The oil incident was just clever roleplay. That isn’t what got you disqualified.
I’m making a hard stand on driving drunk so that it doesn’t become a thing in future challenges. Any serious racing event would have done the same.
It was good to have you here, and with any luck, we’ll see you in a future challenge.
I understand, I actually had fun for the most part writing up RP Scenarios. Though i agree with you on drunk driving. It would be the same IRL, same with any other racing series. If Shitbox rally 2 or something like that comes out, I would enter, Well. It’s a shame i’ve got disqualified, but also another thing that frees up more of my real-life time.
i’m gonna chime in regarding the oil bit
i know that it wasn’t on purpose and i never claimed it to be that way, unless i fucked up the wording somewhere big-time
on our end (POV my team’s characters here), the concern was valid since you randomly popped up, snooped around the car for half an hour and conviniently were gone when Valentin took the plunge, not even RPing an excuse as to why they didn’t provide first aid despite being literally the next car over and therefore within direct earshot of Constantin.
as stated already, the oil bit has no correlation with the drunk driving bit
i just wanted to clear up the apparent confusion surrounding the oil incident
Wait, it actually happened when they fell? Though for the drunk driving bit it was a rainy day conception i had in my head writing that piece up before i went to school., fairly poorly executed.
the timeline is as follows:
RK arrives at camp
[some irrelevant gap]
Matt and Izzy look at the car, while Kayle (Shift Happens) is fixing the driver window
They both leave roughly when that window is finished
literally the next event is Valentin trying to enter through said window, failing because of that accidental oil bit
Oh ok, Although can i write up a segment where we (my team) get teleported back to earth marking the end for my team on this challenge.
I was going to do it at the start of Stage 9, honestly.
Kivenaal, Rukari, and Jayde are characters that, well, they have some complex interactions with other characters here, and just teleporting a car out of the middle of the camp could break a lot of RP with a lot of people.
TBH With teleporting a vehicle out of camp it would, but idk how to go about with it without breaking RP and defying the laws of RP etc
I just want to mention that my team does have the ablity to travel between the two dimensions. However, they won’t use it because they’d get in worse trouble than being teleported away. Madrias, you can send me a DM over discord if you’re curious.
Speaking of this, like before the team gets teleported, they (my team) starts to argue with one other to spill the truth or one of them cuts a wire to our car’s ECU, rendering the vehicle undrivable. Am i able to do that?
I can probably do that, although its more of an EMP that disables it. Oh wait
Never mind, i misread the question
Oh, sure. I’m not kicking you out now. Your run ends at the start of Stage 9. You have the entirety of this camp to continue any and all interactions with other teams.
Having the vehicle rendered undrivable is fine, if you want to do that.
On the other hand, I’m surprised no one has acknowledged the epic jump my team did. (P.S. since i don’t want to clog up the thread further. Someone in my team might get shot in the shoulder by fellow team member, although its completely accidental. No malicious intent however.)
I had characters that I had to make sure weren’t needed first. You will get reactions from some of the team for that stunt.
After getting an notice we will be sent back to Earth, Matt starts to bring up the burning topic of “Why the fuck was Izzy driving drunk, and how did she get the beers!”. John then goes up to Matt and tells him “So it was her that had them?” Matt then replies “Alright, let’s start the story, So on the stage, she was driving, then during the drive she then pulled out a water bottle, i think she did. Yeah she did. and then she was driving drunk, all of this is from what i can recall.”
John then replies aggressively to Matt “She’s your fucking girlfriend, you were supposed to stop her. Yet you did fuck-all.” Matt then replies, “Neither did you, Just let her fucking speak up already will ya?” Izzy then replies, “For one, the drink driving incident, alright? Well, someone has tampered with my fucking water bottle! WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT!” She then looks right into John’s eyes. “You?” John then tries very hard to not hide the fact he did it and stutters for a bit “N-no?” Izzy then takes it as bullshit and them goes up onto John and tries to attack him. She then tries to bring him to the floor. “So you fucking replaced what was in my water bottle with beer? ARE YOU THAT MUCH OF A FUCKING MORON, ARE YOU?” John then goes back at her with a “Yeah, yeah i fucking did. Whilst you do fuck-all French kissing matt.” Izzy then replies back with an snarky response. “Not my fault you cant fucking get b-” Matt then interrupts the argument, gets Izzy off John and then says. “I swear to god, if the neither of you stop arguing I will make this car un-drivable, do you understand? And John, No, i am not breaking up with her so you can keep dreamin’ about that. Matter of fact, We have to go to Earth now. Jesus christ i cannot do anything fun.” John then tries one-upping the two with another reply “Well it was the fuckin’ uh ginger fem-” Matt then cuts the main wire to the ECU. “I’ve fucking had it, Next time i may aswell be racing with just me and my girlfriend, John, why the fuck do you have to keep stirring shit up. And then you replaced whatever was in her bottle with beer! Then you made it flat on purpose. WHY.” Matt then gets the same hedge shears he used to cut the car’s ECU Wire, making it undrivable. He then breaks the windsheild, going through the plastic dashboard with them. Izzy then takes a breather knowing she can go back to earth with her boyfriend. And then John just storms off into the distance, although not too far to not be immune from being teleported.
The End. An really wild twist i guess.
i kinda realise how some of it doesnt line up but he manipulated the contents of the bottle.
and
“Erm… we’ll see what Val thinks once we get there…”, Constantin replies as the three are heading over to the Dione where Tim and Valentin were still stood.
It wasn’t hard for Valentin to miss three people approaching him, but we was a bit confused at first, as the visit regarding the inner workings of Robert was already dealt with.
“Still need anything?”, Valentin asked with a raised eyebrow, unsure about why Kayden was back and what he was carrying.
“Constantin mentioned you were in pain,” Kayden said, “so I’ve come back over with some of my supplies to see if there’s anything that can be done about that. I have a basic pain cream that should work to reduce your pain some, but I’m not quite sure how effective it will be.”
From by the Bricksley, Kaylie yelled out to her brother, “Kayden, can you also ask them if they know where I can refill some of these water jugs?”
Kayden rolled his eyes. “Probably don’t have to, Kaylie, you made it clear enough,” Kayden called back. He looked to Valentin and chuckled. “Well, it also seems like Kaylie’s given me a task as well, as you heard. Apparently she’s worried that more than half of our radiator water is gone. Considering Rukari tried to blow it up towing your car to the steamworks, I’m not surprised we’re low on water.”
“Hardly a surprise, but it isn’t that bad…”, Valentin groaned, trying to not be forced into taking any more favors from Shift Happens and their members. Though by his posture, some areas were visibly less than pleasant currently.
“Well if your knees go tits-up for whatever goddamn reason than we’re stuck here. We only have one driver… well, two, but nobody can work that array of levers you call the ‘fireman’s controls’.”, Constantin countered rather sternly, before being startled by Kaylie shouting into his back from afar.
“Robert has a water hose clamp between the rear seats and we’ve been using that to refill our tanks on the wayside water towers. They even have distilled water there, probably for ease of cleaning reasons.”, Valentin replied while swaying around a bit in an attempt to get reasonably comfortable standing on one foot and in crutches.
“Kaylie’s been irritated at the lack of suitable sources for radiator water around here, so distilled would be very helpful. Some of the towns we’ve been to, the well water isn’t fit for drinking, let alone pouring into a radiator,” Kayden said. “I mean, as long as we can fill up a few containers, we’ll be fine, even if we have to use a hand pump, but if you’re willing to help with this, we’d appreciate it.”
Kayden turned toward Kaylie, then said, “Valentin knows where we can get distilled water.”
“Great! While you help him out, I’ll get the Bricksley started,” Kaylie replied. “After all, there’s no point in making everyone carry jugs of water if the truck can still do it.”
“Don’t be in a rush, Kaylie, we’ll have to wait for them as well,” Kayden added, before looking to Valentin and opening up his medical kit, picking out one of the smaller tubes and double-checking the label. “Nova, remind me again, this is the one that was a 100% match for a common over-the-counter pain relief cream, right?”
“Yes. I have cross referenced the chemical structures, and while the names of the compounds are different between the over the counter cream and the one you have in your hand, the chemical structure itself is identical,” Nova confirmed.
“We’ve brought water filter straws along for that reason. And with the rails, water access isn’t even that much of an issue anymore for us.”, Tim remarked from the other end of the car, joining the others in the process.
“Good move on that one. Never know where one might end up.”, Constantin said afterwards.
Kaylie being Kaylie was eager to get going, but equally eagerly reigned back by Kayden as other things needed tending to first.
Valentin simply took the toothpaste-tube-sized cream container and gave it a quick glance, before ordering Connor to steam Robert in the meantime. After that, he returns to the tube Kayden handed to him, intensely staring at it for a loooong moment.
“The fuck?”, he mumbles quietly, thrown off by him understanding what obviously is not a language that he speaks or can read.
Another long moment passes with him sunk into the instructions and ingredient list in a state between confusion and caution.
Kayden gave a puzzled look as Valentin studied the instructions and ingredients list with a look of confusion and caution on his face. “Oh, if you’re having a hard time reading that, I can have Nova print out a label for you in a different language,” Kayden said, realizing the possible reason for the confusion.
Kaylie checked each container for how full or empty it was by tapping it with her left hand and listening to the differences in the sound from each can. Then, after a few minutes, she made sure everything in the bed was properly secured. However, when she went to start the truck, the engine cranked weakly, sputtered, coughed, then died. “Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me. Kivenaal! You left the lights on!”
“Nonono, i can read that. But it’s not Swedish or English… heck, it isn’t even German… but for some reason i can read that…”, Valentin explained, reading the labeling on there a third time. At that point, he remembered that the provided ring had some language functionality. He therefore takes the ring off for a moment, at which point the label on the tube turns into unintelligible gibberish until the ring goes back on.
After that, Valentin just sits there, dumbfounded by the apparent abilities of a simple ring until Kaylie once again gets his attention by shouting halfway across camp.
He looks at the Bricksley, mildly confused as to what happened while Connor went through the process of raising steam, which took longer than theoretically possible due to the alternator valve being left open on purpose.
Kayden nodded. “Ah, that’s something Rukari did so people wouldn’t be completely lost around here, and so he could make sure teams weren’t left behind,” Kayden said.
When Valentin looked over at the Bricksley in confusion, Kayden chuckled. “Kivenaal accidentally left our headlights on and drained the battery. Kaylie couldn’t get the engine to start. I know we have jumper cables, if you guys can still jump-start another car. I know you still have the battery and I think the alternator is in there somewhere, but, I don’t know how well that will work.”
Valentin did not question the ring, or Rukari, all that much and just tried to deal with it at face-value.
As if on cue, a relatively quiet turbo-like noise started coming from the car as the turbine spinning the alternator started to have enough steam pressure to get going. Not long after, that noise stabilizes as the alternator proceeds to keep tabs on the AGM battery that was in the car’s engine bay.
“Well we have power now and a mostly new battery in there. Plus raising steam doesn’t need hundreds of amps for a few seconds, but more like 15 amps for 10 minutes. Plus, we took the battery out of the old Dione on the off-chance that this one goes poof on us.” Valentin explained as he looked through the still-open hood onto the alternator spinning away beneath the feedwater tank.
“Yeah, downside of having a large V8, it needs a lot of power to start it. And while I’m sure we could adapt something to kick the engine over if we had enough time, it’s equally likely that we would damage the truck while trying,” Kayden replied.
Kaylie gave a frustrated groan as she shoved the hood open on the Bricksley. “This would be so much easier to deal with if we had a jump-starter. “Oh, we won’t need that. Let’s instead bring twelve bottles of moonshine.” Great idea now that we’ve got empty bottles in the back and a dead battery,” Kaylie grumbled.
“Kaylie, mind your hand around the terminals!” Kayden warned.
Sure enough, despite the battery being dead enough that it couldn’t start the engine, it still had more than enough power to create a great big flash of sparks as Kaylie accidentally shorted the battery to the truck’s frame. “Twin Suns, Kayden, help me out with this!” Kaylie said, her hand no worse for wear despite the impressive sparks.
Kayden wandered over to the Bricksley and grabbed the jumper cables out of the truck, connecting the cables to the truck’s battery, then to the battery in the Dione. “Kaylie, crank it, please,” Kayden said, hearing the change in the Dione’s alternator turbine whine as it started trying to charge the Bricksley’s drained battery.
The Bricksley’s engine rasped to life, and soon after it reached a steady idle, Kayden removed the jumper cables from both cars.
“I’ll give it a few minutes of high idle to put some charge in it,” Kaylie called out. “Otherwise, one stall and we’re back to the cables again.”
As Kayden went about jump-starting the Bricksley off of the Dione’s battery, Valentin took the spare time to make another attempt at entering the car. Though this time the same way he usually exits it as the fireman’s seat was occupied by Connor.
As he made his way into the rear seat, feet first, Constantin helped support him on the way in, preventing another fall from happening. Some shuffling, turning and adjusting later, he found himself on the driver’s seat, sliding it all the way back on the rails like he always does.
Constantin quickly got the tent off of the roof to have something to do in the meantime, similarly to Tim who got cooking supplies from the same place. Once that was unloaded, Constantin slapped the roof panel of the car, indicating readiness for departure, right as Robert was steamed enough to be mobile.
A careful toot of the whistle followed, which, given the digital nature of a starter solenoid, ended up being a full-blast-blip of it, resonating across most of the camp in the process.
After that, the driver window whirred downwards, with Valentin poking his head out of said window:
“Sorry… need to hook the whistle to an analogue signal…”, he excused himself, raising a hand in shame in doing so.
Kayden climbed up next to his sister in the Bricksley, then pulled the seatbelt on and clicked it before closing the door.
“No faith,” Kaylie quipped.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that I don’t trust either of the horny maniacs not to take off the moment they hear the door slam,” Kayden quipped back.
“Fair enough,” Kaylie said.
As Valentin sounded the whistle, Kaylie honked the feeble horn in response, found first gear, and set off as gracefully as she could. “Damn. Should’ve gotten Jayde to do this,” Kaylie said to herself.
“Only way you can get better at driving stick is to do it. I mean, I suppose you could ask Valentin for lessons, but-” Kayden suddenly stopped and yowled as Kaylie playfully slugged him across the bench seat. “Ow! Really? It was a reasonable suggestion. If he can teach Jayde how to drive, surely he can teach anyone.”
“I’m sure, given his injuries, he has better things to do than teach me how to drive stick,” Kaylie replied, though the gearbox gave an angry crunch as Kaylie forced it into second gear.
“I don’t know who’s worse, you or Jayde,” Kayden said, trying not to laugh as they followed the Dione back through town and toward the station.
Once the arguably adorable horn (in comparison, at least) of the Bricksley was heard, Valentin moved his right foot over to the clutch to select reverse, ending in him rolling backwards a few yards to make room for getting past the Bricksley’s side.
They rolled past and onwards into town, making sure that the other car was close by at all times, eventually stopping a quarter mile away from Addavuul station at a small yard with a coal tower, some fuel oil storage in the off chance an oil-fired engine came along as well as loads of water, both distilled and mineralized.
Another toot announced both cars to the local “workforce”, consisting of all of two people stood there, in charge of helping the engine crew refuel. With little to do, the two people are on break as both cars roll up to the general area. They start quietly talking to each other as if gossiping or at the very least distantly aware of Robert and what Valentin did to it.
He parks up near them, rolls down the window and eyes them for a bit, before stating his intentions.
“Good afternoon. Would you mind if I, or… well… us take on a bit of distilled water here?”, Valentin politely asks, motioning to the Bricksley nearby in the process.
They look at each other, back at the Dione, at each other, repeating the process a few times while unsure on if what they are seeing fits the rumors that have been going among the railway staff regarding a blazing-fast orange inspection railcar.
“Sure thing” the older one replies, followed by the younger one heading off, apparently to get some supplies.
Valentin then turns to Kaylie to the best of his ability.
“Can you get those jugs to the right rear door? We’re gonna refill them through there.” Valentin says, while trying to reach over in an attempt to open said door, ending in him not getting quite far enough and aborting the attempt.
Kaylie stomped the parking brake pedal to make sure the Bricksley wouldn’t go anywhere, double-checked that it was in neutral just to be sure, and hopped out of the driver’s seat. “Yeah, not a problem,” Kaylie said, grabbing two cans off of the roof rack with her left hand and hauling them over to the Dione. She opened the door and set the cans down outside the car, before making her way back to the truck to grab more of the cans.
Kayden, likewise, got out of the Bricksley after quickly checking the gauges to make sure that the engine was, in fact, still charging the battery, and also to make sure the engine wasn’t getting hot after running for such a short time. When he saw the temperature was higher than he liked, he scowled, pulled the hood release, and looked under the hood. “Oh, come on,” Kayden grumbled. “When the hell did that come undone!?” He looked over at Kaylie, then said, “Might be a bit while I fight with this stupid fan connector. We have no radiator fan right now.”
“Not a problem, Kayden, just take your time and don’t break anything,” Kaylie said, heading over to the Dione with another pair of cans.
Valentin felt and heard the rear right door opening, followed soon after by the metal containers clanging onto the ground.
“Erm… somewhere on the roof. There’s a hose which looks like it belongs to a steam lorry, with a firefighting-hose fitting at one end and a crude filter at the other. Can you get that down here? That goes onto the copper fitting between the rear seats.” Valentin explained, aware of that hose existing, but not sure if his description was accurate enough, given the sheer amount of random stuff stored up there.
At this point, the younger person returned with a small tanker cart containing distilled water, which was wheeled vaguely near the Dione for the time being.
“There you go, lads. Take what you need and tell us when you’re done, okay?” he said, taking a seat in his break chair again and watchin intently at what was unfolding.
“Thank you” Valentin quickly answered out of politeness before returning to the happenings in the back.
Kaylie looked at the supplies on the roof rack, trying to find a hose that looked like it could belong to a steam-powered vehicle, but was seeing just about everything except the hose that Valentin had described. “I’m not seeing it. Hold on a moment, I’m going to see if Kayden can spot it,” Kaylie said, before looking to Kayden.
“Kayden, I’m looking for a hose, looks like it’s supposed to belong to a steam truck, with a firefighting-style fitting on one end and a filter at the other,” Kaylie said.
Kayden clicked the connector back together, scowling as the fan kicked on and whacked the back of his thumb fairly solidly in the process, then headed over to the Dione to help his sister look for the hose.
Kayden looked over the top of the roof rack, then reached over and grabbed the hose.
“I thought that was a fucking snake!” Kaylie said, staring at the hose.
“From your side, you probably didn’t see any of the connectors, only the hose,” Kayden replied, walking around the car and handing the hose over to Kaylie.
With the hose semi-successfully procured, Valentin went about folding his seat flat for some added maneuvering room, finishing the process in less than 20 seconds. With him lying nearly flat and propped up on his right elbow, he had enough room to prepare the pumping.
“Now, could you please hand me the firefighting end of that hose?”, Valentin asked, recieving the correct end shortly thereafter.
That fitting was connected to a small counterpart between the rear seats on the center tunnel. After that, the valve behind that fitting was turned shut with the free left arm that was remaining.
“Now the other end goes wherever you want that water… think garden hose with a sprinkler attachment.”, Valentin notes, pointing at the other end of the hose, which was a brass bit of thin-walled pipe with a few holes drilled into it.
Kaylie drops that end into the opening of the first Jerry can, after which Connor is directed to power the feedwater pump, sending a stream of water into the jerry can.
As Valentin and Connor operated the Dione’s feedwater pump to fill the first can, Kaylie held the hose so that the stream of warm water poured into the can, watching as it filled up quickly.
Of course, between each can, Kaylie was instructed to help them fill up the feedwater tank, using the same water hose to draw water from the tanker cart. With that method, she was able to fill up all of the empty radiator water cans, and then helped fill up the Dione’s feedwater tank.
One by one, four cans of 10 Litres each were filled, during which Robert had to take on water a few times by virtue of only having a 10 gallon feedwater tank. Once every can was filled, they took on water one last time for themselves to complete the process.
“Thank you.”, Valentin says to the workers there, upon which they politely nod back and one of them wheels away the cart of distilled water again.
After that, the valves were set for through-running again and the hose subsequently disconnected, dripping a bit of residual water into the rear footwell in the process.
“Could you please put that hose back up there?”, Valentin inquired, shoving the connecting end over to Kaylie as best he could while being stretched across most of the interior’s length, lying down.
Kaylie nodded, then carefully coiled up the hose and settled it into place on the roof rack, tucking it in behind one of the tie-down straps so it would stay there.
“Thank you as well. It’s been making me nervous, not having plenty of water on hand for the Bricksley. I know I wasn’t out of water, but, knowing these old 427’s like to overheat, I wanted to have a lot on hand.”
Kaylie and Kayden picked up the cans, closed the Dione’s rear door, and then headed over to the Bricksley, where they put the cans onto the roof rack where they belonged.
With Robert ready for the return run and the Bricksley nearing it’s readiness as well, both Valentin and Connor waited for Kaylie and Kayden to enter their vehicles, after which departure was announces acoustically, although this time using the ordinary electrical horn instead of the whistle.
The pair of vehicles headed back to camp, where Constantin had finished setting up both tents and Tim was nearing completion on the cooking department, too, made easier by the rain being a few individual drops, at most by now.
The Dione came to a stop where it took off from, although shifted a few feet to the side to make way for the Bricksley to pass into it’s respective spot.
Connor started with the process of de-steaming, forcing both Valentin within and the others around to wait before approaching the car.
Kaylie grinned as she told Kayden, “Guess what: You’re driving. Yeah, mock me for my shifting, now you get to do it.”
Kayden groaned. “Fine, but I hate doing this.”
“Valentin could teach you how to drive stick, too. Maybe we should both consider that in the future. Our team would do a lot better with less gearbox-grinders behind the wheel,” Kaylie replied.
As Valentin used the horn to signal he was setting off, Kayden responded with the Bricksley’s horn, then promptly stalled the truck. “Oh, come on!” Kayden yelled, before starting the engine again.
“Parking brake,” Kaylie said.
Kayden pulled the handle and scowled as muddy dirt was flung up onto his shirt. “I hate this truck,” he grumbled.
“Next time, put your foot in front of that pedal so it doesn’t throw dirt at you,” Kaylie said.
Kayden sighed, put the truck in first gear again, and slowly drove back through town and into the camp. After several attempts to get the truck lined up where it was, Kayden gave up, leaving the Bricksley sitting slightly crooked in the parking spot. He shut the engine off, climbing out of the truck along with Kaylie, who was just grinning from ear to ear.
“What’s so funny?” Kayden asked.
“You know, if you parked like that on Earth, someone would slap this truck with a “You parked like an asshole” sticker, at best,” Kaylie replied.
“We’re in an open gravel lot. Who cares if the truck is crooked? I didn’t hit the Dione and I didn’t hit the Magistrate,” Kayden grumbled.
Another mighty hiss came from below the Redneck Railcar, the vented steam covering most of the surrounding area before it vanishes into nothing.
With that, Connor almost immediately exited, followed by both Schrants working together in getting the taller one of the two out of the driver’s seat and onto his crutches once more.
The team congregated around Tim and his mini-gazebo’d gas cooker, waiting for the finishing touches to be made to the pasta contained within.
“Constantin, please get the cutlery and all that”, Tim requested, with Constantin heading back for the Dione to collect basic camping bowls and a slew of sporks.
Not long after, “dinner” was served, with Valentin taking the occasional look over to the Bricksley to see if they still needed anything and/ or had something to discuss.
Kaylie and Kayden wandered over to where Malavera and Rukari were sitting, watching as Kivenaal and Jayde wandered back from where they’d been resting to join in on the meal of the day, which happened to be another of Rukari’s camp stews.
“How the hell is it always this good?” Malavera asked after the first scoop out of his bowl.
“I get fresh ingredients from in the town,” Rukari replied, “and Jayde has a lot of interesting spices to work with.”
“Ah. That would do it,” Malavera said.
“I’ve been nice,” Jayde said with a smirk. “I’ve got some spices from Galren’s Height that would make for a very delicious stew, but it would be rather hot.”
“You know, think they’d mind if we brought some of this over to share with them?” Kayden asked, nodding toward the Dione.
“Rain’s stopped, so we can move the pot out from underneath the rain shelter,” Jayde mentioned.
Kivenaal rolled his eyes. “They’ve already made food. Offering to share ours only really works if we save someone from doing all the hard work to start with.”
“Maybe another time,” Rukari said.
“Shit, that reminds me,” Kaylie said, setting her bowl down on the Bricksley’s toolbox and grabbing a pen and notepad from the glovebox, “I’ve got to ask Tim about that sauce recipe.”
Kayden chuckled as his sister wandered over to where Tim was at, watching as she asked a couple of questions and wrote down the recipe for Tim’s tomato sauce before thanking them and returning to grab her bowl.
“Well, we might have to give this a try at some point in the future. However, for now,” Kaylie said, putting the notepad away and scooping up a spoonful of stew, “we have food to eat.”
As the three dug into their meals, they were pleasantly surprised at the taste of the prepared food, given it being 5 minute pasta with a little seasoning on top. Apart from that, not much of not happened, until Kaylie approached and peppered Tim with questions on his sauce recipe all the way back when the initial conversion was made.
As agreed, he happily shared the knowledge on it and went back to eating afterwards.
With how they progressively finished up their food, some ‘attempt’ at doing dishes had been made, with little success given the lack of basic supplies like dish soap or running water. The latter would be solvable, but nobody wanted to annoy everyone with the “almighty snake hiss” a third time.
After that, Valentin went about trying that pain relief cream Kayden gave to him earlier, immediately struggling to get both knees exposed as his pants took a while to dry out and their already slim-fitting didn’t help matters there. Eventually, a dab of cream found it’s way onto either knee, followed by the left ankle and also his lower back, which were substantially easier to access in comparison.
Immediately, the effects were felt as the pain, especially in his left ankle, transitioned into a substantial feeling of heat in the applied areas, which, while initially a bit unnerving, proved to be way easier to deal with than the pain itself.
The remaining afternoon was spent playing card games and other basic time-killing measures, among which was planning the implementation of the railhead brake as suggested by Kivenaal for Valentin and Connor, before they headed into bed for the night.
Machinas Con Passione’s Collaborative shitbox adventures - Episode 2 - Talent not required?
Co-written with Madrias
As you may be able to tell, Machinas con Passione have yet to do a little trolling as of late, here’s a brief visit on what they’ve been preparing this stage.
-Stage 6-
All was quiet on the MCP front, as the crew seemingly stepped out of camp, leaving their beloved Aerodynamic Wedge Shaped Beast unoccupied as they went into town to “fetch supplies”.
-Stage 7-
Upon settling into camp, Chad McChad, who had caught the mirror Giacomo tossed at him between his teeth, got to work on repairing the mirror even though they were obviously better off without any.
And alas, our story begins.
-Stage 8-
It’s here, then, that we find out what those “supplies” from earlier were, it seems that Machinas Con Passione have turned into a travelling karaoke band. Unlike supplies you would normally get for a trip like this, it seemed that each member had brought along instruments, including a guitar, a bass, some drums, and some vocal training lessons, because some of us definitely needed them more than others. To pay, Giacomo passed on this “rare and magical item”, in reality just a check, which promised 5,000 italian lira for the whole deal. The shopkeeper, though not very amused, accepted the check, likely intending to use it to start a fire for the family stew, or to keep as an “artifact from a great, morally questionable, hero.” Maria gave Giacomo a scornful look, but didn’t stop him, since she was being paid minimum wage herself, and was definitely not going to fit the bill should the buck get passed to her.
Back at the camp, Song choices were doled out, and thus, each member of Machinas con Passione exposed their music tastes.
Chad McChad picked “All Along the Watchtower” by the Hendrix Experience.
Maria picked “2,000 Light Years Away” by Green Day, confusing Giacomo most of all, who pointed out that despite being on a different planet, the day was, in fact, still blue.
Benjamin picked “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode.
Thibault couldn’t help himself, and picked “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” by The Offspring, the irony of being associated with someone straight out of the song itself was too good for him to resist. Maria politely informed him to eat shit and die if he thought she would help him sing the chorus.
Giacomo picked a solo rendition of “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito.
The now band members spent a good deal of time teaching each other how to play their desired songs. Now that the song order was in place, and everyone knew how to play their songs, there was one thing left to do: GO INTO TOWN, and enjoy a nice meal. Which is what they would’ve done, had Giacomo not pointed out the bar, causing everyone to head in for an ill-advised good time.
Chad left after having a few sips of the bargain menu, realizing his friends would likely need a ride home. Minutes melded into hours, as the band seemingly He wound up being completely correct when Maria tumbled out of the bar and very nearly faceplanted the ground if it weren’t for Chad diving where Maria was going to land, and absorbing the impact for her. Thibault, and the others, soon followed.
After Chad carried everyone out of the bar, everyone, for the most part, spent the next hour or so mellowed out, and at least made an honest attempt to sober up. Everyone except Giacomo, who found this a great time to start his vocal warmup.
“tryghhbest… nobody’s… around… woo…”
It didn’t go very well.
Giacomo repeated the chorus of the song a good 15 times, before his teammates shrugged and joined him.
Giacomo’s attempts to get them to stop “interrupting” his performance was interrupted with Maria loudly bursting out into her own song, with Thibault and Chad on drums and guitars.
All of this would have been fine and dandy had it not been 3 moon, waking up a good half the camp in the process. I’m sure this will go over well with everyone else.
Rukari growled as he heard the poor attempt at “music” in the middle of the camp. Sure enough, as he got up and wandered outside, there was Kivenaal, Malavera, and Kaylie, all sitting there, awake and in various states of annoyed.
“Where are Jayde and Kayden?” Rukari asked.
“Fucking heavy sleepers,” Kaylie replied. “I swear, Kayden could sleep through a bomb going off, and, well, I wore Jayde out.”
Rukari sighed. “I will go and deal with this,” he said, before walking over toward Team MCP’s impromptu Karaoke and garage-band session.
“Hey! You are aware that it is 3 Moon, yes? And that people are trying to sleep?” Rukari asked, looking over the group.
This was news to most of the members, they, for the most part, were completely unaware that they had even been out that late, and, for the most part, returned to the van in peace. Bonus points for guessing who didn’t.
Giacomo, seeing that he had clearly picked the wrong kind of song, tried to compromise.
“no, wait… I know what, uhh… What to play… Hold on…”
Giacomo picked up a guitar, lurched over to the drum kit, and began, rather loudly, playing a drunken rendition of “Daisy Bell.”
“Look, see, is lullaby… Something about daisy and her answers or whatever, Alright, to the, uh, bridge… I guess…”
While Giacomo himself wasnt very loud, the drunken drum playing did him no favors, and may have very likely shortened his lifespan.
Rukari sighed. Of course there was always one who didn’t understand just how loud they were being. “The drums of war are hardly going to help anyone sleep,” Rukari said, grimacing as Giacomo drunkenly banged away on the drums.
When it was obvious that either Giacomo wasn’t listening, or flat out couldn’t hear him over bashing away on the drums, and clearly had no intent in stopping what he was doing, Rukari’s tail twitched ominously, swinging from left to right like a metronome as he fought the urge to use it as a weapon.
“Giacomo, you’ve woken half the camp. Unless you want to wake all of the camp, I would suggest picking this back up in the next camp. Earlier, not when the moons are shining,” Rukari warned.
Meanwhile, in the van, the combined half braincell of the team came together, and realized that Giacomo was about 20 seconds away from ruining his own night, along with potentially Rukari’s should he survive whatever happened to him.
Thinking quickly, Benjamin, who had since joined the land of the living thanks to Giacomo’s drum playing, came up from behind his boss, and gently (violently) grabbed his wrists, and put his hands to rest in his lap.
“What arrryouuu doing?”
“Stopping you from taking an extended nap.”
“I feelll just fineee, i just… want… everyone…” And with that, he yawned, drifting off to sleep mid-sentence.
Benjamin looked up at Rukari, offering him an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, he’s, well, you know.”
Rukari sighed. “I seem to be finding out.”
Benjamin dragged Giacomo back to the van, where the team had been sleeping out of for the past 8 weeks. Afterwards, he returned to Rukari, making him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“By the way, want to join us next time? Obviously we won’t start at 3 moon, but still, drunk, singing, it beats running from the mob!.. Actually, I think that’s just a me thing. Whatever. Anyway. Drunk Karaoke.” Benjamin then began to reach into Giacomo’s pocket, pulling out a wad of cash and offering it to Rukari, who refused. Resigned, Ben simply pocketed the cash himself.
“Maybe,” Rukari replied. “I don’t know many of your songs, but, I do know a couple. Just as long as it’s done while the sun is still up, at least. Not while everyone is trying to get some much needed rest.”
As Rukari went to walk away, he stopped for a moment, then added, “Just don’t expect the rest of the team to join in. Convincing Kivenaal before the start of the rally to join me was… not easy.” With that, Rukari walked back toward the Bricksley, and Benjamin went to sleep a few dollars richer.
Part 7 - fin
alright who wants to do some karaoke ehhhhh?
MCP Side Stories - Episode 2: Oh God oh Fuck
“Dude… Who shit on the van?”
“WHO DID WHAT? SOMEONE SHIT ON THE VAN?”
“Holy fuck Giacomo it’s like 1 sun. Please. Inside voice.”
“I think it’s the mud, man. Mudman. Heh.”
“What’s even the joke in that?”
“I just think a man of mud is pretty funny. Not everything funny has to be a joke.”
“Wha- okay. Whatever.”
“Ok, but who is cleaning this shit off of my van?”
“Nobody, I elect to leave it on. Chad, don’t lick it, I see you going for it. Stop. Why are you still doing it, as i watch you. That’s nasty dude. Thanks. If you’re gonna clean it, a t least wipe it down or something.”
“I’ve been through worse while in the WRC, this is, eh, acceptable. Honestly, I expected to wipe out or something by now, but we’re having pretty good pace so far.”
“Chad, you clean the wheels, if anything. Make sure they’re at least clear of any mud.”
“To buy or to nap. That is the question.”
“If you’re gonna buy anything, Doctor, I’d ask you buy us FOOD. I’m kinda tired of stew and living off the land, honestly.”
“You read my mind. Maybe they have some kind of bakery. That’d be pretty neat.”
Machinas Con Passione Side Stories Episode 2 - Fin
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Stage 8) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
Response to previous post as always
Hey, you got delivery!
Guy we would be observing in first part of story is not from our SR group.
This is Chicota Junior, younger namesake of Chicota we mentioned oh so many times as part of our group.
He is in many ways upgraded version of his father…maybe we could call him Chicota 2.0?
Maybe, but for now, there would be no confusion…well, atleast in which Chicota we are refering to.
Im aware of many questions you have
Most could get answered along the way in story, but subject of how he came here deserves to be explicitly explained.
We arent actually strangers to hopping in different universe or something, which in my opinion is required to enter Aetherii from Earth, but there is slight difference
Story also mentions certain Smons (forum name is SmonsSmithy).
As i revealed some plan related to some of my characters in Discord of Automation Beam Championship, he contributed little bit.
I feel my writing prowess would allow me to integrate those explanations in adequate part of story, so will be left for that to see.
(Day before SR team gets in Addavuul camp; this part of post covers area in and tad bit around town of Addavuul
Other parts will be placed in town itself for most part)
Here we go again…if im not mistaken this is about 10th time im doing this.
We could have properly waited for them to return but SOMEONE had this bright idea that i must fking go and deliver them some news.
Not only that, im required to haul around this stupid box.
Am i even in correct place?
Definitely, he was on correct place…for nearby local to start complaining about him going over his crops.
This was just shouting in foreign language bcos wasnt understood, until local presented a small gun and fired it at him.
(Remember he has no translator to Aetherii languages like our Rukari-made rings
This also means that communication from now on is in what they do and not what they say)
Newcomer got on ground holding the leg; looks like local got him (…or did he…)
Shot was regretted and local helped out his target with this injury (hmmm…)
They somehow decided to go to local’s home in order to deal with this new situation, making sure big black box goes with them.
Wife had managed to fish out some crutches for guest to use and local had returned back to work.
As you can prob guess, this younger Chicota quickly took note of where (or more precisely, when) he ended up. Also he is bulletproof like his father, so he definitely faked this injury, but its not like that he is here to take names and kick ass.
Wife had found some issue with some tool she used. This can be solved on the other hand and he offered her to help.
Night came and he found himself in guest room on completely opposite side to entrance in the house with conveniently placed window.
Chicota Jr wasnt exactly sure he got in right place, but decided to wait bit more before jumping to conclusions.
Next day has come with same hopes, but atleast he has solid company.
Both adults he met earlier were gone prob forgetting they have guest and for first time, he met some child.
After few minutes of intense staring, he realized this might be their child so he decided to back off; scaring child of hosts is not smartest idea to do.
Some time later, there was a cry. Chicota jumped straight into action…only to realize breakfast got spilled and kid was still hungry.
With heavy sigh, he started to look through cupboards and found some food.
He presented that food to kid, who said something.
He shrugged and to drive point home, responded in English.
She realized they couldnt understand each other, so got around of eating food that was prepared now.
Its often said that art unites ppl around the world and that has proven to be correct here.
At first, parents were worried bcos they forgot about stranger but since those two found drawing to be…interesting medium for conversation and already seemed to enjoy this mutual activity, they let them be.
Kid was drawing various stuff, while Chicota was drawing his way around the situation: his drawing were useful way to indicate that he is in fact a messenger, delivering that big black box to other individuals
Individuals were described by simple drawings of them, which raised concerns about Dyre-looking ones (dogs, but they do be big).
He looked out of window few times, but to no avail most of time…until that faithful moment where he caught a glimpse of three familiar figures and informed hosts that recipients must be informed of package.
Host took liberty of doing so.
Chicota, Aydar and Klimentol from SR group decided to head to town to gather some supplies, about 15 Earth minutes after beer bottles were delivered (consult previous post for more info on that).
Going in couple of shops had ended well so far and they planned to kinda wrap this up, but suddenly were confronted by man.
-I have stranger in my house who seems to want to deliver some big black box.
You fit his drawings, so come with me.
They obliged.
-Hello there. My name is Chicota Junior and i have come to deliver this package.
-I dont believe you, my son was smaller.
-Well there is only one way to find out.
(Drops the crutches)
Reccomend going outside of house tho.
Upon exit of two namesakes, Aydar took leader position.
-They love to fight.
-But…i thought he was hurt. Yesterday he was approaching me on my crops and i shot him in leg.
-He prob thought faking an injury was way to go.
Dont know why, but eh.
-How come you can talk with me and he couldnt?
-We are part of big group not of this world travelling around in weird carriages for fun. Leader of group had gave us rings that allow us to talk to you locals.
Before you ask and i know you will ask…we arent Dyre. Im aware that we look like not-fully-grown ones, but we arent those.
-I heard of some group battling Dyres near Addagarda…impossible…were you, by any chance,…
-Yes, we fought them there. They arent easy to deal with, but we are capable.
This didnt apply to all of members so we kinda needed to protect them too but we suffered no losses there.
Klimentol joined in convo
-Remember that singular Dyre we saw tad bit later?
-Oh yea, he burned himself a bit on our exhaust, then stole tad bit of our food.
Seems they are generally curious creatures.
-Im honored to have you as guests.
-Appreciated, but we came here to pick up that box.
-Its in hall.
-How is it in your world, then?
-I would say its rather nice. You are definitely a normal human kid, would fit there no problem.
Two of us are animals that are called “dogs”. They dont usually talk and cant really walk on rear legs like we do, so we do be weird there.
We are using stuff thats really really difficult, if not straight out impossible, to explain to you.
-Whats in there?
-We dont know, noone warned us of this delivery beforehand.
Hey, whats in there? to pair of androids returning back to house
-I was tasked to deliver this. Decided to not ask too many questions.
-Just so you know, we dont have space in truck for another member.
-Thats fine, i never intended on continuing on with you; will see if i manage to find some 3D gate that would bring me back home.
(To hosts) Sorry for misleading you into thought i was hurt. I had great time here and hope i wasnt too much of issue.
Now that my mission here is accomplished, i will go.
(Followed by leaving)
-We could use some help on getting box and our groceries to our car
-Will do.
(And with that, they went to camp)
After baring farewell to host (and compensating for his troubles with some food) we turned away to see what we got here.
After some time of figuring it out, Chicota managed to open it.
Big box contained…a laptop. Just that.
Logically we turned it on…nice it has full battery
Automatically were blessed with this nice song:
The Avalanches - Running Red Lights ft. Rivers Cuo(Lyrics) - YouTube
Then this:
Silent Partner - Space Walk (Youtube Premiere Countdown)[download] 60 fps - YouTube
Finally a voice accompanied by this pic:
"Hello there.
Im Smons and i…heard some rumours.
Afaik 4/6 members of your little team plan to move out into new and exciting world im very familiar with.
With that in mind, i had put some thought about it and found approximate location that can serve as your base there or mere beggining of your stay there.
Area is circled on map cut-out that will appear now.
Since im aware some of you might be interested in some other things, we got you covered.
I politely asked Kickrah to log into Mrdja’s Steam account on this laptop and download all games he has in his library.
There is also carefully chosen collection of movies you can watch to pass the time.
I hope you enjoy this little package
Best regards,
SmonsSmithy"
(Kickrah would be imaginary character based on me, therefore def should know my passwords.)
-Interesting, no doubt about that.
-Yes, we shall see. Thats tempty proposition.
-Its getting dark tho, we could consider hitting the bed.
-Yes.
-Yes.
.
.
.
(Some time later)
-WHAAAAT THEEE FUUUUCK
-MRDJAAAAAA
-NOOOOT MEEE
-WHO ELSE COULD IT BE?
-LOOOK
Yup, this was caused by MCP and their band session at 3 Moon.
Chicota planned to confront the artists, but we saw Rukari already dealing with that successfully
Quietness was reestablished and we went back to sleep.
If you are wondering, other Chicota had found some 3D gate, returning back.
