Chapter Text
“Dr. Scratchansniff!”
Otto was sitting in his office when the voice of the head of the Regency Council yelling his name reached his poor, old ears. He jolted in his chair at the sound and his heartbeat picked up speed. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, only to have the door to his office swing open to reveal a visibly enraged Thaddeus Plotz storming into the room.
“G-Good afternoon, Sir. May I help—” Otto stammered, attempting to maintain a semblance of composure.
Plotz cut him off sharply. “Those kids have really done it this time!”
The doctor didn’t need clarification on who those kids were or what it was that they had done exactly. He resigned himself to the inevitable task of diffusing the situation.
“I’m terribly sorry, Sir. I’ll be sure to talk to them und make them apologize. I can guarantee you this won’t happen again.”
Otto saw Plotz’s eyes flash with anger at those words. “Apologies won’t cut it this time, Dr. Scratchansniff. We’ve been down this road too many times already.”
The doctor gulped, as a shiver ran through his spine. “What do you want to do, then, Sir?”
“I want them gone.”
Otto tensed at that. He knew better than anyone that the three Warner siblings were a handful, yet he held the firm belief that beneath their mischievous behavior, they were good kids. Unfortunately, he was aware that Plotz, much like most people within the castle walls, didn’t see them in that light.
“We can’t get rid of them, they are the last remaining members of the royal family! Yakko is set to become king in less than two years!” he tried to reason with the shorter man.
“Which is precisely why they need to be punished now. If those children don’t learn to face the consequences of their actions as soon as possible, the whole kingdom will be in serious trouble once they take full reign!” Plotz countered, pacing the room with palpable irritation.
Otto would have lied if he said he didn’t agree with that, at least partially. He frequently had nightmares about the future of Warnerstock governed by Yakko. That boy was remarkably intelligent and knowledgeable about a long list of subjects, but ruling an entire kingdom was a huge responsibility that he didn’t seem to take seriously yet.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you mean by gone, Sir?” Otto inquired.
“We should send them away. Somewhere distant, where they won’t have any servant pampering them or cleaning up their messes.” He gave a pointed look at Otto as he spoke, causing him to shrink in embarrassment.
“Like one of our neighboring kingdoms?” the doctor asked, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.
“No, that’s too close. They’d find a way to run back here.” Plotz halted his steps as an unsettling smirk crept onto his face. “I was thinking of another…dimension.”
“D-Dimension?!”
“Why not? Dealing with an unfamiliar environment might just be what they need to finally grow up. Earth, perhaps?”
“B-But their powers! They could cause even more damage there than they do here!”
“Who cares about that?” Plotz made a dismissive gesture. “As long as they’re not here, it’s not any of our concern. Let the earthlings deal with that. If this castle takes any more damage, it will start to crumble.”
Otto couldn’t help but wonder if that was the primary motive behind Plotz’s desire to send the siblings away and if the educational reasoning was merely a facade to make the punishment appear more justifiable.
He chose to keep those suspicions to himself.
Plotz abruptly headed towards the door. “I’m glad we’ve reached an agreement, Dr. Scratchansniff. I expect you to deliver the news to them by the end of the day.”
“But I didn’t—”
“I need them to pack their things pronto.” With that, he slammed the door shut, leaving the doctor alone in his office.
Otto let out a loud sigh. A part of him wanted to chase the head of the Council outside, to fight him on this and insist on keeping the Warners right there, in their rightful home. Yet, he lacked the energy for that. He knew it was a lost battle to try swaying Plotz once he had made up his mind. Besides, spending some time away from the castle could really turn out to be a valuable learning experience for the siblings.
With another resigned sigh, he left his office to search for the Warners.
—————
He found them nearly two hours later, after walking through every corridor of the castle. Or rather, it was the Warners who found him first, bounding down one of the hallways, their voices resonating with enthusiasm as they called out their favorite nickname for him.
“Scratchy!”
The three of them looked like a mess, with leaves tangled in their fur, mud smeared on their clothes and scratches marring their faces. Otto decided he was better off not knowing what they had been up to until that moment.
“Hello, kids,” he greeted, mustering a smile despite his weariness. “Could I have a word with you?”
Yakko eyed him warily. “Does this have anything to do with the tower we set on fire? Because if it is, we’d like to let you know that it was an accident that could have happened to anyone. Just bad luck that anyone happened to be us.” Beside him, Wakko and Dot vigorously nodded in agreement.
“It is about that actually, but I have no intentions of scolding you, don’t worry,” Otto reassured them, though he doubted any of them were genuinely worried. Reprimanding them had proven to have little to no effect a long time ago. “Please, follow me.”
He turned his back to them as he strode down the long hallway. For a short while, he didn’t hear any footsteps follow him. He didn’t need to see them to know they must have been exchanging puzzled looks and silently deliberating what to do. They must have come to a decision after several seconds, because they eventually began running to catch up to him.
He led them into his office and motioned for them to take a seat. Wakko and Dot both looked hesitantly at Yakko, who gave them a nod. That was their cue to sit down. The eldest followed suit, occupying the middle chair in front of the doctor’s desk and grabbing one of the pens on the table to play with it. His siblings, of course, immediately mimicked him.
“So, Scratchy,” the oldest Warner began, spinning the pen between his fingers. “What seems to be the issue?”
Otto had to suppress the urge to snatch the pens away from their hands. Wakko was now tapping two of them on the desk like a makeshift drum set, while Dot was skillfully juggling three in the air. It was distracting, but at least it was keeping them seated.
“You see, children, what you did to that tower caused quite a bit of chaos in the castle.”
“I thought this wasn’t going to be a scolding session,” Yakko interjected, although he looked more amused than annoyed. Otto suspected his mind was already plotting an escape plan.
Sorry, kids, not today.
“Und it won’t be. However, the Council has decided that some measures are necessary,” the man continued.
Yakko scoffed at that. “What do they want us to do, build a new tower from scratch? I mean, we could, but I doubt the Council guys would dig our architectural style.”
The younger siblings finally decided to join the conversation.
“Oh oh, I want a slide that goes from the rooftop to the ground!” chimed in Wakko.
“I want a rooftop pool!” added Dot.
“It could be a water slide!”
“I want it to be pink.”
“But pink is boring.”
“You take that back!”
Otto desperately attempted to regain their attention as they started to bicker among themselves. “Children, please. This is important.”
“More important than a pink water slide tower?” challenged Yakko.
“Much more important. Listen, the Council doesn’t want you to fix the problem. What’s done is done.”
“Well, good to know!” The eldest sibling sat up, clapping his hands. “Are we done here? Because I would really like to take a shower right about now. These leaves are making me all itchy.”
“What? Of course not! Please, sit back down.”
Yakko thankfully complied, but Otto took notice of how he had already lost interest in the conversation.
Alright, no point in dragging this out any further.
“The Council has decided to send you away.”
Their playfulness vanished instantly, replaced by wide-eyed disbelief. The doctor was almost worried he may have broken them, before the Warner sister shouted indignantly, “Excuse me?! They can’t do that to us! We are the princess and princes of this kingdom!”
“I’m sorry, Dot, but they can indeed do that. Until your brother takes over, the Council is in charge of you children, you know that.”
That only seemed to make the little princess’s mood even worse.
“We told you, it was an accident!” whined the middle sibling. “This isn’t fair!”
“I’m afraid this isn’t just about the tower. You kids are always causing trouble around here. Dealing with a new environment away from the castle will help you mature,” the doctor echoed Plotz’s words, even though they didn’t sound too convincing even to his own ears.
Yakko laughed sarcastically. “Sure, right. We all know they can’t wait to get rid of us. Say, was this really the Council’s decision or just Plotzy’s?”
Right in the bull’s eye.
Panicked, Otto skirted the question, focusing instead on convincing them. “Think of it as studying abroad! You’ll learn so many new things und meet lots of new people. It will be fun!”
Yakko seemed to consider that.
“Wait a second,” he said after a moment. “Where are they intending to send us anyway?”
His choice of words suggested he was already thinking of ways to stop this from happening.
“To Earth.”
A chorus of “What?!” and other questions Otto couldn’t properly decipher flooded the room until the eldest shushed his siblings.
“Are they planning to split us up?” he asked, causing both Wakko and Dot to gasp in horror, showing they hadn’t considered that option.
Plotz hadn’t mentioned separating them, had he?
“Nein, I don’t think so.”
Something must have shifted in Yakko’s mind because he suddenly grinned as if he had won the lottery. “Okay then, when do we leave?”
Otto was perplexed, if not a little scared, by the abrupt attitude change, and judging by the younger Warners’ faces, he wasn’t the only one.
He decided not to argue against it. “As soon as you wish.”
“Perfect, we are leaving tomorrow! C’mon, sibs, we have some luggage to pack,” Yakko said, standing up and dragging Wakko and Dot away with him before either of them had the chance to protest. “See ya, Scratchy!”
For the second time that day, Otto found himself left alone in his office, thoroughly confused.