Danny And His Gum Factory

May 22nd, 2023

When you collect this entry, you will be entered to have me write a story about one of your NFTs. Good luck and enjoy.

Storms raged outside the giant translucent dome housing the new, state of the art, bubblegum manufacturing facility. Electrical storms where not uncommon, but the severity of this storm was shocking.

Danny Bubbel, the KEO (Kid Executive Officer) of Futuristic Gumball Co., floated around the busy production floor surveying that everything was still running well. More efficient than any of his competitors’ machines, the new factory was filling up with the brightly colored candy covered goodness of the “Best Bubblegum in the Universe”. Danny may have been a little biased, but he did have a fancy plaque in his office that supported this claim.

Traveling across galaxies for the best ingredients, the Bubbel family had long been the top gum producer in all Bubblegum Land and its floating suburbs. This was Danny’s first shot at running his own factory, and he was awarded the newest location in the growing suburb of Chew York.

The storms outside were menacing, but he was calmed by everything continuing to run smoothly. Thousands of gumballs running the gumball obstacle course from sifting, to churning, to tumbling, coloring and finally into packaging, all with 100% automation. His gum maker helmet, while not so stylish, excelled at keeping Danny updated with the diagnostic results of every machine in the factory in millisecond increments. Irregularities were noted immediately.

A blinding flash from the storm outside was followed by a loud *POP* inside that rang throughout the busy production facility. Sirens began to blare. Louder and louder, until Danny realized it was his gum maker helmet signaling that not one, but all machines were offline. Just as he yanked the helmet off his head and threw it across the room to stop the sirens in his ears…silence. The wailing was replaced by the gentle hum of the machines as instantly the factory was back to full production.

The gum maker went to grab his helmet and jam it back on his head to check the factory status. As he checked the displays and listened to the initial reports, he shut his eyes and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Everything was running as if it had never stopped. Standing there with his eyes closed, taking deep breathes and imagining what would have happened if he had to holochat his dad to tell him that the factory had melted down. His dad would have teleported into the arrival zone, taken his helmet, changed the quantumeteric pass codes, and sent Danny back to Bubblegum Land proper so fast that it would create a time warp.

The calming beeps and soft voice of the status updates pushed the thoughts of his furious dad out of his head and he returned to a state of zen before he slowly reopened his eyes. But he quickly shut them again. Opened! Closed! Opened…Closed! He gave his head a good shake and took one more peak towards the production floor.

WHAT WAS GOING ON?!?

Did he ruin the helmet when he threw it across the room? How could it be reporting that everything was running perfectly…but there was NO GUM coming off the line?

A quick survey and everything looked normal. The mixers churned, tumblers tumbled, and the conveyor fields were moving exactly as they should be. Danny checked the end of the line and saw the packages drop into place, lids were opened then closed and sealed, followed by the packages being whisked away to the inventory vaults. But there were NO gumballs.

Danny frantically hit the thruster on his boost suit, zooming across the facility to the production starting zone. Ingredients were being measured and mixed in exact proportions as expected. Out of habit, he checked his helmet’s displays to ensure no issues. He had watched this mixing process since before he could float without a bubble suit, so he instinctively knew everything was running perfectly even without the displays.

Thrusting over a couple of zones to the tumblers, he could see the gum entering one side and blasts of flavored colors entering from the other. Again, status displays read everything in sync. This had always been Danny’s favorite process. When he was younger, he would sneak into the old tumbler rooms, put his face in front of the color jets and trigger the auto spray. His dad always knew what Danny had done, as there was more spray on young Danny’s face than in his mouth. Dad never called him out, but special sensors were added to stop Danny’s face painting adventures. Even these newest versions of the tumblers included the sensors, just in case Danny got any ideas.

Gumballs finishing in the tumblers before dropping into the Rainbow Zone...usually

With everything looking normal, he floated into the Rainbow Zone where the gumballs would appear from the tumblers in the many awesome colors and flavors that made Futuristic Gumball Co. the best in the universe. But there was nothing arriving in the conveyor field. The gum should be dropping from the tumblers into the hazy field of particles that moved the gumballs from machine to machine. But there was nothing there.

Danny peeked back around the corner at the tumblers and there was still gum and sprays of color filling and refilling the tumblers. The gum had to be going somewhere because the tumblers were not overflowing…But where? It certainly wasn’t going into the Rainbow Room.

Oh no! That feeling crept back in as Danny realized he may have to holochat his dad after all.

He gave his boost suit some extra thrust as he rushed to the end of the production line. But despite reversing thrust, he couldn’t stop when he got there. He slid right past the end of the line, crashing into some nearby empty packages. Well…the packages looked empty, but they sure hurt when they fell on his head. It felt like the time he played hide-n-seek in the inventory vault and knocked over a whole cabinet full of gumballs on his head.

That was it! He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed help. The holoscreen appeared from his helmet and his dad was immediately on screen.

“That was quite the storm…” Mr. Bubbel stopped short seeing his son sprawled on the floor with empty boxes and packages surrounding him. Danny tried to hold it together, jumping straight into what had happened giving a technical step-by-step analysis of product lost and expected financial effects. But his story soon turned into sobs and unintelligible words that were more snot than sound.

His dad couldn’t make out everything, but he caught enough. Mr. Bubbel cracked a smile, then a full on fit of laughter. Danny was not amused. No…he was confused.

Why wasn’t his dad yelling?

Why was his dad still on the holochat?

Why wasn’t he in the teleport arrival zone ready to take back control of the factory?

Waaaaaait…

Why did his dad laugh like a little girl?!?

No longer crying, Danny mustered the courage to ask his dad what the heck was going on. “Do you remember when you used to stick your head in the tumblers to drink the flavored colors?” his dad asked. Danny nodded. Of course, he remembered.

Dad went into storyteller mode:

The nano-technology created to keep you out, in rare instances, can make the molecular components of the spray unstable. The combination of the unstable spray with the gum’s ingredients can temporarily turn the gum invisible. Tonight’s storms must have destabilized the molecules. It happened once before when you were much younger. Don’t worry. The effects will reverse in about an hour. The only product lost are those gumballs under your booty right now.

After another giggle, Mr. Bubbel gave his son a quick pep talk to let him know everything was OK. Then the holoscreen, his dad, and the stress from the missing gumballs disappeared.

Relieved, and a little embarrassed, Danny stood up, dusted himself off and promptly slid across the floor on the invisible gumballs that he had already forgotten surrounded him. At least this time Danny smiled and let out a little laugh. He then found himself a good spot to watch as all the invisible gumballs began to reveal themselves.

Never a boring day at the Futuristic Gumball Co.