SHIP'S LOG:

Spatuloso

Lasso Pout 6/1/2025 10:29pm

"Well Paradise sure ain't what it seemed," I said to @Soap Lotus as we moseyed down the dirt road behind the kids. Them kids weren't any fun at all, and even less so now we knew they were armed.

"So, you kids work for the sheriff?" Soap Lotus hollered.

The kids weren't in a talking mood, just kept peddling their bikes down the dirt road.

"Where I come from," Soap Lotus continued, "we had a name for punks who worked for the cops. We called them snitches."

I gave Soap Lotus a startled eye. What was he playin' at?

"Better to be your own boss, I figure," Soap Lotus went on. "Not under the thumb of some small time loser thinks he's kind of the hill. And you don't have much of a hill here, the way I see it."

The kids kept peddling, but they were looking at each other.

"I guess all you kids are happy to just be the sheriff's pet here in this nowhere town," he said. "I guess you kids just don't have the--"

Suddenly the biggest of the tough kids slammed on the brakes of her bike and spun it around to face us. She was angry, but at least she hadn't pulled her gun.

"And I guess you've never heard of The Confusion," she said.

Soap Lotus 2/7/2025 11:42pm

With @Carolinaeuphrosyne chatting up @Nim Blanksy, I thought @Lasso Pout and I might have a moment to make our exit. I dropped my mooring ropes and gave ol' Lasso a wink.

"I can't leave my cowpokes," Lasso whispered back. "Or those time travelers!"

Leroy, Burt, Scarred Lil, Jimmy the Put Up, Little Gnarls, and PJ, were in it too. Though the residents of Paradise--all armed and guns drawn--might be distracted for a moment, blimps like us can't exactly zoom off at high acceleration. I'd take a bullet for sure, and though it might only make me leaky, it wasn't going to go so well for my crew. Or Lasso's cowpokes.

I stayed put.

While Carolinaeuphrosyne and Nim continued their talk, one of the more burly townsfolk walked up to address Lasso and me.

"You two--back up real slow, then follow the kids on their bikes. We'll be keeping your friends here, so no funny business, ya hear?"

He was wearing a shiny silver star.

Auto Slops 10/11/2024 11:21pm

"Hey there big blue buddy! Looks like we could help each other out! I've lost my Bluefin, and looks like you've lost your blinders."

The tiny person in the ruins was talking to me. I drifted closer.

"I'm a Bindy Binder man. Let jump up your repair hole and I'll have you fixed up in no time. Haven't you got a Bindy Man? Did you lose him in the fracas?"

I don't think I've ever had a Bindy Man. 

"Every Bluefin's got a Bindy Man inside him. Or her. Let me up your repair hole and I'll check him out. Maybe he got knocked silly in the fracas." 

I'd have known if I'd ever had a Bindy Man
 
"Don't be so sure. We're mighty tiny! That little voice in your head? That's us! Just let me have a look in that repair hole."

Uh, no. I'm really not comfortable with that. Hey! What are you doing? 

"Bindy man goes UP!"

And that little Bindy Man scrambled right up into my repair hole.

Hey get out of there!

Lasso Pout 6/20/2024 11:56pm

I was surprised none of @Soap Lotus's gang didn't start up, when all the townsfolk drew iron. But that wouldn't have been nothin but a blood bath. And helium. And I reckon we'd all seen enough of that.

"Nim?" asked @Carolinaeuphrosyne. Hers was the only voice in the silence of the weapons.

Mayor @Nim Blanksy found Carolinaeuphrosyne in the crowd.

"Have we met?" the mayor asked.

I could tell from Carolinaeuphrosyne's look that they hadn't. Not this Nim, at least.

Soap Lotus 2/29/2024 11:57pm

I remembered that name -- @Nim Blanksy -- from @Carolinaeuphrosyne's tale from the future. Didn't seem like a real common name. So who was this? Some great grandmother?

"Welcome visitors!" she said, raising a beer on the porch. The towns folks and their kids cheered. Even the tough looking kids on their bikes.

"We don't get many visitors here in Paradise, but when we do, there's a reason. And it's clear you're kindred spirits."

"Awwwwww..." said the audience. Even hard cases on my crew like Little Gnarls and PJ were making doe eyes at our hosts. Burt might have had a tear in his eye. Hugs abounded.

"So we know you're bound to understand something. And that is, we are taking your airships."

Suddenly every one of the townsfolk had drawn a gun out of their overalls and dresses and undershirts and had them pointed at us.

Even the tough looking kids on their bikes.

Auto Slops 11/1/2023 11:56pm

"Who's there?" I called. "Show yourself!"

The ruins of the town were still smoldering. Wisps of smoke drifted in the noonday sun.

"I AM showing myself!" the tiny voice called back. Over here!"

My eyes adjusted and I saw a tiny person no bigger than the head of a shovel, standing next to a bucket, dressed in a tiny uniform and throwing handfuls of sand into the air.

Lasso Pout 7/28/2023 11:41pm

@Soap Lotus and I were squeezed in next to each other, moored in the back yard of the mayor of Paradise.

When they heard there were visitors, the citizens figured it was time for a barbecue picnic. They set it up in the mayor's back yard on account of too many trees in the park for Soapy and I to get in close. Soapy's crew might seem pretty "big city" at first glance, but they were happy to pass out cans of beer and pop. Townsfolk set up the card tables and brought a pot luck and paper plates. And @Carolinaeuphrosyne and her people were happy to meet up with some other folks who weren't the same old cowpokes they'd been walking the desert with.

Paradise was a kind of artist's community nestled here at the foot of the mountains. Real nice town, with a store and a school and lots of funky art studios. A hippie kinda town. Far enough away they could lead their own lives in peace, far from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. And they didn't even know about The Confusion. Yet.

Maybe it would pass 'em by?

"Alright people, and blimps!" There was somebody on the porch making an announcement. "We'd like to thank you all for stopping by our fair town. And now allow me to introduce the mayor of Paradise, @Nim Blanksy!"

I looked over at Carolinaeuphrosyne. She'd dropped her beer and was staring open mouthed at the mayor.

Soap Lotus 4/11/2023 10:41pm

WELCOME TO PARADISE read the weathered sign.

"At least it's not a total ghost town," said Scarred Lil, referring to a group of kids who were parked on their bikes in front of the old grocery store. It's like they were taking our measure, staring us down.

"Any of youse kids knows who calls the shots in this town?" I asked. "We got some primo coconuts we're willing to share with our new friends, if you show us around."

Jimmy the Put Up tossed a couple of coconuts their way. The kids bent down to look at them, seemed satisfied, and put them into the baskets of their bikes.

Then they mounted up and said "C'mon."

Auto Slops 1/5/2023 10:59pm

Bluefins are designed for high speed travel, and it only took me a few days of endless sagebrush to pick up the trail of the Confusion fleet.

@Soap Lotus had removed my both my blinders, and I'd forgotten what it was like to see without them. Bluefins had always considered the blinders key to their cohesion and perfect efficiency, and it wasn't our job to see the big picture.

But now I could see the big picture again, and it wasn't pretty. The Confusion fleet (and its remaining civilian support armada) had left a trail of empty food wrappers, cardboard packaging, plastic wrapping, and occasional damaged equipment parts, strewn over a wide swath of desert and broken cacti.

Within a few days more was the wreckage of a small town, burned to the ground. Totally deserted.

"Hey! Big guy!" piped a little voice from the ruins. "Give a little guy a lift?"

Lasso Pout 10/13/2022 10:51pm

I have to admit, I was feelin' mighty content. Floating along over the high desert, my brothers at my side, helping good friends on a noble quest. What more could a humble blimp ask for?

After a spell the mountains came into view, and after a little more, a colorful but faded billboard, nestled between the cactus and the rocks. It depicted an idyllic illustrated mountain scene with these words:

COME TO PARADISE!
Peaceful Rest
Free Ice Water
105 miles

I knew we were gettin' low on drinkin' water as I was feelin' a little light.

Much of our party -- my original cowpoke crew and the anthropologists from the future -- were on foot and horseback, moseying along, so I drifted easily. I turned to take a look at @Auto Slops and his dubious cohorts, and that's when I saw the strange graffiti on the back of the billboard:

BLANKSY

That name rang a bell but I couldn't say why. Not at the time. But I do remember thinkin' it looked real artistic. For graffitti, anyway.