Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Ooh, ooh, I want that one!” Wakko jumped and pointed at the picture on the ice cream truck. Yakko giggled and pulled out his loose change.

The ice cream pop was $8. Yakko quickly counted up his bills and change with unnatural nerdy speed. It came to $7.95. Five cents short.

“Sorry, Wakko, I-”

Yakko turned to look at his brother, but he wasn’t there. In fact, nothing was there. Just him, the ice cream truck, and…

With a gentle jingling, a nickel came rolling out of the darkness. It fell at Yakko’s feet. Then came the voice. That horrible voice he would never forget.

“Nickel for your thoughts?”

Eyes. A face. Lunging right at him.

“Nickelwise!” Yakko screamed, sitting up in his ball pit. Cold sweat dripped from his fur. His breathing was quick. The dream was over.

Halloween. It used to be one of his favorite holidays. Full of silly costumes, cooky frights, and, best of all, plenty of free candy. Ever since that day four years ago, though…

Why couldn’t he get that stupid clown out of his head?

Yakko stood, balls rustling around him as he waded out of his makeshift bed. He hadn’t really talked about his evil clown encounter with anyone since the day it happened. His sibs seemed to recognize that it was a sore subject. How had the loquacious, confident leader fallen while his little siblings got through it without breaking a sweat? Yakko thought about it more than he would like to admit.

He just wanted to have a good, fun Halloween with his sibs. All he had to do was get through the day without having another breakdown.

He felt so pathetic. The day of spooky goblins and cartoon skulls now truly had the capacity to shake him to his core. He noticed that neither of his sibs were in their beds. It was normal for Dot to be up a little before him, but not Wakko. Maybe he was excited. He had some sort of big costume planned this year, something about being a donut with an actual hole in the middle.

It wasn’t hard to find them. Both were in the living room on the couch, watching a movie- It. Of course.

“Gooood morning, sibs.” He greeted, sounding confident as usual. “What’s up?”

“Oh, great.” Dot’s tone was sarcastic, flat, annoyed. “He’s up.”

“What?” Yakko asked with a little confused chuckling.

“It was nice while it lasted…” Wakko sighed, turning away from Yakko back towards the movie on TV.

“While what lasted?” Yakko asked again. Something wasn’t right. Something in the air wasn’t right.

“It was just nice getting a break from all your incessant yapping.” Dot explained, her voice and face still devoid of much emotion. “Some peace and quiet for a change.”

Yakko’s smile dropped, although he tried to keep his cool. Was this some kind of poorly thought out prank from his sibs? It didn’t feel good.

“W-well, my name is Yakko after all, not Yappo… heh…”

“Yeah. Really funny.” Wakko deadpanned, not laughing in the slightest. He seemed happier to see Pennywise show up on screen than his own brother on Halloween morning.

“Just more lame jokes to cover up all his insecurities.” Dot added. “What’s next? Gonna break out into another lazy convoluted song set to someone else’s music?”

The elder sibling was taken aback. “Uh, sibs… what’s going on here?” He asked, his voice vulnerable for once. “Get up on the wrong side of the bed? Did I do something to upset you?”

“Plenty.” Wakko said.

“Yeah. For decades.” Dot stood up and Wakko followed suit, the pair now facing their brother. “Don’t you think it ever gets old to have a brother constantly rambling about some trivial nonsense?”

“Hurting our ears with that singing…”

“And look at that so-called fashion sense. Where’s the shirt? You think anyone wants to see that lanky torso of yours? You’ve worn the same basic looking pants for a century. Do they even come off anymore?”

“I… I have different pairs…” Yakko’s voice was quiet and timid. He didn’t know how to react to this sudden onslaught. It felt almost like another dream.

The little siblings started to make their way to the tower door.

“Your cooking isn’t nearly as good as you think it is, you know.” Wakko stated. “Even my tummy has trouble handling your roast beef.”

“Would it kill you to brush your fur from time to time?” Dot sneered. “You look a homeless dog that just rolled in off the train.”

“You never let us have any fun besides what you want to do. And your plans usually stink.”

“You don’t have an ounce of self-control. That Hello Nurse thing you did for so long? Don’t you have any respect for others?”

“You’re so controlling.”

“You want to ‘protect’ us from everything. Protect us from what? We’re indestructible toons, you dunce.”

“We never needed a dad, idiot.”

“And you fail pretty hard at being one.”

“Let us get locked alone in this tower for how long? What kind of toon ‘protector’ lets a human trick him so bad?”

“The only thing worse than being locked up was that we were stuck in here with you for all that time.”

“You don’t even want us to make any other friends.”

“Yeah. Scared that if we meant anyone else who gave a damn, we’d realize how lame you really are.”

“Well, guess what?”

“We finally did.”

Wakko and Dot opened the tower door, and instantly a vile atmosphere poured inside. Whether it was really storming or not, Yakko couldn’t tell. All he could see was his silhouette against the lightning struck sky.

Nickelwise. He was back.

“Hello, Yakky.” He grinned his horrible wicked grin as he stepped inside. Wakko and Dot didn’t even flinch. “Miss me?”

“W-what?” Yakko stammered out the words, his confidence destroyed by the barrage of criticisms he felt were probably true. “What’s going on here? You’re… you’re supposed to be g-gone!”

“Indeed… your little trick was pretty neat, wasn’t it? Figuring out my weakness, or so you thought. The truth is, you just got lucky, bailed out by your precious little siblings here. Well, not this time. Now they know the truth, too.”

Dot smiled wickedly. “Saving you was a mistake. We should’ve realized right then and there that you’re nothing but dead weight.”

“Holding us back all these years.” Wakko added.

“Pfff…” Dot tried to hold in a giggle. “It’s kind of funny when you think about it. How pathetic you really are, and we couldn’t even see it.”

“Like some kind of sick joke.” Wakko’s cheeks blushed as he too tried to hold in his torrent of laughter, but it wasn’t long before the flood gates opened. He and Dot broke into uproarious laughter, hard, unending laughter, laughter so hard it seemed like it had to hurt their lungs. Nickelwise joined in with a slow, menacing chuckle, all three pointing at the clown show standing before them. The next time Yakko looked down, he was literally dressed as a clown- white makeup, silly outfit, and silly pointy hat. Wakko and Dot laughed obsessively, fanatically, foaming at the mouth as if they were losing their minds. As if they just couldn’t handle the thought of how cosmically pathetic their brother really was. As if they just wanted to explode, as if their very existence was made just as hilariously insignificant by mere association with him. They laughed as if it was the last thing they wanted to do but they just couldn’t make themselves stop.

Yakko tried to make himself move, to do anything to intervene, but he just couldn’t. He felt small. He felt so pathetically small. In fact, was the trio in front of him getting bigger? Was the room getting bigger? He looked around and realized that with every horrible chuckle, he was indeed actually losing size, inches off his height, becoming smaller and smaller until he was smaller than the heel of Nickelwise’s boot.

“What’s wrong, Yakky?” Nickelwise taunted in pure glee, his perfect revenge finally complete. “Feeling a little small?” He laughed once more. “You always thought your size gave you some sort of power over these two. Now maybe you can see how pathetically tiny you really are, in the face of the things that actually matter. The things like me.” For once, anger broke through in Nickelwise’s voice, his humiliating defeat from years ago still etched in his mind. Yakko wouldn’t get away this time. There was no one coming to save him now.

“But don’t worry.” The evil clown continued. “They’ll still be in good hands. Better hands. Isn’t that right, my precious, precious children?”

Nickelwise placed a gentle hand on Wakko’s shoulder, the smaller Warner finally starting to break free of his never-ending, painful glee. Yakko looked up.

“You… you take your hand off of him!”

“Aww, still got some fight in you?” Nickelwise taunted. He put a hand on Dot’s shoulder too. “I’m a little surprised. Here. Let me make all that churning angst inside just… disappear.”

Nickelwise took one more booming step closer. With Wakko and Dot watching with intense anticipation, with total joy, their eyes begging their new protector to finish the job, Nickelwise raised his boot. The clown size shoe loomed large, gigantic over Yakko’s head.

“Look at you.” He sneered. “No singing, no dancing, no theatrics. Going out like what you truly are. An insignificant little roach.” He gave one more horrific grin. “Nighty night, Yakky.”

And then he stomped.

But his shoe never touched the floor.

“Hmm?” Nickelwise grunted, surprised as his boot started lifting further in the air.

“I… said… take… your… hands… off… them!”

Yakko felt some control of the situation return, some of his fiery desire to keep his siblings safe, whether they despised him or not. He regained his mass, his body growing along with his ego, until finally he was tall enough to push the shoe off entirely. Nickelwise stepped back, surprised. The little sibs watched curiously.

Rising all the way back to his original height, Yakko tore off the clown outfit and finally was able to speak.

“I don’t know why you get so much sick pleasure out of picking on me in particular.” He spoke weakly at first, his yakking regaining strength as he went along. “I don’t know what makes you want to keep tearing me down over and over. Maybe it’s because you just hate the way I talk. Maybe you hate someone with confidence like mine. Maybe you hate the way I almost got away. Heck, maybe I really am just an easy target.”

Yakko rounded the couch into the siblings’ living room. Nickelwise tensely turned to face him. He was uncertain- his hold over reality was shaken in the face of Yakko’s defiance.

“Yeah, I’ll admit it for once.” Yakko continued. “I’m scared. Terrified, even. You want to take away everything that ever mattered to me. The truth is, I’m not that hard to figure out.” He shrugged. “All that confidence is just a coping mechanism, right? Take out the foundation and I come crumbling down real quick. Yeah, I can see why you’d want to come after me. My sibs, they can handle it. Me? No way.”

Yakko walked across the living room, one foot in front of the other. He kept on yakking. Nickelwise kept on watching. What could Yakko really do? Everything here was still under Nickelwise’s control.

“But, really, why should I care what you think about me? That’s my real problem. Letting everyone else decide how much I’m worth. Yeah, real clever metaphor, with the shrinking and all that. All it really did was wake me up. I know what I’m worth. To me and to them, however much they might appreciate it. For all my faults, all the holes you can pick in my character, I know one thing. I’m an original.”

Yakko arrived in front of the TV, which was still playing that same stupid old film.

“And I realized the one thing you truly fear. The one thing you probably can’t stand. The truth about you, Nickelwise? Well… you’re just a cheap knockoff.”

Suddenly, Yakko turned and plunged his hands into the television screen, grabbing hold of his target and yanking as hard as he could. Inch by inch, It emerged, brought into this realm by the pull of Yakko’s gloved hands. With one final yank, Yakko flew back, smirking when he saw who was now standing before him.

None other than Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Like a predator, a caged animal starving for fresh meat, Pennywise sniffed the air, took in the atmosphere of the room. One spirit was particularly more succulent than the rest. One spirit needed to be consumed. He snapped his head towards Nickelwise.

“Nickelwise, huh?” He said, his sick demented voice ringing in the other clown’s ears. “What’s the joke? You’re worth more than me?”

Nickelwise took a step back. For the first time, he wasn’t in control. Not even close.

“I-I’m a big fan of your work!” He stuttered.

“Bah. You couldn’t even be called a pale imitation.” Pennywise retorted. “You’re a clown made for a clown’s world. A true children’s entertainer. I’m the EATER OF WORLDS! What are you? The eater of ink?”

“No!” Nickelwise begged, his voice desperate and quivering. He tried to leave the tower, but the door swung shut behind him. “Stay away!” He pleaded. “W-we can work together! I can serve you! Anything!”

“Begging. Pathetic.” Pennywise stood mere inches from Nickelwise’s face. He was the smaller figure, and yet his presence towered over the pretender. The thick and heavy atmosphere of fear permeated the whole room. He paused to savor his meal. He shook his head, almost in disappointment. “It’s always too easy when their biggest fear is… ME!”

With a horrible laughter, Pennywise struck, lunging forward into Nickelwise’s cowering body. Yakko couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, except that Nickelwise was being completely consumed down to every atom of his being. His screams lasted only a few seconds.

Freed from Nickelwise’s influence, Wakko and Dot blinked and held their hands to their heads. They both had pounding headaches and were confused about where they were and what was happening. Yakko leapt over to them and pulled them further away from the chaos.

“Yakko…” They both mumbled.

“What happened?” Dot tried to shake the fog out of her head.

“Nickelwise happened.” Yakko explained. “He got in your heads somehow. But I took care of it.”

“How?” Wakko asked. Yakko merely pointed.

“Now that was a good meal.” Pennywise stood tall. “But I’m not quite satisfied yet…” He turned his head, a sick smile stretching across his face. “Hello, kiddos.”

“Uhhhhh, sibs? Help me deal with this?”

The little sibs, almost totally lucid now, nodded their heads. Together, the siblings jumped to Pennywise, not hesitating for a second to pick him up and carry him back to the TV. The evil clown struggled, looked around in confusion, but none of his powers seemed to work on these kids. They didn’t fear him in the slightest. “H-hey-” he started to protest, but the Warners quickly tossed him head first back into the screen. Demonic appendages sprouted from his lower body to desperately hold onto the edges of the screen, but the Warners worked together to push him through back into his world. Wakko grabbed the remote.

“Always hated this movie.” He quipped, changing the channel. “Gives me the creeps.”

“Phew.” Yakko wiped his forehead, looking around the tower. “I think we’re good. No more interdimensional entities here to torment us with our fears. We’re good…”

The weight and exhaustion of what he had just experienced suddenly hit Yakko, making him collapse to his knees. Wakko and Dot rushed to his side, each grabbing one of his arms to hold him up.

“What really happened, Yakko?” Dot asked gently. “What did he make us do?”

“Oh, not much really.” Yakko smirked weakly. “Nothing I haven’t heard in my dreams a thousand times before.”

Dot frowned. “Whatever he made us say, it wasn’t us. We… we love you, Yakko. We need you.”

“Yeah…” Wakko agreed. “I hate that clown. I want to turn his face into mashed potatoes with gravy…” He pounded his fist into his palm.

“I’d do worse…” Dot added.

“Well, luckily, you’ll never get the chance.” Yakko smiled. “I’m pretty sure he’s gone forever now. Gone gone.”

“He’d better hope so.” Dot declared, her face dark. “Now, Yakko, you’re not going to hold this unfathomable trauma inside and pretend it never happened just to make yourself look strong for us, right?”

“What?” Yakko waved his hand dismissively, quickly standing up on his own two feet. “No! When have I ever done that?”

Dot shot a look at him, unconvinced. “Wakko?” She spoke. “Call Scratchy.”

“On it.”

“No!” Yakko protested. Then he took a deep breath. “I mean, no. Can I just… talk about it with you guys first?”

Dot raised an eyebrow, then smiled.

“That’s more like it.”