Hello! I wrote this in honor of the Animaniacs reboot! Yay!
I played around with an element from the reboot, and honestly, this is not my best work. But I wanted something to adhere to the fact that the reboot exists, and I wanted to write ONE THING, at LEAST, that's set in 2020, the suckiest of my sucky years.
Hope you like it! MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR, LIKE, THE WHOLE EPISODE.
I'm also 90% sure that I got the name wrong... but oh well.
Yakko took a deep breath, trying to get his heartbeat under control.
Today was an unexpected day.
They started filming a special Halloween segment for their reboot. For this episode, the new writers had created a one-time parody monster of Pennywise the Dancing Clown named Nickelwise.
At first, the aim of the episode had been to scare Wakko, but instead of being scared, Wakko took a strange liking to the clown. Everyone thought "alright, fine. It'll just be the Warners harassing this clown."
That was also not the case.
Wakko and Dot's fears weren't touched on in the least. Yakko taught them a long time ago that, when in the face of fear, laugh it off. The more you laugh, or the more optimistic you are, the less afraid you actually feel. It was never the most effective with Wakko, especially considering his immense fear of clowns, but at least this time, he was able to put Yakko's advice to good use.
But what happens when there's no one around to let you know that it's working?
Yakko doesn't fear much. Next to nothing, really. But the one thing he's afraid of is being alone.
When he walked into the room, the first thing he noticed was that he was alone. He started telling himself jokes to try and lessen his fear, but it only reminded him that there was no one else there. Nickelwise rolling his eyes at Yakko's lamer-than-normal jokes isn't what made his heart pound. It was the fact that Nickelwise was the only other person in the room with him, and he was ignoring Yakko, and it made him feel so alone.
If they had been filming this segment back in 1995, he would have been fine. At least there would be a recording crew there, watching what was happening and moving the camera around. But nowadays, they sent out drones to record the episode instead of supervising it for themselves. There were people watching the recordings, but that didn't count. He was alone.
He felt his soul leave his body as though being sucked out like a vacuum. After that, it was mostly just weird, incoherent mumbles. He was vaguely aware of someone shouting, maybe calling for someone. But he saw this bright, yellow light, and felt as though he were being drawn towards it. It promised that his fears would no longer exist, and it was very tempting.
But something felt off about going there. So, he waited for a little bit. And then he felt himself being pulled downwards, a deep need for oxygen, to breathe, filling him.
And without much thought at all, he had turned to Wakko and Dot and begged to know if he was funny. Of course, they assured him that he was, that he was one of Dot's top 3 funniest siblings. Making people laugh wasn't necessarily what he was afraid of, but at least he was being answered, someone was speaking to him.
After that, they finished the episode and wrapped up the day. The Warners headed to their water tower, leaving the crew to take care of Nickelwise. But as soon as the door was closed, Yakko felt that he needed some answers.
He turned to his siblings, who stared at him worriedly.
"Sibs, what happened down there?" he asked. "One minute, I'm sitting on the floor, talking to Nickelwise, and the next…"
Wakko and Dot looked so worried for him. How close had he come to giving up on everything?
"First things first," Dot said, sticking up her hand. "You're alright?"
Yakko nodded. Easy answer.
"Yes, I am. I just wanna know what happened."
Wakko gestured to the couch. He pulled a cookie out of his hammerspace and offered it to Yakko, who took it gratefully. He still felt a little hollow about the whole situation.
"Dot and I were walking towards the room where we knew your segment was being filmed," Wakko explained. "We got into an argument about how you were going to take down Nickelwise."
"And then the crew who were watching the recording started shouting," Dot said. "They were calling for the cameras to be turned off and they were calling for medical attention and stuff. We thought you had taken care of the situation."
"But when we walked into the room to check, you were passed out on the floor," Wakko continued. "We asked the rest of the crew, but it may only have been us who could see your soul floating above you."
Yakko nibbled on his cookie a little bit. His stomach was in knots.
"And then we snapped you out of it and you asked us if we thought you were funny," Dot concluded. Yakko nodded.
"That's all?" he asked. Wakko put his hand on Yakko's lap.
"Nickelwise was supposed to know our fears," he said. "So are you really scared of not being funny?"
Yakko bit his lip. This wasn't how tonight was supposed to go… he just wanted to know what happened while he was distracted by the light. Then again, nothing had gone the way it was supposed to go today.
"N-not really," he admitted.
"Then what happened? What did Nickelwise show you?" Dot asked. Yakko took a deep breath, fingering the cookie.
"I'm afraid of…" he cut himself off, trying to gather his courage. He didn't want to tell Wakko and Dot this. It was too… unimportant. So instead, he shook his head and smiled at them. "Nah, it doesn't matter. Everything is alright now."
Wakko and Dot frowned at him, clearly not liking his answer. That was a predictable reaction from his siblings. What he didn't expect was for Wakko to grab the cookie and stuff it in Yakko's mouth.
"Are you afraid of being alone?" he asked. Yakko's eyes widened and he swallowed the cookie. Hard. He had to cough a little bit to clear up his throat, but it was enough of an answer for his siblings. He felt two pairs of arms wrap around him.
"Aww, Yakko," Dot said. She nuzzled her nose into his neck. "You don't have to be scared of that."
"Yeah!" Wakko exclaimed. He squeezed Yakko a little tighter. "You're stuck with us until the end of time!"
This made Yakko chuckle a little bit. They sat there for a while, soaking up each other's warmth and love.
"Yakko?" Wakko asked tentatively. "If you're afraid of being alone… why did you ask us if you're funny?"
"Yeah," Dot agreed. "What does that have to do with being alone?"
Yakko shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know," he admitted. "It was the first thing that came to mind."
Everyone remained silent after that. A voice went through Yakko's mind. A voice belonging to someone nameless, faceless, and heartless. He didn't know who she was, but he felt that he had known her, once upon a time.
"You've got a sharp tongue there, boy. You best know how to use it. Cause if you ain't able to make people laugh, no one'll want you around. Not even your dumb siblings."
Yakko slowly wrapped his arms around his siblings, too. This was a nice, warm hug.