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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning:
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category:
Gen
Fandom:
ChalkZone
Characters:
RudyPennySnap - CharacterMr. TabootieMrs. TabootieMrs. Sanchez
Additional Tags:
I sat on this for years and forgot to upload itBased on a conversation I had regarding the Tabooties neglectful behaviorRudy Needs a HugThis is why you take heed to safety peopleChild NeglectDisabled CharacterPermanent Injurypenny is a good friendGood Friend SnapDeconstructionEye Trauma
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2022-08-05
Updated:
2022-08-20
Words:
36992
Chapters:
8/?
Kudos:
6
Hits:
99
You Don't Know The Chances
DarkHououmon
Summary:
"While I do understand that your son should have done what you said and waited, the responsibility of him getting hurt still falls on you. If you had child locks in place or if you had kept an eye on him, then he would have been fine. I'm afraid that this is going to reflect very badly on you. I'd say you're looking at a federal offense."
Chapter Management
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Chapter 1: The Accident
Chapter Text
Rudy leaned himself back in the chair, his arms folded behind his head, as he listened to Mr. Wilter talking about the assignment. Oh who was he kidding... He was hardly listening. Mr. Wilter was going on and on about it, as though to drive the point home. It was getting to be quite irritating. How could Penny stand to listen to him for this long?
"And further more, you can't..."
Rudy tried so hard not to groan. He adjusted himself in his chair, letting his head rest against his hand. His elbow was starting to hurt a little bit, but he ignored it. He tapped his fingers against the table, his eyes becoming half closed. Why can't Mr. Wilter just get on with it? They didn't need to sit here and listen to him for a half hour on this assignment. The instructions were being given to them. They could all read, for pete's sake.
At least it was the weeked. There was that to look forward to. Rudy could see the nice blue sky outside and he could almost feel the cool breeze hitting him despite the windows being closed. In a few minutes, they would all be leaving and enjoying their weekends, like they always did.
For him and Penny, ChalkZone awaited. He especially looked forward to Saturday. That was the only day that was completely free. Or at least, more so than the other days. They could stay up as late as they wanted and wake up as late as they wanted. And for this reason, that's why they decided to plan a picnic that day. Something to help get their minds off of things and help them further relax.
It wasn't going to be just any picnic, either. So many zoners were invited and it was going to take place in some recently discovered area. What did Penny call it again? Galloping Fields? Something like that. It was a rather hilly area with sparse trees and several friendly horse-like creatures. It seemed like it was in a good area to have a picnic.
It was so much easier having a picnic in ChalkZone, too. He just needed to draw everything. No need to cook. And he already had a good idea on what he was going to draw. He just needed to doublecheck with Snap and...
"Rudy Tabootie!"
Rudy jolted himself a little as Mr. Wilter shouted at him. He looked around and he suddenly became aware of everyone, including Penny, looking a thim. He looked to his side and he could see Mr. Wilter standing there, holding some papers.
"Are you quite done?" Mr. Wilter asked, his eyes narrowing. "Did I interrupt your daydream?"
"I-I..." Rudy couldn't think of what to say. He flinched when Mr. Wilter slammed the papers against his desk. He looked up at the man with a slightly cautious expression.
"You need to start paying more attention in class, Rudy Tabootie. You can't keep dozing off like that. Instead of thinking of your cartoons, you should keep your head in reality." Mr. Wilter scolded the young boy. Rudy could feel himself slipping further into his desk as he felt some embarrassment hitting him. Didn't help that, even with some of the students chortling, Mr. Wilter didn't stop just yet. "One of these days, your lack of focus is going to get you into trouble. If you want to daydream, do it at home!"
Rudy gritted his teeth as he felt his eyes narrowing slightly. But despite his anger, he managed to keep himself under control. It wasn't like Mr. Wilter could begin to understand his position. Besides, he would only get sent to the principal's office if he were to speak up against him. All he could do was just mutter, "I'm sorry, Mr. Wilter."
The man just scoffed softly at this, but at least he didn't try to press the issue further. Rudy was thankful for that. Instead, the teacher just nudged the papers towards him, as though he didn't see or feel them fall down. "Make sure you don't lose this. If you're going to do this assignment right, you will need these instructions."
Rudy honestly couldn't tell if Mr. Wilter said that just to him or to everyone. He wanted to believe that he was just making sure everyone knew. That was most likely the case as he saw the other students nodding their heads, their focus no longer on him. Though a small part of Rudy still couldn't help but feel like he was still targeted then.
Oh it didn't really matter. He tried to push those thoughts aside as he focused on the papers before him. He spread them open and he began to look around through the pages, getting an idea of how this was going to go.
So Mr. Wilter wanted them to do a diorama regarding history? That sounded... Rudy almost thought 'boring', but it did relate to art, didn't it? At least, it could be considered that. And in that case, he was on board. It was better than writing some lousy newspaper, anyway. And this time, there was no way they got the wrong assignment like that one time. Although it's been a little while, Rudy still felt slightly miffed over the whole ordeal. You'd think a teacher would know what the heck they wrote on the chalkboard.
Ring!
No need to worry about that anymore, though. Looks like the school day was over. Along with all the other students, he jumped into the air with joy, happy that the weekend was finally here. He ignored Mr. Wilter's shouts for them to slow down and watch it. He just wanted to leave and go home.
With the papers stuffed in his backpack, slinging it over his shoulders, he rushed out the door and headed down the steps. It didn't take him long to meet up with Penny, who was waiting for him near the fence that led to the school's exit. She smiled at him and waved, which caused him to speed himself up. It didn't take long before he was at his friend's side.
The feeling of being out of school and off school property felt quite good. He didn't know what it was, but it always felt like there was a distinctive change in the air when he was no longer at the school, having to worry about assignments and what not. He always felt more free, especially now since he was soon going to be free to go into ChalkZone. That place was far better than the Real World. If it weren't for the whole 'chalking up' thing Biclops recently warned him about, as well as other factors, he would probably spend the entire weekend there.
Oh, why was he worried about his parents finding out? They were easy to convince otherwise. They didn't pay that much attention. It wasn't that they were neglectful or anything. But they had so much trust in him that, so long as he provided a flimsey excuse, he could disappear for hours and they wouldn't question it. He felt some sense of relief that he had parents like that. Otherwise, it would be hard to visit ChalkZone.
And speaking of ChalkZone...
"Do you remember what Snap said he wanted me to draw for the picnic? I mean, aside from food?"
Penny looked around the area before hissing to Rudy, "Be careful! We're out in public!"
"Oh, right. Sorry." Rudy felt a little bad for not being more watchful. Vinnie and Terry could still show up at any point to try to question them. He doubted they were finished yet. "We'll continue at my place. When would you be able to come over?"
"Probably after dinner." Said Penny. "My mom wants me to help her out with the animals as usual. Chores need to be done first, then she wants me to do homework, and then it'll be time to eat after." Penny rubbed the side of her head. "It's a lot of work, but it needs to be done." She smiled at Rudy. "Don't worry. I'll be able to meet up with you and Snap probably around seven or eight."
"Okay, that'll be fine." It wasn't like ChalkZone had a standard day-night cycle. Even at eight, it should be bright as heck in Day Zone, which was where the picnic was going to be. "I'll see you around then, okay?"
Penny nodded. "See you later, Rudy."
"Bye!" Rudy called out to her. After that, the two children immediately parted ways, having come across their parents waiting for them in their own respective cars. With the parking lot being repaved, students had to be picked up here. With one more wave to each other, Rudy and Penny joined their parents in the car and started on their way home.
sss
"What's this assignment you need to do, Rudy?" Mr. Tabootie asked. "Is it another one of those volcanoes you seem obsessed about?"
"I need to make a historical diorama." Rudy explained. A smile spread along his face as he began to set up the box carefully, wanting to get a good idea on the size and scale this was going to be. "You see, I just take this clay here and start to.."
"Yeah, yeah, that's nice, Rudy. I'm sure you'll win like you always do." Mr. Tabootie said in an almost dismissive tone.
Rudy stared over at his dad. He saw that he wasn't even looking at the moment. He was too busy drinking his cup of coffee and looking through the newspaper. Rudy narrowed his eyes and huffed slightly. Of course, his dad would not pay much attention. He was never as supportive as his mother was. Still, he would have thought that his dad would try to show some interest.
"Dad... This is really important! And it's not a contest, it's for a grade! You see, if we all get an A, we can.."
"That's good, little man. Just keep up the good work and you'll succeed."
Rudy folded his arms against his chest. He usually tried to be more understanding. His dad did work long hours at the meat market, after all. So it wasn't like he had all this free time in the world. But he was home right now and he didn't need to go work until many hours later. Surely he had some kind of time right now to spare, right?
At least his mom seemed to appreciate his work. She had walked over a few minutes ago and she was looking over his work so far. He had only made two figurines so far and they still need sometime to harden up. His mom appeared to be admiring them. It was hard to tell if it was as much as he would have hoped. But at least she was trying to give him some credit with his skill.
"I'm sure it'll be lovely when it's done, Rudy." Mrs. Tabootie set the figurines down. "What are you going to do?"
Rudy smiled somewhat darkly as he raised his hands up and did a few finger wiggles. "I'm going to do the old Salem Witch Hunt! It's going to have bats and witches and villagers and..."
"Now hold on there." Mr. Tabootie lowered the paper and stared over at Rudy with a quizzical look. "I thought you said this had to be realistic, based on history."
Rudy nodded his head. "Of course it is!"
Mr. Tabootie shook his head slowly. "There were no real witches back then, Rudy. There never were any witches." He tipped the cup of coffee and drink a little more. After swallowing loudly, he set the cup down and wiped off his mouth. "You're not going to get a good grade on that if you keep on that route."
Rudy narrowed his eyes. "Mr. Wilter only said it needed to be inspired by history. He never said that we couldn't get creative with it." He raised his hands up at his sides. "I had even asked him if it was okay."
"All right, whatever you say." Mr. Tabootie flicked his hand to the side a few times. "Just as long as you know what you're doing."
Mrs. Tabootie glared at her husband for a moment before she reached down and she gently touched Rudy's shoulders. "Don't worry about your father, dear. He cares just as much about this project as I do. We're both so proud of you. I'm sure you'll do great!"
Rudy wanted to feel better. He wished that his mother's words had more impact than this. He wasn't sure why he still felt a little upset. Maybe it was because, no matter what he did, his dad hardly seemed impressed with his work. His dad was more about business and didn't care much about art. But at least he wasn't like Mr. Wilter. So that was a plus.
It was still nice that his mom showed some interest and did her best to support him. That was even better. Her encouraging words helped to offset his discouragement whenever it would settle into his head. Even if she didn't really say too much, it was still something and that's something that he still appreciated.
He still wasn't entirely sure how he was going to do this. He did have some ideas in mind. He didn't want to make it too outlandish. He still wanted it to have some realism to it. But he still wanted to take a bit of liberty and create some clay witches for this. At least it was just clay; he could never do this with chalk. He shuddered at the thought.
For the next hour or two, Rudy went to work with building his creation. He didn't know how much time had passed. He was too focused on his work. He thought he could hear his dad getting up from the seat and his mom going to do the wash. Either way, they were out of the kitchen and were off doing their own thing. That left Rudy time alone to work on this.
He kind of preferred it this way. He liked being able to do what he wanted, set things up how he wanted, and not have to worry about a second opinion. Besides, this was just a thing for school. His parents didn't really need to get involved with this. All he was doing was setting up a diorama. Not like a whole lot could go wrong here, right?
After working a little longer, Rudy paused and took a step back. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he admired his handiwork. Everything seemed to be getting into place. He had a few villagers and two witches so far. Those should be enough. He did not have a ton of space to work with. So yeah, this should be good. And he got portions of the background finished, but he still wasn't done yet. He needed some more stuff.
He went outside real quick to gather up some dirt, grass, and rocks. Not a whole lot. Just enough to give that feeling of having no paved ground, being outside, and the stones served well to create a circle around the two witches who were about to be burned.
Now...what was he going to do about fire..?
Obviously he couldn't use real fire. He wasn't stupid. So he would need a way to replicate it pretty well. He could just take the easy way out and use paper, color it, and cut it in the form of flames. Or he could try something else. Something no one would think of.
Wait, instead of an actual fire, maybe he could just have ashes there and the witches are already burnt? Or they were getting ready to burn and... No, the second option sounded better. Maybe he could get really dark powder that shined a litle to make it look like a few flickers of ember were still there. Maybe he could char part of the witches and make it look like they were burned to death.
But how would he be able to pull that off? Using black paint would be too... He wasn't sure what the word was. But he doubted it would work the way that he would have liked it. So maybe another way was in order.
What if he were to use something to cover the clay with? Something that would make it look burnt? There were a lot of stuff here. Would bleach work? Maybe not, but maybe it would still surprise him. And there were other things to try if that were the case. Something was bound to work.
But before he would try anything, he should ask his parents. One of them might know which would be good to try. He didn't want to go through with this without asking them for help.
Rudy decided to try his mother first, considering she showed the most interest in his work. He went up the stairs, having heard her going up there earlier. When he was at the top of the step, he looked around and it didn't take him long to see his mother further in the hallway, holding a load of laundry, carrying it into her and her husband's room.
"Hey mom!" Rudy called out as he rushed towards her. "I hate to bother you, but I..."
"Not now, Rudy. I need to hang up these clothes. You know how your father can get when his nice clean suits aren't up and ready as soon as possible." Mrs. Tabootie said. She gave a small chuckle, but it was evident that she was not too happy. Rudy understood how bossy his dad could be sometimes. "I'll be able to talk when I'm done."
"But it seriously won't take that long." Rudy raised up his hand towards his mom. "All I need is some..."
Mrs. Tabootie cut him off. "Later, Rudy. Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait a few minutes."
Rudy grumbled softly as he folded his arms against his chest. He shifted his narrowed gaze to the side and hissed, "It always takes you so long to put away clothes..."
"What was that, Rudy?"
Rudy immediately backtracked. "Oh nothing!" He gave his mom a quick, forced smile. She didn't seem upset, just confused. But he would rather not push any buttons right now. "I'll go ask my dad."
"Well okay. But if he doesn't help, I'll be down in a few minutes, okay?"
Rudy nodded his head as he turned and walked down the steps. He didn't really believe what his mother said. He knew that she was going to be up there for quite a while organizing all that. She was pretty finicky about that stuff. Certain clothes had to go here and there, other clothes had to go there... It drove him nuts whenever he wanted her help and she turned him away because she wanted to get that done, promising to be 'down in a few minutes'.
He had his doubts that his father would help. But he might as well try. It was worth a shot, right? When he reached the bottom step, he turned around the corner and he could see his dad sitting on the couch. He was leaning back, the newspaper laying on his stomach, using it as a sort of pad to write on some paper. On the television, the sports channel was on.
Rudy hesitated for a moment. Then he walked over. "Dad, can I ask you a favor?"
"Not now, Rudy. I need to watch this game." Mr. Tabootie replied. "It's really important that I get all the data down accurately. I'm going to need this for later."
Rudy could feel his gut twisting up slightly. He held up his hands at his sides as he walked over closer to his dad. "But dad, my project is important too!" He motioned his hands towards the kitchen, where the diorama still laid, unfinished. "Please? I just need to ask you a quick question. It won't even take that much time!"
But his dad was adament. "I'm sorry, Rudy. But it'll have to wait until commercial. I can't take my eyes off this for a second. In fact, just talking to you right now is breaking my concentration. Now go...!" He motioned his hand towards the kitchen dismissively, not even bothering to look. "Just go play with your little clay models or something. You'll be fine."
"But dad...!"
It was useless. Mr. Tabootie was no longer listening at this point. Rudy realized in that moment that he was on his own.
Rudy humphed as he folded his arms once more, glaring at his dad with a very displeased look. This wasn't the first time his parents bailed on him like this. They often said they were 'too busy', even when the help would have only taken a few seconds, like now. He didn't get why they wouldn't want to be more supportive of him.
Well, he wasn't going to wait around to ask about stupid bleach or other chemicals, that's for sure. If his parents weren't going to help, then he was going to check for himself. He just needed something to test the chemicals on until he found one that seemed to have the appropriate reaction. That shouldn't take too long.
He decided that the best place to do it was outside. He didn't want to spill this stuff all over the ground and who knows how bad it might smell. He wouldn't want to distract his dear old father from his 'work', right? Rudy rolled his eyes at this. He shrugged off the thought as he went into the kitchen to grab what he needed to prepare for the testing. Once he had a large bowl filled with water, some paper towels, some more clay, and whatever else, he headed on outside.
It was a bit of a hassle and he nearly tripped once or twice, but he did manage to get the stuff out on the front lawn. It was at this point that he froze. A part of him reminded him that he didn't know what he was doing, or even if this was safe, both for him and the ground below him. But he quickly shrugged it off. It wasn't like he was going to poor the chemicals all over the gorund. It shouldn't be too bad.
Now that he had what he needed, he just had to open up one of the chemical bottles to pour them in. Now, what should be the first one to open? Perhaps the bleach? That seemed to be a good one to start with. Rudy reached over and picked up the bottle, carrying it over to the bowl. Geeze, this thing was heavier than he thought. The sooner he got this done, the better.
Rudy grabbed onto the lid and began to twist it open. He grunted and hissed, fighting against the tightness of the lid. He struggled with it for a few moments, holding onto the jug with one hand while the other fought against the lid. After a few moments, he managed to get it open. The lid popped loose and he could instantly smell the bleach. He could feel a headache forming. He was glad that he didn't do this inside the house.
Now he just needed to pour it into the bowl and he should be all set. He settled himself on the ground in front of the bowl. He steadied the bottle over and he tipped it down, pouring some of it into the bowl. He didn't need a whole lot. After he got maybe half a cup in there, he pulled back the bottle of bleach and went to set it down.
Without warning, Rudy's fingers began to slip. The bottle started to slip down. Rudy struggled to grab onto it. He looked down as he saw it drop onto the ground in front of him. The force was enough to cause the clear liquid inside to come out of the opening. In seconds, Rudy could feel something cold hitting against his face, against his eyes. And for the first split second, he lickened it to being splashed with water.
Then like a train wreck coming to barrel in, the pain came. Rudy immediately dropped onto the ground, covering his now burning eyes with his hands. His tears desperately tried to flush out the bleach, but it didn't seem to work. As the agony swept through him, he could feel himself opening his mouth and releasing a loud, bloodcurdling scream.
"Aaaahhhhh!"
