A Collection of Animaniacs and BATIM/BATDR crossover ideas.
We need more crossover stories like Bendy and the Ink Machine/Bendy and the Dark Revival x Animaniacs.
I even made a cover for one of the stories titled "Animaniacs and the Dark Puddles".
Animaniacs x BATDR
1st idea.) What if Yakko, Wakko, and Dot got tricked by another Plotz's schemes to get rid of them by hiring a worker from another animation studio? Whose name is Wilson?
When the Warners enter Joey's Cartoon World their appearances change to fit in that yellow and black cartoon world; Their eyes will glow yellow sometimes when they use their cartoon powers, and ink will sometimes drip off from their bodies. And they'll hear voices in the dark puddles.
After a day in that cartoon world, They soon meet an animator from the same studio named Audrey. Who becomes a mother figure to them.
And What if they have some of that dark puddle when they were created?
Animaniacs x BATIM
1st idea.) What if Yakko, Wakko, and Dot travel to New York and found an abandoned animation studio? Joey Drew Studios. And what do these kids do? Go in and find anything that is interesting or to make new friends.
They got more than they bargained for.
Others
Some of my other ideas are Yakko, Wakko, and Dot joining Henry or Audrey on their survival adventure in the studio.Another is that the trio is being experimented with by the Keepers. Turn into a demon-like monster like the Ink Demon Bendy.Lastly; Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's creator while under a large amount of pressure and stress, what if he was also dealing with the grief of the loss of his wife/fiancé and their unborn child? And that the trio was his vision and inspiration of what his life would have been if his wife/fiancé had lived and had more children. As a way to bring his children to life.
___________________________________________________________________________
We're always free to choose...
To believe what we want to believe.
But when you step back.
When you really look at where you've been and the things you've done.
Your past will come.
To devour you.
It was a quarter to 11 in the Warner Brothers studio lot and everyone was busy getting their movies and cartoons filmed to be ready for the public to watch on the big and little screens. Everything seems to be going smoothly...
CRASH!
That is until the Warners were running by the sets while trying to escape Ralph the Security Guard.
This happens every day, for the past hour on the dot since the Warner Brothers and sister escaped from the studio's iconic water tower. And the studio's CEO is at his wit's end at their zany antics. Something has to be done.
"Something has to be done with those kids!" Plotz shouted at the Studio's psychiatrist and Nurse. "But how? Nothing we seem to do works." said Otto, "And no matter what we do they won't take what we say seriously." Said Hello Nurse.
Plotz slumps back into his chair and starts drumming his fingers on his desk, "There's got to be some way to get rid of the Warners or at least get them to behave."
Just then a call from the secretary spoke from the calling speakers, "Mr. Plotz, you have a call from Arch Gate Studio on the line."
Ding!
That call just gave the CEO an idea, a cunning idea. "Thank you, I'll take the call now."
Time Skip
"It was so nice for T.P. to give us a vacation, guess we got him on his good side." said Yakko. The three cartoon kids were on a plane to New York to see the work environment of Archgate Films, also known as Arch Gate Pictures.
The idea was to get the Warners to experience a new change in their zany cartoon culture by seeing how other cartoons behave on set. When they'll get there one of the studio's employees will take them to the studio and where they will be staying for the next six weeks.
"They were quite happy to see us go have fun." Dot Complimented, "I think they're going to miss not having us around." said Wakko.
"Uhhhh... They're lost." said Yakko
Time Skip
The employee that was picking them up was the studio's janitor, Wilson. He wasn't what they were expecting, and his character wasn't what they thought he was either. He has the title "Creepy Janitor" to a 'T' with his wheezing breath, he's blind in one eye and has a scar going across his right (blind) eye and down to his mouth.
The sun was already gone when Yakko, Wakko, and Dot arrived at the studio. It was big, not as grand as the Warner Brothers, but it was still a big building.
"So when are we going to meet everyone?" Dot asks the janitor, "Tomorrow, my dear. I only need to grab a few things before I'll show you where you'll be staying." said Wilson, Wakko then asks, "Are we going to be staying in here?"
Wilson was about to reply when the elevator jolted to a stop.
"Not again." Wakko complained, Yakko comforts his brother and asks, "Please tell us we're not stuck in here?"
Wilson replies, "No. It's just a short in the system. Been happening a lot these past few days." The doors open to reveal a museum, "Let's see what we can find."
Wilson guides the Warner siblings to the museum of Joey Drew. The man behind creating "Bendy the Dancing Demon". The Warners instantly wandered around the small museum looking at the cartoon devil. "I've never heard of him before." said Yakko, looking at one of the Bendy posters, "I think I can get along with this wolf." said Wakko, reading the facts of Boris the Wolf while Dot was thinking of having her own little theme song like Alice Angel.
At the back right side of the room, Wilson unlocks a door and upon entering there were six pedestals three on each side of the small hallway, and at the back corner, there was some kind of dark yellow machine. Wilson looks around the room and the power cabinet.
He turns to the three siblings and said, "Looks like someone has been messing with the exhibit. There should be something on each of these pedestals. Yakko. Wakko. Dot. Would you do an old man a favor and go find them? I'll attend to the power."
And like the fun zany cartoons they were, they went off scavenging for the missing items. Wakko found the Wrench and played with it in his mouth like a puppy with its chew toy, and then found a Bendy doll and hugs it like a teddy bear.
Dot Found the Music Album Record after listening to one song on the record and yanks out a Gear from one of the cabinets, there were no crashing sounds so that's a good sign.
Yakko found the ink bottle with a pen in it, and it still has some Ink inside the bottle. 'How is it not dried out?' Yakko wonders but continues his search. He found the last item on the list, a book titled "The Illusion of Living" by Joey Drew. Now Yakko was a bookworm, but something about this book felt a little off. And not in a funny way.
Once they got all the items on the pedestals, Wilson closes the power cabinet and walks back to where the Warners were standing. "Only one thing left to do. Pull that switch." he said pointing towards the switch where Wakko found the Wrench.
The brothers and sister use all their strength to pull the lever and when they do most of the lights are turned off. "It is done." Wilson said, appearing right behind them, startling them in the process.
"Wilson?" "Oh Yakko, The things you and your brother and sister have set in motion." said Wilson.
Following the janitor's gaze, the Warner siblings saw that the machine was producing think Ink onto the floor. "What's going on here, Willy?" said Dot. Wilson ignored the nickname and replied, "The ink is calling us, my dear. Can't you hear it?" "What?" said Wakko confusingly.
By then the ink was already reaching their feet and a sudden wave of uneasiness and feelings of drowsy hits them.
Wilson shushes them and said, "Don't fret. You're going home!"
Yakko takes a step back with his sibs at his heel, "Stay back you creep!"
But Wilson wasn't phased by this. "Listen to me, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. Pay attention to these last words." By now the ink was now at Wilson's hips but up to Yakko's chest, as Wakko and Dot climbs into his arms to keep themselves from drowning.
"Because very soon... You will forget everything." Wilson then grabs onto Yakko's arms keeping him and his siblings pinned.
"Let go of us!" Wakko shouts as he tries to pry Wilson's hand off his shirt, as Dot tries to do the same for her skirt.
"Come find me. Come find me and I will show you your purpose, I'll show you the truth." said Wilson as the ink continues to rise.
'This isn't really happening.' The three siblings thought as Wilson delivers his final message to them.
"And now... You'll die."
Yakko tries to fight off the drowsiness that's draining him of his cartoon abilities, but it's overwhelming him and his sibs. "What are you doing?!"
Wilson doesn't respond, but his grip gets tighter on his arms moving closer to his shoulders as Yakko holds Wakko and Dot closer to him. It hits Yakko like a lightning bolt, He knows what Wilson was about to do next.
"No..." Yakko whispers out on his breath, as he and his younger brother and sister are plunged forcefully into the dark puddles.
"NO!!"
Time Skip
The first thing Yakko saw when he opened his eyes was that the room he was in wasn't like the one at Arch Gate, it looks so run down, and the only colors there is are black and yellow. Much like that ink machine. He sees two blob figures not too far from him, thinking that they are his sibs. Yakko rolls onto his back to see a headlamp shining down on him, he tries to block out the bright light with his hand. But stops to see that his hands aren't like what he normally sees, one has his gloves on and the other was coated in black ink. But they both have something that normal toons don't have.
Five fingers on each hand.
"What's wrong with my hands?..." Yakko's breathing becomes short and fast, as his body is shaking uncontrollably. "What's wrong with my hands!?"
"Yakko?"
Yakko turns to his siblings who were also shaking in shock at themselves and their older brother's sudden changes. They each look like they are only half of their cartoony self but with the other half being human covered in ink.
Yakko crawls over to his sibs and hugs them close, "I'm here. I'm still me." He reassures them as the three stay like this for who knows how long.
Some vacation this turns out to be.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Clips to the Story Ideas: Meeting Audrey and 'Alice'
It's been a day since the Warners got sent to this strange world. None of them didn't know where to go, so they made a camp in the Heavenly Toys department.
They found a mirror, and they have seen was what the machine did to them. Their eyes were glowing yellow, but they looked like human eyes instead of their normal zany eyes. Their heads remain the same and their faces look like a mix of humans and animals. Instead of fur, they have ink coating their bodies.
All in all, they looked nothing like their usual selves. Just strangers staring back at them.
Not only did their appearance change but so did their cartoon physics. They can no longer do any of their zany antics, of course, they can pull things out of their hamster space and run fast. But they can't pull out their weapons, and they're not as fast as they can back home nor can they even flip to the next page.
It was a depressing day for them.
They huddled together in their makeshift hammock bed that night as they cried themselves to sleep.
Many hours later they were awoken by the sound of a voice on the speakers, a voice they were hoping they didn't want to hear again.
"Attention! Children of the machine! This is Wilson. Your friend, your protector. For two hundred and eleven days, you've lived without the Ink Demon haunting your steps. I banished him away, tore his body in two. In return, I ask just a little favor: among you, there is a stranger, a young lady, and three cartoonish kids. Bring them to me."
As if the posters of the guy claiming to know everyone's purpose, he is now set out the residence of this place after them! But what worries them is that they are not alone in this.
"Looks like ol' Willy brought another person in here." said Yakko displeased at the creepy janitor's actions.
Time Skip
It wasn't long until they heard clanks and screeching sounds getting louder until someone come into their temporary, it was a lady in yellow and inky black clothing. Her eyes were also glowing like theirs, did the machine do this to her too?
Wakko "Should we go and talk to her?"
Yakko "Maybe, but we need to be cautious sibs."
Dot "So like how we meet Scratchy?"
Yakko "Exactly."
While the Warners were talking, Yakko notices movement at the corner of his eye. Yakko looks over their hammock to see what looks like a mutated cartoon goon standing over the edge on the upper floor, and the lady was climbing on the wall right underneath it.
"WATCH OUT!"
But they were a millisecond too late, the creature swings its pip at her causing her to lose her grip and fall off from the wall. The creature leaps down at her, but Yakko, Wakko, and Dot jump out of their hammock and knock that toon monster out of the way.
"Come on! Let's go!" Dot shouted as she grabs hold of the woman's hand, and they ran off to find a way out or a place to hide.
"In here." The woman pulls Dot into what looks like a halo phone booth, and the boys follow quickly inside. Despite it looking so small, there was enough space for the four of them to fit in. It might be cramped but at least they got away from it.
"Raw!"
Or not. It tries to break its way in, but they were trying their best to hold the door shuck. When they thought this was the end for them a gentle yet eerie humming caught their attention, including the monster toon.
It looks back at them through the only open window before it hobbles away. After a moment, the lady opens the door and the Warners got out one by one.
"That was a close one." said Yakko, "I hate it here." Dot complains, "I just realize, I haven't eaten for the past eight hours!" said Wakko.
The young lady manages to slowly get out of the booth and work up the courage to ask the three creatures, "Uh, are you three trapped in this place too?"
Yakko turns to answer her question, "Yeah, we've been in here last night, or maybe a day? Sorry, we couldn't find a clock around here to give us the time."
The lady relaxes her shoulders, knowing that she was not the only one here but to see three children here worries her. 'What in the world are you doing, Wilson?'
Recalling the young boy's cries for food, she too was hungry. She went over to a crate and opens the top to find four cans of Bacon Soup. "There's some food here, it's not much. This should tie you over for a while." Wakko leaps for joy at the lady's kind offer, and thanks her for the soup.
But a thought passes through Wakko's head, 'Why couldn't I smell it earlier?'
Just as the Lady took a sip of the soup a new voice startles her and the Warners to drop their cans of soup.
"I wouldn't drink too much of that stuff if I were you."
They turn to see another young lady in a black dress, boots, and tools for survival on her. She even has devil horns on her head with her hair tied back into a ponytail.
The Woman then continues where she left off, "It helps patch you up, but the after-taste, it's not so good."
The Lady was getting more scared by the second, but the woman spoke calmly, "Easy now, I'm not going to hurt you. You look like you needed some help." She then grabs the lady's ink hand to see if there's anything wrong with it. But the lady rips her hand out of the woman's hold.
"Don't touch me!" she shouts, "What are you? And you three?" she let out a frustrated grunt, "What is this horrible place!?" she throws her hands around at the area they were standing in.
"Yeah, I remember my first day down here." The woman looks around the rundown room before talking again. "But you four are actually pretty lucky. The machine could have turned you into a Searcher."
Dot spoke up, "You mean that thing that attack her and us!?"
The woman shakes her head, "No that's a Piper. And he's part of a gang so be careful."
The young lady sorrowfully says, "I don't understand any of this." She puts her hand to her head, "I can't think. It hurts."
She wasn't wrong, no matter how much Yakko, Wakko, or Dot tries to think they get migraines or their heads feel like they've got hit by a wrecking ball.
"You'll catch on pretty quickly, if you can stay alive." Said the woman, she then starts giving them pieces of advice. "Lesson one: Searchers don't have legs, and they tend to swarm. Look it's not good to say in one place for too long around here. Keep moving and stay close to the shadows. Take my advice. Head to the upper levels." She points upwards. "It's... safer there."
Wakko "Can we come with you, pretty lady?"
The woman gives them a sad smile and shakes her head, "You can't. I'm sorry." She backs away a bit, "I have a wolf. He doesn't care for strangers."
"A wolf?!" the lady asks in fright.
"Like I said, you'll catch on. Good luck. I hope we'll meet again." She gives them a two-finger salute and turns around to head back to where she came from only to stop and quickly turn around. "Oh! And one more thing! Above everything else. Stay away from the Ink Demon."
This was ringing a lot of alarm bells inside Yakko's head. The fact that this woman said it so dark and seriously means that this demon isn't someone to mess with. It's like Dip. The toxic chemical for toons to permanently die.
"What's an Ink Demon?" the Lady asks what he and his sibs were thinking.
"
Oh, you'll know him when you see him." the Woman use her two pointer fingers to point to the corner of her lips. "He likes to smile, and he kills anything that moves."
Now Yakko has a good reason to be wary of this Ink Demon.
Just as the woman was about to leave again, the lady calls out to her. "Wait!" she stops and turns to her, "What's your name?"
"They call me Alice." said Alice, "I'm not very fond of it."
"I'm Audrey." said Audrey.
"I'm Yakko."
"I'm Wakko."
"And you can call me Dot."
Alice smiles at them, "Well Audrey, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. Welcome to the studio."
A spark from the lights by the ink fountain pillar flickers causing the four to shield their eyes from the power, when they turn to look back, Alice was gone.
Leaving the four to fend for themselves.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Clips to the Story Ideas: A Gift from the Dark Puddles
After getting Audrey a GENT pipe, the group made their way to Animation Ally.
This place was dangerous to the cartoon siblings so much so that they have to fight off the cartoon monsters to death. Which is against their character design and the rules of cartoons. Even now when they are fighting for their life.
"This isn't right." Wakko said as he wacks a lost one away from attacking him with his mallet, "We're supposed to drive people a little coo-coo, not this."
Yakko swings a long gent pipe that looks like a baseball bat at the female lost one while trying to his brother down a bit. "I know baby bro, but we have to get out of here alive. I don't like this as much as you and Dot do."
Their sister in question was using a long gent rod as a bo staff to keep the lost ones away.
At last, their fight was over, but it left a nasty taste in the Warners' mouths. They've never killed anyone, not in the past or when they'd escaped the water tower. But today this will haunt them for life. Especially whenever they touch one of the Lost Ones they explode like a water balloon filled with ink, but they seem to leave behind some items for them to take.
When they reached the locked entrance, Audrey uses her gent pipe to break the lock chain off the gate. It looked to be a dead end, but sure enough, there was a boarded-up door in the back and no axe to chop the boards down. But there was a switch on the left side of the wall.
Pulling the switch down causes the door to open, but the only way to get in is to crouch down. At least for Audrey that is.
The new room had floors covered in ink. "I never thought I would get tired of ink." Dot said as she and her brothers clear away for Audrey to walk through.
No sooner than a few steps in the ink they were hit by a wave of a swelling well of voices rushing throughout their bodies causing them to lose balance and catch the walls to stop their fall.
"You are one of us now."
A dark whispering voice echoes in their heads.
"Yeah no. We'll pass." Yakko wheezed out.
"The dark puddles send a gift."
They feel the ink itself getting inside their veins and spreading throughout every inch of their bodies, it felt like they are going to pass out, but they've held their ground.
As quickly as it came, it just left.
Neither of them spoke but just continue, soon they came to a door, and just when Audrey was about to open it a lost one slams itself onto the window and starts banging on it causing it to splatter ink everywhere. But there was something different about this lost one. Its eyes weren't glowing like the others.
As the ink slides down, the lost one went back to the wall and starts to bang on it too.
When Audrey opens the door they see that the lost one is actually a Searcher based on what Alice has told them, and it wasn't paying any attention to them, just at the wall. And above the Searcher, there was a message.
"You Don't Have to Kill Me."
That was when each of them felt a twinge of the same ink they'd walked through, it was coming from each of their left or right hands. The vision seems to blur with a golden glowing covering every side of their eyesight as a swirling spiral of a ghostly face appears on the back of their hands.
"Is this what that voice meant by gift?" Wakko whispers trying not to get the Searcher's attention as he stares at his right hand.
Crouching down low, Audrey sneaks up behind the Searcher, turns it around, and placed her glowing left hand onto the Searcher's body. It tries to wiggle out, but it soon froze before dissolving away.
The Warners and Audrey were left stunned.
What in the world is happening to them?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Clips to the Story Ideas: Meeting Joey Drew and Lon Baxor
Defeating that spider-like monster was tough, and just literally dropping in on it was no laughing matter. The pain from the clawing and biting was so real for the Warner siblings. It wasn't like anything they'd experienced before.
Audrey, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot barely made it out alive from that fight, but they were forever thankful to Porter for giving them the ability he calls "Flow", upgrading their weapons, and finding food rations down here. Not only did they find food, but also another speaker tube.
Audrey calls into it "Alice! Are... are you there? Alice!"
Alice's voice came from the other end of the speaker tube. "Audrey! Where are you, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot?"
Audrey looks back at where they had fought and said, "I don't know. It's dark..." "And it smells like a sewer." Wakko added, "And I..." Yakko was, for once, at a loss for words. "We don't know what to do."
"Wait there. I'm coming to find you." said Alice, "Just don't move."
But they did move on.
When the door opens they encounter cartoon Bendy again but after their last shocking encounter, Bendy took off running. They followed the path that leads them right into the sewers.
And they were greeted by someone.
"I believe there's something special in all of us." said the tall man on the catwalk, "Especially you, Audrey."
"Who are you!?" Audrey demands.
"Don't you know me? Take a good look." The man turns on the lamp to show his entire face, and the small rounded man standing beside them. Audrey and the Warners gasp at the two men.
"Aren't you..." Audrey's words were trailing off when the tall man said what she was going to say. "Joey Drew? In the flesh! Well, so to speak." Joey then gestures his hand over the short man standing beside him.
"And this good man here is-" Now it was Joey's turn to be cut off by Yakko, "Lon Baxor?" The short man, Lon Baxor, nods his head.
Audrey turns to the Warners. "You know him?" she asks. "Yeah, he's our creator." said Dot, "But what is he doing here? Wasn't he still at a retirement home for animators?" Wakko questioned his thoughts out loud.
Before Audrey could ask, Joey then said, "Come on up! Let's take a little walk. There's something we need to show you both."
And they did.
"There you go, follow us." said Joey, Lon then said, "But mind your step." "This old place is filled with surprises. I should know. I've worked here for a long time." said Joey.
"Mister Drew." Audrey started, "Joey! Please." Joey corrected. "Joey, what is this place? This studio. These monsters. Are we dreaming?"
Joey answers the question they've been looking for. "It's a cycle, Audrey. An ink-stained nightmare forever stuck on repeat." Joey then starts to walk away with Lon following him as Audrey and the Warners keep up with them.
Joey continues to explain this world, "With just a pencil and a dream... And with a little help from the Gent Corporation, it came into being. From what I gathered, it exists in parallel to the outside world, but completely removed from the march of time. And like a record, played over and over again, it's begun to crumble, wear down."
They arrived at a door that is most likely to be their hideout.
"This studio is a monument to choosing the wrong road. Now whether it was built for revenge or regret, I don't know. That's my riddle to solve."
Joey then opens the door to his and Lon's hideout.
Lon spoke for the first time, "The truth is Yakko, Wakko, Dot, and Audrey. Someone out there has been messing with what's in here. Bad things have begun to emerge from the puddles. Wicked things that never came from mine or Joey's pen. The worst ones are called Keepers. Dangerous. Deadly folks. They've taken over the old Gent workshop that's beyond the sewers, trying to bring order to this world. Freezing the cycle in place. Changing the script!"
Lon's voice changes from a calming tone to a frightening one when he talks about the Keepers. Making the survivors to be couscous when they come face to face with these things.
Joey then said, "Whatever answers you're looking for, you'll find them in there."
Joey let out a sigh as he and Lon stands in front of the back door and said, "Look. Above all. Never forget. You're here for a reason Audrey." "You three as well," said Lon to Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.
"There's always a reason. Even when you can't understand it." said Joey and Lon.
The words are wise, but there was one thing on their mind.
"You made this world. Why can't you fix it?" Audrey asks Joey, Wakko asks Lon, "Or you, Lon?"
Joey holds Audrey's hand and said, "Because we're not the man. We're just... the memory."
The two men cross their arms and closed their eyes as they slide back into the door and faded away like how they banish the ink monsters.
The back door opens to reveal two metal stakes one with the name Joey Drew on it and the date years of his birth and his death. And the other with the name Lon Baxor on it as well as his birth and death year dates.
"They're... dead?!" said Yakko.
______________________________________________________________________________
Clips for this Story: The Past is Revealed & it doesn't Defines You
When Yakko, Wakko, and Dot reopen their eyes, they found themselves in what looked like an animation studio. But not just any animation studio it was Leon Schlesinger Productions studio, also nicknamed Termite Terrace. Their birthplace.
Everything looks so worn down, broken windows, cracks in walls, dust, and cobwebs all over the place.
Memory Lon "Over here. Come and have a seat, this won't take long."
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot walk over to the chairs that were set up in front of a projection and took a seat.
"Why did you bring us here?" Yakko asks Baxor who replies, "There's a story you three need to hear. One that can shed some light on your origin and for the truth to be finally set free."
The Warners shared a look of concern with each other, before getting themselves comfortable.
"You're ready?" The three toons nodded 'yes', "Okay. Here we go."
Memory Lon "Once upon a time, there was a man who went insane."
Yakko "Lon."
Memory Lon "Yes. The real Lon Baxor. But not the way everybody in the studio knows."
This caught the Warners' attention as Lon switches to the next slide picture. It shows a beautiful woman sitting on a hill staring off at the cityscape of Burbank California.
Memory Lon "What most people didn't know was that Mr. Baxor was married to a wonderful, pretty woman named, Margaret, or Mary as her friends and family call her. She loves telling jokes and making some witty comments all to see Lon smile and laugh at her jokes."
Memory Lon switches to the next slide, which shows Mary and Lon sitting together as Mary soothes him from his long nights of working in the animation department.
Memory Lon "Whenever Lon was stuck on creating cartoons, Mary finds a way to help him find his inspiration. She supports him when times were tough. And one day, when he was trying to create a new character."
The projection flips to the next picture. It shows Mary singing and dancing around while playing the ukulele.
Memory Lon "Mary starts to sing a merry little tune on the ukulele and dances around for Lon, and that's when he got the idea for the new character."
The next slide showed the old cartoon character Yakko, Wakko, and Dot knew from the past.
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot "Buddy!"
Memory Lon nodded his head. "Yes, he thought that would be what the studio would have wanted. But it wasn't enough."
The next slide shows Lon looking worried as the director, Weed Memlo, was pointing off-screen and looked intimidating.
Memory Lon "Weed Memlo said it wasn't funny enough, and told him to add more characters or to make the scene funnier before the deadline. Now Mr. Memlo was a little off on the deadline time. It was only two weeks away, not on the morrow."
This wasn't what the Warners knew, this was something different.
Memory Lon "And things... started to take a turn for the worse."
Memory Lon switches to the next picture slide. Mary was laying face down on the road as a car was speeding away from the scene of the crime, as everyone had gathered around or tried to call for help. While Lon was on his knees holding his wife's hands.
Memory Lon "A car was speeding through a red light, and it hit Mary when she was crossing it. The driver was never caught, and Mr. Baxor held onto his wife's hand begging her to live. The last words Mary ever told Lon was 'You're going to be a father. Isn't that great?' she then left that world with a smile on her face."
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were shocked beyond belief. First, they weren't created yet, and the due date wasn't until two weeks. And now, not only did Lon have a wife, but she was killed in a hit-and-run along with their first unborn child.
'Just what has the studio been hiding from us?' Yakko thought.
The next slide shows Lon finding a bottle of ink.
Memory Lon "After burying his wife, a familiar face came up to Lon. A man by the name of Joey Drew. He gave his condolences and wished him a hopeful future, but as Joey walks away he left a gift to Lon. A bottle of ink."
This was oddly suspicious.
Memory Lon "When Lon finally returned home, it was only a day away from the deadline. But poor Lon couldn't bring himself to draw another cartoon."
The next slide shows a picture of Lon drawing fantasying about what his life would have been if Mary was still alive and had their kid.
Memory Lon "But then, Lon started to draw. Drawing pictures of his beloved Mary and their child. Soon he began to draw more and more, thinking of him and Mary having two or three kids. It came to a point where they looked more like cartoonish animals of different mix breeds than humans."
On the next slide. It shows Lon using ink to draw cartoon characters.
Lon "With the deadline approaching and the grief of losing his family, Lon's sanity was slowly slipping away. So much so that he didn't notice that the bottle he was using was the gift Mr. Drew had left him, and used that to finish his final characters."
The projection flips to three silhouette drawings of the Warner siblings.
Memory Lon "A drawing of what his three kids could have been. Funny, dramatic, and loved."
Memory Lon went in front of the projection and uses his hand to point at the silhouettes.
Memory Lon "He created you three."
Yakko "Yes, we know that already."
But this wasn't what Memory Lon meant.
Memory Lon "Let me clear this up. Lon wanted his family back, when he made you three you were his family. His sons and daughter."
Dot "What?"
Memory Lon "The ink Joey Drew left was the same ink he uses to bring his cartoon characters to life. And the same tools he used to make his own family, his daughter. Audrey."
The Warners were now at a loss. They were created from the same ink Joey used to bring cartoons from the paper to life. And they are their creator's children! And Audrey was like them! But a toon in human form!
Wakko "But what about Lonny? How did he get sent to the retirement home for animators?"
Memory Lon went silent for a moment before answering.
Memory Lon "The driver that hit Mary was never arrested because Mr. Boxar found out who it was, and that was enough to put him in the asylum."
What the memory of Lon said next left the trio speechless.
Memory Lon "The driver behind the wheel was none other than the studio's CEO, Thaddeus Plotz."