Small note: My team were in their car and watching a movie so they didn’t notice her immediately. I will acknowledge it in the next part after the other interaction that I have in progress.
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Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
It’s Go Time! - Starting Party 6 PM
Boldly Going / Through the Rift / Arrival in Jaduvira - Stage 0
When the Hell are We!? - Stage 0 Campsite
Out of His Damn Mind - Stage 0 Campsite
One Hot Night / Letters from the Past - Stage 0 Campsite
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Viravalli Campsite
The majority of Team Shift Happens were sitting around the campfire, with only Jayde being missing from the circle, as he was offering help to other teams.
Kaylie looked over at Rukari and asked, “You do realize we’re missing a team?”
Rukari looked back at Kaylie, tapping the ring on his right hand, and said, “They are still moving.”
“Shouldn’t we go back and help them?” Kaylie inquired.
“Neyi. They are still moving. If they stop again, then yes, we will go back for them, but they are still on the move,” Rukari replied.
Sure enough, the Anhultz Dione of Team RK Series Racing, the Tangerine Tank, rolled into the camp and parked in the last remaining good empty space for a car before setting up their camp.
Kaylie, still concerned, went to run over to see if they were okay, though Rukari grabbed her left hand and held her back, shaking his head. “Rukari, let go or I’ll break every bone in your wrist,” Kaylie growled.
“Maybe you can’t scent it, but one of them has great fear when you are close. One without stripes should go,” Rukari said, though he did loosen his grip enough for Kaylie to casually slide her hand free.
“Fine. Didn’t realize I scared them that much,” Kaylie grumbled.
“I’ll check in on them,” Malavera offered. “I’m just as likely to scare the hell out of them, but I’m also less likely to accidentally hurt someone if I have to defend myself.”
Rukari gave a light nod, and Malavera wandered over to the Anhultz.
“Glad to see the four of you made it here safely,” Malavera said, looking over the Dione. “I see you fixed the broken headlight,” he added. “Had a little trouble out there? Or, just no one was comfortable putting their foot down?”
(@Elizipeazie Yeah, no, you’re not getting any real ridicule out of Team Shift Happens. Malavera completely understands being uncomfortable driving fast, even if his condition caused the Flight of the Highwayman today. Also, figured it made sense that Rukari’s the one who’s figured out at least someone on your team is scared of Kaylie. He’s observant like that because of his special forces’ training.)
Jayde, meanwhile, had wandered over to the Kontir Cunningham of Team Mravolinski-Chitco, having heard a rumor that they needed some tires repaired, and that one of their team members may have been badly injured. He walked up to Mrdja, quite aware that being approached by a 2.5 meter tall lion-man in a black robe could be intimidating, especially with him leaning on his staff and his leg gleaming from under his robe, and asked, “Does your team need anything repaired? Is anyone hurt? I’m no mechanic, and not a doctor, but I can repair a few things, and I know a little about healing.”
(@MrdjaNikolen Figured seeing as I’ve got a character who can heal and can magically reverse damage to things like tires, I might as well loan his services out to a team in actual need. If you have to write Jayde’s perspective, he does his magic non-verbally, and generally in the least flashy way possible to save energy, and he’s usually rather quiet. He is, however, not the most skilled in healing, so if he can’t quite pull Pi back together again, that’s also fine.)
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Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
Reply to last part
Meet Jayde
Snooze in our case havent lasted very long, so it was decided that we should prob just hang around, also thinking on how to solve the tires and maybe get Pi in much better shape.
Fate does offer sometimes very convenient ways to do some things and one pretty much unknown figure was indeed on the way to us.
He walked up to Mrdja, quite aware that being approached by a 2.5 meter tall lion-man in a black robe could be intimidating, especially with him leaning on his staff and his leg gleaming from under his robe, and asked, “Does your team need anything repaired? Is anyone hurt? I’m no mechanic, and not a doctor, but I can repair a few things, and I know a little about healing.”
Yup, we had encountered Jayde.
We did saw him jumping out of explanatory portal of sorts and were aware that he is now part of Team Shift Happens, but havent talked to him before.
He did made good first impression explaining as to how (or more importantly, why) he jumped through portal in first place; bcos, ya know, that was actually funny.
Tad bit risky, but funny.
Jayde’s scar and prosthetic leg had, interestingly enough, attracted great attention to his only soon-to-be patient with brain.
Answer was quick and to the point: he fought in battle where he lost the leg and got the scar and yes, he did adapted very well to this new arrangement.
Well enough to remind our team of his jump through portal, in fact.
His three “patients” were grouped together and it was a success.
Tires were now comparable to time when they were new, structurally atleast, and they were set as spares should some tire decide to die.
As for Pi, his intervention had covered some stuff hard to do otherwise by our doctors and she too was now like new.
Jayde was also offered some food as compensation for services of repairing tires and healing Pi and soon after would exchange goodbyes with our team.
Where is Jayde going now, you ask?
Well…i would lead that question to @Madrias.
As for us, we decided to hang out a little bit more, until some future interaction takes place.
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RK Series Racing; Stage 1 Camp
There wasn’t a whole lot to do in order to set up camp. As such, they just unload minimal amounts of gear, amounting to two fold-up chairs, their gas stove, a small “tray” to put it on and some wind protection to avoid loss of heat. All of that took less than five earth-minutes to set up an their little “campfire” has taken the place of Constantin’s tent for the time being, with all four being sat around it. Valentin and Tim had taken seat on the Dione’s rear bumper, with Constantin and Connor opposing them on the camping chairs. They can be heard discussing about why the trip has seemingly taken much longer than the other teams.
Tim is the first to spot Malavera, looking at him intently, at which point Valentin clears up his vision by tucking some of his hair behind his ears. He immediately is visibly agitated at the sight of what effectively is a twin-headed werewolf almost a foot taller than even him. “Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope!”, he repeats, as he gets up to seek refuge further up front in the car, just to be prevented from doing so by both Tim grabbing his arm (and some of his air by accident as well…) and Constantin, reassuring him that the host team has zero reason to be hostile towards about 100 guests in their home world. “OW! No need to get violent over this!”, Valentin exclaims as he reluctantly reclaims his seat, still on edge and trying to prevent any eye contact with Malavera.
to be continued
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can i just point out that you managed to replace a scary tiger-human thing with an even scarier two-heads-wolf-human thing. Valentin is I<—>I this close to shitting himself
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wanna do this RP like we did with the last interaction? I don’t wanna take hold of Malavera and get him wrong big time
EDIT:
added a line and fixed some typos
2 Likes
(OOC: @Elizipeazie Sure, we can do the RP the same as last time. And I thought Malavera might be less scary to them since he was the one who inspected their car, but then again, this is Malavera we’re taking about. He’s out of his own comfort zone here, but trying to be helpful and kind, even though he’d much rather be off on his own. After all, Malavera even admits he’s just as likely to scare the hell out of your team, but considering they’re only checking to make sure everyone’s okay, he’s only going to be in contact with them for a moment.)
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Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
It’s Go Time! - Starting Party 6 PM
Boldly Going / Through the Rift / Arrival in Jaduvira - Stage 0
When the Hell are We!? - Stage 0 Campsite
Out of His Damn Mind - Stage 0 Campsite
One Hot Night / Letters from the Past - Stage 0 Campsite
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Helpful Friends are Helpful - Stage 1 Campsite
(Thank you to @Elizipeazie for writing this with me!)
Malavera groaned and covered his left muzzle with his left hand, a gesture very similar to a face-palm, but way less violent. “Well, I did tell them I was just as likely to scare all of you as Kaylie was,” Malavera said, shaking his right head. “I came over here to ask if everything was okay, seeing as, if we go just by the arrivals, it seems like you four had a bit of trouble out there.”
Realizing his height might be half the issue in being frightening, Malavera looked around, found a nearby tree stump, and sat down to continue their conversation. “If I’d known I would scare him that bad, I’d have let Kaylie come over. I mean, I suppose we could have sent the gentle giant, Jayde, but, well… He saw another team in need,” Malavera said.
Constantin was the first to speak about the team’s state: “Well… two people didn’t sleep all that much, a third is too mechanically inept to shift and i’m not used to breaching 55mph, given that i usually am sat in massive trucks…”, he explains, motioning to the respective people while doing so. Connor tries to explain his ineptitude soon after: “It seems like i am not yet fully accustomed to the delay caused by the auxiliary driver processing the input signal separately.” Tim immediately smiles at the thought of Connor’s arm basically suffering from high ping, whereas Valentin still is practically staring at the gas stove in the middle to avoid having Malavera in his focused view. He even goes as far as retrieving his haircut previously stowed behind his ears to sort-of hide behind it.
Malavera nodded. “I can understand that. I drive an ex-military truck myself, it’s about the only thing I’ve found myself comfortable in,” Malavera said, replying to Constantin. When Connor explained that he was dealing with signal delays, however, Malavera smiled. “If there’s one thing I know well, it’s high ping,” he said. “Did Kaylie ever try to tune that, Connor?” Malavera asked. “Or did she set it up and hope for the best? Because while I’m not overly familiar with Panthirian powered armor designs, I think the control modules are adjustable. Some people need a higher sensitivity. I mean, the other option is trying to get Jayde involved. He doesn’t understand our technology, let alone yours, but I’m… Well, I’m confident that he could do better than just a patch.”
“From what i remember Kaylie just put it on and left Connor to it with his internal signaling stuff…”, Tim remarks, looking over at the power-assisted elbow brace Connor is wearing. “Correct. The device seems to be optimized to react to nerve signals siphoned off of the skin. I have drastically reduced the signal strength to accommodate. Increasing it’s sensitivity would severely limit fine-motor-control, just like the unexpectedly high current input from the initial movement signal did.”, Connor explains, cycling elbow, wrist and finger movements a few times in the process.
Valentin, while still hiding behind the massive curtain that is his blonde, wavy hair, peeks over to Malavera. Constantin takes note: “Boy, i’ve seen waaaay worse shit in the military… No need to be a pussy about it.” The comment didn’t really help, as Valentin now felt insulted on top of being uncomfortable, even though he truly did not have any bravery or courage to speak of.
Malavera looked over at Constantin after he told Valentin he’d seen way worse in the military. “Some people just aren’t comfortable in some situations. I’d much prefer to have a lens, two computers, about 5 kilometers of network cabling, and a screen between myself and the lot of you, but we all have to face our fears sometime,” Malavera replied. “I’ll go get Kaylie to take a look at that brace, Connor. She’ll know how to tune it better.”
Malavera got up and walked back over to the rest of Team Shift Happens, getting Kaylie’s attention and mentioning to her, “Connor might need that armor frame tuned for him.”
Kaylie nodded, grabbed her kit from the back of the truck, then said, “Might need a computer. I don’t suppose you’ve brought that battleship of a laptop?”
“In the toolbox,” Malavera said. Kaylie opened the lid, then lifted the 20 pound military laptop out with a loud strained grunt.
“Fucking hell, this thing’s heavy!” Kaylie growled, switching it over to her left hand and shaking her right hand in the air with a grimace. “What the hell is in it, Mal!?”
“It’s custom made. I cut down a server board. Twin 8 core CPUs, 128 GB of ECC DDR3, and all the storage space I need locally, plus enough battery to run for 10 hours,” Malavera said proudly as he followed Kaylie.
“Damned tech-junkie,” Kaylie muttered, lugging Mal’s “laptop” over to where Team RK-Series Racing was. “So, Connor, you say you’re having signal latency issues? Serves me right for leaving everything set to their defaults,” Kaylie said, unraveling a wiring harness, plugging it into the serial port and the other end into the control module, then scowling as she tried to work with Malavera’s laptop. “Why the fuck does he have 5 COM ports? What the fuck is he even doing with that many serial… Twin Suns, this laptop is a mess,” Kaylie muttered. “Sorry, guys, had to borrow Malavera’s server-in-a-box. Only used it for a minute so far and I really, really hate it already.”
In the meantime, when Malavera went off to get Kaylie and some equipment, Valentin finally broke the silence for a moment: “I know it’s shallow, but fuck they’re scary to look at…” “Jesus you really are a wuss…”, Tim counters, treating the Shift Happens members as humans in very elaborate fursuits. Valentin just kept quiet, being annoyed at both Tim and Constantin as well as weary about stirring the trouble-pot too much in a completely foreign world.
Upon arrival of Kaylie and Malavera, Connor got to work. “Depending on applied current, the malfunction seems to relate to either sensitivity, latency or a combination of both. I discovered this when trying to change gear en route to this location.” Connor calmy explains, having to trust Kaylie fully for lack of a reasonable alternative.
Valentin manages to take a peek at “laptop”, which is basically an entire server in a suitcase. His angle and the computer’s construction doesn’t reveal much. The only things he can guess that it is immensely powerful and heavy. That raises one question: “Is that a PC? How do you keep that thing cool?”, Valentin mutters, barely loud enough to be audible, yet still directed at Kaylie and Malavera.
Kaylie nodded as Connor described his problem. “You’ve turned your signals down to stop overloading the controller, but this has introduced latency, yes?” Kaylie asked. “I can turn down the receiver’s sensitivity so you can run full signal strength again.”
Malavera, however, looked over as Valentin tried to figure out how his portable server stayed cool. “There’s a reason it’s as thick as it is, and weighs almost 20 pounds, Valentin. Copper heatsinks made for a 1U rack, high-performance fans with a custom fan profile meant to be quiet most of the time, but keep the twin CPUs cool when needed, and a little under-volting here and there to reduce heat without sacrificing stability,” Malavera replied. “That, and I insisted on a 19 inch full-HD 1080P display. When I built it, small 4K displays were too expensive. As for graphics, well… Let’s just say I’m glad I prefer older games, because the stripped-down workstation card in there isn’t great.”
Kaylie, meanwhile, was slowly turning down the signal sensitivity for the armor frame and having Connor recalibrate between each step, trying to see if things were getting better or worse.
Connor simply nods in agreement, followed by a direct “Yes” to hammer down the point even further. Her suggested remedy doesn’t meet an immediate reaction as Connor simply awaits instructions or the completion of the procedure.
Valentin was rather startled by the fact that Malavera actually heard him. He initially doesn’t answer until he receives a light punch to the shoulder by Tim. “Must be awfully loud under load. An array of 60mm fans may generate airflow, but also turns the thing into a jet engine acoustically…”, Valentin remarks, not much louder than before, but making a visible attempt at challenging his fear by at least looking in the vague direction that Malavera and Kaylie were sat at.
Connor internally applied full signal power, but only directed minimal inputs at the device in an attempt to avoid flailing the arm around like a drunkard on the dancefloor doing the windmill. Initially, he more or less did exactly that, much to the surprise of all the others present. Subsequent cycles were much more muted though, until minute and accurate movement was achieved with Connors bottom-clamp value of signal power.
Malavera nodded. “Under full load, it’s quite loud, yes. I’ve got the fan curves set to try keeping the CPUs at 40C if possible. Out here, I’ve got the switch flipped to enable the 50C hold, where it won’t ramp up until it hits 50 degrees. Otherwise,” Malavera said, grimacing as the fans suddenly ramped up, making a racket for several long seconds before shutting down just as suddenly. “Otherwise, it’d sound like that all the time.”
Kaylie kept working with Connor, adjusting the signal sensitivity until Connor couldn’t verify any further benefits to the sensitivity being any lower. “Now, the other thing I’m going to try here is tripling the sensor polling rate. If you pick up any feedback during this, let me know, this is just a mild experiment to see if any improvements are made, but if you get a twitch or a jitter in the arm that you aren’t causing, I’ll try a standard double, and if it’s still a bit jumpy, I’ll turn it back down,” Kaylie said.
“I mean, the laptop’s nothing compared to my battlestation back home, but… Well, it’s not exactly practical to lug a whole server rack around if you don’t need it,” Malavera said. “I know a guy who buys up used business servers and resells the pieces. I occasionally put a notice out to him when I want something specific, and he usually gets back to me if he finds it. If you ever want a custom workstation, Valentin, just let me know, I’ll help you get all the parts. If you ever find yourself needing a mobile server, likewise, I’ll build one for you. Just, be aware, they’re not light.”
“Yeah, he’s not joking on that,” Kaylie said with a grimace. “This thing is killing my knees.”
“It’s made for my lap, not yours, Kaylie,” Malavera replied. “And even at that, it’s best used on a table. Or a desk. Literally any flat surface, really. On one’s legs is only meant for emergencies.”
Valentin over time became more at ease as Malavera and himself were talking about stuff he knew rather well, allowing a common topic that did not end in immediate weirdness. His rig at home was beefy by consumer PC standards, but by no means at enterprise or even server level. “My PC at home is a turd compared to what you managed to cram into a suitcase…”, Valentin admits while watching the happenings between Kaylie and Connor with interest, but minimal understanding of what actually is going on.
On his end, at some point, the control unit simply stops registering Connor’s min_input signal, which is then used as a reference point for the devices sensitivity. The polling-rate idea sounds good on paper, but leads to the affected joints mildly overshooting the desired position as the device reacts to the less-than-instant current drop of Connor’s signal. The double-polling rate seems to work fine.
“Sounds like you got your soulmate located, Val”, Tim jokes, nudging him in the process. Valentin’s answer is not verbal, but ends in him looking back at Tim with an expression of “Really? Yeah no…”. Still, the prospect of sourcing server-grade components sounds enticing enough to keep in mind: “I’ll keep that in mind once my Wi-Fi switch array plans take off, i guess…”
Malavera chuckled. “I do a lot of tasks that often require me to both have a relatively high amount of local CPU power, and also remain relatively mobile. If I’m able to set up a base somewhere, however, I just remote into one of my servers,” Malavera replied. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, fished a pen out of a different robe pocket, grabbed a business card for the person he often called up for server-grade hardware, flipped the card over, and wrote down an IP address, a username, and a password. “Now, keep in mind, these won’t be immediately active once we go back, but I’ll put it at the top of my to-do list to get the credentials set up. You ever need to get some serious work done, don’t bother with paying for cloud computing. This,” Malavera said, handing over the card, “will get you into Server 4. Kaylie occasionally uses it for video rendering, and to be fair, it’s overkill for that.”
“The last episode of Kaylie’s Garage took longer to upload than it did to render,” Kaylie admitted, looking over to them. “Whatever super-computer he’s got up there is impressive.”
“Relatively recent purchase, actually. And not quite a super-computer,” Malavera replied. “But it is the first time I purchased a full rack sight-unseen from a closing business. Got everything but the drives, and I handled that mess myself.”
Kaylie, finally satisfied that she’d adjusted Connor’s arm-frame to the best of her ability, said, “Unless Malavera thinks he can do a bit more on this, I think we’ve solved it. Might still have some issues, but it should be a lot more sensitive now.”
“I’d rather not mess up your hard work, Kaylie,” Malavera said. He watched as she disconnected the harness, then handed him back his laptop.
“By the way, why do you have so many serial ports on that thing?” Kaylie asked.
“Running three different 3D printers at the same time, and still having one port spare for the CNC machine, and one additional spare in case I’m messing around with something over serial,” Malavera admitted. “I know USB is capable of that, but… I like the old school serial port.”
“Also, seriously, Mal, you don’t have a graphical user interface on that thing?” Kaylie asked.
“I do, but I rarely use it. There’s nothing wrong with running everything from the command line,” Malavera replied, chuckling. “Plus, it means that everything looks the same for me, regardless of whether I’m on Mobile 1, Server 1 through 5, or, well… SC 1.”
“SC 1, Mal?”
“I bought a supercomputer, okay? Haven’t even gotten it set up yet. And no, it’s not top of the line, it’s about a decade old.”
Valentin quietly accepts the business card, reading both the contact data of that businessman and the credentials for the server on the back. “Well thanks, i guess…”, he replies as he stores the card in his pocket.
Connor, upon removal of the equipment, goes to work doing his intricate calibration procedure. He pulls out the recently gifted Tigrilan Crown and said coin effortlessly rolls around the fingers of his left hand, eventually sailing straight to the other, where it is caught safely. The process repeats multiple times and in various combinations, the coin going back and forth, up and down and around the fingers of either hand. The right hand was still slower than the left due to the added external size of the harness assembly, but the fluidity and coordination was equal to the fully functional left hand.
“Seems to be working”, Constantin notes. “Yeah. Good job!”, Tim chimes in as well in a cheerful mood. Even Valentin was smiling ever so slightly at the commendable work in augmenting unknown technology to restore functionality.
“Thank you for your assistance.”, Connor says to both Kaylie and Malavera as he puts the coin back into his pocket, cycling the joints the traditional way to make sure that this performance wasn’t a fluke or anything.
Kaylie smiled. “You’re welcome. I know, I should’ve done this before, but, well, I didn’t think about that after I got things working. I thought maybe you’d adjust, but didn’t realize I should have adjusted the hardware to fit the new user. I mean, you did amazingly well for having Kayden’s profile still loaded in there.”
“Hey, all I did was provide the hardware for Kaylie to work on it, and checked in on you guys after that stage,” Malavera said. “And, Valentin, you ever need tech support, contact me if you can. Doesn’t matter with what, I’ll help if I can.”
“Seriously, he’s good,” Kaylie said. “Last time a friend of ours needed help, he spent three days awake brute-forcing the encryption key so the guy didn’t lose data to some malware.”
“A day and a half, Kaylie,” Malavera replied.
“Yes, and those are Khalan days, with a 48 hour day/night cycle,” Kaylie responded instantly.
“It wasn’t a big deal. And to be fair, I made Hunter do most of the work.”
“Doesn’t a Class 10 AI have better things to do than brute force an encryption key?” Kaylie asked.
“If my battle-station were fully operational, yes, Hunter would have better things to do. As it stands, a Class 7 could take over all the duties and have processing power left to spare. I convinced him to take it on as a bit of a puzzle, how fast can he come up with the key to decrypt this file. It took him a little over a day and a half,” Malavera replied. “And, between you and me, I think he might be above a Class 10, given how fast he got the answer.”
“Or someone used a shitty algorithm,” Kaylie said.
“Well, that’s possible, too,” Malavera replied, shutting down his laptop, closing the lid, and getting up so he could follow Kaylie back over to the Bricksley.
3 Likes
Campsite Two (Team Oil Crisis)
Viravalli, Vira Province, Crugandr.
Local time: 5 Sun.
Weather: Warm and Humid
A portion of this part was written by @variationofvariables
Unintentional Disturbance
A few splashes came from the river just up ahead. Orlan felt the nervousness set in as he continued walking through the undergrowth. Someone had gone swimming in the river, possibly without anything to hide everything. That was a recipe for disaster and he would probably get in a lot of trouble. But, the likelihood of someone being this close to the entrance was low, and it was probably better to not go any further than necessary. He would not be long anyway since the land scanner only took 10 seconds to survey the terrain, and he’d make haste to leave to avoid being spotted and confronted.
The bushes were incredibly annoying, making it almost impossible to move unnoticed. After more stumbling through the bushes, it was decided there would be enough moving and this spot would have to do. Stepping out of the shrubbery with his back facing downstream, he surveyed the land with his eyes and then activated his land scanner.
Someone behind him let out a scream or a yelp of some sort.
Within seconds, he tensed, his fur standing up on end and his large ears stiffened. Placing a hand on the USP nestled in the holster, he turned around but before he fully saw who was behind him, something hit him in the face. All consciousness disappeared, and the impact of whatever did that, knocked him to the ground.
Seconds, minutes or hours could have passed in the time that he lay there out cold. However, the consciousness slowly returned and a strange feeling coursed through his veins. A strange tingling throughout his whole body. But, the realization of his situation hit him, and his ears tensed again, seeing the people surrounding him but as they didn’t pose a threat he relaxed and sat up.
“What happened? How long have I been out? And who are you?” he asks the people around him. Three of them were obviously human and one was an anthropomorphic panther, with one green eye and one orange eye.
The blonde male pats a hand on Orlan’s shoulder. “I see, you’ve woken up, and you’ve ended up somewhere… private, let’s say. On behalf of my team I’d like to apologize for what happened. Are you alright? Something hurting, perhaps.
Orlan sat up further, looking around. “Well, only the back of my head where I fell on it, but other than that I’m alright. Say, what hit me in the face? Had to have been a rock or something. But my face doesn’t hurt, weird…”
These people didn’t seem familiar, he’d seen one of them near the red Yamada SUV but was unsure if she was part of that team.
“Who are you guys?”
That question had already been asked but the realization came too late.
“Well, I’m not quite sure myself. Maybe Charlotte over there could explain to you exactly what it was.” The blonde man explained, pointing to what was basically an anthro-panther.
The black furred feline’s explanation offered a bit more information.
“W-well! It’s a simple self-defense spell! That’s all there is to it! It… sends a beam… of… something…”
The blonde haired man offered him a hand. "It sure was something, alright. Whatever it was, at least you’re fine now.”
With the help of the man, Orlan stood himself up and dusted himself. At Least he didn’t see things he shouldn’t have.
“Well, I guess it serves me right for intruding on whatever… private was happening, albeit unintentional. Now, What is everybody else’s names? I’m already familiar with Charlotte since you already introduced us.”
The blonde man crossed his arms, “I’m… Watson. I believe I saw you earlier back in Nevada. You’re participating in the rally too, I believe? The girls you just walked in on… That’s… Emily…”
The short woman who was keeping a distance simply smiled awkwardly and waved.
“And that girl.” A hesitant tone was present in his voice as he pointed towards the small, child-like girl clinging onto the woman who’d been identified as Emily. Her hair sort of looked like the water in the ocean and she had some kind of tail. She seemed very shy of the big, furry, fox looking thing.
“I see, A pleasure to meet you all, My name is Orlan Draco. My, uh, team are the guys in that big wagon up there. Or at least parked up there somewhere, out of sight.” He said pointing up towards the hill/bluff behind them.
The dark furred feline grinned. “I see, nice to meet you too! I believe your team is… that one rusted wagon we saw at the other camp… A Union Magistrate wasn’t it? From my knowledge, they’re rather rare, and I’m decently surprised you’ve found one that fit the budget that still ran.”
“You are correct that it’s a Magistrate, but our particular car is a Magistrate Vanguard. A Vanguard is just Union Motors jargon for their station wagon models. Ours is a South African spec 4x4 V8 model, which is actually quite rare when you compare it to how many standard 4x4 Magistrates were made, not to mention all the normal rear wheel drive ones. We bought it because it somehow ended up in Galway, which is in Ireland, not really anywhere remotely close to South Africa. As for the reliability through the journey, there have been no issues, yet.”
Charlotte nodded, “I see, Is your team anywhere near⸺?”
Voices and bushes rustling interrupted her from continuing.
“Is that them?”
Orlan nodded. “Yup,”
Three of the same fox-like creatures appeared from the trees, and had come onto the river bank up the stream, and almost immediately, a six legged cat darted across the rocky shore.
A gruff voice came from one of the figures, but the figures were not perceived as a threat since Orlan recognized them.
“Whiskers! No! You get back here right now!”
The six legged cat ran around, stopping to roll about in the sandier bits of the river bank.
“Pavel, Whiskers doesn’t always like to be held.” The shorter fox thing explained.
Pavel then stopped to watch the six legged cat run around. “I just don’t want her to get swept away by the river.”
“She won’t, stop being so worried about everything.” The short one spotted Orlan. “Oh look,”
The group of feline-like things approached the group and stopped short, well two of them did, the tall, silver one Pavel, was looking around for the six legged cat.
“I’m surprised you haven’t gotten washed away by the river.”
“Of course I haven’t, I sort of walked in on them.” Orlan explained. “Didn’t see anything though since I got knocked out cold.”
“Oh my, well you kind of deserved it but I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks. Now, let me introduce you.”
“Watson, Charlotte, Emily. These are my teammates, K’mino, Pavel, and my brother Aedan Draco.”
Orlan then turned around to his teammates and brother.
“Aedan, Pavel, K, Meet, Watson, Emily and Charlotte, and her.” He pointed to the small girl clutching on to Emily’s hand.
Aedan smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
Watson chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you all as well. I hope you don’t mind that one of us accidentally knocked your brother out.”
Grinning and rolling his eyes, Aedan turned and glanced at his brother. “Don’t worry, I’ve almost done so on many occasions.”
“There’s still one of us back at the camp though, I think we best make our way back instead of gathering around in this rather slippery secluded area. Although, it is quite lovely here.”
Watson motioned for his team to follow him, and Oil Crisis waited for them to take off. They then followed the other team and returned to the camp.
K’mino, the slender orange and green eyed one, had gone back to the car atop the hill while Pavel and Aedan waited for Orlan to tie his bootlace. It was at this moment Charlotte walked around the side of the car.
“Could I ask you guys something?”
The darker brown furred being turned to face the black furred feline.
“Yeah, sure, fire away.”
“Sorry, if I sound rude but what are you?”
“What are we? Well, I’m not surprised you had to ask. We aren’t really a common sight in this place anyway.”
“Your species?”
“Yup. All five of us are Lombaxes, or sometimes by ignorant people, Sand Foxes. We, Well, our species, were some of the greatest engineers in the universe, responsible for all kinds of technology. One of the first modern societies to achieve interdimensional travel. But, it all went to shit when one of the most decorated military officers betrayed us and allowed an evil emperor to attack the old home world. He killed millions, but millions survived by escaping to a parallel dimension. We five are a research team, sent to study Human culture. But we have been here before.”
“Woah… That’s a bit heavy to digest, I’ll be honest… You say you’re doing research for human culture, aren’t you? I assume you’ve decided to take on some research about motorsports, then. Some kind of on-the-field thing you’re doing here? Whatever the case, I hope you’re enjoying the rally! I have for certain!” She says looking on with a delighted face.
Aedan nodded. “We sure are, though I’m more a fan of that 24hr endurance racing. But all of us are fascinated by the complexity of the engineering that is required to just design an internal combustion engine. And yes we are sort of doing an on the field thing to study motorsport.”
“But, driving them is a bit new to some of us, especially him.”
Orlan looks up from tying his shoelaces. “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you. You nearly ran over one of the people in the pink van.”
“I didn’t. I almost did”
Upon hearing their bickering, Charlotte couldn’t help but let out a little giggle. “My, my! You’re all certainly quite an interesting group. Indeed, the engineering that goes into vehicles is very, very fascinating.”
From behind the red Yamada, a voice of another man called out, and emerging was this tall figure, dark-skinned and donning a blue Hawaiian shirt. “Charlotte! I’ve heard you-! Oh, who’re these folks?” He stopped right next to her as he looked at the foreign species.
“They’re another team. Oil Crisis, I believe they are? Look at them! They’re so cool! Lombaxes! Ever heard of em’?” She poked him with her elbow before turning her attention back towards the group. “Oh yeah, speaking of drivers, here’s one of them on our team. Raymundo, though you can call him Ray. Oh, and Ray, meet Aedan, Orlan and Pavel!” She pointed to each of them individually.
“Hello there. Nice meeting you all. I’ve heard one of you had an unfortunate meeting… I’d once again like to apologize for Charlotte’s brash actions…”
“Likewise.” Aedan said, nodding.
“Brash?! There was nothing brash about acting in self-defense! W-we were going to have our pure bodies seen by a man! We can’t let that happen! Not to two princesses! If ever someone saw my pure body, I don’t think I’d be able to get married anymore!” She exclaimed, glaring at Orlan every once in a while.
“Right, right…”
Orlan simply shrugged. “Guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you are lucky you managed to knock me out cold before I saw anything. But I deserved every bit of that. Again, sorry.”
“I agree, You did deserve it, sometimes I wish I could knock you out.”
Just then Whiskers, the six legged cat meowed angrily. “Ow! What in the name of–? Whiskers!” Pavel calls after the fleeing cat. “Get back here!”
“Looks like Whiskers isn’t too happy with Pavel.” said Orlan, watching the giant chase after the cat.
“He’s fine. Where’s Malcolm?”
“Mal? He said he needed to go to answer a call of nature. I’m sure he’s on his way back”
“I’d hope so.”
“He’ll be fine. Also, there’s our car up on that hill.” said Aedan, pointing to an olive drab station wagon parked atop an incline. “Magistrate V8 Vanguard Safari 4x4, It’s a big name so we just call it the Magistrate.”
Romulo glanced over at the large rusted wagon sitting atop the hill, observing it for a moment before turning back at the group. “You sure you want to keep that parked atop there? Looks like the brakes could, y’know… Considering it’s quite an old vehicle… Maybe add some cut up blocks of wood or a stone beneath the wheels, or… something…?”
Watson emerged seemingly out of nowhere, patting Romulo on the back. “Relax… If it has lasted this long in service, it can’t possibly fail now, couldn’t it?”
“I’m not sure about that-”
“Oh, please, we’ll be fine!”
“Well, it should be alright. Magistrates with Narrowblocks blow their head gaskets almost all the time, but I haven’t seen anything on parking brake failures.” Aedan chimed.
Romulo still looked anxiously at Watson, but eventually gave in. “If you insist…” He sighed and looked back at the wagon before sniggering back at Watson. “I mean, you’re a detective after all, I guess.”
Orlan looked back towards the wagon.
“You guys have two tents right? We’ve only got one so the three of us have to share the back of the car. Because our tent is a two person one and we’ve got two people that sleep in it. You can imagine how annoying it might be to sleep directly next to this guy here.” he said, playfully elbowing Aedan in the abdomen.
“You are right about that, especially with Pavel, He’s massive. You guys are probably lucky to have two tents.”
Watson looked over towards Charlotte and Romulo, shooting them a glare that seemed as though it cut right through their souls, and the two suddenly felt goosebumps. “We’ve only got one tent, unfortunately.” He said, heavily emphasizing the last word. “It leads to some very interesting interactions…”
Romulo looked away from everyone, but Charlotte seemed to have this rather smug grin on her face as she tried to look towards Romulo’s face. “W-what the hell are you talking about?” He said, still continuing to avert his gaze.
Just then, K’mino, the orange lombax, suddenly appeared behind the group. “You guys know where Malcolm is?”
Orlan gave him the answer.
“I thought he’d gone off to relieve himself. He should be back by now.”
“He’s not in the car or mingling with the others, hell I even checked under our car.”
The darker brown lombax then turned to face the orange one behind him.
“Ok, that’s not good. We’ll have to go look for him. You’ll have to excuse us, we are down a teammate.”
“Ah! That doesn’t sound good. I hope nothing happened… It was nice talking to you all, we’ll hope to see you again next time around!” Charlotte waved them off, with Watson raising his arm to wave as well, he either unintentionally or intentionally hit Romulo, which sparked even more discord between the two men as they bickered against one another yet again.
K’mino looked back at what was going on. “They seem like interesting people.”
“They sure are, though Orlan gave them quite the scare when he found them by the river.”
A grin formed on K’mino’s face. “What did he see?”
“Nothing, He was knocked unconscious before he saw anything.”
“Oh… I guess he deserved it.”
“Every bit of it.”
To Be Continued (As Always)
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Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
It’s Go Time! - Starting Party 6 PM
Boldly Going / Through the Rift / Arrival in Jaduvira - Stage 0
When the Hell are We!? - Stage 0 Campsite
Out of His Damn Mind - Stage 0 Campsite
One Hot Night / Letters from the Past - Stage 0 Campsite
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Helpful Friends are Helpful - Stage 1 Campsite
Tune-ups and Tech Talks - Stage 1 Campsite
Jayde gave a grimace as he got up, his leg aching just a little after helping out Team Mravolinski-Chitco with their two burst tires and wounded teammate. He’d eaten some of his bread with a bit of dried meat, had some water, and now needed to answer a call of nature himself. He closed his eyes for a moment and let his magic flow just a little, gaining an awareness of where everyone was for a brief moment, mostly to make sure no one would be down-river, and that’s when he spotted something unusual. Someone laying over by the river, near where he’d thrown the branches of…
“Oh, no,” Jayde groaned. He headed straight for where he’d thrown the branches of the mercy bush, where he found one incapacitated dark-orange-furred Lombax laying there, a few quill-like leaves in his hand. Jayde sighed, picking up the branches and throwing them into the river to let the current carry them away, back toward Jaduvira, away from the camp, then stood there for several long seconds, trying to figure the best way to carry Malcolm back over to Team Oil Crisis. Magic was right out, as while he was strong in the mystical arts, levitation was one of the things he struggled the most with. Sure, he could do great feats of self-levitation at times, but others… He grimaced to himself as he remembered accidentally slamming the headmaster of Kamwerth Academy of the Arcane hard into the ceiling of the dueling room, when he’d merely intended to float him off of the mat long enough to prevent him dodging Jayde’s next spell. He didn’t need to send this poor Lombax into the stars, even if the high-altitude flight might sober him up.
With a grunt, Jayde spiked his staff into the dirt to hold it before he scooped up Malcolm and slung him over his left shoulder, unwilling to agitate the old wound on his right shoulder even though it had long ago healed. Answering a call of nature would simply have to wait. He turned toward the camp, grabbed his staff in his right hand and pulled it back out of the dirt, and in a rather loose interpretation of a fireman’s carry, brought Malcolm back over to his team.
(@TheYugo45GV Shall we work out your post in PM’s?)
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Yes we shall.
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this post is in direct response to @Madrias, directly continuing the scene
RK Series Racing; Stage 1 Camp; Part 2
“Amazingly well…”, Constantin counters while motioning airquotes. “He may have pulled of the coinplay yesterday, but his shifting was about quick as the DMV sloth from Zootopia and as accurate as those claw machines.” Valentin chuckles a bit, while Tim breaks out in a hysterical laughing fit upon hearing this, as neither he nor Valentin didn’t notice much on the way here. That was probably due to both being asleep catching up on some "Z"s.
“Yeah i’ll take note of that when my ‘battlestation’ goes tits up. We’ll probably see each other soon enough…” Valentin spoke to the guests of this teams little hamlet of a camp, not sure if the offer of tech-support was well-intentioned help or a subtle insult at his own computing skills.
Constantin also wishes them goodbye, for now, with Tim in tears from his laughing fit.
They continue with what they didn’t manage to start quite yet:
Making some good old Canned Ravioli. The gas cartridge camping cooker, which has been sitting in the middle of their little circle for the better part of half an hour, was fired up. Not long after, a can of Ravioli is busted open with Constantin’s mess kit can opener. For lack of a suitably sized pot, let alone cooker, the meals are prepared separately, one can after the other. Tim is the first to dig in, underestimating the temperature of his meal dramatically, netting him a comment from Constantin: “Congratulations on burning your tongue up.”
A glare back at Constantin follows, with Tim now blowing at each spoonful to prevent another heat-death of his tongue. The next meal is handed to Valentin, wo set it aside to cool for a bit, having learned from Tim’s excursion. At this point, the cooker is shut off, as Constantin skips the process entirely, eating his meal cold directly out of the can to save both time and fuel for the cooker.
Once the eating part is done, crude cleaning of dishes is done and the empty cans are rinsed off and stored as empty containers for whatever need that comes around.
The camp is switched to night-mode, with Constantin pitching his tent and the interior being made for sleepytime. The time has not yet come, though, as the team take laps round the camp, trying to start a round of card games and make some allies in the process.
to be continued
OOC: if anyone wants to, my team is wandering about trying to get to know people
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Campsite Two (Team Oil Crisis)
Viravalli, Vira Province, Crugandr.
Local time: 5:70 Sun.
Weather: Warm and Humid
Written in collaboration with Madrias
The Missing Teammate
“I’ve looked down by the creek on the other side of the camp and checked the forest there. No trace of him.”
This was troubling news. Only moments ago they were joking about how Orlan could have drowned in the river and now it was possible that one of their other teammates had met that fate. A sigh escaped Aedan, which didn’t do much to relieve his blood pressure.
“Have you checked in the bushes, up by the car?”
Orlan nodded. “Yes, Pavel already checked and I did too. Not a single sign.”
This day just got a whole lot worse.
“Keep looking, do not give up until darkness falls, if he doesn’t come back we aren’t leaving without him.”
“Aedan, listen to me, we’ve looked everywhere around the camp and there’s no sign of him, he’s probably just gone into town or is exploring. You have to relax, its for your own good. Any time you get riled up you risk going into cardiac arrest. Your doctor confirmed this.” Orlan’s attempt to console him failed.
His brother’s voice raised, but not enough to attract any attention. “We cannot leave without him! He’s my friend and I’d never leave him behind.”
“What if he’s dead then? Would you still leave him behind?”
“No! Never!”
“Then you should make peace with the fact that he’s…”
“What? You trailed off and didn’t finish.”
Orlan simply pointed to something behind his brother, a gesture to which Aedan responded by turning around. There was Jayde, with Malcolm over his shoulders, unconscious. “If you’re missing a teammate, I might have found him.” The lion man said.
The relief was overwhelming, not just to the two brothers but all five teammates.
K’mino walked down and stopped next to the group. “See I told you, the force does not lie.”
“Always the wise guy, huh?”
“I’m a literal Jedi and you’ve seen me use a lightsaber, yet you still don’t believe in the force?”
“I didn’t say that, I was teasing you. I’ve seen you in combat, you are very skilled in what you do.”
K’mino chuckled. “Thanks.”
Jayde meanwhile laid Malcolm, on the hood of the Magistrate. “If I had to make a guess as to what happened to him, well… I found him unconscious next to the branches of a mercy bush one of the other teams brought into the camp, with some of the quill-leaves still in his hand,”
The robed lion then stood himself next to the Magistrate and shut his eyes for a moment. Then he opened his eyes again. “Now, some people like the smell, and, well, I know from experience that eating the leaves can relieve pain, and in some cases, if you’re unable to sleep because of that pain, eating enough of them will make you sleep.”
"It’s a huge relief to know he’s still alive. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Jayde replied, jamming his staff into the dirt and sitting on the log.
“Sorry, not exactly easy to carry someone these days,” he said with a grimace, rubbing his upper left thigh. “Going to feel that a bit later, but… Well, when I saw him down by the water, I, too, feared the worst.”
“It’s good to know he’s okay.” said Orlan looking over at his friend that lay on the flame decaled hood.
“It’s a medicinal plant, it’s used as a sedative sometimes, so he’ll be asleep for a little while, but he’ll be fine.”
At this moment, K’mino came back from around the Magistrate.
“Oh Good. Orlan, have someone help you load him into the back of the car. He was very tired all day, He didn’t sleep very well and the jet lag isn’t helping. He’s earned this rest.”
While Orlan and Pavel loaded Malcolm into the back of their car, Jayde closed his eyes for a moment and soon he opened his eyes again. “He is out of danger, at least. I can’t say exactly when he’ll wake up, but he will,” Jayde mentioned. He then looked over to K’Mino and gave a light smile.
“Your aura is a little different. Calmer. More peaceful than the others,” Jayde said to him.
K’mino sat himself down on the log beside him “I had the same thought. I sense that the force is strong with you."
Jayde seemed puzzled as K’Mino mentioned the Force. “I am strong with magic, if that is what you mean,” Jayde replied. “And a mystic who doesn’t carry inner peace generally doesn’t last very long. Anger, wrath, and vengeance tend to lead toward dark magic, toward a path I do not wish to walk,” he added. “We’ve gotten rid of one Dark Sorceress. I do not need to take their place.”
K’mino sighed, but it was a light one. “It’s the same with the Jedi, we too have a dark side and anger and vengeance has the same effect on us, myself included. Unfortunately, many fall to the dark side, could be hundreds, could be thousands."
A sharp inhale filled his nostrils with the cooling evening air.
“I have a son, 13 years old, he’s learning the ins and outs of life, and he’s unaware of his sensitivity to the force. Like any parent, it is my duty to protect him and I would give my life to make sure he’s safe. That’s how much he means to me. But As a Jedi I must teach him to resist the dark side. I have seen the horrible things it has made people do and I cannot allow that to happen to him.”
Jayde gave a grim smile, then said, “My father didn’t want me to learn my talents. He believed that all magic was evil, that I should just forget I had it, learn to work the land as he had, and his father before him, and so on. I went against his wishes, learned what I could at Tendragon Academy. Later on, I followed a group of heroes as they stopped an invasion, stayed behind while they went on across the Great Water. Got myself involved in the war that was brewing, sent back through time to fight in a battle of airships. Didn’t do much the first time. A bit of magic, sure, but I was exhausted, thirsty, barely on my feet. Our ship was hit, and a bit of steam pipe shrapnel scarred my face. A bit of propeller took off my left leg. Spent a month in recovery, nearly six months learning how to walk again.”
Shifting his weight so that he didn’t fall off the log, Jayde moved his robe just enough to reveal his left leg from the knee down, not needing to show just how high up it went. “Later it turned out that while I was in the right battle, I’d been on the wrong ship. Another trip back in time and I was on the right ship that time. I regret that I had to kill that day, but… Such is war. With that battle over, I returned to the Academy. I tried to return to the safety of what I knew, only to be told I’d learned all I could. I didn’t want to just go home, to face my father’s wrath for defying him. Instead, I took an apprenticeship to learn the weather magic of the Storm-Rattlers of Vipara, and it was there that I learned to control my lightning,” he mentioned. “It comes so naturally to me that to cast a bolt of lightning takes less effort than any other spell I could throw. Some spells, I suppose, are easier than others. Summoning objects to my hand or sending them away. Lightning. Glimpses of the future. Great leaps of faith in times of need.”
After a moment, Jayde sighed. “But of all the things I regret, it’s not having gone back home when I had the chance. When the Sorceress was killed, I should have gone home, even if it was just to tell my father I was going to Crugandr. Instead, I just left without a word, and got the letter a month later, giving condolences for my loss. I went back in time three times, spent five years in the past, aged five years as the cost of the spell, and not once did I have the courage to go home.” Jayde took a deep breath, focusing on his inner calm as much as he could, then said, “But, as you said, we’ve both seen what the darker side of people leads them to do.”
Jayde got up slowly and looked out over the camp. “I feel a duty to protect all of them, you know. This land can be dangerous, and while I’m sure some of them know it, others I’m sure do not. I can fight if I have to, hand-to-hand, but I’m not trained as a swordsman. Dancing Sisters above, I hope I don’t have to fight. I feel it, you know? In that moment between life and death, you feel the fear and the pain, the sadness, the blind rage, and then the calm, cold acceptance of their fate.”
K’mino watched him leave. It appeared that the force was indeed strong with Jayde, but the lion man did not notice it, because either the other powers he possessed interfered with his ability to feel it or he believed that it was a skill he mastered while learning how to use magic.
Sighing, K’mino stood up from the log and went to join the rest of his team for dinner.
To Be Continued (As Always)
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Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Stage 1) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
This is reply to last post
RK Series Racing meet-up
Last thing you heard so far from team stated in title was that they were now wondering around camp, ready to meet some other teams.
Of course Pi (ya know, weirdest-looking member of our team) noticed this group hanging around and decided to greet them first, soon followed by others from our team.
We had thought she might be too weird as one member to make first impression, but RK Series Racing Team’s positive experiences with host team along with Pi’s obvious enthusiasm meant this actually went well.
First thing that came to our attention was height of Schrants, who also happen to be human.
Chicota is taller than any human we encountered so far in my imagination, and yet, there are two here that are much taller.
Constantin politely noted that yes, he is tall, but isnt really interested in being seen as merely tall person, while Valentin waited for novelty of his height to wear off.
This lasted until Valentin’s attention was temporarily put towards bike we have.
Since i did used to cycle a bit around my village, two of us were able to find some common ground - ofc it should be noted im living in rather hilly area, so additional body weight i put during uni meant this routine was cancelled
I did enjoyed those bike rides ngl.
Bike itself wasnt particularly special in any way, but few stories powered by being kinda young and stupid might be different (and no, this is some bike we randomly encountered when getting other mods for car, not some bike i had driven IRL).
Connor would also prove to be very interesting, mainly because of him being a robot.
On our side, it becomes obvious that Chicota was most interested in fellow android, trying to see if thats true, at first kinda disregarding the fact that Connor has some light on his forehead and then there is prosthetic in form of powered brace for right arm.
After some analysis, Klimentol concluded that Connor had one of, if not the, best possible solutions for this issue readily avaiable here in Crugandr - speaks volumes about competency of tech-savvy members of Shift Happens.
It seems rather interesting that this team was put in motion by enthusiasm of someone called Tim
(Btw thats Serb word for team, said in same fashion as English one)
He lacks physical atributes that would make him stand out from rest, but his role as driving force of team (which could be seen literally too, since he is one of drivers) was visible and appreciated.
There was some talk about chosen vehicles, which meant that Dione parked elsewhere in camp would be noted down.
Far from ideal leader to unknown, it was at least stated as very familiar to its users, therefore making some ground in its potential lack of offroad capabilities.
I would imagine its faster than our entry too, which isnt exactly hard to do, but give credit where credit is due i guess.
It was noted down that they finished last in Stage 1, despite not having any mechanical issues.
Ok ok, they had mechanical issue, but its now solved and wasnt related to car itself anyway.
Main thing our team had to say can best be summarized in this:
“Use the fact that roads seem nice to drive on to get good average speed.
Yes, we can see how few of you arent exactly comfortable with driving fast, but, ya know, pace can be increased gradually, as you get to know the car and what it can do.
Feel free to listen or ignore that advice - we would be pretty much happy not coming last 
”
Tim thanked for advice, agreed that coming last isnt very nice and chose to ignore it.
Why?
Advice was given in good faith, but applied to specific circumstances that are unlikely to repeat in future.
Some more small talk later, it was decided that one more team was met.
But now, RK Racing is gonna go places and do things.
Im looking forward on next part by @Elizipeazie to see what “things” and which “places” would be covered…and feel im not alone in that.
Edit: Thanks and sorry to @Elizipeazie for clarifying few things about other team’s characters
Sorry obviously extends to yet another ping
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Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
It’s Go Time! - Starting Party 6 PM
Boldly Going / Through the Rift / Arrival in Jaduvira - Stage 0
When the Hell are We!? - Stage 0 Campsite
Out of His Damn Mind - Stage 0 Campsite
One Hot Night / Letters from the Past - Stage 0 Campsite
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Helpful Friends are Helpful - Stage 1 Campsite
Tune-ups and Tech Talks - Stage 1 Campsite
Having Mercy on a Missing Teammate - Stage 1 Campsite / The Missing Teammate - Written by TheYugo45GV and Madrias
(OOC Note: Just advancing the time a little to the night-phase. If you need to interact with other teams before this timeframe, feel free.)
Viravalli Campsite, 4-and-47 Moon Local Time
It had been a while since Jayde had heard Kaylie getting into the truck again for a night of rest, and yet, he was wide awake again. Not, this time, because of Kaylie, but because of what K’mino had said. Could his magic be split between two types? Could he have both his natural-born magic and also use whatever this mysterious ‘Force’ was? He sat up in his tent with a sigh, fingers digging through his thick black mane as he pulled the old gem dangling from a chain out to take another look at it. He knew the chain was gold, as was the wire that wrapped around the green-ish gem or crystal to hold it, as neither magic nor tools had been able to put a hole in it to hang it from the chain.
It had been, Jayde remembered, a gift from a hero, what felt like forever ago now. He’d been five, maybe six years old, levitating rocks while his father was busy with the fields when the hero had come to Bittrenn. Tan robes, calm nature, what looked to him to be a hilt for a mace or a sword, but made from ornate metal and missing the rest of the weapon. Jayde recalled the short conversation, the man asking if Jayde knew who to talk to regarding bad people who might be around, Jayde pointing out the jail, and likewise, the Guard Captain, a fierce lioness known as Lynn, who kept the town safe. The man had tossed him the crystal and told him to keep it, that it might bring him good luck one day.
When he’d gotten older, Jayde had it suspended from the gold-plated brass wire and dangled it from the thin golden chain, though his mane covered it most of the time. But he always knew it was there, calling to him when all the world was quiet, when he was at his most peaceful. He wanted to get up and ask K’mino if he knew what it was, but he also knew waking someone up in the dead, dark-hours of the night wasn’t polite. There were many nights they’d have to spend in the same camps, many opportunities to ask later.
Kaylie sighed as she rolled over onto her right side in the back seat of the Highwayman. While the seat was more comfortable than a bedroll in a tent and she knew it, she also knew the reason she wasn’t sleeping wasn’t that she was uncomfortable. She’d seen Jayde carrying Malcolm across the camp earlier, saw him talking with the Lombaxes, but she was far enough away to not know what any of it was about. What she did know, however, was that it was an impressive task for someone she knew was as wounded as he’d been.
Likewise, she knew another team that had some minor issues, and that was Team RK Series Racing. Connor’s arm was in better shape now, but she was mentally kicking herself for not realizing Kayden’s presets were going to be completely wrong for Connor, and she should have tuned it before leaving the first campsite. Instead, she was one of the reasons they were so slow in getting here. Then there was Valentin, or she at least thought that was his name. She scared him. Malavera scared him. She was sure that Kayden would scare him, Rukari would terrify him, and if Jayde or Kivenaal walked up to him to be polite, she wouldn’t be surprised if he’d faint. But, he was interested in technology, and had eased up a little around Malavera. She was curious as to how Valentin would react if Kayden let him borrow Nova for one day. Of course, that would mean having to ask her brother to borrow Nova’s portable unit, which admittedly looked faintly similar to a slightly-chunky smartphone, but with that, Valentin could talk to a real Class 7 AI. Well, at least, the Class 3 copy of a Class 7 AI.
Though, the more Kaylie thought of that, the less certain she was about the idea. Nova had a habit of turning her hard-light holographic projector on, and had a fondness for a gold-and-black-striped tiger form, and if she popped up in Valentin’s hands like that, she was worried he’d freak out. And if that happened on the road…
“Yeah, probably a bad idea,” Kaylie said to herself, rolling onto her back with a half-growled grunt.
Unlike Kaylie or Jayde, Kayden was deep asleep. The heat was brutal, and without the thermo-regulation underclothing for his armor, he had almost no heat dissipation while wearing the powered frame. Of course, he’d left it on the ship because it was bulky, awkward to wear, and on Earth, a t-shirt and jeans were almost as good. So, for him, night-time was blissful because he could take off his heavy armor, the frame, and most of his clothing, laying there in leopard-print boxers in a tent with as much breeze blowing through as was possible.
Malavera was awake as well, trying to quietly use his laptop while the camp was sleeping, made difficult by the high-power nature of the portable server and the hot, humid night air. It had to be almost 30 degrees Celsius out there, and inside the tent, with the laptop running and his naturally high temperature, it was probably dangerously close to 40 degrees. Which meant that the laptop kept ramping up the fans like a jet airliner on takeoff every time he tried to update his personal journal, and he knew if he kept this up, someone would complain.
Kivenaal sighed as he heard Malavera’s laptop ramping up again. For the last hour, at least according to his Earth-made pocket watch, Malavera had been doing something and keeping him up. Between the heat and the noise, he was miserable, and after a few long minutes of not getting any further rest, he had to make a decision. Either he could get up and yell at Malavera to shut down his laptop and go to bed, or he could try to cool off with a swim in the river while no one was watching. He stripped down to his boxers, making sure he had a spare pair ready in his tent, then got out of his tent and made his way over to the Duskwater River. He jumped in with a heavy splash, coming back up almost immediately and swimming over to the shallow edge of the river where he could stand and let the cool water flow by. Compared to the heat of the night, this was blissful, and Kivenaal was reluctant to leave the river for a long while afterward.
Once he was back on dry land, however, he had the annoying factor of his heavy fur being soaked through. With a bright flash of fire, he got rid of the water in a huge cloud of steam, then grimaced as he walked back to his tent with what was left of his charred boxers on.
Rukari, likewise, wasn’t sleeping well. Every sound had him waking up, whether it was Malavera’s laptop, Kivenaal taking a swim, Kaylie kicking the inside of the Bricksley’s door again, Kayden’s growly snoring, or Jayde occasionally getting up and sitting outside of his tent. Then there were the sounds of the forest, from the rapid cricket chirps to animals cracking sticks as they walked, to birds in the trees and the occasional horrid sound as some small woodland creature became something else’s lunch.
As a result, Rukari knew he was going to feel terrible in the morning, but there wasn’t much he could do about it right now. With luck, he’d get a chance to rest in the truck.
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(Filler, still same part), mobile, iOS keypad does not allow me to do a full essay on this site
Meanwhile, as Matt bought his “electric scooter”, he had bought a wheelbarrow after drinking his life out a while ago.
John: Wake up! Are you seeing things!! You burned the money on a wheelbarrow
Matt: Thought I bought a scooter
J: You were drunk at the bar trying to pick someone up by showing her your bank account, and got rejected! Then bought this wheelbarrow
M: Alright, alright, oh shut up about that
J: F**king wake up and drive, we got to go campsite.
Meanwhile at the campsite
J: Finally woke up?
M: I guess?
J: Good!
To be continued
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LOL, nice save you did there.
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@TheYugo45GV , is there going to be any interaction with Marie in this part, or will they notice what happened in the next one? Curious if I should do a final writeup for part 2 now or if I should wait.
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Machinas Con Passione’s Shitbox Adventures EP. 4 - Rock, Stock, and Two Smoking Headers.
Sorry friends, I was very busy this past week, literally didn’t have time to make a write up, so here’s the tl;dr of what MCP did during the first stage.
>Be Giacomo.
>Co-drive for Thibault, the famous ex-WRC driver.
>Have no idea how to navigate.
>Winginit.png.
>Belt out every slight change in direction at the top of my lungs, going only off of the map.
>Get kicked by Maria, while she peeks out of the hatch.
>Continue to scream out every slight change in direction, because fast van go brr.
>Get punched by Thibault.
>Avoid suddenly stopped Freeway Star.
>Catch a whiff of suddenly stopped freeway star
>o h y e a h.
>l i v i n l i k e l a r r y
>Finish stage in one piece. Somehow.
>Long story short, no longer co-driver.
>Try to swim in the lake while at least 5 other teams are in it.
>Have never taken swimming lessons.
>Drown.
>Get rescued.
>Get revived.
>Feels good man.
>Another win for the Scarfiottis.
This next stage hopefully I have more time for proper interactions lol.
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TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
Earlier parts
PART 0.1 - A prologue to the prologue
PART 0.2 - Another piece of the prologue puzzle
PART 0.3 - Viva la IP 4Z!
PART 0.4 - Robotman
PART 0.5 - Interference problems
PART 0.6 - Can I play Tetris?
PART 0.7 - Tangerine and familiar
PART 1.0 - Now things got serious!
PART 1.1 - Hello, Thibault and friends!
PART 1.2 - Poor kitty
PART 1.3 - Curse you, Team Oil Crisis!
PART 1.4 - Interlude
PART 2.0 - Bird bird bird, bird is the word!
PART 2.1 - D. Head
PART 2.2 - GOOD NIGHT!
While Marie was away, Janne and Andreas managed to set up the tent, albeit very slowly, but it finally was there, and that was all that mattered. The team was now very drowsy from the smell of the mercy bush and needed rest for the night.
JANNE: Hahahaha… Where is Marie? hahahaha
ANDREAS: Oh…probably she is out…birdwatching.
JANNE: Don’t she know about the bird?
ANDREAS: Everybody knows that the bird is the word
(A short while later)
JANNE: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…the bird is the word…ZZZZZZZZZZZ
ANDREAS: ZZZZZZZZZZZZ…don’t you know about the bird…ZZZZZZZZZZZ
MARIE: Oh…fuck…hahahahahaha…they are already asleep…hahahahahah, uhm well…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
A loud thump was heard when Marie fell to the ground, something that didn’t really matter to her. She just kept on sleeping, despite being outside the tent.
MARIE: ZZZZZZZZZZ…Surfin’ bird…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
TO BE CONTINUED
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Campsite Two (Team Oil Crisis)
Viravalli, Vira Province, Crugandr.
Local time: 5:45 Moon.
Weather: Warm and Humid
Not so Silent Night, not so Quiet Night
The cool breeze rustled the leaves outside the tent as Malcolm sat up straight, He was no longer on the rocky river bank where he’d found those sweet smelling plants, but safely inside his tent near the Magistrate. Without a second thought, Malcolm reached into his bag and rummaged around in it making sure not to wake up K’mino, before getting the holographic message projector from his bag. It powered on at the press of a button and the blue aura began to fill the tent. Upon pressing play a hologram of a lombax appeared and began to speak.
“Hello, you might not know who I am, but that is not relevant right now. The reason you’re watching and listening to this message, is that you are our civilization’s last hope. The only thing that lies between the extinction of our kind and survival is the Artefact. I’m unsure of what it is or what it does but it apparently is our last hope to eliminate this threat. Our first lead is the planet Sol III, home to a very large but primitive civilization. This is all we know for now, there’s no further information we’ve been able to recover from that space craft. Let the bright star guide your way and good luck.”
Just as the message cut off a metallic snap was heard coming from the general direction of the Magistrate followed the crunch of tires on the gravel. Neither of these sounds meant something good. Malcolm’s fears were confirmed when he peeked out the tent and found the Magistrate was no longer in its original spot, but rolling backwards down the hill towards the camp, too late for any attempt to jump in and stop it. The Magistrate picked up more and more momentum as it headed right for the pink IP van parked at the bottom of the hill.
The Magistrate jolted when reached the bottom of the incline, but at this point everyone on board was awake.
“Uh, Aedan can you move any faster?”
“I’m trying to! I can’t get my–”
The crunch of the Dione’s front bumper being ripped off was felt through the cabin.
Pavel’s eyes widened. “You might want to hurry up over there, We are heading right for that pink van, fast!.”
Aedan put his foot on the brake, and the Magistrate slowed down mere seconds before it hit the pink IP, but it still hit it with a resounding thud that surely woke up the whole camp.
“I really hope no one is super upset with us.”
“Well, we just hit two cars and probably woke up the whole camp, so I’m sure they will be, Ori.”
“You sure are an optimist.”
To Be Continued (I decided to include both parts in one post.)
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RK Series Racing; Stage 1 Camp; Part 3
Their little chit-chat session with team Team Mravolinski-Chitco was pleasant, albeit inconclusive regarding the advice given to them. They head back to their trusty Tank™ and plan ahead for a bit.
“Should we try having Connor drive again tomorrow? I mean… he’s won’t get tired on the way there, right?”, Tim remarks, having learned that driving while basically asleep ain’t a good idea.
“I won’t stop him, unless he turns the car into a tractor again with the way he did the shifting before…”, Constantin counters, having witnessed the sorry attempt of changing gear for the entire time.
Connor turns towards Constantin in response to being ridiculed for his poor shifting: “The device tuning seems to have improved response times and accuracy. Though i, as of yet, cannot guarantee the improvements carrying over to vehicle operation.”
Valentin: “Why not try it? I mean… car’s here and dry-shifting won’t harm it with the clutch on the floor…”
With that said, Connor takes place in the drivers seat, the other three surrounding him next to the open driver’s door of the Tangerine Tank™. Tim decides to turn it into a bit of a game, calling the desired gear at random to test Connor’s abilities. The first few shifts noticeably rock the car as Connor is still adjusting to the new profile in this context, but it soon smooths out substantially. What once effectively was about on par with a 60s intercity bus in terms of speed and smoothness turned into crisp and fluid modern-day gear changes.
“Seems to be working.”, Valentin states, having brought up that idea in the first place. “Yep. You’re driving.”; Tim adds, knowing that Connor won’t do much to oppose him unless he has a valid reason to. And it seems like he doesn’t given that he just looks at them, handing back a crisp “Yes” in response.
With that set, they head into their respective beds without issue.
timeskip of about to four Aetherian hours
It’s the middle of the night now. Valentin was sleeping rather well, being able to tolerate the heat better than the others due to his lanky build and sheer height allowing his body to shed more of it compared to Tim and Constantin. Constantin didn’t seem too phased about that with the better airflow in his quarters, whereas Tim was having issues staying asleep, drifting in and out periodically.
At some point, during which Tim actually was sleeping, an impacts sends a jolt through the car as the Magistrate of Team Oil Crisis rams into the Dutch patriotism-mobile (cuz orange, haha ), tearing it’s bumper clean off.
The inertia causes both Tim and Valentin to roll about, ending worse for the latter as he rolls face first into the nearside rear door card. Constantin’s tent did not hold up, covering him in his rain-cover tarp. Though as is customary, he simply keeps on sleeping like the badass chad that he is. Also, the car was pushed into Connor next to it, stumbling a bit before regaining balance, now out of night-time stasis.
“What was that?”, Tim rumbles as he sits up in the car, looking around. “Hrrrrngghh… I don’t knoow…”, Valentin replies, taking a fair bit longer to get up to speed. Connor, ignoring the process of waking up altogether, already knew what was going on:
“The Union Motors Magistrate, driven by team oil crisis has unintentionally impacted our vehicle. It seems like a mechanical problem with their parking brake assembly.”
Valentin pokes his head out of the window to see the Magistrate coming to a stop near the bright pink van of the Hillbilly Rollers. Tim saw the same through the windshield: “Anything broken?”, he asks.
“The front bumper assembly has come off as a result of the impact”, Connor replies immediately before inspecting the damage more closely. “Reattaching the bumper without specialized parts will not be possible.”
"CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS TEAM OIL CRISIS!!!", Tim shouts towards the Magistrate in rage, much to the annoyance of Valentin: “Was that reeally necessary?” He simply goes back to sleep, not wanting to deal with the trouble stirred up by someone else. Well… he tries anyway.
Not long after, he’s joined by Tim as well, as they didn’t seem to notice him.
The peaceful sleep lasted all of 45 seconds, as some random horn can be heard blaring across the entirety of the camp. All three team members are immediately awoken. Constantin quickly heads up front, poking his head into the Dione, just to get screamed at by Tim: "FUCK OFF AND KEEP QUIET, WHOEVER THAT WAS!
Valentin was much less vocal about his annoyance about all the disturbance in the middle of the night, not that he was able to given the rather long time it take for him to be considered awake. “Tim… you’re not fixing the problem by aggressively shouting at it… Just shut up already…”, he groans and plonks down again, though he does manage to spot the Bricksley in the distance while the door was slammed shut by Jayde. “It’s those Tiger people who fixed Connor up… Go blare at them in person if you really want to…”, Valentin adds, curling up to the best of his ability to “shield” himself from any future noise echoing across the camp.
Constantin was also pissed at being awoken without reason. Though Valentin did have a point and as such, he just swallows his pride and returns to the back, falling asleep rather quickly once in his sleeping bag. Tim had enough decency to not waltz halfway across camp wearing just briefs and was not so angry to warrant the process of getting at least a set of pants and some shoes on.
note:
they probably heard it, but Tim can’t be assed either to deal with this now.
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