Welcome, Nudnik!

"Welcome, Nudnik!" is the 3rd episode in the series. In this episode, Nudnik visits a town who isn't exactly delighted by his presence.

## Summary

The episode begins with Nudnik being kicked off a train, and being launched off of a Semaphore railway crossing as he waves goodbye to the train, landing on a fence. He stretches, yawns, scratches the dust out his hair and puts on his bandana.

He observes the scenery around him and despite its gloomy atmosphere, Nudnik sees this as a delightful place to visit. He takes out a giant road map, not to get an idea of the city, but to have a sandwich he was saving for later, but trying to eat the sandwich ends up undoing his scarf and landing him in the trash bin underneath with his feet stuck through it.

He walks around and chews on the sausage from his sandwich, and encounters a sign which says "Crummy Junction welcomes YOU!" and feels very enlightened by this statement. As he wanders, he meets a woman who already doesn't seem too happy and decides to kindly greet her, to which the woman unhappily takes this as flirting and hits him with her suitcase in response. She then sends a police officer to deal with Nudnik, and as she's rubbing her hands proud of herself, a robber takes her suitcase while she isn't looking, but sets it down and runs off when he notices a police officer nearby.

Nudnik, who is now wandering again and admiring the city, accidentally steps on the suitcase, catching the attention of the nearby police officer. Nudnik hops away trying to get the suitcase off his foot, but the robber comes back and snatches it off his foot, Nudnik losing his shoe in the suitcase in the process. Nudnik suddenly hears the police officer's whistle and runs off looking for a place to hide, and encounters what he thinks is a men's room. He ponders for a second, but hears the whistle again and runs in without a second thought, and the other door closes behind him to reveal it's actually a women's room.

The robber, who is hiding behind a corner of the building, hears the officer coming and hides in a manhole on the sidewalk. A man with a sign that reads "EAT AT JOE'S" then walks around the corner, and as he walks past the manhole, the robber gets out and runs off, and while the man is looking at this scene behind him, Nudnik exits the women's room seeing if the coast is clear, unknowingly hitting the man with the door. The man falls into the manhole, but the sign keeps him from falling completely in, though choking him. Nudnik takes notice of this and the man points to the sign in hopes Nudnik could pull him out. Nudnik sees that the front of the sign says "EAT" and assures the man he has something for his troubles. Nudnik then pulls out an apple, dusts it off and offers it to the man, but upon hearing the police whistle in the distance, Nudnik knows this is no time to stand around, so he shoves the apple in the man's mouth and runs off.

As Nudnik is running, the robber puts the suitcase in Nudnik's hands. Nudnik runs into an officer and turns around to return the suitcase. The woman from earlier appears, takes the suitcase from Nudnik and hits him with it once again. As she walks off, Nudnik's scarf gets caught in the suitcase, pulling out individual pieces of underclothing. Nudnik sees his shoe attached to the pieces of clothing being pulled out and pulls himself toward it, and as he gets his shoe on, he tumbles and sits in the road and sighs while the underclothes still attached to his scarf blow in the wind behind him.

After such a tiring day, Nudnik decides to enjoy his evening in the town by going to the local zoo. He has a seat on the bench, but accidentally steps on his scarf, and gets his bandana stuck on a branch trying to pull it up. After retrieving it, he notices his shoes are untied, and in an attempt to tie them he accidentally ties his fingers together. While he's fumbling with his shoelaces, the woman from earlier sits down next to him on the bench and falls asleep, and upon noticing this Nudnik instantly jumps to his feet and the weight of the woman sends the suitcase flying, getting stuck between the bars the tiger cage. Nudnik decides to help the woman and reaches for it, but opens it on accident, causing the woman's belongings to fall onto him and decorate him as he sighs. The woman doesn't have the patience for this and gets angry at Nudnik, and behind her back, the robber shows up again and notices the belongings which are now on the ground, and sneaks away the jewels.

Nudnik backs up in fear into the tiger cage, and realizes the dire mistake he's made. His pants fall out of fear, and he accidentally grabs the tiger's tail picking them up. The tiger then runs to the other side of the cage and sends Nudnik flying into a zookeeper's cart, which begins to roll down the hill. We then see a police officer helping the man from earlier get unstuck, and Nudnik runs into them with the cart now getting the both of them stuck. Seeing all the mayhem he's caused, Nudnik uses the broom from the cart as a paddle to get away from the scene. At this point, Nudnik now has the man, the woman, the officer, the robber and the tiger after him. The robber throws the suitcase onto Nudnik's cart, and as he's paddling, the ladder on the cart hits a curb and sends Nudnik flying into the mail bag for the train to pick up, with everyone yelling at him through the fence. Nudnik has no idea what to make of this, and the episode ends as he gets picked up by the train.

## Characters

* Nudnik
* The fat woman
* The police
* A robber
* "EAT AT JOE'S" sign guy
* A tiger

## Trivia

* This episode reuses a train animation from "Drive on, Nudnik!"
* This episode heavily references poses from the reference sheets as both inbetweens and keyframes