The Warner siblings never thought twice about pulling pranks on people they deemed "Special Friends". But what happens when they pick the wrong target and find one of their own the victim?
Running Around in Circles
is an Animaniacs fanfic written by DarkHououmon.
Running Around in Circles provides examples of:
- Absurd Phobia: Played for Drama; Due to their role in his sexual assault, Yakko spends most of the story terrified of pencils. According to the epilogue, Yakko does recover from this eventually as he heals from the emotional trauma.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Yakko pleads with his assailant not to hurt him and later for said assailant not to hurt his sister.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Trope namers Brain and Pinky pull it off in a not Played for Laughs variant.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: After Duu hurts Pinky, Brain declares that “If I were to succeed in taking over the world, he will be the first 'problem' I will take care of...”
- Badass Adorable: Dot, who is able to body-check Yakko's attacker off of him in Chapter 7 despite being much smaller.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- All the Warner siblings are equally protective of each other. Messing with one of them guarantees that the other two will come down hard on you:
- Wakko and Dot already hated the man who attacked Yakko, but when Yakko confesses that it was a rape, they start to want the attacker dead. They also give loving words of support to Yakko as he tries to recall where the sexual assault happened.
Dot: (Hugging Yakko) We are here for you, Yakko. You can do this. You're the bravest guy I know!
Wakko: (Joining the hug) You can talk to us. It won't be so painful because we will be here to support you all the way, bro.- When Yakko and Dot are kidnapped by Duu, Wakko sneaks out of the Warner studio with Slappy's help and heads off to save them. He also puts up a good enough of a fight to knock Duu out of commission for a while, giving him the chance to free Yakko from his bonds.
- When Wakko sees Dot in the cage being lowered into the thinner, he starts to climb up to help save her. But Yakko starts to climb up himself and orders Wakko to keep fighting Duu to buy him time to save Dot.
- Once everything is over and Duu is dead, Yakko and Dot help nurse Wakko back to health from the injuries that he received during his fight with Duu.
- This trope technically applies to the non-adult Animaniacs, since they're all very protective of the Warners with hurting Wakko serving as a full-on Berserk Button for Katie Kaboom.
- All the Warner siblings are equally protective of each other. Messing with one of them guarantees that the other two will come down hard on you:
- Big Damn Heroes: The rest of the Animaniacs cast show up to save the Warners from Duu.
- Big "NO!": Wakko lets one out when both his siblings end up kidnapped.
- Bound and Gagged: Happened to Yakko during the attack. The gag is eventually removed.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Debatable case. In Chapter 16, Duu finally gets sick of the rest of the Animaniacs cast interfering and yells “What's with all these cameos?!”
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Yakko's confrontation with his attacker starts off with him using this trope in a non-fighting but definitely creepy context. Eventually, he can't do it anymore.
- Chekhov's Gag: Yakko and Dot joke about Wakko having a black hole for a stomach. In the fight with Duu, it turns out he actually does.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Totally impromptu: Wakko is somehow able to eat Duu's energy attacks.
- Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Averted. Everybody who finds out what happened to Yakko is rightfully horrified and wants the guy who raped him hunted down so he can't hurt anybody else.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end, everything returns to normal with the Animaniacs cast closer than ever. While the Warner siblings never forget the events of the story, they do accept that they happened and resolve to not live in the past, which helps their physical and emotional healing processes.
- Everyone Has Standards: Plotz can't stand the Warners but when he sees how devastated Wakko is after his siblings' abduction, he can't bring himself to yell at him. He's also horrified when he found out Yakko was raped by his attacker.
- Fridge Brilliance: In-universe. Duu was created by a rival company to rip off the Warners, which, according to Yakko, explains pretty much everything about him.
- Godzilla Threshold: According to Chapter 9, a few years ago, a man stormed rudely into the Warner Studios and started acting like he owned the place. He caused so much chaos that Plotz gave the Warner Siblings permission to do their usual "Special Friend" antics on him to make him go away. Duu uses his likeness as a disguise during his sexual assault on Yakko.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Thinner Duu attempts to kill the Warners and the other toons with ends up killing him when his original animation cell is thrown into it.
- Innocently Insensitive: In Chapter 3, Wakko, who didn't know about Yakko's assault yet, jumps onto his brother's back with a pencil in his hand close to Yakko's face. This induces a panic attack in Yakko that ends with him fainting.
- Mama Bear: Slappy to Skippy and the Warners. In her own special way.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 3 starts off funny with the Warners' usual antics but takes a turn for the creepy when Yakko has a breakdown and then collapses.
- Never Say "Die": Played straight for the most part.
- Noodle Incident: An incident involving Wakko eating a wishbone and a car wash is mentioned and treated as this trope by Dot who apparently wasn't there when it happened to her brothers.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: In Chapter 15, Yakko finally reaches this point in regards to Duu.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Duu claims this of him and Yakko. Yakko is resistant at first but eventually starts wondering if there's any truth to Duu's claims, especially after The Reveal that Duu is the same species as the Warners.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When Yakko zones out in Chapter 2 after the Warners talk with Ralph, Dot tries to snap him out of it. Just as she touches his shoulder, he reacts by begging not to be hurt. Then he denies that it even happened, to Dot's obvious worry.
- In Chapter 5, Yakko decides to turn in for the night. Both his siblings are confused since it's only 7:00 and Yakko never goes to bed that early. As it turns out, they're right to be concerned as the damage from Yakko's sexual assault has caught up with him and he's begun bleeding internally.
- Papa Wolf: Scratchensniff and Pinky of all people.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The general opinion of the Animaniacs cast.
- Refuge in Audacity: Slappy covers up her and Dr. Scratchensniff's efforts to track down Yakko's attacker as playing two-person baseball in the street.
- Rule of Symbolism: Why Duu uses a pencil as his weapon. It is used to both create and destroy Toons during the drawing process.
- Sacrificial Lion: Duu intends to make Yakko one.
- Shy Bladder: Since Wakko is unable to walk while he recovers from his injuries, he needs help from his siblings to use the bathroom. He's unhappy about it since he doesn't like using the toilet in front of people, though Yakko points out that having to help somebody use the bathroom is just as bad.
- Single-Episode Handicap: The Thinner burns Wakko received on his feet during the climax renders him unable to walk for two weeks.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Yakko has some for Duu in the end, wondering if there was any way to have changed what happened.
- That Came Out Wrong: Brain states that the assault on Yakko wasn't rape. Then he has to explain to a ready-to-strangle-him Dot that the only purpose of the assault was to give Yakko internal bleeding, not to obtain any sexual satisfaction for the attacker.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Katie declares this about Duu hurting Wakko.
- True Companions: The Animaniacs cast.
- Unexpected Successor: The Warner siblings own the Warner studios, despite it having been in business before they were born. At the end of the story, Yakko decides to not have the matter pursued further, because he and his siblings don't want to control the studio.
- Unfortunate Names: Yakko thinks of Duu as one, making several bad puns.
- Wham Line: In Chapter 7.Yakko: He...he...raped me...
- Chapter 8
Brain: I have no idea how this is possible but Yakko...your assailant...he's been dead for seven years...- Chapter 11
Duu: That's right...I'm one of you. - What Happened to the Mouse?: A literal example - the author realized that they forgot to reveal what happened to Pinky after he was attacked, so they posted a quick note explaining that he made a full recovery.
- Would Hurt a Child: Duu, who sexually assaults Yakko after torturing him, threatens to kill Dot and burns Wakko when he tries to save his siblings.
- You're Insane!: Yakko tells Duu this when the latter reveals how he plans to use Thinner to take over.
