Thanks for all the comments and reviews so far! All feedback is greatly appreciated, and so is the loyalty of readers to the extent of overlooking my sloppy typing! By the way, if anyone's willing to beta read for my new animaniacs story, let me know. Thanks. And just a heads-up, but I will be using english english for this story. That means the back of a car is a boot, the front is a bonnet, people walk on the path and colour has a "U". Now on with the show.
Verity unscrewed the plastic top to her water bottle, and took another swig at the metallic tasting mineral water inside. Warm mineral water was not her ideal drink, but the airport was very stuffy and keeping up with the Warners was hard work. She needed to drink something soon, otherwise she'd keel over from exhaustion. The plane ride had been... interesting, to say the least. They had been hustled into coach seats, right in the middle and near the back of the plane. After squeezing past lots of angry, tired holiday-makers and hassled businessmen and women, they had taken their seats for the steward's instructions "in case of an emergency". Verity had listened hard, not having been on many flights in her time. Well, she'd tried to listen, anyway, but what with Dot jumping up and down on her seat making aeroplane noises, Wakko asking mindless questions about everything and everyone in the immediate vicinity, and Yakko quoting statistics of various crashes and failed flights (done in order to scare off the person sitting next to him so he could have a little more elbow room), it was very hard to concentrate. Of course, a stewardess came waltzing over towards them and asked them to please be quiet, but it only spurred the boys on.
"Honestly." Dot had huffed, glaring at her ga-ga brothers. "How come there's only girls working on this flight? Can't they have men stewards too? It would make the flight a lot more interesting."
"Well there are male stewards, but, uhhhh..." Yakko got that far before Verity shot him a glare "I'll tell you when you're older. Or maybe I'll just make you watch "Stewardess School"."
"What's that?"
"Some 80s film." Yakko had shrugged, tearing his eyes away from the stewardess' hastily retreating form. "There's a guy in it that really creeps me out. I don't know why, but every time I watch it I feel ashamed."
It was in this manner that the flight had continued. Warners running up and down the aisles, assaulting the stewardess, annoying other passengers, opening the over-head luggage compartments during bouts of heavy turbulence and generally causing chaos, whilst Verity had tried to restrain them whilst recieving black looks from everyone on the plane. Even now, as she stood by the luggage carousel, waiting for their five cases to come trundling out on the plastic conveyor belt, she had the distinct feeling that half the cabin crew were glaring daggers into the back of her neck. She cringed again, as first her two, and then the Warners' three cases, and then the Warners themselves, tumbled onto the conveyor belt. She grabbed her suitcases, threw them on the trolley, and then grabbed Yakko, who in turn grabbed his siblings who grabbed their luggage, and lead them all out into the grey drizzle that painted the sky. So this was England.
Verity noted that Plotz would not be all too pleased on their return, as people in England seemed to have heard of the "real life toons" incident as well. People pointed and muttered as they waited for transport in to London. Eventually a black taxi cab with colourful adverts for sight-seeing tours pulled up beside them, and they all piled in.The driver looked at them in his mirror, eyes wide.
"Hey! You're them toons from America!" he exclaimed, making the Warners puff out their chests with pride and Verity sink down in her seat. "Didn't you used to have a TV show? My kids loved it... What was it called, zaney mania or something?"
"AN-imaniacs." Yakko corrected him, grinning smugly.
"Hey mister, who was your kids' favourite?" Dot grinned, leaning over the driver's shoulder.
"I think it was... the cat who sung lots. I can't remember." He shrugged, smiling himself. "Anyway, where you heading?"
"Plaza hotel, please?" Verity was a little shocked by the ease with which he was taking the situation, as he pulled away from the curb and drove them in to London. He joked around with the Warners, talking about how big a fan his kids were of the show, almost as if the Warners were any other people. After a long ride round London (most of which was spent in traffic jams and hectic one-way systems), the Warners bounded from the taxi and darted to the boot to collect their luggage. Verity took her wallet out of her handbag, looking at the driver, glad she'd changed her money before picking up the Warners, as she'd been right in thinking there'd been no other chance to do it.
"How much will it cost?"
"Fifteen quid." The driver twisted around in his seat, grinning. "But if I could get an autograph for the kids, I'll only charge a fiver."
Verity was taken aback by this, but shrugged, and called the Warners over to sign their autographs on a notepad the driver kept in his glove compartment, once for "Sam" and again for "Marky". The driver shot them a wink as Verity handed over a five pound note, and drove off. This left Verity and the Warners to enter the Plaza hotel. The sight that greeted them in the lobby was something quite unusual, and it explained the driver's ease at having the Warners in his car. Or at least, it confused them so much that they didn't really consider it an issue any more.
There, stood behind the reception desk in a pinstripe suit with a gleaming silver name badge, stood a long eared basset hound cartoon. With his pasty white fur, baggy eyes and wilting tuft of ginger hair, he looked utterly depressed, and the Warners had no trouble identifying this classic toon, even without reading his name tag.
"Droopy?" Wakko grinned, as the Warners pelted across he lobby, towards the reception desk. Droopy didn't flinch, merely looking from one to the other, and finally to Verity, who caught up a few seconds later.
"Hello, and welcome to the Plaza hotel, how may I help you?" Droopy sounded no different from his cartoons, made some fifty or sixty years ago.
"Droopy, what are you doing here?" Dot looked around the lobby, noticing a few other cartoons she didn't recognise, but people all looking very at ease with them.
"Booking people into rooms, as is expected of a receptionist." Droopy replied, raising an eyebrow at Wakko, who had leapt up to perch on top of the desk. "Do you have a reservation?"
"Yeah, I won a competition, they said they'd give us rooms." Wakko grinned, still excited and proud of his triumph. "But Droopy, how come no one minds about toons here?"
"A similar toon-town gateway was discovered behind pinewood studios two years ago. The english are only too happy to have living tourist attractions in their cities..." Droopy turned to his keyboard, still mumbling something about the USA's foreign policy, but the Warners just shrugged and grinned at each other, realising that, in a city full of people so accepting of cartoons, they wouldn't just have fun. In a city like London, they could create total chaos.
Verity must have seen the manic glint in their eyes, because she took the room keys whilst glaring sternly.
"I dont care how accepting they are of cartoons over here, you're still not going anywhere without my supervision. And that's final!" She added, shaking her finger at the Warner's puppy dog faces.
"Fine." Dot huffed, crossing her arms and pouting. "Spoilsport."
"Don't worry." Yakko muttered. "If anything it means we'll have someone to hide behnd." He winked at his sister, following Verity into the lift. He looked over at Verity, and noticed she was only holding two keys. "We're sharing rooms?"
"You and Wakko in one, me and Dot in the other." Verity handed one of the keys to Yakko. "Look after that key, and don't lose it. Who knows what they'll charge us to get another one cut." Yakko gripped hold of the key and saluted, before laughing, elbowing Wakko in the ribs and leaping out of the open elevator doors. He and Wakko were falling over each other in an attempt to reach their room first. Verity sighed, and shook her head as Dot skipped down the corridor after them.
"I'll take the suitcases then, shall I?" She called after them, sarcastically. Yakko turned, grinned and waved before triumphantly opening the door to room 42. Wakko waved, pulled a rather impressive gookie, and then both Warner Brothers ran into their hotel room. "If either of you go anywhere near the mini fridge, there'll be hell to pay!" Verity shouted, hoping this writing competition could cover a bill usually reserved for damages after natural disasters. Staggering down the hall under the weight of five suitcases, Verity glared at Dot, who smiled sweetly as she held the door open. Verity pushed the boys' suitcases into their room (she noted they were already tearing the room apart for free stuff) and carried on into the room she'd be sharing with Dot.
Two single beds, with a mini fridge, two chests of drawers, two small wardrobes, two bedside tables, one tv and a door leading off to the bathroom. A large window took up most of the far wall. It wasn't large, but there was room enough for two. Dot leapt onto the bed nearest the window and began to trampoline all over it.
"I call this one! It's mine, it's mine!" She bounced off and over to the window, pressing her nose up against the glass. "London..." She sighed, grinning. Dot gazed out over the streets and cars. It was grimy, and noisy and the weather was awful. But she loved it. It buzzed. If she looked carefully enough, she could follow a road all the way up to the Thames river, where she could just pick out the Globe theatre. It was so full of variety, and culture. It was diverse, it was bustling, throbbing with life. She took a deep breath, the feeling of adventure buzzing in her fingertips.