A/N: Here's the second chapter; hope it's good. The Plotz thickens! Can't believe I just wrote that… anyways, enjoy!
This Chapter: Scratchansniff's Point of View
Next Chapter: Dot's Point of View
Chapter 2
I sat in Plotz's office by the curtained window, watching as he paced back and forth atop the table. I was relieved he hadn't asked me to do anything yet, but was wondering why he had called me here all the same. Probably to make me crunch in some more sessions with the Warners. I just sat and listened to his heated speech. He must have been drinking the bottle of whisky he kept hidden in the bottom drawer of his desk, as his speech was slightly slurred, and his pattern of thought was way off. This was especially evident when he somehow managed to grab Yakko by the scruff of his neck and was spoke as menacingly as he could with a puffy red face. But what really surprised me was the Warner's reaction to the action. Yakko gasped in what I assumed to be surprise, but that idea was shot down by Dot and Wakko's looks of slight apprehension, and the sharp intake of breath that Dot hadn't quite managed to hide. This was all unusual in itself, but it was the tone in Yakko's voice that sent a chill down my spine.
"Put. Me. Down." It was a simple request, but the manner in which he said it seemed to shake Plotz out of his half-drunken rage and he set Yakko gently back onto his feet. The eldest Warner shook slightly as he straightened himself up. Then the strangest thing happened.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing happened. It was as though the whole incident had never occurred. The three Warner siblings simply let Plotz fall back into his prior rant, and leaned against the table once again. I must have looked utterly stupefied, because Dot noticed and gave me a wink, as if to say 'You'll never know' and went back to playing jacks with her brothers on the floor. Where the game had come from or when it had started, I'll never know, but I suppose that's one of the things I'll always have to live with while working with cartoons. Unpredictability.
Unfortunately, I couldn't just let my rind rest at that. Being unpredictable was one thing, but what had just occurred was something else altogether. I rose from my seat and managed to get to the door before I was spotted.
"Dr. Scratchansniff!" Plotz demanded in my general direction. All eyes in the room were on me. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Not here," I said. Plotz didn't like the answer.
"And why is that?"
"Because I haven't left yet," I said, wondering if the Warners' strange sense of logic was starting to wear off on me. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot confirmed my suspicions when they started laughing, but it took Plotz's whiskey-impaired mind a few minutes to wrap around and understand what I'd just said. When it finally did, his face became even redder than before – something I would have thought impossible.
"You think you're being clever, eh? Well, you're going to be giving these little neck-pains a few more appointments per week! Let's say, one more per day? Now get out of my office!" he shouted the last statement to the room in general. I didn't bother telling him we weren't in his office. I scampered away, wondering if Plotz considered the extra sessions a punishment. Personally, I was glad to get the extra time with them; perhaps I could obtain some clues as to what was going on with Yakko. How long had he been going out for his nightly 'walks', if that really was what he was doing. And what was all the fuss about in Plotz's meeting room? I could understand a dislike of being picked up that way, there was no way it could feel good, but I'd seen them picked up by the scruff before. Then again, that had been when they were filming and it was necessary. I'd made it to the end of the lavishly carpeted hallway and halfway down the stairs when I nearly stumbled in surprise.
"Something on your mind, Scratchy?" Dot asked from the landing a couple of steps below me. Wakko and Yakko stood on either side of her, all three with the same quizzical expression on their faces. Another example of the magic of cartoons.
"No, no, just... thinking," I said. I knew it wasn't a very reassuring or clever response, but I'd have to go about my questioning subtly. I couldn't have them becoming suspicious of my intentions. "Vhat's on your minds?"
"My hat," Wakko said. I almost smiled as I remembered our very first meeting. It was exactly what he'd said at that time. Yakko smiled, and Dot answered the question in a similar fashion, with "A flower." I quietly questioned Yakko's silence, and I had a feeling that the day wasn't going too well for him.
"Really," I said. "Vhat do you vant to ask?"
"When's our first extra session?" Yakko asked. Again, quite out of character. He wouldn't normally let up so easily.
"How about tonight at seven-thirty?" I answered. All three nodded at once and were off in a flash. I stood in the stairwell for another minute. I'd get to the bottom of it, eventually.
