I sit alone in this abandoned building, long forgotten by the outside world. Well almost. I am certain someone comes here to clean this place up. I would imagine that it being closed for so long would have warranted it being far dirtier. Eh, no matter. It suits my needs just fine.
It's not like I have much elsewhere to go. That city is infested with humans. Beings that deem themselves superior to toons. Those that wish to abuse us toons and force us to do their dirty work for them. Bah! Someone should show them exactly how 'superior' they are. I'm sure they will sing a different tune if I were to just... cut them a certain way. Yes, everyone has their own breaking point.
However I refrain from doing that, as tempting as it is. They're just humans, after all. How could I blame them for being so stupid? And they did kind of create us, so they do have some bragging rights I suppose. Resisting my more violent urges was hard, but I feel like I'm doing a relatively good job. I know my place in their world and what would happen if I try to break that order.
I still have nightmares of that day. I was 'fortunate' enough to witness a culling. I had seen a toon's life snuffed out right in front of me. I will never forget those screams, nor the way the toon had looked at me. Even when I hid, that toon knew I was there, somehow, and he reached out to me.
I regret to say that I did nothing. But then, what could I do? If I had taken action and rushed into the group, you know what would have happened? I would have died. That's what. I just couldn't afford it. I'm not interested in losing my own life. But don't think I didn't mourn that toon's death. I still blame myself, and the nightmares still plague me even to this day.
Thankfully, such cullings were rare. But that didn't make life here for a toon that much better.
I witness toons being ordered around all the time. We aren't treated as equals, despite what the vermin might try to have us believe. We toons are the ones who get the most dangerous jobs, often for their durability. Well yes we are more resistant, but we still feel pain. An anvil still hurts when it hits us, and some of us are still subjected to that regularly.
It is clear that the humans take advantage of us. They see us as nothing more than walking expendables. If they want to test something, they will use us for it. They would be cautious about strapping dynamite to a human, but they wouldn't bat an eye when they do it to a toon. A simple 'are you okay' is all I ask, even if we are fine from it. We don't even get that hospitality.
What I find most sickening, aside from the humans' arrogance, as well as ignorance about how toons might feel, is how most toons don't seen to mind. I remembered being genuinely shocked when I heard that.
Sure there was the occassional toon that would speak up. But their voices were either snuffed out by the majority, or they will reconsider their thoughts, often turning around in the end. I'd be hard pressed to find someone else who shared similiar beliefs as me regarding the human/toon relationship.
I find it rather frustrating. Simply finding support was quite hard, and I have very little I can vent my frustrations against. I want to try to make things better for all of us. But most toons just want to let it alone and take what they can get. Many don't even mind their deplorable living conditions. Such toons were delusional and they can't even begin to comprehend why I'd think that. It was like they were designed to be stupidly happy all the time.
Well, I can't say I can blame them for that. If they want to be gleefully ignorant of the world and how humans really see them, well I guess I can't stop them, right? It would be like trying to lead a lion to a salad bar and expecting it to eat. It simply would not work. Despite my anger towards the toons for largley ignoring their plight, I have little options to try to change their mind.
But I haven't even listed the one thing that angers me the most. It is something that can get my rage going much faster than the mere sight of a single human or an idiotic toon ignoring how it is being treated.
And that is mimicry.
I've seen several humans who look to 'inspiration', as they call it. And this 'inspiration' often calls for copying something they had seen, editting it a little, and presenting it to the world. Rip offs, copies, clones, whatever you like to all it. Plagiarism was bad enough with humans, but it's worse with us toons.
Let me explain. Try to imagine what it would be like coming home one day and find that someone else had taken your place. This person not only looks mostly like you, save for a few changes here or there, but still so much like you, it's almost like looking at a mirror. Imagine someone pointing fingers at you or your counterpart and calling foul. Imagine the utter frustration of the whole thing, especially if you are the one that they put the 'fake' claim on.
The suckiest part of the whole thing? I'm one such toon.
Yeah, you might be shocked, right? How would I know all of this? Wouldn't my artist try to hide it? Well not really. He never made it any secret to me that I was nothing more than a cash in on a more popular product. He had used me for striking deals and to be his personal slave. And that was it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I find it disgusting to look at myself in the mirror. How could I begin to tolerate such a sight? How could I look in any my own reflection and resist the urge to punch it in the mouth? I could often feel every fiber in my body wanting to do it. But yet, I still manage to control myself, believe it or not.
Being nothing more than a copy, an extreme example of inspiration, I admit it left me with a...rather strange feeling. It's like... How should I put it..? Hallowness. Yes, that's what it feels like. As if someone drilled many holes in my body and I am just barely functioning.
I had thought that if I dug a little deeper and learned more about my...original..the feeling would go away. Not only did it never go away, but it seemed to have made things worse. I could go into full detail, but I don't know if I could talk about this guy long enough before breaking out into a rage. He's what I'm a copy of, but all I see is a polar opposite. Is this seriously what the animator saw me as? Or was I just a mere gritty reboot of this same toon?
I've watched this Yakko guy for some time. I kept my distance of course. I would stick to the shadows, or even wear my human disguise to try to get a better look at this guy. I even watched some of their recorded skits on the show, that Animaniacs cartoon. I had hoped to find some level of decency or a stroke of genius from this guy. But sadly, there were not results yielded. And the more I witnessed this guy in action, the angrier that I got.
Yakko was the pinnacle of stupid toons. He didn't seem to get angry when he should, and even when he did get angry, he reacted to it a rather weird way that made little sense. He wasn't even trying to act decently. He was just another loon. The worst one because that's how my own creators, my own artists see me. Is that for real? Is this what my own creators see me as? The very idea was quite unsettling.
Now you might be thinking 'oh you should have gotten to know him better', or 'he is not as bad as you might think'. Trust me, those were the same thoughts I had. Most of my knowledge of this guy was from observation. I had thought that maybe his goofiness was part of his 'character trait'. I've seen toons being forced to act in ways that were against their nature, all for the sake of comedy and entertainment. I told myself many times not to place too much judgment on him until after I was able to meet him face to face when he wasn't actually working.
Such a time was difficult to determine. It required me learning more about the work schedule of the members of that Animaniacs show. I couldn't simply walk up to them and ask. Classified information and all, I'm sure. So I merely observed.
It took me a while to gather all the information that I needed. Staring out at the studio form a distance and remaining hidden was not as easy as you might think. It required a ton of patience and meticulous writing, tirelessly recording the data, doing a ton of comparison. But it was all worth it in the end. I had been able to write down a more or less accurate schedule for myself and had information on when and where the toon actors usually left and come back for work. Using this information, I was able to determine the best time to confront Yakko.
But I didn't want him or anyone knowing that I was a toon. I didn't trust the humans. I had very little reason to think that they would leave me alone. And how would Yakko react to me being the same 'species' as him and his siblings? No, best to lay low and just have a casual meeting with him. See what he's like off the set. I imagined he was at least a little more sophisticated and intelligent when not forced to play that character on set.
I was disgusted and appalled by what I had gotten instead. It seemed I had been wrong about him. He wasn't much different. I suppose I had acted much like the people whom he called his 'special friend', because that's what he did to me! He made me his 'special friend', and that's not as grand as it sounds. I'll spare you all the details of exactly what happened between us that day. If you know Animaniacs well enough, then you already can fill in the details for yourself.
His siblings were no better. Like Yakko, they were just like how they were on the set. I was grateful enough that I didn't have to face them much in my human disguise. That didn't make me any less angry at them.
And you know what disgusts me the most about them? Out of all the toons, they act the most...er...I'm not sure if I can come up with the word for it. But they had been locked away in a tower for many years, and the humans make it no secret how they feel about them. They're even forced to go into therapy, of all things! And yet, none of the Warners had ever attempted to fight back, as if they were just children on a playground or something like that.
Needless to say, I was furious. I know the actors on the show do their best to let it run off their backs like it was nothing. Just show business, right? Well not me. I had pushed around and treated like an object by the very people who made me. I was nothing more than a tool for them to use to get on top. I do not take kindly to be treated that way by a fellow toon.
I know that it is pitiful to keep holding onto anger. Believe me, I had tried to let it go. Oh man how I tried...
But nothing worked. I would always think of that blasted toon and my blood would boil. It got to the point where I simply had to take action, and yet...I wasn't really sure how to go about it. I doubt humans would care if a toon killed another toon, but the toons themselves? I'd rather not be on the recieving end of a furious, mostly immortal being, thank you very much.
I needed to plan this carefully, should I decide to actually do something about it. I did manage to keep myself under control, for the most part. But my disgust for what happened, combined with the treatment I see everyday of most toons, realizing how little any of them tried to fight back... Yeah, you can see why I couldn't simply hold myself back for much longer. And that's when I had my eureka moment.
I could use this to my advantage. I could change Yakko's despicable act into something more. Perhaps I could even make him a matyr of some kind. This old place did have a large collection of Thinner. Maybe that disgusting stuff can finally have some kind of use. If the toons think the humans killed off one of the most 'respectable' and 'popular' toons, especially one that was, in essence, a little boy... Oh yes this might work!
But it might have to go through some revisions. And I will have to try my best not to lose sight of what I'm trying to do. If I screw this up... Well as I said before, I do not want to have someone of a near immortal status coming after me.
I grabbed onto the nearest item and lifted it up. I stared at it long and hard. The pencil... Both the creator and the destroyer. An item of mass symbolism to the toons. The thing that decided their fates even right from the first day. This will be perfect. Absolutely perfect...
I will begin the plan later on tomorrow. I first need to make a few...preparations. I need to be careful about how I go about this. I cannot screw this up! I understand the risks, and I understand how much this can all bite me in the tail. But I don't care. The reward if everything goes according to plan was just too great. I cannot simply pass this up!
I laid down on my stomach to write the plans. Oh yes, it was all coming into focus now. I just needed to remember one thing.
To not allow my emotions cause me to deviate from the plan, to not do anything more extreme that what I had intended, lest everything begin to fall apart at the seams.
P.S. If you are reading this,
I suppose we all know what had become of me, don't we, dear Yakko...?
From, Duu
Dated: One day before the execution of the plan
