I don't own Animaniacs. Dee, Peg, and Psykko are mine.
Chatper 10: Face The Music.
"Ok kid, time to have that talk." Slappy eyed a very uncomfortable looking Dee from across their kitchen table. It took some shrewd manoeuvring to get him this far and she wasn't going to let him weasel his way out of it now, just because he didn't like being cornered. Regardless of what Yakko said, she wanted in on this whole thing. His words played back through her memory like a cheesy melodrama...
"Slappy you don't know what you're asking from him." Yakko had eyed the aging woman in his living room.
"Then why don't you tell me then? From where I'm standing all this is more than a little fishy. You get new family all of a sudden, they don't act like they want to be here, and I have to be the one to teach them how to act like 'toons? They should know this already! If you haven't noticed there, Sherlock, Peg is more than just zany. She's pissed. And don't even get me started on that little one there. I've stayed in the dark long enough. Either you owe me an explanation, or I owe you a bomb up your can." Slappy had found herself genuinely irritated for the first time in years.
It wasn't the task, or even the aggravation it posed. What was insulting about this whole thing is that no one felt they could trust her with whatever big secret these six felt the need to keep a lid on. She had gone out of her way on several occasions to help them out and all she asked in return, aside from being paid scale for some cameos, was honesty and some gratitude.
"Look kid, the grace period is over. I gotta know what you got me into." She'd narrowed her eyes at the shrinking Yakko as she stepped toward him.
"Look... ehhhhhh it's really not my place to tell you. That's Dee's job. I don't know everything anyway; just what he's told me and a little personal experience. I was kinda hoping to hear the whole thing to, so if you want me to come along..." Yakko had trailed off, holding his hands up attempting to placate the elder squirrel. He shouldn't be surprised by her reaction, honestly. No one had expected Peg to be as difficult to rehabilitate as she had been. She was more than angry. She was bitter and downright hateful.
Not long after her little episode with Plotz she had actually physically threatened him during an office meeting about that very subject. No pranks or mind games, just outright rage. Dee had yet to ever raise his voice in Yakko's (or anyone's) presence, but that day he had. Between his and Peg's screaming match, and Plotz trying to dodge the wild kicks she threw, even being restrained by Dee and himself, the day went pretty miserably. He was just glad the others hadn't been there to see it, lest they get any ideas about joining in. He knew how his own siblings felt about Plotz. As it was, they owed him a new desk since Peg had, in the course of her tantrum, thrown it across the room shattering it to splinters and sending the secretary screaming from the office. They were lucky Plotz didn't have a functional phone handy at that point to call security.
"Oh you'll be there. I'm tired of bein' out of the loop. I'm gonna find out what's goin' on here if it kills ya." She had poked the older Warner in the chest with her umbrella painfully.
It took some creative reasoning to get the others out of the house. Upon meeting Slappy at the foot of his bed of all places, and a hushed but heated discussion, Dee got them to relent to keep his own siblings out of this. The reaction puzzled Slappy and only made the whole situation more intriguing and infuriating. What could be so bad that he wouldn't even tell his own family?
Reaching behind him, Dee brought forth three thick folders bound together with string. The bundle looked as if it had been through a war. Tattered edges and coffee stains littered the covers along with David's illegible scrawl and some strange doodles put there long ago. With a deep sigh, he pushed them across to her, the bundle lying there like a physical manifestation of David's madness. His accusations came back to haunt him, his gravely tortured voice almost real in his mind. 'I told you, little Dee-Dee, that you're a traitor. You know she won't stay quiet. You can't save them.' He shook the voice from his head, focusing on the faces staring back at him.
"After our talk you need to read these. It's all of David's animation notes on us, and then some. His journal is in there too, and some of the pages from his great grandfather's diary. Even Peg and Psykko haven't seen this. If I have my way, they never will."
Slappy's eyes went wide as details were forthcoming. It seemed so unreal. Experimenting on your own creations? 'Toons without psychological limitations? This was bizarre stuff, and the story sounded more miserable as it wore on. Yakko also listened intently, as much of this he hadn't heard either. But the more Dee talked, the more the picture filled in for him.
Slappy's face went from anger to disbelief to outright panic as both Yakko and Dee related the rest; their animator's spiral into madness, their arrival at the studio, and their ill conceived trip to the Loopy Acres asylum. Slappy groaned inwardly. Loopey Acres. She had an uncle go there once when she was a young woman, and knew it wasn't a pretty place. He came out of there a shadow of his former self, not an ounce of joy left. Even today he seemed as pale and sterile as the building from which he emerged. She couldn't guess how an emotionally fragile human would endure.
However, Dee was far from through, and saved the worst bit for last. She recoiled and nearly fell out of her chair when he told her the rest. He wasn't joking. She wished he had been, for it threw yet another ugly wrinkle into an already difficult situation. Slappy had to wonder what unseen hands were involved in this situation.
"I'm the one that did it. I called the cops, the hospital, the studio, everything. We are here because of me. My animator, my father, is in a 'toon asylum because of me. And you are going out of your way to try to help my sister who is pissed off because of me. I understand fully what all this means. I would have spared you having to deal with it." He hated keeping all this from her after all the trouble she had gone through to help, but again he repeated to himself that he would do it all over again.
"I need a drink...Yakko be a gentlemen and get an old woman something. I don't suppose you keep anything stronger than lemonade around eh?" Slappy leant her forehead in her hands.
Her mind couldn't wrap around it completely. What kind of choice was that? What kind of animator would put his creation in such a position? What kind of toon could make that choice without going insane? This violated every agreement the animators' guild had with toon town. It violated every code of conduct toons imposed on themselves. Near 100 years of animation tradition and toon law down the toilet. She understood now why he was so hesitant to say anything. In Toon Town he would be branded a traitor. Neither he, nor his family, would be able to set foot outside without bearing that scarlet letter. Outcast, even among outcasts. His own creator would face far worse in the human court system, insanity or not. Certainly, the details of his crime would be made public and throw a monkey wrench in human and toon relations. His incarceration in Toon Town made a lot more sense now. No one stood to gain anything by letting the situation play out, and likely both sides arranged this in the hopes it could be quietly covered up.
This was too big to allow out of this room. Ultimately Dee probably did the right thing. Politically and morally inconvenient, but the right thing nonetheless. He sacrificed everything he had to save his family risking life and reputation in the process. He was right to keep this under wraps.
"How many others know?" Slappy levelled her gaze at the oldest cousin as she took the soda Yakko offered her. She wished for the first time in almost 40 years she had some rum to accompany it.
"Just me, Yakko and his siblings, and now you. Plotz has some details but nothing linking the events to me or my family. I used different voices and called from different pay phones, so no one can trace it back to me. I'm certain I don't have to tell you what's at stake here." Dee watched the woman intently. If she was going to air this out, he had to know, now. Some toons would, without thinking. Any that did might be considered a hero by the rest. Ambition pulled as powerfully on the hearts of toons as in men, he knew.
Slappy waved his comment off, rubbing her eyes.
"Look kid I'm not that kind of toon. I got no desire to be a statue, and I don't rat out a friend. Besides, I don't wanna be the one to turn society on its head any more than you do. But this makes my job a lot harder."
"If you mean Peg, don't worry about it to much. She's irritable, violent, and downright mean but she's no human. She's just as toon upstairs as you are." Dee replied tapping his temple for emphasis.
"That's not very reassuring." Yakko pointed behind them where Peg stood, quiet as a statue, her eyes boring a hole straight into her brother.
"Oh Fudd..." Slappy sighed, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. That girl never did listen to a thing she said and had been suspicious about her early morning visit from the beginning. This was bad. Knowing her temper, and the sensitive subject matter they were discussing, Slappy fully expected the dining room to be turned into a war zone the second Peg spoke.
Dee sighed inwardly, bracing for what he knew was coming. He should have anticipated this and taken their impromptu meeting elsewhere. His sister always had been the most headstrong of the three. Time and tide did little to diminish neither her stubborn streak nor her inflammatory temper. However it had, apparently, taught her stealth. He began to think it would take more than simple separation from their creator to bring her any semblance of peace. But how, and to what end, he would have to puzzle out later. For the here and now he had a storm to weather. One he had hoped in vain to postpone but a little longer.
Every inch of her felt like screaming. How in holy hell could he? This had to be a lie. It had to be some kind of sick fucking joke that she just wasn't getting. She waited for something. A sign, an explanation, anything to tell her he wasn't for real. That what she overheard wasn't what she thought. It wouldn't be the first time he shocked her with some con or another to get them out of a tight situation... but for the life of him, he just sat there, calmly returning her gaze, everything about his body language confessing his sincerity. She wanted to scream, cry... hit him with something heavier than most toons could hold... She wanted to ask him why, she wanted...the one thing he would not easily let her have. But she was not going to back down from him. No matter how much his stare scared the hell out of her right now.
With a shaky voice, she gritted out through gnashing teeth, her eye twitching under the effort.
"I. Want. To. See. David."
"I kept you in the dark for this very reason. You don't know what you're asking." Dee replied, his voice low and even as his stare. No one should be this calm in this situation.
Peg snapped, slamming her fist down on the breakfast bar hard enough to fracture one of the tiles lining its surface.
"Don't you dare deny me this, brother! How long have we gone along with everything you said? How often have we ever so much as questioned you? And how do you repay us? You keep...this, of all things, from us? He's our father! My God... do you know how much Psykko looks up to you? Did you think for a second what this will do to him? Dammit, Dee, how could you!?" She fought hard to bite back the tears that now came unbidden as she threw the full weight of her rage at her brother.
Through it all, he said nothing and didn't so much as move from his seat, showing no sign of what could be going on behind those inscrutable, penetrating eyes. She screamed and cursed a blue streak, throwing every hurtful word that came to mind at him. Her temper broke against him with all the sound and fury of waves against a cliff face, yet within her, insecurities doubled and redoubled and she felt her mind retreating. She couldn't tell anymore who her real brother was. Was Dee the over protective older sibling that sang to his little brother and held her when she cried as they hauled David off? Or was he this man sitting in front of her now? She had to know, and seeing David for herself was the easiest way to find out.
Yakko and Slappy were caught between a rock and a hard place. Peg covered the only exit, and there was no place to go in the kitchen that was not in Peg's line of fire. Neither were they willing to get within arms reach of the raging teen for fear she would turn on them. The look on Dee's face didn't exactly make them want to cozy up to him either. In all their years, neither thought they had anything to really learn from the younger generations. They had seen and done it all. But in the span of just an hour, Yakko and Slappy both learned more ways to cuss someone out than they thought possible. Some were funny, most painful; they would cringe as some were directed at them. Their ears rang and the walls resonated with the full fury of a Warner slighted. Peg had an impressive temper and an even more impressive set of lungs.
Dee heard and felt every word she said. But, volume aside, it wasn't anything he hadn't said to himself a thousand times since the day they left. He had wished he could tell her, wished he could have shown her what David really was and know she could handle it. Perhaps the only way to move forward and be done with all this would be to do just that. She wouldn't just let this go. He would have to call Plotz again and endure asking that screeching, weasely man dumpling for another favor. Another trip to a place he swore he would never return to. Another long night at le hotel du fly-paper, hopefully this time not inspecting the bathroom floor up close.
"Fine." He responded finally cutting her off mid sentence, punching a hole in the wall of sound Peg was building. The word hung in the air for a few, long seconds, wrapping up even their unwilling spectators in it.
"Fine? What fine?" Peg shot back, though much more quietly than she had been. His look had grown darker, if that was possible, and something behind it stopped her in her tracks. Even for her, he was hard to read when he got like this.
"You win. You want to see David? You got questions? Fine. I'll even let Psykko come along. You both seem so intent on crucifying yourselves, the least I can do is show you what for." His voice held so little inflection or emotion it was difficult to hear. Yakko recognized it as the same tone he adopted shortly after their first meeting with David. Stress, hurt, he wasn't as good at hiding it from Yakko as his own siblings. Not when they had literally decades of experience on him and infinitely more control.
Though he may not be invited, Yakko decided to go back with Dee if Plotz would green light it. Someone had to be the objective one and wrangle that wild woman. Dee couldn't do that if he was passed out on some bathroom floor again. Besides, Yakko couldn't help but feel somehow responsible for this man and his siblings. More so in the months since their last trip. Another year of this and he would wind up as grey as Slappy.
In the span of a few seconds, Dee had managed to flip the entire argument on its head. Peg's pride bristled at the insinuation that she had done something wrong. Peg was the slighted one, and now she was supposed to feel bad for getting pissed? No, this dog won't hunt. She pulled her will up around herself, her voice once again resonating with a confidence it didn't possess.
"Damn right fine. I'm sick of this too, Dee. I'm sick of you hiding shit from me, I'm sick of you lying to me, and I'm sick of you airing out family business to everyone but fuckin' family. You want to play mister cool? You want to be a martyr? Fine by me, but don't drag us along without so much as an explanation. At least give me an option here."
Dee simply nodded once, and continued to stare down his belligerent sister who, despite her rage and bravado, shrank under the weight of it. His silence spoke volumes more than his voice and more often than not served as a more effective foil to her foul attitude than meeting her on her terms. The brevity of his response doused her like ice water, and rather than stand there and look foolish she stiffened her back and spun out of the room, slamming the door behind her as hard as she could, leaving the trio staring at her wake.
"Well that went well." Slappy finally spoke up, wiggling her pinky in her abused ears. "Look, kid, if you really are planning this little shindig then I'm comin' along. I wanna see this guy for myself. Besides, I got a score to settle with Loopy Acres."
The next week promised to be interesting to say the least.