Mr. Bubbles

Author’s note:

I wanted to take a small moment before this promo and offer a few notes.  I have been thinking about how to best tell this story since bringing Kennade back, and I think this is the right time to do so.  I wanted to make sure that everyone, before reading, was aware of a trigger warning (TW) for some of the content.  The last thing I would ever want to do it upset one of my friends.  So, with that being said:

TW: Sexual Assault, Incest, Graphic Violence.

“GOD DAMNNIT!”

Kennade lifted her keyboard and slammed it on the table as the crowd behind her began to boo.  League of Legends had never been her game.  She told her brother Caleb that before he entered her in this tournament but, as usual, he knew best for her.  “If you ever want to be taken seriously, LoL is where you really need to shine.  No one gives a shit about some girl playing Moral Kombat.”

There was so many more variables to keep track of in this game.  So much more than the one on one fighting games that she had been excelling at.  The crowd didn’t bother her, the only person that she noticed was the scowling face of Caleb, standing at the entrance.  His arms were folded in disapproval and she felt a shiver of fear run down her spine.  She glanced over to the screen to see her name drop two spaces on the leaderboard.

“One more loss and I’m out.  Come on, K.  We can do this.  We have to do this.”

She pushed her chair back from her table and stood to stretch her legs.  She didn’t have long until her elimination match, so she was going to have to get her nerves out now before she was forced to get back into the zone.

The event was being held in a large conference room.  Rows and rows of chairs lines the back two-thirds of the space while the top third were the players tables.  They were slightly raised on a small platform to differentiate between competitor and spectator.  In the very front of the room was a podium standing in front of a screen that showed every match on a split screen.  The screen was nearly the only light in the room as it spanned from the floor to the ceiling.  Her failure had been broadcast on a Five foot by five foot section of screen with live shots of her face to truly drive home her agony to the audience.  Thankfully the feed had cut to her personal cam before she let her anger out on her table.

As she paced in front of her monitor the emcee of the tournament made his way to her, microphone in one hand and a can of Monster Energy in the other.

“Phant0mC&t here with Kennade Starr as she faces an upcoming elimination match.  Tell me, Kennade, what is happening out there?  Do you have a strategy to get back in this thing?  Your brother Caleb Starr came just one match away from winning the tournament last year before retiring to focus on bettering your game as the new captain of his team.  Is the pressure of living up to the bar your brother set starting to get to you?”

The questions were firing at a millions miles per second.  Kennade could feel the blood draining from her head and down to her feet.  She felt faint.  Answering any of those questions was something that she had no desire to do, and could feel a slight panic attack happening at the mere thought of being forced to.  The room began to spin around her.  She could feel the ceiling descending onto her head.

She was hoping that Phant0mC&t was not circling her like a hungry lion circling a dying zebra, but it seemed better than the alternative that her vision really was going.  The panic attacks began a year ago, around the time that she was pulled from her own team and made the captain of Caleb’s.  The expectations and the pressure that her brother had been putting on her had been something that she had never expected.  Suddenly, in between the circling emcee, she began to see a massive figure in the spin with them.  She couldn’t make out who it was, she could only make out the neon yellow security T-shirt that seemed to be painted onto his wide-set shoulders.  As the figure got closer to her she could make out the features of a face.

The man scooped Kennade up into his arms like a toy in a claw machine.  The spinning began to subside and she could begin to make out the blurred features of a man kneeling in front of her.  He handed her a bottle of water and patted her on the head, his face still slightly blurred before he began to make his way away from Kennade.

He vision slowly began to come back as she saw an EMT crew standing in front of her.  They asked her several questions and she continuously shoved them off.  As the emcee and tournament organizers began to speak to her she couldn’t focus on them.  She could only see the piercing glare of her brother at the entrance doors.  She managed to squeak out a single “I’m fine” as she saw the light of the outside conference center shine into the back of the room, her brother having slammed his way out into the hall.

This wasn’t good.

The tournament would continue and she would get a twenty minute break in between matches to compose herself.  She had to get out of the room.  Make her way to the restroom.  She had to get herself composed.  As she walked out of the room and into the hallway she could see the security guard from earlier.  He had propped a fire door open with his massive boot and was blowing the smoke of a cigarette into the crack of the door.  Considering his stature and eye-catching t-shirt he was surprisingly discreet.  Kennade walked up to the man and, with a smile, reached her hand towards his cigarette.  The guard handed her the cigarette and Kennade coughed slightly as she took a drag far too big for her.  The man chuckled a little as he took the cigarette back from her.  The two exchanged smiles.  The guard smiled with what seemed to be his entire body.  It filled Kennade with a warmth that she hadn’t felt in a while.  She was grateful for his assistance.  She was grateful for the momentary distraction.

The bathrooms were just a few short meters from the back door.  She felt herself nearly collapse against the sink as she pushed herself through the door.  She turned the cold water on and splashed her face a few times, hanging her head nearly into the basin of the sink.  The room was silent aside from the trickle of the water into the sink.  Kennade closed her eyes and tilter her head back, hands resting on either side of the sink.  As she heard the clack of the door opening, she attempted to gather herself back together.

Click-Clack

The sound of the door locking jolted a sense of fear into her that she had become all to familiar with over the past year.  She held the briefest of hopes that another woman needed to get away and had the sense to lock the door behind her to avoid this very situation.

“I gave up everything for you, you know.”

This was how it always started.  First he told her how much he gave up for her.  Then he would tell her how much she owed him and how much better her life was since he had taken the role of caring for her over.  He was going to make her into the star that he never was.  And she was going to pay for it.

Lord how she paid for it.

“All you had to do was sit there and be pretty, and play well enough to not embarrass me.  But you’re such a fuck up you can’t even do that right,”

She could feel his presence behind her.  His gaze, bearing down on her.  His hands on her shoulder make the spinning start all over again.  Her breathing was rapid and heavy.  Her heart rate was bounding.  Anxiety.  Panic.  She could feel the lights of the Competition screen on her again.  She could hear the questions.  She could see Caleb’s disapproving stare from the background.  She could feel her stomach churning.  Her legs were weak.

“All you had to do was place.  But you couldn’t even do that you little bitch.”

She could feel herself slipping into a state of arrest, her mind wandering to anywhere but where she was.  Her chest burned with every breath, and this time she could feel the floor rising as well as the descending ceiling.  Everything was closing in on her and she felt trapped.  She closed her eyes, partly to try and stop the spinning, mostly to try and escape in any way what had become a recurring nightmare.

Thump…Thump…SMASH!

She opened her eyes and saw a flash of neon yellow.  Caleb spun around and immediately caught a right hand to the side of his jaw.  Blood sprayed onto the wall next to them as she heard the thickening thud of flesh hitting the tile floor.  The man attempted to place a hand on Kennade’s shoulder but she shrunk away.  Without a second attempt, the man again turned his attention to Caleb.  He has started to get back up to his feet.  As he had gotten to a single knee, the security guard reared his foot back and punted Caleb into the face.  This time several teeth came out as well.  He collapsed prone onto the tile.

The man leaned down and rolled Caleb over onto his back.  He reached back and readied another punch, but decided better of it when Caleb did not seem to respond.  Instead, he rose back to his feet and looked towards Kennade, who was now in tears.  Without saying a word he reaches a hand out towards her.  Kennade falls forward into his arms and begins to sob into his chest.  She manages to ask his name, but the man remains silent, patting her gently on the back.

Kennade looks down at her brother.  Caleb attempts to cough and manages to expel a small sphere of blood and sputum out of his mouth.  The bubble pops as Caleb coughs hard, expelling enough to catch his breath.  The Security guard sweeps Kennade up into his arms and begins to carry her out of the bathroom.  Just before leaving the room, he sets her back on her feet, and opens the door.  Kennade looks back at her brother, still lying on the tile, then looks back at the man.  Taking a deep breath she pats the man on the chest.

“Bubbles…”

We focus on the black “security” written on the man’s shirt as the view begins to fade…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The view of the yellow shirt begins to come back into focus and slows changes into the black shirt of Mr. Bubbles.  Kennade stands next to him, hand clasped around his forearm.  Susan is standing in front of them, holding a small tablet.

The three of them stand in the center of a ring of a local gym that Susan had been renting for weekly training sessions with Mr. Bubbles and Kennade.  The three of them trained alone, Susan always felt that she was able tog et the most effort and focus out of Kennade when there were as few distractions in the area as possible, so they had been renting out the room since she signed her PRIME contract.

Susan: Listen, I know that you want to do well in PRIME, and I know that you have a vision of how you want to make that happen, but it obviously isn’t working.  I don’t really know how else to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it.  Eventually you are going to have to step into the ring, and stop relying on this behemoth to do your work for you.

Bubbles seems to bristle slightly at this notion.  His shoulders arch back and he leans his head to one side.  Susan rolls her eyes and focuses only on Kennade.

Susan: Well, if you aren’t going to get into the ring yourself, you can at least find a way to get Bubbles back on track.  People aren’t afraid of him.  People aren’t worried about you.  They see your name on the booking sheet and they see a joke, some kind of side show that is only concerned about getting views.  We’ve got to do something and quick if you want to get this career going.

Kennade lets loose of Mr. Bubbles and pats him on the arm before walking back over to Susan.

Kennade: I know that you’re worried Suzie Q, but believe me.  Bubbles has got this.  I know he does.  You don’t know what we can do yet, we’ve just been getting warmed up.  He can feel how frustrated that I’ve been and it’s been affecting our connection.  Like…It’s like the wifi is all muddied up from my mind storm and it’s making the two of us get off of the same page.  We’ve been working really hard this week, and I think that we’ve almost gotten it figured out.

Susan can barely contain her anger at this notion.  For the longest time, she believed that she was helping Kennade by playing along with her delusions.  She figured that if she didn’t rock the boat, eventually her friend would snap out of it and realize the situation that she had placed them all three in.  So far this had not proven to be the case.  Susan’s patience had been tested time and time again, and she was finally starting to crack.  Her voice wavers into near tears as she tries to hold back the deluge of feelings that she;d been keeping in for the longest time.

Susan: Kennade!  ENOUGH!  I can’t keep watching you fail like this.  He’s doing all of the work while you sit on the sideline and look pretty!  This isn’t a team, K.  This is Bubbles fighting your fights for you.  This isn’t fair to him, it’s not fair to me, and it’s certainly not fair to you!  You can’t keep hiding from your problems behind him!

The tears flow from Susan’s eyes as she completely breaks down.  Kennade’s face gets a blank, almost distant look about it as Susan tries to reason with her friend.  Her normal bubbly demeanor is gone, replaced by something far more vacant.  Kennade could feel the floor begin to give way beneath her.  It seems to drop into nothingness, and she could see the lights of the gym bearing down on her.  Her breathing intensified, her eyes blinking rapidly.

Kennade took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  She could feel Bubbles’ hand resting on her shoulder, trying to ground her.  She could feel his panic.  It was a feeling she hadn’t sensed in him in a long time.  The overwhelming sense of dread welled up inside of her and she wanted to be literally anywhere else.  Like reaching up to a ladder, she was able to catch hold of a complete sentence and let it out of her mouth like a safety net.  Nearly inaudible, she let it slip.

Kennade: …Get out…

She knew it wasn’t Susan's fault.  Susan hadn’t been there.  In fact, Kennade hadn’t caught back up with Susan until months after she had quit the competitive gaming circuit.  The last thing Susan remembered of Kennade when they had met back up was the perky girl that she had always been in high school, and she found Kennade to be exactly how she remembered her, although with a new golem in tow now.  Susan couldn’t have known.  No one knew.  No one but Bubbles.

It wasn’t her fault, but Kennade needed to snap.  She needed someone to pay for the life that she had been forced into and then out of so violently.  Bubbles was an extension of her.  Bubbles was her strength.  Bubbles was her support.  She would be damned if she let Susan take that away from her.  Or anyone for that matter.

Kennade: You think I don’t know what people say about me?  You think that I don’t know what people say about us?  They don’t understand.  How could they?  Bubbles isn’t fighting for me.  Bubbles fights with me.  He is my hands when I’m too scared to fight.  And I’m his voice when he’s too afraid to speak.  I know what it looks like on camera, but none of you know what it’s like.  None of you could possibly know what it means that we are out there together.  So NO.  I will not do this without him.  And he can't do this without me!

Kennade falls to the mat, as if she had just been unburdened by a heavy rucksack on her back.

Bubbles leans forward and lifts her back to her feet, reassuringly patting her on the back.  Susan, who had yet to leave, looks on in shear amazement at her friend.  She had never seen Kennade like this before.  She had seen her frustrated, she had seen her happy, she had even seen her angry a time or two.  This was different.  She had never before seen her friend for what she really is…Broken.

Susan: K…I’m so sorry.  I…I didn’t mean anything by it.  I just…I just got really concerned last week.  I watched the match.  I watched Bubbles tap out.  I had never seen the big guy give up like that.  I was just worried is all.  You have two opponents this week.  They’ll both be gunning for you.  Now that they know the big guy can be made to qui…

Kennade: (Interrupting Susan) HE DIDN’T QUIT!  We were Hurting!  He was in trouble.  Sometimes when you get to the end of the game, and you realize that you aren’t going to come out on top, it’s better to just throw in the towel and save it for next time.  Bubbles would have kept going until his body broke.  He would have fought until his last breath for us, but I couldn't watch it anymore.  I am the one.  He tapped to save me from having to see it.  If they think they've found a way to cheese against us…Let them try…

Susan, still incredulous over the turn of events in the ring, takes herself back to her tablet.  Bubbles, satisfied that Kennade is back in control of her faculties, goes back to training alone.  Susan comes close to her friend and places her hand in Kennade’s.

Susan: Ok then.  I trust you.  And I trust Bubbles.  So if you’re sure this is how you want to play this, let’s get back to work.  ReVival 45 is only a week away.  I’m sorry.  Let’s go back out there and show that K-Starr is a force to be reckoned with.

She squeezes Kennade’s hand before turning to get out of the ring.  As Susan puts one leg through the middle ropes, Kennade stops her.

Kennade: Hey…Suzie Q.  You know that it’s not just me and Bubbles out there, right?  We couldn’t do this without you either.  You’re a part of this team just as much as we are.  Our wins, our losses, our achievements..they’re yours too.

Susan stops, smiles at her friend, and then makes her way out of the ring.  Kennade turns her attention to Bubbles and begins to run drills with him in the ring.  The emptiness in her voice seems to, for the moment at least, be replaced with her generally bubbly tone.  As Susan makes her way out of the gym the door closes behind her with a loud “CLANK.”  Mr. Bubbles, in seemingly the first deliberate and independent movement we have ever seen him make, quickly makes his way out of the ring.  He walks to the door and grabs a chair, propping the door open.  He looks back over the Kennade, who smiles softly at him.  The camera fades to black as Bubbles begins to make his way back into the ring.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~