a good thing that time went by without noticing.

"How about this; if you finish one more routine start to finish, then I'll take you down to the toon lot before I start work."

She grinned, "Really?"

It wasn't like I ever stopped her going before, "Sure thing." I nodded, "Now get twirling."

Before I'd even finished the sentence, she'd already zoomed off just like that. I really couldn't get used to that so easily. I mean, when I was the one popping in and out of places, it freaked the hell out of me, and the toons doing it was expected but still got a good jump out of me; but now my siblings were too, it was just plain bizarre. But all things aside… I wasn't hating it.

Music started playing softly from upstairs in Poppy's room. She'd started taking dance classes on Fridays after school, but now the summer was here, they were organising vacation classes too. But they had a set of routines to learn for a recital before school started again. And as biased as I may be as a big-sis and the one who's paying for the classes; I thought she was pretty good. And she wasn't the only one making the most of their time. Flynn was currently spending his Saturday mornings at the school's Youth Club. Sometimes I used to go to my school Youth Club as a kid, when I could get some spare time. He got to meet some friends, just be normal for a while. But the one around here seemed better. They had more to do; football, tennis, team building and all that kind of stuff. He enjoyed it, that's the main thing.

I paused from my thoughts and dishes to take note of the song what was playing. I liked this singer, but I hadn't heard this song in ages. Skye Sweetnam, I think… I like to live like I'm in a cartoon yes I'm, chasing you all around the room! I beat your, beat your brains out, that's how I flirt! Oh it's a vicious little game but no one gets hurt! Oh the irony… Life, you're hilarious… What next, the Dexter's Lab theme song? But I could see the humour in it. Admittedly, I was starting to see the humour in a lot of things recently. Maybe I'm wrong, but having your life as well as the lives of people you care about threatened twice, it kind of puts things in perspective.

"This love's a cartoon, baby, in Technicolor, screw you head back on cuz here comes your mother, with her curlers made of dynamite, she's throwing them at us tonight…" I muttered along, "This love's a cartoon baby and you're the hero, pop your greens down lover and whack the weirdo, he's trying to fly me to the moon but I'm just staying here with you…" Again, I paused, "That song actually makes no sense."

"Personally, I take it as an insult."

Half expecting them to have something to say on the matter, I turned around towards where the snarky voice had come from, but there was no one there. My shoulders slumped in confusion, but I ignored it and returned to the dishes. All of a sudden, the sink exploded in a wave of suds and water, splashing all over my clothes and the floor. Three faces burst through the waves wearing wicked grins. Two on them leant forward and planted soaking kisses on my cheeks and the third aimed for my forehead. When I was released, I slipped backwards, the water skidding my shoes and sending my flat on my back, bumping my head on the floor.

"Ow." Seriously, stars around the head, what that necessary? "Hi guys…"

"Looking a little starry-eyed there, priss." Yakko commented.

Dot and Wakko dropped to the ground and held out their hands to help me up. I swatted the stars away before accepting their hand, rolling my eyes as they hoisted me to my feet, "Thanks, looking a little soaked there, pervert."

Despite sitting knee deep in suds, his fur was amazingly dry, "Huh?"

Scooping a mug from the sink, I quickly poured the contents over his head, "Next time use the door like everyone else." I commented in playful scolding.

His sodden ears lay flat against his head and he arched an eyebrow, leaning a little closer to me. Before I knew what was happening, he made an 'o' with his mouth and jetted the inhaled water in my face, drenching more than I already was, "Next time use more soap."

Dot folded her arms, "Give it a rest you two, we're on a tight schedule here, remember?"

"We are?" Wakko asked.

Wringing out my hair over the sink I smiled, "If this is about the bungee jumping, I already said that Poppy isn't trying it."

"Ah!" the trio moaned.

Yakko shook the droplets from his face and joined his siblings on the floor, "If it's about what happened last time, the rope was worn and that's why we're taking the safe option and avoiding them all together."

I flashed a sceptical look, "That's reassuring… But no, she's going to Slappy's house while I'm at work."

"But if she wasn't…" Wakko asked, leaving the rest of the question to linger in the air.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but thought against it and clamped his mouth shut. Dot gave a wry smile, "Wow, first smart move in years."

Yakko and I exchanged a look of amusement before I looked down at my watch and groaned internally, "And I'm going to be late for work…" My soaking clothes and hair didn't help, "…again."

"You know, kiddo, you could just," he shrugged knowingly, "take a short cut."

The younger Warner's looked hopeful. I however, didn't. I'd improved over time, don't get me wrong, but I still wasn't at a standard where I was comfortable with trying it out on my own. I could toon-change no problem, and did so there and then. Or rather just kept the clothes and simply pictured myself dry. Now that stuff wasn't hard once you got the hang of it. Again, I go back to the production mind-set. I pictured the clothes as they were before, pulled it out of imagination so it's like I can almost see and feel it, and then finally accept it so that it's like it's real. And there it was. Cheesy and kind of clichéd, but it's a toon reflex, what did I really expect? But jumping from place to place, there were too many things that could go wrong. And considering I'd be taking Poppy with me, it was too risky. But then again, it was more likely that Poppy would be taking afternoon visits to Australia after a few more tips from the 'masters'…

They seemed impressed that I'd actually taken care of the water-logged clothes without argument. "What?" I asked defensively.

"Nothing." They sang. Wakko smiled goofily while Dot just gave a sideways smile.

Yakko folded his arms, "You know go back in time a few months and you wouldn't even talk about your toonasity, let alone use it." He grinned, "Is the merchandise finally growing on you?"

"It's, uh, yeah I guess you could say it has." I shrugged, subtly glancing down at the imprint on my wrist. And it was the truth, there was no point fighting against it anymore, and I gottta say, life was somewhat simpler without the constant battle, "If you're going with Poppy to Slappy's, better get in the car."

Yeah, what I said about there being less of a battle, too bad it starts up again at work. Dr. S wasn't a big fan of me practicing. But then again, it was understandable. After all, he'd been trying to get the toons to lower the bar for years, most likely since he'd started working at the studio. I couldn't blame him for being uncomfortable with it. Like me, he just wanted some peace. Although whereas I've kind of accepted that peace was an achievement to gain with careful planning around the insanity; he was still in the mindset that he could suppress the insanity and force peace. Now from experience, I'd love to tell him that it's easier to roll with the punches, but he was a professional psychiatrist, and my employer. It wasn't my place to tell him what to do. Not to mention one other thing we shared in common, he wouldn't change his mindset so easy. Heck, it took me over two years to get around to the idea, he was obviously more determined than me; or more naive… And he was really keeping me busy with filing and organising papers for him. I guess that was his way of making sure I didn't have time for any practice.

"And where do these go?" I asked him, nodding to the two foot tall stack of organisers on my desk.

He looked up briefly, "Zey go down zer hall, in room -"

Down the hall was all I needed, there was only one storeroom there anyway, "No problem." I stated, carefully scooping up the pile and struggling to peer over the top just to see where I was going.

"Uh, Talia, you are allowed to make more zan one trip, you know. Zer is no rush." Dr. S assured light-heartedly.

"I know." I replied, already halfway out of the office, "But I'd rather do it in one go so I know what I'm doing."

He nodded, "Oh, okay."

It wasn't until I was about halfway down the corridor that I figured it would have probably been a better idea to take more manageable handfuls. I swear these things were getting heavier by the second. But it wasn't far to go now, I hope. Suddenly, I bumped into something solid. Judging by the slight grunt, I'd bumped into a person.

"Sorry!" I blurted. Thanking my luck that the stranger had the sense to grab the papers to stop them topping over. I looked to the side and caught sight of amused olive eyes and a flick of dark hair. "Oh, it's you."

"Don't sound too disappointed." Jack mused, tilting the files so that I was once again steady, "Anything I can help with?"

"I'm good thanks." I replied, edging around him, but curiosity still pulling at me, "What brings you up this end of the studio?"

He nodded down the hallway, "I needed Dr. Scratchansniff's advice on something."

"Anything I can help with?" I quoted.

"I'm good thanks."

I rolled my eyes, "On your way then." Only a mere three steps later, I could still feel him watching me, "What is it this time?"

"Nothing." He shook his head, "I just, uh, wondered how things were going at home… you know, with everything. I haven't had the chance to check in as often as I should."

"No one's asking you to check in on us, we're fine." I replied truthfully, but harsher than intended, "But we're good, great even; thanks." I swallowed and felt that it needed to be asked, out of politeness more than anything, "And you're still coping?"

He gave a half-grin, "As always, I leant from the best, right?"

Rolling my eyes again, I turned away. There was no need to answer that and he was only messing with me. He was telling the truth though, we'd pretty much kept our distance. Not on purpose, but it had happened all the same. Sometime's he'd drop in while I was working or join us in the ton lot, but it was pretty much once in a blue moon. Frankly, I kind of liked it like that. That way, I didn't have to worry about him relapsing or getting too involved. I made sure he kept in line, he made sure he did his job. There was nothing more too it. And that was good. No complications, no guilt lingering from the past and most of all, no chance of trusting him.

But did it really make much of a difference if I trusted him or not? It wasn't like there were any other secrets around here. I mean, the toon lot, the Animator, R.J, the Fleischer's, half-toon-hybrids… what else could there possibly be?

A/N:

Oh, so much more… Sorry that it's slow, but you know me, the first few chapters are just setting the stage before stuff starts happening. I promise I am going somewhere with this XD Next chapter will have more of a focus on Flynn and Poppy and the Warner's. Please review and I'd love to hear any ideas, suggestions you have for either this or one-shots, I'll do my best, I promise XD Can't wait to hear from you guys again! XD

The song in the middle was 'Cartoon' by Skye Sweetnam, an awesome (but random) song if you want to take a peek.

Oh, and I'm sorry if updates are a little slow, I've got a lot of assignments due in, and unfortunately they kind of need to come first… But I'll update when I can for you all because you're that awesome! XD