Chapter 11: Experience can be Enlightened

Author's Notes: Once again, the two new characters in this chapter belongs to Donutsforlife of Deviantart. She edited parts of this chapter and the next. You can google her or click her link in my Author Profile since ffnet doesn't allow links in stories.

Coco made a face, a face of disgust and insult. "That useless pile of paint isn't our uncle, I'd rather drink Dip that call im' family." he grumbled, composing himself by twisting and pulling his hat as a way to diffuse.

Penny shifted, rubbing her arm. "There's something about him that rubs us off the nose. He's not exactly being a bad bean-"

"It's because we're black and white toons, Penny. He sits his painted arse on his high horse, lookin' down on our parents, and us! you don't have to be nice ta him, he's never been nice to you."

Coco glanced at Mr. Krupnick. There was a light frown in his eyes. Hope soared in Coco's chest. Mr. Krupnick might take them seriously. He decided to up the stakes.

"Mr. Krupnick, there's something we've never told anyone before. But I think you need to know."

Penny's eyes widened. "Are ya sure, Coco?" She glanced behind her back to check if their Aunt Rhoda was still preoccupied. They could hear her screaming as though getting dragged by Jacques galloping around the lawn.

"I..." Coco's pierrot hat twisted in worry as he tried to remember three years ago, "...where do I even begin?"

Penny paused. Where would they exactly begin when Mr. Jared didn't exactly act like a bad guy in a TV show?

XOXOXOXO

Three years ago…

Penny hesitantly followed Coco as he stamped into his room.

"That… that… uuurrggh!" he snarled, his fingers curling into quavering claws. "That fopdoodle ruined Ma's birthday!"

She sat on the bed, fidgeting. "C'mon, junyah, it ain't that bad. We still had cake."

"He barely even looked at our parents' direction. At our direction!" he paced. "It's like he didn't even want to be there!"

She couldn't deny that. At first she and Coco were excited to see him because he looked like Coco's idol, Jesse Krupnick. But Mr. Jared barely talked to them. Aunt Rhoda must've sensed his disinterest because she kept trying to include him to their conversations.

Penny pouted. "Ah'm sure Aunt Rhoda just wanted him to be part of her life." She glanced outside to see Aunt Rhoda and Jared entering their car.

Coco snorted, gesturing around the black-and-white part of ToonTown. "Well, he sure didn't like this part."

Penny winced, remembering how Mr. Jared kept pointing out colors to them. Even when Rhoda explained that monochrome toons weren't colorblind.

"So what're you really?" Mr. Jared asked to her father. "Didn't you used to be a dog?"

Penny could see Aunt Rhoda looking horrified before frantically shaking her head to him. If Mr. Jared noticed, he didn't show it.

Coco smirked. "You know what? Aunt Rhoda looked calm. But I can tell she's furious."

Penny wanted to disagree. Aunt Rhoda looked more like she was going to cry.

He rubbed his hands together indicating to Penny that he was up to something.

"Uh… junyah?"

"Cool your guns, cuz. It's nothin' bad," he said, opening the birdcage in his room. The parrot cawed, hopping into his outstretched arm. "Cole is just gonna eavesdrop on Aunt Rhoda ripping that scamp a new one."

"Cole is just gonna eavesdrop on Aunt Rhoda ripping that scamp a new one," Cole mimicked in Coco's baritone.

Coco signed with his hands so that Cole won't repeat what he would say. "He could record every tone, every emotion of someone else," he excitedly spoke with his hands.

He let Cole out of the window. "Go to Aunt Rhoda and come back."

"Go to Aunt Rhoda and come back," Cole repeated, flapping his inky wings.

They watched him fly away until he was a dot in the sky. Coco grinned at Penny.

"We ain't gonna be caught if we're never there."

Night came. Penny and her parents went back to their house next to Coco's family. She wondered if Cole had came back. But if he did, she was pretty sure that Coco would call her.

By the time she was in bed and her eyes were beginning to close, she figured Cole would appear in the morning.

"Pssst! Penny!"

She sat up. Her eyes fell on Coco's window facing hers. Worry gripped her at the panic in his eyes.

"Junyah, what's wrong?"

"It's Cole! He's- never mind, c'mere." He reached for her window ledge, stretching his torso. Penny climbed him like a tightrope, almost tripping into his bedroom.

She gasped upon seeing Cole. The parrot's eyes were glazed. Hacks and coughs spurted from his open beak as he twitched and quavered.

"What's wrong with him?" she whispered.

"I dunno! He just came back all funny -and not in a good way."

Monochrome feathers molt down to the floor. Penny began to whimper when his body began to drip with ink.

Gulping nervously, Coco tapped Cole's beak. Cole jerked and his beak moved as Aunt Rhoda's voice spoke out.

"Jared, we need to talk."

Mr. Jared's sigh came out of Cole. "Can't it wait until tomorrow? I'm tired."

"We have to talk now, Jared! What you did back there was upsetting!"

"What?" he asked, his tone colored with disbelief. "What did I even do now?"

"The way you treated my friends back there! They're my friends, Jared!" Cole momentarily burst into furious flames. "You DON'T tell Koko or Pierre to stop signing with their hands! They came from an age of silent cartoons! They still talk to you with their voice!"

Penny stepped back in shock. She knew Aunt Rhoda could be loud. But this was a different kind of loud. They heard her give a sniff of someone holding back tears.

"And I CAN'T believe you! Bertie is one of the sweetest guys I know and you just asked him what he was. You were lucky Bertie was very understanding, Poppy looked like she was gonna punch ya!"

Coco smirked, trying to mop the ink from Cole's dripping feathers. If they had thought that she was mad before, her voice only got more inflamed.

"And the kids! You didn't even say hi to them! You didn't even look like you wanted to talk to them! We were their guests Jared, and I've never been so embarrassed in my life! They already had a lot of flak from colored toons and YOU JUST HAVE TO DO THAT TO 'EM!"

There was a pulse of silence from Cole's parted beak, saved for her heavy breathing. She sniffed back some more and Penny could imagine her wiping away her own tears.

"Are you done?" asked Mr. Jared.

"I want you to come with me tomorrow and apologize-"

"For what? For asking Bertie a question?"

"You asked him if he was a dog-"

"So? He was, before Fleischer turned him humanoid." There was a sigh. "I don't know what your problem is." His voice became patient. "Aren't you just overreacting?"

Penny's mouth hung open. She had felt insulted when Mr. Jared asked her father that question. But it was just a question. Right?

"But the way you said it-"

"The way I said it?" Mr. Jared laughed. "Really?"

Penny squeezed her hands together, trying to remember the scenario. Aunt Rhoda was right. But Mr. Jared didn't seem to notice it. Had they been imagining Mr. Jared's tone?

"And the way I treated your friends?" he asked, incredulous. "Haven't you been paying attention to the way they treated me?"

"What?"

Cole's beak clicked with a snort. "Your two clown friends were alienating me. But did you notice that? Of course not, you only see the bad that I do."

Penny could hear Coco growl. She hugged herself worriedly. Were Aunt KoKo and Uncle Pierre unintentionally being rude?

Aunt Rhoda began to speak. "I-I don't… They're not alienating you, that's just how they are."

"Wow, I can't imagine how many people they've weirded out before. Black-and-whites never liked coloreds, what do you expect?"

"They don't-"

"Isn't Boop a washed-up adonis? Of course, they'd hate me."

"They don't..."

There was disbelieving laugh. "What do you know, Rhoda? I always have to read people's intentions for you."

"They don't hate you," she spoke again, her tone begging to be believed.

He spoke, amused and almost mocking. "Alright, Rhoda."

"They got hurt by what you did," she said, pleading. "We should go back and apologize."

"Are you even seeing my side? This is so just like you."

"What?"

"You do this every time." There was a huff. "We go around and around in circles. You pretend to listen so that you would get your way. Then I have to explain myself to you again."

"No! That's not what I'm trying to do! Jared, p-p-p-please-"

There was a sigh of a reasonable man losing his patience. "It's not my fault they chose to react like that."

Cole's beak clicked with the sound of someone sitting on a sofa.

"Okay, what else? What else did I do wrong?"

"I… "

Penny's heart sank. From the vibrantly angry tone Aunt Rhoda had used, this one was small. Lost.

"I'm sorry."

"You should be, you're the one who was screaming at me the moment we got home."

There was a pulse of silence. Penny could almost imagine the shame in Aunt Rhoda's face.

Cole's beak opened and closed with the sounds of footsteps leaving. A door slammed close.

They could only hear someone breathing. The silence stretched. The breathing got heavier and heavier.

Just when they thought it was over, Cole's eyes began to bleed with ink. It blotted the floor as feathers dripped and molted.

Penny put a hand over her mouth, her eyes tearing at his silent agony.

The parrot opened his beak in a silent, quavering wail before slopping into an inky mess on Coco's bedroom floor.

The lights on both houses turned on as Penny screamed.

XOXOXOXO

Back to the present…

"We don't know how to explain it to ya, but Mr. Jared is bad news!" Coco said in frustration.

He looked at Penny for guidance but she also shrugged, lost. What were they going to say? Mr. Jared was a bad man because he used the wrong kind of tone?

"He's poison!" Coco continued. "But Aunt Rhoda thinks he's Benny Crocker! He makes her apologize for things she shouldn't be apologizing for! Like- like-"

His mind tried to scramble for the words.

"Like the time he was rude to uncle Bertie!"

"But he said he didn't mean it," Penny said uncertainly.

"And he said my parents were estranging him!"

"But maybe that was just a miscommunication?"

"Urrgh!" he growled, clutching his hat. "We swear! He was being mean!"

"We knew he was in the wrong!" she spoke up, bouncing. "My heart's tellin' me he's in the wrong. But whenever we try to tell it, it just doesn't seem like a big deal!"

Coco inwardly panicked at seeing the concern in Mr. Krupnick's face. But it looked more like concern for them instead for their aunt.

"He made her cry," he finally said.

"Junyah, we didn't exactly-"

"The day she came over to apologize about Jared, she was miserable. I could see it in her eyes."

Coco looked down. Aunt Rhoda could act like a skippy, happy pony all day. But the air around her had felt like an old gray mare when she explained that Jared wasn't used to being around monochrome toons.

After that, Aunt Rhoda never brought Jared with her when she would visit the monochrome part of ToonTown. Coco and Penny's parents seemed to have an unspoken agreement never to talk about Jared with her.

He loved Aunt Rhoda. She was a glutton for slapstick just to make people laugh and she was the few people who could keep up with Penny's bubbly energy. But there were some things that were beyond his and Penny's control.

"We always have our fingers and toes crossed that they won't tie the knot," Penny said.

Coco took out a mallet, "We're going to take on drastic measures if they ever do, but now we're pretty sure we . . . don't need to."

Mr. Krupnick backed away a little. "I'm glad you didn't have to."

"That's the problem with Aunt Rhoda, she cares too much to the point of..." Coco said. He sneaked a glance at Penny, who was almost the same, having a heart that was always open twenty-four seven. Flittingly, he hoped Penny wouldn't meet someone like that guy.

"I'm glad that she's away from him," Coco said. "But knowing Aunt Rhoda, I feel like that shabaroon still has a hold on her."

XOXOXOXO

As Penny and Coco went home, Rhoda waved to them one last time.

"Kids, they grow up so fast," she sighed.

Jesse nodded in agreement. Before they left, Coco gave him a nod while Penny gave him a pleading look at Rhoda's direction. Their message was simple: please, take care of their aunt.

Rhoda laughed a little. "I'm sorry about Penny tryin' to matchmake us."

"It's nothing."

"I haven't forgotten what I said before," she said, turning to him. "I know you're not interested and I told you that I'll leave you alone."

Jesse quieted, watching her.

"I ain't one of those weird, pushy people who can't take no for an answer. Besides..."

You're still in love with Jared, he continued for her.

"Say, is your girlfriend -or boyfriend- okay with this?"

"I'm not seeing anyone right now."

"Oh." She put on her toolbelt. "Let's get to work then! The sooner I can move out, the sooner I don't have to overstay with ya!"

Ever since Rhoda came, he knew he was just beginning to know her again. The past few weeks had been crazy. But wonderful. Just like how things would usually be around her.

For a moment, he didn't mind if they slowed a little bit with fixing her home.

XOXOXOXO

Jared always threw away things that he had no use for.

But there were clippings all over his vanity mirror. Little pieces of information he had been feeding reporters. Rhoda's instability. Her jealousy. Insecurity.

Her disappearance to not take responsibility.

The most recent clipping didn't come from him. It was from last week's paper, some toon detective solving a case. It was gray and grainy. But there was no mistaking those pigtails. He still remembered what Rhoda looked like as a humanoid toon.

Her eyes were casted down. Every detail of her clothes and accessories were faithful to her original design. Beside her, was a humanoid toon that looked like him, Jesse Krupnick.

Whatever, I'm the improved version.

Krupnick's arm was around her shoulders as if he could protect her from being involved with whatever crime that had happened there.

He rolled his eyes. Rhoda never had the capability to take care of herself. Unlike him. He had singlehandedly left his overcontrolling artist and survived on his own. He got Rhoda who could give him the life that he wanted. Everything was exactly the way he wanted it. He was now able to do what he wish, whenever he wanted to.

People who weren't happy for him? Were disposable. After everything he went through, he deserved whatever he desired.

But Rhoda had always been prude and hysterical. He always had to set her straight from herself. From her friends. From her family. He had always kept her in line. If it wasn't for him, they wouldn't've lasted.

Then she left him.

That wasn't part of the plan. That wasn't what he wanted.

He couldn't wait for her to go down. And stay down. He deserved his success in Maroon Cartoon Studio. She didn't.

He smirked at the clipping, seeing the toon beside her that could almost be his twin. In fact, he knew exactly where she would be tomorrow.

"Oh, Rhoda. You're making this far too easy."

Author's Notes: Oh right, while waiting for the next chapter, just drop a review to request links to:

-The story of Penny, Coco, Jack and Rose here (Donuts and I's work)

-You can also read the au where Jack and Rose exists, if you haven't read it yet

DonutsforLife of Deviantart has also made wonderful art of the characters! Just drop a review to request for their links:

-Penny and Coco as kids

-Penny and Coco as teenagers

-Penny and Coco as grownups

-Jack and Rose

-Jack, Rose, Penny and Coco in Technicolor Monochrome

-Jack, Rose, Penny and Coco went shopping