2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!)

RK Series Racing; Stage 12 Camp

OOC: Things got in the way and i could not find enough time and/ or motivation to write up a full scene for Stage 12 camp. To at least cover my bases and not be stuck trying to play catch-up for the remainder of this event, i shall present a crude bullet-point list of what happens instead.

– the team as a whole has (thankfully) missed the Yamada going sentient and thus takes the cover-up story at face-value
– they are (obviously) rather bummed out at the fact that this had to happen.
– in light of the event, Constantin de-stresses by “leaving” camp to sharpen his archery skills against his field jacket draped over a tree stump. (leaving as in being just far enough away to not endanger or disturb anyone else at camp)
– Valentin is more inert than usual due to the nanite-fever and them being hard at work repairing basically everything within him. The lack of food intake catches up to him as he faces a substantial desire to eat, prompting dinner to be prepared early.
– Tim isn’t doing all that much either, spending most of the afternoon playing cards with Val, followed by him preparing dinner
– after dinner, the only thing of note is a sort-of-serious look under the hood of Robert to see if everything was still in order. Much to Valentin’s surprise, it apparently was, even if the entire engine bay was coated in a dense layer of grease…
– the team heads to bed at about 3 moon, without Val being feverish this time

2 Likes

RK Series Racing; Stage 13 Drive


In the morning of the thirteenth day of the Shitbox Rally event, the members of RK Series Racing had little issue getting out bed, though their mood was still comparatively sour due to recent events.
Nevertheless, progress had to be made and thus they departed for today’s trip in the light drizzle surrounding them.
The trip itself was, quite literally, the same as it had been the previous few days.
100 miles an hour going mostly straight, checking the signal’s aspect every three miles. A quick refueling stop and more barreling along the rails has them arrive at their destination.

During the transition process, they were approached by a person who was ostensibly a member of press.
He inquired about a repeat of the record run, with the intent of getting some pictures of the vehicle at speed.

Valentin, aware of what happened to the Yamada, wasn’t all that fond of it.
“Not to be rude or anything, though i’ll have to explain myself a bit. I am travelling with all the other vehicles and their occupants as part of an event on a larger scale. One of those teams had to end their journey early due to an accident of some sorts, ending in casualties. Also, i once again did not make a deliberate attempt at breaking whatever speed the previous record was set at. Thus, i don’t want to be going any faster than whatever the line permits.” Valentin explained while watching Constantin lower the car onto the tyres.

“So… no pictures at all?”, the person asked, confused.

“Take all the pictures you want… Just don’t expect me to be speeding for ‘the headlines’…”, Valentin replied, waving his hand about in annoyance.
The press member simply left, leaving the team to finish their work getting off the tracks.
“Why do people have to be this annoying here…”, he grumbled as they made their way towards camp, parking away from the other teams already present for some semblance of peace. Even if it would only last for a few hours at best.

2 Likes

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

Towards Taruli…oh, why we decided on you to drive…

Monstruous truth

(@Madrias was consulted for this part bcos of inclusion of very special “local”)
At one point, our fighters did picked up what was happening: there wasnt much for them to do when they arrived on current battlefield, as battle was mostly over

Upon return, everyone gathered in bed of vehicle, feeling like they had no other choice. This seemed weird and was about to become even weirder…


-Now that everyone is present, would be nice to start our discussion here
-Who are you? Give us one good reason for not beating you up and throwing you out.

(In absence of dogs and Chicota, certain “local” had sneaked up in space above the cab, only now anouncing his presence)

-My identity is of no importance to any of you, but yes i could give good reasons for my presense here
Ok no…actually there is only one reason: that thing some of you may have seen.
We observed your group throughout entire journey as we feared something like this might happen.

We can change your memories, so you can choose to live without this coming up. Some other teams will choose to do so and rightfully so: truth is terrifying.

-You can manipulate minds?

-You are one that worded it that way, Klimentol. We are very responsible in that regard, not to mention…we dont need to do it for everyone: ones that actively fought and/or arent afraid of truth will remain unaltered.
Not to mention we do have cover story to explain absence of that team from now on.

-Cover story?

-Yes.
Team Blazers, according to said story, had car accident during the stage. Driver, named Romulo, died.
Cause was that he lost control over the vehicle and crashed as result.
Rest of that team decided to abandon the event, mourning the loss of their teammate.

Partially, this does relate to actual situation: Romulo is indeed dead and rest decided to abandon the event as result.

-We would like to know the actual situation as well.
If we indeed dont like it…do what you must.

-Very well.
Tbh i cant say for sure what went so horribly wrong, but it did.
Their vehicle had transformed into beast half of your team had witnessed. That change was irreversible; monster needed to be slain at all costs…Romulo was consumed by it.
They didnt understood what exactly they piloted…and, as is it otherworldly phenomena for us, we cant fully understand it either.

-I guess we can handle that.
-Make sure to first go with cover story if you arent sure. I doubt you would talk much about it anyway, but…to be sure.
-Fair enough, although i do have feeling our hosts could have handled it.
-Team Shift Happens? In terms of fighting the beast, maybe…if they happen to be present here at the moment, that is.
But…even if they were here on time, even if they fought it…

(Taking a short pause to recollect thoughts)

…there are still consequences where they would be helpless.
Locals would need just one look at such ungainly sight to close off to potential visitors.
They are used to dangers from this world, but beings from other worlds…are different story.

-Some of those locals were affected too?
-Yes. In their case, cover story is being told, no questions asked.
-About remains of monster…
-We are dealing with that as well.

Now that my presence is no longer needed here, i will exit your vehicle.
Hopefully gave enough reason for being there in first place.

Goodbye.
-Ok, goodbye.

Stranger exited the vehicle and went towards forest, soon entering it and losing visual with our team.

Conclusion from part above is that our team is informed about actual situation regarding Team Blazers.
As for careful drive, noone said its supposed to be smooth.

Drive to Taruli

Regarding this whole “preparation” thingy, you could have seen it coming: Pi is taking driver position.
Afterall, she shall be used to piloting fastest and most powerful road-going vehicle around in order to…you know…actually utilise it.

This wasnt made easier by fact her prior car driving knowledge is non-existant
Klimentol did provided solid teacher in this department tho and seeing that he was one in middle front seat, he could have operated gear stick if needed
Ok…when needed

There was one time when we were going towards a corner blessed with tree.
Prefectly naturally, there was some stomping on gas, clutch and brake pedal (in that exact order), on few other occasions two pedals would get pressed at once (if our car had sentience like few others, it would be confused in many, many examples of this happening)

Also parking job at the end was simply stopping in camp and then promptly not being reminded of parking brake, deciding to instead put someones backpack on brake pedal.

Genius backfired when car started moving regardless, making someone else applying parking brake instead.
Only consequence was that car was now one or two meters ahead of where Pi originally “parked” it, but that wasnt issue bcos Pi had stopped it fair bit away from other cars.
Good thing she may have plenty of time to learn proper parking as it is going to be sparsely used skill at first.

Few hours later, Aydar reparked the car. There was zero reason for it being in middle of camp
What is going to be needed tho is some more fastening of cargo, since some banging supplies could have been heard during the drive
This however is likely to wait until next town, since everyone skilled enough to:

  • go in town
  • buy needed supplies for that

and

  • actually refasten everything up

Happened to be fairly tired
Understandably, both me and VerBanka are likely not that skillful - although we are well-rested unlike everyone else
Pi both lacks skill and was tired as consequence of being our driver for this stage

2 Likes

Team Shift Happens

Previous Chapters:

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
Kayden Murders a Clutch - Stage 12 Drive and Camp
Redemption, Realizations, and Repairs - Stage 13 Drive and Camp


Taruli Campsite, 9 Moon (nearly morning)


With almost everyone asleep, it would have been a perfect peaceful night, had it not been for three visitors to our camp. Three young, curious Dyre who decided to investigate the local adventuring camp because it often smelled like there was food to be had.

The giant pink block that was the IP Freeway Star got their attention first by pure virtue of being the closest to the forest. One of the three attempted to figure out how to open the sliding door, scratching the paint in the process as they pulled the door open. The Dyre sniffed around inside the van, glad that the spiky bundle of foot pain was sleeping on the dashboard and not in the cargo area, before eventually discovering a few cans of sausages within. After breaking the cans open and eating them, then leaving the scattered remains of the packaging in the van as he rejoined the other two in their scavenging hunt.

Likewise, the olive green Magistrate was parked near to the forest. Luckily, the Dyre who opened the door had at least a basic understanding of how to open the handle, though moving cargo around was not as subtle as boxes and crates ended up shoved out of the way in order to swipe a box of MREs from within the back seat of the wagon. The door was left half-open as the box was dragged out of the wagon, hauled halfway over to the forest, and ripped apart by a hungry Dyre.

The third nearby vehicle was the large camper-shelled Kontir, which all three Dyre had noticed, thanks to a recent enough hunt and leftover meat being inside. Other than a huge paw-print on the bedding, and two shelves being damaged with claws, little damage had been done during the gathering of some meat. However, their cargo had been scattered around the back of the truck - after all, giant werewolves need a lot of space to move.

The Hakaru Carica, unknown to the Dyre, had a perfect self-defense mechanism, as upon opening the rear passenger door, the overpowering reek of air fresheners drove the Dyre to choose less smelly prey to scavenge from, shoving the door closed on the way back.

A muffled thump, plenty of scratching, followed by the homemade access hatch being peeled off of the roof announced the discovery of Team MCP’s van to the Dyre. As one of them fell, quite literally, through the hole, he broke his fall by slashing the back of one of the seats with his claws. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much food to be found, but after leaving the contents of the glove box dumped on the floor, the Dyre escaped through the roof opening with the remains of a sandwich as a quick meal.

The giant Bricksley was much easier to deal with for the Dyre, as raiding the sack of salted meat in the bed was quite simple. They still managed to scratch the paint, and put a dent in the toolbox, as well as spill several jugs worth of water everywhere once they discovered that the white containers held drinkable water.

The Dauer with the windows open was the last vehicle visited, and other than the theft of a few sushi rolls, not much happened to it. The Dyre could sense a dangerous presence around one of the two members, and didn’t want to hang around too long as a result.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and this happened for the Dyre as well. Little did they know that as they got further from the forest, they were being watched. And once that watcher turned his head, all three Dyre stopped, stared for a brief moment at the moving scarecrow, then bolted for the forest. No food was worth dealing with that as a potential threat.


(OOC: Yep. Dyre investigating the camp, written from their perspective, or at least, a third-party perspective of their hunting. So, what does this mean for Stage 14? Well, not much. We leave at 10 Moon instead of 1 Sun, but that really won’t change much. Also, most of the vehicles mentioned had their owners asked in advance. The Hakaru, not so much, but considering nothing was stolen and nothing was damaged, I figured it’d be funny to add a Car Throttle reference in there with the hidden air fresheners actually being a good thing here.)

4 Likes

RK Series Racing; Stage 13 Camp

OOC:
Once again, there’s not a whole lot to be writing about, and with me having been in sort-of a drought in creativity terms as well as IRL stuff, i shall condense it into basic bullet-points.

Note:
I am part of the “curious Dyre” plot in that Connor saw them milling about camp. As he moved to report their presence to some members at camp, they bolted. Specifics on that can be read retroactively in Stage 14 Drive


– most of the afternoon was rather dull
– as soon as tents were pitched, Valentin retires into his tent, not to be seen for the better part of the afternoon
– the other three spend their time doing the usual, playing cards, chatting and such
– about in time for dinner, Val reappears from his tent, his poor mood being almost blatantly obvious
– while dinner is being made, both Tim and Constantin take note of how Val hasn’t been all that full of energy lately, starting a discussion about why that is.
– said discussion takes a while and extends into dinner and even past that, ending in a rather sour mood for all involved.
– this doesn’t help Val at all, as he now feels guilty for having dragged them down into the “grumpy hole”
– the remaining evening has nothing of note as they eventually retreat into their respective sleeping places

3 Likes

Shitbox Rally


Stage 14: Taruli to Kavitz


Stage Start: 10 Moon, 31/7/3251, Taruli Campsite

Weather at Stage Start: Warm (29C), a light rain and light breeze keeps the place pleasant.
Weather at mid-stage: Warmer (32C), the rain turns into drizzle and mist, and the wind remains gentle.
Weather at Stage End (First Car): Warmer (32C), the rain turns into drizzle and mist, gentle wind.
Weather at 5 Sun: Hot (34C), the drizzle gives way to humidity, the wind picks up.
Weather at Stage End (Last Car): Hot (33C), still humid with clouds in the sky, and a good breeze.
Weather at 10 Sun: Warm (28C), overcast creating a beautiful sunset with the clouds appearing to be on fire, a gentle breeze.
Weather at 2 Moon: Cool (25C), a gentle rain that lasts until just before sunrise, light wind.

Stage End (First Car): 2-and-34 Sun, 32/7/3251, Kavitz Campsite

Stage End (Last Car): 5-and-45 Sun, 32/7/3251, Kavitz Campsite



Chaos once again kicks the whole camp awake at 10 Moon and into their cars. Dyre were in the camp! Engines cough to life as people scatter down the cobblestone road in the rain, hoping to make it to Kavitz and be safe.

Luckily, the roads are relatively straight, letting teams wind out their machines with the intent of escaping Taruli at top speed. Equally luckily, it seems as if none of the Dyre are really interested in paying attention to the noise, because even the teams who were looking for them couldn’t see them.

Likewise, luck was on everyone’s side because no one missed the turn heading on the Southern Fork to Kavitz. Engines howled down long, straight roads leading into the forest, where rain-slicked cobblestone curves waited to create chaos in the last few miles of the trip.

The Kavitz campsite isn’t quite as nice as the one in Taruli, but considering there are guards posted around to keep an eye on the forest and the caves, we shouldn’t see any more Dyre here. We’re given permission to use the old guardhouse as a rest area if we need to.



Notes: Randomization is active. Breakdowns are active. Time is in Earth Time.

Additional note: Removing Aetheriian ET from the stage position.



@Madrias

Team Shift Happens

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:14:07
Average MPH: 67.8
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

The first outside of RK Series Racing to know about the Dyre, Malavera takes the wheel and sends the Bricksley flying down the road. Unfortunately, he pushed his luck a bit, as the rear end breaks loose during one of the many fast curves, and while he was able to keep from spinning out, he did slam the driver’s side of the bed into a tree at 50 miles per hour, tearing the bumper free of the driver’s side mount, obliterating the driver’s side tail-light housing, and smashing the rear corner of the bed in, breaking several jugs of kerosene in the process. Had the exhaust not been relocated already, there would have been a rather nasty fuel fire as a result. However, the battered truck makes it into the camp, despite looking like it lost a fight with a dump truck.

(Note: This was necessary for the lore of the Highwayman, and also necessary because Malavera really shouldn’t have been behind the wheel for this stage, but the best driver for this stage would have been Kivenaal, who definitely shouldn’t drive until he’s had a proper night of sleep.)


@Caligari

Team Wayfarers

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:33:33
Average MPH: 77.9
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

“Giant werewolves again!? Hell no!” Jack welds the gas pedal into the firewall, and Chernobog thunders down the wet, slick road, getting grip whenever and wherever it can.


@Executive

Team Gearknobs

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:05:36
Average MPH: 86.7
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

It turns out that the Dyre didn’t like the smell of a half-dozen random air-fresheners hidden around in your car, as they left it alone last night. On the other hand, it also turns out that AWD is great for driving fast on less-than-ideal roads.


@BannedbyAndroid

Team Fallen Angels of the Past

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:50:36
Average MPH: 73.3
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

The little blue bullet rockets down the road, windshield wipers simultaneously clearing the windshield and leaving some nasty streaks on it. With reduced visibility comes reduced speed.


@TheYugo45GV

Team Oil Crisis

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:17:06
Average MPH: 82.8
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

Despite a somewhat slow start thanks to half their cargo being tipped over, the Olive-Drab Oil Tanker hurtles down the road at a great rate of speed. When they get to Kavitz, the main concern is getting the smell of random Dyre out of the wagon.


@Knugcab

Team Hillbilly Rollers

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:49:33
Average MPH: 92.8
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

Janne went behind Andreas’ back this time and had Rukari paint some protective runes on the engine block during the rewiring of the van. The end result is that, when they needed it most, the engine held together even when Andreas buried the pedal in the floorboard, the beer-can bearings letting the camshaft rattle – just a little – while they rocketed down the road, arguing about who left the doors unlocked so that the Dyre could get into the back of their van.


@Fayeding_Spray

Team Witchlight

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:57:44
Average MPH: 71.5
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

Elist was determined that they were not going to become wolf-chow tonight, and neither were their teammates. Finne was glad to make a speedy getaway, Kira was glad no one was hurt. Ambay, on the other hand, was deeply disappointed that this was twice now that he didn’t get to take a Dyre’s head as a trophy.


@MrdjaNikolen

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:14:42
Average MPH: 43.0
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

After putting all of their Dyre-scattered cargo back into the truck, Mrdja put his foot on the floor. The 1.9 liter inline 4 screamed a mournful tune as the truck hurtled into the forest before a huge cloud of white smoke blew out of the exhaust. Yes, that is a blown head-gasket. Yes, you did bring a spare. However, driving at reduced pace to minimize engine damage slows you way down, and fixing that in camp was not fun.


@SurrealCereal

Team Machinas Con Passiones

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:22:44
Average MPH: 66.0
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 4
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

Giacomo keeps freaking out about werewolves, which is understandable when one considers that for whatever reason, they clawed his seat in the van and no one else’s. Chad isn’t too happy that one of them ripped the access panel off of the roof like it was the top of a can of chili, letting it rain inside the van.


@AndiD

Team Quick Rally 47

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:47:52
Average MPH: 93.5
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

The onboard AI advised caution on the slippery roads, and reminded them that the last time they ran from the Dyre, they ran into one. This time, there is no radiator-busting collision.


@BG004130

Team Mrezhari

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:44:23
Average MPH: 94.9
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

Despite being dented and battered from taking a tumble in a previous stage, the Dunav escapes into the forest and gets the four mysterious team members to Kavitz safely.


@NoahC

Team Jockey

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:36:33
Average MPH: 98.4
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

It’s hard not to consider that the Yinzer might be just perfectly sized to be a snack box for a hungry Dyre. The team noticed another set of scratches on the car, this time around the door handle, and realized the hand that left those scratches was way bigger than Kaylie’s hand.


@elizipeazie

Team RK Series Racing

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:45:52
Average MPH: 94.3
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

“Dyre in the camp!” With the alert put out, Robert is steamed up and hustled over to the rails. After negotiating an immediate departure, clearing the way with the first signalman, and getting the vehicle rolling, it’s a long journey at about 100 miles per hour. On the plus side, it’s obvious that there aren’t any Dyre anywhere near the tracks.


@Tzuyu_main

Team Black Rabbit

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:08:08
Average MPH: 85.8
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

After a rude awakening by something sniffing around inside the car, followed by realizing a crafty curious Dyre had stolen a bit of meat from their supplies in the car, made worse by a quick agreement to depart camp before a proper breakfast could be had, the Dauer’s engine was started and they hurtled off into the next stage, a six cylinder war-cry threatening all of the Dyre that if they dared mess with the car again, there would be hell to pay.


@SheikhMansour

Team Spy Kids

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:13:14
Average MPH: 68.0
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 4617.6

The AST Elbrus was handicapped today with an engine that wouldn’t even crank, let alone would actually start. Upon closer inspection, a battery cable had come loose, and after taking a little time to put it back on, and reprogramming the ECU again, the engine roared to life. They also stopped at the side of the road to offer some assistance to a team who managed to crash their truck.



Stage Finishing Order:

03:36:33 – 2-and-34 Sun – Team Jockey
03:44:23 – 2-and-41 Sun – Team Mrezhari
03:45:52 – 2-and-43 Sun – Team RK Series Racing
03:47:52 – 2-and-44 Sun – Team Quick Rally 47
03:49:33 – 2-and-46 Sun – Team Hillbilly Rollers
04:05:36 – 2-and-60 Sun – Team Gearknobs
04:08:08 – 2-and-63 Sun – Team Black Rabbit
04:17:06 – 2-and-71 Sun – Team Oil Crisis
04:33:33 – 3-and-06 Sun – Team Wayfarers
04:50:36 – 3-and-21 Sun – Team Fallen Angels of the Past
04:57:44 – 3-and-28 Sun – Team Witchlight
05:13:14 – 3-and-41 Sun – Team Spy Kids
05:14:07 – 3-and-42 Sun – Team Shift Happens
05:22:44 – 3-and-50 Sun – Team Machinas Con Passiones
08:14:42 – 5-and-45 Sun – Team Mravolinski-Chitco




Team Shift Happens

Previous Chapters:

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
Kayden Murders a Clutch - Stage 12 Drive and Camp
Redemption, Realizations, and Repairs - Stage 13 Drive and Camp
Curious Dyre - Stage 13 Camp Final



Taruli Campsite, 9-and-20 Moon


Malavera groaned as Connor finished explaining that they had Dyre in the camp last night, and that he advised it may be wise to leave the camp early. “I’ll get it taken care of, Connor. Thank you,” Malavera said, looking over the truck and seeing the mess that had been made of their supplies. Rukari had bought plenty of salted meat to make several camp meals with, but that bag was now in shreds, the meat completely gone at this point. A dent in the lid of their toolbox showed that one of the Dyre had used it as a way to get up onto the roof, or to access the roof rack, which was more obvious after seeing four open, now-empty cans of drinking water, all with their white paint covered in claw marks.

He knew he had to wake the camp, but how to do it? He really hated the idea of going tent-to-tent, warning everyone individually. Then he saw the CB handle in the Bricksley, and the loudspeaker on the roof, and an idea came to mind immediately. He opened the door, studied the radio stack for a moment, then made some settings adjustments, enabling the Public Address system’s loudspeaker, setting volume to about halfway, and keying the microphone.

“Malavera of Shift Happens to all participating teams, we need to leave this campsite early. Please, get yourselves up, pack your supplies, and prepare to travel,” he said, figuring it was better to leave out why they were leaving until later, or on request, so as to avoid a panic.


Taruli Campsite, 10 Moon


Malavera watched as everyone headed for their cars. Many people had asked why they had to pack, and after being informed that the reason involved Dyre, seemed to suddenly have no issues getting ready to leave. He watched as Kayden and Jayde hauled Kivenaal out to the truck, still looking tired, and sighed. “Looks like I’m driving, then,” Malavera said.

“Yeah, we asked around, no one had anything safe for him to eat that would have given him a wake-up call. Most teams had chocolate, but Kivenaal can’t have that, and our mysterious friends in the helmets only have enough energy drinks left for the four of them for two more days. So, Kivenaal isn’t driving. Jayde’s already admitted he’s not comfortable at the whole driving thing, I’ve been banished from driving after what I did to the clutch, Kaylie doesn’t feel like she’d go fast in this, and Rukari drove the last stage. That leaves you,” Kayden explained.

“Right. Who’s my mid-seat, then?”

“Either me or Rukari,” Kayden admitted.

“I’d rather have you there. You’re smaller,” Malavera replied.

A shrieking steam whistle announced the Dione’s arrival for a quick jump-start, and Malavera took care of the duty this time, hooking the cables up, cranking over the big V8, removing the cables, and making sure to close the Dione’s reverse-hinged hood properly, if a little heavily for Valentin’s taste. Then again, when he slammed the Bricksley’s hood, it became obvious he was trying to manage his strength.

As the Dione rushed over to the rails, Malavera put the truck in 2-High, first gear, and put the newly-installed clutch to work with a halfway-up-the-gauge clutch dump, spitting gravel everywhere as the truck roared up to speed.


On the Road


With wet cobblestones under the tires and the windshield wipers working overtime to keep the window clear, Malavera had his hands full driving the truck. The engine roared and the wheels shrieked, the truck fighting hard for grip between every gear change.

Things were going well, and they were making great time, until they reached the main fork in the road. North would take them toward Avenara, while South brought them toward Tapari. Malavera turned toward the South road, though was a little heavy-handed as they hit a wet patch. The tires, already tortured by 4600 miles of aggressive driving, with tread wearing thin, broke loose and caused the rear of the Bricksley to hydroplane. Malavera tried his best to save the truck, wrenching at the wheel and trying to steer through the skid, only for there to be a deafening crash as the rear of the bed met a tree, which sent the truck spinning hard off of the road. The engine had stalled, and the truck came to rest on all four wheels in a ditch.

“Kaylie of Shift Happens to all nearby racers within range, please be careful when approaching the southern fork in the road. There’s a nasty puddle there, and we’ve just crashed maybe 30 yards beyond it,” Kaylie said over the four different radios, just in case anyone was in range.

“Sorry,” Malavera said. “I tried to save it.”

“Come on, big guy. Let’s make sure nothing’s broken, then get it back on the road,” Kaylie replied, climbing out of the truck and landing in a mud puddle with a heavy splash. Malavera stepped out as well, avoiding the mud until Team Oil Crisis drifted around that corner and sprayed him with mud from their tires as he was checking over the damage he’d done to the bed.

“Fucking shit!” Malavera yelled, now covered in mud as he looked at the huge dent, the broken tail light housing, the rear bumper hanging by the passenger side mounts, the jammed tailgate, and the smashed fuel jugs pouring kerosene into the mangled bed, where it promptly drooled right back out between the tailgate seams.

“Malavera, relax. Accidents happen,” Kaylie said, watching as the Wayfarers breezed by in Chernobog, the big engine roaring. Likewise, Team Fallen Angels and Team Witchlight thundered past without even looking at the stalled Bricksley in the ditch.

On the other hand, Team Spy Kids saw an opportunity when they arrived to help someone out. After an explanation on why they needed a jump-start, Malavera hooked the two vehicles together and cranked over the 427ci V8, removed the cables, and gratefully accepted a tow out of the ditch. After his crash, he chose to follow the Spy Kids’ AST Elbrus instead of pushing the Bricksley hard, especially as he could tell the truck was not happy about being crashed like that.

“By the Moons, this thing’s gotten worse to drive,” Malavera grumbled. “Now it’s pulling to the left.”

“We’ll check it out in camp. Don’t worry about it, Mal, accidents happen,” Kaylie replied.

“Yeah, and it was an accident that killed someone in the Yamada, too. I don’t think I could live with myself if-”

“Mal, relax,” Kivenaal said, lightly rubbing one of Malavera’s shoulders. “Shit happens. You did the right thing. Remember the old pilot’s code?”

“Yeah. ‘Aviate, navigate, communicate.’ What about it?”

“The whole time we were crashing, you were trying to drive the truck. You never gave up on it, and that is why we’re still alive. You drove the truck until it stopped moving. As good as the other teams may be, a lot of people let go of the wheel after the first crash, accepting that it’s out of their hands now. You gripped that wheel hard and fought until the truck came to a stop,” Kivenaal replied.

“But I-”

“Kept us greasy side down and shiny side up,” Kivenaal interrupted, cutting Malavera off. “And before you try to argue that it was your fault, no, it wasn’t. We need new tires on the truck. Or to repair our old ones.”

“How do you-”

“-Always know what you’re going to say?” Kivenaal interrupted again, grinning. “You know why.”

Malavera shook his right head and sighed, the inside of his ears flushed pink for a brief moment. As Kavitz appeared ahead of them, he focused instead on finding a parking spot for their giant truck.


Kavitz Campsite, 3-and-42 Sun


The battered, damaged Bricksley rolled into the camp and parked right next to the old Guardhouse. “We’re going to have to take the guards up on using it for sleeping, our tents need to be washed off,” Kaylie said.

“I’ll wash a couple tents, just in case,” Kivenaal said. “Let’s face it, some of us might need to stay outside and keep watch, or might need the tents for-” Kivenaal stopped speaking as Kaylie grabbed his chin with her left hand and shut his mouth for him.

“Yeah, I get it, but no one else needs to hear whichever crude way you were going to describe Jayde and I sharing a tent.”

Kivenaal shook his head free, then said, “I was going to say ‘horizontal refreshment,’ not be crude at your expense. Plus, let’s be honest, Kayden snores like a chainsaw, so I might need to sleep in one of these."

Kaylie sighed and shook her head. “Hey, Rukari, feel like helping me change a couple of tires?” Kaylie asked.

“Tires, fine. No more brakes, though,” Rukari replied.

As Kaylie looked over the tires, she sighed. “How the hell have we burned through this much tread in less than 5,000 miles?” she grumbled. Then she remembered all of the various antics the team had been up to, from drivers going way-too-fast and making the tires scream, to Kivenaal drifting the truck and doing donuts in the camp, to Jayde learning how to drive, all of the various stages they’d gone through. “We really should have brought an extra set.”

“Do we not have a spare tire in the bed, and one under the truck?” Rukari asked.

“Fuck! Forgot these old American trucks hid their spares down below,” Kaylie said, suddenly seeming a lot more enthusiastic about a bit of routine maintenance. “Might need your strength to break the bolts loose, but we’ll manage.”

5 Likes

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

Bro, we straight up havent had good time

Title sums this stage from our perspective rather well.
Oh also worth a mention that Malavera would be included in this part; that part of conversation is approved by @Madrias.

Why we need to go?

Stage begun with activities of few members of other teams

He knew he had to wake the camp, but how to do it? He really hated the idea of going tent-to-tent, warning everyone individually. Then he saw the CB handle in the Bricksley, and the loudspeaker on the roof, and an idea came to mind immediately. He opened the door, studied the radio stack for a moment, then made some settings adjustments, enabling the Public Address system’s loudspeaker, setting volume to about halfway, and keying the microphone.

“Malavera of Shift Happens to all participating teams, we need to leave this campsite early. Please, get yourselves up, pack your supplies, and prepare to travel,” he said, figuring it was better to leave out why they were leaving until later, or on request, so as to avoid a panic.

“What the fuck is happening?”
“Malavera has spoken. We need to leave.”
“I dont see a problem. Is he drunk?”
“Im sure he would demonstrate his inner singer if that was case. Would also hear an apology from his teammate.”
“Makes sense, who will go and ask?”
“Me. You go and prepare stuff for going…if we actually need to go.”

Aydar promptly approached two-headed friend.
“Hello there, Malavera. We heard that we are supposed to leave. Can we know the reason?”


-What happened here?
-Good question. Chaos seems to be an answer.
-Hmm…i see some paw marks…
-Isnt me. I doubt its Aydar either.
-You sure?
-No. I do trust him…same goes for other potential culprits, our buddies from Shift Happens.
You never know tho.
-I see Aydar approaching two-headed member of that team.
Gonna ask around; kill two birds with one stone.
-Cool. Just so you know, name of TwoHead is Malavera.
-Im aware. Bye.

Chicota had ran towards duo.


As mentioned, Malavera has two heads, which turned to be very useful thing.
One of those was oriented towards Aydar, but other noticed Chicota obviously running toward them.
Therefore he decided to not answer immidiately, as he wanted to see what he wanted.

“Whats matter? If your tongue dried out, other head is just as relevant in answering.”

But there was no need as “matter” had reached them.
Chicota: Now, Aydar, have you happened to visit rear end of our truck during night?
-No, why?
-We had an intruder apparently. I found big paw mark on bedding, some claw marks and all of meat is gone.

With that, expected happened: eyes were turned on Malavera.
Malavera: Oh…you are suspecting us?

-Hmmm…yea. Rally is kinda barren with big non-human creatures. Any of you fit that description.

Malavera: Are you sure we would leave scratch marks? We do tend to be civilised.
Besides, im perfectly aware that we too could suspect Klimentol and Aydar for nightly visit to our truck…for about same reason.

This surprized Aydar, especially when introduced with piece of something that Malavera just so happened to carry
He sniffed, it smelled like meat…

Malavera: Im pretty sure, tho, that both of you would tend to open this bag in more civilised fashion too.
We used to have some stored meat…these pieces of bag are all whats left

-That smells like it was good meat.

Malavera: As much as it would be tempting to blame each other on this little raid, fact is neither of teams had done it.
Conversation was interesting tho and it neatly connects to reason why we need to leave.

-While we are on it, why?

Malavera: Some Dyre had visited us. This wasnt limited to our two teams either.
I got information from Connor in RK Series Racing, who observed those three culprits.

-Seems they were just hungry. Apart from those we actively fought against, they dont appear to be constantly hostile.

Malavera: They are curious beings.
However, as hosts of this event, we cant allow anything bad to happen to anyone if we can prevent it.
We cant wait for their curiosity to become hurtful to someone

Chicota: Not to mention, not everyone can defend themselves against them.

Malavera: Exactly. Therefore we are starting today a bit early. See you in Kavitz camp.

-Deal.

Cant exactly comment on quick preparations done before we hit the road, since that was just putting all the stuff back in car.
Update on source of mess was interesting, but immideately understood.

Why you need to go?

Anyway…uhhh…Mrdja is behind the wheel and it was nice drive.
Hot summer day blessed with light rain, straight roads, coolant going to overheat…

Wait…overheating coolant?

Well, after doing its job for 27 years kinda well, head gasket decided to quit being useful. Fair bit of coolant now gets in hot parts of engine, making noticeable that white smoke from exhaust.
After little skid caused by especially wet patch, engine stalled and Klimentol bumped his head, becoming awake.

He wasnt happy at seeing high coolant temperature which was now brought to attention of driver.
Combined with sweet smell causing sour feelings, it was advised that getting to camp shall be made slowly.


No surprize, this meant that we finished dead last by some margin.
Seeing that half of team is technically adept at repairing stuff, noone was worried…until pieces of head gasket were finally removed from their deathbed.

-This…is serious. Kinda scary too, seeing as we shall now patch that thing up.

VerBanka: We dont need to, i saw another such part in spares we have.

-Really?
-Really. (Had gone away) Here it is.
-Oh why thank you. Very useful thing. Pi?

Pi: You asked for me?

-Dont blow this up. We have both knowledge and spare. You are unlikely to have either…well, atleast for some time.

Team knew all-too-well how true those words happen to be. As being one that is going to use this car for very long period of time, Pi must be perfectly sure that everything kinda works ok.
As for person herself, its likely already decided to switch to something else as daily transport as soon as possible, otherwise risking being (and im quite literal here) stuck far away with no efficient means of calling backup…although Kontir may turn out to be best bet still.

Pi: Will have that in mind…hopefully it will be last big issue during rally.
-Maybe. Although this little event does prove to be good preparation for whats to come.

Good thing is that all three workers were able to share workload on engine.
Bad thing is they were tired afterwards.
Pi and VerBanka decided its perfect time to visit town in order to get something more to eat and drink.
Mrdja decided to stay at car too

2 Likes

RK Series Racing; Stage 14 Drive

OOC: once again in collab with @Madrias, as if it wasn’t common knowledge by that point lol


Sleep was cut short for the team, as Connor managed to spot a small group of Dyre milling about camp.
He immediately knew that he had to alert the others at camp and, in the process of turning around to head for his first logical choice, the Dyre almost immediately took note and booked it into the surrounding scenery. Still, Connor deemed it necessary to at the very least tell the others about what happened.
Connor approaches Constantin’s “tent”, discovering that Constantin was already somewhat awake.

“Good morning. We have unwanted visitors within the camp area. I advise leaving early to ensure safety.” Connor stated with zero consideration for what Constantin thought of it. Still, the wording was potent, in that Constantin immediately looked to be wide-awake.
“Who is in camp?” Constantin said as he fumbled his way out of his sleeping bag.
“I am not certain. In the darkness i only could make out shapes of creatures similar to those we encountered earlier. I shall inform team Shift Happens now.” Connor replies before he turns around to head for the Bricksley.

As he approached, he saw Malavera digging about the Bricksley’s bed investigating something.
“Good morning. I am here to report that we may have unwanted visitors in camp.” Connor explained, sternly, while keeping the details vague unless requested.

Malavera looked over with his right head at Connor, who had, in his opinion, been a little too cheery about delivering bad news. “Plenty of evidence of that in the truck,” Malavera said, holding up the shredded bag and motioning to the water cans on the roof. “Whatever it was, it was big, strong, and hungry, because it tore through this heavy burlap like it was tissue paper, broke the leather straps securing our water cans down, and left a big dent in the lid of our toolbox. Then left us a real mess to clean up.” Malavera hopped over the side of the truck bed, landing a little heavily on the ground in front of Connor to talk with him from a slightly-less towering position. “So, what do you know about the visitors?”

“Not a lot. I saw quadripedal creatures trundling about the campsite, similar to those we encountered a few days earlier. I turned around to alert Constantin and they immediately ran away into the surrounding vegetation.” Connor explained.
“You are the second person i am telling this, Constantin Schrant being the first.”, he added, unsure on if that information is even useful to Malavera.

“Oh, great. Those creatures. Thank you for informing me as quickly as you have,” Malavera said. “I’ll put out the word to the camp that we need to start packing up. I’m not going to mention that we had Dyre in our campsite over the speaker, but if any team asks, I’ll tell them. The last thing I want to do is create a panic and have people getting hurt by trying to leave in a hurry.”

Connor simply waits a little for any instruction from Malavera, before nodding and turning around to head back to the Dione.

While Connor was away, Constantin was up and faced with the task of getting the other two out of their dreamworlds.
Knowing that Valentin will need some time to get going proper, he ventured over to the tent which somehow was roomy enough for Valentin to sleep in, even if he did so diagonally for extra legroom.
Constantin cautiously made his way in and gave Valentin some initially timid slaps in an attempt to wake him up.
“Come on, Val, we need to go.” he said, progressively increasing the force as he kept trying.
It took much longer than what Constantin was comfortable with until Val finally was somewhat awake.
“We’re packing up early. Get out of bed, we need to go!”, Constantin repeated before retreating out of Valentin’s tent to wake up Tim.
“Please no Wolfes again…”, Valentin grumbled as he shuffled around to exit the tent himself.
Constantin then went for the Dione’s driver window, somewhat aggressively knocking against it.
Getting Tim awake was apparently much easier, as he was looking at Constantin almost immediately with a confused face.
“Get ready and free up the driver seat. We have visitors in camp and we need to go.”, Constantin repeated, prompting Tim to immediately follow orders as instructed, not only freeing up the driver’s seat, but the car as a whole since Valentin needed the space to maneuver himself into the car.
Constantin was hard at work tearing down both tents as soon as they were vacated, with Valentin hobbling over to the car in a mild sleep-deprived slumber.
On his way in, he bumps pretty much every single control lever on the fireman side as he attempts to get in quickly. The fact that his ankle doesn’t hurt nearly as much in doing so is chalked up to some sense of adrenaline muting the pain.
Still, once seated, Connor followed suit and immediately went about raising steam while Tim helped Constantin pack up tents and other equipment.
Their “pre-flight” checks are done with surprising accuracy and professionalism, despite Valentin’s mental capabilities having been dragged down by the rude awakening earlier.
Nevertheless, steam was raised and soon after, the team seated.

“Is Shift happens aw… oh wait, they are.”, Valentin says, looking ahead across camp and spotting most of them milling around their truck.
“Why? We need to go!” Tim inquires, not wanting to face whatever visitor is lurking.
“Their, nay… our dead battery in their car won’t get the V8 going. They’re gonna need that jump start.” Valentin calls out in an unusual stroke of bravery as he carefully rolls across camp to stop directly ahead of the Bricksley, sideways.

Valentin then pulls the hood release latch, followed by a small blip of the whistle to notify them that Robert is ready for electrical donation.

Kaylie and Jayde were busy collapsing tents and bundling them up while Kayden prepared the radio console for his sister, Kivenaal gathered up their loose camp supplies, and Malavera dealt with answering questions from other teams. Not long after the truck was packed and the team was assigning people to seats for the purposes of making Malavera’s life easier behind the wheel, Valentin arrived with a swift shriek of the whistle to get their attention.

“I’ll get it,” Malavera said, jumping out of the driver’s seat, yanking the hood release on the way, then grabbing the jumper cables out of the truck bed. He shoved the hood up on the Bricksley, fumbled with the Dione’s reverse-hinged hood for a moment, clipped the jumper clamps onto the Bricksley’s battery, then to the battery in Robert. He quickly stood on the running board with the parking brake engaged, the truck in neutral, and planted his right foot into the clutch pedal as he cranked the V8 over before disconnecting the cables from each car, then putting the cables away.

Malavera put one of his large hands on the Dione’s hood and closed it firmly, then rushed back over to the Bricksley, grabbing the hood with both hands and bringing it down with significantly more force and an audible slam. He climbed back into the truck, honked the horn in thanks, slammed the driver’s door, nearly ripped the seatbelt when it locked up on him, and finally managed to get buckled in and ready to move.

The occupants of the Dione just watched the jump-start unfold as Malavera went about connecting the cables and starting the Bricksley.
As he firmly closed the hood of the Anhultz, Valentin flinched a little, which turned into an audible sigh as soo as he saw what he did with the Bricksley’s hood.
Another small blip of the whistle announced their departure, with them eagerly heading towards where they would transition onto the longitude mainline.

Once there, the car was roughly aligned with the rails before Constantin got out to start cranking.
Only having done a couple turns, he was stopped by Valentin:
“We need to get clearance from the signalman. Can you please notify them that we are already here and departing early?”, Valentin asked, followed by Constantin confirming the request with a quick “Sure” as he walks off towards the nearest signal box.
“Who’s doing the cranking then? Me?” Tim inquired, watching Constantin disappear into the distance.
“If you want to get out of here quickly, then yes… i’m stuck in here because crutches and Connor needs to tend to the boiler.”, Valentin replied, not really wanting to force him directly.
Tim just sighs and then gets out to put in some of his first work ever in helping the railroad operations beyond having supplied the base vehicle.
“Which way to i turn?”, Tim asks looking at the crank handle.
“Counter-clockwise, as if loosening a bolt.”, Val replied and immediately could see Tim making progress in cranking.
While the work proved tedious and repetitive, it wasn’t as physically taxing as both Valentin and Tim expected, courtesy of the 3 to 1 crank reduction.
At some point, Constantin returned with one end of Robert just about in the air.
“Should be good soon with that signal there.” Constantin begins, pointing at a semaphore signal a few hundred feet down the siding. “They apparently are very keen on giving us right of way with that ‘class 1’ train thing…”, he continues with finger quotes, while having little idea on what that actually meant.
Constantin got around to the back to start cranking there while Tim finished up front.
Not soon after, both ends were up and the drive belt moved over to enable power to the rails.
The two remaining team members got back into the car and they went towards their next campsite, passing the already-“clear” signal that Constantin pointed towards earlier.

“Well at least we’re out of camp now… Don’t want to know who or what those visitors wanted…” Valentin muttered as he gave Robert it’s all.
“Yeah… you don’t.” Constantin said before Connor could blurt out his discovery.

With that, the car went silent for most of the trip as a sense of uneasiness crept deeper and deeper into the ambiance within.

to be continued

1 Like

Team Shift Happens

and

Team RK Series Racing; Stage 14 Camp

(Thank you to @Elizipeazie for another collab!)


Kavitz Campsite, 3-and-60 Sun


Kayden looked over at his sister and Rukari as they changed out the two rear tires, working together with only mild arguing going on regarding who was at fault for the sockets all being mixed up again. “Hey, I’m going to go check on Valentin, make sure everything is going well for him,” Kayden said.

“No problem,” Kaylie said. “If you need any of us, just ask for our help,” she added.

Kayden nodded, then said, “If he didn’t scare Valentin so much, I’d take Jayde with me, but, one, I have to follow the expectations of doctor-and-patient privacy, and two, Jayde’s expertise and mine don’t overlap at all.”

Kaylie laughed. “You and him share a lot in common. Both of you are good listeners, and both of you have an interest in what makes people tick. Take him with you if you want.”

Kayden looked over at Jayde, who was currently sitting on one of the many logs laying around and meditating, then said, “I’ll grab him if I need his help.” He then wandered over to the Dione, seeing Valentin still sitting in the driver’s seat.

After a moment of seeing Valentin was pretty much not responding, Kayden politely knocked on the window. “You okay, Val? Came to check on you, see if the nanites were helping. Also, given the look on your face, you need someone to talk to, someone who can and will listen. Someone you can trust. I understand if you’d rather not talk with me, I get that. I know Kaylie and Jayde are also good listeners, though Kaylie’s hands are covered in grease again and, well, I know Jayde can be a bit intimidating.”


The trip has been spent in an almost depressing silence, though at least without any delays.
Since then, nobody dared to talk to Valentin in fear of making whatever state he was in worse, instead simply going about the usual business of setting up camp and getting lunch going.
Time creeps along at a snails pace, sunken deep into some seemingly meaningless thoughts until Kayden approached the car, knocking onto the window, thus visibly startling Valentin as he scrambles a bit to get the window rolled down.

“Huh?”, he mutters, confused and not really having understood most of what Kayden said, though Kayden’s assumption regarding Valentin’s mental state was very much correct and still is.


“I came over here originally,” Kayden said, looking at Valentin, “to check on your ankle and whether you were making any progress. However, I think that might need to take a back-seat to whatever has been bothering you this much. If you need someone to talk to, I’m here for you. If you’d rather be part of a group, well… I could get Kaylie and Jayde to listen with me. Honestly, Kivenaal’s the better one for this sort of thing, but… He’s trying to calm down Malavera after Mal crashed the truck.”

He looked over the seats in the Dione, then said, “I don’t suppose you’d prefer to sit out on one of these log benches? I mean, I can try to fit in there, but that’d just make us both uncomfortable.”

Instead of replying by speech, Valentin just sighs and folds the seatback flat, starting the intricate egress procedure. A moment later, the rear right passenger door opens, albeit only a little at first.
Still, it causes both Constantin and Tim to turn around from behind the car.

“All good?”, Tim asks, watching a feeble arm push the door open further and getting no immediate response once again.
Eventually, Valentin makes his way out of the car without aid from Constantin, who outright wasn’t fast enough to get up and help Valentin.
Once out, Valentin reaches in for the Crutches, after which he rises to full height, looking at Kayden with a face that can be described as a demoralized mess, ready to wander over to wherever Kayden deems it secluded and safe.

Kayden nodded as Valentin joined him, glad that Valentin was at least willing to seek some help in that moment. “Heard from the guards that there’s a pond between our campground and the town of Kavitz. It’s about halfway between each. Should be a good, quiet spot, out of the way, but safe enough as well. We’re within the outer wall,” Kayden said.

As the two of them walked over to the pond, Kayden took a moment to evaluate his impressions of Valentin. He could tell he was stressed, that was obvious. Demoralized or depressed was the next dominant emotion, considering his withdrawal from the rest of his team and general silence. Scared was also a possibility, though he felt it wasn’t because of him, but the events going on around him.

There, by the pond, they found a few proper benches made out of sturdy oak, not the crude logs sitting around the camp. Likewise, it was somewhat obvious by the leaf clutter on the path that it didn’t see a lot of foot traffic, thereby it was at least out of the way, with a small hill in between them and the camp to keep prying eyes at bay.

“Well, at least I know this much, whatever is on your mind is serious, because when someone pulls back from teammates and allies, it’s usually not a good thing. Let’s pick a bench and I’ll listen for a while. Sometimes we just need someone willing to listen.”

Valentin simply follows along quietly, periodically checking the immediate surroundings in hopes of not being swarmed by unsuspecting citizens again.
Once they arrive, Valentin takes a seat and tries to make himself at least somewhat comfortable on the wooden bench, oblivious to the fact that they were being watched from afar by a pair of women halfway across the pond.

At this point, Valentin starts to think hard about how to start, stalling his mind in the attempt of finding suitable words.
“I didn’t expect this…”, he eventually blurts out, insecure about his wording.
“I did not expect this at all…”
The general area returns to silence for a while, barring ambient noise from the surrounding bits of nature.
“Things just keep going from bad to worse and then some…”, he mentions eventually, anxiously fiddling about with both hands in an attempt to bleed off some of the stress.

Kayden nodded. “I don’t really think that any of us really expected this,” Kayden admitted. “It would be nice to make it to the end without any more fighting,” he added. “I may be a soldier, but I hate fighting. No choice for me, though. Born into it.”

As he looked over to Valentin, Kayden thought about the situation a bit more, then fumbled in one of his pockets until he pulled out a meal bar, then pulled his canteen off of the sling around his shoulder. “I know you’re a late riser, so you probably haven’t eaten yet. It’s not much, but… It should keep you going long enough to make it to lunch. I’ll ask Rukari to put a spare plate out for you. I think he’s planning some sort of beef and noodle dish,” Kayden said, handing the vacuum-packaged bar and the canteen to Valentin. “And before you mention you don’t want to inconvenience anyone, Rukari always makes too much and we’re getting low on containers to store food in for lunch on the road.”

Valentin looks at the offered food and drink for a moment before nodding a little and grabbing both. The canteen is temporarily set down between the two as he inspects the packaging of the bar. It turns out that he actually is somewhat familiar with it due to it being a cycling-oriented energy bar meant for mid-ride energy top-ups, though he wasn’t all that fond of them due to how difficult they are to chew.
Still, some food beats none at all, and not wanting to be impolite on top of already taking up Kayden’s time, he goes about unwrapping it, followed by a somewhat cautious bite taken out of it.

It’s taste wasn’t great, not even good, but the vague hints of berry flavor were enough to cover the taste of condensed energy and minerals and such.
Each bite is followed by what seems like unnecessary amounts of chewing and a generous swig of water out of the provided canteen.
With a little less than half the bar remaining, he “re-wraps” it again to avoid it staining anything and places both it and the canteen back into the bench between them.
Just about when the canteen makes contact with the bench, the two women, apparently closer to being teenage girls than women, approach Kayden and Valentin, furiously giggling and chuckling as they get closer.

“Hiiiiiii! I’m Mia! I’m Tia! We’re like your biggest fans. CHOO CHOO!”, the two chant in unison, excitedly hopping about the place while intently staring down Valentin.
In turn, Valentin looks at them with a face that is about as devoid of emotion as Connor’s face usually is, unsure about how to handle two children and their interests.

Kayden sighed. This was exactly the worst of the peaceful scenarios that he could have imagined happening, with about the only thing more disruptive being a Dyre deciding Valentin needed a hug. He reached into his pocket and pulled Nova out, then said, “Kayden to the Shift Happens crew, I could use Rukari’s help here. We have trouble.”

Rukari’s voice came back loud and clear. “Ne kasi, I will be there in… Half minute.”

Someone else’s voice, similar to Rukari’s voice, added in, “I’ll help,” just before Rukari let go of the button.

Kayden sighed. “Don’t come barreling in here armed to the teeth, it’s a pair of teenagers who probably don’t know any better.”

“Shall I wear my ass-kicking boots, or are we not expecting a fight?” the other voice asked.

“Kivenaal, they’re teenage girls bothering Valentin. I doubt there’s a need for an “ass-kicking” in the first place.”

Kayden looked over to the two girls, then said, “Right. I’ve just called in Valentin’s security team. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes to remove you from the area.”

Sure enough, on the same road that Kayden and Valentin had walked to get here, Kivenaal and Rukari arrived, announced mostly by Kivenaal’s cowboy boots on the cobblestone road. Calmly, they walked toward the two women, where Rukari spoke up with, “The two of you need to leave.”

The two girls, realizing Valentin did actually have security, decided to walk away, looking lightly disappointed that they weren’t getting what they wanted today.

Kivenaal and Rukari, on the other hand, turned to face Valentin, both giving him light smiles. “We have your back, Valentin,” Kivenaal said.

Rukari did a much milder version of a Valraadi salute to Valentin before adding, “If you need help, just ask. I will patrol the pond, keep people away.”

“Just make sure that if you overhear anything, keep it to yourself, Rukari,” Kayden said.

“To my grave,” Rukari replied, before practically disappearing into the shadows of the tree line.

Kivenaal, on the other hand, looked to Valentin, then said, “Well, unless the two of you need me for anything, I’ve got a two headed wolf back in camp who still needs a lot of calming down.” After a few seconds, Kivenaal gave a light shrug, then took off at a full run in his cowboy boots, stopping only momentarily to grab his hat when it escaped from his head.

As Kayden called for reinforcements, Valentin’s deadpan face changed to confusion as he did not know what exactly was to come.
Failing to come up with a meaningful response, he simply waited for the situation to unfold in minimal hopes of it not going south like almost everything has up to this point.
His eyes just go back and forth between the girls and Kayden, as he wasn’t aware of the self-contracted “security team” he now apparently had.
As Kivenaal and Rukari approached, made blatantly obvious by Kivenaal’s cowboy boots, he looked at them, somewhat dumbfounded as if to say “you are my security now?”.
Needless to say, their work was effective in that the group found themselves alone again. Even Rukari went “missing” as quickly as he appeared, now securing the perimeter as if Valentin was the President.

“Uhm… no?”, Valentin replied, watching him take off and back towards where he came from.
“Prime example of misery, right here…”, Valentin adds after a moment of contemplation, eventually deciding to ‘open the floodgates’.
“You start as a random chuck trying to get a fun vacation in and you end up being a holy figure because some asshat mislabeled the schedule…”

Kayden nodded as Valentin mentioned that he’d started as just someone random, and thanks to someone mislabeling the schedule, became one of the most famous people in Crugandr. “I can’t speak from experience on that, but, I’ll tell you to bring that up with Kivenaal later. You and him have a lot in common on that. And the way you said it, well, you nailed it for him. Not because of a mislabeling of schedule, either, there’s nothing he could do to change that. But, the good thing about speed records, intentional or otherwise, is someone always comes along to beat it. And, well, there’s truth in the statement that no one ever remembers who was second,” Kayden mentioned.

“People don’t remember who is currently second. But they will remember someone if they are the first to break a milestone.”, Valentin countered. After all, Robert is the first, and to date only, land vehicle to travel at speeds greater than 200kph.
“They also will remember how it came to be, with the hackjob conversion of our… well, my car and all that. Underdog stories are popular. It’s just a whole different can of worms if the people don’t pull out one of three height-related jokes for once and you suddenly feel like PewDiePie.” he added, leaning forwards and resting his chin on both hands, elbows in turn placed on either thigh.

Kayden nodded, though had a lightly puzzled look on his face as Valentin mentioned PewDiePie. “This… Might sound a bit stupid, but… Who or what is PewDiePie?” Kayden asked, sounding lightly embarrassed.

“He’s just about the most popular Swede on earth with more than 100 million YouTube subscribers… And i am now the most popular Swede on whatever this place is…”, Valentin replied.
The thought of not everyone targeting him as the celebrity does help a little, though the commotion created at the party and earlier stages up until now is still lingering strong. Especially with how instantly recognizable Valentin is due to his height and appearance.
He falls pack into the bench, forgetting about it’s wooden nature, which was promptly avenged by back pain, followed by a mild groan and him stretching to ease it.

Kayden gave a nod of understanding, though stayed quiet until Valentin forcibly remembered that the bench was made from wood and not designed for people their size. “If I did that, I’d go right over the back of the damn thing,” Kayden said.

“No, you’d break the back of the bench first and then fall off of it,” Nova quipped. “And sorry, I know, I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but when someone spouts false information like Kayden did, I can’t help myself. At least, I can’t help myself when it’s at Kayden’s expense.”

Kayden groaned and shook his head. “Some days, she gives me a headache,” he said.

Valentin was not 100% sure what to think of Nova in this moment.
Her snarky comments did seem to strike Val’s rather limited range of humor rather well, the secluded nature of the pond was broken once again.

“I’d also get headaches if Bixby were to insult me at least twice a day…”, Valentin replied.
“Still… i did not sign up for the shotgun relationship of a survival camp, a train ride in a seat the size of Lufthansa’s Economy Class and an iteration of late-game Celebrity Sim 2022…”

“To be fair, I don’t really think any of us signed up for that,” Kayden replied. “Granted, in my opinion, you’re one of the toughest teams out there. Not from a physical standpoint, but, there’s a certain determination behind you that pushes forward, no matter what has happened so far. Let’s face it, how many other teams would have thrown in the towel when the distributor failed and left you without a running engine? How many other teams have learned everything there is to know about a foreign country’s railroad network just to escape from the terrible roads? Yes, it brought chaos because someone called it in as a record run instead of accepting you were doing a shakedown, but on the other hand, this whole time, you’ve avoided the worst of the roads.”

Kayden sighed, then said, “Honestly, I wish we’d had the same guts and grim determination to make the same kind of decision. Not that I’d want a steam engine in that brick of a truck, mind, but to get off of the roads and onto something smooth for once would be real nice. Kaylie mentioned her ride and, well, as she put it, “It’s amazingly smooth, if a little hot and loud at times, but better than getting one’s spine realigned by a road crater.” And believe me, we know road craters.”

“Truth be told, i don’t want to ruin the fun for Tim and Constantin. As it goes, i haven’t really gotten much out of this run for myself, which sounds egocentric and maybe is. And with that ship having sailed, i don’t want to be killing it for the others.” Valentin spoke, his mood not exactly happy, but not full on demoralized either.

“I think i may be repeating myself a this point, but necessity is the mother of invention. I already am crammed into a Little Tikes car if i’m going by feel. Every single pothole risks obliterating my neck on the headliner above and i’d rather survive the trip. And nobody’s stopping you from putting some steel plate wheels on there and dish them to standard gauge.” Valentin explained, somewhat curling up to visualize how little space there is for his massive 7’3" frame, complete with holding an imaginary steering wheel.

“As per that distributor, i just went for the next best thing. The one we had was FUBAR’d, nobody had suitable spares and steam is tried and true, albeit finnicky tech.”, he added, unfurling himself into a low-slung, half-lying position on the bench.

Kayden nodded. "We… Actually somewhat understand the “altitude problem,” Kayden said. “We drove a Sinistra Traville across the United States once, with the seat rails flipped around and the driver’s seat basically smashed into the rear bench just so I could fit in there and drive. The drive was fun, but we vowed to get a bigger car if we ever did it again.”

“As for fitting steel wheels onto our truck, sure, we could technically do that. But we don’t have anyone with railroading knowledge in our team. I probably understand the most, unless Malavera studied it at all, but what I know probably doesn’t apply around here,” Kayden admitted. “And it’s not like we can just throw a set of wheels on it and couple ourselves to a locomotive. We don’t have one of those.”

Valentin pondered for a while and eventually had an idea, which, if successful, would once again prove his worth in the art of Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.

“Well you don’t, but i do.”, Valentin replied. “Do you have a towing bar rated for your car’s weight? If so, Robert could act as the locomotive.”

“We should. I stored it in the small space under our toolbox to keep it from getting lost… Shit. I think I told Rukari we had tow chains when we had a tow bar instead,” Kayden said.

“In which case, we could meet up at some steamworks, have some minor alterations done to both cars and run as a consist along the rails.” Valentin suggested, his spirits steadily rising above ‘piss-poor’.

“That could be a good idea, I think. It’s… Well, it’s a big favor to ask, and I shouldn’t be making decisions like that for the whole team, but something like that would be nice, even if getting it set up is a pain in the tail. Let’s face it, those roads are brutal even to us. I keep hitting my head on that damnable radio console, and it’s way, way worse when Kivenaal’s driving on dirt. I can’t figure out how the hell Jayde sits in the back seat without complaining,” Kayden admitted.

“Anyway, the original reason I came over to talk with you was to see how your ankle was doing, but I could see in that moment that you needed a friend first, and a physician second.”

“Won’t force you, though the offer is there…”, Val commented, before taking a look down at his left foot. It had definitely improved since the Nanites started their work within, though he didn’t dare try it yet for fear of reverting some of that process.

“I gotta say, i haven’t dared to try yet. The latent pain is mostly gone, but i have no clue how it does under load… those crutches are just too practical to take chances.”, Valentin admitted.

“To be honest, I can’t blame you. A good, well fitting set of crutches instead of the crap they have on Earth that runs out of adjustment range a few inches too short. Better to trust in them than to risk a set-back, and I understand that. If the crutches are working for you and there’s little to no pain, I’d say to keep using them until you feel comfortable taking that chance,” Kayden said.

“Well… i didn’t try because i don’t know how exactly the nanite-boosted healing process pans out… they might just as well be dulling the pain while they work to not annoy their biological neighbor cells with construction noise or something. What do i know? I’ve had them for all of four three days.” Valentin rambled, grabbing the crutches from the end of the bench and moving them between his legs.

Kayden chuckled. “I can only speak from my own experiences on that, and my experiences would be different than yours. However, I’ve found that they only dull the pain, they never completely wipe it out. Well… Not in normal mode, anyway. Combat mode is different, and really not something I’d ever recommend. Some of the stupidest injuries I’ve gotten were in that mode because, well, you don’t feel pain. At all. I suppose it’s great if you’re getting shot at, but not so great when it’s the second time you’ve taken a spill from the cat-walk and landed on the same damn table, you can see it’s worse than the last time, but because you don’t feel the pain, you try to walk to a safer location with a broken leg. Normal mode… You certainly feel it,” Kayden replied.

“Sound like a nightmare, though that doesn’t really help, to be honest. Right now i don’t feel it hurting or anything. But then again, it’s unladen…”, Valentin pondered, carefully articulating the joint in question to see how mobile it is. His face very much read ‘uncertainty’, as he had very little clue on how safe it would be to load.

“Given the time that has passed, I’d guess that if they’re not completely done, they’re close. My advice, let it rest until tomorrow morning, see how it feels then. If there’s any hints of pain, even slightly, use the crutches and let it finish healing,” Kayden said. “I wish I could give you a better timeframe, but as the first human to have them, well… You’re setting the baseline.”

“Crutches it is. At least they are useable for once…”, Valentin replied without much in the way of a second thought. After all, Kayden did know how the nanites work. With that solved, Valentin went for the last third of the energy bar, both because he was in a rather deep caloric deficit and in hopes of it somehow helping healing speed. What followed was another generous swig of the canteen to flush the condensed mass down proper.

“Well… normally i’d hop onto my bike and scrub some kilometers, but that obviously isn’t a thing here… Lack of bike and ankle and all…”, Valentin noted, though didn’t seem too upset with how Kayden made for an effective safety valve to mentally recover a bit.

“Gotta genuinely thank you here…”, he added after a moment of silence.

“Friends are there for you when things are good. A good friend is there for you when you need them the most,” Kayden replied, smiling. “When I came over to check on your ankle, especially because you were still in the car, I was worried you might have had a major physical setback. When it became obvious that you needed to get a few things off of your chest, well… At that point anyone could do it if they knew how to listen. Just so few people know how to do that these days. I had plenty of free time, and even if I was busy, well, I’d make time to help a friend in need.”

When it was obvious that Valentin wished to stay for a while and enjoy the relative peace of the little pond, and ride out his slightly-improved spirits, Kayden wandered back over to the camp, informing Constantin on the way that, “Valentin and I have been talking for a little while. He should be in at least a little better spirit when he returns here, at least for the time being.”

Kayden returned to the Bricksley, where Kaylie had gotten out a big hammer and was currently trying to bash the driver’s rear fender up and out of the way of the tire. “So, what’s going on?”

“Well,” Kaylie said, stopping the hammer time for a moment, “We’ve ripped one of the bed mounts off of the frame, and that big ass dent we got is threatening our tire with sharpened bits of sheet metal if we hit a bump, so I’m trying to bash this fender back so when Kivenaal eventually takes the wheel and decides to drive at Mach 5 through the dirt, we don’t have a rear tire blowout send us into a nasty spin.”

Kayden nodded. “Sensible.”

“How’d it go with Val? Heard you had a spot of trouble out there,” Kaylie replied.

“Two teenage girls thinking that Valentin was in the mood to “play,” if you get my drift. Rukari and Kivenaal make for a good security team in a pinch. Even when they’re not being intimidating, they’re still quite intense. Rukari’s keeping Valentin under guard by sticking to the tree line while Valentin gets some time to himself out there. How’s Malavera doing?”

“Still upset with himself, but doing better. Kivenaal’s gotten through to him,” Kaylie replied. When it was obvious that Kayden had nothing more to say, Kaylie picked up the hammer and returned to beating on the fender.

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Kayden went back to the others, leaving Valentin (and Rukari) at the pond for the time being. He simply watched the bits of nature do their things, the minimal rainfall not bothering him at all at this point.

Back at the Dione, Kayden spoke to Constantin about how he and Val have been in talks.
“Well thank you. I’d say that we all knew that something was off with Val, but i am no psychiatrist, nor do i know him all that well.”, Constantin replied, respectfully nodding as Kayden went around and back to the Bricksley.

A good while later, Valentin decides that he can return to the others, picking up his crutches and soon heading over to the others at the Dione, as it’s not quite lunchtime yet.
Both Tim and Constantin as well as Connor could tell that Valentin was visibly more refreshed, albeit wet from the rain.
“Back from the land of the dead?”, Tim remarked, half jokingly.
“I guess… venting steam is not easy if you don’t know anyone all that well and your usual methods don’t apply…”, Valentin countered.
That topic was left at that and quickly diverted to more light-hearted talks and the previously established method of pass-time that is card games and similar stuff.

Once Valentin had returned to the others, Rukari also returned to camp a few minutes later, walking over to the Bricksley and getting some supplies ready for making the mid-day meal.

Soon, the smell of cooking beef and pasta wafted across the camp as Rukari’s cast-iron soup pot bubbled with a full load of water and noodles, and his cast-iron frying pan seared small pieces of good beef to add to the pasta later. Sitting across from Rukari was Kivenaal, busy making up a batch of beef gravy with mild spices, as well as a second pot with rice and mixed vegetables for a good solid side dish, and an optional pot set off to the side with a lid on it, mostly intended for him.

Not long after, Rukari drained the pasta water from one pot to another with a strainer, adding the cubes of beef to it and mixing them throughout the pot of piping-hot noodles.

Kayden wandered over and mentioned to Val, Constantin, and Tim, “If you’re hungry, we have lunch ready. Beef cubes and noodles in gravy, with rice and vegetables on the side, or, if you ask Kivenaal, he’ll turn that beef cubes and noodles into a rudimentary Beef Stroganoff instead. But I don’t know how much of that he’s making, to be honest. He considers it a bit of a delicacy.”

“Lucky for us that you say this, actually. The gas cooker we have got wet in the rain and won’t fire…”, Tim remarked, looking at the other two in search for their reactions.
“Cannot go wrong with Beef and Pasta, right?”, Constantin added, with Valentin simply smiling, almost grinning at the thought of another generous helping of proven pasta.

Kayden chuckled. “True. Pasta is a universal and versatile dish, and it’s fairly hard to go wrong with adding beef to it,” Kayden said.

He led the crew over to the campfire, where Kaylie started passing around deep-dished plates that, in a pinch, could double as bowls. Sure enough, she had an extra three prepared, as well as forks for the additional people at the “table” today.

“Dig in, take what you want,” Rukari said, handing Valentin the scoop to get noodles and beef out of the pot. “Gravy is in that pot there, Kivenaal’s got the sauce if you’d rather make Beef Stroganoff,” he added, motioning to each pot as he mentioned it. “There’s some rice with vegetables over here, provided Kayden’s willing to leave the rest of us some,” Rukari added, giving a light quip to Kayden who had taken two rather large scoops out of the pot and put them on his plate.

“Sorry. Just a bit hungry today,” Kayden admitted.

Not long after the three took their respective seats, a stack of plates made a lap around the campfire, leaving a plate at each person present, followed up by a bundle of forks to go along with the plates.
Valentin did not wait long and started with a rather cautiously sized portion of the ordinary Pasta and Gravy combo, as getting a second helping later on was a possibility. Still, it garnered some curious looks from the other two as they both were aware of how little Val ate since the party happened ‘for him’.

With him fed, the scoop went around the fire similarly to how the plates did earlier, Constantin being next in line, who went substantially more generous than Valentin, though probably still rather small by the standards of the Shift Happens members.

Tim, being the third, ended up marginally larger than Valentin in portion size, though he was the only one to choose Beef Stroganoff over the Gravy.
None of the three went for the side-dish, however, as a single plate wasn’t sufficient for both dishes at once.

While both Schrants waited patiently until everyone had their respective plates filled, Tim dug right in, which in turn had both Valentin and Constantin look at Tim in a somewhat serious look.
“Phwat?”, he ‘spoke’, his mouth still full of pasta.
“Basic table… well… campfire manners are a foreign concept to you, it seems.”. Constantin commented in annoyance, followed by Valentin nodding in approval.
This didn’t really phase Tim for all that long, though, because the pasta was just that good that he couldn’t stop himself anymore.

Kaylie just shook her head lightly as Tim immediately stuffed his face while the others were busy adding scoops of food to their plate. She looked over as there was a bit of a clatter and crash, courtesy of Malavera struggling with the pasta scoop and managing to slam his plate into the top of the cast iron pot. “Take it easy, Mal. Don’t have to be in a rush, there’s plenty here for all of us,” Kaylie said.

“Dropped the scoop into the pot,” Malavera grumbled, though sat down with his plate of noodles and beef, choosing to not add any gravy, but instead getting a good scoop from Kivenaal to make Beef Stroganoff out of his meal.

Kaylie chuckled, then added a scoop to her plate, a bit of gravy, and then added the side dish despite the plates being just small enough to guarantee she was mixing the two meals.

Rukari and Jayde just went for beef, noodles, and gravy, though Jayde had easily the largest amount on his plate until Kivenaal loaded his plate with Beef Stroganoff.

Despite that, there was clearly enough left in both the side-dish pot and the noodle pot for several people to have seconds.

Once everyone had gotten their plate filled, the meal began properly, other than Kayden cursing a bit as the rice was still seriously hot in the side dish, managing to torch his tongue.

At first, little talking was coming from the three guests at the table, each more or less to themselves genuinely enjoying the provided meal.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Valentin had something to say to Constantin and Tim specifically.

“Right… haven’t told you two yet. We’ve been toying about with the idea of expanding Robert into an actual train, adding their Bricksley to the consist. I’m just asking if you are okay with that.”, Valentin inquired, pointing at the truck in question with the fork.
The other two looked at each other in confusion, trying to piece together why the idea came about to begin with.
“If help is needed, it shall be provided.”, Constantin answers eventually.
“I don’t see why not…”, Tim adds, though still puzzled about how exactly this is supposed to work in practice.

After that, Valentin nodded, turned to face Kayden briefly before topping up his near-empty plate with another serving.

Kayden nodded, then mentioned to the others, “I mentioned that to Kaylie, who agreed that it sounded like a good idea, but we need the rest of you to weigh in on it.”

Kivenaal shrugged. “I don’t mind driving, but, some of these roads are a little brutal sometimes. Could be nice to run the rails for a stage.”

“I am so, so sick of smacking both of my heads on the radio console, or nearly losing my lunch because someone jumped the truck on a dirt road,” Malavera added. “My vote is in, 100%, if we can get on the rails for a stage or two, that’s perfect.”

Rukari looked puzzled at first, then asked, “How would we do this?”

“There’s a tow-bar under the toolbox. Sorry, I think I said we had tow chains, so… My bad on that bit of chaos,” Kayden answered.

“Ah. We link front bumper of our truck to rear bumper of their car? Just need wheels, then,” Rukari said. “It is a good plan.”

“I think Valentin and I can relate to not really fitting in our respective seats all that well,” Jayde said. “Bumps hurt. Smacking my head into the ceiling isn’t fun, neither is hitting my face on the box in the middle of the truck. And while I can drive, well… I still don’t prefer doing so. I’ll agree on being towed.”

Kaylie looked over at the truck, then admitted, “It’d save me a hell of a lot of maintenance. These guys do a great job of tearing up the truck. Spent the better part of an hour beating a fender out of the way.”

“Sorry, Kaylie,” Malavera said.

“Accidents happen, Mal. Bald tires and puddles on a tree lined road, it’s a bad mix. You kept the damage to a minimum,” Kaylie replied.

“Val not fitting? The rear bench is even worse with anyone ahead of you!”, Constantin protested, being only three inches shorter than Valentin and substantially bulkier to boot.
“You don’t have to shuffle across three seats to get in and out of the car.”, Valentin countered.
“He wins.” Tim declared while pointing at Valentin, thus breaking up the small dispute between the two.

“Well some modifications need to be done on either vehicle. Yours only really needs appropriate steel wheels. If Robert needs a second tow hook fitted depends on how long that tow bar of yours is. Getting a spare drive belt is a goo idea regardless, though. Somehow it held up until now…”, Valentin explained shortly after inbetween forkfuls of pasta.
“I have location info on pretty much every Steamworks along the longitude ever since they gave me the track map for it.”, he added.

Kayden nodded. “We’ll dig the bar out after we’re done, see if it’s long enough. As you said, appropriate wheels are pretty much the only thing we need. Swapping them on might be a pain, but we have Malavera to help with that,” Kayden said.

“Hey! Just because I can lift the front of that truck doesn’t mean I want to do that twice a day,” Malavera responded.

“If we rail up, who’s saying we have to come off the tracks any time soon?” Kaylie replied. “Sure, we’d like to run the last stage under our own power, but… Let’s be honest, these roads are getting meaner as we go along.”

“So, what are you thinking?” Kivenaal asked. “Because, I’ll be perfectly honest, I want to drive the next stage. It’s mostly dirt, so I’ll have a bit of fun. Hell, there’s a bit of road running right on the other side of the fence next to the tracks, so, with some luck, we might be able to run alongside the Dione for a few brief seconds.”

“You are a damn twin-tailed menace sometimes,” Malavera said, though had a smirk on one of his faces. “100 miles per hour on dirt? You have to be joking.”

“I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again!” Kivenaal replied, chuckling.

“Just try not to jump the truck, we don’t need any more dents in the roof,” Kaylie quipped.

“Right, all four wheels on the ground when possible. Got it,” Kivenaal said.

“In that case, i’ll see about getting a re-route to whatever available steamworks going. I’ll keep you posted on where that will be at the start of tomorrow’s leg. The radio should still have enough range there, assuming you don’t gun out out of camp as soon as your engine is running. Also, if you are that keen on that ‘own power’ thing, you can push us as well, especially in case the belt goes tits up.”, Valentin explained, unaware of what is to come soon.

“Val just doesn’t have the balls to keep up on the roads.”, Tim joked, which was promptly met with a smack to the shoulder by Valentin, made easy by his immense wingspan.
“No i don’t and you know that… 160k’s on rails is far easier to deal with than a very overladen wagon on shit tires doing the same speed on shit roads with a shit seat-fit to boot.”, he countered afterwards, silencing Tim.

After that, they returned to the pasta, with Tim going for a serving of rice, Constantin joining Tim and Valentin effectively mimicking a bottomless barrel with how much pasta he seemed to make disappear.

“Right, like manual operation of multiple units,” Malavera said, as Valentin mentioned they could technically push Valentin with the Dione. “You have a steam engine, we have internal combustion. Can’t exactly link them together, so we’d coordinate over the radio. A bit like a steam excursion train, where the steam engine does 90% of the work, the diesel just sits idle and provides dynamic brakes and train power, and gives a mighty good shove if the steam engine has some issues.”

Kayden looked to Malavera, then back to Valentin and said, “I hope like hell you understood some of that, because I sure didn’t.”

Rukari noticed Valentin was going quite heavy on the pasta and smiled. “I am glad, Valentin, that you are enjoying it. I learned to cook in the military, so, sadly, my recipes are a little limited.”

“Sure did. We’ll need to figure out a way of standardizing commands to minimize ambiguity, but it should do. Also, it’s pretty hard to fuck up pasta beyond edibility.” Valentin said.

At some point, the lunch meal was finished, with Valentin being the last one to pack up his dishes and cutlery by quite some margin.

“Well, see you tomorrow morning then.” Valentin spoke once the ‘table’ was cleared up.
After that, the three went back towards the Dione to fill the remaining afternoon and evening somehow.

As Valentin, Constantin, and Tim returned to the Dione, the remainder of the pasta was put into containers to eat later. After that, Rukari washed up all of their dishes, putting them neatly into the toolbox for safe-keeping.

With lunch finished, the team returned to the truck to continue attempting some basic repairs, with Kivenaal taking up the BFH to try straightening out the damaged bed side. Kaylie packed away a lot of her tools from around the truck, then helped wash a few tents as well, just so they wouldn’t all reek of kerosene later.

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TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS

Earlier parts

PART 0.1 - A prologue to the prologue
PART 0.2 - Another piece of the prologue puzzle
PART 0.3 - Viva la IP 4Z!
PART 0.4 - Robotman
PART 0.5 - Interference problems
PART 0.6 - Can I play Tetris?
PART 0.7 - Tangerine and familiar
PART 1.0 - Now things got serious!
PART 1.1 - Hello, Thibault and friends!
PART 1.2 - Poor kitty
PART 1.3 - Curse you, Team Oil Crisis!
PART 1.4 - Interlude
PART 2.0 - Bird bird bird, bird is the word!
PART 2.1 - D. Head
PART 2.2 - Good night!
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!

PART 14.0 - Interlude II

Our three friends woke up in the tent after the night when the Yamada turned into a beast. Except that…Andreas had memories that was a bit…fuzzy.

“Great. Now we must start the morning with fixing the van and its electrical gremlins. We’re going to be late”, Janne said.

“Oh, nevermind…I fixed it…barely”, Andreas answered.

“Fixed?”, Janne asked a bit confused.

“Yes. Sonic had been chewing on the wires. I did some quick repairs there. Now it probably works like it should, at least until we arrive at next camp”, Andreas said.

Janne sighed. “Marie, how about taking care of your pets a little bit better in the future?”

The drive, however, went very well. Fact is, our friends were the first ones to arrive at camp. So while Janne fixed the wiring permanently, Andreas made a new bumper out of the scrapwood, and Marie…well, she was getting a bit used to be without her beer now. Since Janne was not really trusting the beer can bearings, he was sneaking into the van with Rukari, that painted some runes on the engine block without Andreas taking notice. For once, things seemed to be calm. Until….

TO BE CONTINUED…

(Out of inspiration but trying to catch up).

3 Likes

Studies in Quantum Xenoanthropology, Ep. 5:
Cyberxenoanthropological musings

... or me trying to get back into things after having missed almost everything since the start. And yes, I like words with zero Google search results.

Previous post (yes, #119)

Arthur and Ford exchanged a relieved expression after the last competitor had arrived at the newest campsite. Since the transformation of the Yamada, they had instructed the Mara Kanyon’s onboard support AI to scan for unusual biosignatures in the vicinity, just to be on the safe side. On a previous stage they had received intermittent signals from the area where the pink IP Freeway was parked, but these ultimately seemed to be have been false readings.

“Looks like that episode is finally over. If we had known this before, we should have brought a cyberxenoanthropologist to study the awakened biomechanical lifeform”, Arthur muttered.

“How could one have studied it - given the Yamada’s aggressive behaviour?” Ford wondered.

“Very carefully”, was Arthur’s deadpan reply. “At least the Yamada only had base heavy metals and biological materials for its self-transformation. Things get usually pretty ugly pretty quickly if an evolved biomechanical lifeform - or an AI - gets its hands on nanomaterials to manipulate, for instance.”

“At least we got some data, though not much. We should have installed active quantum sensors back at the starbase.”

“Too risky, since we have a few users of what they call ‘magic’ around. Among xenoanthropologists there is a saying ‘Even advanced forms of magic are essentially just manipulations of matter or energy on the subquantum level’. And active quantum sensors might generate sufficient interference to be ‘detected’ by others… and we don’t want that, right?”

“Right, and we probably can be happy that we were not detected by those who stepped in and ‘cleared things up’.”

“What makes you think we weren’t?”, Arthur wondered. “It’d been in their best interest to not reveal us, even if they did.”

Ford seemed to be taken aback for a moment; he had obviously not considered that. Then he continued: “I wonder whether we recorded enough to trace the genesis of the emergence of the Yamada’s awakened consciousness. I’d be really keen to learn more about that. I remember someone from Team Blazers making a peculiar remark: ‘Every machine was made with an aspiration’.” With an aside glance at the Kanyon, he added: “… except this one maybe.”

“Your point?” Arthur wondered while silently agreeing with Ford’s latter remark.

Ford was at a loss of words for a moment.

“I’ll make a note in the report for the analysts to keep you in the loop.” Arthur did not seem to be particularly keen to engage in a cyberxenophilosophical debate with Ford.

“And good that noone else was affected, including us.”

Arthur shrugged. “There are isolation protocols in place for a reason for our support Ais. Not even sure it was an AI-thing, coming to think of it. Anyway…”

Shortly after Arthur had submitted their final report of the day to the Kanyon’s AI, he noticed the unmistakable sound of mechanical keys through the Kanyon’s open passenger window. This was the sign that the AI had important information for them while they were not looking.

He peeked inside and saw a worrying notice displayed in green letters on the screen that the AI could use to display ids message.

Arthur exchanged a concerned glance with Ford who had joined him looking through the open passenger side window. After double-checking that everyone else in the camp was busy with other matters, Arthur grabbed their not-tablet device and opened the most recent file in a special folder - the folder where the supporting AI would drop their analyses. Arthur opened the spreadsheet file while Ford curiously looked over his shoulder…

4 Likes

(Apologies for the late update: I legitimately forgot to do it last night until just after 3 AM when I went to bed. Sorry, everyone.)


Shitbox Rally

Stage 15: Kavitz to Allvenitz

Stage Start: 1 Sun, 33/7/3251, Kavitz Campsite

Weather at Stage Start: Hot (33C), with high humidity, moderate cloud cover, and high winds.
Weather at mid-stage: Hot (35C), still quite humid, light cloud cover, and winds remain about the same.
Weather at Stage End (First Car): Hot (35C), humid, cloudy, and windy (about the same as before)
Weather at Stage End (Last Car): Warm (29C), lightly humid, clouds obscure the stars and twin moons on occasion until the wind pushes them away, a cool, welcomed breeze.

Stage End (First Car): 6-and-07 Sun, 33/7/3251, Allvenitz Campsite

Stage End (Last Car): 2-and-20 Moon, 33/7/3251, Allvenitz Campsite


With dirt for as far as the eye can see, everyone leaves Kavitz behind in a great big cloud of dust. Unfortunately, this road is not well maintained at all, and the result ends up being a very slow stage for everyone. Thankfully, the trees thin out as the road goes onward, opening up into the plains that give Allvenitz its name. As the town of Allvenitz appears on the horizon, the road gets a little nicer, but it’s still far from desirable. Allvenitz, however, makes up for their terrible roads by having a proper “adventurers’ motel” just outside the main gate.


Notes: Randomization is active. Breakdowns are active. Time is in Earth Time.


@Madrias

Team Shift Happens

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 16:20:57
Average MPH: 21.7
Randomizer: 7 (Calculated^: 6.39)
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 2/4* (Chassis/Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

  • Roll was 2, but helped in a dynamic event.
    ^ Needed to come close to another vehicle’s speed.

Kivenaal took the wheel and drove the truck hard, racing up next to the tracks at about the 200 mile mark. Distracted by a loud clank and a great screeching wail from the nearby train, no one heard the quiet snap of the water pump shearing the pin. As they passed the broken down Longitude locomotive, seen with a broken connecting rod on the line, the temperature of the Bricksley’s engine was beginning to rival the coal fire in the firebox. A little further down the road, the engine let loose with an almighty rushing roar of steam as the upper radiator hose split. The engine was shut down, the hood was raised, and as some of the steam cleared, Kaylie was able to see that they’d really done it this time. Not just had they split a hose (which she was sure they had replacements for), but they’d obliterated both headgaskets, as the truck was hissing and spitting steam out between the heads and the block.

The engine was still bubbling, hissing, and spitting when the Dione arrived and offered them a tow into camp. Then, upon realizing how damn late it was and how much repair work they’d need to do, Val rolled the convoy into the local steamworks with the plan to adapt the blower fan from the Bricksley into the Dione, and fit the Bricksley with rail wheels to haul them on the line to the next camp for them to make repairs.


@Caligari

Team Wayfarers

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 09:23:52
Average MPH: 37.7
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

It’s another stage with the foot to the floor and askin’ for more. Chernobog chews up the slightly-muddy dirt in the forest, and seems to take a bath in the loose, dry dirt out on the plains.


@Executive

Team Gearknobs

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 14:56:31
Average MPH: 23.7
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

Changing tires is never fun. Doing so in wet, semi-solid dirt that keeps trying to eat your jack stands is even less fun. Getting to do that twice was awful.


@BannedbyAndroid

Team Fallen Angels of the Past

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 16:39:32
Average MPH: 21.3
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 2
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

Buried up to the axle in the mud, the two girls have to spend a fair bit of time scavenging scrap wood out of the forest to act as traction aids.


@TheYugo45GV

Team Oil Crisis

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 12:40:16
Average MPH: 28.0
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 3/4* (Tires / Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

  • Roll was 3, but helped in a dynamic event.

Mitzal met his match today. Having picked the wrong train to rob, he faced the full wrath of the Order of the Magistrate when they pulled up alongside, guns at the ready.

The Magistrate, however, stayed close, the team within picking off members of the bandits one by one. Orlen got a good clean shot on Mitzal, slamming a bullet into his shoulder and knocking the startled bandit off of the train.

Unfortunately for the team, Mitzal’s bandits were pretty decent shots, as three of the Magistrate’s tires had been hit by gunfire.


@Knugcab

Team Hillbilly Rollers

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:06:35
Average MPH: 43.8
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

The AWD system turns out to be a great thing here, as the battle-scarred pink brick wanders down the dirt forest road at “high” speed.


@Fayeding_Spray

Team Witchlight

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 14:07:52
Average MPH: 25.1
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

While trying to get out of a bit of a muddy hole some other team created, Elist managed to overheat the engine. After letting it cool down, they were able to continue onward.


@MrdjaNikolen

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 12:01:04
Average MPH: 29.5
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

When the front right tire blew, the truck made a massive trench with the front bumper. Thankfully, it was easily replaced, and the huge truck with the tiny engine lumbered onward, not realizing that a certain 70’s land-yacht would end up stuck in the hole a little while later.


@SurrealCereal

Team Machinas Con Passiones

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 12:44:51
Average MPH: 27.8
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 4
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

It was going quite well until the engine just outright quit running. Chad figured it had to be something big and checked the fuel pump, the ignition coil, the battery, but all were found to be fine. The problem? The wire between the coil and the distributor came unplugged. After plugging it back in, the engine coughed back to life, and three fuel stops later, the dustbuster arrived in camp.


@AndiD

Team Quick Rally 47

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:17:57
Average MPH: 42.8
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

The Mara has very little issue with this mud, but the AI still advises caution as those trees are a little close for comfort at times. This, of course, is met with irritation after someone else plays a little game of “Bumper Tag” with the Mara, prompting the driver to put their foot down and leave the offenders behind.


@BG004130

Team Mrezhari

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:33:18
Average MPH: 41.5
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

Upon encountering a slow-moving Mara Kanyon, the driver of the Dunav thought it’d be fun to deliberately drive into the rear bumper of it. After the fifth little bump, the driver of the Mara got the hint and left the four helmeted fiends behind with no one readily available to bump anymore.


@NoahC

Team Jockey

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 12:22:47
Average MPH: 28.6
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

Not quite the tire failure one would expect, actually, as while the tire was flat, it was flat in the camp. Turns out that during yesterday’s panicked flight from the Dyre, you ran over some road debris on the way, and the slow leak let all the air out overnight. Thankfully, you had a tire patch kit, so after airing the tire back up with a bicycle pump, you were back on the road.


@elizipeazie

Team RK Series Racing

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 16:20:13
Average MPH: 21.7
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 2/4* (Chassis / Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

  • Roll was 2, but helped in a dynamic event.

On the way to camp, they encountered three things that slowed them down. The first was a train stopped on the tracks, having suffered a breakdown. Then they encountered the second thing to slow them down, in the form of one badly overheated Bricksley sitting on the side of the dirt road, still hissing steam and reeking of hot oil, The hood was up, and Kaylie looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown. The decision was made to tow the Bricksley using their tow bar, which was working well for quite some time until a quiet thump and an irritating rattle was heard from around the boiler area. At first, it was a mild annoyance until Connor pointed out that the boiler was losing pressure, and an electronic burning smell filled the back seat of the cabin, thanks to the draft-fan motor burning out. At greatly reduced speed, the Dione wheezed into the camp, dragging one very damaged truck behind it. They ended up in the Allvenitz Steamworks to patch up the Dione’s blown-out draft fan and fit the Bricksley with rail wheels to get them to the next campsite.


@Tzuyu_main

Team Black Rabbit

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 12:11:40
Average MPH: 29.1
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

“Fucking dirt and mud!” Melanie swore as she piloted the Dauer expertly through the trees.


@SheikhMansour

Team Spy Kids

Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:32:08
Average MPH: 47.1
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 4972.8

A combination of the right vehicle for the right job made things nice and easy today.



Stage Finishing Order:

07:32:08 – 6-and-07 Sun – Team Spy Kids
08:06:35 – 6-and-37 Sun – Team Hillbilly Rollers
08:17:57 – 6-and-48 Sun – Team Quick Rally 47
08:33:18 – 6-and-62 Sun – Team Mrezhari
09:23:52 – 7-and-37 Sun – Team Wayfarers
12:01:04 – 9-and-09 Sun – Team Mravolinski-Chitco
12:11:40 – 9-and-18 Sun – Team Black Rabbit
12:22:47 – 9-and-28 Sun – Team Jockey
12:40:16 – 9-and-44 Sun – Team Oil Crisis
12:44:51 – 9-and-48 Sun – Team Machinas Con Passiones
14:07:52 – 10-and-43 Sun – Team Witchlight
14:56:31 – 1-and-07 Moon – Team Gearknobs
16:20:13 – 2-and-02 Moon – Team RK Series Racing
16:20:57 – 2-and-02 Moon – Team Shift Happens
16:39:32 – 2-and-20 Moon – Team Fallen Angels of the Past



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
PART 13.1 - The monsters under the bed were real, after all!
PART 14.0 - Interlude II

PART 15.0 - Marie died once

(Remember, I am trying to catch up. This story starts the morning after the dyre attack, and ends in the previous camp).

When our friends got out of the tent, they saw a rather nasty surprise. The sliding door on the wan being wide open, a mess in the back, claw marks in the already less than perfect pink paint….

“HEY! Who the fuck was in the van tonight?”, Andreas asked angrily.

Well, since it wasn’t me, it was either you or someone else, Janne answered cynically.

They stared at the mess. At least, even if being scattered everywhere, all the tools and spare parts seemed to still be there, intact. What was touched, however, was some canned sausages, now being just empty cans with bite marks in them.

“It seems like this was not done by humans”, Janne said.

“No. Probably fucking dyre! I hate them! I HATE THEM EVEN MORE THAN ANYTHING MARIE HAS EVER DONE AND THAT SPEAKS FUCKING VOLUMES!”, Andreas was shouting angrily.

Our friends managed to get all the stuff, spare for the canned sausages, back together again, and left for the next stint.

“OK, WHO OF YOU GUYS DIDN’T LOCK THE SLIDING DOOR?”, all three was shouting at each other at the same time.

“NOT ME!” everyone shouted back.

“I guess we aren’t coming anywhere with this discussion", Janne sighed.

“By the way, did you notice that the Yamada wasn’t at the last camp?”, Andreas asked.

“Hmm, now when you are saying it…?”, Janne answered.

“Appears like they were in a relatively nasty accident”, Andreas continued, with no memories at all of what he had seen the night before this one. “All of them died.”

“Oh…”, Janne answered. “Well, tragic, but a race like this is always done on your own risk, so they probably counted with it”.

“Yeah, and I remember when I died, it was not that bad”, Marie said.

“What the fuck do you mean?”, Andreas answered, very confused.

“Well, when we were going to Classic motor meet in Haparanda in 2013”, she continued. "Last thing I remember is that I died, and then I woke up again in a wheelbarrow in Janne’s potato field…” she said, trying to remember all the details.

“YOU DIDN’T DIE, YOU FUCKING WENT INTO IKEA, STOLE TWO BLANKETS AND DUCT TAPED THEM OVER THE WINDOWS OF A POLICE CAR, THEN YOU WERE DANCING AROUND NAKED IN…oh fuck…I can’t take this anymore, I give up…”, Andreas sighed. “Marie, sometimes I don’t know if you are a genius or downright stupid”, he continued.

The pink brick rolled into camp for a rather uneventful evening…

TO BE CONTINUED…

4 Likes

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

WHERE DID YOU LEARNED…

…to fly?

Some of you may not get the reference and others will, you gain nothing either way.
But it will be related to our case, although in not exactly same manner.

Camp

Unlike yesterday, this time there werent any out-of-ordinary events

Actually only thing worth of note was from earlier afternoon/night.
For some reason, VerBanka tried some drink.
She assumed, wrongly, that it was alcohol-free, which meant needing little help to get her back to car.
Considering i do have experience with some friends getting drunk, i was tad bit worried for what it may be - lets just say that if you overload yourself, there may be some puking involved afterwards.
Happily not this time, since she fell asleep very much immideately after getting to some bed.

Morning came and, apart from still being kinda tipsy, VerBanka was fine. Wasnt amused by that whole thing, though.
Half of team was busy trying to figure out who is going to drive now. Pi had offered herself as driver, but they wanted to compensate for time lost bcos of blown head gasket.

Drive

All three members listed as drivers in our team are expert fighters, although it should be noted that their definition for incapacitating their opponent overlaps fair bit with killing said opponent.
It could be said that launch out of camp was of murderous nature as well and was hard to determine which part begged for mercy the most

Is it gearbox?
Perhaps clutch?
That being said, tires are sus as well…

No matter the answer, we made good progress…


There was one section where we really hustled, going at great speeds. This did meant little bit of air time every now and then.
Rather interestingly, front right tire was always the one to get back in contact with road and there were no issues…up until end of 3rd short flight.

Tire gave up on its life, resulting in us plowing the surface.
Result of decent speed and heavy vehicle had indeed been very noticeable
.
.
.
.
-Maybe i should have driven afterall…
-Shut up.
(Quietness continued)

Few chosen had decided to exit the car, including Ms. Tipsy, who proceeded to trip and land face down in mud puddle.
This was funny to almost everyone except for her, resulting in her trying to throw some of mud at us with mixed results.

Aydar was tasked with towing the car to apparently more solid ground, which was still not great place to place jackstand supporting big and heavy vehicle.

-That seems like big-ish ditch of sorts
-Perhaps
-Considering we caused it, i guess least we can do is patch it up.
-Perhaps, we did went slightly off the road as consequence of jump
-I still can imagine someone getting issues with that, seeing that it is close to right edge of road
-Our group is composed of drivers that are prepared for reacting at great speed
Locals are using offroad vehicles by looks of things, too
-What?
-We mostly come from worlds where we are driving at much higher speeds than seen here, so are used to react quickly
Locals are both very used to this stuff and have adequate vehicles to tackle rough roads
Back on Earth, its very likely that road organized for motor carriages/cars in like 1902 or 1912 would be solid off-road course today.
So far, we saw no reason to doubt this world would be any different

(Someone did had issues
It was Team Witchlight, having no prior driving experience of any kind and using not exactly ideal offroad vehicle)

Wheel was promptly replaced during bantering and soon we were back on road.
Pi insisted on driving citing “I need to learn more about driving it.” as reason to do so.
She didnt exactly prove to be stellar by any means and car was getting kinda abused regardless.
Method and reason of abuse was different tho.

Reaction on motel upon finishing the stage was as expected:
-Seems they cared about us.
-Yes.

Settling down

Everyone with exception of Chicota was preparing to spend night in motel, Chicota deciding to guard the car instead.
Knowing him, that may or may not include drinking fair bit of alcohol in meantime

As for rest, dogs had went to town in order to restock our supplies
Others had prepared motel accomodation for themselves and those dogs, then decided to prepare themselves for good nights rest.

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
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!
PART 14.0 - Interlude II
PART 15.0 - Marie died once

PART 16.0 - The horrible sound

(OK, now we are in the correct timeline, finally)

After a rather uneventful stint and evening, our friends woke up, packed their stuff into the pink brick, and took off for yet another stint. It turned out that the AWD system of the Freeway Star once again was proving to be superior on the somewhat harsh roads. Andreas was passing car after car, with the dixie horn blaring. In fact, they passed every team, except for team Spy kids, and not even Sonic had caused any trouble for a while now. That was…until…

“I want a beer!”, Marie said.

“Is beer the only thing you can think of?”, Andreas replied. “Damn, there is not many days left of this, then you can drink all the beer you want to. Try to enjoy this instead.”

“What is there to enjoy if I can’t have any beer?”, she replied.

“Well…lots of…stuff…I guess”, Andreas sighed. Couldn’t she for once think for herselves, he thought, until he realized that it never ended well when she did that.

Our friends came into camp, finishing in second place. Marie was still in a rather cranky mood.

“You know, now I am tired of being stuck in the middle of nowhere without any beer, from now on, it is your trouble how you should handle this! I am going home!”, she yelled, rather upset.

“Oh, so how are you supposed to get home, miss Einstein?”, Andreas answered

“Well, I can use Janne’s goddamned teleporter device! It got us here so it will get me home too!”, she said.

“Marie, please don’t! I have programmed it to do one single thing, and I can’t give you any guarantees about what it will do if you handle it wrong!”, Janne said.

“Just try to stop me!”, she replied while trying to put on the teleporter equipment. “How hard can it be?”

“Appearantly very hard, since you have the goddamned hard hat on the wrong way!”, Janne replied angrily.

“It can’t be that hard!”, she said, randomly tapping the buttons on the VCR remote before she suddenly disappeared.

“Great, now she has disappeared and I don’t even know to which dimens…”, Janne said just before they heard some noises.

“MFFFF HLLLLPPP MMMMMMBBBBBB!!! I MMMMMMMMMMMMM STMMMMCKKKK!”

For some reason, Marie was stuck upside down, halfway through the ground, a couple of meters away, and Janne and Andreas pulled her up from the ground.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS KIND OF CRAP YOU HAVE BUILT!”, she shouted to Janne, with her face covered in mud, when they had pulled her up from the ground.

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY WITH IT?”, Janne was screaming back to her. “NOW GIVE ME THAT REMOTE!”, he said, while taking notice that the Bricksley was entering camp, towed by the Dione.

“IT IS MY REMOTE AND I DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT”, she said, while randomly tapping some other buttons.

“Bah, nothing happened anyway”, she said.

“I am not so sure about that”, Janne sighed, taking notice that the crew in the Bricksley seemed to be very bothered by something. “GET IN THE VAN NOW BEFORE SOMEONE TAKES NOTICE OF THIS!”, he said, pulling the sliding door open quickly, throwing Marie into it and closing it as fast as he could.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Shift Happens

and

RK Series Racing

; Stage 15 Drive


(Yep, short header again means only one thing: Collab time. Thank you to @Elizipeazie for working with me on this!)


Kavitz Campsite, 10-and-40 Moon.


Kivenaal was the first of Team Shift Happens to be awake, pretty much as usual. He’d had to fight to stay quiet until the burning orange glow appeared down in the distance of the horizon, having an uneasy feeling about something today, but not quite able to pin it down. He’d checked over the truck twice already, but was now going over the “pre-flight” checks once more.

“We have oil. Coolant is topped up. Battery is a bit weak, but to be expected. Tires all have air in them. I don’t smell anything dangerous out there, except maybe the Hillbilly Rollers’ cooking,” Kivenaal muttered to himself.


1 Sun


Kivenaal was behind the wheel today, with Kayden riding mid-seat, and Malavera in the passenger side seat, while Rukari, Jayde, and Kaylie took the rear bench. When Valentin arrived for the jump-start, Kivenaal popped the hood on the Bricksley, grabbed the jumper cables, and quickly got the truck started. He put the cables away, closed the Dione’s hood with a quiet clunk using two hands to distribute the weight evenly to either side of the latch, and closed the Bricksley’s hood with an almost-equally quiet thud of the heavy steel coffin lid closing over the engine.


On the Road


Kivenaal drove the truck like the Devil was chasing his twin tails, engine screaming for mercy as he slid the truck around corners, kicking up dirt twice, sometimes three times as high as the roof of the truck. The rough dirt road was hammering the hell out of the truck’s suspension early on, but it began to smooth out just a bit within the first 50 miles, though the trade-off was more turns and a generally slower pace.

That, of course, hardly slowed him down, throwing the battered Bricksley around corners like it was a mid-engined sports car, not a heavy pickup with a boat anchor up front.

Around the 200 mile mark, the road straightened out a good bit more, and the team found themselves roaring along, parallel to the track, a fence being all that separated them from where the trains ran. The road was less than favorable at speed, between being mostly dirt with ballast stones scattered randomly around.

Kivenaal was the first among the Shift Happens crew to realize there was a train moving slow up ahead, moments before a loud clank shattered the air and a great screech was heard as the train came to a stop.

“Damn!” Kivenaal said. “There’s something to be said about the power in one of those engines when it can snap that bit of cast steel like a twig.”

Little did he know that events had been set in motion in that instant that would lead to chaos for his own team.


On the Road - Again


A great hissing bang erupted from under the hood of the Bricksley along with a huge cloud of smoke. Kivenaal had been smelling hot oil for a while now, but the gauge hadn’t changed, still reading just a little above normal. But, clearly something was wrong as he now guided the seriously-overheated truck over to the side of the road and shut it down.

Kaylie called it out over the radio, “Shift Happens to all teams in range, we have had a major engine failure. Looks like we blew all of our coolant again.”

She hopped out and heaved the hood up, scowling as she saw through the heavy vapors in the engine bay that the engine was spitting and sputtering from between the block and both heads. “Cooked the head-gaskets, and we blew the upper radiator hose. Looks like we might have gotten hot enough to warp the valve covers, too.”


As dawn broke on the 15th overly long day of the Shitbox Rally 2022, the team was for once in reasonably good spirits, as they did their usual morning routine of getting themselves freshened up, getting Robert freshened up and getting the Bricksley of Shift Happens freshened up.

Not long after, they found themselves on the rails, where running initially was going as smoothly as ever for the first 200 miles or so, until they unexpectedly went past a signal displaying “caution”.

“Huh… well that’s not to schedule…”, Valentin mumbled as he let off the throttle and applied a bit of brakes, causing Robert to gradually bleed off speed.
It took the full three miles to come to a full stop, just before the following signal, which in turn showed “danger”, as expected.

With them now sat there, Valentin was puzzled about why they were stationary now, given that there wasn’t any planned stoppage here.
Still, Constantin was sent ahead to the next signalbox to notify the employee within as per procedure.
Eventually, he returns, taking seat in his spot on the rear-right.

“Any news?”, Valentin asked in hopes of gathering some intel about why they were sat there.
“Apparently the train ahead of us has shat itself somehow… seems like we are gonna be sat here for a while.”, Constantin explained, mentally preparing for extended boredom.
“Well we have three miles of track top maneuver in without impacting any adjacent sections. If we can find some crude crossing on that stretch, we can switch to road mode and bypass them.”, Valentin suggested, which was met with initial enthusiasm by the others.

The plan went ahead and they found themselves crawling along at 10 to 15MPH in reverse to see if they can find a place to switch. Sadly, no such place could be located, forcing them to roll back up to the signal, still at “danger”.

“Connor, can you hand me the ‘operational procedures for railroading’?”, Val requested, followed promptly by Connor pulling out the hard-cover book from under his seat, handing it to Valentin.
He starts flipping pages in that book, seemingly looking for something.
“Found it!”, he exclaims eventually.

" The signaller can authorise a driver to pass a signal at danger when…
…The signal is defective or disconnected
…The signal cannot be cleared because signalling or level crossing equipment has failed
…The signal is to be passed at danger for shunting purposes
…The signal cannot be cleared because a train or movement which has reversed is then required to start from beyond that signal
…A train has been accepted using restricted acceptance because the line is clear only up to the home signal of the next signal box and the section signal cannot be cleared
…In an emergency, and then only when authorised by the signal box supervisor or Operations Control, so that a train carrying passengers can enter an occupied section to use a station platform
…An engineering train is to move towards a possession, or leave a line under possession at an intermediate point…

source: Signal passed at danger - Wikipedia

AHA!", Valentin exclaims, closing the book with a hefty thud. “Constantin, can you scout ahead of us for a possible area where we could get off the rails?”
Constantin doesn’t think twice about another walk along the railbed, getting out to scout the area ahead.

Soon after, he returns, poking his head in through Connor’s window: “Well there isn’t much… some crude footpath crossing or something is there, but the rails stick out quite a bit further than what we’ve been using the past, i think.”
A bit of pondering followed on Valentin’s end, before he motioned for Connor to exit as well to make way for him to use the wayside communications line for direct contact with the signalman himself.
Thanks to his now fully mobile and painless ankle, getting out was a breeze in comparison to the past few days. He picks up the telephone line, waiting for a dial tone which did not sound on his end. Eventually, a voice on the other end has him befuddled as it makes sure that someone is actually there.

“Hello?”, the signalman called from the other end.
“Huh? Yeah… Uhm… We’re still stood at this signal and have already been in contact with you about it… We can vacate the block section entirely to make way for the next train, but the only feasible place is in the adjacent sections either way. As such, i’m requesting to pass the signal at danger to move up and vacate the line entirely.”, Valentin spoke into the phone, which by his metric was very archaic in nature, but worked well enough given it’s design purpose.
“Stand by…”, the voice called as it went away to cross-check with his copy of the procedures to make sure all was safe and correct.
“Passing signal at danger is approved. Limit to 10 MPH. Be prepared to stop due to a stationary train in the section. Report back once line is vacated.”, the signalman ordered.
“Passing signal approved, limit to 10 MPH, stationary train on line ahead. Advise when line is vacated.”, Valentin confirmed back into the phone before hanging up and fumbling his way back in, which proved more difficult than getting out by a fair margin.

The other two followed suit and Robert was once again pushed into motion to transition away from rails.
The process itself went as smoothly as ever, until it was time to actually move away from the line, the three-inch edge that was the track proving difficult to clear.
Taking a less on out of Jeremy Clarkson’s book, speed and power seemed to solve the issue, though it made for a rather bouncy affair when hopping over the track with two of the four road wheels.

Now on roads, they bee-lined it to the signalbox, where Constantin was sent in to report that Robert was now clear of the line.
With that done, they went past the stricken train, already being harshly reminded at how crappy the roads in Crugandr actually were.
Without much of a chance to look for a re-entry point, the went from being stuck behind a dead train to being “stuck” next to a dead Bricksley.

They announced themselves with a hearty blow of the steam whistle, coming to a stop in a way that positioned the nearside front window right next to Kaylie digging about the engine bay.

“I think your V8 doesn’t run on steam, right?”, Valentin asked in an attempt to be funny. “Need help?”


Despite her initial bad mood at the billowing clouds of steam pouring out of every gap in the Bricksley’s V8, Valentin’s whistle toot followed by a joking quip of, “I think your V8 doesn’t run on steam,” happened to be just enough to take the rough edge off of Kaylie’s mood. When he offered help, Kaylie quipped back, “How do you feel about a field-conversion? Or… We could use a tow. Kivenaal here tried to melt the engine down.”

“In my defense, the temperature gauge is still reading 220 degrees,” Kivenaal replied. “I think we lost our water pump.”

“No need to convert anything by the looks of it!”, Valentin countered, glancing at the copious amounts of coolant steam that was still bellowing out of every single crevice in the engine bay.
“Hopes are that my boy here has enough grunt and traction to get that massive truck going.”, he added, rolling the window down and slapping the driver door from the outside as if the car were a horse.

He then rolled a bit past the Bricksley, lining up ahead of it with a good 15 feet of empty space between the two.

“I cannot see jackshit for all the reasons imaginable. Gonna need some help lining things up once the tow bar is out. If you have one, that is.” Valentin spoke, half-shouting from within the Dione.
“Just get a buzzcut like Constantin and you have one less problem.”, Tim remarked, chuckling at how Valentin simply dealt with his Rapunzel-style hairdo.
“Fuck off… at least i have hair of some length…”, Valentin half-heartedly countered.

Malavera climbed out of the truck, then said, “I’ll help with alignment.”

Kivenaal also got out and looked through the mess in the truck bed before finding something tucked up against the toolbox. With a mild bit of fiddling around, he managed to extend it, passing it over to Kaylie.

“Kivenaal, I need you at the wheel,” Malavera said, before removing the cover on the Bricksley’s front bumper and hooking one end of the tow bar up to it. “Valentin, pull forward, please, so I have some space to help align the truck.” Even before Val could move the Dione, Malavera reached under the front of the Bricksley and grabbed hold of the frame of the truck just behind the bumper, then with a snarled grunt of effort, lifted with his legs and hoisted the whole front end of the truck up off of the ground. With a not-insignificant effort, Malavera moved the truck three inches to the left to aid the alignment process, set the truck back down, then grabbed the tow bar and looked toward the Dione, clearly planning on dragging the truck if he had to.

Kaylie, on the other hand, had moved down to Valentin’s side, standing by the driver’s mirror to help direct him closer to the truck to make the connection easier. “Sorry, Val, but knowing Malavera, if he had to, he’d haul this whole truck into camp by himself once he got it rolling,” Kaylie said. “And, let’s be honest, while I don’t doubt that he could pull the truck, given the repairs we’ll have to do in the camp, I need every one of the crew as alert as we can get.”

While Malavera went for the unnecessarily intense task of physically lifting the fat end of the Bricksley to move it over by three inches, Valentin went about making sure everything up front was good until Kaylie popped up next to the driver window to help with positioning.

“Let’s just get backed up and hook that bar up, shall we?”, Valentin said, trying to stay on the topic of serious business.

He then solely relied on Kaylie for directional control since the wing mirrors weren’t exactly helpful, given the less-than-ideal seating position of Valentin within the Dione.

Kaylie nodded, then gave directions to Valentin, the same directions she would have used for anyone needing help backing up a large truck with trailer, with Malavera occasionally letting Kaylie know how close they were in his own way.

“And… Stop,” Kaylie said. Once the Dione had come to a complete stop, Malavera then locked the other end of the tow-bar into the hook on the Dione, gave Kaylie a thumbs-up, and climbed back into the cab.

“We’re locked in. Now, here’s the thing: I know that tow-bar is rated to 9,000 pounds. We’re a little bit over that, but… I know we can get rid of some of that weight in a beneficial way. You refuel with water and kerosene on these trips, yes? And I’m assuming that hasn’t happened yet, so… If we take some of the cans from the roof and fill up your main water tank, sure, it’s not that much weight out of the truck, but every bit counts. While we’re at it, might as well drain what’s left of our fuel and fill up the Dione with what we’ve been using,” Kaylie said. “In all fairness, we were under the rated weight before adding a new teammate to the truck. Barely under it, admittedly.”

“If we are caring that much about rated weights, Robert would be overladen by a factor of more than two.
Hopes are that Robert here has enough grunt to get your truck going…”, Valentin spoke, somewhat cautiously, unsure about how well the weakened everything would hold up.
“So, once you are back there, hazards on if they still work, my brake lights should tell you what i’m doing. One dot of the whistle and i’m taking up slack, a dash and i am setting off.”, he continued, now effectively in charge of two vehicles.

After that, he simply waited for everyone to return to their seats and signal readiness.

Kaylie scuffed a boot into the gravel, then said, “Well, Robert should have just enough grip to get us moving. If not, we can get out and push to get everything rolling.”

Everyone piled back into the truck, where Kaylie relayed Valentin’s instructions to Kivenaal, who hit the hazard light switch, put a heavy foot on the brake pedal, released the parking brake, and put both the transmission and the range-box into neutral, just to reduce as much rolling resistance as he could.

“Traction is one thing, power is another.”, Valentin countered, not really expecting an answer in return.

Once everyone was in their seats and the Bricksley’s hazards illuminating quite a bit more of his offside mirror than he expected, he went for the ignition-barrel turned whistle switch which sent a short blip of a shrieky whistle across the general location.
After that, he gave Robert a bit of throttle, taking up the inch-and-a-half of slack, followed by a second, longer operation of the whistle to indicate the intent of getting it moving.

That task proved to be more difficult than Valentin initially thought, as the loose layer of gravel cause both rear wheels to break traction, sending small pebbles and dust out the back and towards the Bricksley. It took a few attempts before the static friction could be overcome and the two cars were in motion.

The towing process itself went smoothly for the most part until, just a few miles from camp, an ominous, plastic-y pop came from the back end.
Initially, it was thought to be some stray object that they ran over, until a loss of steam pressure and thus power became apparent.

“Uhm… we’re losing power…”, Valentin moaned, already slowing down to pull over.
“Loss of steaming. Possibly some electrical issue or the draft fan itself.”, Connor added.

The Dione rolls to a gentle stop at the side of the road, where Connor went about the process of shitting off Robert and purging what pressure was left in the boiler to allow somewhat safe investigation of the problem at hand.
Constantin took the time to head back to the Bricksley to relay the info, approaching the front passenger window in doing so.

“Something went bust on our end… once the thing is safe, we’ll take a look.”, Constantin spoke.
“When is ‘safe’?”, Kivenaal countered.
“What do i know? An hour, maybe?”, Constantin replied, having absolutely no idea how long it would take for the boiler interior to cool off from 400°C to ambient.

After that, he went back up front as Connor and Tim found their way out of the vehicle, followed by Valentin shortly after, the process of which streamlined substantially by having two fully functional legs again.
A good 45 minutes of twiddling thumbs and theorizing about the fault followed before Connor deemed the boiler to be cold enough to not be a threat, all while Valentin was perpetually and aggressively fighting his hairdo because of the strong winds.
As such, Valentin crawled beneath, being the most qualified (and also thinnest) crew member of RK Series racing, spotting the issue almost immediately.

“Draft fan went bust… who would’ve expected that an AC blower fan doesn’t like temperatures way beyond boiling?”, Valentin remarked ironically while maneuvering his way back out from underneath the ass end of Robert.
“As far as i am aware, the thing still works with convection drafting and all that, but we’re gonna be having fun stopping every few miles to build up some pressure.”, Valentin admitted, annoyed at how the surprisingly reliable botch-job failed him when most-needed.
“At least we ain’t far from camp now…”, Tim said in an attempt to keep the mood up.

The team piled back into the Dione one by one, Valentin going first, followed by Tim and Connor. Constantin was the last to enter, before another egregiously long period of nothing came and went as the boiler took it’s sweet time to raise pressure.
In order to save on steam, Valentin omitted the use of the whistle, instead using the electrical horn for signalling to the Bricksley behind.

Once in motion, the two vehicles managed to cover just a little more than a mile before pressure was dropping and another stop was needed. This repeated itself for quite some time until they finally arrived at the campsite where, somewhat conveniently, more pressure needed raising.
Constantin used the spare time to once again head out back to the Bricksley:

“We are heading right through to the steamworks in hopes Val can get that fan replaced, fixed or whatever. The idea of putting your fat truck on rails still is there, so you might as well join, if that’s okay with you.”, Constantin explained.
Kaylie nodded, then said from the far corner of the truck, “If that’s the case, considering how late it already is, if you’ll get us into the next camp, we’ll do our repairs there tomorrow. We’ll get everyone to help in some way on fixing your fan problem.”
“Steamworks it is.”, Constantin said, nodding while he went back for the Dione.


2 Likes

Not soon after, the two cars set off for the local steamworks, arriving after another few annoying cycles of going a mile at jogging pace before stopping again.
There, Robert was shut down again, knowing that at least a few people would be present to help move Robert in, thus speeding up the process of getting to the draft fan.

The team once again emerged from the car, in hopes of finding someone local who could help.

Knowing that the Dione’s fan had failed, once they arrived at the steamworks, Kaylie grabbed the technical manual from the glovebox and looked around for a willing helper. Kayden looked like he was about asleep on his feet, she knew Malavera would have trouble with the smaller tools needed to avoid breaking anything, Jayde may be more alert but had no idea how any of this worked, and Kivenaal, well… Kivenaal had fallen asleep once already a few minutes after arriving at the steamworks, face-planting the Bricksley’s steering wheel and honking the feeble horn surprisingly loudly in the enclosed space. Thankfully, the noise had woken him up, and he’d apologized to everyone around him, but Kaylie knew he was pretty much totaled. That left Rukari, who had done a fair bit of maintenance already.

“Rukari, mind helping me get our blower fan out?” Kaylie asked.

“I will work with you,” Rukari replied, grabbing the tool kit from under the seat.

A good result, however, of Kivenaal head-butting the horn switch was when the steamworks foreman wandered over. At first, the fairly tall man, at 6 feet and 2 inches, seemed momentarily confused at the pair of vehicles in his work area. Then he noticed the rail axles and the boiler. “This would be Robert, yes? That makes you Valentin, then. It’s good to meet you,” the man said, actually managing to point to Valentin in that moment. “I am Neville Jardin, foreman of the Allvenitz Steamworks. I’d shake your hand, but,” he held up his grease covered hands, “I’ve been helping out on the broken locomotive that came in.”

Neville looked at the flurry of activity that was going on in the Bricksley, then said, “By the looks of things, the bunch of you need tools, work-space, and given the state of half of them over there,” he said, motioning to the members of Shift Happens who looked about ready to drop at any moment, “you might need a bit of additional manpower. Only one who looks halfway awake in the blue lorry is the two-headed werewolf.”

The blaring horn of the Bricksley also sent a good scare through most of the Dione’s crew.
As the foreman approached the two cars, Valentin seemed remarkably alert despite having been awake for more than 16 hours already.

“Yeah. Valentin Schrant. Our draft fan went bust and needs replacing or fixing. The boiler we have has been sourced from a derelict lorry at Itzgarde Steamworks. Maybe we can make something work…”, Valentin explained, already looking around for whoever may be able to offer help in some way, even though he had no idea on how to make use of that manpower.

“For accessibility reasons it probably is best to get Robert over to a bay where we can get underneath without crawling.”, he continued. “Then we can get the remains of the old fan out of there.”

“An older steam lorry, you say? We might have one in rough shape out back, but, I’m not too sure if it still has the parts you’ll need. As for a work bay, we use these over here for working underneath steam-propelled road vehicles,” Neville replied, motioning to a couple of work bays that had an access pit.

“Come on, you little…” Kaylie grumbled, helping Rukari with the dash disassembly. There was a sudden, loud crash as Kivenaal, who had at least tried to help by removing the tow bar, practically collapsed, dropping the bar in the process and ending up on the floor.

Kayden sighed, looked over to Jayde and Malavera, then said, “Can the two of you get him into the back seat before he breaks something we need?”

Once they’d done that, Kayden climbed in next to him, then asked Nova, “Is he okay?”

“All of the information I can read from him says, yes, he is fine. But I can tell his body is in a bit of distress through sleep deprivation. We should try to get him somewhat comfortable and just let him rest for now,” Nova replied.

When Kayden got out of the truck, Jayde and Malavera looked at him for a moment before Malavera decided to ask, “Any news?”

“Kivenaal fell asleep on his feet,” Kayden replied. “He should be fine in the back of the Bricksley, I doubt that Kaylie or Rukari will make enough noise to wake him.”

Kaylie yawned and shook her head with a grimace. They almost had the fan out, but the clip on the connector was fighting them. Rukari, however, managed to squeeze the clip and pull the plug on the fan, freeing up the unit for removal. “I’ll bring this over to Val. Think you can put this back together?” Kaylie asked.

Neyi. I’m not… Don’t know how,” Rukari said with a light shake of his head.

“That’s okay. I’ll be back in a moment,” Kaylie replied.

“We’ll get Robert over there then, i guess…”, Valentin mumbled, apparently loud enough for the surrounding staff to hear, as three workers went about and positioned themselves for pushing the car over to the bay.
“Connor. Mind getting in and steering for the three colleagues here? I’ll see if that lorry ‘out back’ has something of use…”, Valentin asked, which returned an approving nod from Connor, followed by him entering the Dione just before it was set into motion.

Before Valentin could go out the back to investigate the lorry, however, Kaylie already was approaching him, holding the Bricksley’s blower fan in her hand.

“Sorry to interrupt your thought process here, but… We brought you a fan. It’s probably not going to fit right away, but… Well, it’s at least a similar kind of part,” Kaylie said. “I’ve got to go help Rukari put the dashboard back together, though, because otherwise we’re going to have a mess to deal with in the morning.”

Kayden gave a huge yawn and shook his head, trying to keep himself awake, but he could tell that he was almost about to drop. He had no idea how Kaylie was still on her feet and moving, no clue where Jayde and Rukari found the energy to keep going, and he wasn’t even willing to contemplate how Malavera still looked like he could go another day without rest.

Rukari looked over the technical manual Kaylie had brought along, but to him, the various different names of all the parts blended together into a confusing mess. Sure, he could read the language, but he was struggling with the unfamiliar measurement system, the confusing terminology, and the concept of “Just follow it backwards.” He was used to everything measured out in millimeters and centimeters, not fractions of an inch. He had no idea what a ‘panel clip’ was or how to put them back in now that he’d gotten them out. He’d asked Malavera for help, but Malavera just ended up looking equally confused.

“I don’t do interior stuff, I help move engines and transmissions around, and I drive trucks,” Malavera said.

Rukari looked over to Jayde, then waved him over to ask, “Can you just wave your hand and put this all back together?”

“Maybe, if I were less tired. But right now, no,” Jayde replied. “Seriously, just wait for Kaylie.”

“Uhm… thank you, i guess…”, Valentin muttered, surprised at how Shift Happens managed to rip their dashboard apart in a few minutes to salvage the hopefully-still-functional fan out of.

With a new fan in hand he went over to the bay where Robert was now parked.
In the access pit, Val had a look around, half crouching while one of the workers got to town getting the frame of the old fan out of it’s mountings, even managing to correctly unplug it.
The damaged fan was chucked out of the pit, sliding across the floor and out from underneath Robert for a good ten feet.

“Now to get that mated to there…”, Valentin mumbled, his mind turning a lot of gears in an effort to devise a solution that could get it in place and secure enough to last for the remainder of the event.

Kaylie picked up the damaged fan, looking at it and realizing that, no matter what, an adapter would need to be made. Val had already gone down into the pit with the Bricksley’s fan, so she’d have to either get him to hand it back over, or find out how big it was in some other way.

“Valentin, we might be able to make an adapter for that, but we’d need to be able to see both fans to do it,” Kaylie said, leaning down toward the maintenance pit to speak with him. “Hold on, I have an idea,” she added, before standing back up, looking around at the machines and tools nearby. She knew Malavera worked with tools at least as primitive as these on a regular basis.

She looked toward the Bricksley, an idea quickly forming in her head. “Hey, Malavera! We might have a project for you!” Kaylie called out.

Malavera wandered over, studying the equipment in the workshop on the way. As he walked up to Kaylie, he admitted, “I’d love to have a workshop like this back home. Tools like this… They’ll last forever.”

Kaylie smirked. “Yeah, and somehow I don’t think Val is exactly comfortable with tools from the 1920’s,” she said, looking up at Malavera, “whereas you sit there with older tools than this and make muzzle-loading firearms for fun.”

“Well… Fair enough,” Malavera said. He leaned down closer to where Val was, then added, “How about a trade in projects, then? I’ll make an adapter, but someone has to get the information to a crew around here for a set of rail wheels.” He stood up, though could still clearly be heard as he spoke, “Otherwise our little plan goes nowhere, and we’re going to be in for one very, very long night. Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to trying to make a steam-powered Bricksley myself if we can’t fix what blew up over there,” Malavera said, looking a bit embarrassed at first that Kaylie had called him out for one of his hobbies.

“Likely we wouldn’t be able to, anyway,” Kaylie replied. “Only way I could imagine us making a steam engine work for that would be to make a crude hitch coupling to the rear bumper, have the boiler and engine essentially on a trailer, and push us along like an old articulated bus.”

Malavera grimaced. “Don’t let Kayden hear that idea.”

“Why not?” Kaylie asked.

“He’ll give it some sort of stupid name. We both know that.”

Kaylie smirked, then turned to her brother leaning against the truck bed. “Hey, Kayden!” she called out.

Malavera groaned and shook his heads. “Now is when I wish I had enough hands to cover all of my ears,” he muttered under his breath.

“Yeah?” Kayden replied back.

“What would you call a powered trailer unit?” Kaylie inquired.

Kayden stood there for nearly a minute, clearly thinking of something, but it was slowed by him being tired. Malavera almost looked relieved at how long it was taking, thinking the name might not be so bad. Then Kayden opened his mouth and spouted out, “We could call it a Bumper Humper.”

Malavera sighed and said, “Sorry, Val, that you had to hear that one. Ironically, it’s one of the better ones he’s had.”

“1920s isn’t the big issue…”, Val countered. “Basic health and safety rules are.”

After that, he simply waited for things to unfold, the process of which being juust long enough for his brain to start thinking: “Sleep. Now. NOOOW!”
Still, Valentin tried to persist and at the very least get the rail wheels underway, made a bit easier by the distraction that followed the ‘Bumper Humper’ name idea.

“Uh, yeah… rail wheels…”, Valentin started while the loss of mental capacity due to lack of sleep is getting ever more apparent.
“Connor? … I need you to generate some drawings for a solid steel wheel that clears the brakes of their truck and fits to standard gauge.” Valentin spoke, pausing afterwards to ‘buffer’ the next sentence.
“Okay.” Connor stated before walking off and over to the Bricksley to see what he was now working with.
“… And … i’d need local manpower to actually fabricate them … Though … measure twice, cut once.”, Valentin muttered as the three workers went off to help Connor as best they could.

The maintenance pit below the Dione was soon almost devoid of people, with only Valentin remaining down there. At this point, he is forced to give in to the demands for sleep, as he slides down the wall of the pit, now very much sleeping, seated in the far corner of it.

Over by the Bricksley, it was equally clear that some of the team were starting to have serious issues with staying awake. Kivenaal had already crashed out hard a while ago, but now Kayden was showing signs of difficulty after helping Rukari with the dashboard reassembly. Rukari was alert, but starting to have issues where he kept falling back to his native language, making it impossible to understand him unless he slowed way down to speak in a language others could understand. Jayde was exhausted, but still semi-functional when Connor came over to get some measurements of the Bricksley so he could make some technical drawings.

As such, when it came time to take one of the front wheels off, it was Jayde who was in the best shape to do it. Figuring out the jack wasn’t too difficult, and he got it into place, and removing the lug nuts, likewise, didn’t take real long. The problem came in when they went to measure up the rear axle, and Jayde very-nearly put the truck down on the brake rotor before putting the tire on. Thankfully, both Connor and Rukari had stopped him before any further damage could be done to the truck.

Malavera took his time making various measurements of the Dione’s blower fan exhaust housing, writing each down on a sheet of paper kindly provided by one of the workers. When he mentioned he needed the other fan, someone retrieved it from where it had been left in the maintenance pit and handed it to Malavera, who, again, took the same measurements and wrote them down. He then crawled down into the pit himself, a very tight squeeze and a very low crouch for him, in order to see just how little space he had to work with. Now that he had all the measurements he needed, he could start making the adapter as soon as he could find some suitable material.

With the dashboard reassembled and the tires back on the truck, that left Rukari, Jayde, and Kayden with not much else to do. Kayden, as a result, sat down in the passenger seat of the truck, which turned into a sideways slump that left him sleeping while spooning the gear sticks. Jayde and Rukari decided to take a look out back at the steam truck just in case things didn’t go smoothly, as anything could happen at that point.

“You know how to drive one of these?” Jayde asked.

Neyi. Marinkosa, ne grundkosa,” Rukari replied.

Jayde nodded. “So you can handle a ship, but not a truck, then. But you could fire the boiler on this, yes?”

Yi. Igniri nekasi,” Rukari answered.

“Firing won’t be a problem,” Jayde said, translating out loud. “Think this old beast will run?”

Kasivah ahsi linesei, neahd vedi. Nevosa, neahd dobu,” Rukari responded.

Jayde chuckled. “Definitely old but strong. You’re right, though. Not fast, but it’ll do a walking pace just fine.”

Rukari climbed up into the cab and took a look around, not seeing anything obviously missing. He jumped down, looked underneath and nodded. “Weh sehaal kasi, neahd aihi kasi, vii sehuul kasivah.”

“It’ll take some work, but with that work, we’ll have a work beast,” Jayde said. “Hopefully, we won’t need it, but… Let’s be prepared just in case.”

The two of them wandered back in, and Jayde asked Neville, “When was the last time the old steam truck out there ran?”

“Couple months ago. If I remember it correctly, the problem she really has is that the engine’s slide valves are a bit worn out. She’s not efficient when she’s blowing steam all over the country while hauling coal. But she runs. You’d just need to stop quite often for water and fuel to make up for the valve leaks,” Neville replied. “Knowing you’ve got a Valraadi with you, well… I’d bet if we let him fire it and had another one to drive it, she’d be the fastest steam truck in the land.”

Not much happened regarding the members of RK Series Racing, as Valentin was already asleep, Tim was about to fall asleep sat in the rear bench and Connor was busy drawing up some crude documentation on how to make those rail wheels.
Constantin, likewise, had nothing much to do, but was starting to wonder where Valentin had been milling about.

In search for him, he somewhat aimlessly toured the building, checking on the lorry out back as well, eventually finding him below the Dione in the corner. Seeing as how getting a limp twig into an undersized car was nigh-impossible, especially alone, he just left him there for the time being, somewhat calmed by the knowledge of his now known location.

Connor, meanwhile went hard at work drawing up the manufacturing instructions, filling the massive sheet of paper with measurements, angles, material specifications and instructions on finish as well as a wireframe drawing of the object in question.
A second sheet was filled with a slightly altered variant of the first, containing the same things with the changes needed to accommodate the rear axle instead of the front.

Both sheets were than handed to the workers, who eagerly took them into custody and went to the Bricksley to proof-check clearances using the somewhat known stock rims as a reference point.

After that, Connor returned to somewhere near the Dione, idling, while the workers went ahead in making the Bricksley’s rail conversion a reality.

Malavera was in his element, carefully cutting, folding, and welding together the necessary adapter to convert the slightly-larger Bricksley blower fan to fit the Dione’s boiler. Every so often, he grabbed the various parts and checked them for fit, then made adjustments as needed, eventually ending up with an adapter that was, to be perfectly honest, over-built for the task. On one end, it mimicked the blower output for the Dione’s fan, at the other end, it mimicked the start of the Bricksley’s air duct, with proper mounting points to bolt right in using the mounting screws on the front of the Bricksley’s fan housing, turning the adapter and fan into one single unit. He went below the Dione to check the fit, then headed back up top to swap the fan plug over from the old fan to the new one.

By the Bricksley, it was clear now just how tired the team was getting, with Kivenaal and Kayden already crashed out in the truck, Jayde looking like he was about to fall asleep at any moment, and then an almighty crash as Kaylie lost her balance, fell into an almost-empty maintenance pit, and landed hard on her left arm.

“I’m okay,” she called out, getting up slowly, looking at the almost-empty cans of grease she’d smashed flat by landing on them. “Covered in grease, but okay.”

Jayde walked over to help as Kaylie walked out of the maintenance pit. “Yeah, we’re going to have to set up some camp here, I think. There’s no way we’re going to make it into camp like this,” Jayde said.

Neville looked over at them, then said, “We have a shower system here, just behind those doors. Fixing locomotives is messy work, and no one wants to have to clean bearing grease out of carriage seats in the morning. Use it to get cleaned up, if you need to. As for sleeping arrangements, you’re welcome to set up tents outside, just don’t block the entrances. I’ll go pass that on to the others, because it looks like a couple of them have also fallen asleep.”

As Kaylie and Jayde went to use the showers, Neville walked over to let Constantin and Connor know they could set up camp outside if needed, then walked over to relay that to Rukari. After that, he realized Malavera was relatively close to the Dione and gave him the same news as well.

“Well thank you, though we probably cannot make use of it. My tent relies on the car for structural integrity and Valentin obviously is already asleep… Hope you are okay with us staying here for the night, car and everything.”, Constantin replied quietly while he dug about for his sleeping bag in the car, trying to not wake up Tim.

The sleeping bag was then hauled into the pit, where it was rolled out to provide some added comfort and insulation for Valentin. Once down there, he realized that the air was getting a bit stale, though, ending in him chucking the bag back out. After that, he went over to Valentin again, crouching down to align himself for an across-the-shoulder pick-up. He was very careful about not pinching any of his hair as well as not flinging him about the area.
On the way out of the maintenance bay, he realized that he had no plan on where to put Valentin, now that he was out of the trench.
He somewhat cluelessly looks around for a reasonably secluded corner for Valentin to sleep in.

Malavera looked over as he saw Constantin carrying Valentin with no real good place to put him in sight. Quickly looking around the area, he found a spot not-too-far from the Dione, a space between two somewhat dusty toolboxes. He’d noticed most of the other toolboxes were either clean, somewhat greasy or oily, or covered with coal dust, not just the usual dusty dirty look. He waved Neville over, then asked, “What’s with those toolboxes?”

“Those? A bunch of tools we rarely ever have to use. Weird measurements, fractions of an inch. Archaic crap we keep around just in case someone brings in one of those awful imported Nehmenweld steam wagons again,” Neville replied.

Malavera looked over to Constantin, then motioned to him to place Val in the nearly 10-foot space between the two toolboxes. “Neville says they contain tools no one uses. Sounds like they might be American standard, not Metric. But I don’t think anyone will bother him while he rests there.”

Constantin took a look over to the toolboxes, which indeed where basically pristine save for the thick layer of dust draped over them. With a graceful shove of his foot, his sleeping bag rolled over to the space indicated by Malavera.

“Mind rolling it out over there? Cannot exactly do that without putting the pasta back into the pot first.”, Constantin requested.

Malavera gave a quick nod with his right head, then carefully unrolled the sleeping bag for Constantin, taking the time to make sure no loose bolts, nuts, washers, or other debris was under it so Valentin could get some decent sleep. After he had done that, he used the nearby toolbox to help stand back up again, then admitted to Constantin, “Sorry, but I may have slightly over-stressed the buckle. I hate those plastic clips, I struggle with them all the time. Squeeze too hard, they break. Don’t squeeze hard enough, you can’t undo them.”

Constantin followed Malavera over to the toolbox area and waited for him to unfurl the sleeping bag.
Once the area was cleared and the bag was placed, Constantin crouched down and carefully placed Valentin on top. He also took the chance to check up on the buckle to discover that it wasn’t exactly pristine, but functional.

Valentin in turn took note of the new orientation he was now in, flipping around to the other side almost immediately while also curling up somewhat to retain a bit of heat.
While the steamworks isn’t the coldest building in town, the mass of open windows and gateways made for a sizeable draft through the building.

Constantin returned to Malavera by righting himself again.
“Well that buckle doesn’t look broken. And even if, replacing it isn’t a problem.”, Constantin replied.
“Tell me if i can be of help somehow. Seems like we are the only two still fully alert here, other than Neville and the current shift of locals…”

Malavera nodded. “I’ve still got to install that blower fan. The adapter is done, but it needs to go into the car now. Rukari’s busy with the tents, but, well, I know him when he gets tired, you won’t understand a single word he’s saying. Ideally, we’d get Kayden out of the front of the truck, but there’s no way you’re moving him, and even if we could do that, we can’t shove him into a tent without waking him up anyway,” Malavera said, before picking up the fan and some tools to install it.

“But, if you want to help, I’m fairly sure while I can install this into the car, I’m not going to be able to get those plugs connected. Also, while Rukari is setting up some tents, I’m sure he’d appreciate some help. Might as well set one of ours up for yourself while you’re at it,” Malavera added, before dropping back into the maintenance pit to install the fan.

Getting it lined up was easy, and getting the bolts in took no time at all, but he fumbled around with the plugs for just a few seconds before saying, “I’ve gotten it in there, but it still needs to be plugged in. If I try, I’m just going to end up breaking something.” He climbed back out of the maintenance pit with a grimace, then added, “I don’t know how the locals do that, climbing in and out of those. There’s almost no space in there.”

“The locals aren’t near-enough 8 feet tall and also have one head each…”, Constantin mumbled while he got underneath the Dione to plug the draft fan in, which took all of seven seconds to do.
“As per tents, i can manage. There’s still space in the car and cramped everything isn’t news to me. Also, better test if the fan actually works, right?” He said while on his way out from underneath.

He then went to Connor, the designated fireman, inquiring about a dry-cycle test of the draft fan.
“Okay. Be aware that the noise might alert the people already asleep.”, Connor protested.
“Other option is doing it tomorrow, risking hefty delays if shit is still busted…”, Constantin insisted, forcing Connor to climb aboard the Fireman’s seat. He flicked the ignition into the AUX position, followed by a smooth 0-100-0 operation of the draft fan.
What was immediately obvious is that the Bricksley fan was substantially louder than the Anhultz one due to the bigger vehicle it was meant for. Still, neither Valentin nor Tim were awoken by the noise made, with the latter groaning a bit and flopping over lengthwise onto the bench.

Soon, the fan returned to being dead-silent and stationary as Connor turned the ignition back off.
“Seems to work.”, Constantin confirmed. “Thank you for helping on that plate thingy… If you don’t need me for anything else, i’ll join the others in the Dreamworks. Every minute counts, i guess.”

Constantin then turned around to head up front, turning the fireman’s seat into a makeshift bed with consideration made to make room for Tim behind.

“Sleep is important. Even I’m planning on getting some more rest, and I could probably go another day without too much of an ill effect on me,” Malavera admitted. “That said, we should probably plan on getting up a bit early, just so we have time to iron out any problems with putting the truck on the rails. After all, we’ve never done this before, and while I trust that the wheels will be done correctly, I’d rather have extra time to make sure it’s done and will work than to be spending several hours troubleshooting when we should be on the way.”

He looked to Connor, then asked, “Could you wake me up somewhere around 4 hours before sunrise?”

“Me too. Sounds like a solid idea.” Constantin added, aware that the entire team would need to get up early, even if none of them were aware of that yet.
“Noted. I shall wake you up four hours before sunrise.”, Connor calmly replied.

After that, Constantin simply nodded to both Malavera and Connor before actually heading into his makeshift bed proper for the night.

Malavera nodded, then headed over to the Bricksley where Rukari had finished setting up the tents, gladly picking one, making sure that Connor knew which one he was in, then crawling inside.

Kaylie and Jayde wandered out of the showers, glad that everyone else was pretty much asleep by that point, as Jayde had used his magic to dry them both off and dry out their clothes. They chuckled as they walked past the truck to see Kayden and Kivenaal sleeping on the bench seats inside, then went through the usual ordeal of picking a tent that, in this case, didn’t already have someone sleeping in it.

Neville smiled. He knew his crew would work hard over the rest of the night to get everything done. For him, it was worth it just to have met Valentin today, but knowing that Valentin and his crew had chosen his steamworks for an interesting project, well… That was above and beyond perfect. He looked at the huge blue vehicle, then back over at his crew as they machined a set of wheels to fit it, and chuckled to himself. “A steam wagon on rails. I might have to try that some day,” he said to himself.

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Studies in Quantum Xenoanthropology, Ep. 6: We got a problem.

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As Ford handed over the wheel to Arthur after a few hours of concentrated (and mostly silent) driving, Arthur rather started to roll more along than attacking the stage with gusto, despite the stage being quite well suited to the 4x4 Kanyon, and Ford having enjoyed his time behind the wheel, as usual.

“So you are trying to lose places the traditional way, despite not knowing exactly how much time we need to lose or whether we need to do that at all?”, Ford wondered.

“We might not have official timing, and only estimations by our AI - but I trust them…” Typing noises made Arthur and Ford take a quick glance at the centre view screen.

“… and it’s the only information we have”, Arthur concluded. The green letters vanished immediately.

“So, we might be up there with the leading pack, we won a few stages early on, so…?”, began Ford, but Arthur interrupted.

“Ford, you are forgetting the Prime Tenet of Quantumxenoanthropology: No interference…”

“… No records.” Ford joined Arthur in saying the last part, finishing it simultaneously. “And if we happen to win, or be on the podium, then there will be a record, albeit a small one…”

Arthur shot a warning glance at Ford.

“So why don’t we just disappear? We can just relocate to our quantum reality and noone would be the wiser…”

In the distance, a faint but consistent engine noise became audible.

“First, we’d cause quite a stir if we are suddenly absent from the next camp without having signed out with the organisers”, Arthur started. “That’s called a pertubatio in absentia. And second, we might miss out on a substantial chunk of data - everyone’s behaviour during and after the victory ceremony… the ‘party’ as it will be called, no doubt. So we have to be there, just not be a part of it, as usual.”

“And rarely can you gain more elucidating behavioural insights than in a rapid shift of environmental circumstances”, cited Ford from a standard xenoanthropology textbook. “The victory party probably will indeed count for that”, he mumbled.

The engine noise in the distance became louder. Ford’s expertise over the last days had grown so that he could readily identify the engine as an inline-6.

“See? And we can’t just ask the organisers to score us badly because they would ask all sorts of questions”, Arthur continued.

“Can’t we just… adjust… their records?” As on cue, the Kanyon was slightly shaken by a blue-ish car which wanted to get past the dawdling Mara just at the right time to emphasise certain words in Ford’s question.

“I rather not dare use quantum manipulation on their stuff. First, that would be interference…” - another hit by the blue estate car that now filled their rear view mirrors - “… And second, I don’t even bloody know where they keep the records!” Arthur began to be slightly agitated. The road was too narrow to let the blue nuisance pass so he hoped that its drivers would just get bored at some point.

“How about faking a defect?”

Arthur shook his head, aided by the third less than gentle nudge from behind. “Someone might stop to help us, and then nothing is wrong after all. And, as you can see, there is not even space here to safely STOP!” A fourth shudder rocked the Kanyon. “So, we are going to simply lose time, and we have to do it the traditional way.” More typing noises emanated from the centre console.

Arthur barely had time to read the newly appeared green letters as a fifth hit from behind made him yank the wheel to keep the Kanyon straight on the narrow road. “SCREW IT”, he shouted and put the pedal to the metal (in the absence of interior luxuries such as carpeted floors) in order to escape the
Dunav 3300 behind them.

The Kanyon’s superior traction indeed managed to leave their pursuers in the dust after a short while, and Ford silently wondered when the normally unflappable Arthur would sufficiently calm down to heed his own words, uttered only a very short time ago…

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I love that they’re being flustered in this serious moment by someone playing bumper-cars on the road.