"Ooooh the pain, oh the ah-goh-ny!"
Bugs rolled his eyes as his long-time partner in comedy screamed and wailed his way through the Havana Casino with the finest of put-upon skill.
"I'm shtarving! Malnourished! Dying of famine!" His voice shifted to anger for a moment. "I'm very, very hungry!"
"And whaddya want me to do about it? We're outta cash."
"Couldn't we just… sneak from the buffet table?" Daffy asked, looking longingly at the spread plastered with several 'banned for life' posters bearing his own face. "Or maybe we could get an advanthe?"
Bugs sighed. "Look Daff. We already had to book tree extree gigs this week because we're flat broke and all outta cash. And why are we all outta cash?"
"Because I shpent it all on gambling." Daffy muttered reluctantly. Then, his brow furrowed. It twisted and rolled, going through seventeen thoughts a second, until at last Daffy's face lit up with the glow of a literal light bulb popping into existence over his head. "That'th it!"
"Eh?"
"I know how I'm going to get my shupper!"
"Oh boy."
"Look!" Daffy said, pulling a poker chip from nowhere and holding it up to the camera dramatically. "Iiiii may have shpent literal thousandths of dollarsh on the casino floor this week due to my own overconfidence and poor impulthe control, but! I still have ten chips left. And I know a foolproof way to turn those chipth into cold hard moolah."
"Cash out for $3.50?" Bugs asked.
"No!" Daffy replied. "Just follow me to the roulette table."
"You mean the form of gambling based completely and entirely on random chance?"
"It'th cthertain odds!"
The confident duck marched across the casino floors, plonking his chips down roughly on the betting table. "Croupier!" Daffy declared. "Puht it all on twenty-three."
"Sir, this is a blackjack table."
Daffy moved to the roulette wheel.
"Croupier! Puht it all on twenty-three."
"...That's yer strategy?" Bugs asked askance.
"It never failsth!"
"Daffy, that's not a strategy, that's a one in thirty-six chance. You can't expect that to-"
"We have a winner!" The dealer declared, shoving Daffy his 35-1 payout.
Bugs' mouth hung open for a moment. Then he frowned, turning to the camera. "It's gonna be wunna dose days, den."
"Ahahahahah, my brillianthe winth again!" Daffy declared, scooping the chips up into his arms.
"All right, good." Bugs said. "Let's get you your sandwich, and go get ready for th-"
Daffy shoved his chip pile back onto the board. "Put it all on 23!"
"Daff." Bugs said, head in his hands. "Toonforce only takes ya so fah. Pretty soon it's gonna be more funny fer you to lose den win, an' den-"
"Amazing sir, yet another victory!" The dealer crowed.
"I hope you realize I'm carrying ya here." Bugs said.
"Your contribution isth noted, and dithcarded."
"You gonna go again?"
"Thith bit wouldn't have much of an ending if I didn't."
Bugs shrugged. "Well, if ya can't beat 'em…"
There was a brief pause, and then Bugs and Daffy, together, declared:
"PUT IT ALL ON 23!"
---
What followed was a series of increasingly unlikely coincidences as the casino rapidly ran out of poker chips. "23! 23! Tweeeenty-Tuhreeeeheee!" The pair declared languorously from atop a mountain of winnings, sipping martinis and watching the proceedings from behind designer sunglasses.
"Now hold on there."
Bugs and Daffy turned. "Eh?"
"Allow me to introduce myself."
The man strolling up to the table was a slicked-back, greying executive, oozing self-satisfaction in a tailored suit.
"Tex Richman." He continued, laying a card upon the table. "Amoral businessman, larger-than-life Texan. I'd elaborate in the form of a musical number, but I have a meeting in a few minutes."
"Oh look." Bugs said. "An incitin' inceedent."
"Now, I happen to be the owner of this fine money-taking establishment, and I notice you've been having an eighteen-carot run of good luck."
"Ha!" Daffy laughed. "Becauth he'th a rabbit."
"Now, you happen to be costing my venture a boatload a' money. So I am here to suggest that we make things a little more… interesting."
"Oh?"
"I think your luck's gonna break. In fact, I'm so certain it is that I'm willing to bet my whole casino against you."
A gasp went up from the croupier, and a small crowd started to form.
"And ehhh…" Bugs asked slowly, munching an ever-present carrot. "What would you want us to put up?"
"Oh, just the money you've made, like you're doing. And ah, just one other little thing, a token really, a trifle, just your fiction rights!"
Bugs gasped. "The rights to use our images?!?! Ta perform on the stage?! To accomplish the very raisin dee entreé of our existence as Cartoons? We could nevah- Daffy's already shakin yer hand."
"A whole cathino!" Daffy droned, dollars in his eyes, as he relentlessly pumped Tex's arm up and down. "Cash, moolah, benjaminth, an endleth thupply of feckless rubeth ta shamelethly rip off!"
"Daff, ya can't-"
"Bugth! How could I ever return to Brendan Fraither'th Father'th manthion if I turned down an opportunity like thith?"
"For once Daffy, just consider the consequences of yer actions."
"Never!" Daffy replied, hand still holding Tex's in a vice grip. "And sheeth. When did you become sthuch a thpoilthport?"
"I'm as much as a screwball as you are Daff! Next to Sam er Elmah, or even Marvin I'd be yukkin' it up. It's just you I have to be straight around."
"Yeth well, thith is how the pyramid workth."
Bugs sighed.
"I'm putting your righths on the line too, you know." Daffy said.
"Fine, no stoppin the plot now. But it's our funeral."
"Yes." Tex smiled. "It will be. Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh!"
Bugs and Daffy stared.
"Oh I'm sorry." Tex said, shrugging gently. "I was born with a rare disorder that makes me incapable of genuine laughter. I assure you, underneath my stoic exterior beats a heart of cruel sadism."
"Good to know." Daffy replied. "Now, with that out of the way… PUT IT ALL ON TWENTY-THREE!"
Tex gave a small nod to the croupier, who grinned. Bugs narrowed his eyes. Unnoticed by the crowd, fixated on Daffy, or by Daffy, also fixated on Daffy, the croupier flipped a switch and locked the roulette table into a specific formation.
"War is it?" Bugs muttered to himself. "Well den…" Bugs melted away into the crowd.
Daffy watched the ball spin round and round with rapt attention. "C'mon, c'mon-"
"Oh yoo hoo! Mr. Dealer~"
The croupier managing the roulette table looked up to view the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. His jaw hung open in raw shock.
Bugs' eyelashes fluttered. "A-he-he-he."
"I...I-"
Bugs slapped the man across the face.
"Yeowch!"
"The noive!"
Toppled and off balance, the dealer tripped into the roulette, sending the ball flying.
"What in tarnation-?" Tex asked as the ball soared over his head, plinked off the buffet table, and landed near the slot machines. That would have been the end of it, if a granny had not won the jackpot at that exact moment, sending the ball rolling away on a tide of chips.
The ball rolled into a deep-set fountain just in time for the water display to begin, sending the ball flying into the air.
"Oooh. Ahhhhh." Bugs and Daffy said in unison, tracking the ball's path.
The ball caught on a chandelier, bouncing among the crystal lights for a moment before bouncing back down towards the floor.
"Ehhhh. Mmmm." The pair continued, now less enthused.
The ball pinged across the floor a few times before landing in a wine glass. A classy debutante took a sip, swallowed the ball, and immediately began choking. A moment later her date performed the Heimlich maneuver, hacking the ball back into the air.
"Gee. This sure is takin' a long time." Bugs noted as the ball got caught between two pillars and bounced between them. A moment later it began flying wildly about the room, making several crowd members duck.
"Maybe the writerth are thstalling while they come up with a punthline." Daffy suggested darkly.
The ball rebounded and slammed directly into Daffy's face.
"Owch."
The ball flipped through the air over the roulette table, spun a few times… and landed on 10.
Daffy's mouth fell open.
"Uuuugh… what happened?" The dealer slowly rose from the floor, knocking into the roulette table.
The ball jumped one spot… to 23.
The crowd cheered.
"What… no I- how?!?!" The tycoon asked. "You can't have won, I was scamming you!"
Bugs shrugged. "Luck a' tha' draw pal." Bugs replied. "Now eeeehhh, get outta our casino."
"I think you mean my casino." Daffy corrected.
"You bet my image too, genius."
"We'll dithcuth this later." Daffy replied, turning from the table even as Richman was led away. "For now… we need to dethide on thomeone to run this place for uth. I'm thertainly not doing any real work."
"We need someone comf'terble in leadership." Bugs replied.
"Larger than life!" Daffy agreed.
"Able to deal with a rough crowd."
"With an even thupider acthent than that guy'th!"
"Do we know a guy like that?"
---
Somewhere in a Las Vegas barroom
"Ragga-fragga lily-livered consarn son of a no-good-!"
---
"We'll think 'a somethin'. Bugs decided after a moment. He turned to see Daffy looking pensive.
"Hrm."
"What is it Daff?" Bugs asked.
"Uthually by now, my thelfish and thorthited acthions have led to thome thort of karmic retribution. But nothing'th happened. Sthrange."
"Weird. It's almost as if some cosmic force has alta'd probability in orda ta temporarily transfer elsewheah yer usual spate 'a bad luck."
"Well, I'm not having my bad luck, and you're not having my bad luck." Daffy replied as they walked out of the casino. "So who has my bad luck?"
Unseen by anyone, Agent Russ' incorporeal form floated into the casino, missing the legendary duo by mere seconds.
Bugs shrugged. "No ideah."
They plodded out into the night, now richer than ever before and with the means to keep the good times rolling.
"...You know. I never did get my shupper."