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Every year since he was fifteen, Barley would attend Quest-Con; a Quests of Yore convention that happened to come to New Mushroomton for one day every year. It featured panels with the game’s creators, open campaigns where any attendees could play together, costume contests for those who would come dressed as their characters, stands packed with official and fan-made merchandise, artists you could commission... But what Barley was most interested in, was the exclusive game piece you could only find at the convention, and each year, it was different.
When it came to the exclusive pieces, Barley only had one of them. He was only able to get one the year before, when he was eighteen...because he camped out in his van in a parking lot across the street. The convention opened at 7:00 AM, but those who had purchased their tickets to the convention in advance could line up outside the doors as early as 6:00 AM. If you were one of the first in line, and therefore got in right at the opening time, you were guaranteed to get a purchasing pass for the exclusive for that year.
This year, the convention was held a little later than usual. It usually came to New Mushroomton right around Barley’s birthday--which was lucky for him--but this year, it was pushed back to October. Because it was being held on a Saturday, Ian promised Barley he would tag along, since he’d gained some respect for the role-playing game after how much the guidebook had helped with their Phoenix Gem quest.
However, when Ian learned that Barley was planning on camping out by the venue in his van overnight, Ian started to regret his promise.
“Barley, do we have to spend the night in the van?” Ian asked, watching as his big brother haphazardly shoved things in a duffel bag.
“We must, Iandore!” Barley boomed in response, forcing his items down into the bag as he struggled to zip it up. “If we don’t, I will never obtain this year’s exclusive!”
Ian sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, but I won’t be staying in the van with you unless you shower before we leave.”
Barley chuckled. “I figured you would say something like that, so I already did,” he smirked, finally getting his bag to stay shut. He stood up from the floor, stepping close to Ian. “You need proof?” he asked with another chuckle, lifting his arm over his head and stepping even closer to his brother, forcing his armpit close to Ian’s nose.
“No! Please, no!” Ian laughed as he backed up, ducking his head away from Barley’s underarm. “I believe you! I believe you!”
Barley let out a few more residual giggles before looking back at his little brother. “Do you have everything you want to bring?” he checked, looping his duffel bag over his shoulder and grabbing his warrior helmet off the hook it occupied.
“Yeah, I packed it all an hour ago,” Ian shrugged, pointing to his backpack sitting by the door with his staff perched on top of it.
“So...you packed your wizard robe?” Barley asked, squinting his eyes.
Ian rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yes, I packed the wizard robe.”
“Huzzah!” Barley cheered, placing his helmet atop his head and grabbing his sword out of the umbrella stand. “To Guinevere the Second, Sir Iandore!”
Due to the fact that Barley wanted to get the best parking spot possible, the brothers arrived at the lot around 7:00 PM...and they were the only vehicle there, so Barley considered it a victory. Thankfully, before they parked, Barley had brought them through the Burgershire drive through to at least get a little something to eat, just incase the small dinner they ate at home didn’t tide them over.
In the hours that awaited them until sleep took over their bodies, Ian had planned to try and finish his homework--or at least get a start on it--so he wouldn’t have to do it on Sunday. He wasn’t sure what Barley was going to do to pass the time, but the van had been quiet for quite a while...too quiet.
Ian appreciated the silence so that he could focus on his math equations, but he could see out of the corner of his eye that Barley was getting antsy.
“So, brother, anything interesting happening at the good old high school these days?” Barley asked, propping his feet up on the dashboard, taking a long sip from his cup of Mountain Doom afterwards.
Ian pressed the eraser of his pencil to his lower lip, deep in thought over the particular equation he was looking at. “Not really,” he muttered, putting no thought into his response to his older brother.
Barley furrowed his brows, adjusting the rear view mirror so he could see Ian in it. “Come on, there’s gotta be something going on.”
Ian sighed, setting his pencil down as he lost his train of thought. “I guess there’s the school play... Auditions are next week or something...”
“Oh, Ian, you should totally audition!” Barley perked up, taking his feet off the dash and turning around to face Ian. “I had so much fun being in the school plays!”
“Eh, not really my thing,” Ian shrugged, attempting to return to his homework.
“Aw, come on, Ian!” Barley whined in a playful way, trying his best to keep his brother’s attention. “You should give it a try! I think you’d be good at it!”
“Barley, I’d just fumble over my words... I don’t do well with speaking in front of a lot of people...” Ian said, wiping his now sweaty hands on his jeans.
“Who says you have to be a cast member?” Barley asked, his brows raised.
Ian looked at his brother with confusion. “Uh, you just said I should audition.”
“Okay, maybe I did,” Barley chuckled, shaking his head a little. “But you can be involved in it without being an actor! You could do the lights! Oh! Or you could be the stage manager-”
“Barley, I get your point,” Ian cut his brother off, trying to contain his own laughs that began to bubble up inside him. “Maybe I’ll sign up for lights or something...”
“Yeah!” Barley cheered, hoisting a fist in the air. “Oh, dude, if you end up doing it, you’re gonna have the time of your life!”
“I’m gonna have ‘the time of my life’ moving spotlights around?” Ian questioned sarcastically.
“Well, the people that do the school plays are usually pretty awesome people,” Barley grinned, half-gesturing to himself. “All the best people I knew in high school were involved in the plays... I just think you’ll be able to make some new friends and have some fun, is all.”
Ian thought about his brother’s proposal for a moment. Barley did seem to have a lot of fun in the school plays, even on the days they were just trying on costumes or working on finishing the sets.
“You know what? Yeah, I’ll sign up for lights...” Ian decided, making a mental note to write himself a reminder later.
Barley smiled to himself, feeling proud that Ian was going to take a step out of his comfort zone--all thanks to his encouragement.
“Awesome!” he beamed at Ian, turning back to the front of the van. “I’m proud of you, little bro.”
Ian smiled at his big brother’s kind words. “Thanks.”
Ian returned to his homework while Barley did...Barley things. Ian wasn’t quite sure what his older brother was doing, to be honest. He saw Barley look at a few comic books, saw him with earbuds in at one point--where he was plucking at the air like he was playing his guitar, watched him polish his sword with an old rag...Barley things.
Ian didn’t even realize how long he had been doing his homework--and spacing out during it--until he had reached the end of both his packet of math questions and his packet of chemistry work. He glanced at his watch as he brought himself back into the moment. Noting that it was now already past eleven o’clock at night, he glanced over at his big brother.
Barley was sound asleep in the driver’s seat of the van; his feet up on the dashboard, an open comic book face down on his belly, one hand on said comic book, his other arm hanging down at his side.
Ian chuckled a little at how Barley had managed to fall asleep, noticing his brother’s soft snores. He reached an arm up to the ceiling light, shutting it off before wandering back over to the sleeping bag he had laid out earlier, crawling inside and drifting off to sleep himself.
“IAN!” Barley shouted, walking over to Ian and shaking him, trying his hardest to wake his little brother up. “IAN, YOU GOTTA GET UP!”
Ian groaned as he awoke, trying to move away from Barley’s hands. “Stop...shouting...”
“My alarm didn’t go off!” Barley panicked, moving over to Ian’s bag and unzipping it, pulling out the wizard robe. “You gotta get up! It’s already quarter after six!” he threw the robe at Ian’s head, resuming getting himself ready by pulling the tunic of his warrior outfit over his head. “We gotta go!”
“Okay! Okay, I hear you!” Ian responded, yanking the robe off of his face. He stood up and quickly put the dusty-purple robe on over top of the clothes he had fallen asleep in--they clearly had no time to spare. “Only fifteen minutes have passed, Barley. I don’t think you need to panic-”
“Each minute that goes by means more people lining up!” Barley said, adjusting his cape before slipping his sword into its holster, placing his helmet on top of his head. “Take your ticket badge and let’s go!” he shoved Ian’s lanyard into his hands, practically running out of the van.
This is really important to him, huh? Ian thought to himself, putting the lanyard around his neck before grabbing his staff, stepping out of the van.
As soon as they were both out of the van, Barley quickly locked it, then he started sprinting through the parking lot, trying to get to the convention venue as fast as possible. Ian kept up as best as he could--he had never seen Barley run that fast before.
When they made it to the venue, Ian was shocked to already see a small line of at least a dozen people in front of the doors. Barley quickly slipped himself into the back of the line before anyone else could, yanking Ian along with him.
Barley was out of breath, letting out a sigh of relief as he leaned against the wall, laughing a little. “We...we made it...” he said between breaths, placing a hand on his racing heart. “Oh, man...I’ve never run...like that before...”
“I had a hard time...keeping up with you!” Ian chuckled while he caught his breath, already spotting more people lining up behind them. Barley really wasn’t kidding when he said it was hard to get the exclusive pieces. “So, Barley... Do you even know what the exclusive is?”
Barley shook his head. “Nope. You don’t know until you get inside and they give you a pass to purchase it.”
“They don’t even give you like, a hint when you buy your convention tickets?” Ian questioned.
“Nope.”
Ian mentally groaned. “So... You’re telling me we’re going to stand in this line for half an hour for something that you don’t even know what it is?”
“Yep!”
Ian audibly groaned as he too leaned against the wall, prepping himself for a boring half-hour.
Since there were one hundred pieces of the exclusive made this year, the brothers would for sure be able to get their hands on one, since they were spot fourteen in the line-up. Ian couldn’t believe how quickly the line grew, and he was shocked by the sheer amount of people who turned up just to wait in the line to be able to get a purchasing pass for the exclusive.
When the doors to the convention center finally opened, Barley let out a cheer, pulling Ian along as the line slowly moved inside of the building. Once they had finally stepped through the doors, Ian’s mouth fell agape.
All of the employees were dressed in costumes that looked straight out of Yore, and they all seemed to speak how Barley did whenever he Quest Mastered a campaign. Relics and replicas were on display all over the place, and there were massive tables and booths with merchandise and comic books. There were other tables set up all around, adorned with the pieces of the game, ready to host new campaigns. Not only was the entire place filled with literally everything Barley loved, it was also huge.
He now realized why Barley loved this convention so much...it seemed as though he had stepped right into his big brother’s mind.
“Wow...” Ian mumbled, utterly baffled. “I didn’t realize how huge this convention actually is...”
Barley giggled with glee as he accepted his exclusive pass from the employee manning the doors. “AH! I wish this convention happened more than one day a year! It’s the best!” He was unable to contain his happy stims as he shook with excitement, already trying to figure out what he wanted to do first...after he obtained the exclusive, of course. “Come on! Let’s get our exclusive before it gets too busy!”
He grabbed Ian’s hand, leading him over to the booth with the giant “QUEST-CON EXCLUSIVE” banner hung above it. His purchase pass was clutched gently in his right hand, but once he reached the booth, his grip on it--and his grip on Ian’s hand--tightened slightly as he caught sight of the pictures of this year’s exclusive piece.
It was a dice tower, which Barley only had one of...but it was Gelatinous Cube themed.
Anyone who had ever campaigned with Barley knew that the Gelatinous Cube was the one monster he admitted to being afraid of. The structure of the creature, let alone its ability to completely disintegrate any of its victims, always made a shiver snake up his spine. His run-in with an actual live specimen of the monster during their Phoenix Gem quest definitely did not help his phobia.
Ian could sense the tenseness in his older brother. “Barley, you’ve been waiting for this all year!” he reminded him, nudging him with his elbow. “Go get one.”
Barley nodded, shaking his fear out of his head. It was just a plastic structure, and he had to admit, it looked pretty cool.
The dice tower was just a simple cube shape--of course--and it was made of a slightly foggy, transparent-green plastic, which did a fabulous job at resembling the true look of the creature it was replicating. Inside the cube was a small tunnel your dice would tumble down, an entrance for the dice at the top, an exit at the bottom.
“Good morrow! Hast thou come to claim your reward?” the employee behind the booth asked. He was a young, darker skinned elf, dressed in old merchant’s clothing.
“Aye!” Barley cheered, setting his pass on the counter, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. One of his favorite parts was that the exclusive was always in the same price range--anywhere from fifteen, to thirty Shards. This year, it was twenty-five. “One of your finest pieces, good sir!” he bellowed, placing his Shards on the counter on top of his pass.
“But of course, noble warrior,” the employee smiled, addressing Barley’s outfit as he accepted the pass and the payment, handing a small, drawstring canvas bag containing the exclusive to the Lightfoot brothers. “Have a splendid day, adventurers!”
Barley took the strings of the bag in one of his hands, tipping his helmet to the employee with the other. “You as well.”
“And don’t cause any trouble with that staff of yours, young mage!” the merchant joked, sending a nod towards Ian.
Ian chuckled awkwardly. “I, uh...I won’t!” Truth be told, he was feeling a little out of place...maybe even a little embarrassed to be there.
As they walked away from the booth, Barley pulled his exclusive out of the bag, carefully holding it in his hand. He admired the craftsmanship of it, noticing that there were even little bones and weapons embedded in the transparent-green plastic.
“Another exclusive obtained!” he cheered, placing it back into the little bag, tying the strings around his belt so he could have his hands free. “Now, dear brother, we should register for the costume contest!”
Ian laughed. “You can. I don’t have a chance at winning with these modern clothes under my robe.”
Barley smiled. “Fair point.” He wrapped his arm around Ian’s shoulder, pulling him close to his side as they continued walking. “Thanks for coming with me, Ian. I know this isn’t really your environment, so...it means a lot to me that you tagged along.”
“It’s no problem, Barley,” he said, placing his hand on his older brother’s back. “But I have to ask...we’re you seriously a little panicked that the exclusive was a Gelatinous Cube?”
Barley’s ears flushed with embarrassment. “Tell anyone and I’ll yell to the entire convention that you’re a true wizard, therefore drawing attention to-”
“Okay!” Ian shrieked with an underlying laugh. “Please don’t draw attention to me!”
Barley laughed loudly in response, drawing attention towards them anyways. But it was an attention Ian didn’t mind, since they were all simply looking towards his brother; the young man with the loud and contagious laugh.
Barley was truly happy to have his little brother with him at his favorite event, and that was enough to make Ian feel a lot less embarrassed to be there.