Teats on a Bull

Hero’s Journal Bubbles Fan FICTION

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This is a work of fiction.  It is entirely a product of my imagination.  Well, other than the people. The places are mostly real, too. However, the circumstances are entirely FICTIONAL.  And time is an illusion.

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Nick woke up giddy with excitement. Today was the day that everyone would know what Bubbles was.  But what if no one really liked it? Ryan had been waiting for 2 years for this.  Nick was suddenly nervous.

He knew Kyle was up because he could smell the coffee.  Nick quickly threw on some clothes and his orange good luck hat and went into the kitchen.  “What if they don’t like it?” Nick said to Kyle without saying good morning.

Kyle looked up from his bowl of cereal perplexed.  “What?”

“Bubbles.  What if they don’t like Bubbles?” Nick said.

“Oh. Right” Kyle said and then frowned.  He hadn’t thought of that.  They had been so busy getting IstoricCon together he hadn’t really thought of people’s reaction to Bubbles.  “They will like it” Kyle said with more confidence than he felt.  “I mean we have a huge number of Star Wars fans in the HQ and the Bubbles Raiders seem to really like it.”

“Yeah,” Nick said slightly relieved.  They had liked it a lot.  Ryan had brought it with him when they met in Detroit.  The Raiders had grabbed the box and had really liked it.  Nick and Kyle has sworn them to secrecy.

Bert wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee.  “We are all set up and ready to go.”

“What if they don’t like it?” Kyle blurted out.

Bert looked confused. “IstoriaCon? I think they people who signed up are going to love it.”

“No. Bubbles.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Bert said and shrugged.  “I think everyone is going to like it.  I mean how hard was it to get the girls to give it back?”  Bert chuckled at the thought and walked out of the kitchen to make sure the tech was ready.  IstoriaCon was due to start soon.

“He’s right,” Nick said.  “We did have a hard time getting Bubbles back.  Especially form LL.  I thought we were going to have to tackle her.”  Nick chuckled.  It would be alright.

Bert appeared at the kitchen door. “Let’s get this party started.”

~~~~~

As the people wandered around the IstoriaCon Nick sighed with relief.  Even though there had been some technical issues with muting everyone seemed really excited about the LOI revamp.  And everyone seem to enjoy the Gather.Town platform as well. They had worked hard on IstoriaCon.  He texted Kyle. “That went well.”

“Yeah,” Kyle texted back.

As the second presentation started Nick and Kyle met in the kitchen.  “So far so good. Everyone seems really excited about the LOI revamp,” Nick said.

“They do.  Hopefully that means they will like Bubbles.” Kyle said.  He was still anxious about Bubbles.

“There’s no sense in worrying about it now,” Nick said trying to reassure himself.

~~~~~

As the time approached to reveal Bubbles both Nick and Kyle got more and more nervous.  Ryan texted Nick. “So far so good.  What if they don’t like Bubbles?”

Nick knew Ryan would be crushed.  This was the journal he’d been waiting to put out.  “They will like it,” Nick texted back. “Don’t worry.” Now if he could just convince himself.

Ryan looked at the text.  He was worried.  This was what he had wanted to do almost from the beginning and it had been pushed back and pushed back.

Kyle texted John. “I’m nervous. What if they don’t like Bubbles?

John texted back. “They will love it. Everything has been going really well and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.  It will be fine.”

Kyle looked at John’s text.  Leave it to John to be the calm voice of reason.

~~~~~

All too soon it was time for the Bubbles doors to be opened.  Nick, Kyle, Ryan, Bert and John were nervous.  This was it.

John unlocked the doors and all the avatars streamed through into the Bubbles area.  It was pretty comical to watch.  The Hero’s Staff watch nervously as John cued up the video.

Nick watched with anticipation as everyone watched the short video.  And it was done.  Bubbles had been revealed as Galaxy of Istoria.  The Con participants chattered excitedly. “I want one” was heard repeatedly.  Nick, Kyle and Ryan sighed with relief.

“Do we want to show them more?” Kyle’s voice cut across the exited chatter.

Nick agreed, “yeah we should” as the Con participants clamored for more. Nick just loved spilling beans with the Hero’s and everyone had the reaction he had hope for.

Ryan joined Nick on stage to show some of his art and the journal that they had held onto for so long.  The LOI revamp was a success and the GOI looked like it would be too.

~~~~~

It has been a long day.  Nick, Kyle and Bert sat at the kitchen table eating pizza.

“That went well,” Kyle said.

Nick nodded in agreement.  “Yeah. I was hoping for more people, but everyone who was at the Con seemed to enjoy themselves.”

“The Bubbles Raiders acting was good,” Bert said.  Nick and Kyle chuckled.  The Raiders had all acted just as surprised as everyone else.

They continued to eat in silence.  After they were done, Kyle stood up and stretched. “I am beat.  It was a good day.  I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Nick and Bert said together as they watched Kyle head off.

Bert got up and threw the empty pizza box away.  “See you later,” he said to Nick.

“Yeah, see you later,” Nick said to Bert.  Nick agreed with Kyle: he was fatigued, but happy.  Nick sat at the table a little longer running through the Con in his head.  He had some ideas for next year.  He grabbed his journal and wrote them down.  That was enough for today.  Nick grabbed the book he was reading and headed off to his room to read and decompress.  They had made a lot of people happy.  It had been a good day.

~~~~~

And that is what Nick, Kyle, Ryan, Bert and John went through yesterday.  Or maybe it was all in my head.  Maybe the Bubbles Raiders knew.  Maybe we didn’t.  I will never tell!

The Search for Bubbles

The Side Quest – Wait! Tone had Bubbles?

Hero’s Journal Bubbles Fan FICTION

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This is a work of fiction.  It is entirely a product of my imagination.  Well, other than the people. The places are mostly real. However, the circumstanced are entirely FICTIONAL.  And time is an illusion.

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And before we start …. Thank you to Michele Blewitt for a BIG part of this.

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Tone looked around the warehouse.  How had it gotten so disorganized so quicky? He really didn’t want to think about it.

Tone chuckled to himself as he remembered the crazy women who showed up in a box truck and forklift and the new journals.  He’s heard that they made bail pretty quickly thanks to some friends and that Nick & Kyle had refused to let the shipping company press charges for the theft because the journals were all here.

He sighed and grabbed a box of grey and a box of blue journals from the shelves.  People on Facebook were really anxious to get these.  He’d better get packing.

Shortly he could hear footsteps from above.  He looked at his watch. WOW! It was just past noon. No wonder he was hungry.  He had gotten in the packing zone and hours had flown by.

He was going to miss this place.  Tone knew he it was time to move on to the next adventure, but that didn’t make leaving any easier.

Footsteps thumped on the stairs to the warehouse and Kyle appeared with 2 white bags.  “Yo! I brought lunch.” Kyle said in way of greeting holding out one bag to Tone.

“Thanks man. I’m starving.”

Kyle looked around at the mountains of filled and unfilled boxes.  He was going to miss Tone – a lot! Not only had they been friends for what seems like forever, Tone kept the warehouse organized and moving.

Nick came in through the loading bay door with his bag. Tone chuckled to himself.  Obviously, Kyle chose where they picked up lunch.  It was ok. He liked Wendy’s.

“How many more boxes do we have to do?” Nick asked.

“Off the top of my head – a lot,” Tone answered.

“Did you see the HQ on facebook?” Kyle asked Nick.

“Yeah. People are starting to get their orders.” Nick replied. “It’s pretty cool to see all the pictures.  Did you see Michele’s unboxing video?”

“I saw she did one, but I didn’t watch it yet.” Kyle replied as Tone nodded.  It was fun to watch the people who ordered the journals rip through the carefully packed boxes with glee.

Tone walked to the corner of the warehouse and grabbed a box and brought it back to the table.

“It’s time to give this back,” Tone said as he put the box in the center of the packing table.

Nick and Kyle looked at the box. “Yeah,” Kyle said. “I guess so.”

“It’s been fun being the Keeper of Bubbles.” Tone said. “Has anyone guess it yet?”

Kyle and Nick both shook their heads no. “But it’s giving the Heroes something to look forward to,“ Nick replied.

“I really want to tell the Heroes! It’s going to be so exciting. They are going to love it.” Nick said.

“Yeah, but we need to wait,” Kyle relied.

“I know. But it’s so hard to wait!” Nick said.

“For what it’s worth, I think waiting is going to make the hype that much more fun.” Tone said looking at the box.  It had been fun watch everyone try to guess what Bubbles is.”

Nick, Kyle and Tone ate in silence.

“Yeah,” Tone thought, “I’m going to miss this place.”

Nick threw his wrapper and bag towards the trash can and missed.  Tone picked it up and threw it in. “Thanks man!” Nick said as he picked up the box and headed upstairs. “Catch you later.”

Kyle tossed his trash towards the can and missed too.  He sighed, shook his head in disgust, and walked over and pick up the bag and wrapper and put it in the can.

Tone tossed his bag into the can and grinned at Kyle. “That’s how you do it.”

Tone wiped down the table.  He didn’t want a Hero to get soiled goodies.  He and Kyle got back to work packing the orders.

Tone sighed and Kyle looked at him. “You ok man?”

“Yeah. I’m just going to miss being the Keeper of Bubbles.”

Kyle chuckled. “I hear you.”

“Who are you giving it to now?” Tone asked.

Kyle shrugged.  That was for Nick to do.

Tone looked around at the warehouse. Yeah, he was going to miss this place.

******************************************

Good Luck in Your Next Adventure Tone!

We will miss your hard work and keeping the Hero’s Journal moving out and to us.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

The Search for Bubbles

Shall We Play a Game?

Hero’s Journal Bubbles Fan FICTION

This is a work of fiction.  It is entirely a product of my imagination.  Well, other than the people. The places are mostly real. However, the circumstanced are entirely FICTIONAL.  And time is an illusion.

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Before we start … this was all Cheyenne.  I just put some words around her ideas.

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Nick and Kyle looked at each other and then at Ryan.

“Should we show them?” Nick asked. Both Ryan and Kyle shrugged.

“They could be testers,” Kyle suggested.

“Testers of what?” Mirjam asked excitedly.

“Go ahead,” Zach chimed in.

Nick leaned over and pulled a long flat-ish rectangular box out of a bag.

“That looks like a Monopoly box,” LL said. “Are we playing Monopoly IMA edition?”

“Close,” Nick replied as he open the box. “It’s Istoria: The Board Game.”

A collective “Oooo” went up from the Bubbles Raiders.

“Wait a minute. Is THAT Bubbles?”

John, Kyle, Nick, Ryan and Zack just laughed.  “We’ll never tell,” said Ryan.

Tacie looked over the top of her glasses at them.  “Yet,” added Kyle with a grin.

‘Let’s play,” Angela said. “Maybe we can help work out any kinks.”

“This is just a prototype,” John said. “Ryan is still working on all the graphics.”

Skye, looked at the board Nick had pulled out of the box and asked, “Is that the map that MistyBee drew for you?”

Ryan nodded. “We had her modify it for the game.”

“It looks amazing,” Cheyenne said tracing her finger over the Wildwoods. “Oooo and it had texture too.”

Nick pulled the tokens out of the box and laid them on the table. “Those are so cute!” Mirjam gushed as she picked up one of the tiny pewter figurines.

“I love the Climbers!” Tacie said picking up one of the other figures.

The figurines were passed around as Kyle, Nick and Zach explained the rules of the game.

“I have an idea.” Tasty suggested. “Since there are too many of us, why don’t we split into teams. That way you guys can help lead us gals through the game.  I’ll sit out and watch and take notes on what things go right, what might need to be modified, and what really needs to be changed. And why.”

“You wouldn’t mind?” Kyle asked.

“Nope.” Tacie, waving a dismissive hand. “That will give each player a coach. And you can let me know what happened and what you think should have happened as the game goes along.  I brought my notebook,” she said holding up a Companion Journal.

The dice were rolled, play order was established and Zach said, “Let the games begin.”

Shortly after the game start, room service arrived with snacks and sodas. Angela shrugged and said “I thought we might need something to snack on.”

On her next turn, Cheyenne drew a card and read it aloud. “You didn’t journal yesterday. Loose a turn to catch up on your goal.” Everyone laughed.  The next card drawn by Skye read “you finished your first act, move ahead 3 spaces.”

As the game continued, there was much laughter and discussion of game play.  There were suggestions for graphics and ideas to enhance game play.

As a game came to a close the last section read, “You finished your journal 1^st. You win.”

“Oh!” said LL. “I don’t think that’s right. This isn’t about finishing a journal. It’s about finishing a quest.”

“I was just going to say that,” Cheyenne said nodding.

“I agree too,” Skye chimed in.

“It will probably take most of us more than 1 journal to finish our quests.” Angela stated.  Everyone nodded in agreement.

“You could change it to “Yew finished your quest 1st.” Cheyenne suggested.

“Celebrate with the next quester to finish,” LL added.  Everyone nodded some more.

As the game ended, everyone was a little sad.  Fun was had and much progress was made on the game, but it also meant that their time together was ending.  Soon the Bubbles Raider would be flying home with their newfound knowledge of what Bubbles really was.

Or was this another decoy?

The Search for Bubbles

Wait! Bubbles is where?

Hero’s Journal Bubbles Fan FICTION

This is a work of fiction.  It is entirely a product of my imagination.  Well, other than the people. The places are mostly real. However, the circumstanced are entirely FICTIONAL.  And time is an illusion.

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The Bubbles Raiders hugged and said good-bye. Bubbles had been found and it was time to go their separate ways.

When they tuned into Free Journal Friday, they giggle to themselves.  Their FJF had been Tuesday.  When Bubbles came up. they waited to see what Nick would spill, because everyone know Nick can’t hold his beans.  Smiling devilishly Kyle said they wouldn’t spill what Bubbles was, but it was in Michigan.

Wait! What?! KYLE!!!! MICHIGAN!!  The DM’s and texts started “Michigan?!” “Kyle?” “OMG” “Crap” “What is in Michigan?” “Road Trip” The Bubbles they had found had been a decoy!

An emergency Discord meeting was called, bucket lists were adjusted, and plans were made.  The Bubbles Raiders were off to Michigan.

LL texted the group from the plane, just before she had to turn her phone off, “K, N & Z just got on the plane!”  Eeeeep! They were headed to Michigan too!

The Bubbles Raiders had agreed to meet at the Courtyard in Detroit.  LL texted when she landed “Angela & I are going to follow the Lads to see where they go.”   Angela texted back that Mirjam was still in the air and wouldn’t be landing for another hour. Tacie texted that she had rented the conference room so that could spread out and plan comfortably. Skye & Cheyenne sent thumbs up. Illisa & Melissa laughingly texted they still had bail money ready.

“OMG!” LL texted after about 30 minutes.  “They just pulled into the Courtyard!”

This gave Tacie and idea. She hopped the Shock Yellow ZL1 she had rented and headed to Saneki Electronics for spy equipment.  She couldn’t come to the home of the American Muscle car and not rent one.  This had just gotten easier.  Opening up the ZL1, Tacie realized the car was limited and top speed was out of the question.  “Damn” she cursed to herself.  After buying the spy equipment she texted the group “Meet me in conference room 1A, I have an idea.”

When the group met, Tacie laid out the revised plan.  Because the Lads were all here, all they had to do was bug the room and then “loan” it to the Lads.  “Hopefully they will do all their planning in here and we can just sit back and listen.” Tacie explained.

The Bubbles Raiders agreed.  Cables were run, cameras where placed, microphones were hidden.  It was time to test the set up.  Angela. Cheyenne & Mirjam went up to the new suite that had been rented to start the test.  Everything worked like a charm from the outset.  Tacie went to the front desk and asked them to tell Kyle, Nick & Zach that conference room 1A was now theirs.

Everyone gathered in the suite as a perplexed Kyle, Nick and Zach walked into the conference room.  “Hey! This is going to work,” Kyle said.  Laptops, papers and journals were spread out on the conference room table.

“What time is Ryan supposed to be here?” Zach asked looking at this watch.

“4” Nick replied.

“Where are we going for dinner?” Zach asked.

“Ryan has a place in mind.” Nick said.

“Oh no no no no no!” was the collective response from the Bubbles Raiders.  The HJ Lads needed to plan in the room.

Cheyenne did a quick search and found a Chinese place that would deliver.  Food was ordered for both groups to be delivered at 5:00.  Skye threw on the headphones and started listening as the Lads started talking.  Watching from the suite, the Raiders saw Ryan join the group.

Skye pull off the headphone and shushed the Raiders. “They just started talking about Bubbles.”

“So where, like, do you think we should hold this?” Nick asked.

Perplexed looks were exchanged by the Raiders. “Hold what?” asked Mirjam.  Everyone shrugged.

“How about the geographical center of the continuous US?” suggested Zach.  “It’s at 39°50′N 98°35′W”

“No way!” Kyle said.  “There is literally, like, nothing around.”  The Lads continued to bounce ideas around.

“How many people want to come again?” Nick asked Kyle. The Raiders giggled and all raised their hands.

“So far we have 237 interested.” Kyle replied after consulting the Facebook poll.

“Wait!” Mirjam peered at one of the computer screens.  “That’s the Facebook poll for the HeroCon! They are actually planning to do it! HeroCon is Bubbles?!”

Just then, John walked into the conference room. “Sorry I’m late. Stupid flight was delayed. What did I miss?”

“Not much.  We are still, like, trying to come up with a location.” Nick said.

“You’ll need a place with some inexpensive hotels and also some place that has some sightseeing.” Ryan said.

“Vegas would be fun.” Zach suggested.  They all nodded, but ended up deciding against it.

“How about Kirkland?” Kyle finally suggested.

“Kirkland?” Nick asked.

“Yeah.  Hear me out.  It’s home for us, so if we need to get something it’s not, like going to be that far away. There are plenty of hotels and conference centers and there’s enough site seeing if anyone wants to do that.”

Nick looked thoughtful. “We could run a bus into Seattle for a trip.”

Zach, John & Ryan nodded in agreement.

“And we could have small group tours of our offices.  I know there are people who, like, want to see our set up.” Kyle continued.

“Bedrooms are off limited, though,” Zach added.  They all nodded in agreement.

“So now, like, we need Ryan to draw us up a HeroCon – is that what we are calling it? – logo.” Nick said. “And we need to put together ideas for a registration bag.  I wish we could talk to Angela.”

With that there was a knock on the Raiders door. It was the Chinese.  “You soooooo have to take that to them,” Cheyenne said.

“I’m going with you!” said Mirjam.

‘We’ll all go,” stated LL.  “But Angela goes in first.”

The Raiders grabbed the bags of food and trooped down to the conference room.  Skye knocked.

Looking confused Kyle asked, “are we expecting someone else?”  Everyone shrugged and shook their heads no.

Nick walked to the door and opened it. “I heard you needed me,” Angela said.  “I brought Chinese and friends.”  The Raiders stepped into the room stunning the Lads.

“We can keep a secret,” LL said.

“Let’s plan!” Tacie said.  “And eat.  We brought Chinese.”

Reading the bag, “that’s one of the best places,” Ryan said.  “How did you get them to deliver?”

Tacie just smiled. “Magic.”

And so that my dear friends is what Bubbles is.

Or is it?

The Search for Bubbles

Disclaimer: this is an ENTIRELY fictional story. Some of the people and places are real but the story itself is ENTIRELY a fabrication. It is not REAL. Nothing was taken from the Hero’s Journal.

So Kyle & Nick challenge us to write a story about what we think Bubbles is.  This is what I came up with.  I changed the names to protect this innocent. 😂🤣😂

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Bubbles

They snuck into the room and looked around.  The shelf on the wall held a collection of very interesting things.

“We could take the knife,” Irol whispered.

“Who has the bag of holding? We need those journals and that case!” Thia whispered back.

“Stay on task ladies.” Lucy chided. “We are here for Bubbles.”

“Isn’t that a hippo?” Thia asked. Giggle erupted.

“I’m taking the journals.” Ivaely whispered.  Everyone nodded.  That would save a ton on shipping. “What do you think Bubbles is?”

“Wait! Why are we whispering? The Lads are all down at the Din Tai Fung eating dumplings and off to Mox to play D&D.  We have at least 3 hours probably closer to 4 to search,” Thia stated out loud. “We can all grab a journal or 2 from the warehouse on the way out. It will be like Free Journal Friday.”

Irol said, “We need to split up and search. Bubbles has to be here somewhere!”

“I’m guessing the bedrooms can be left alone,” Lucy suggested.  Everyone nodded.  No one really wanted to go there.

“Split up,” Lucy said.

“Take the good stuff,” Irol suggested.

Everyone giggled some more.

The ladies each went to a different room and began the search for Bubbles.  30 minutes later Ivaely shrieked, “I found Bubbles!”

Everyone rushed to the office she was in and looked at the item she was hold.  “Do we tell the rest of the Hero’s Quarters what it is?”

The ladies looked at each other trying to decide.  “No.” suggested Thia.

They looked at her puzzled.  “Why bother? We know Nick can’t hold his Beans.  Give him a week or two and he’ll spill.  Until then, it will be our little secret. Agreed?”

Everyone giggle some more and nodded in agreement.  Ivaely put Bubbles back where she found it and the Bubble conspirators left, only pausing to grab a journal or 2 on the way out.

“Now what?” Lucy asked.

“Hey, let’s grab Belle and go play D&D at Mox.” Thia suggested.

“Won’t the Lads be surprised to see us?” Irol giggled.

Everyone giggled and hopped in the car and headed get Belle and then to Mox secure in their knowledge that if they waited a week or 2 more Nick would spill the Bubble Beans … because everyone knows Nick can’t hold his Beans.

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That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!