RK Series Racing; Prologue II
The team has managed to fix the most critical issues with the car.
The only major problem known to them remains to be the temperamental reverse gear and some of the other minor issues.
And after about 40 minutes of real-life tetris with camping gear, luggage and spare parts, the three set off to travel to the start line.
It did not take long for them to realize that said start line will be two thirds across America…
Halfway to their destination, with Redwood behind the wheel, Tonsom recieves a text message on the Nokia 3310 he still has for whatever reason.
bleep
Message from GCPD (Generic County Police Department)
*We have recieved reports that a wanted Criminal “Coyote Jim” is participating in the Once More run.
We would like you to investigate this and try to detain “Coyote Jim”.
P.S: I know you’re technically on vacation and such, but you do have Connor there and actual vacation wasn’t your thing anyway. Still. Try and have some fun along the way."*
bloop
Tonsom: “Oh god oh FUCK!!!”
Connor: “May i ask what is bothering you?”
Tonsom: [reluctant] "Grrr… remember how i’ve been sent on vacation to grind down whatever amout i’ve collected?*
Connor: “Yes. You still have two months, one week, three days,
43 minutes and 56 seconds² of vacation left.”
Tonsom: “Stop whatever time you’ve set there. Vacation apparently is over.” [hands Connor his phone]
Redwood: “At least you’ll get paid for this adventure now.”
Tonsom: “Whatever salary i’d get for this is spent funding this trip!”
Connor: “Your mo…”
Tonsom: [semi-harsh punsh to Connor’s right arm] “Stop it already.”
Connor: “Sorry, Captain.”
A rather silent phase of thinking and planning ensues, while nobody has noticed that the car was stopped at some gas station for fuel.
While redwood is refueling for what he feels like is the first time in… ever, Tonsom has hatched a plan.
Tonsom: “I Have an idea…”
Tonsom rolls down the one working window roller and proceeds:
Tonsom: “Okay… In order to catch this Coyote Jim guy, we need
to cover as much distance as possible before setting up camp.”
Redwood: “So?”
Connor: [mildly confused face]
Tonsom: “In order to do this we’ll have to change drivers regularly.”
Redwood: “The car’s still a manual…”
Tonsom: “There’s the catch… I gotta learn it… somehow…”
Connor: “I could giv…”
Tonsom: [loudly blaring] “NO WAY ARE YOU GONNA TEACH
ME! You’ll just word it in a way that i won’t understand jackshit…”
Redwood: “To be honest… he’s right… and i cannot teach anyone
anything…”
Tonsom: “Fuck…”
a moment of “silence”
Redwood: “Wait a minute… i’ll be right back!”
Redwood walks off to pay for the fuel, and then proceeds to walk over to the first semi he finds.
He lightly knocks onto the driver’s door.
Redwood: “Hello? Anybody there?”
Shuffling and groaning can be heard from inside the cab as the occupnats move about.
The curtain covering the window of the door Redwood is knocking on slides back and the window slides down.
A groggy 34 year old brunette pops her head out teh window, squinting her eyes. It was clear she had just been woken up.
Schneider (“Liz”): [annoyed] “What do you want? We’re trying to sleep here.”
The woman wipes her eyes to try and wake herself up some more.
Redwood: [be like: “oh fuck…”] “Oh sorry for waking you up…
Still… Good morning. My name’s Tim… and we have a bit of a
problem regarding a team member of ours.”
Schneider: [sighs, still annoyed at being woken up] “Make it quick.
We’re trying to get some shut-eye here.”
Redwood: “So. We are a team of three… in a manual
transmission car… and one of us wants to learn to [singing] row
row row the gears, up and down the speeds…
Sorry…”
Schneider: [rolls her eyes at the terrible joke] “Well, if he wants to
learn, I have the right person for him.”
The woman retracts her head back in through the open window, which slides back up.
The cab then starts rocking back and forth on its suspension, implying that she was violently shaking awake her partner, also implying she was a much heavier sleeper.
Tonsom: [shouting across half the gas station] “Stop bothering
people doing their jobs!”
Redwood: [shouting back] “It’s Sunday, they aren’t working!”
A few seconds later, the window slides back down, and a much younger face pops out, looking to be belonging to a 24 year old and featuring anumber of piercings, a couple of tattoos and a head of brightly coloured hair. She was also quite a lot more beautiful than her older partner.
Cooper (“Bex”): [smiling and chipper] “Sup, mate? Heard you
have a guy in need of a few manual transmission lessons.”
Redwood: [obviously startled by the appearance of the second
woman] “Err… yes?”
Cooper: [holds up and index finger] “I’ll be out in one sec.”
Her head slides back into the cab and the window rolls back up.
A minute or two of shuffling around insid ethe cab and the door opens, the young punk stepping down out of the cab.
She jumps down from the last step, her boots landing flat on the ground, then turning to face Redwood.
Cooper: “All set! Take me to your leader!”
The older woman then sticks her head out of the open door.
Schneider: “Be careful, Bex!”
Cooper: [sassy smirk] “What’s the worst that can happen?”
The older woman facepalms before sliding her head back into the cab and shutting the door behind her.
Redwood walks her over to the team in question.
Tonsom: [leaning out of the rear left window] “Who the fuck are
you if i may ask??”
Connor: [briefly focuses on Cooper, as if he’s scanning her, the
LED on his right temple is briefly flashing yellow] “Rebekah “Bex” Cooper. 24 years old. No known criminal record.”
Tonsom: “Huh…”
Cooper: [a bit taken aback by Conner’s response, but smirks]
“Maybe because I’m British and you probably don’t have access
to my criminal record. I’ll have you know I’m quite the speedster.”
She winks at Connor before turning to Redwood.
Cooper: [folding her arms] “So, who’s the disphit I’m teaching who’s too dumb enough to never have learned
to drive a manual?”
Tonsom steps out of the rear-left seat.
Tonsom: “Err… hi? Frank Tonsom. Nice to meet you, i guess…” [offers her a handshake]
Cooper: [reluctantly takes his hand and shakes it] “Nice to meet you, Frank.” [gestures to Connor] “Your
buddy already introduced myself for you, so no need to go over that again.”
She chuckled, quite curious as to how Connor was bale to instantly know her name.
Cooper: “So you never driven a manual, huh?”
Redwood: [to Cooper] “Have you ever seen a 'Murican driving a manual?”
Tonsom: [annoyed; in response to Cooper’s question] “Nope…”
Cooper: [shrugs, to Redwood] “Never stepped foot in this country before this, so can’t comment about that.”
[to Tonsom] “You’re missing out, buddy! Let’s head to an abandoned parking lot so I can teach you.”
Redwood: [chuckles] “Well manuals have like THREE percent marketshare here…”
Tonsom: “Okay. But first off… since you are a brit, you count as a tourist. And if you get in trouble with law
enforcment… [rummages in his pockes for 20 seconds, then shows Police Captain’s badge] you’re in for a
bad time…”
Connor: [from inside the car] “Do you always have to intimidate civilians with your rank in the police
department?”
Tonsom: [angry; to Connor]“FUCK YOU! I know what i’m doing!”
[vaguely calm; to Cooper] “Let’s get this over with…”
Cooper rolled her eyes. Policeman flashing his rank to try and persuade her not to do things wasn’t going to phase her. Her attitude wasn’t going to change.
Cooper: [gestures to Connor] “I’m with him on that. Stop flashing your rank about to try and get your way
with civs.”
[to Redwood] “I’ll help him, but I’m driving us there.”
Redwood: “Err… if you want…”
Redwood takes place in the passenger seat and hack get back in onto the rear bench next to Connor.
He hands the bundle of FOUR keys over to Cooper.
Cooper walks around the car first to inspect it, checking tyres were in good condition and no visisble damage to brakes, springs or dampers.
Once her inspection is done, she takes hold of the bundle of keys.
Cooper: [dumbfounded] “Erm… why does this car need four keys?”
Cooper: [shocked] “And you sure these tyres are legal? Looks like they’re almost down to their cords!”
Redwood: “As for the keys… the locks are kinda fucked and taken fron like three seperate cars as far as i
know.
There’s the driver door, passenger door, ignition key, and trunk. [showing the individual keys in the process]
The tyres were like that when we bought it… Hope they last.”
Connor: “Ms. Cooper is right. We should replace them. Preferably with new one having run-flat capabilities.”
Tonsom: [smug] “Guess you two have got some work to do.”
Cooper: [gesture’s to Connor] “He’s right. You don’t wanna be pulled for tyres down to their cords, or have
one burst uexpectedly. Get them replaced ASAP!”
She slides into the dirver’s seat amd takes the ignition key and places it in the ignition.
Turning the key, the Dione roars to life.
Cooper: [turns in her seat to face Connor] “And I never quite caught your name, mate. You have some very
sound automotive advice, though, which I very much dig.”
Connor: [calm as ever] “My name is Connor.”
Cooper: [confused] “No last name?”
Connor: [confused; his LED changing to yellow] “No last name…”
Cooper: [still confused] “Why not?”
Tonsom: [not wanting to spill the drink to Redwood] “Reasons…”
Cooper shrugged, hoping Tonsom could tell her when it was just the two of them together.
Cooper: “Alrigth, then. Let’s head for the Blockbuster.”
Sliding the gearstick into first, Cooper finds the clutch biting point of the Dione and slowly pulls away, not hearing a faint turbo whistle that should be prevelant on this car.
Cooper: “Hey. Ins’t this Dione supposed to be a turbo?”
Redwood: “It is. But low pressure and double muffler does not make for that satisfying BRAAAAAAP
STUTUTUTU.”
Cooper: “Well, at least you can hear and feel the whopping great big turbo strapped to my Hiway-Trekker.”
She chuckles as she pulls out of the fuel station, turning onto an American highway.
Cooper plants her right foot to the carpet, and pulls out onto the open road, sliding through the gears to catch up to the flow of the traffic.
Redwood: [trying to get some friendly chit-chat going] “Soo… since you and your… companion(?) are from
across the sea. What exactly are you doing here with a semi?”
Cooper: [enlightens Redwood] “Well we’re here for a little rally across the country. $500 was the stipulated
buying price for the car. I was able to buy that 2005 Voltan-Heavy-Industries Hiway-Trekker 445L from my
employer for a little under that price in my country’s currency. They just wanted it gone, so would take pretty
much anything for it, since it had been sitting there for 10 years.”
Redwood: [in a good mood] “What a coincidence! Same here! I bought this Dione after the Mimas i had
previously had to be left in Bolivia. And why not put the purchase to the test, right?”
Cooper: [grinning] “Of course! Heard about some guy doing a cross-America trip called the 3406 or
something. Think his name was Dan Trojan who did it in 28 hours. Figured I’d see what a fuck off lorry
would do in something similar.”
Redwood: “Erm… at least either group has a motivation for racing, right?” [smiles]
Cooper: “That’s very much true.”
The Anhultz Dione rolled off down the highway towards the sight of the manual driving instruction.
to be continued in the next RP post of @SyberRacer
writer’s note:
- this post has partially been made by live-RP-ing this via Discord DM’s. The continuation of this will be posted by TheTechnoVampire
- i may or may not add additional pictures to this. i am currently limited to mobile data due to a broken router. the one pic is already existant on this thread
-
@Radster i am aware now. Your turn.
