Ah alright. Just sitting here playing the waiting game till late 2022 or 2023 to make a comeback (though the 2 week schedule does it’s effect of making the rounds more detailed)
Machinas Con Passione’s Shitbox Adventures Episode 9 - Storytime.
It’s been a long time on the road thus far for our heroes at Machinas Con Passione, but the morale booster of becoming a walking, talking van-band, along with said band’s ability to change songs depending on who sped past them on the fly, led to an all around enjoyable stage for the MCP members, who were glad to at least be able to focus on something other than the driving for once. It was business as usual for the hastily assembled crew, who, upon touching base in Trugarde, quickly got into their now established routine. Chad would do some disgustingly ridiculous feat of strength, Benjamin either began hunting or scribbling away at his log, Maria would go to sleep, and Giacomo would likely bother a team or two, while Thibault was generally pretty chill and had actually found himself on good terms with at least a good amount of the garage. Bill often found himself tagging along with Maria, because the alternative of being benched thousands of times or being stuck in an enclosed space with Giacomo for too long made the choice of staying inside an easy one.
Giacomo, being Giacomo, would take the first opportunity to get a painting of himself done he could, leading to the untimely interruption of Chad’s “daily grind”, which usually involved helping locals using his previously mentioned freakish power. The team would gather around and get their painting done, when Giacomo put on the smooth talk, loudly telling a “great story” of his to anyone within earshot, including various teams fortunate? or maybe unfortunate enough to listen to Giacomo go on. “Well.” Giacomo started. “I’m sure some of you are familiar with my team’s NASCAR program, right?” By this point, the vast majority of camp had become familiar with Machinas Con Passione’s history, more than likely without asking to hear any of it first. “Well, of course, our driver is one Ryouchi Katou. Son of a legend, Hikiko Katou.” Some of the more dedicated F1 fans in the crowd were at least familiar with Hikiko, to varying degrees. She’d spent 13 seasons in the sport, from 1988 to 2001, taking the 2000 season off on a sabbatical. Boasting 21 podiums in that time, she made Thibault, who had his own brush with Formula One, look like an absolute chump, with his paltry 2 point haul from his stints in 2015-2017, and substitute races in 2020. Thibault visibly shifted in his seat recalling his own experience in the sport. He at least found himself faring better than Ryouchi, who ended up being an F2 washout, and needed MCP to bail him out and take him to the United States, for reasons which remain foggy to this day. Giacomo couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Let me tell you all, about my first brush with greatness!”
Naples, 1988.
Twenty.
Twenty-One.
Twenty-Two.
The analog numbers steadily increased on the elevator’s floor indicator, each number inducing another pang of anxiety in Hikiko Katou’s chest, each floor change scrambled her thoughts further and further. She knew the importance of meeting him today, but never that he was so tightly interconnected to her own past.
ding dong
The elevator doors opened, revealing an office space packed to the brim with extravagantly dressed, yet professional all the same workers, feverishly crunching numbers and making an assortment of phone calls. The back of the room held a set of booming doors, embroidered with wine red felt leather, and a sharply dressed woman of dark skin complexion answering two phone calls at once. Hikiko struggled to read the equally loud sign above the doors, needing her glasses to make sense of what was written. “Ufficio di Alessio Scarfiotti”. Fine gold print and everything. Hikiko approached the door, and, upon making eye contact with the secretary, was quickly buzzed in.
“Come in.” A voice boomed over the loudspeaker, which Hikiko had neglected to notice previously. Hikiko let herself in, being greeted by a surprisingly quaint room, not at all as extravagant as the office preceding it. It wasn’t bare bones, but it was a carefully curated balance between practicality and comfort, one seemingly befitting a particular person’s tastes. There were the basics, a bookshelf, filled with a large array of deeply complex technological engineering books relating to cars dating back to the Grand Prix era of the 30s, a fireplace, stoked with trees Hikiko recognized from the flight as being local to the area, and a middle aged Italian man, sat next to a boy who couldn’t have been older than Hikiko herself, quietly advising him over a sheet of paper. Upon Hikiko’s entrance, he immediately looked up to her, and the two made eye contact. In an instant, it was clear to Hikiko that she was staring at a man who’d become more than familiar with heartbreak. A man who seemed closed off, from just his eyes alone. She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to the punch. “Ah. it’s you. I expected this, but not so soon. you can’t be older than…” Hikiko filled in the gap for him.
“Seventeen.” The old man’s face changed from one of detached hardness to one of what almost seemed to be genuine pride. “Incredible. simply incredible. to progress so quickly at your age. You were no older than Giacomo here when you started.” Giacomo, too, was surprised by this information, but an exchange of eye contact between father and son communicated more than enough, and Giacomo went back to drawing. Hikiko maintained eye contact. “What do you know? About my career?” “Well, the long and short of it. you’re one of the best drivers Japan has to offer, but you’re so… inexperienced.” Hikiko held back a smile, pride swelling up within her. “Tyrrell signed me. if Julian doesn’t perform, I’ll get his seat.” Alessio’s expression hardened yet again. “Hm. I get a strange feeling you wanted to talk about something else.” Hikiko’s face hardened as well, the youth’s face lacking the wrinkles and experience to make as much of an impact with facial features alone compared to the older man, who’s face changed yet again. One of remorse, this time. Geniune sadness. “I… I’m sorry.” It was then another change happened, Hikiko’s pride quickly wallowed into despair and rage. She scoffed. “Sorry? Sorry doesn’t cut it! I’ve had to leave everything behind! My entire life! My family hates me, or thinks I’m dead! I… I haven’t seen my friends in 3 years… things would have been different if he was still alive, and you know it. You let him die, and made my life hell!”
Alessio faltered at the youth’s accusation. Those words were the same things he’d been telling himself for nearly 20 years now. He was still young then, deciding to start a Sports car team in the dawn of the 1970s, the team, which bore his name, designed a car from the ground up. Despite handling issues, the car found itself competitive, leading to the issues being overlooked. That is, of course, until Le Mans. Yasuhiro “Joe” Katou was in the cockpit then, but even a driver of his caliber couldn’t catch snap oversteer that violent. The car was in the trees before anyone back home even knew it. Alessio’s eyes began to well up, reliving the memory in his head once more, though he wasn’t ready to give in yet, ceding only sightly. “You didn’t deserve that. You made the ultimate sacrifice for your dream, but you know there’s another reason why you weren’t allowed to grow up around racing. There’s a reason why it was taken away from you.” Alessio had a knack for reading people, but he also had common sense. In racing, death is accepted. To an extent. There’s always a tolerance, an upper limit. One that would cause even the most die-hard fan to turn his TV off in disgust. He knew this, and Hikiko did as well. She sighed deeply. “1977… South Africa…” Alessio knew the race well. Who wouldn’t? To see the cycle continue, though, he was a bit surprised. “Why? Why do you want to join a sport where that happens?” Hikiko’s answer was about as simple as Alessio had expected from someone her age. “I have to do it.” Alessio scoffed. Does she really think it’s that easy? That simple? “For some people, racing is life. What they don’t realize is, like life itself, death permeates racing. More so than any sport on the planet. You can not separate the two. Most will live, but some must die. Always.” Hikiko knew as much, she’d seen it firsthand. “I know. but I’m not just living this “racing life” for myself. I want to honor his memory.”
Alessio patted Giacomo on the back, and with careful, practiced motions, sat down in his chair, cut a Cuban, and lit it, taking a long drag before responding. “Your uncle once said that the state racing reflects the times. The 60s? The age of the action hero. People who lived to be near death every week. Buff machismo. Selfishness. The 70s. The age of excess. Too much power. Too much downforce. Your uncle died to this very excess. The 80s? the age of complacency. The excess has gone unchecked. I’m not superstitious myself, unlike Giacomo here, but the numbers are not in your favor. Are you really ready to enter Formula One? With the stakes higher than ever?” Hikiko was a racing fan as much as a driver. She’d seen it herself. Ground effects. Turbochargers. Rocket fuel. Broken legs. Decapitations. Drivers being launched from their car. Being burned alive. But Hikiko also knew these weren’t just being overlooked, as they had been. At first, a process to analyze these crashes was put into place, and now regulation changes were being implemented to make the sport safer. To make sure no more young flames are snuffed out early. “Things are changing. I wont need to worry about “death” or “excess” anymore. Only about racing. It’s what my uncle would have wanted me to do. I know it.” Alessio, at the very least, admired this kid’s resolve. He took another long drag. “I have no doubts that what you say is true. but remember. Death follows life, like a miasma, penetrating its very fiber. especially this “racing life” of yours. People have been saying “It won’t happen to me” for decades. Don’t make their mistake.” It was then that a shocking pain, like a condensed lightning bolt, coursed through Hikiko’s left leg, no doubt caused by her practice crash a few days ago.” Alessio simply stared at her leg, and they stood facing each other in silence. “That limp. You’ve had a brush with death. You’re brave, but watch yourself.” Hikiko’s blood began to boil. How can the man who’s car killed her uncle tell her to ‘watch herself’? That’s rich. “He died in your car. you can’t tell me to be careful.” Alessio sighed.
Mentally admitting defeat, he took another drag of his cigar. “I won’t preach to you, but I will do this.” Alessio reached into his drawer and pulled out a contract, pre-filled with Hikiko’s details. He handed the youth a pen. “I offer you my financial backing. I’ve supported you in an unofficial capacity so far, but I want us to be on the same page.” Hikiko was incredulous. Of course, her progression was rapid, but to her knowledge, she’d only had major backing from Panasonic, and that was after dominating every karting championship she could get her hands on. “You’ve… supported me?” Alessio nodded. Yes. I wish to continue to do so. I wish to sponsor you.” Hikiko raised an eyebrow. “what’s the catch?” Alessio smiled. Maybe this kid was smarter then she put off. “Well, there is only one. My son. Giacomo. he’s only two years younger than you. Would you help him, when he needs you?” Hikiko only stared, unfaltering and silent. Giacomo looked up, parting his long and flowing, meticulously maintained hair from his face, looking up at Hikiko and smiling. “Ms. Katou, right? I hear you’re almost as good as father was! Very impressive, I must say!" Giacomo excitedly grabbed his paper and ran up to Hikiko, stopping short of outright shoving the sheet into Hikiko’s face. "Hey! Hey! Check out this design I’ve been working on!” On his paper was a rather detailed blueprint for a v8 engine, intended for formula one competition, sans turbo. “They say naturally aspirated engines are the future!” Alessio turned to Giacomo, smiling a bit, as he further elaborated on his request. “Giacomo is nearly rabid for motor racing. Who am I to hold him back on his dream? If I cannot stop him, I would prefer to at least secure him a friend. Someone who can watch his back.”
Hikiko stared blankly at Giacomo and his drawing, then at Alessio. “I don’t have any reason to help you. Nor do I understand your spiel about death, only for you to offer to support my career.” Alessio nodded. “To die is a terrible, yet inevitable thing. To die with regrets is even worse. You can prevent one, but not the other. And, I understand your refusal. I won’t hold a grudge against you.” “I… Don’t know if I can return the favor, but… it’s complicated. I understand what you mean, what you’re trying to say, but I miss my uncle.” Alessio took another, much longer drag of his Cuban, and leaned forward in his desk, making direct eye contact with the aspiring driver. “You were born the same year he died, less than a month later.” Hikiko stared at her feet for a minute. The knot in her stomach twisting as tight as it ever had. She sighed. “I know, but… I miss him. It hurts knowing I’ll never get to see him. I feel… almost connected to him.” Yes. Those were the right words. She knew what to say to him now. Hikiko stared into Alessio’s eyes. Right into the eyes of the man who knew what it felt like firsthand to lose your drive. Your purpose. Behind his eyes stood a shell, behind hers, a fire. A deep, burning determination. The blinders were on. “I’m going to do what I feel is right. I’m going to make it to Formula One… alone.”
Trugarde Camp, Crugandr, 2022.
Among Machinas con Passione, there was a stunned silence, which was soon broken by Maria, looking mildly incredulous to say the least. “Yeah, right, didn’t you hire this bozo over here to design the engine for you? I doubt that story’s all true, to say the least.” Giacomo opened his mouth to speak, but Chad interrupted. “Giacomo is… Well, himself. But he’s very thorough with certain details, even if they dont always make sense. MCP is more than just a name, he’s very much a ‘Man’ Con Passione, if anything else.” Chad’s words, though maybe true, didn’t necessarily strike true with everyone, but seemed to quell any doubts about the story being made up, for now at least. “Oh, the painting, is it done?” Giacomo asked, hurriedly rushing over to see the finished result of the painting, only to find that, well, all things considered, it was quite phenomenal. However, it seems that Giacomo had gotten overly excited in his explanation, and the painter wound up painting him with multiple sets of arms, each gesturing in a different way.
Oh Giacomo, never change.
Part 9 - Fin
we do a little stretching of the old writing chops. AND I wrote a side story. I’m on fire, boo yah.
anyway, yeah, uh, anyone feel free to pitch in with collabs lul. eggspac out.
4 Likes
Machinas Con Passione Side Stories: Doctor’s Log, part 1.
Doctor’s Log, Crugandr.
Stage 1: Here goes nothing.
I knew we were in for a treat when, upon Giacomo taking us to the van, he revealed the provisions that he’d packed were noticeably frivolous. Why this is, I don’t know. I genuinely wonder if this is a human, or an AI designed to be as idiotic as possible.
For dinner, we actually didn’t get to kill anything, unfortunately. Instead, we had some of the stew prepared by Team Shift Happens. As much as I do enjoy the idea of poking around the anatomy of giant wolf? people? l know better then to bite the hand that feeds you. Especially when the hand belongs to someone who’s multiple feet taller than you. The stew was pretty good. can’t complain. I have a bad feeling about this.
Maria looked over my shoulder and saw the part about poking around the anatomy of giant wolf people, I don’t remember the last time she’s hit me that hard. I mean. LOOK, I’M JUST SAYING, IT WOULD BE PRETTY COOL TO DISSECT THEM, OKAY? Jesus. You try to be the morally bankrupt doctor ONE TIME, and everyone has a problem with it.
Not like I would get within 30 feet of any of them with an intent to kill without being instantly killed myself.
Machinas Con Passione Side Stories - Fin
in this side story: the “good” doctor decides to not play a game where the only choice is to lose.
So much for being morally bankrupt when a short italian woman seems to be able to stop you with just one punch.
2 Likes
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Trugarde activities
Congrats
(Note about Congrats: It was written in cooperation with @Elizipeazie.)
Upon parking the vehicle (which will likely be used by Chicota in his part) Mrdja decided to head over to RK Series Racing.
Crowd has gathered in very big numbers and lot of speculations were thrown around…
“Excuse me, do you know where the railway car that set the speed record is parked?”
“All of us had gathered to see it, ofc we know.”
“Great, im part of big group of non-locals that had decided to visit this world.
Group also covers four of them as well.
I would like to congratulate them on success and maybe get an update on how they are doing.”
Some woman from crowd heard this
"I would advise you to weigh the questions carefully.
My cousin that was there when they arrived is known to “read” people’s mood by observing them.
She is known to be very accurate in that, and so she told me that these fellas werent that excited about record.
Someone with face being neat combo of shit-eating grin and smugness had confirmed
As well as some kid
And that old guy with walking stick
…ye, i got the point
Never too excited going through thick crowd, Mrdja nevertheless plowed through there to encounter them
"Hello there, im Mrdja from team Mravolinski-Chitco.
I heard that you set new railroad record and decided to congratulate on behalf of entire team.
Is it true?
What kind of speed you achieved?
“217.26 kilometers per hour.” Connor calmly stated before Valentin had a chance to speak.
“Uhm… yeah. Thanks… Didn’t do it on purpose, but apparently it did happen…” Valentin muttered, mildly annoyed given that he did not deliberately break it.
“Thats quite some speed, i dont recall travelling that fast on land
How was it?”
“Wait (turns to Valentin)…what happened to you? Last time i saw you, you werent using crutches.”
Connor didn’t really answer Mrdja’s question, seeing as he simply was at work in his eyes.
Valentin, however, did have something to say:
“Cannot open the driver door. Tried it through the window and ruined my ankle in the process…”, he explained, looking down at the injured foot in doing so.
“For the speed, remarkably smooth. At 100 and 200 kph, it kind of… hopped back and forth across the railhead. Apart from that, they did a good job laying rail it seems…”
Mrdja:
Ouch, hopefully it will get better.
Although i imagine there would be…more elegant ways to get inside.
And its nice to hear it was smooth journey, although to be honest i dont exactly have much experience with travel via train.
Partially because almost all of them are slow in Serbia
Valentin, refering to ways to get inside: “Such as?”
Mrdja: Maybe through the other side of car.
Ok, even i must admit its not really greatest way, but allows entry without falling off.
“Not exactly easy if one is half a meter taller than everyone else in existence while also having to finaggle past everything on the passenger side…” Valentin muttered, still in annoyance. Though someone mentioning something other than the record was a welcome change of pace.
"Oh well, yes, you are tallest human i ever met, so such struggle is understandable…
What are your impressions on rally so far?
Mine are that:
-Its very hot and our car isnt exactly blessed with adequate climate control
This requires some other way of dealing with it:
Sweating so much and so often is very annoying.
(Pulls out 2 liter bottle from backpack and takes few sips)
-I may or may not get used to beauty of technology we usually have back on Earth
On other hand, i do like adventure and this is wonderful chance to indeed meet new people and see new places.
Not to mention im familiar with going to places without Internet."
“We weren’t exactly blessed with good luck… or the advantage of having AC”, Valentin said, once again in reference to his foot as an example.
“Well we HAD climate until you ripped it out…” Tim contested, turning around to get his own container of water out of the Redneck Railcar
“You have an idea on how we could continuously drive that thing? Hint. It’s not the engine that has zero idle speed, nor is it one of them turbines because of insufficient torque.” Valentin snarked back.
(While he himself had little issue with the heat, he does understand that not everyone took that lucky a draw out of the gene-pool-lottery.)
"Ah, thats understandable.
So we arent in that different of situation…
Either way, i do have feeling you would be very busy today (thinking for a bit) due to several reasons.
Good luck and see you next time
Hopefully that leg of yours would be in tad bit better shape, Valentin."
Answer was swiftly delivered:
“Don’t think so… at least up until we’re done with this… See you… sometime, i guess…”
Mrdja left, still under impression due to talk
.
.
.
Now that i put another thought into it, that conversation could have ended up much better
Oh well
(This happens oh so often with ones i have IRL. We arent gonna poke around at all questions that could have been asked tho, bcos that may inflate convo way above time that was truly avaiable…and likely wouldnt contribute much to plot.
All things considered, RK does utilise most logical solutions to their problems.)
SHopping for unexpected
Mrdja also noticed two figures moving around, one of which is very specific…
Decided to follow them
Girls had entered the shop and decided to take a look…
“Wow all of these clothes seem nice…although im prob not the one to talk…VerBanka?
Heeey, where tf are you?”
“Im coming, just wait a minute…”
Mrdja had also entered. Considering this was small store, he quickly found Pi, but surprizingly, no VerBanka.
VerBanka had appeared
“What do you think?” showing dress that was now on her.
“Thats not…what you wore when entering the store…” was Pi’s burst of logic and reason
“You look wonderful, but that wasnt reason for you two to get here”
“MRDJA!!! Werent you going to talk with those steam car guys?”
"I in fact did, its just that said conversation wasnt particularly long…and then i noticed you two, so decided to join.
Yeah, right…
Look, if you dont believe me, feel free to ask them if i was there.
They have no reason to lie to you.
Speaking about reason: I know how it is.
I appreciate good-looking girls in nice outfits and im aware women tend to take care on that.
However, we are on tight budget and organised this to give Pi a clothing.
Hmmm…can i
Let two of us speak, Pi…
Plan means she will go and people there wouldnt be prepared on her appearance.
Im aware, however i dont think we would spend much on that.
I may decide to get something else for better blending in
…such efforts are negated anyway in presense of this (kinda points at Pi).
Such creatures are rather unusual even here.
After Mrdja and VerBanka stopped argument, owner of shop had appeared
Along with:
-Lemme see if im still the coolest one around
(Checks out trio)
Ye, def coolest. Better than you
You,
And…whatever is that supposed to be.
You have been served
(He left)
You were about as useful as my compliment on girl’s clothing.
Tbh, he is 12 - store owner finally speaking up, after observing his son dissing his potential customers.-
Before you ask, yes, he is mistake.
-Makes two of us, then- Pi shot back, catching everyone by surprize.
-It really is quite impressive that plan about clothing me had turned into…this
And dont ask what “this” is…mainly bcos i have no idea either.-
DAAAD, SAAAVEE MEEEE-earlier kid passed again.
Store owner got chance to familiarize himself with offerings, bcos Karen-but-Crugandr type of women had pushed him on hunt for boy.
She was angry and willing to rediscipline the kid and so they went.
-Uhh, wait a little.- VerBanka again dissapeared in changing area
Mrdja: She decided to try several clothing options?
Owner: Seems like it.
Pi: We came for…
Owner: I figured. Maybe you could get shirt…rest of body is kinda tricky.
Sorta-Karen was back and true to herself, demanded a manager
-Yes?
-You…you are the manager?
-Yes. (Actually, this was NOT the manager)
-I want to file complaint on that kid. He ruined my day…inside your shop.
-Way earlier, i was fighting against Dyre
Almost cant recall the night when i wasnt using bicycle as blanket
3 out of my 4 feet had atleast twice stepped into goat poo (You can prob guess who this is now btw)
I was shat on by one goat while other screamed in my ear.
Then i appeared here, giving zero care to everything and anything that can happen.
-YOU ARE USELESS
-Yes, still better than you tho.
-I DEMAND YOUR SUPERIOR
-No problem…uhh he tends to behave like goat ass…(leaves)
uhm boss, some customer demanded your presence…lemme introduce you to her.
That prankster kid was now reintroduced to woman both of whom were equally confused.
-This is my boss.
-HE IS THE PROBLEM. HE dropped water on my new dress
How could either of you be employed in here?
-I was introduced as stand-in for regular manager here, usually handling goats.
However, this kid IS my boss…being owner’s son.
-THAT DOESNT ANSWER MY QUESTION.
Mrdja chimed in
-Four-leg was serving us here, so kid may came with mischief to keep himself occupied
-That doesnt help with my dress. Its wet.
-Must agree that thats a problem…summer is damn tough to handle with wet clothes
Seeing that there is no discussion with these, Karen-like left.
Owner soon went same way to try to get that customer…which didnt lasted long.
-I want to get these- VerBanka exclaimed after she tried and confirmed few things.
Pi: -And i want…hmm how is it called…shirt?-
Owner: -Tell you what, you are definitely picked from field of goats…not much of “manager” if you dont even know what is what.
Pi: Im not picked on such positions for reason.
Even tho tad bit stupid, im vastly better customer than some.
Shirt should cover my upper body and be cheap.
Looks dont matter.
And yes, i kinda improvised there; assumed you arent willing to deal with her straight away.
Mrdja: Actually…would be good if we get more than one shirt.
Boring part with money came around, but good news is that it wasnt that expensive
Having good laugh def helped there
Before you ask, yes, VerBanka also bought stuff for herself.
Accomodating
Aydar was dealt with job of finding place to sleep and tasked with getting some food and water.
He sufficiently did all of these activities, but was also tasked by local to take care of his daughter bcos local himself was busy
Good thing Aydar is very strong, bcos “taking care of girl” was mostly in shape of carrying her everywhere she wanted, upholding a duty that is usually served by lizards of this universe (and mostly by horses in universe most of participants came from).
He took great care on arranging sleeping and explaining where is everyone supposed to be, only to be ignored by one of members powered by their own view on matter.
3 Likes
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!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm
PART 5.0 - Mirror mirror on the…oh, crap!
PART 5.1 - Hello, little puppies!
PART 6.0 - Speed
PART 6.1 - GIMME OXYGEN! (feat. Madrias)
PART 6.2 - Steamin’ hot! (feat. Elizipeazie)
PART 7.0 - The Kayak
PART 7.1 - Marie the valkyrie?
PART 7.2 - Vegetables
PART 7.3 - Time to tie things up.
PART 8.0 - The hangover
PART 8.1 - The new team member
PART 9.0 - From pink to brown
PART 9.1 - Co-op with Madrias and Elizipeazie
PART 9.2 - Where is Sonic?
PART 10.0 - First at last!
PART 10.1 - Co-op with Variationofvariables
PART 11.0 - Why is this van so damn fast?
PART 11.1 - Co-op with Madrias
PART 11.2 - Demons and dragons bullshit
PART 11.3 - Oops, thank you, Kaylie!
PART 12.0 - Snap, crackle and pop!
PART 12.1 - The fire breathing jalopy
When Janne was starting to totally lose his hope, he saw something strange coming. A primitive motorized vehicle that was nothing like the steamers or lizard drawn carriages they had seen this far. If it should be compared to anything, it was maybe to a 1920s roadster bodied car, pulling a trailer. Honestly speaking, with the people actually riding on it, it could as well have been the Munster Koach. There was a lady with snakes for hair, someone that looked as if he could have been a werewolf, as well as a half-tiger, half-man creature and his lion pal. The driver? Well, he was maybe the most normal of them all since he reminded them a bit of Rukari - something that probably did speak volumes. Immediately, Janne ran out on the road and stopped them.
“Why are you stopping that circus wagon?”, Andreas said, a little bit frightened. “Do you really think they will help us? This is probably some kind of tr…”
“ANDREAS! ONCE AND FOR ALL, I AM GETTING TIRED OF YOU NOW!”, Janne said. It is like the calm, relaxed, philosophical Janne we all knew, now was gone. He was actually upset for real, and it did show. “Can you try to grasp the concept that we are actually not on earth now?”
“Not on earth? Where the fuck are we supposed to be then? You are getting more and more weird for every day!”, Andreas answered, equally upset.
“Seriously?”, Janne answered. “I took you here with a teleporting unit built from some old electronic junk lying around and…”
“THE REMOTE FOR MY VCR IS NOT JUNK, AND I WANT IT BACK WHEN WE COME HOME!”, Marie said.
“FINE, YOU WILL, BUT STOP INTERRUPTING ME ALL THE TIME”, Janne said. “Fuck, we went through something that looked like fucking Solaris for the Atari 2600 just to get here, you should have reacted by then! And then we went through a sheet of Gladpack * into a world with six legged cats, dyre, steam powered everything, and you haven’t even understood a single thing about this yet, even though the hosts looks like if they are straight from a LARP event!”
(*= Swedish brand of food plastic foil.)
Janne saw how the people on the primitive lizardless carriage was wondering what this was all about. “I just have to deal with the other two idiots sitting with me just now, just give me five minutes.”
Once again he looked at Andreas, and continued on. “You have seen magic repair our oil pan, our windshield… And you know what? You don’t even dare to admit that to yourself, because you’re scared. All of a sudden you aren’t the tough, grown up man that is running up mooses and wrestling them down to have them for breakfast anymore. No. You’re dead scared, you’re the kid that sleeps with the light on at night because there are monsters under the bed. And don’t try to hide that from me, because believe me, you will never succeed!”, Janne said, and did not do anything to try to say this gently to Andreas.
The people, or whatever it was, on the lizardless carriage looked at the pink van a bit sceptical. “We need a tow”, Janne said. “To Trugarde”.
“Hrmf…yeah, I guess.”, the driver said. “I understand that you are part of that rally thing with strange looking motorized chariots that Rukari is involved in, so sure, we can help you, I guess”.
Janne was checking out the primitive vehicle with great enthusiasm.
“An internal combustion engine, huh? Not very common around here. Four cylinder I see, and with a conventional gearbox, and I presume clutch too. We had a quite similar vehicle where I come from, called the Ford Model T, though it had planetary gears. Easy to just change the gears by pressing on a pedal and…”
“Yes. How about towing this…pink…thing instead of lots of blabbering?”, the driver said. “Some kind of cargo chariot I see. But honestly speaking it looks like an egg.”
“Ah, yeah, it….has less resistance against the wind that way. But vehicles like yours are clearly more stylish”, Janne answered.
“So, should we tow it now and stop this blabbering”, the driver said with not too large amounts of enthusiasm.
“Yeah, I need to unbolt the propshafts first, to not ruin the gearbox”, Janne said.
“Can’t you just put it in neutral?”, the driver asked.
“No, it doesn’t work that way, you know, this is an automatic gearbox…”, Janne tried to explain.
“Automatic? You mean it works with magic? Ain’t that kind of a waste to use magic on such an easy thing as changing gears?”, the driver asked him and scratched his head. Janne was almost close to explain how an automatic gearbox worked, but after some thinking he came to the conclusion that the driver probably was closer to the truth than he ever might know.
“Yes, it is a waste”, Janne said and started to unbolt the propshafts.
“By the way, propshaftS, why does it have more than one?”, the driver asked again.
“Oh, it has four wheel drive.”, Janne answered.
“Hey, that sounds like a great idea considering how the roads can look during some seasons. I guess it needs some joints on the front axle to be able to steer then, though?”, the driver asked curiously.
“You’re right. Obviously you have some knowledge in this!”, Janne nodded.
“Well, I have some great ideas now to take with me”, the driver answered, looking a bit less annoyed than when Janne first had stopped him. Janne hooked a chain between the lizardless carriage and the pink van, and off they went.
“I’ve had enough of beer for a while”, Marie said.
“I don’t believe what I heard now”, Andreas answered.
“I think that I am hallucinating, I see such strange things”, Marie continued.
“Believe me, they are for real, we are seeing them too”, Janne said, trying to calm her down.
“WELL OF COURSE YOU ARE SEEING THEM TOO, YOU ARE WITH ME!”, Marie answered angrily, while Janne and Andreas just sighed.
“Their vehicle is spitting fireballs like crazy, I would like to take a look at their carb…”, Janne started to say.
“NO WAY”, Andreas said as they were rolling closer towards the campsite. “You are going to take a look at our broken down van, and not their goddamned carb!”
When arriving at camp, the guards unhooked the van from the fireball spitting monster, and Andreas noticed that many people were staring when the Freeway Star was rolling in, towed behind the lizard the guards had hooked it up behind.
“OK!”, Janne said after lifting the valve cover. “As I suspected, the cam is seized. The 4Z has no cam bearings, the surfaces are machined directly in the alloy cylinder head and…this one is shot. Probably something happened when we lost the oil pressure when driving over a rock.”
“Is the race over now?”, Andreas said.
“Maybe. But if there is one thing we have lots of, it is old, empty beer cans. I have seen Jaydes work earlier. My plan now is to find him, and see if he can make the two broken timing belt into one, and also, if repairing the bearing surfaces using some of the old aluminium cans and magic is a possibility. If not, we are shot”, Janne answered.
TO BE CONTINUED…
4 Likes
RK Series Racing; Stage 11 Camp; Part 3
After the little trip to the bike shop, Valentin returns to the other three team members, who apparently have been putting in their share of work on keeping the crowd at bay and satisfied, which with their newfound understanding of the record being accidental, was a surprisingly pleasant task to deal with.
They even managed to free up enough of a gap to source some local street food, which ended up being similar to a hot dog, but instead of the hot dog bun a pretzel-strick-thing was used instead.
“Oh you’re back! Want one?”, Tim said, holding up one of those Pretzel-Hot-Dog-Hybrids. “It’s cold by now, but should still be good.”
“Uhm… sure.” Valentin answered, initially hesitating a bit at the strange combination. Though it didn’t take all that long for him to realize that what he had was not all that bad, even cold.
With little in the way of conversation, the snack was had, followed by the team largely returning to the usual business, which by that time had at least the most eager visitors taken care of, making the following ones much more casual in nature.
Only a few minutes pass until the railway official from earlier returned, approaching the team with a friendly wave.
“Greetings again. How have you been liking the party so far?”, he inquired.
“We’ve been sitting here for the better part of… like what…” Tim started, struggling to pinpoint how long exactly they have been here.
“… three hours according to this watch.”, Constantin added while looking down at the gifted watch displaying around 7 sun.
“Huh. Felt longer than that. Yeah. Three hours of us dealing with random people and that overly energetic painter.” Tim continued.
Valentin fell back into the bench he was sat on and crossed his arms, which made it obvious that he wasn’t exactly enjoying the experience here.
“We really need to do a better job at making important people feel welcome here.”, the official muttered, half aloud and sunk into his thought process for a bit. At some point, he pulls out a booklet titled ‘Scheduling of the southern Longitude and Silver Line Special.’, flips through it a bit before closing it up again.
“Uhm… i heard that you are on a… pilgrimage eastward. May i ask where you plan to stay tomorrow evening?”, the official asked politely, pocketing the booklet again.
“Our next scheduled overnight stay is in the city of Keepitz.” Connor stated, calm and stoic as always.
The official though for a bit, straightened up his posture and then spoke: “I am deeply sorry for the unpleasant experience at this here event. I am hereby offering you first-class access to tomorrow’s Silver Line Special, departing at 1-03 sun tomorrow morning, complete with peace and quiet, freshly prepared meals and other amenities.”
Immediately, Tim’s eyes lit up in excitement, but Valentin wasn’t all that impressed initially, which was painfully obvious.
“Damn this is too good to not pass up. We don’t have to pile up into the hottest Dione in the history of ever, we’ll be getting food, nobody’s bothering us and you get a break from ten hours a day of watching random signage go by.”, Tim rambled in excitement.
Valentin thought about it a little while longer, eventually agreeing to the trip aboard the train as well.
“Great. I very much hope that the trip will be more pleasant than whatever this turned out to be…”, the official explained, followed by a detailed plan on how Robert would be taken care of.
“You are free to vacate the event whenever you wish. Have a nice evening.”, the official added before silently disappearing into the crowd.
The team itself didn’t wait long to set the plan into motion, folding themselves into the car one by one before raising steam, which naturally attracted great attention from the public.
Not even ten minutes later, the Redneck Railcar slowly reversed out of the station at a wee bit above walking pace, hundreds of people walking along the platform to see the vehicle in motion.
The signal happened to be showing “clear” already and they reversed out of the station at what could not be more than 10MPH, going back and back until arriving at the sheds where Robert was to be laden into the streamlined box car.
The process itself went without issue as it has been done once before, but now that their own ride was stored in a box car, they had no idea on how they could get back to the station for accommodation.
That issue effectively solved itself as a small consist with an 0-4-0 shunter and a singular twin-axle coach rolled up to the group, backing up towards the parked box car Robert was in. The engineer got out and handed the group a small slip explaining that he was appointed by the official from earlier to get the team back to the station. “All aboard, lads.”, he chucked as he climbed back into the cab, followed by the group of four entering the coach. The interior wasn’t exciting by any means, consisting of simple cloth covered seats in 2+3 open arrangement with wood paneling on almost every surface.
A little later, they arrived back at the platform where Robert once was, being greeted by another person in formal attire which obviously belonged to some form of hotel.
“Greetings. Kevin McMahon from hospitality of the End of the Line Inn. As a reward for your achievements, you will be staying in the Queen’s Suite for tonight.”, he speaks in a polite and clear voice, similar to Connor, but with more sincerity to it.
The group gets off the train which almost immediately heads back out of the station to return to it’s work at the yard.
“Why exactly are you here?”, Constantin asked in distrust.
“I am responsible for making your stay as pleasant as possible. If you follow me, i shall lead you to the place you will be staying in.”, Kevin replied before showing the way to the Inn near the parked cars.
On the way out and across Queen’s Garden, they walked past a few of the competitor cars, among which was the Bricksley.
Kivenaal watched as Valentin, Connor, Tim, and Constantin followed a man out of the station, wandering right by several cars including the Bricksley. Kaylie was still making Malavera work on the truck, watching as Malavera struggled with the wing-nuts on top of the air cleaner housing. Jayde had gone on a small cycling ride around Trugarde and was coming back toward the truck at that moment. He knew Rukari was getting all of them a room in the Second Guardhouse Tavern and Inn. Nova had already voluntarily given up use of the armor, which now laid in the usual pile of pieces in the bed, and was with Kayden at that point. Then he spotted Kayden making his way back from the market, carrying food in his hands.
Kayden had to admit, the pretzel-wrapped hot dogs were pretty damn good, because he’d already eaten five of them, and was contemplating eating the sixth one he had in his hand. He shrugged, decided it was worth it, and took a hungry bite as he wandered back over to the truck. His sister was still ordering Malavera around, guiding him through changing an air filter, the third or fourth thing she’d had him fix on the truck already. Jayde parked his bicycle next to the truck, and after looking around, spotted Kivenaal still sitting on the roof of the station. Rukari had gone to the tavern already. Then he spotted Valentin and remembered his sister had told him to take a better look at that ankle.
He picked up his pace a little, to a light jog, and made it back to the truck just after RK Series Racing had passed it.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Kaylie asked, staring at her brother.
“In the market, having some food,” Kayden replied defensively. “Seriously, you of all people know-”
“Yeah, I know. I still hate it, but I know,” Kaylie responded. “If you grab your med-kit and hurry, you’ll catch up to Valentin.”
“I’d prefer to wait until he gets settled in, honestly. I’d rather have a certain expectation of privacy, not have Valentin feeling like he’s being worked on by a half-wit, washed-up doctor in some back-alley pub,” Kayden said.
“How long did that one take for you to come up with?” Kivenaal quipped from the roof.
Kayden’s response was to flip Kivenaal the middle finger. Kivenaal’s response in kind was to spit the wad of peppermint chewing gum he had in his mouth at Kayden’s hand, missing by a few inches and landing a gum splat on the sidewalk. “Really, Kivenaal?” Kayden asked, staring at the gum wad. “You know someone’s going to step on that at some point, and they’ll hate the person who put it there.”
“I’ll gladly take the credit for that, then,” Kivenaal replied. “Better than getting asked a dozen different ways whether I want to go share a bed.”
Kayden sighed, grabbed his medical kit out of the truck, and headed toward the End of the Line Inn, only to groan as he stepped in Kivenaal’s wad of used chewing gum. “Thanks a lot, Kiva,” he grumbled.
“You’re welcome!” Kivenaal quipped as Kayden wandered toward the inn.
While the three humans (and Connor) approached the Inn with Kevin the concierge leading the way, they overheard some semi-intelligible mumbling coming from the Bricksley. Connor naturally had what amounts to a transcript of the entire conversation that happened there, but Constantin was only to make out a few snippets.
“Hold on a second. Shift Happens want’s something from us.” Constantin said, already having stopped and turned around to face Kayden.
The others followed suit a step or two later, all eventually facing Kayden.
Kevin, aware of Valentin’s innate caution around shapeshifters, even in half-form, made a somewhat panicked attempt at protecting Valentin from more discomfort by physically dragging him by the waist to face away from Kayden again.
Valentin, not having expected this at all, had to try very hard to not be knocked prone by the sudden movement.
" 
Holy mother of…", he exclaims as he is being swung around. " 
What was that for!?"
“I was made aware that you were afraid of shapeshifters.” Kevin replied, somewhat shocked.
“Bloody hell does that warrant dragging people across the plaza!? He’s the reason i am here to ‘write history’ in the first place!”, Valentin blared back while making finger quotes, thus dropping both crutches.
“I’m very sorry. So sorry…”, Kevin tried to reason with him, scrambling about the floor to get the crutches back into Valentin’s hands.
As Valentin started yelling, there was a loud, heavy ka-thump against the hood of the Bricksley, done with enough force to make the front suspension creak, before Malavera’s half-growl of pain could be heard. Kaylie tried not to laugh as Malavera bonked both heads on the underside of the hood, though looked in Valentin’s general direction and called out, “Do I need to apply a torque wrench to someone’s lug nuts, Valentin, or are you okay over there?”
Jayde grabbed his staff out of the bed of the Bricksley, misinterpreting the grab as a hostile action until he heard Kevin explaining that he’d been told that Val was afraid of shapeshifters.
Kayden, on the other hand, saw the whole thing and sighed. Some people were just ridiculous in how they handled things. “You do realize,” Kayden said, crouching down, grabbing one of the crutches, and handing it to Valentin so he wouldn’t be as unsteady in the moment, “that Valentin has an injured ankle, and that little move might have just made things worse?” He then motioned over to Jayde, still visible over the crowd. “Jayde over there was the one who gave him those crutches. Yes, he’s concerned about shapeshifters, especially ones he hasn’t met.” Kayden was trying hard not to lose his temper in front of Valentin, though it was also a little obvious that Kayden was struggling, as even though he was trying to remain looking relaxed, his hands were tense enough that his claws were out.
Kevin continued to apologize profusely, over and over again as the other crutch was handed back to Valentin. After that, he kept going with apology after apology, even going as far as dropping to knees in an attempt to make peace with his group of guests and Kayden.
Valentin, while still obviously agitated and mentally furious at Kevin, didn’t exactly know how to deal with the situation, nor did any of the other members present.
Kevin himself just stayed at the floor, repeating “I’m sorry.” like a broken record.
Kayden sighed, managing to let his anger go, his claws sheathing once again. “Listen,” Kayden said, not knowing the man’s name, but hoping to get his attention regardless, “I understand why you did that. In some certain circumstances, picking someone up to move them is the right call.”
By that point in time, Jayde had made his way over as well, in his usual slow, limping progress, every left step punctuated by the thump of his walking staff on the cobblestone path. “Everyone makes mistakes, Kevin. The most important thing is to learn from them,” Jayde said, leaning on his staff as he spoke. He looked over to Valentin, then asked, “Are you okay, Valentin?”
Kevin remained on the floor a little while longer, though silent as he mentally recovered and collected himself to return to his work as a member of hospitality. Eventually, Kevin rises back up again just to end up directly in front of Jayde, who had slowly made his way over to the group.
“Yes… right… learn from mistakes.”, Kevin replied, still a little shaken from the self-inflicted incident.
Jayde then turned for Valentin, asking if he was okay.
“As okay as one can be, i think… Managed to stay upright, at least…” Valentin muttered, checking if he still had all of his belongings as well as if he was physically affected by the sudden jerk.
“Nah, i’m good.”, he confirmed, moving the right crutch over to the left to free up a hand with which he neatened himself up again as best he could.
A moment of silence was broken by Kevin, trying to get back to work and redeem himself.
“Shall we continue to the Suite?”, he asked, followed by approving nods of the members of RK-Series Racing.
Jayde nodded and then said, “Then I shall return to the truck. Watching Malavera fight with the air cleaner has been mildly amusing.” He turned and made his way back over to the Bricksley, weaving expertly through the crowd as he walked.
Kayden, on the other hand, was left in the awkward position of not quite being part of the group, but needing to talk with one of the members of that group, and trying to decide whether it was better to follow them now, or go back to the truck, wait a few minutes, and try again later. He looked back at the truck, then with a sigh and a shake of his head, decided to follow the group to the hotel.
to be continued in the post immediately below. 32k limit does that…
2 Likes
RK Series Racing; Stage 11 Camp; Part 4
Kevin led them into the End of the Line Inn, which presented itself as a very historical-looking (even for the era) main area with predominantly victorian styling. To the left was a lounge area, with small groups of armchairs surrounding small tables. The other side was an evening pub-styled corner, with a counter, a row of stools in front and a near-limitless choice of beverages behind the bartender.
Directly in front of them was the receptionist desk, behind which a rather short and stout blonde-haired lady was sat. On top of that desk was a small name placard reading “R. Wardell”, a desk lamp and not much else, with a massive array of little shelves for the various room keys behind her.
“Oh hello, Kevin! Showing the guests around, i see? Didn’t know a shapeshifter was among them, though.”, she said, friendly, but confused.
“Uhm yes, they apparently know each other or som…”, Kevin started before being interrupted by Constantin.
“Approved visitor. He’s helping one of us in need.”, Constantin explained, trying to cover Kevin in hopes of keeping the situation calm.
“Ah alright. On you go! The Queen’s Suite is waiting for you.”, she replied before returning to shuflling paperwork around.
They walk past the receptionist and into a hallway, which splits into a staircase on one side and a pair of elevators on the other. An elevator is called and arrives shortly after, staffed by an elevator operator stood next to the controls.
Kevin motioned for the group to enter before entering himself.
“Top floor. Queen’s Suite.” Kevin then ordered, followed by the elevator operator moving over a lever, setting the contraption into motion.
They find themselves in a small pre-room connected to the staircase on the other side and are led through a massive double-door into the actual suite. Within, a large common area presented itself, lined with large, comfortable sofas and armchairs facing a large window which offered a nice view across Queen’s Garden and all the competitor cars (sans Robert) neatly lined up below.
A fireplace was also present near the entry door on the opposite side where the window is, a pair of armchairs allowing a cozy evening atmosphere to read or relax in.
In three of the four corners, hull-height curtains sectioned off individual sleeping rooms, each with a slightly different color pattern, but fundamentally laid out the same. They all consisted of an almost laughably oversized ornamental bed, small bedside tables and a massive wardrobe on the opposing side. A sliding, wooden door led into small, individual washrooms with a sink able to have both hot and cold water, a high-tank toilet and a vertically tall, but otherwise small mirror above the sink for freshening oneself up.
The fourth corner was also of the sliding type and led into the main bathroom, complete with a large bathtub, another toilet and a giant mirror covering most of an entire wall’s surface.
Flooring was generally wooden parquet, covered in thick carpeting in some places, while the bath and washrooms were glazed in contrasting, bright tiles.
All of this was a continuation of the victorian-styled lobby, largely using dark shades of brown and green, sprinkled with golden or red accents in places.
“Welcome to Queen’s Suite.” Kevin proudly declared, as he briefly toured the team around the place to point out the important features.
Eventually, they find themselves in the common room.
“If you need me, you can call me via this here button near the entryway.”, Kevin remarked, pointing at what amounts to a telegraph line sender acting as a primitive bell system for the employees.
With the group (and Kayden) now alone in the Suite, Tim and Constantin called dibs for the far-corner sleeping rooms, leaving Valentin for the room directly opposing the bathroom.
As the other two humans disappeared into their respective rooms, Connor simply parked himself in a corner next to Tim’s curtain-based door substitute.
Valentin took a bit of a look around, but eventually decided to simply plop down onto the massive sofa in the middle of the common room to calm down a bit.
A few moments later and a deep sigh followed, before Valentin turned around to look over his shoulder to Kayden.
“You wanted something?”, he asked the tiger-shifter, who apparently was completely awestruck by the suite and it’s features.
Kayden stopped studying the room, looking over at Valentin and nodding. “Kaylie mentioned to me that your ankle still hasn’t improved. So, I’ve brought a few supplies along to try and help out. However…” Kayden paused for a moment, and Nova took the opportunity to make her presence known as Kayden settled into a chair, appearing in her smaller form on the table, the same size as she’d been when she was ‘squished’ by a deck of cards.
“Kayden has an idea, but we have to give you fair warning,” Nova said, “that it is experimental and comes with some risks. Now, to be fair, I’ve been running simulations based on known data, and I’m confident it will work, especially given what we know already. However, it might help if we’re on the same wavelength, so to speak. I know roughly your people’s level of technology, but I’m going to ask what you know about nanotechnology.”
Valentin pondered for quite a while about what he knew about technology on the microscopic scale.
“Uhm… the smallest piece of tech i am aware of is like individual transistors about 10 nanometers in size. And those amount to little more than electronic switches…” Valentin admitted, not entirely sure if works of science fiction were valid answers.
After that, Valentin more or less went silent, thinking about what kind of risks Nova was talking about.
Nova nodded. “Logical. Computer hardware has gone a long way, hasn’t it? To think that computers went from taking up a room to fitting in your pocket, all while massively increasing in capability, it’s impressive.”
Kayden looked over at Valentin, then said, “The reason Nova asked what you knew about nanotechnology is because the two of us believe the best way to mend your ankle is through the use of medical nanites.”
Nova then took over again with, “Our people tried genetic engineering a long time ago, and it was quite helpful, but the best thing we did to increase the quality of life in the end was to create medical nanites. Tiny, microscopic machines built to do small repairs on the body, precisely where and when that repair is needed.”
Kayden, being the physical one of the pair, said, “For us, it offers increased healing, a general resistance to disease, a better overall quality of life.”
“Admittedly, using these to fix your ankle is a little bit like shooting a fly with a plasma cannon,” Nova said. “However, as I said before, there are some risks. I’ve run simulations on what could happen, and while I’d like to say with confidence that this is risk free, well, that would be a lie. The odds, though, are greatly in your favor. Of the 32 million simulations I’ve run, 95% of the time, the nanites adapt to the new host and operate as expected. 4.9% of the time, the nanites fail to adapt and will just be flushed from your body. 0.1% of the time, the result was unexpected in that they adapted to the host and then failed to function. Now, to be fair, I was running with archived and fairly generic human genetic data, but given that the nanites are designed to adapt, and if failing to adapt, fail gracefully, and that out of the millions of real-world tests, there has never been a death caused by infusion, adaptation, or even the first repair stage, the data certainly says that you should be fine.”
Kayden looked over at Nova, and once she’d finished dumping data into the air, Kayden smirked and said, “The short version is, Nova has done a lot of simulations, compared it to real world data and known adaptations to hosts, and verified that the worst case scenario is that you’re pretty much no worse off than you already are.”
“However, we’re also aware that, because this is a technology that is new to you, and that it may cause some slight changes over time, we’ve programmed these nanites with a shutdown command. You call me up, any time you want,” Nova said, “and I’ll bounce a shutdown signal off of some satellites for you. The nanites go dormant and your body does the rest. Three days later, you’ll be completely nanite-free again. As long as you have cell reception, you have the option to say that, “you know what, these are not right for me,” and have them removed.”
“As for things you might need to know before making this decision,” Kayden said, “you’re probably going to be more hungry. When they’re making repairs, the nanites have to get resources to work with, and, let’s be perfectly honest, they’re always making repairs. Also, some people get a mild fever after infusion, which can last a few hours, maybe a day. I went through it. Malavera went through it. Kaylie didn’t, though. And, out of a squad of 15, I was the only one who got the fever. Also, they do have limits. You won’t be immortal, but you might live longer. They won’t keep you from dying, either, but you might find that wounds and injuries heal a bit quicker. And while they’ll keep you in your prime, age will eventually catch up with you.”
“On the other hand,” Nova said, “just think, no more food poisoning, a lot less illness, faster recovery from day-to-day injuries, no more infections. Granted, you will have to eat more. And it might move your temperature preferences a little colder in general, or make you sweat a little more.”
Valentin carefully listened to both Kayden and Nova explain how the nanites worked, the chances of them working and the ‘risks’ associated with them. In doing so, he slumped a bit further down into the couch, looking, almost staring out the big window at the station roof on the opposite side of the plaza.
Though the amount of information he was bombarded with at once was a bit much even for him, leading to him eventually lose track of their explanation, thus sinking into an increasing state of confusion.
“Uhm… you gotta slow this down a bit…”, Valentin said, gears turning in his mind trying to process the supplied information on top of the decision itself.
“So you’re suggesting using millions of tiny little Factorio construction robots to fix my ankle and whatever else might be fucked?”. Valentin continued, nervous about the chance to use ‘epic-420-space-age-meme-tech-bro stuff’.
Kayden looked over to Nova, who immediately picked up on what Valentin had said and gave an answer. “Something similar to that, yes,” Nova replied. “They gather resources and make repairs to anything that was damaged.”
Kayden then added, “Our people’s first trials with the nanites were used to see if they could cure cancer. When the people who were months from the end of their lives not only won the war against cancer, but managed to out-live the researchers who had performed the experiment, we started considering what else they could be used for. At first, it was treating hard to cure diseases and preventing death after illnesses or accidents put people in those positions. Then, it became part of preventing those diseases. It was only fairly recently in our people’s history that we started using them in the military, alongside an AI that can control their base programming.”
“Huh okay…”, Valentin mumbled, sinking back into his thoughts of weighing pros and cons regarding the nanites. A good 10 minutes must’ve passed before Constantin suddenly appears from his room, derailing Valentin’s train of thought.
Constantin took note of this, sped up his pace a bit and disappeared into the bathroom a few moments later.
“Sorry…”, he said, quietly as he went past the three others in the common room.
With Constantin now in the bathroom, the thinking continued until Constantin was set for the return trip.
In an attempt to not disturb Valentin again, he went round the back of the seating arrangement, taking great care to not make too much noise on the way back into his room. While it wasn’t hard to hear his every step on the hard wood floor, it still was enough to have Valentin remain unphased by his presence.
Eventually, Valentin has come to a conclusion, but one question remained…
“How will they be administered?”, he asked, looking over at Kayden and moving back into a more upright position in preparation for some kind of needle.
Kayden nodded as Valentin asked how they’d be administered, then opened the case and removed a slim metal cylinder. “Military standard field administration kit,” Kayden said, removing the safety cap. “Press this end to skin and push slightly, there will be a brief sting, and it’ll be done.”
Nova piped up, “It’s a bit like an EpiPen, just for injuries on the battlefield instead of allergic reactions.”
“Sounds sensible enough…”, Valentin replied, looking at the device. He knew what an Epi-Pen was and why it was used, though he never had to use one himself as his immediate circle of known people wasn’t in need of carrying them.
The room once again went silent, save for a big bravery-breath from Val.
“Let’s get this done then, shall we…”, Valentin mustered, still obviously cautious and hesitating, but also with an element of courage to it.
“If you’re ready,” Kayden said, gently grabbing Valentin’s left arm and carefully rolling up his sleeves. Once he was done with that, he placed the device up against Valentin’s arm, then pressed the button. Other than a quiet click, there wasn’t much of an indication that much of anything had happened on Kayden’s end, but Kayden understood that for Valentin, he was potentially running an emotional roller coaster at that point. Another quiet click announced the procedure was complete, and Kayden put the safety cap on the device again, twisted it into the lock position, and put it in the case in the “used” section. Afterward, he pulled out a small roll of sterile gauze from another pouch, then made a quick wrap of it around Valentin’s arm, just in case there was any bleeding.
With that done, Kayden looked over to Valentin and said, “I would advise having a large meal if you can. It’ll help with the process.”
Valentin simply let the procedure happen, though couldn’t prevent himself from tensing up in anticipation of the needle piercing his skin. However, once the device did it’s work, the actual pain that came along with it was rather underwhelming.
In that moment, his mind went ‘That was it?’, accompanied by his face reading the same with how he looked at the tiny little poke the device made.
Not long after, the device was packed up again.
“Anything specific or just whatever the house has?”, Valentin inquired, still intently looking at the now wrapped up, but otherwise exposed forearm.
“Protein, anything that’ll give you some energy, but whatever you want, realistically,” Kayden said.
Nova smiled. “That, and just take things easy for a few hours.”
“Well… whatever i want… or am used to ain’t easy if you are at the mercy of some cook in the kitchen a few floors below.” Valentin replied, half jokingly.
“Still, thank you for helping, even if we aren’t 100% sure on if it actually works…”, he added before cautiously making his way over to the telegraph-based calling button.
Once there, he simply held that line down for a second as if ringing a door bell and started waiting.
“Well, at least the cooks down below are guaranteed to be better than Kayden. If it weren’t for MRE’s, I think he’d have starved to death by now,” Nova quipped.
Kayden sighed. “Really, Nova? Really? I’m not that bad.”
“You set fire to a pan full of scrambled eggs,” Nova replied.
“I wouldn’t be much better, i guess…” Valentin replied from across the room. “My cooking skills don’t go much beyond a pot of bare pasta, so a burnt pot of scrambled eggs is a win in my book.”
At this point, someone knocked at the door shortly before carfeully opening it. In stepped Kevin, familiar form the panic-induced incident from earlier.
“How can i be of help?”, Kevin asked, his body language clearly indicating that he was afraid of disappointing his guests again.
“Uhm… how does dinner work at this place?”, Valentin inquired, taking a quick look back into the room.
“Did someone say dinner?”, Tim said as he rounded the corner to enter the common room. Meanwhile, Kevin procured a menu card from the inside pocket of his uniform, handing it over to Valentin.
The menu was laid out like any restaurant menu card, sorted by starters, main courses and desserts, albeit with a rather limited selection of all of them. On the back, a very extensive list of local beverages, sorted roughly by alcohol content, presented itself.
“Take all the time you need, i’ll wait outside for your choice. And that of your colleagues, if they wish to order as well.”, Kevin said, slipping back out of the room and closing the door.
With the menu card in hand, Valentin made his way over to the seating arrangement, followed shortly by Constantin and Tim, both interested in a nice and filling dinner.
“Well,” Kayden said, closing up his medical kit and getting up from the chair he was in, “I’m going to go find where the rest of my team has gone.”
“Hey, Kayden, you’re forgetting something,” Nova said. “Get my handheld out of your pocket so that I can print something out for Valentin.”
Kayden pulled the slim rectangle of sleek metal and glass out of his pocket, just moments before Nova printed out her own contact information onto a business card. Kayden retrieved it and handed it to Valentin as Nova added, “Those are the two ways you can easily get in touch with me. First one’s my phone number, second one’s my email address. I’d have handed you the card myself, but, well, Kayden was sitting on my chassis and, well… You remember the deck of cards.”
Shortly after, Nova’s holographic projection on the table vanished, and Kayden smiled. “If you need anything else, just let me know,” Kayden said. “I’ll see you in the next camp.” He put Nova’s handheld unit back into his pocket, then headed toward the elevator.
As Valentin got handed a slip of paper, he pulled out his own phone to copy the data into the contacts list.
“Was gonna say… Thanks again for maybe helping and have a good evening.”, Valentin said, watching Kayden disappear through the massive double-door.
Before Valentin could grab the menu card, Tim already snatched it out of his pocket. The ensuing distraction allowed Valentin to discretely roll his left sleeves back down
“I’m going first!”, he proclaimed, eagerly skimming the available dishes. Just the sight of a low-quality, monochrome print of what looked like a massive burger was enough for him to go for that.
Next up was Constantin, who didn’t fancy downing loads of greasy meat this time around went for something akin to to a plate of rice-based chili.
Valentin went rather cautious, choosing what looked most familiar to him, ending in what effectively was a local variant of grilled sandwiches.
With the order sorted, Constantin offered himself up in telling Kevin about the results.
He went over to the door, handing the menu back to Kevin, then showing what the three ordered.
“No beverages?”, he inquired, his head semi-poking into the room.
“Uhm… i guess water will do.”, Valentin started
“I’ll have some beer, if you have that.”, Tim added, followed by Constantin turning the menu card around to check.
“They do.”, he replied to Tim, before turning back to Kevin. “I’ll stick to water as well.”, he said to Kevin.
“Alright. I’ll get that sorted as quickly as i can.”, Kevin said and briskly turned around, heading down the stairs.
Constantin returned to the group, taking a seat with the others.
“So now we wait… Wanna play some cards?”, Tim suggested, plonking down the Rummy set onto the table in the center.
“Sure.”, Valentin replied, taking the stack of cars and shuffling them to prepare a game. Constantin didn’t really contest the suggestion either.
About an hour of pleasant, but not exactly eventful playing followed, until a knocking at the door was heard.
“I’ll go get that.”, Tim eagerly exclaimed, practically jumping out of his armchair to open the door, spotting Kevin on the other side.
“Your meal is ready in the restaurant area downstairs.”, Kevin replied as soon as he saw Tim, who turned around to face the others afterwards.
“Yo guys! Dinner’s ready!”, he said, prompting the other two to drop their respective cards and make their way over to the door as well.
Kevin led the way once more, where they took the elevator back to ground floor.
Once there, they were led through a doorway into what effectively was a small restaurant, once again a continuation of the victorian era styling from elsewhere in the Inn.
They were sat at a rather small table, with extensive arrays of cutlery and their desired beverages already present.
As soon as they were sat down, Kevin went off for a bit, before returning with what looked like an umbrella holder quietly nicked from the reception area. That holder was sat down next to Valentin for him to store his crutches.
“Have a nice meal.”, Kevin said, before leaving proper this time, which was met with a collective respectful nod.
Not even a minute later, three kitchen staff came around, each holding the meal that they chose from the available list, taking great care in the process of serving the meals.
“Thank you”, all three said, more or less well-mannered as the kitchen staff left the group to it.
Without much of a fuss, save for some friendly neighborhood chit-chat, dinner was had, followed by the kitchen staff meticulously clearing out the table again.
“I have to say, they know how to cook.”, Valentin said.
“It was absolutely delicious.”, Tim added, smiling ear-to-ear.
“If the veggie stuff is that good already, i kind of regret not having taken the meaty options…”, Constantin admitted, regretting his thought on minimizing chance of stomach problems due to improper preparation.
Nevertheless, they soon made their was back up again, this time without Kevin, being accompanied solely by the elevator employee on the way up to the top floor.
The remaining evening was very pleasant, with them continuing to play their card games for a while before they decide to take turns in the shared bathroom for a much needed bath.
After that, they spent the remaining evening in their respective rooms, resting, pondering about whatever before eventually falling asleep.
to be continued
3 Likes
Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
Making Donuts / Speed Demon / Arrival in Camp - Stage 10 Drive and Camp
“A Pinch of Glass, a Dash of Magic” - Stage 10 Camp (Written with permission from Knugcab)
“The Clear Mind” - Written in collaboration with TheYugo45GV
“Demons and Dragons Bullshit” - Written by Knugcab
“Power Failure” - Written in collaboration with Elizipeazie
Preparations for Tomorrow / OUCH! / A Favor - Stage 10 Camp Final
Stage 11 Details
“Beginning the Day” - Stage 11 Start (Collab with Elizipeazie)
Automatic Pilot / A Minor Hold-Up / A Bad Day Begins - Stage 11 Drive and Camp
“A Little Ride-Along with Team RK Series Racing” - Collab, Written by Elizipeazie
The Party / A New Steed / Some Minor Repairs - Collab with Elizipeazie
Helping Out A Friend / The High-Tech Solution - Collab with Elizipeazie
Trugarde ‘Camp’, Queen’s Garden, Around 9 Sun
(Thank you to @Knugcab for letting me borrow his team)
Jayde had been paying attention to the chaos going on near the pink van regarding something to do with the engine. Specifically, they had the little top cover off, showing a metal stick covered in bumps, and the front cover removed, showing a set of pulleys kept concealed inside the engine. This fascinated him, seeing the inner workings of an internal combustion engine, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to go over and be in the way.
Janne looked over and saw that Jayde was watching, then asked, “Jayde, mind coming over here? I could use your help with some things.”
Jayde nodded, then got up and walked over to the van. “Sure. What will you need me to do?”
“Well, the camshaft seized up in the cylinder head,” Janne said, pointing to each item as he mentioned it so that Jayde stood a chance of understanding the parts, “and broke both the timing belt it had on it and the one I put on the van at the side of the road. I’ll need the good belt repaired, but I might need a little help with some other bits of this process.”
Jayde nodded, then watched as Janne removed several bolts from the camshaft caps, followed by an attempt at removing the camshaft - rather forcefully by a few whacks with a rubber mallet - from the top of the engine, only for Janne to shake his head and sigh. “It’s a little bit stuck,” Janne admitted. “Think you can get it out?” He handed the mallet to Jayde, who studied the stuck camshaft and the mallet for a couple of seconds, before giving the camshaft one good whack right on the camshaft pulley bolt, causing the camshaft to almost leap out of the engine, caught by Jayde a moment later.
“You know, I was going to try that next,” Janne said sheepishly.
“I did hit it fairly hard, to be fair,” Jayde replied.
“Can you just do your ‘Demons and Dragons’ bullshit and be done with it, please?” Andreas grumbled.
“I could, but I don’t think Janne wants to pull the cylinder head off just so I can make an attempt at it,” Jayde admitted.
“Well… I do have a spare head gasket. But I’d rather save that for if we blow a head gasket instead of using it now,” Janne said. “Plus, I’ve always wanted to see how long beer-can bearings can hold up.”
“What!? You’re experimenting on- Why!?” Andreas yelled.
“Because you’re scared of magic,” Janne replied with a smirk. “You told Rukari “No fucking finger paint on the engine block,” and then this happens. So, it’s time to see if a little backyard engineering makes you feel better.”
Jayde chuckled, though as Janne handed him a broken timing belt, he understood some magic would be needed. “Can you stick that back together?” Janne asked.
“Sure,” Jayde replied, putting the two pieces back together and using a silent spell. Afterward, Jayde set the belt where Janne could find it, then watched as Janne started cutting pieces out of the many beer cans in the back of the van.
“HAS ANYONE SEEN SONIC?!” Marie yelled.
“NO, AND I DON’T WANT TO!” Andreas shouted back.
Jayde crouched down to watch Janne doing his work on the engine, spotting Sonic the Porcupine hiding down around the pedals. “Looks like he’s by the gas pedal, Marie,” Jayde replied.
“Get that little shit out of there!” Andreas yelled. “I’ve stepped on him once already!”
Jayde nodded, then used his magic, or perhaps it was the Force, to float Sonic up over his hand, then settled him into the back of the van where Marie was resting.
“Fucking show-off,” Andreas muttered.
Janne finished cutting the new cam bearings, then used a variety of interesting tools that Jayde was less-than-familiar with to grind down the cam journals on the cylinder head and the camshaft bearing caps, before reassembling the engine with copious amounts of grease and oil. Jayde, meanwhile, looked around the van, spotted something poking out of the front bumper, and pulled a large shard of Dyre bone out of it.
“You three are aware that Dyre bones bring bad luck, right?” Jayde asked. “I can give you a charm to hang around your mirror to ward off bad luck.”
“No! No more Demons and Dragons bullshit in my van!” Andreas roared. “I hate Dyre more than anything else in this world, I hate their bones more than I hate them, and I hate magic more than I hate Dyre bones!”
Janne looked to Jayde and said, “He’s just scared because he found out that monsters under the bed are real.”
Jayde nodded. “As is to be expected,” Jayde admitted.
Trugarde, Following Kivenaal, 1 Moon
Kivenaal sighed after rejecting an “offer” for the fifteenth time in the last half-hour to go up to bed, then got up and left the Second Guardhouse Tavern and Inn. He was exhausted, worn down from dealing with people, just wanted to get some rest, but he just couldn’t get any peace with the number of people who were interested in him.
Kivenaal soon found himself in a chair in the lobby of the End of the Line Inn, barely aware of how he’d even gotten there. It was there where he stayed for the night, a silent guardian over the whole inn, occasionally getting up and pacing in the lobby as he waited out another very long day. For him, today really couldn’t have gone any worse. His disguise had drawn more attention to him, he’d had easily more than 100 different people ask him for a “good night in bed,” he’d spent most of the day hiding out on various rooftops, and now he was hiding out in the lobby of a classy hotel instead of getting any sleep.
Trugarde, Second Guardhouse, 4 Moon
Kaylie laid there in their shared room, just trying to make sense of this day. She’d gotten a great ride in the Dione and had made an effort to learn more about how the trip was for them, and even gotten some results out of it. Jayde now had a bicycle sitting in the truck bed with both wheels dismounted to save space. Kayden had helped Valentin with his ankle. Kivenaal had gotten up hours ago and left the building, and she had no idea where they would find him in the morning. Malavera was typing something up in his laptop in the corner, the light of his laptop illuminating him like some ancient spellcaster, the harsh white glow reflecting off of his reading glasses telling her that it was probably just a text document. Rukari, of course, slept like the dead, half slumped onto the floor and half still in the bed after a few too many pints of beer.
She looked to the future and smiled. Would there be another trip? Perhaps. But she knew that everyone who had gone to Crugandr would have a shared experience like no other, and all of them were changed as a result.
4 Likes
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!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm
PART 5.0 - Mirror mirror on the…oh, crap!
PART 5.1 - Hello, little puppies!
PART 6.0 - Speed
PART 6.1 - GIMME OXYGEN! (feat. Madrias)
PART 6.2 - Steamin’ hot! (feat. Elizipeazie)
PART 7.0 - The Kayak
PART 7.1 - Marie the valkyrie?
PART 7.2 - Vegetables
PART 7.3 - Time to tie things up.
PART 8.0 - The hangover
PART 8.1 - The new team member
PART 9.0 - From pink to brown
PART 9.1 - Co-op with Madrias and Elizipeazie
PART 9.2 - Where is Sonic?
PART 10.0 - First at last!
PART 10.1 - Co-op with Variationofvariables
PART 11.0 - Why is this van so damn fast?
PART 11.1 - Co-op with Madrias
PART 11.2 - Demons and dragons bullshit
PART 11.3 - Oops, thank you, Kaylie!
PART 12.0 - Snap, crackle and pop!
PART 12.1 - The fire breathing jalopy
PART 12.2 - Written by Madrias
PART 12.3 - Bumpin’ the bumper
When the night was coming close, Janne assembled the last parts of the engine back together. Even himself was skeptical about the backyard-engineered cam bearings, but it was at least worth a try. He started up the engine, which of course was spewing a bit of smoke in the beginning, but at least there was no strange noises, and yeah, the oil pressure light was flickering a little on idle, but at least not at higher RPM. He took a turn around camp with the van, everything seemed to work flawlessly, which made him a bit suspicious actually. “This would never have worked on earth…”, he thought. “And I would not even have tried it. Yet…I knew that it was exactly what was needed at the moment. Weird. Very weird”. He knew that most likely he would not get too much sleep this night, because his mind would be occupied with those thoughts. He went back to where they had parked earlier, and assembled the engine covers back together, and then the interior…
Actually, the van might have been parked too close to the tent, at least according to Andreas, coming out of the tent, bumping with his knees into the front bumper.
"OUCH!", he shouted, kicking the front bumper of the van hard in anger.
"HEY! DON’T KICK THE FRONT BUMPER, IT IS BROKEN ENOUGH ALREADY!", Janne shouted from the inside of the van.
"I WILL KICK THIS GODDAMNED FRONT BUMPER AS MUCH AS I WANT TO!", Andreas replied, kicking it again, and again, and again. “IT IS PROBABLY FULL OF DYRE BONE SPLINTERS, THAT’S WHY EVERYTHING GOES STRAIGHT TO HELL IN THIS RALLY, AND MY WHOLE LIFE SUCKS, AND I STOMP ON A FOUR LEGGED SPIKE BALL AS SOON AS I PUT MY FOOT DOWN!”, he said, kicking it again, hard enough to start to sag.
"CALM DOWN!, Janne said. "Jesus, you are really scared of your own shadow right now! Didn’t you say that dyre bones were just demons and dragons bullshit?"
"I don’t care", Andreas said, going to empty his bladder behind a tree. “Fine, I will move the van so you don’t have to bump into it again, because obviously you are too blind to see a huge pink brick!”, Janne answered.
Turning the ignition on, Janne got some chills down his spine though. A red light was glowing from the dashboard, spreading into the dark passenger area of the van.
“W A I T”
Janne knew very well what it was. The glow plug indicator light, the old school type that IP used in the 70s and 80s, that stuck with the second gen Freeway Star, a model that was released already in 1989, only getting small updates to cope with the regulations and the taste of the buyers for the 20+ years it was in production. The only trouble was…this was not a diesel. And normally, he would have seen this as an electrical gremlin, but now…he didn’t even dare to start it. He felt that he really had to do what the light was telling him, without questioning it. And…the light was slow for some reason.
“W A I T”
Suddenly, the red light was turned into a much friendlier green one.
“S T A R T”
When Janne did like the indicator lamp told him, and started up the van, he got even worse chills. Because he could SWEAR that he saw a text flashing in orange at the same spot in the dashboard. Very rapidly flickering but…he SAW it.
“O B E Y”
His eyeballs had the size of golf balls when it appeared. It was just not POSSIBLE. The glow plug indicator, that might have looked high tech when it appeared on the Icarus diesels in the mid 70s, was a very simple construction. It simply said “SWTAAIRTT”, with a red filter under “W A I T” and a green filter under “S T A R T”, and the glow plug relay switching between the bulbs when turned off. It could not display any other letters, and not in any other colour. He moved the van further from the tent, turned off the ignition, and now he saw a blue light flickering from the same spot instead.
“G O O D B O I”
Janne walked into the tent, with a face that was whiter than a polar bear. But one thing was for sure, he was NOT going to tell this to the rest of the team.
TO BE CONTINUED…
2 Likes
Shitbox Rally
Stage 12: Trugarde to Keepitz
Stage Start: 1 Sun, 30/7/3251, Trugarde, Queen’s Garden Campsite
Weather at Stage Start: Hot (33C), a cloudless sky, with the only saving grace being relatively strong winds.
Weather at mid-stage: Hotter (35C), still no clouds in sight, though the wind speed has increased.
Weather at Stage End (First Car): About the same (35C), still a cloudless sky, the wind is fading.
Weather at 5 Sun (mid-day): Hot (34C), wispy clouds appear on the horizon, wind is calm with occasional strong gusts.
Weather at Stage End (Last Car): Warm (30C), wispy clouds cover the camp and provide occasional respite from the heat, wind is strong again.
Stage End (First Car): 4-and-1 Sun, 30/7/3251, Keepitz Campsite
Stage End (Last Car): 6-and-68 Sun, 30/7/3251, Keepitz Campsite
Weather at 10 Sun: Warm (27C), heavy clouds appear in the distance, creating a beautiful sunset, wind remains comfortably strong.
Trugarde is still a busy city, and getting out of the city is just as difficult as any winding dirt-trail through the forest, made worse by the number of large shape-shifters everyone has to dodge, some being as large as Dyre. However, as everyone leaves the city and turns out onto the road to Keepitz, speeds increase from barely walking pace to a full on race. There’s a gradual uphill trend to the road, but not enough to cause anyone to lose traction or speed. On the other hand, there are a lot of curves that seemingly appear out of nowhere, forcing everyone to slow down or otherwise fly off of the road.
However, as you near the small city of Keepitz, home to roughly 100,000 people, give or take 10,000, a few buildings stand out even from the road. One is the large number of watch-towers nearby, and the other is a large, red-brick building that Rukari labeled on the map as the “Tombstone,” a place for the local band of assassins to live in relative peace. Our camp, thankfully, is on the other side of the road from the city of Keepitz, in a large field of grass that could really do with being mowed properly. Further behind our camp is the train station, far enough from the city to not create a lot of noise pollution for them, though we’ll be dealing with the sound of trains all night long.
Notes: Randomization is active. Breakdowns are active. Time is in Earth Time.
Team Shift Happens
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:41:14
Average MPH: 40.8
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 4 (Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
Kayden takes the wheel today, though after the debacle that was just getting out of the city, everyone is left wondering why they left him behind the wheel. Between stalling the truck twice before leaving Trugarde, requiring a push start each time, and gear-changes getting sloppy under pressure as Kayden made more and more mistakes, it’s safe to say that Shift Happens might have only been a little slower if they walked the stage instead.
Team Wayfarers
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:06:19
Average MPH: 43.8
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
An ill-timed sneeze sent Chernobog off of the road. A large rock was waiting for them, which slammed into the passenger-side front wheel hard enough to dent the rim and break the spring. Jill was able to repair the spring, and some carefully applied violence to the rim with a large hammer, plus an air-spell, repaired the wheel.
Team Gearknobs
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:28:40
Average MPH: 64.8
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
The little AWD hatch sprints along the somewhat-rough cobblestone road, passing a lot of other vehicles on the way. Including a Bricksley being shoved along for the umpteenth time.
Team Fallen Angels of the Past
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:38:39
Average MPH: 46.4
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
Things were going well until the Claussient started popping out of gear at random. It took a while for the driver to learn to keep her hand on the stick while in third gear to prevent it from happening again.
Team Oil Crisis
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:28:32
Average MPH: 79.3
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
The olive green Magistrate hurtles along the road this time. The only slight difficulty encountered along the way is someone having their ear sneezed in by one of the Dyre pups.
Team Hillbilly Rollers
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:16:25
Average MPH: 67.3
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
With the engine patched up thanks to Janne and Jayde, Andreas promptly puts the van through a shakedown run. It holds up quite well after the field repair.
Team Witchlight
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:51:38
Average MPH: 73.0
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
“See, it runs just like magic on roads like this!” Finne mentioned. Elist and Kira tried to explain how magic worked to their Dwarven counterpart, but he just wasn’t getting it. Ambay accidentally broke the center console when he reached for a canteen of water.
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:07:35
Average MPH: 49.8
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
Tires really prefer having air in them to start with. Setting off with two slow-leaks in the rear tires really wasn’t helpful to your time today.
Team Blazers
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:51:26
Average MPH: 60.6
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
It’s a battle of wills between the Yamada and Watson today. Watson tries to restrain the wild beast, the Yamada wants to run. The result is one angry car and one exhausted driver.
Team Machinas Con Passiones
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:49:17
Average MPH: 45.4
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 4
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
This time, when they got a flat tire, Giacomo attempted to get Chad with the jackswing, only for Chad to jump over the jack with a smirk. The result was the jack slamming into the other tire, popping it as well. Now having to repair two burst tires instead of one, and still fill up the fuel tank, team MCP makes a decision, 4-to-1, that Giacomo should get a chance to replace the tire he popped.
Team Quick Rally 47
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:01:16
Average MPH: 58.9
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
Good news: It’s not oil pressure this time. Bad news: It’s a really annoying misfire.
Team Mrezhari
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:22:39
Average MPH: 42.3
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
All tanked up with energy drinks and granola bars, team Mrezhari hit the roads hard. Too hard, it seems, as the engine decided to boil the coolant and puked everywhere. Luckily, all those energy drinks had to go somewhere, so the radiator was, eventually, refilled. The drive was a lot slower into camp afterward because no one wanted to smell like boiled piss in the campsite.
Team Jockey
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:30:46
Average MPH: 54.5
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
All was going well until someone farted in the shoebox and everyone found out just how little air you really have in that car. No one owned up to it.
Team RK Series Racing
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:16:47
Average MPH: 56.5
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
A smooth cruise down the rails gives the team plenty of time to consider the future. With Robert safely stowed away in a box car, and riding onboard the Silver Line Special at speed, the team was comfortable.
Team Black Rabbit
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:40:04
Average MPH: 40.9
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
Today’s drive was almost peaceful. While Tanuki was excited about being in a town known for having a building full of legal assassins, Melanie was understandably nervous.
Team Spy Kids
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:35:01
Average MPH: 53.9
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 3907.2
“Why are all four tires flat!?” Apparently someone took offense to your parking job in the Queen’s Garden, because you start the stage having to air up all four tires.
Stage Finishing Order:
04:28:32 – 3h and 01m – 4 and 01 Sun – Team Oil Crisis
04:51:38 – 3h and 22m – 4 and 22 Sun – Team Witchlight
05:16:25 – 3h and 44m – 4 and 44 Sun – Team Hillbilly Rollers
05:28:40 – 3h and 56m – 4 and 56 Sun – Team Gearknobs
05:51:26 – 3h and 76m – 4 and 76 Sun – Team Blazers
06:01:16 – 4h and 04m – 5 and 04 Sun – Team Quick Rally 47
06:16:47 – 4h and 19m – 5 and 19 Sun – Team RK Series Racing
06:30:46 – 4h and 32m – 5 and 32 Sun – Team Jockey
06:35:01 – 4h and 35m – 5 and 35 Sun – Team Spy Kids
07:07:35 – 4h and 64m – 5 and 64 Sun – Team Mravolinski-Chitco
07:38:39 – 5h and 12m – 6 and 12 Sun – Team Fallen Angels
07:49:17 – 5h and 22m – 6 and 22 Sun – Team Machinas Con Passiones
08:06:19 – 5h and 37m – 6 and 37 Sun – Team Wayfarers
08:22:39 – 5h and 52m – 6 and 52 Sun – Team Mrezhari
08:40:04 – 5h and 68m – 6 and 68 Sun – Team Black Rabbit
08:41:14 – 5h and 68m – 6 and 68 Sun – Team Shift Happens
Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
Making Donuts / Speed Demon / Arrival in Camp - Stage 10 Drive and Camp
“A Pinch of Glass, a Dash of Magic” - Stage 10 Camp (Written with permission from Knugcab)
“The Clear Mind” - Written in collaboration with TheYugo45GV
“Demons and Dragons Bullshit” - Written by Knugcab
“Power Failure” - Written in collaboration with Elizipeazie
Preparations for Tomorrow / OUCH! / A Favor - Stage 10 Camp Final
Stage 11 Details
“Beginning the Day” - Stage 11 Start (Collab with Elizipeazie)
Automatic Pilot / A Minor Hold-Up / A Bad Day Begins - Stage 11 Drive and Camp
“A Little Ride-Along with Team RK Series Racing” - Collab, Written by Elizipeazie
The Party / A New Steed / Some Minor Repairs - Collab with Elizipeazie
Helping Out A Friend / The High-Tech Solution - Collab with Elizipeazie
End of the Day - Stage 11 Camp Final
Trugarde Campsite, Queen’s Garden, 10-and-40 Moon
The team quietly left their hotel room and made their way down to the truck in relative silence. It was amazing, for a city of 750,000 people, it was quiet at that time of the morning, with only the occasional other team in sight, or the occasional local out and about getting things done before dawn.
Jayde and Kayden were responsible for keeping Kivenaal on his feet and moving after finding out that he’d spent most of the night guarding the Queen’s Suite of the End of the Line Inn instead of getting any sleep. Of course, moving someone who was 8’3”, weighed 500 pounds or so without any of the shit he was wearing, and had no energy of his own to spare was rather difficult to say the least. The decision was made to put him in the driver’s side rear seat next to Jayde, giving him a chance to rest, even though he kept swearing he’d be fine to drive after “a cup of breakfast and a plate of coffee.”
Rukari and Malavera had been briefed on their duties. Rukari would sit front-mid-bench and Malavera would take the front passenger seat, letting Kayden take the wheel. Nova, albeit begrudgingly, had agreed to give up the armor for now, leaving it in the truck bed under the tents. Added to the chaos in the bed was a certain turquoise bicycle belonging to Jayde, now securely strapped into place to keep it from falling out or getting dinged up by any of the bed-trash back there.
Breakfast in the truck was simple toast with strawberry jam, something easy to make and surprisingly messy in the hands of someone who was, finally, realizing he was too tired to drive after managing to fail at eating a toasted jam sandwich properly, and then nodding off and smashing his jam-smeared face up against the window. Jayde sighed and helped clean up Kivenaal’s fur, and wiped the mess off of the window, watching as Kivenaal drifted in and out of sleep. “Come on, Kivenaal. Just get some rest,” Jayde said. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes, Kivenaal was out like a light, his head resting on Jayde’s shoulder as a result.
“Well, he definitely needs it,” Kaylie said, looking over at Kivenaal and Jayde.
1 Sun
Malavera and Rukari groaned as they had to get out of the truck and give it a little push. Kayden dumped the clutch and the engine roared to life soon after, coming down to an idle as Kayden waited for the two of them to get back into the truck. A glance in the rear view mirror told him that Kivenaal hadn’t even responded, instead just continuing to sleep while leaning on Jayde.
As they followed the rest of the teams out of Trugarde, however, problems started happening almost immediately. First was Kayden stalling the truck when someone in a primitive motor vehicle honked their horn at him, requiring the first bail-out of Malavera and Rukari in order to get the truck going again. This was made far worse when Kayden managed to kill it just before the main gate, claiming, “I don’t think we’ll fit through that.”
“Kayden, Nova fit the truck through that gate yesterday without a problem,” Kaylie said.
“Can’t believe I have to push the truck again,” Malavera grumbled, getting out and giving the truck another shove to get the engine going again, sparing Rukari from having to untangle himself from around the center console.
On the Road
Things didn’t really improve much out on the open road. Not just was Kayden terrible at dealing with low-speed situations, but his gear changes were worse than what Jayde had done before Valentin had taught him how to drive. This was made even worse by a certain reluctance to change gears, choosing instead to rev the ever-loving hell out of the V8 to crawl along at 55 MPH.
Then came the debacle of the fuel stop when Kayden completely forgot to keep an eye on the fuel gauge, running the engine out of gas and not even getting the clutch in before the truck lumbered to a stop in the middle of the road. Team Black Rabbit darted around them with ease while Kaylie looked at her brother and said, “You really are driving like an idiot today.”
“I hate this truck,” Kayden grumbled. “And I think it hates me, too.”
Malavera looked behind, then ahead of the truck and gave a frustrated growl of annoyance. “Of course. Kayden, you jack-ass. You’ve stalled it in the valley between two hills.”
“Would be easier at this point to modify it for a crank start,” Rukari said.
“Can we stop making fun of my driving, please?” Kayden grumbled.
The truck was nudged along until the engine started, and Kayden tried his best to get it up the little hill without stalling the engine again, each gear change making everyone who was awake wince at all the crunches and grinding going on.
“We’re going to have half a gearbox at this rate,” Malavera said.
“Not sure why he’s allowed to drive and I’m not,” Rukari added. “Yes, I overheated the truck, but I’m not the one who is murdering the gearbox.”
Keepitz Campsite, 6 and 68 Sun
With a final crunch of gears as Kayden failed another downshift, the Bricksley rolled into the long grass of their new campsite, where Kayden shut the engine down and the team unpacked the tents from the bed. Well, everyone except for Kivenaal, who had slumped over and occupied the entire rear bench as soon as Kaylie and Jayde had left it. Rukari looked at his worn-out, sleeping brother, then sighed. “Some days, I wish you didn’t feel it was so hard to get through a day,” Rukari said quietly. “That you would find peace with who you are.” He closed the truck door carefully, though made sure the dome light had turned off before joining the others.
“How is he?” Kaylie asked.
“Still asleep,” Rukari said.
“Think he’ll be fine?” Kayden inquired.
“He’s been through a lot, but he is strong. His strength in body, mind, and spirit will get him through this,” Rukari mentioned.
“Never seen him crash this bad,” Malavera admitted. “I’ve seen him have trouble sleeping before, but, usually he pulls himself out of this. Here, he’s spiraled down.”
Jayde nodded. “I’ve seen this before. Nightmares so strong they rip you right out of sleep and leave you with only a few precious minutes or if you’re lucky, hours of rest. Do that for a few weeks, you get something like this. I don’t think he has nightmares nightly, but I do believe he’s been deliberately avoiding sleep. Just now, that strategy has caught up to him.”
2 Likes
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!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm
PART 5.0 - Mirror mirror on the…oh, crap!
PART 5.1 - Hello, little puppies!
PART 6.0 - Speed
PART 6.1 - GIMME OXYGEN! (feat. Madrias)
PART 6.2 - Steamin’ hot! (feat. Elizipeazie)
PART 7.0 - The Kayak
PART 7.1 - Marie the valkyrie?
PART 7.2 - Vegetables
PART 7.3 - Time to tie things up.
PART 8.0 - The hangover
PART 8.1 - The new team member
PART 9.0 - From pink to brown
PART 9.1 - Co-op with Madrias and Elizipeazie
PART 9.2 - Where is Sonic?
PART 10.0 - First at last!
PART 10.1 - Co-op with Variationofvariables
PART 11.0 - Why is this van so damn fast?
PART 11.1 - Co-op with Madrias
PART 11.2 - Demons and dragons bullshit
PART 11.3 - Oops, thank you, Kaylie!
PART 12.0 - Snap, crackle and pop!
PART 12.1 - The fire breathing jalopy
PART 12.2 - Written by Madrias
PART 12.3 - Bumpin’ the bumper
PART 13.0 - A jawdroppin’ ride
Janne went out early in the morning, to see if things had calmed down. Was it only an electrical gremlin that he saw, or…? He climbed into the van, turned on the ignition, and still the same warning was lit.
“W A I T”
He tried to ignore what he hoped should just be the glow plug indicator from the diesel version all of a sudden getting some gremlins, lighting up for no reason at all, so he tried to crank the starter, with no success at all. The starter was dead, while the “W A I T” - message was shining brighter than ever. He put his hand on the glow plug indicator, and it was…hot. Burning hot. Turning off the ignition and turning it on again, once again showed the message he saw the day before, briefly flickering in front of his eyes.
“O B E Y”
Quickly followed by
“W A I T”
The thing was, the “W A I T”-light was lit for a very long time. Longer than it would have been when starting up a diesel in the coldest of temperatures, which he was very used to. After waiting for a really long time, the light changed from a red “W A I T” to a green “S T A R T”, he tried to crank the starter, it worked but he quickly turned it off again to not wake up the rest of the team.
“Oh, crap…”, he thought. “How will I even explain this to Andreas? He will go nuts over this shit…”
With the rest of the team waking up, Janne tried to explain the whole thing to Andreas.
"Well, you know, there is some small electrical gremlins with the van, it can be hard to start…", Janne tried to explain to Andreas.
"The whole van is turning into a gremlin more or less, so what could possibly be different?", Andreas said.
"Ehm, the glow plug indicator…", Janne tried to explain, without really knowing how he should say it.
"Which glow plug indicator? This is not a diesel!", Andreas said, scratching his head.
With everyone seated inside the van, and the stuff put into the cargo area, Andreas started up the engine like if nothing had happened, Janne once again being white in his face.
"B…but…how did you do that?", Janne said.
"I don’t know? Seems like the electrical gremlins you’re talking about has gone away. Bad grounding? Maybe you should check that out?"
After driving not very far, they passed the Yamada being driven by Team Blazers, once again Janne noticed a flickering in the glow plug indicator.
“K I L L”
…
“T H A T”
…
“C A R”
…
“J U S T”
…
“D O”
…
“I T !”
"YAAAARGHHHH!", Janne was screaming, once again white in his face.
"MARIE!", Andreas said angrily. "Is Sonic on the floor again?"
"No", Marie said, "He is sleeping on the dashboard."
"Sounds like if Janne was stepping on him, though.", Andreas said.
"Bb…b…a…h…bb…l…eh… I probably fell asleep and had a nightmare., Janne said.
Not long after this, they heard a rattle coming from the front of the van, just getting worse and worse. At the same time, they saw how the Union Magistrate belonging to team Oil Crisis was trying to pass them. When the Magistrate had started to overtake the van, something pink taped together with duct tape was flying away. The front bumper. Already being broken, the bumper being run over first with the front and then with the rear wheels of the Magistrate, there was nothing left of it, just pink plastic smithereens spread all over the road. Though, it seems like the Magistrate took no damage, probably since the bumper already was broken.
"You should not have kicked the bumper so hard yesterday!", Janne told Andreas. "Look what happened now!"
"GOOD! Now we got rid of all the fucking dyre bones, and I am not going to pick any of the parts up!, Andreas said.
"I doubt that it is even possible", Janne said, seeing the few remains of the bumper being completely crushed by the Carica driven by Team Gearknobs driving over them.
Not long after that, Janne once again noticed some flickering from the glow plug indicator, even if he TRIED to ignore it, it was simply impossible, his eyes was looking over there and he could not stop them, while Marie and Andreas seemed to be totally unaffected.
“P I N K”
…
“Y O U R”
…
“F A U L T”
…
“O B E Y”
…
“O R”
…
“P A Y”
The fact that the light now had EXACTLY the same shade of bubblegum pink as the van, made Janne even more uncomfortable than earlier. But he was keeping quiet. At the next fuel stop he was looking at the front of the van. There was some stuff hanging there quite unprotected with the bumper gone, which he didn’t really like. He saw something interesting, though. Some pieces of scrapwood not very far from the road. Loading them into the van, he had a plan to build a new front bumper out of them, as soon as they arrived at the camp. Not that the bumper seemed to be the biggest problem they had…
TO BE CONTINUED…
4 Likes
ORCH.....................DAS....FINALE......................................YOU..................ARE................(NOT)..............HATED.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
croing woairning: actually just horror no vehicle ok maybe slightly vehicle but mostly eldritch
BLAZERS
FINALE:
Goodbye, this kiss is for the world.
The desolate campsite winds rushed over the tops of the trees, eventually falling down upon the racers in a cooling wind that shivered the people standing about in preparation for the next stage, and whilst the rest of the team had gathered a rest, there was one man who seemed to be missing from the tent. Charlotte quickly glanced around as she left the tent, her heterochromic eyes scanning the area as she looked for any sign of the team’s main driver. She seemed relatively calm, but a memory continued to lapse inside of her head as she recalled the events of the night before.
“I’ll join you guys… in a bit.”
The feline remained awake for a few hours until midnight, and in that long dreadful time period, she never once felt the presence of someone entering the tent. The remembrance continued to play in her head as her gaze looked across their area, and found herself taken aback by what she saw before him. Romulo sat there hunched over the steering wheel, appearing to have fallen asleep in the car the night before. Charlotte was very much alarmed, quickly running over and attempting to open the door, only to find – much to her dismay – that the locks on the car were shut, and he was simply sitting in there with no way for air to circulate from the outside, for the windows remained retracted all the way up.
She thought quickly, and began to bang on the window, calling out to the man inside the vehicle with a look of worry in her eyes. “Ray!” She yelled out, which caught the attention of Watson and the others, and perhaps other teams who were nearby and gathering their belongings together to prepare for the coming day. Watson rushed over, but as he did, Romulo began to rise from where he was once leaning atop, and looked back at a distressed feline currently looking back at him, with tears seemingly about to form in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Watson could see his lips move. Romulo’s eyes seemed normal, like they always were. Slightly eye-bagged, sure, but no signs that anything might have been wrong with him. Yet still, the blonde detective remained suspicious.
Romulo unlocked the doors to allow the rest of the team to enter, but as Charlotte swung the passenger-side door open, a foul stench began to quickly seep into her nostrils, activating her gag reflexes as she quickly backed away from the car.
Watson saw this, and the alarm in his eyes grew quickly as he rushed over to the feline’s side, but Romulo remained indifferent to the situation, as though nothing important seemed to be happening, even going so far as to ask if anything was wrong. Watson looked at the cabin with a face of disgust and repulsiveness, even though it looked perfectly normal to him. What wasn’t normal however, was Romulo. His skin looked distorted, almost melted, and it seemed like he was about to bind into the seat as one. Watson took a whiff of the interior once more, and the smell was one incredibly familiar to him.
“Romulo, you‘re not normal.” He said plainly with a disapproving gaze.
From across the vehicle, Ga’araiya stared back into it. She could feel the imminent piercing gaze of the machine as it shot back into her eyes, and she felt ready to bring her trident out, but a quick glare from Watson forced her to retract her hand back. Instead, the silver haired girl approached the bodywork of the vehicle, resting her hand upon the silver-polished Yamada badge that rested upon the plastic grille. While it looked as though nothing was happening, once she retracted her hand, she would nearly collapse onto the warm soil beneath her, if not for Watson’s quick actions to have her land atop his arms.
Charlotte noticed that the smell was now gone following whatever Ga’araiya had done to the car, but still she seemed hesitant to enter. She lifted her head from the seat in front of her and her eyes landed upon the driver, who to an intense trepidation, left her shocked as she saw him now collapsed atop the steering wheel, his skin now seemingly having returned to normal.
In a quick set of scenarios, Watson called for Emily to hold Ga’araiya, as he rushed towards the driver’s side to pull Romulo away from the wheel. The driver seemed perfectly fine now, with no signs of melting or whatever he first saw initially, but Watson was now doubtful of his abilities to drive, and quickly unbuckled his seatbelt to pull the unconscious man away from the driver’s seat.
“Watson…” Emily’s face was clouded with a disapproving look.
“This is the only choice we have. I will pilot the Yamada.” Watson said as he lifted Romulo up towards his shoulder. “We’re not going to be left behind in a foreign place all alone, and I don’t trust that ring enough to transport us somewhere we would know. It’s more dangerous than me trying to drive this machine, even with Charlotte here.”
Watson shoved the man into the rear seat row, behind the driver, locking him into the seatbelt and slamming the door shut. As he was just about to enter the car, he heard the bell ring out in town, and once more the ear-piercing symphony of internal combustion engines sang its song of mechanical combustion. Not wanting to be left behind, the detective cranked the key in the ignition to awaken the Japanese-built beast that lay underneath the blood red bodywork, and it started up with a roar that shook the vehicle’s metal chassis.
Not wasting any time, Charlotte hopped into the seat next to him, and Emily assisted the immobile Ga’araiya into the backseat, and before long Watson moved the shifter into first, launching the car in a flurry of kicked up gravel from beneath its tyres.
The vehicle’s steering wheel felt heavy, but the throttle and clutch were unusually light, almost as though it wanted to move itself. The battle of wits was on, to play it safe, or to heed to the machine’s call. The slower cars were all passed one by one, mere centimetres from each body panel. Emily watched in horror as the familiar blue-and-yellow Dauer began to approach the Yamada, before closing her eyes until she no longer heard the revving of the flat-four engine as the blood red crossover passed it with seemingly no issue.
“W-Wat-!” She opened her eyes and called out to the driver, but stopped halfway through as she saw the struggle of the blonde man in the pilot’s seat. Sweat beading up on the side of his head, his arms visibly struggling to maintain control of the wheel as it moved on its own. She freezed, and promptly remained silent, like the man she was about to scold for nearly hitting someone dear to her.
As the struggle only continued as the hour passed, Watson was beginning to lose his focus, and the car was getting dangerously close to the edges of the corners he was taking. The fastest line, sure, but the safest line? He couldn’t bring himself to trust the vehicle with it. Not after all it had been doing all this time. The driver persevered through the drive up the hill, not allowing the thrill of driving to get to him like Romulo yesterday.
Just as he’d thought he’d found a middle ground, a pair of headlights began to glow in the rear view mirror, and the pink dot began to grow in size as he witnessed before, only from in front. He prepared to yield, but the steering wheel began to heave on him. The signal stock locked itself in its position, and the pedal suddenly got lighter, causing the throttle to jolt into a more open position which allowed more air and fuel to get into the cylinder.
The TEVR system kicked in as the revs climbed and his foot leaned further on the pedal, and the vehicle lunged forward, pushing the car a bit further away from the pink van. This would only last for a moment as Watson lifted his foot off the pedal where the car wouldn’t be able to take over, and the pink van quickly passed by without a fuss. Watson decided to keep his feet off the pedals for now, and the red crossover slowly began to lose speed. He placed his foot back on the accelerator, which took very little effort to press down, and caused the car to lunge back to the speed they were initially going at.
“We’re playing that game, huh?”
A new game of negotiation began as Watson felt the steering wheel respond in a non-mechanical fashion, as though it was pricking at his own hands, even though the circumference remained as smooth as ever. The struggle was constant and he felt his leg straining as he carefully balanced the throttle. This contrast between his lower body and his upper was something he was familiar with, but not in a way like this, with the wrestling of the wheel and the meticulous movements of his footwork in ways he was not planning.
The movement of the car was jerky, everyone in the cabin, despite being almost locked into place by the seatbelts, still tightly held onto whatever they could. Charlotte had let go of her pacenotes, and the papers were now strewn across the muddy carpet floor. But the endeavour would bear fruit eventually, as they began to see the town fill their view more and more. Watson found the gathering of automobiles on the end of one road beside the town, and with a bit of struggling, he brought the car to a skidding halt in the low field of grass where the other vehicles had just arrived.
Looking down at the Yamada badge, he once more looked at his reflection in the chrome polish of the large “Y” that sat upon the vehicle’s horn. He turned his head towards the other people in the car as he caught his breath, everyone seemed fine, but Ga’araiya and Romulo were still very much out cold.
“How much more of this will we go through…?” Charlotte sighed as she let go of the handle on the vehicle’s A-pillar. She unbuckled her seatbelt and quickly unlocked the door to get out, her legs felt weak and her mind was constantly racing as she landed on the grass beneath her feet.
Watson shut the engine down, and removed his own seatbelt so he could exit the vehicle too.
“Emily, get out of the car. It’s not safe anymore.” He said sternly as he unlocked all the doors and quickly climbed out, leaving the door open. Emily nodded at him, pushing the door open and carrying the unconscious silver-haired girl out onto the field. Watson meanwhile pulled the handle on the door to unlock it, and was met with the sight he’d just seen earlier in the day. Romulo lay in the seat, his skin looking as though partially melted into the seat. The displeasing stench of a decomposing corpse began to seep through Watson’s nostrils, and he quickly placed his hand on Romulo’s neck. He felt the pulse resonate through his fingertips, and was quick to confirm that he was indeed still alive. Lifting his finger away from the man’s carotid, he felt a slime string from Romulo’s skin, and he quickly shook his hand to get the substance off.
“Intriguing…”
Watson tried moving Romulo, but the man felt heavy, and he looked down to see exposed skin stretching towards the seat as he attempted to move him, which promptly caused Watson to quickly retract himself from the vehicle and rush towards the rear to grab the tent, which was laid out upon the grassy field in a short amount of time.
“Get Ga’araiya in here!” He called out to Emily, who responded quickly with a nod, and after lifting the girl over into the tent, settled her down into a comfortable position to allow her to rest. With her now settled, Watson moved his hand over her temple, and a familiar blue glow began to illuminate the girl’s forehead.
Upon doing this, a loud shut was heard from behind them, and Emily and Watson turned their heads to see the Yamada’s doors having all closed. A visibly startled Charlotte tripped down nearby the red vehicle, watching in horror as she saw Romulo through the clear windows of the crossover, and lost sight of him in less than a second when a crimson liquid splattered itself across the car’s glass. She lifted her hands to cover her mouth as she turned her head away in trepidation upon the gore she had witnessed.
As blood trickled down the interior of the vehicle and seeped through the door seams, one with a keen eye would immediately be able to notice the shaking of the machine on its own. The wheels began to shift about their position, and the front and rear height began to move as though it was lifting itself up from the ground. In the headlights, a faint glow gave way to bright flashes that sent two beams of light searching across the campsite, before finally landing on a rusted wagon, and a pink van that sat idly on the other end of the field.
The suspension of the Yamada collapsed for a moment, but the deathly stare of its headlights locked itself firmly to the two vehicles in its path, and finally the car’s rear door opened itself to vomit out the team’s other belongings, including a familiar but now bloodstained blue Hawaiian shirt that landed on the ground next to a horrified Charlotte, who upon seeing it, scrambled away on the floor but still making eye contact with the being before her, which was now slowly rising from the ground with its fleshy appendages that extended from within its wheel arches. The front end lifted off the ground, leaving the bumper on the flat plain where it rested, covered in a dark and dull liquid that slowly leaked from between the pairs of incisors that now revealed themselves to the other teams. An eerie and audience screeching of metal would ring throughout people’s ears as the body of the crossover stretched itself to reveal more blood-covered protuberances that remained hidden underneath its steel body panels. The headlights began to slide downwards from where its sockets were, but still remained illuminating as it began to unravel more and more of its true form, and now pairs of eyes emerged from beneath the beast’s armour, staring at all the beings that stared back at it.
A smile slowly crept upon the monster’s face as it reached its full height, and showed all its limbs to the disgust and dismay of those who would now witness its wrath.
”I…i Am TiRed.tiRED oF wAitiNG…”
The metallic red body panels of what used to be a Yamada ASR-4 unfolded and multiplied at rapid pace, forming vulgar shapes that stretched out into sharp steel fragments, arranged in manners that resembled an unearthly being bent into shapes that repulsed everything in its path.
From beneath Watson’s hand, the girl who was once lying dormant now opened her eyes, and a bright red glow began to emanate from her irises which were once the soft blue of the oceans. Silvery streaks on her hair fell out, and were replaced with glowing red elements as she rose from within the tent. A turquoise trident manifested itself from the floor beneath her, but began to twist upon itself and shift towards a maroon hue that could only be compared to ferrite-lined blood.
“Ga’araiya!” Watson called out as she took a step towards the monster that was digging its claws into the ground beneath. But still, she stood her ground as the trident completed its form, and she grasped it firmly in her hand as she pointed it right at the monster.
“I knew I should have pacified that vile thing when I had the chance.”
“That’s not the point, princess! We are in no position to be dealing with a being such as that! Fate guaranteed it was meant to happen-”
“Yet you still agreed to take us along for the ride, did you not?” She looked at him with a cold deathly stare that seemed to pierce through the usual mental armour he would don, and go straight into his soul where he simply remained silent. The silence seemed unusual, however, as his eyes were wide with tremor, and he remained unmoving. “Rest assured, if you still manage to bring me back to Atlantis, I will leave this out of my report to mother. Allow me to finish this.”
Ga’araiya prepared to strike at the behemoth that stood before them, but as she turned her head around, she found herself face to face with the beast right there and then. The pairs of teeth that lined its smug visage were now innumerous sharp fangs that skirted around its jaw and were dripping with a rusty-coloured liquid that smelled strongly of iron.
13 Likes
umm, that’s still a car… right?
Keepitz, Crugandr
Local time: 5-05 Sun
Secret One Of Three, Revealed
The sound of stressed metal and the headlight beams that shone on the rusted bodywork of the Magistrate, signaled something was afoot, something that would instill terror in even the bravest soldiers. But, even at that moment there was one other sentient, being that feared nothing, possibly being the one thing that stood between life and death.
The crew of the military green land ship had instantly snapped to attention, the moment the headlights of the ASR-4, parked across the camp, concentrated on the Magistrate, all five of them turned to witness the scene that was unfolding before them.
A set of blue eyes watched closely, accompanied by a voice. “I had a feeling this was going to happen. You just had to go and piss it off that night?”
“Aidan, again I’m telling you, I didn’t. This isn’t related to what I did two nights ago.”
Right at that moment, the red crossover was no longer a red crossover but, a huge grotesque being standing up on a set of legs or limbs of some kind in a quadrupedal formation, and started to move. The four visible members of the team froze, standing in place, not knowing what to do further. There was a sound of a lightsaber flaring up, and a hum of increasing pitch. Weapons were at the ready and the four lombaxes, two light tan, a third orange like a fox, and a silver giant, ready for combat. They watched the scene unfold, until another sound broke through the air from behind them, this time, one that wouldn’t seem interesting to anyone, but to a lombax, it was instantly recognizable. The sound of a hole opening through reality.
Behind them, was a portal, a gaping rift through the fragile sheet of glass that made up the barriers between dimensions, warbling, hissing, crackling and humming, with no sign of the fifth team member of Team Oil Crisis, Malcolm.
“Whatever he is planning, it had better work, because we aren’t going to survive that.” Pavel exclaimed.
“He knows what he’s doing. Don’t worry.”
The sharp fangs of the giant, mere inches away from the silver haired girl’s face, paused for a moment as its head turned around upon the new noise it had just heard, and in this time, Ga’araiya quickly moved backwards to pick up the blonde man on the floor. She aimed the three-pronged crimson weapon towards the beast’s head, and a near invisible streak flew from its bright red tips.
A hole was carved perfectly through the edge of its neck, and the large being once more turned its head towards the source of the beam whilst announcing an ear-piercing wail. It seemed to assess the damage it had received first of all, then quickly turned towards a patch of trees in the distance. It lifted its large appendages off the ground, dragging some of the grass along with it and leaving large prints half the size of a car, and ran towards the forest to retreat, disappearing into the leaves and branches with its crimson mechanical tail being the last thing visible to the camp.
Ga’araiya was about to run after the creature as it scurried away, but a shaking hand grasped her wrists, and she looked down to see Watson shaking his head. With a sigh, she stood still and instead looked across the camp, particularly where the lights of the Yamada shone on initially. She spotted the pink van and the green wagon sitting idly, but the team operating the vehicle armed and seemingly ready for what might be coming. The girl retracted her trident and began approaching them, looking at one of the lombaxes in particular.
Behind them, was a purple portal that looked like someone had thrown a brick through a glass window. It was alarmingly big, and if anyone dared to go closer, they would feel tingling in their bones caused by the rift through dimensions messing with their senses. However, this was not of immediate concern as the lombaxes didn’t seem affected by the energy whatsoever.
“It seems you all have a plan at the ready, I hope you do not mind me asking what exactly it may be.” The girl said as she approached the group, occasionally glancing at the portal behind them. “I believe we have met before, in rather unfortunate circumstances where I had my identity concealed for the meantime, but an introduction was made nonetheless.”
She took a good look towards the end of the forest where the monster had run off towards, seeing a damaged pathway that nearly made a partition through the leaves, and aimed her weapon towards there.
“I can assure you it was not your fault…” She glared at Orlen for a moment.
Orlen nodded, making a slight sideways glance to his brother.
“Neither was it that machine’s fault as to why this happened. It was all down to one pretentious and overconfident coward who thought that by putting himself in the image, he could suddenly save everyone.” The girl clicked her tongue. ”Such a fool…”
Kameron, the lombax with the blue glowing blade that hummed ominously, looked in the direction of where the beast had gone. “Wait, so that blonde man over there caused this whole thing?”
“I wouldn’t say the whole thing, but a significant portion of whatever that creature turned out to be, sure. He realised something down the line, but ignored it anyway, but could you blame him really? Unfamiliar environment, people, pretty much everything and a crucial task at hand bestowed upon him by none other than my mother. This isn’t the first time this happened either, as much as I wouldn’t accept it myself. He is still largely…” Her voice began to trail off as she lifted her head towards them, her noble mind immediately forcing her to silence herself after realising the tangent she had gone on. “Ah… sorry, did I say too much?”
The silver furred giant, Pavel, shook his head. “No. But we’ve got to figure out a way to stop that thing before it attacks the city or us.”
“Are we going to follow it?” Aidan asked, clearly concerned.
“Are melee weapons all that you have?” Ga’araiya’s eyes shifted towards their weapons. “Going in close range is suicide against something like that. And yes, we must act with haste in chasing it down, for if you had not seen, that beast is still growing. Even I am unaware of what its potential capabilities might be.”
“My wrench, same as the one my brother wields, can convert into a rifle. He also has that lever action rifle he bought. Pavel’s wrench turned a three ton armoured steel door into nothing but scrap metal at only 20 percent power. I have a feeling we’ll have help when the time comes, I don’t know who or what it might be.”
“Very well. If you say that weapon is as capable as it sounds, I can assume that you will not be in need of my assistance in combat. As for the help you speak of, it must have something to do with that contraption, does it not?” She said, pointing towards the portal behind them.
The portal then began to crackle, like how the ice on a lake would when springtime came along before Malcolm, orange furred like Kameron stepped out from the portal toting an RPG-7.
“Contrary to what you think, that isn’t a contraption. It’s an opening through dimensions.” He explained. “It’s made possible via Dimensionator.”
Then he crouched down and picked up a long and bulky item with a cranking handle on the side, before cranking it twice. The front of the weapon responded by opening up in three segments, akin to how a flower blooms, a purple glow similar to the glass-like hole emanated from inside the weapon, before a switch was activated and the front snapped closed, snuffing the light out.
“Just don’t get yourself killed, then.” She turned towards the pathway through the leaves in the towering trees ahead. The girl was about to take a step forward, but she felt a palm land on her shoulder, and turning her head to her right, it was none other than Watson. She sighed as she looked up towards him. “What is it?”
Watson remained quiet, first glancing at the team of lombaxes next to them, then back towards Ga’araiya, as he opened his mouth to speak. “I will assist-”
“I don’t need your assistance. Don’t you think it’s about time you let go for once? I don’t care about what you do with my mother behind curtains, but that doesn’t give you any power to control the things I want to do. This creature will kill people if we don’t do something. Have you not realised that? Or are you too focused on your own ambitions to allow me to do anything that will save lives?” She shook his hand off. Her voice was unlike before, for it was not the usual soft and dulcet tone one would have grown accustomed to. It sounded like bottled up rage exploding out of a small neck, bursting with fury and dismay.
“It’s always like this, Watson. You claim to be strong, but that strength only ever goes to protecting me, and never to any one else. Quit your selfish act at once!”
With her outrage over, she swung the crimson trident towards him, and from the ground rose spikes that looked like ice in a crescent form that blocked him from reaching her. A dumbfounded Watson simply stared at her, his face clearly clouded with emotions of regret.
“I understand, princess.” He said, standing firmly where he was.
Ga’araiya now looked towards the lombax team. “If you’re ready, then follow my lead. Do not mind that fool behind me.”
A reddish hue began to emanate from beneath her feet, and the trident twisted once more into a different form, and thus she walked towards the patch of forest that now stood between them and the beast that was to come.
To Be Continued (Like Always)
4 Likes
9 Likes
MACHINAS CON PASSIONE SHITBOX ADVENTURES: Episode 10 - You Know, I’m Something of a Backmarker Myself.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Machinas Con Passione Team Ford Headquarters - 2022
Ryouchi Katou sat down in the garage, kinda relishing another day without the boss around. While sure, Giacomo got annoying pretty quickly, He had the experience and knowledge of a man who’s entered every series money will allow him to, granting him quite the infectious confidence in times of need. And boy, did he need it.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Shitbox Rally - Trugarde Camp
Chad, as usual, was finding a ridiculous way to accomplish a simple task, this time punching the wall of the van to get the Painting of Giacomo to stick to it out of pure fear of what Chad might do to it if it fell off the wall. He was effectively trying to intimidate a piece of paper, with predictable results.
Maria, having fully had enough of being woken up to a man punching a wall, gently took the paper, slapped it onto the wall, and taped the edges, before silently going back to sleep.
Shitbox Rally - On the Road
It was all going smoothly, until Thibault spun nearly unprovoked. This usually means that it’s time to change some tires, or that Thibault has had a skill issue (which he has yet to experience in this particular rally). Chad prepared the tire jack, only to see that Giacomo had turned his signature move, the Jackswing, against him.
Chad dodged Giacomo’s jackswing, inexplicably causing the Six Million Dollar Man sound effect to play as he launched himself a few inches off of the ground to clear the tirejack, causing Giacomo to pop the right rear tire, and dent the surrounding bodywork. Chad simply shook his head, as Giacomo stared in disbelief at the fact that Chad could dodge his phenomenally well timed swing. Thibault poked his head out of the window, staring daggers into Giacomo. “Giacomo. Did you think that maybe, just maybe, one puncture was bad enough? Do you seriously expect Chad to fix everything for us?” Giacomo, geniunely being confused by the question, could only scratch his head, and offer a meagre “Er… Yes?” As a reply. This resulted in Giacomo being thoroughly outvoted 5 to 1 (Bill’s silent stare being counted as a vote against him) as the one to change the tire he just punctured, causing the team to quickly be passed by multiple vehicles who, in all honesty, would likely have passed them anyway. Benjamin and Maria counted the ones that flew past.
“Dauer.”
“Yamada…?”
“There’s the IP.”
“Really? Where?”
“… In the distance, they passed us a while back.”
“Oh. You had my hopes up there, assistant.”
“Keeping you sharp is part of my job, doctor.”
“I thought it was keeping me sane?”
“Oh doctor, nobody could do that!”
The two shared an overexaggerated laugh, only for Benjamin to quickly interrupt it.
“Seriously though we cant run a business if I keep digging around the garbage for hearts to use for transplants.”
“Or if you keep yanking people’s organs out mid-surgery to document them, yet here we are.”
They sighed, knowing Giacomo would hold them up for a half hour yet.
Shitbox Rally - On the Road
Thibault noticed the van didn’t handle the same, looking into the mirror to notice something. Why is the rear fender so flared?
“Hey, Giacomo, I know we’re aerodynamic and all, but why is the fender sticking out like that? Are you TRYING to create drag or something?” Giacomo raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? I pulled on it a bit NASCAR style! Now we have way more sideforce!” Thibault flicked Giacomo with his gloved hand, realized the glove absorbed most of the impact, and feigned punching him. “Dude. We don’t need sideforce. I WANT to go sideways in the turns, now the car is fighting back. Thanks guy.” Giacomo scratched the back of his head. “Yeah but… Vortices… And stuff…” Everyone collectively facepalmed, save for Giacomo, of course.
Shitbox Rally - Keepitz campsite
At the campsite, Thibault was recalling his early racing career, from his failure to succeed in Formula cars, to how he eventually made the choice to join Hyundai in the WRC. Unfortunately, Giacomo interrupted him as soon as the word “Formula” left his mouth, to tell the story of how HE got started Formula One, though not as a racer or team manager, but as the engine builder his father always wanted him to be.
Forti Team HQ
December 9th, 1995.
“Welcome to Forti Corse!” Giacomo excitedly pointed at the rather unremarkable office building. Hikiko could clearly make out around four or five people total working in the shop. She scratched the back of her head, looking into the office, then back at Giacomo. “Oh, Giacomo… I…" She didn’t need to find the words, as usual, it seemed Giacomo already had them. “It’s great, right? Italy’s second best!” Hikiko had to stifle a laugh."“Honey, that’s Benetton.” Giacomo had clearly not thought of that. “Oh. Um… Third best?” Try as he might, Giacomo wasn’t exactly making the process of joining Forti easy. Hikiko shook her head. “Nope, that’s Minardi.” Giacomo’s face lit up at the thought of Minardi, as should the face of any self respecting F1 fan when mentioning the team of all teams. “Minardi’s a good team as well! How about it?” Minardi wasn’t a bad team and all, but that’d put Hikiko right under Ferrari’s thumb, an all too familiar place. “And go back to Ferrari? as if.” Giacomo smirked, carrying a bit too much confidence considering what he’d say next. “Pfft. Ferrari? Ferrari who? We can beat the-” As soon as those words left Giacomo’s mouth, he felt a deep, piercing pain in his chest. He, as an Italian, committed blasphemy of the highest order. He could not physically force himself to finish the sentence. He clasped his hands briefly, prayed for forgiveness from Enzo Ferrari, and started again. “Alright, maybe we can’t BEAT Ferrari per se, but we can really build something here, I think! The boys are really dedicated, and I’ve got something special up my sleeve.” Hikiko slowly turned to face Giacomo, seeming frightened at the mere thought of whatever Giacomo could have planned. “Um… What would that be?” Giacomo had clearly been waiting for this to come up for a while. “Well, we do have Zetec V8s, we’ll be sure to build the engines in house! Modify em and everything! Machinas Con Passione is on the job!” less outright terror, more confusion. “Machinas Con… Passione?” Giacomo brazenly gave Hikiko a thumbs up. “The greatest engine builder in italy!” Hikiko immediately understood. “Ah, yes, your team?” Giacomo’s grin stretched ear to ear. “Of course, who else would it be?” Hikiko shrugged, finding it hard to keep a straight face given Giacomo’s mood. She relented. “Alessio always was pretty good.” It was then that Giacomo took this time to remind Hikiko of the Scarfiotti family motto, something his father had thought up of as something deep and representative of the family spirit, now slightly bastardized to support a crazy man and his dream. “Hey, the Scarfiotti’s never lose! even in defeat, we win!” Hikiko pat Giacomo’s back, trying to bring him back to reality “Definitely. I’ll be telling myself that when I miss half the season.” Giacomo then took Hikiko by the hand, hurriedly rushing into the building. “Come on, let’s go inside!”, Giacomo’s enthusiasm nearly catches on with Hikiko, but one look at the building from the inside brings her back to reality. She simply stares at the mechanics, who are all sat working on a table. 4 months out from the season, and the car is still in blueprint phase. Giacomo presents the blueprints to Hikiko, with full jazz hands for effect. “So, what do you think?” Hikiko has “skeptic” written all over her face. She sighs. “I don’t even know if this is better than Footwork.” Giacomo seems to brush off this concern all too easily, bringing Hikiko in for a one armed hug. "Oh, come on! With our engines, you’ll be unstoppable!"Hikiko knew, without a doubt, that she was in for the hardest season of her career. 8 years in, and yet the real struggle was right before her. She could always call it quits, she had a great run in the Footwork, with two podiums inherited from the misfortune of others, though when the money dried up, so did her chances of staying long term. But Giacomo… His enthusiasm was quite infectious, to say the least. “You can really do it?” At this, the various mechanics around the garage stop their work, and stare at Hikiko, ready and waiting for orders. “Of course! And it’s a small team environment, so we can easily make any changes to the car on the fly! We’re just a bit limited, but we can fight like dogs, and you know what they say?” With those words, Hikiko’s anxiety was eased. Just like that. “Every dog has it’s day. I’m impressed mr. Scarfiotti.” Giacomo, as always, was two steps ahead of her. Already making plans for what was next. "I’ll speak to Father to get the first engines underway! You can get started with the boys here!"And just like that, Giacomo runs off. Meanwhile, Hikiko had her own business to attend to. “Like I’m a member of the team, huh?” She muttered, mostly ro herself. Hikiko looked at the men around her, and began poring over the blueprints to the FGP03…
As Giacomo turned around to see Hikiko getting started on the blueprints, Alessio lay an arm to rest on his shoulder. “Giacomo, this is your ability.” Giacomo looks up at his Father. Alessio elaborates. “Your optimism.You draw people into your team, and unite them under a common goal. I believe that, even if it takes years, you will find your success in racing. You are a true Scarfiotti, determined to the end.” Giacomo wiped the tear of joy that began to trickle down his face, his tone, however, remained unchanged. A tone of near-foolish levels of naivete and optimism.“Father, your words mean the world to me.” They both turn to the Ford ECA Zetec-R laid out on the table. “It’s been a long time, eh?”
Shitbox Rally 2022 - Keepitz Stage Campsite
Maria was less incredulous this time, and more ready to burst at the seams from laughter. “Of all the teams you could have joined… Forti? REALLY?” Thibault, who knew the grind all too well, having to start from nothing upon first joining the WRC, was suprised to find that his egotistical and slightly mad “boss” had, at some point, the humbleness within him to start from the bottom.
It was all good times and festivities, of course, until an earsplitting shriek cut through the conversation, causing the team to collectively snap their heads at the source, a towering monstrosity of flesh and machine. Thibault knew in that moment that he had experienced his final night of undisturbed rest.
“Hey, don’t you think we should help them?” Maria looked around the group to gauge their reactions to the suggestion. Chad spoke up first, placing a hand on her shoulder. “My friend. We may be capable of alot, but that, is a bit more then any of us can handle. We should aim to help in the aftermath, and stay out of the way for now.”
“What is that? Some kind of… Angel?” Thibault asked Chad, seemingly expecting Chad to know for some reason. Chad could only manage to shake his head. “No, some kind of demon, it looks like.” Giacomo wordlessly fell to the floor, nearly instantaneously passing out as soon as Chad finished speaking.
Machinas Con Passione’s Shitbox Adventures Part 10 - Fin
We do a little trolling
3 Likes
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Trugarde-Keepitz
Curtain
Some talk had started in the car as we started going
Mrdja: “I shall admit Poirot was as genius as ever in Curtains.”
Chicota: “Who tf is that and why we should be interested?”
Klimentol, seemingly informed about the situation: Thats some fictive detective written by some woman…regarded as one of best fictional detectives ever.
Mrdja: Correct. My sister got Curtains as a birthday gift from friend. Friend was aware that she enjoys such style of books…although that does apply for fair bit of family anyway.
Its always interesting to try and come with who may be responsible for crime.
Its mostly murder ofc, but im sure some other options may exist.
VerBanka: Im prefering Poe’s work.
Mrdja: Interesting enough, i think Agatha was somewhat inspired by Poe.
Obvious inspiration was Doyle and his legendary Sherlock, but i think Poe was mentioned as well.
Chicota: Have you ever managed to correctly guess the criminal and how did he did it?
Mrdja: Never. Thats not exactly straight-forward as you may think.
You need to pay attention to every detail, even if seems minuscule, bcos maybe that might lead you to suspect.
Aydar: Well, lemme give some puzzle to you, then.
Rear end of the car seems rather loose at the moment.
Seems we did indeed missed a minute detail while setting off.
But what detail it might be in question?
Poking his head out of window, Mrdja didnt found too much out-of-ordinary with rears.
Tbf, he did so without glasses as was worried they may slip down.
Plans and how not to realize them
As you know by this point, i tend to use those short blurbs in stage description by Madrias as part of material for planning and writing these posts.
Therefore, you may already know what conclusion we came up with upon stop: both rears got rather empty.
Said wheels were replaced, but we were left to wonder what got wrong with ones on which we started.
Not that we were able to really determine that based on what we had at stop, but couldnt find any obvious intrusions or cracks either.
As per usual, thoughts in latter part of journey was oriented towards preparing Pi to her own journey after this adventure.
We got enough clothes (or atleast, stuff that can be repurposed into clothes) to cross that off the list, but there is still fair amount of stuff that Pi must go through.
We decided that Pi might want to learn about driving this car. Starting, accelerating, stopping, steering - very much aware this isnt enough for general situations she might find herself in, but would do for starters.
Klimentol became very quiet after sniffing some air through open window.
“I cant exactly pinpoint why this smell seems so worrying, but it is worrying. Chicota just in case…activate your Fighting Mode.”
He did so, making his eyes blood-red instead of typical brown.
Such small physical change, but meant he is now noticeably stronger than usual, 10/3 times stronger to be precise.
Also there is one fear of his that gets pushed aside in this mode, making him fearless.
(Not that it will play much of a role, mind you; being that caused uneasyness is way above his strength even now)
Indeed, camp didnt seem quite so right this time.
Something is about to happen…OR ALREADY DID.
Chicota had grabbed sledgehammer in hand, obviously ready for whatever is indeed the case in camp.
1 Like
So, just an OOC bit here from me regarding this situation:
Yes, I approved it happening because it’s an interesting send-off to a team.
However, because it has significant canon consequences, I have to invoke a group of people from the lore of this world, the Walkers of Destiny, to create a cover story for the teams who were not involved in the fighting.
Essentially:
Because of the event that happened, and the effect it would have on the timeline, the Walkers of Destiny had to get involved. Those directly involved in the event will still remember it. Those who wish to remember it will still remember it. Those who wish to forget it will no longer know what happened. Everyone has been told the cover story is that the Yamada crashed, one of the team was killed in the accident, and the team voluntarily left the rally afterward. The local natives who witnessed this event have had their memories altered to prevent any further disruptions.
However, don’t stop yourselves from letting this event play out. This only has to happen because otherwise Shift Happens would need some serious convincing to open up SR 2023. It’s one thing to face the dangers of the world, even if those dangers are 11 foot tall werewolves, it’s another to face a danger that someone brought in.
So, yes, the Walkers of Destiny are covering this event up because otherwise this interplanetary tourism doesn’t happen and won’t inspire people to further their research into internal combustion. Teams that didn’t fight will have the option to either remember or forget what happened. Teams that fought will remember what happened. Everyone has been told the cover story, and should stick to it when dealing with teams who have had their memories altered.
As for what this means for SR 2023? I might have to put a few limits on rule of cool submissions. I hate limiting freedom, but… I also hate having to invoke DM-Law over the challenge, too, just to keep the one team who arrives too late to fight from either calling off the rest of the challenge, and/or never starting SR 2023.
5 Likes
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!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm
PART 5.0 - Mirror mirror on the…oh, crap!
PART 5.1 - Hello, little puppies!
PART 6.0 - Speed
PART 6.1 - GIMME OXYGEN! (feat. Madrias)
PART 6.2 - Steamin’ hot! (feat. Elizipeazie)
PART 7.0 - The Kayak
PART 7.1 - Marie the valkyrie?
PART 7.2 - Vegetables
PART 7.3 - Time to tie things up.
PART 8.0 - The hangover
PART 8.1 - The new team member
PART 9.0 - From pink to brown
PART 9.1 - Co-op with Madrias and Elizipeazie
PART 9.2 - Where is Sonic?
PART 10.0 - First at last!
PART 10.1 - Co-op with Variationofvariables
PART 11.0 - Why is this van so damn fast?
PART 11.1 - Co-op with Madrias
PART 11.2 - Demons and dragons bullshit
PART 11.3 - Oops, thank you, Kaylie!
PART 12.0 - Snap, crackle and pop!
PART 12.1 - The fire breathing jalopy
PART 12.2 - Written by Madrias
PART 12.3 - Bumpin’ the bumper
PART 13.0 - A jawdroppin’ ride
PART 13.1 - The monsters under the bed were real, after all!
(Bonus if you get the references)
When the pink van had arrived at the campsite, Janne immediately started taking the dashboard apart.
“Checking out the trouble with bad ground?”, Andreas asked.
“Hmmm….yes”, Janne said, not very truthful while he removed the instrument cluster, only to find something that was utterly shocking.
“THERE ARE NO BULBS IN THE GLOW PLUG INDICATOR!”, Janne was screaming.
“No, why should it be?”, Andreas asked. “After all it is not a diesel.”
“But I could swear that…it was lit up…multiple times”, Janne was trying to say while shaking.
“I think that the heat is taking its toll on you now”, Andreas answered.
“But look here, there is no bulbs, right?”, he asked Andreas angrily.
“No, no bulbs, so what?”, Andreas sighed, a bit tired.
“Remember that the next time it is lit up”, Janne answered, very annoyed.
“WELL IT WON’T BE LIT UP BECAUSE IT IS NOT A FUCKING DIESEL AND THERE IS NO BULBS THERE, NOW STOP ACTING LIKE…I don’t know what. I really don’t know what. You are only getting more and more strange for each day”, Andreas said.
Janne threw his tools, walking away somewhere in anger, while Andreas just sat there and sighed. Late at night the van was still not fixed, Janne was just sitting mopey in the tent, and Andreas thought “Well, Let’s fix this myself so we actually have a vehicle to drive tomorrow”, and went back to the van to fix it.
He put the instrument cluster back together, and turned on the ignition, to see if everything worked like it should. Indeed it did, but slowly the glow plug indicator was lighting up with its “W A I T”.
“Now what the fuck is th…”, Andreas was shouting, just to be interrupted by the central locking system locking both of the front doors. He tried to open them, but it was just like if the door handle did nothing at all.
“S T A R T”, the glow plug indicator now read. He tried to turn off the ignition, but the key was so hot that he immediately burned his fingers on it. While taking his hand very rapidly off the ignition key, he heard the starter crank under the front seat, while the 4Z was waking up with a roar. The idle seemed to be at at least 2000 RPM and Andreas could not believe his eyes.
“Now how many electrical greml…” he said, only to watch the glow plug indicator flash again.
“D A N G E R”
“! ! ! ! ! !”
“T E R R O R”
“H O R R O R”
He somehow recognized this message, but could not place it, but he was dead scared because this possibly could not happen. Even worse was how the column shifter seemed to fall down from P to D like if something had been very broken. The van was roaring away, and Andreas at least tried to get a grip of the steering wheel, but there was a very unpleasant feeling there. Yes he COULD hold it, but it was just like if it was giving him a small electrical current, he could not hold there for any longer periods. Now he was sitting there, white in his face, trying to understand anything about what was happening.
Once again some cryptical message was flashing by in the glow plug indicator.
“D U V A N S”
“M A M M O R”
“K O M M E R”
“B O R T O T”
At the same time, the radio turned on all by itself, but despite the home-burned CD being put into it, the display was flashing “NO DISC”, and then “AM TUNER”. And he heard…something in the speakers. It was a very faint sound but despite the engine revving high he could hear it. It was…like a piano playing a funeral march very far away in a very large and empty room. Lots of echo. With some white noise crackling every now and then, and the radio was not as hot as the ignition key, nor was it trying to electrocute him like the steering wheel, it was just that it did not react on anything he did with the buttons.
Being totally busy with what was going on inside the van, he had not taken notice of anything outside, but all of a sudden the accelerator fell down to the floor. He tried to brake, only to feel the pedal going to the floor while the brake failure light was lit up. The pink van was approaching the Yamada with great speed, and if Andreas wasn’t dead scared before, he really was it now.
“Y O U”
“N E V E R”
“D I D”
“O B E Y”
“N O W”
“I”
“M U S T”
“D O”
“T H I S”
“M Y S E L F”
Even though the message was flashing by very rapidly in the glow plug indicator, he could notice every single word. Seeing how the Yamada was coming extremely close, after trying to escape from the IP for a while, he was sure that this was the end.
“S O R R Y”
“I”
“J U S T”
“C A N T”
“D O”
“T H I S”
“P L E A S E”
“H E L P !”
Once again a message was flashing in front of his eyes, while the IP was swerving away , passing the Yamada with great speed. He could see the faces of the passengers in the Yamada, probably being as scared as he was. He didn’t understand a thing. One thing was sure, he was not the one that was trying to kill the people inside the Yamada, but, WHAT, or WHO, or WHATEVER was it then?
The van was driving to the end of the field, where the handbrake was jumping up with enough force to knock his hand almost to the ceiling. The van did a 180 degree turn, the column shifter jumped to neutral. Engine went back to normal idle, while the high beams was turned on. The piano on the radio faded away and the display on the radio now did show a “SEEKING” message. All of a sudden the reception was crystal clear, but it sounded…old. Like if the programme was from the 50s or something. The voice of a little boy…
“Mum?
Dad?
…
Mum?
…
Dad?
…”
After a moment of silence you could hear the voices from a man and a woman instead.
“Oh, don’t worry. Mum and dad will always be here for you. In fact, always. Remember when we told you that the monsters under your bed is not real?”
“Yes?”
“In fact, we were right”, and now the voices turned into something much less sweet, much more scary. “What if the monsters aren’t under your bed? What if the real monsters are the one closest to you? WHAT IF THE MONSTERS ACTUALLY ARE US AND WHAT IF YOU NEVER WILL GET RID OF US BUT INSTEAD WE WILL HAUNT YOU FOREVER?”
You could hear the child screaming before everything went dead quiet and the radio went pitch black. The 4Z was revving in neutral, the front was pointing against the Yamada that now was turning into something…else. The face of Andreas now was whiter than the one of a snowman, and the glow plug indicator was telling him one message once again.
“I”
“R E G R E T”
“E V E R Y T H I N G”
“I”
“A M”
“S O R R Y”
“I”
“C A N T”
“D O”
“T H I S!”
Then he saw a flash of light under the dash and the IP went pitch black. The engine dead. All electrics dead. And Sonic jumping up from under the dashboard, scared for life, running up towards the right side headrest, which he was clinching his feet to. Probably he had been biting off some wires. And now there was absolutely nothing that Andreas could do while the Yamada was turning into some kind of beast that he could not explain at all.
If Sonic was scared, it was nothing at all compared to Andreas.
TO BE CONTINUED…
4 Likes
RK Series Racing; Stage 12 Drive
A new day comes around and once again Constantin was the first to wake up, going from sleeping like a rock to wide awake and fully functional in about three seconds. He just stares at the ornamental ceiling for a minute, contemplating how incredibly well he slept that night, though he had absolutely no clue about the equally incredible dreams he had.
Still, Constantin briskly made his way out of bed and went about getting dressed, after which he went into the common room, where he discovered a wide array of typical breakfast food items, including but not limited to various kinds of breads, butter, meats, cheeses and salads for toppings as well as was dangerously similar to scrambled eggs and bacon, all served on a number of neat platters placed on the common room table.
Next to that, four sets of dishes and cutlery were placed.
Unfortunately, Constantin completely forgot about the racket his stiff soles made, forcing the other two out their sleep.
Both of them took a while to get going mentally, with Tim arriving at the common room first.
“Mornin’…” Tim grumbled, taking a seat at the decked-out table.
“Good Morning.”, Constantin replied joining Tim at the table, who was already picking out ingredients.
“You know that you have the noisiest mofos that exist for a pair of shoes?”, Tim remarked, followed by him taking a bite out of his slice of bread with a bit of ham and scrambled eggs on top.
“I can contest that…”, Valentin protested as he appeared from behind the curtain splitting his room off from the common one. He didn’t seem to be as comatose as he was when Janne threw them out of bed in the middle of the night, though it was apparent that he made very little, if any effort in neatening himself up before joining the others. He took all of two steps into the room before stopping again to intentionally smack the metal cleats on the bottom of his shoes onto the parquet floor seam, creating a noise which, while very unusual for what looked like sneakers, did beat Constantin’s shoes in sheer volume.
“You win.”, Tim spoke with a full mouth, almost spreading his breakfast back onto the platters.
Content with his initial victory, Valentin also took a seat and quietly started arranging his meal together with Constantin, who had the manners to wait until everyone was present.
Breakfast was had, with Valentin eating unusually little. While this garnered some curiosity from the others, neither of them decided to immediately question it.
After that, the others went about collecting up what minimal luggage they carried in while Valentin took the chance to catch up on getting himself at least semi-presentable looking.
With that done, they collected Connor from the corner, where he spent the entire night standing and passively surveying the room and went out of the Inn and onto the Queens Garden plaza, with most of the competitors in some way busy preparing for the upcoming stage.
Among those was Shift Happens, which whom they exchanged good mornings and wishes for a good journey.
“Damn some of them had one hell of a shitty night, it seems…” Tim pointed out, motioning to Kivenaal as they passed the Bricksley.
“Cannot say mine was any better…”, Valentin grumbled in response, not even turning around to look at where Tim was pointing.
“That ankle is really killing you now, isn’t it?”, Tim inquired.
“Mhm…” Valentin just nodded, trying to keep a low profile regarding the nanites that were hard at work trying to fix the busted ankle.
They collectively made their way into the station and didn’t have to wait long until the famous Silver Line Special made it’s way into the station, gracefully rolling up next to them.
At the platform, they were greeted by the familiar face of the Railroad Official.
“Good morning. Hope you had a pleasant night at the End of the Line Inn.” he said, friendly as always but secretly hoping that the party wouldn’t remain in their minds too long.
“Food’s been great. Sleep wasn’t, though not exactly their fault…”, Valentin said, slightly shaking his head.
“It was wonderful.” Tim corrected. “He’s a bit of a grumpy cat today it seems…”
“Anyway… We have added the box car containing your carriage to the train.”, the official spoke, walking over and opening a massive sliding door on the side of a box car in the train, revealing Robert behind, untouched since they parked it in there the previous afternoon.
“I sincerely wish you a nice and comfortable journey.” he adds, before motioning for the team to board the train.
For Valentin, this proved to be quite the struggle as the high-floor construction made traversal of a pair of steps a necessity. Still, the team eventually finds themselves in an environment that seemed familiar from when they took the train a few stages prior, but up-rated in almost every aspect that could count towards the comfort of it.
Once seated, the train did not take long to start moving, slowly rolling out of the massive station at the center of Trugarde and onwards toward Keepitz.
The train ride wasn’t exciting by any means, with the team members largely keeping to themselves and watching the landscape go by. The silence was only broken once from on board staff going around and serving meals and beverages.
Eventually… the train does arrive at Keepitz, where the team semi-elegantly disembarks before heading up front to unload Robert. They did not have to think too hard to grasp that the available loading ramp was in no way fit for unloading a ‘lizard-less carriage’ in one go.
Some discussion with local staff followed, ending in an agreement to stop a station further down, which was said to have a much more substantial loading ramp.
With that said, they re-entered the train for a few minutes of added travel time to the next station, to some annoyance of the civilian passengers now being delayed on their journeys.
Still, the unloading process began, immediately running into inevitable issues. Since Robert sat for what now was the better part of two days, they could not simply raise steam immediately. Instead, the long and tedious process of preparing the engine for operation was carried out.
Only then could steam be raised, after which the unloading took no more than a few minutes.
Hastily, the doors on the box car were shut again for the train to continue on it’s journey.
Meanwhile, the crew and Robert slowly crept along the roads and towards camp.
to be continued
4 Likes