Work Text:
On your paper, be sure to include the following:
- When was your toon active in the cartoon industry?
- What studio did they work for?
- What was your toon’s best gag?
- What did your toon work on (shows/movies/other)?
- What was your toon like? Who was their rival?
When writing your paper, try to keep a brief timeline going. We want to know more about this toon, and the experiences they had! If you find any additional information, feel free to include it. Your paper must be a minimum of 1000 words.
Buster sighed and tapped his pen against his cheek, staring down at his blank report and tapping his foot against the floor.
“You’re still stressing over that assignment?” Plucky asked, hanging upside-down from his bed. Buster groaned and ran his hands down the sides of his face.
“It’s hard to pick a subject!” He exclaimed. Hampton rolled over to him on the rolling chair, peeking at the requirement sheet.
“Just write your pa-pa-paper on Bugs Bunny,” he said. “You already know alm-most everything there is to know about him.”
“But everyone is writing their biography on Bugs!” Buster exclaimed. “He’s literally the most famous toon of all time! And it kind of defeats the point of the assignment, don’t you think?”
“Well, we have an entire staff of popular toons,” Hampton reminded him. “Y-you could always choose one of them.”
“I know,” Buster groaned. “But I wanna do my assignment on a toon that no one else would think of!”
Plucky sighed and slid back onto his bed. Hampton hummed a bit, then snapped his fingers.
“D-d-didn’t Bugs have a mentor when he was a student?” He asked. Buster sat up a bit, turning to the pig. “M-m-maybe you could ask him a bit about whoever his mentor was!”
“That’s brilliant!” Buster exclaimed. He grabbed his requirement sheet and notebook and bolted out of his dorm room to go find Bugs. “Thanks Hampton!”
“No problem!” Hampton called after him. Once he was gone, Plucky slid back over the side of his bed, giving the pig a mischievous smile.
“Hey Hampton~”
“No.”
Buster knocked on the door to Bugs’ office and was invited in almost immediately. He closed the door softly behind him and made his way over to the chair in front of Bugs’ desk, where the rabbit in question was writing something down.
“How can I help ya, Doc?” He asked, looking up after a moment. He hummed a bit and rested his head in one hand. “Heya, Buster.”
“Hi Bugs,” Buster greeted him back. He cleared his throat. “So, we’ve been assigned a paper- we’re supposed to write a biography about a famous toon, and I was wondering if you-“
“Not to worry, I’ve got you covered,” Bugs said, reaching down and pulling out three sheets of paper. “I’ve looked over the requirement sheet already and have drafted up answers to every question on there. This just saves us both time.”
He handed the pages over to Buster, who blinked at them in shock.
“Oh,” he said. “Actually, I’m not doing my paper on you…”
“Oh?” Bugs asked, sounding genuinely shocked. “Then why are you here?”
“I was actually hoping you could tell me a bit about your mentor from when you were a student at ACME Loon,” Buster said, clicking and unclicking his pen. “Everyone is doing their paper on you, and I thought it’d be best to make sure mine was different.”
“Smart move,” Bugs said, leaning back in his chair. “So you chose my old mentor, huh?”
Buster nodded, readying his pen on his paper. Bugs chuckled a bit, staring out fondly. “Well, let’s see now…”
Bugs took a deep breath and slowly released it. He hadn’t met his mentor yet, but he was nervous and anxious and didn’t feel ready to meet them.
Ignoring how every bone in his body was screaming for him to turn around and walk away, he swallowed his nerves and knocked on the door. He heard a soft “come in” and gently opened the door, looking around the office.
“Um… h-hello?” He called. The chair behind the office desk spun around to reveal a dog-like toon with a bright red nose. He couldn’t have been any older than 16, if that, but he beckoned Bugs into the room.
“Come on in, don’t be shy,” he said. Bugs swallowed and closed the door softly behind him, making his way over. He sat down in the chair across from the toon, clasping his hands together in his lap. “I assume you’re the student I’ll be mentoring?”
“Y-yes,” Bugs said. “My name is B-B-Bugs Bunny.”
“Nice to meetcha, Bugs!” The toon said, extending his hand. Bugs took it and the toon started shaking him up and down. “The name’s Warner, Yakko Warner! So, what can I do for ya?”
Bugs bounced a couple more times before he realized the toon had released him. He stared at his hand in bewilderment for a moment, then turned a confused look to Yakko.
“Um… I’m h-here for the m-m-mentorship program?” He said, though it sounded like more of a question. Yakko snapped his fingers.
“Oh yeah, you are here for that, aren’t you? Well why didn’t you just say so!”
“I-I thought I did,” Bugs mumbled. Yakko breathed out a laugh, patting him on the head.
“You’re fun,” he said. “I can’t wait to get this thing started!”
“Bugs Bunny’s mentor?” Babs asked, taking a sip of her latte. “I didn’t realize he had one.”
“He did,” Buster said, catching a wayward frisbee heading his way and throwing it back. He watched Dizzy chase after it, laughing almost maniacally. “Bugs and I are gonna meet at the Loo Bru to discuss more about him.”
“Sounds fun,” Babs said, finishing her latte. She sighed dramatically. “Oh Buster~”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you another latte while I’m there,” Buster said, rolling his eyes. His watch beeped and he glanced down at it, humming a bit. “It’s almost time for me to go. Who are you doing your paper on?”
“Honestly? I might take a page out of your book,” Babs said. “I’m thinking… Jessica Rabbit? Sweetie started talking about her dark and mysterious past and now I need to look into it.”
“Sounds fun,” Buster giggled. He looked at his watch again. “I’m gonna run off now- good luck with your paper!”
“Same,” Babs said, waving him off. He ran in the direction of the Loo Bru, only stopping for a moment to throw Dizzy’s frisbee again.
“Your s-siblings teach here too?” Bugs asked, pulling a pie out of his hammerspace and setting it in front of Yakko. The toon hummed a bit and sniffed it, perking up.
“Blueberry,” he chirped. Pulling out some plates and slicing up the pie, he handed a plate to Bugs and then grabbed a fork. “Yep, they certainly do. Wakko teaches Anvil Physics and Dot’s in charge of the music department.”
“P-p-pretty cool that you three ended up w-working together,” Bugs said, taking a bite of his pie. Yakko nodded.
“We would never consider anything else,” he said. “It’s always the three of us, no matter what! ‘All for one times three’, that’s our motto!”
Bugs breathed out a laugh at that.
“S-sounds fun,” he said. “And you g-guys also worked on cartoons together? What was t-that like?”
Yakko paused for a moment.
“Oh,” he said. “Well… working on cartoons is good experience. It’s always fascinating to watch people at work, especially if you’re working too. You get to watch everything come together, and it’s really interesting.”
“Th-that sounds interesting,” Bugs said. “I wonder if I’ll e-ever get taken on b-b-by a studio.”
“Pretty sure that’s what you’re here for,” Yakko said. He poked the pie. “Hey, what about rhubarb?”
“Rhubarb?” Bugs asked. “I-isn’t that an impossible f-flavor to get?”
“Hey, you never know,” Yakko said. “We’re toons, ain’t we? Anything is possible in the world of cartoons.”
“Y-yeah, anything aside from getting rhubarb flavored p-p-pie.”
Yakko snorted and took another slice.
“Alright, alright,” he said. “Back up on the sass, snark-mouth, we’re in a school, remember?”
Somehow, the nickname didn’t hurt. It made Bugs snicker, actually, and the two continued to enjoy their pie.
“‘Yakko Warner was a talented toon. He was supportive and collected, and…’” Buster read his paper out loud before sighing and crumbling it up, throwing the paper away. Hampton sighed at the trashcan.
“W-we still have another t-t-three weeks to write the papers y’know,” he said. Buster nodded and started rewriting his biography.
“‘Yakko Warner was the mentor of Bugs Bunny when he was a student on the ACME Loon campus. He was supportive and collected, and he…’ he…” Buster sighed again and tore that page out of his notebook too, throwing it away. Plucky tossed a paper airplane in his direction.
“Maybe stop mooching off of Bugs’s stories and do your own research,” he suggested. Buster glared at him, then paused for a moment to consider.
…huh.
Why hadn’t he thought of that?
“I’ll be right back,” he said, grabbing his bag and shoving everything in it. He headed out of the dorm and in the direction of the library.
“Bugs, could you come up here for a moment?”
Bugs froze halfway out the doorway and turned back around. Yakko was leaning against the podium, his arms crossed.
“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” he said. “I just wanted to ask you something.”
Bugs swallowed and made his way back down to Yakko. When everyone else had left the room, Yakko uncrossed his arms and stood straighter. Despite this, Bugs still had to look down to see him.
“I just wanna see what you’ve got,” he said. “Insult me.”
“But you’re m-my mentor,” Bugs pointed out. Yakko shrugged and laid down on the desk, his chin propped in his hand, a challenging expression on his face.
“Minor detail,” he said. “I want you to insult me- say something mean, make it personal, make it awful. Say something bad.”
“You’re… I, um…”
“Ok, clearly, you need some help,” Yakko cut him off. He sat up and stretched his arms above his head. “Think of someone you would say something mean to, and make it count. For example, I could look at my brother and tell him that he’s a six-ton walking garbage disposal with the I.Q of a clump of dirt.”
Bugs’ eyes widened.
“Why would you t-t-tell him that?” He asked. Yakko grinned at him.
“Does it matter?” He asked. “Shoot back, say something on his behalf, defend him! What’s the worst thing you can say to me?”
“You’re- “ Bugs paused for a moment to think about this. Yakko wanted it to be personal, but Bugs didn’t want to hurt him.
“Defend him.”
“You’re… a rude, red-nosed Rudolph… with a mouth twice as big as your head?” Bugs tried. Yakko beamed at him and stood up, hands settling on his hips confidently.
“You’re a big-eared buck-toothed weirdo with half an iota of insult-ability running through your body,” he said. Bugs blinked at him.
“Uh, w-well, you’re a scrawny little kid with too much to say and not enough r-room to say it!”
“Big-footed fluffy-tailed little baby boy with a nervous st-st-st-stuh-stuh-stutter.”
“Clueless kid with pants the size of his ego thinking he’s on top of the world picking on a c-college student!”
Yakko clapped his hands together and pointed at Bugs excitedly, his tail swinging back and forth a mile a minute.
“There it is!” He exclaimed. “The wit, the confidence, the personal attack- and hardly a stutter! Do you feel it?”
Bugs paused for a moment, thinking. Yeah, actually, he did feel it. For a brief, shining moment, he didn’t feel like Bugs Bunny, the rabbit with a nervous stutter who got lost on a movie studio lot when he was ten. He felt like a powerful toon, ready to take on the world, ready to lead a charge of toons on their own show. Yakko sat back down, reaching over to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Listen, kid, you’ve got a lot of talent and show a lot of promise,” he said softly. “You’re smart and you’re witty and you can really deal a blow. You just need more confidence.”
“But- “
“Shhhh,” Yakko cut him off, pressing his hand against his mouth. “Butts are for sitting. If you chase that feeling you felt, you’ll find yourself accomplishing more than you ever thought you would.”
Buster knocked on the door to Bugs’ office, entering slowly. Bugs grinned at him, offering him a carrot that he accepted.
“Everything alright, Doc?” He asked. Buster nodded, then reached into his bag and pulled out a book.
“I was just wondering how accurate this is to your mentor,” he said. “I want to use every available resource I have, but I also want to make sure it’s correct.”
Bugs hummed as he flipped through the pages, nodding to himself and shaking his head on occasion. Finally, he sighed, and closed the book.
“I suppose I haven’t really been answering the right questions, have I?” He asked. “The book is accurate, historically- Yakko and his siblings first worked on Outback Buddy back in the early 30’s, got their own show, all of that. But this book is still leaving out some key details.”
“Like what?” Buster asked, taking the book back. Bugs sighed.
“Well…”
“Working on a studio lot is… harder than I thought it’d be,” Bugs admitted. He’d gotten employed by the same studio that Yakko and his siblings lived on, and at first, he was absolutely ecstatic.
But between being warned to read every single word in his contract by Yakko and then filming and shooting and apparently being labeled as the leader of this show he’d been signed onto? Yeah, he hadn’t accounted for how tiring that would be.
Yakko only nodded, kicking his feet as he watched the very first cartoon Bugs had ever worked on. He’d only gotten a small role in that one, he wasn’t even named, but they wanted him back and Yakko had a tape of his second cartoon on hand, ready for viewing.
“But hey, look at that! No stutter!” He said, finally looking at Bugs and giving him a wink. Bugs rolled his eyes good-naturedly, huffing a bit.
“It’s like you don’t grow up,” he said. Yakko’s smile turned into a smirk.
“The student using the master’s mastery of sarcasm against him,” he said drily. “Well done, apprentice.”
The two laughed, having grown used to insulting each other. It was fun, and it was something Bugs had grown more comfortable with. He knew nothing Yakko said was meant to hurt him, and if it did, he had some barbs he could shoot back that were just as deadly.
“I… do have a question, though…” Bugs started carefully. Yakko scoffed.
“Oh no,” he said. Bugs wrung his hands together, trying to call on that feeling, the confidence that removed his stuttering.
“I was recording something on the lot,” he said slowly. “And I thought I saw you and your siblings…”
Yakko’s smile slowly melted off his face. He turned slowly to Bugs, his expression curious yet cautious.
“Oh?” He asked. “What do you think you saw?”
“‘Bugs eventually made it big. He moved onto the studio lot and met so many toons, he became the leader of the Merry Melodies, later called the Looney Toons. He developed a bit of a reputation as a hard case, unfazed by anyone or anything,’” Buster read, pacing around Babs and Sweetie’s dorm. “‘But, in the words of Bugs Bunny himself, he never would have gotten where he was if not for his mentor, one of the greatest toons he’s ever known.’”
Babs and Sweetie waited for a few moments before both started to clap. Buster lowered his paper and breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Well, I’m glad you guys like my report,” he said. Babs nodded and Buster sat down next to her, handing over the biography so she could check it for grammatical errors.
“Have you showed it to Bugs yet?” Sweetie asked. Buster nodded.
“Yeah, but he hasn’t really gotten back to me on it,” he said. Babs looked up from the paper to pat him on the back reassuringly.
“It sounds like it might’ve been a bit sensitive near the end there,” she said. “He might just still be taking some of it in.”
“Maybe…” Buster hummed. “I still feel like I should’ve included some mention of that water tower…”
“No way,” Babs said. “You made the right call, leaving that part out. This is supposed to be informative, and knowing you, you wouldn’t have been able to write about that part without turning it into a rant.”
Buster shrugged his shoulders.
“Fair point,” he said. “It’s just…”
“Just what?” Babs asked. Buster folded his arms, laying his head on them.
“I wish I knew where they were, and what they’re up to,” he said. “I would’ve loved to meet Yakko.”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” Babs said. “All that stuff happened in the past, remember? Today is so different to how yesterday used to be.”
Buster rolled his eyes.
“That’s true,” he admitted. He took a deep breath and sat up a bit, glancing in the direction of Babs’ essay. “How’s your assignment on Jessica Rabbit going?”
“Ok get this, she was actually a prime suspect in the murder of the Marvin Acme-“
Bugs finished reading Buster’s report one final time, smiling softly to himself. He was glad that Buster saw the Warners the way Bugs had always seen them, and that he double-checked what the book was telling him.
Yes, history painted the Warner brothers and their sister in a bad light. History called them awful, uncontrollable children with a penchant for trouble and no care for anyone other than each other. Toons knew them better, they knew who the Warners really were.
The Warners were given jobs at ACME Looniversity many years ago. Yakko had come to be like a brother to him- mostly he was the older brother, but on very few occasions he allowed himself to be the younger one- and Bugs learned so much from him.
But then they got locked in the water tower. Bugs moved to the studio and tried to convince the CEO to let them out.
Termite Terrace closed down. He and the other Looney Toons were kicked off the lot. They moved to the suburbs and tried to live normal lives. Daffy moved in with him.
Bugs visited the studio on occasion and the Warners broke out.
They were… different. Way different. They were still sweet kids, and Yakko was still friendly to him, but that was almost 60 straight years spent in that water tower, in darkness. They were crazier, more insane- declared legally insane, in fact, and they never came back to ACME Loon to continue teaching despite the opportunity being presented to them.
Then they disappeared. Out of nowhere, with no notes left and no way of finding them.
Bugs’ phone chimed with a notification. He glanced down at it, his smile returning to his face when he saw that it was a text from Yakko.
The Warners had shown up at his doorstep a couple years ago. Yakko had said they’d needed a break, that they’d needed to get away. Bugs let them stay with him while they got back on their feet.
They went to therapy- they’re still legally insane, but they’re getting better.
Yakko was angry and seething and bitter, and the first few months getting to know the other side to the toon who’d mentored him was tough. But in time, they managed to work together, and in the end, Bugs felt as though he’d gotten a vital part of his life back.
There was a new CEO at the studio. She asked them if they wanted to work on a reboot. They said yes. And they were back to living in their water tower, much happier, with much better conditions.
Gee, I wonder who that report could be on
Doesn’t sound like anyone I know
Bugs breathed out a laugh and texted him back.
It’s on one of the best toons I’ve had the honor of knowing
That’s boring
Oh by the way, Norita said she’s interested in giving some of the students there a shot
Wants to try filming a show about them in Acme Acres
Bugs hummed a bit.
I’ll talk to Granny about it
Cool
He received a picture. Bugs opened it up to see an image of Yakko and his siblings enjoying some rhubarb pie. He rolled his eyes.
Show-off
Yakko just sent a smiley face.