Chapter 2
I must admit, I was really surprised when I saw the turnout a couple of hours later. It seemed like every single shopkeeper in town was here, in the Toontown Central playground, waiting for the election to begin. Definitely a lot more than I expected; there were at least 200 toons here, possibly more, all crowding around in front of Toon HQ. I guess this town really liked elections. That’s more than I can say about where I came from; we didn’t really have elections. Politics were still pretty huge, though.
An orange monkey with a long torso and long legs stood in front of a stage that I hadn’t seen at all a few days ago, gesturing toward it. The stage was huge, at least four feet off the ground, and covering most of the space between the Toon HQ and the Toontown Library. One red and one blue pole, both with red bowties on them and screens, were on the stage. Both of the screens had 000 displayed on them. A podium with four different microphones attached was right in between the red and blue poles. Attached to support beams of the Toon Hall building behind the stage were red colored flags on tough, fibrous thick ropes that surrounded the stage. Next to the stage, right by Toon HQ, was a green podium-like stand with a light green shirt with dark green stripes. Two Toon-like hands were attached on its side, and they held up a sign that said “Jump for Joy? Why not Jellybeans? Don’t be wacky, vote for Slappy!” on it. There was a green duck and a royal blue horse by the stand, both wearing lab coats. The green duck was holding some kind of device, and was gesturing wildly at the horse, moving the device around. The horse was nodding along, holding up a clipboard.
Across from that green stand was another, similar stand, also rocking back and forth. This one had an orange shirt with dark orange stripes. It held up a sign that read “CLOBBER the Competition!” Next to it was a brown extra-large wheelbarrow full of pies with cream filling on top.
“Welcome, one and all, to the Toon Council Presidential Elections!” the orange monkey with the lab coat was saying as I arrived, holding a clipboard. What he said after that was drowned out by Rosie’s excited cries.
“Kit! Hey, you came!” she called out to me from the large crowd in front of the stage.
“What, I thought you wanted me to come?” I said, my lips forming into a smirk as I walked over to her, excusing myself as I pushed through some Toons who were in the way.
“Well, yeah… of course. But a part of me thought that maybe, just maybe, you really wouldn’t come at all.”
“Hmmph. Someone I know does a good job at convincing me to change my mind.” Rosie smirked at that, then she noticed the outfit I was wearing.
“You’re wearing that cruddy old outfit?” she asked, pursing her lips.
“Yeah, why? Is that a problem?” I asked, eyes narrowed.
“It’s all ugly and ruined,” she complained, and I just rolled my eyes in response.
“It’s to show my support,” I explained when she just shook her head at me, and her eyes narrowed.
“How does that show your support? It’s ruined, foreign clothing,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said with an exaggerated wink. It took a second for it to dawn on her what I meant, and her face twisted into one of anger.
“Oh hahaha, very funny,” she grumbled, and turned to look at the stage, shaking her head. The outfit in question was a bright blue long-sleeved shirt with a golden insignia, rubbed off, in the middle and an orange-red skirt with a vertical blue stripe on each side. I didn’t think they matched very well with my periwinkle-colored fur, but I was feeling a bit nostalgic. It was the outfit I wore when I first arrived into town months ago. It was still all battered and a bit ripped from then, because this town didn’t have the necessary materials to fix it, since my clothes were made with a special kind of synthetic cloth and thread. On that first day, I’d rubbed off the image on the insignia with some rubbing oil and a pointy piece of metal, afraid that someone would recognize it and question me about it. Thank goodness I’d done that before meeting Rosie, because knowing her she’d have grilled me immediately about it, and it was the last thing I wanted to explain. Now the insignia just looked like a bright yellow dot in the middle of the shirt, which I was fine with. No way anyone would recognize it for what it truly was.
At least today I wasn’t wearing the same outfit that I had been wearing for days, which was making it look really crumpled: pink shirt with a purple flower on it and a purple skirt with dark purple spots on it. The colors blended decently well with my periwinkle-colored fur, or at least I thought so, which is mostly why it was my outfit of choice. It was also the only other outfit I owned… so there was that, too.
A few moments passed by, and more Toons arrived, taking the spaces next to me. I tried focusing on the orange monkey’s words, but a voice to my right interrupted me.
“Who are you rooting for?” the voice asked, belonging to a short red dog with small legs standing next to me on my right asked, leaning in close.
“Err, no one really. I’m just here to watch.” And be bored out of my mind, I’m sure.
“I voted for Flippy. He seems great,” the red dog said.
“Sure does,” I mumbled, not meaning it at all. Who is Flippy, again?
“Flippy is great, I loved his campaign,” said a tall pink cat standing on my left, wearing a yellow skirt and red shirt, who was just arriving.
“Atta girl! Flippy for the win!” the red dog cried excitedly, pumping both fists into the air, and both of them laughed. I stared ahead, not saying a word.
“By the by, my name’s Little Jenny Hulaswirl, but everyone just calls me Jenny,” the tall pink cat said to me, extending her arm. I shook it, not wanting to be rude.
“I’m Kitterr--err, I mean, Kit. Short for Kit T. Kat.” Cursed habit. Need to get rid of it. It didn’t help that the subject of my name hardly ever comes up since I pretty much avoid people… The pink cat, Jenny, let out a squeal at the name I gave her.
“Oh my gosh what a cute name,” she gushed.
“Right?! I thought so too when I first met her,” Rosie said laughing, turning around to face us.
“They have a point,” the red dog on my right said with a grin and I felt my face go hot, feeling embarrassed.
“Aww look, she’s blushing! How cute!” Rosie teased. My face turned redder.
“It’s alright, we’re not laughing at you! I kinda wish I had your name,” Jenny said with a grin.
“Wanna trade?” I quipped, and she and Rosie burst out laughing. I smiled, relaxing for once in a long time. This wasn’t so bad, so far.
“There’s that lovely smile! You should show that more often, Kit. Looks great on you. You’re always so serious,” Rosie said.
“She’s right, you know. You have an awesome smile,” Jenny said, with a completely serious look on her face.
“Okay you two, enough making me blush,” I said, flustered by their comments. Reminded me a lot about Bretton, he used to say the same exact things to me. I shook my head, not wanting to think about him right now.
“So, how long do we have to wait here?” I asked, changing the subject. Rosie frowned at me, picking up on my hasty change. She raised an eyebrow.
“Well, it should start in approximately two minutes or so,” Jenny said, pointing to a large red clock with yellow gloved index fingers pointing to the time that hung in front of the Toon Hall.
“Great! Can’t wait till it ends!” I said in mock excitement. Jenny laughed.
“Oh, I know what you mean. It’ll probably be really boring. Still! It is kind of exciting, we’re literally making history here since this will decide who’s our first President of the Toon Council.”
“What the heck even is a Toon Council, anyway?” I asked, genuinely curious. Jenny raised an eyebrow. “You been living under a rock or something?”
“She has, actually, she’s refused to participate or even be interested in anything related to the Elections. Believe me, I’ve tried!” Rosie grumbled. Jenny’s lips turned into a lopsided smile, and she tilted her head slightly.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Uhh, yes...,” I mumbled, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. Was she judging me? “I just moved here a few months ago.”
“Oh, well, that explains it,” she said, chuckling. “Welcome to Toontown!”
“Hah, thanks. Happy to be here, I guess,” I said with a laugh that wasn’t genuine at all. If I could, I’d be living back home instead, so I wasn’t really happy to be here. The orange monkey was still talking, and I tried to tune in on his words, but curiosity distracted me.
“Who is that, by the way?” I asked, motioning to the orange monkey with my head.
“That is Dr. Surlee. He’s a Scientist, and the head of Loony Labs,” Jenny answered.
“A scientist?” Well, that explained the lab coat he was wearing. “What is a scientist doing at an election?”
“I think he’s a good friend of both candidates or something—I know he speaks to Slappy a lot, and he also helped him with his Hot Air Balloon. I think he also made both Slappy and Flippy’s animated stands,” Jenny replied, motioning to the two stands I’d noticed earlier. A giant loudspeaker poked out of the Toon Headquarters building that was next to the stage.
“The Toon Council Presidential Elections will be starting any second! Please keep any Oinks, Squeaks and Owooos to a low rustle,” a booming voice shouted from the loudspeaker.
“Hrm, you heard the HQ,” the orange monkey, Dr. Surlee, said, “I better get out of the way before Alec arrives.” He stepped away from the stage and headed toward the Toontown Library building. A large widescreen TV descended behind him from somewhere above as he walked away. Where had that come from?! I had totally missed it! A large gray propeller was on top, keeping the TV floating in the air. Floating orbs with blue hats and camera lenses for eyes descended along with the TV, and they dispersed around the stage area, a few of them floating right above me, pointing toward the stage.
“Wow! I exclaimed, a little louder than I’d intended. 200+ pairs of eyes turned to look at me. I blushed.
“Oh, do you like it?” Dr. Surlee asked , turning toward me. “Designed it myself. Don’t worry about getting too close to the ropes; the TV will be showing a live feed for everyone to get a great view.” Sure enough, as he said this, the display turned on and Dr. Surlee and the entire stage behind him appeared on it in awesome HQ quality.
“Awesome,” I breathed.
“I know you all will keep trying to jump on top of each other for a better view anyway, though, so try not to hurt anyone,” Dr. Surlee continued, took a step, and stopped. “Oops, almost forgot to tell you; after the winners are announced, these camerabots, as I call them, will fly around and film and broadcast you while Alec Tinn asks you a series of questions regarding the Election. Nothing major, just what did you of think of them, are you happy about who won, etc. There will also be some fun activities to celebrate with afterward, which will be recorded and broadcasted for the world to see.” He stepped away from the stage finally and went to stand in front of the Toontown Library. A couple of seconds later, the door to the Toon Hall opened, and out came a tall red cat wearing a blue collared shirt and brown shorts, followed by a medium-sized green duck and a medium sized aqua-colored dog. The green duck wore on the belly and arms as well as light yellow-green shorts, while the aqua dog wore an orange shirt with two dark orange stripes and dark purple shorts. I really liked the clothes of the green duck, the colors blended pretty great. The cat stepped up to the microphone on the stage, while the green duck stood on his right, and the aqua dog stood on his left.
“Helooo Toontown!” the red cat spoke into the microphone, magnifying his voice. “As many of you know, I’m your Hilarious Host and Eccentric Elector: Alec Tinn! And of course, we can’t forget about our two toonerrific toons who have been selected to fight for the Presidency… Slappy Quackintosh and Flippy Doggenbottom!” The red cat gestured with his hand to each Toon as he called their names; apparently the green duck was Slappy, and the aqua dog was Flippy. I should have realized that green duck looked familiar, it was the same one I’d seen the other day, talking about bigger, brighter futures and whatnot. Slappy waved at the crowd excitedly at the mention of his name.
“I must say, this turnout is absolutely, positively, extra-toonerifically outstanding! It’s truly an honor to be here on this day and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say thank you for coming,” the red cat continued. “Now, the votes are almost readied to be tallied! Flippy, Slappy, do either of you have anything to say before the moment of truth?”
“The only thing I have to say, no matter who wins,” Slappy said, “I know that Toontown is going to grow to be even more… ‘Toontastic’ than ever before. All of you are truer-than-truly the best!” Toontastic? There’s a new word, I thought. Maybe it wasn’t new per se, but it certainly was new to me.
“Like Slappy said, I can’t even begin to thank all of you Toontastic toons for this,” Flippy spoke up for the first time. “Even after all of this terrific time together, I’m still speechless that I’m here today. Here’s to Toontown, Slappy and all of you!”
“Well said, the both of you!” Alec said with a grin. “Ooh, I’m just jittering with excitement. Are you toons ready to hear the winners?”
“YES!” Jenny cried excitedly, startling me. She pumped her fists into the air. “GO FLIPPY!”
“Flippy, Flippy, Flippy, Flippy!” some of the toons around me chanted, including Jenny and the red dog on my right.
“Slappy, Slappy, Slappy, Slappy!” others chanted, including Rosie. I felt completely left out.
“Excellent! Without further ado, it is now time to start the GRAND ELECTORAL COUNTERS!!” Alec screamed into the microphone, emphasizing the last three words. I winced at the sudden loud volume. The blue and red poles I’d seen earlier, with the screens, sprang to life, bouncing once, then twice.
“Here we goooooo,” Alec howled. As he said that, the numbers on the screen started changing rapidly, going past 100, 200, 300…. I was shocked when the numbers climbed past 1000, then 2000. A small flag poked out of the counters after it reached 1000, going up by one every 1000 votes.
“Where did all of those votes come from?” I whispered to Jenny, leaning in close to her. “No way all those people live in this small town.” She looked me with a lopsided smile.
“After the Election, the town will open up to more Toons so they can move in if they want to. The voting booths opened up online for anyone who wanted to move into town. They had to fill out a form and apply for residency first, of course, but once they’d done that and secured a future spot, they were able to vote,” she explained in a low voice as the counters reached 3000, then 4000. “Mayor Mickey wanted it to be a decision of all toons anywhere, new or old, because it’s a decision that’d affect anyone who decided to move here, now or in the future.”
“Ah. I see.” So, after the Election, Mayor Mickey was apparently thinking of expanding the town and making it grow. Was that what the Toon Council was in charge of?
“The winner is…,” Alec said as the grand electoral counters started slowing down. At this point, the numbers were well into the 4000s for both of the candidates, and my eyebrows raised in surprise. That many voted in this? That many people found this little event important, despite not having been able to step foot here yet? Fascinating.
“HOLY SMOKES!” Alec exclaimed as the electoral counters stopped at 4,820 for Slappy and 4,821 for Flippy.
“Woot, Flippy!!” someone shouted from the back. The numbers on Slappy’s side suddenly shot up some more, and the total came out to be 5,131.
“Amazing! Well, there you have it. The new President of the Toon Council… SLAPPYYYY Quackintosh!”
“Aww, dangit!” the short red dog to my right cried. Some loud disappointed groans came from the crowd, but there were equally loud cheers of joy from others.
“Bummer!” Jenny said with a frown, but then immediately perked up when victory music started playing from the Toon HQ loudspeaker. Slappy started doing a funny little dance onstage, using a cane, and finished with one knee on the floor and hands in the air. Toons around me laughed at his dance. I felt indifferent.
“Holy smokes… I don’t even know where to begin!” Slappy said, excitement in his voice. “I know without any doubt that I hereby accept my duty as your President and will Presently Preside with full Presidential Priorities of this Presidentilness!” Um, what?
“I will ensure… uhh--,” before Slappy could finish his speech, a metallic robot-like creature came down from the sky and landed in front of the stage, interrupting him. It had a brown suit and a huge white-toothed smile on its face. The victory music stopped abruptly.
“Um, what is that?” I leaned forward and whispered to Rosie. She gaped, mouth open, speechless. I looked at Jenny expectantly, and she mirrored Rosie’s expression. Toons around me started clamoring, wondering what was going on. Was this part of the Election?
“Wha…what is that?” Alec Tinn blurted. Or… maybe not?
“Err… hey, there, fella!” Slappy didn’t seem fazed and jumped off the stage onto the ground below, walking right up to the creature. “My name is Slappy, the newly elected President of the Toon Council in this Tooneriffic Town.” The creature was a little taller than Slappy, and he had to look up at it to speak directly to its face.
“President, you say? Just the Toon I need to speak with,” the creature said in a metallic voice. My interest piqued, and I think it did for others, too, because hushed whispers started throughout the crowd. It was looking for the President?
“Boy, that's some propeller you have there! You know, it looks a lot like the one on that TV,” Slappy pointed to the large propeller on the giant TV that kept it afloat.
“Yes, now as I began to—”
“Ooh, and the suit, too,” Slappy broke in. He seemed to have the same annoying habit Rosie had. Great, and he’s the President of the Toon Council now. That should be fun.
“Yes, as I was saying—"
“Where did you come from, anyway? It can’t be Loony Labs, they’re off today,” Slappy continued. “Was it the Post Office? I hear that’s still open today, odd enough as it is.”
“See here, Toon, I am—”
“No, don't tell me. Let me guess. Errr... Montana. Final answer. No, no, nevermind. They wouldn't have that fancy of a suit there. Hrmm... St. Canard maybe? I hear the fashion sense there is—”
“STOP!” the robot boomed, causing everyone to fall into a hushed silence. “I like your lingo, Toon. You know how to schmooze.”
“How to what, I’m sorry?” Slappy asked. The robot continued without answering him.
“However, you seem to need a smear of Positive Reinforcement.”
“Positive Reinforcement? What’s that?”
“So glad you asked,” the robot replied and stepped closer to Slappy. It stretched out its arms at Slappy and some green liquid shot out of them, landing right on Slappy. He let out a shout as the liquid landed on his face and quickly spread all over his body. His body spasmed, and he groaned. The robot repeated the motion and more green liquid landed on Slappy. The robot did it one last time, and this time Slappy’s face quickly grew into a sad expression, and a very loud WAH WAH WAH sound came from him. Slappy’s arms fell to his sides, and his body bent downward, looking toward the ground. He turned around, back facing the creature, a sad expression on his face, and shrunk, completely vanishing from sight. I gasped. He was gone!
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