Two years had passed since the Cogs surrendered to the Toons to end the Second Cogs War, as it was known in Toontown. An unexpectedly brutal, but short conflict has leveled the Toons population, destroyed infrastructure, and caused high tensions for several months. However, once things began to settle down Toontown, under the leadership of new Mayor, Wacky Banana, had spurned a large population and economic boon that the town had never seen. In an attempt to increase population to pre-war levels, the former Acorn Acres business owner had offered an incentive to animate new Toons, with a fifty-thousand jellybean starter. New Toons to Toontown from outside countries such as Funny Farms or Valentoonia were offered heavily discounted estates which had brought an influx of outside Toons to Toontown. It had been an unexpected hit, and the new flood of Toons and money had brought new affluence for many. However, this led to a downside; Toontown was geographically quite small. While Toontown had expanded four new Playgrounds after the First Cogs War, things were already quite stuffed. Wacky, calling an emergency meeting, stood in front of the Toon Council, as well as several leaders to help solve this problem.
"Good morning everybody. Thank you all for being so flexible in showing up on such short notice." The yellow monkey stood with his trademark purple straw-boater hat and pink vest. "Last week it was reported that the remaining estates in Daisy Garden had been sold. Well unfortunately this week I need to report that we are now officially at full capacity in Donald's Dreamland and Slapstick Villa, leaving only The Brrrgh and Prank City as viable locations for Toons searching to buy an estate."
"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt. But didn't you say that the Beans-For-Babies program had already ended? Not to mention the Estate Affordability Project? Why the continued housing crisis?" a brown horse spoke up, tapping his head with a pencil.
Nodding, Wacky turned to a large projector screen which slowly lowered and some charts slowly filled the screen. "Thank you, Cornflake. That is a great question. Now if the Council would look here, you will see that the influx of new money has had more success than we anticipated. While the program has ended, many Toons have been using the money to start businesses, or to spend lavishly which has stimulated the economy levels beyond what we predicted. This has meant many more businesses are looking to hire, causing Toons to come from far and wide for opportunities. While Toontown does not ever want to turn away a Toon in need, things are looking quite dire in that regard. I'd like to start the meeting by gathering proposals from the council."
There was some small murmurs and chatter among the Toontown leadership before finally a red horse stood up. "Good morning, Category Five reporting from Silly World. I am here in stead of Teacup who is on maternity leave after the animation of her new daughter. Anyways, it seems like the solution is pretty simple, why not just add more land?" some audible agreement caused the multi-colored horse to grin at his newfound popularity.
"Who let this guy in here?" a yellow rabbit scoffed. "No duh we need to add more land. The problem is how to do that."
"Devin. You've already been warned previously about your attitude. I'm in no mood to deal with you today." turning to face the embarrassed horse Wacky smiled. "Yes, Horsenado, I do believe that is the best course of action. Now, my assistants have come up with a few possibilities, but I wanted to get some potential new ideas before we got there. However it may be easier if we start with these and go from there. Is there any disagreement?" the question elicited no response "Very well." clicking a small remote and projecting a new slide. This brought out the reaction that Wacky had anticipated with such a controversial idea. "Alright everybody, let's just calm down for a moment."
A pink dog stood up and shook his head. "This can't seriously be a real proposal right? Have we not suffered enough?"
"Now Sid, why not just let the Mayor get through his proposal and then go from there. After all, we haven't heard the details yet." a dark green duck grinned at the yellow monkey at the front who continued.
"Thanks Bessie for that. Yes, if the council would please let me finish before we get to the comments." clicking another side, some bold, colorful text covered a destitute, smog filled world filled with large, gray skyscrapers. "I'm sure many of us are still sore from past wounds, but I do feel this is worth considering. Now, when the Cogs signed the peace treaty, they did agree to a stipulation that in the case of an emergency, Cog Nation could be used to produce needed resources for Toontown. Now, when former Council negotiated this treaty, they left things a bit vague, but I feel that this isn't so ambiguous as to defer us from building a new playground. Questions? Concerns?"
Sid stood up as soon as Wacky finished and shook his head. "Mayor Banana, with all due respect, this seems either blindly optimistic or aggressively dangerous. There is no way the cogs would agree to such a request, especially after they have been metaphorically brought to their knees by sanctions brought by the council. This just seems like a recipe for a new conflict."
"Come on, Sid. You don't believe that do you?" Cornflake lightly rapped the table with his pencil. "The cogs would basically be forced into this. Monitoring has shown they have stayed within allowable production and their population is quite manageable in the case of tensions arising. I may remind you that cogs are no longer able to be built above level seven. They would be fools to try and turn things violent."
"That still seems dangerous, and may be worse for Toontown morale and could have a considerable backlash against the council. I don't think many Toons would be excited to trudge off to Cog Nation to fight. Not to mention that we have just seen our largest decline in Anti-Toon behavior in six years and we would be best not to radicalize any more of these groups." Bessie responded harshly.
The charismatic leader clapped his hands loudly, sending shock waves through the erupting argumentative Toons. "Now everybody. This was just a simple proposal. After all, I did have a second option, how about we come back to this one." flipping to his final slide, there was some visible confusion among the crowd. "Okay everybody, let me finish before we get to any side-conversations, please. Now this was my personal choice." shining a laser pointer over some more tables and charts, Wacky continued speaking. "You see, Valentoonia is suffering its own crisis. They are facing steep economic decline, ironically, because many Toons have moved to Toontown. Our best course of action may be to reverse course. Pay Toons to LEAVE Toontown, to the more spacious Valentoonia."
"That cannot be serious, can you Mayor?" Devin stood up angrily. "We just authorized hundreds of millions of jellybeans to move Toons INTO Toontown, now we are going to pay them to leave? Can we even afford to do something like that? The cost it would take to entice Toons to just pack up and leave after getting here would have to be close to what was initially offered. Why not at least gauge interest from the cogs? Maybe we can even throw them a bone and offer to allow increased production or something?"
"As much as I hate to say this, I agree with Devin." Cornflake added. "This expense would be too large of a burden and would lead to backlash as well as I would imagine. I imagine Toons who have been living here would not be thrilled to hear that they are being left out in the cold again while new Toons are being paid lavish sums to trample back and forth between here and Valentoonia. Either way we're backed into a corner, but one seems like a more permanent solution."
The council roared on with differing opinions, splitting the group into two distinct sides. Those who supported annexing Cog Nation, and those in favor of paying Toons to leave. For the Toon Council, a seventy-five percent majority would be needed to guarantee passing a proposal, although anything over fifth percent would suffice without the mayor vetoing. Banana, ever the go-getter decided it would be best to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. "Okay everyone. How about we put this to a vote and see where we're at? All in favor of cog nation?" Seven hands rose causing Wacky to shudder. It was a fifty-fifty tie which meant that he would ultimately be the tie-breaker. Before he could could act, he was interrupted by the young stand-in from Silly World burst in.
"Excuse me, Mr. Mayor? Before we finish, I had another idea that maybe the council would consider?" the group all looked at the red and cream horse shocked. Generally council meetings were very straight forward, with very few variables. Suggesting a proposal at a vote was uncommon, and something many of the older Toons would not tolerate.
"Mr. Horsenado. I'm not sure how they run things in Silly World, but at the Toon Council we do things a bit differently. We like to you know, finish a proposal before adding a new one? Mayor Banana, can we please just end this charade and move on?" Devin seethed at the turn of events.
Banana scratched his head while he pondered. Devin did have a point, but it was a point that was worth questioning. After all, why should they settle on a worse proposal due to tradition. "Go ahead, Category. I'd like to hear your thoughts before we continue. After all, the Council is a place for all to speak freely and to give their input. Coming to a decision in haste is worse than no decision at all."
Fortunately for Horsenado, his red face covered his blushing. "Thanks, sir! Well I was wondering if instead of annexing Cog Nation, or sending Toons back, why don't we search out a new place for Toons to live? When I was in school we learned about the Old World. How the Toons came here to search out a new life and settled in and eventually left their old lives behind. However, Toons have never gone out searching for the Old World. Surely it must be out there somewhere. It would mean we wouldn't need to spend a lot of jellybeans or risk another political nightmare!"
"Category, you are still quite young and I appreciate your gusto, however The Old World is just a story that is told to young Toons, it's not a real place." Bessie chuckled. "Even if there was an "Old World" nobody has ever found it before. It would have to be well beyond the scope of Toontown. Even Cog Nation! We would be talking about sailing across the ocean, and at that point you're going in blind. How many Toons even know how to sail a ship anymore? Donald likely isn't coming out of retirement to chase a pipe dream."
"Now hold on a minute, Bessie.." Wacky smiled and nodded. "While the Old World is a myth, it does bring to point a larger question. There must be other Toons out there somewhere. I'll remind the Council that Funny Farms was only discovered just a short two decades ago. I wouldn't rule out any possibility that there is other landscapes that could be built on."
Devin, still fuming red, slapped his hands on the table. "Enough of this malarkey! Next we're going to talk about how "kangaroos and kiwis" also exist? If the council is going to devolve into this nonsense I would prefer to take no part of it?" storming out of the room, the elderly rabbit slammed the door behind him.
"Gosh, how does he keep getting elected?" Sid questioned, gathering a unison of laughter among the rest of his cohorts. "I'm actually not opposed to the idea, with the stipulation that this does not preclude any further action if needed. A small team could easily handle the task without large investment. However we could need somebody who could handle a large vessel on the open sea? Bessie is right. Where are we going to find a Toon with that kind of nautical awareness?"
"Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt." Category waved his arms. "Um, sorry. Well anyways, when I was working in Valentoonia, I had the chance to meet Queen Val and her sister. They told me about some wise old sea captain. Apparently they were well known for their mastery of the water, and had gone on numerous adventures. Now they are quite old, they must be in their 70's at this point, but if this captain is up to it? I think they could solve all of our problems!"
Wacky closed his eyes. He was vaguely familiar with the Toon in question. "I assume you are talking about Captain Scurvy? That old golliwog would be a perfect fit. However, they are quite old. I wonder if they would still be up to the task?" an image of a blue cat wearing a red bandana and an eye-patch filled his mind. "I say we give it a shot. Worst case scenario we get a no and move on. We have little to lose. Does anyone oppose?" with the exception of Devin who was standing outside pouting, it was a unanimous decision. "Very well everybody. I will be getting in touch. Category, how about you come with? You seem quite familiar with the Toon."
Pumping his fist under the table, Horsenado grinned and nodded. "Yes, sir!"