And the XL53 does have 5 seats right?
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I see no real issues with it, as long as there’s space in your vehicle for them. It won’t affect stats.
I might not immediately put them into the spreadsheet, but I’ll keep track of them.
The XL53, does, in fact, have 5 seats.
Cool. Been thinking of doing that for this part as a major change
2 Likes
good to know
have been thinking of the same, albeit highly temporary and for an entirely different reason 
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OOC note:
my team is available for interaction in this stage
RK Series Racing; Stage 5 Drive
With breakfast done and the team (largely) awake, they got to work preparing “Robert” by greasing up most of the engine bay by means of a manual grease gun, kindly supplied by the Itzgarde Steamworks…
“Mind if we stop over in town real quick? Need to collect up my… this time actually shootable… bows.”, Constantin mentioned.
“Sure. It may take only a minute for Robert to be driveable, but it takes about 15 for full power to develop.”, Valentin replies, placing the last few squirts on the stephenson valve gear next to the engine.
After that, they pile into the car, with Connor once again at the helm and Valentin, for what felt like the first time, taking seat in the “fireman’s position” (read: front passenger seat).
Before the Tangerine Tank Engine rolls into motion, Tim reaches over from the rear bench and turns the ignition key, which now is a re-purposed whistle actuator, sending a series of whistle blasts across the entire camp.
Immediately after, he pokes his head out of his window in back, shouting:
Choo Choo Motherf . . . ers!!!
In very good spirits, the Dione rolls off into town.
A few minute later, they stop over at the local bowyer’s place, where Tim leaves the car to make room for Constantin to exit as well.
A few minutes later, Constantin returns, holding a pair of bows , some strings and a series of arrows, which are taken straight into the interior of the vehicle.
Now having made full pressure, they leave Itzgarde, passing the steamworks once again and thanking them by blowing their whistle, with waves of joy and amazement being recieved in reply.
As soon as they are out of town, Connor absolutely floors it once again, with zero regard for steam consumption or efficiency.
to be continued
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I probably want to do some interaction with you later. Janne is probably going crazy when he sees the steam conversion.
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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
The Dyre incident the day before had actually turned out quite well in the end. The puppies came back to the Magistrate after hiding in the woods for a while, and team Oil Crisis seemed to look after them a little bit better after that. In the morning, the team was speeding away in a rapid pace.
MARIE: “You’re planning to blow more tyres, Speedy Gonzales?”
ANDREAS: “Hey, this is only a regular gravel road, not nearly as bad as what we saw yesterday.”
And - he was right. It all went on quite undramatic with the accelerator pinned to the floor, and thanks to the AWD, the van actually went straight where some of the rear wheel drive cars were behaving more like horny snakes.
MARIE: “I am getting roadsick!”
ANDREAS: “No, you are just having a hangover and it is all your own fault!”
Some fresh air at a fuel stop later was a relief, though, but in front of them the roads looked VERY bad.
JANNE: “Are you going to take the risk to drive at the same pace here?”
ANDREAS: “Well, the other risk we can take is to come last. We don’t want to come last. We have lost enough time already in the earlier rounds.”
With Hulkoff’s sweet voice on full volume, the team sprinted away at full pace which was a jolting experience. But despite the large amount of risk taking, the van came to the next camp in one piece.
ANDREAS: “Great, we made it. Marie, can you try to not start any chaos this evening? We’re getting tired of it now!”
MARIE: “I never start any chaos.”
JANNE: “OK, she can’t even try.”
TO BE CONTINUED
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TEAM BLAZERS
“God, you can live like this?” An annoyed male voice called out.
After the morning forest petrichor filled the thick and heavy humid air of the log cabin as the heat surrounded the camp following the light drizzle of last night, the team’s nostrils caught the whiff of the post-rain scent as the rainwater from the ground dissipated from the weather around, with some feeling more nostalgic than others, and others with their sweat dripping from beneath their chins and around their arms as their bodies coped with the sweltering heat of the forest campsite.
“Oh please, doesn’t Italy have pretty much the same weather? Mediterranean’s basically the same, isn’t it?” Romulo commented, also with sweat building up around his forehead. “It’s not that bad, seriously. I can’t believe you stood up to those wolf things, yet the moment the weather shifts slightly, you’re out here complaining like a child. I mean, look at Charlotte! She’s… doing… fine…?”
He looked up from the grille and glanced over towards the inside of the cabin, where a very agitated cat was sitting on a table inside the cabin by the small window, fanning herself and the other girls with one of Romulo’s anahaw fans he brought over. Once again, Emily and Charlotte were both hard at work with the pacenotes, with the humid cabin air only making a rather difficult job harder. The humidity and heat seemed to not be enjoyed by anyone but Romulo as he stood in the breezy star-kissed weather by the portable grille where lunch was being made before their departure. He lifted the lid to reveal some cubed-up exotic-looking chicken that Charlotte had bought from the market the other night that were skewered on some barbecue sticks along with some vegetables, slowly roasting along to the crackling of charcoal below. He fanned the grille to let the heat rise, and the scent of what seemed like chicken came along with it.
From seemingly out of nowhere, a silver-haired figure came out from behind him, and he saw as a small arm began to reach for the hot chicken. Instantly an alarm went off in his head, and he grabbed the arm before it could injure itself. “Hey!” He looked down and to no one’s surprise, a hungry Ga’araiya was there, now visibly quite angered after she was stopped from receiving a meal. “Food’s still hot, you’re gonna get burned, you know?” He said, moving her squirming arm away from the grille. She seemed to pout even more at this, her child-like appearance only contributing to this insecurity about him scolding her. “B-be patient-”
“She can handle hot food quite well. You can let her be.” A hand landed on Romulo’s shoulder, and he turned around to see a Watson, shirtless and with sweat rolling down his large body. Romulo let go of Ga’araiya’s hand, but before she could attempt to grab it again, he quickly shut the lid to let the skewers continue cooking. "Well, it’s not fully cooked yet, " He said. “Put a shirt on, too. Ladies are watching, y’know?”
“You say that,” Watson raised his eyebrow. “Yet was it not only a few days ago that you took off your own shirt in the heat?”
“I guess we’re all accustomed to different weather, aren’t we?”
“The weather hither remind me of the jungles in French Indochina during the summers. Not too different from your own Philippine homeland. It hadst been quite a while since I’ve been there. I wonder if we are near the equator of this world?” Watson walked over towards the Yamada, whose hood was propped open to prevent the heat from gathering inside the engine bay, and grabbed his shirt from atop the vehicle, still stained in the blood of the Dyre he had slain just a few nights before. Charlotte looked out the window and saw something that she deemed quite peculiar, something with Watson’s shirt.
“Hey, Watson, wasn’t your shirt ripped up?” She rose from the table to lean out towards the window. He looked at it, and indeed it had lost the tears that once severed the sleeve on which he was bitten on. But most peculiarly the arm where Watson was bitten no longer had the bruise marks that once dotted his skin in the pattern of the beast’s jaws, and Charlotte was simply astounded. “Your arm… is healed?”
“What about them?” He looked at her completely straight, without flinching or any hint of anything to conceal. “Is he just, capable of doing that?” She looked at Emily, who simply shrugged. “I’ll tell you what, I do not know what exactly he is capable of. But let’s just say, he’s very much a capable being.”
“Being? You’re telling me he’s not human?”
“Sorry to say, but I’m not sure about that part either. I think it would be best just not to question him.” She sighed set the pen down onto the table as she just about finished writing. “I’m quite hungry already, is the meal ready yet? It does smell quite nice and very much appetising.” Emily said, getting up from the table. But Charlotte still wasn’t satisfied. “You’re just gonna leave it at that?”
“The thing is, Charlotte,” Emily went over towards her, placing her hands over the feline’s fur-coated shoulders. “I’m just as confused as you are. I was not expecting myself to suddenly be moved to another world and join an automobile rally all because of my encounter with a princess of the sea and my eagerness to help someone like her when I first found her that night. What do I have to do with royal affairs, anyway? Being an aircraft engineer in a country where my creations would not recieve my credit, in a world where the continent is on the verge of warfare a second time?” Emily looked into Charlotte’s eyes. “Fate brings you to peculiarities you simply just do not have an explanation for. Sometimes, questions are best left answered, and you’re better off appreciating the moment, right?”
She looked back at the taller blonde girl, there was no point in hiding anything to anyone at this point, and if there was, the reason would likely be justified. “I suppose that may be true. I guess if he’s a superhuman, we can let that be. But it is curious isn’t it? We’re in this rally together, I suppose it isn’t wrong to get to know each other better?”
“Throughout this rally, I do not remember much times we’ve had conflict with one another.” Emily paused for a moment, and her face flushed slightly at the thought. “Well, except those… times… But aside from that, maybe it could be through fear that we support one another through this, but we’re all in this together, aren’t we? We’ve accepted our differences, mostly, and we’re able to work as one. I think we’ve learned about each other enough through our experiences with one another, and even though some mysteries are still unsolved, we’re doing fine.” She pulled her in for a hug. “I believe you’re still afraid of being alone, aren’t you?”
Charlotte wrapped her arms around Emily as well with a heavy sigh. “You heard that night, didn’t you?” Emily nodded with a soft affirmative. “I don’t know what we’re going to be doing after this rally, but with the massive time differences and world differences between us all…” “It’s fine, once we return Ga’araiya…” “Oh wait, don’t you still have a mission to do?” Charlotte pulled away from the hug and looked towards Watson, who, along with Romulo and Ga’araiya were now beginning to chow down on their skewers, and he paused his meal to look at her.
“That’ll be not very difficult, assuming that the watch does return to service.”
“Well, seeing as I can make rifts, I could theoretically come over for a visit, couldn’t I?” Charlotte pondered enthusiastically, but it seemed Watson thought otherwise as he looked at her with a deep seriousness in his eyes.
“Powers like that cannot be used freely according to your will. There’s a certain responsibility to bringing the future into the past and vice versa.” He argued without a flinch. His sharp gaze pierced into the feline’s as he intended to let her know the consequences without direct confrontation. Yet Charlotte’s armor seemed to work well for these scenarios, and she simply shrugged it off with a slight giggle.
“Yup, which is why I’d have to take precaution!”
Watson, not wanting to argue pointlessly, simply continued to eat, although to his surprise, he found no trace left of the meat on his skewers, and looking around he found the culprit with her face stuffed with more skewers than a regular human child would’ve been able to eat, all swallowed in one big gulp. “What kind of princess knows no manners?” He scoffed at her playfully, with Ga’araiya looking back at him and covering her mouth up with both hands, her face flushing slightly as she looked back away. “I-I… have manners too… you know…” Her soft voice came out of the blue. It was the first time she spoke a full sentence, and Watson simply chuckled.
With their lunch over, they began to pack up again to set off for another journey, and the dusty red Yamada started up with its usual ease. But something seemed quite peculiar to Emily that no one else noticed. As the four cylinder started up, a distinct rattling was heard for a moment that happened right as the car vibrated into life, but to everyone the vehicle’s loud unmuffled exhaust didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Seeing as no one else was bothered by it, she let it be for now as she climbed into the front seat and prepared for another day of rallying.
The bell in the town rang, and the orchestra of automobile cylinders all running out of the camp sounded the beginning of yet another stage. Leaving the camp were the bright flashes yet again of the different colour vehicles passing through, with a loud whistle from a certain orange liftback blaring loudly as they passed. Watson in the driver’s seat looked over in the distance to find the Anhultz outfitted with some contraptions he hadn’t seen before, and Charlotte was eager to speak up about it.
“They’ve converted it to steam! Incredible!” She exclaimed as she watched them pass by the orange sedan, as with the Watson now back in the captain’s chair, the team was ready to rumble and go all out once again.
The start was figuratively and literally rocky, as the faded cobblestone roads jolted about the vehicle as it traversed the precipitous rocks, and Watson was unable to manage to stay focused at first, but eventually he got the hang of it, and merging in intercourse with Emily’s pacenotes, the car was able to steadily traverse across the coarse, faded roads and hopping about every bump on the way like a galloping stallion with every minor bump on the road predicted by Watson. The faded cobblestone shook the vehicle’s suspension and the tyres momentarily lost their traction, but smooth hand movement and driver coordination meant that for the most part, they were blazing.
This smooth sailing went on until a dip in the road jolted about the vehicle and Watson once again lost his focus as a loud flopping noise came from the engine bay, and a haunting rattling shook the engine. He slowed down a bit and looked behind him, Romulo sat there with horror on his face as he was able to tell what exactly had gone wrong. He raised his hand and signalled for Watson to stop the vehicle, and the red crossover came to a halt by the side of the road. “Open the hood and watch the temps.” Romulo told Watson as he hopped out of the car. He made his way towards the vehicle’s front and after a game of guessing where the hood latch was, he lifted up the engine’s covering and peered down into the engine bay.
“How’s the temps?” Romulo called out, and a response quickly came from within the cabin. “Slowly rising!” Said Watson. Romulo called for the engine to be shut off, and after picking out a flashlight from the glovebox, he peered deeper towards the engine bay and found the main culprit, the serpentine belt which ran the vehicle’s water pumps had fallen off one of its connection points. After going back and grabbing something for him to step on for better leverage, he looked down into the engine bay to get a closer look. The belt had only been replaced a few months prior, and looking at it, it hadn’t aged a day since its replacement, though maybe a bit dusty but otherwise perfectly fine. Visibly confused, Romulo managed to wiggle it back into place and called for Watson to start the vehicle up once more. With the engine roaring itself back into life with no screeching or any signs of a bad belt, he was convinced the belt was indeed back on, but was still visibly shaking in place. He shut the hood and went back into the cabin.
“Drive belt’s fallen off. We’re going to have to go at a slower pace if we don’t want the car to overheat.”
Emily looked back at him, quite unsure with his wording of the scenario. “Drive belt? Do you perhaps mean the timing belt, or…?”
“No, no, the drive belt. It runs pretty much all the other critical functions of the car. Were they not a thing back in the 30s or something?”
“I don’t believe they were a thing on aircraft engines. Maybe it could have been there for an automobile engine, however. I’m quite unsure.”
“Right…” Romulo buckled his seatbelt back up. “Well, let’s just keep it at a slower pace. We’ll deal with the issue at the next camp.”
With a nod, Watson continued forth. It was a bit unsettling for Emily to read the pace notes slower than she was previously used to, and she likened it more to telling someone directions whilst on a hiking trip as the Yamada crawled its way (relatively speaking) towards the next destination. On smoother sections where the risk was lessened, Watson put a bit more throttle into it, before seeing the road ahead and slowing back down. Cars continually passed the damaged Yamada, but in the interest of maintaining the vehicle’s longetivity, they had no other choice.
But even at this slow pace, as they neared the campsite according to the map and the notes, the flopping noise was heard again, only this time it continued even after the car came to a halt by the side of the road, Once again, the order was given to shut the engine off, and Romulo went out with a flashlight to see the issue, but as the engine had been running for quite some time now, and the humid air helping maintain the temperature of the bay, he was forced to wait for a bit to prevent his hand from burning from accidentally touching hot metal components. Whilst he waited, he shone the flashlight towards the lower section of the engine bay, and he found the serpentine belt had once again gone completely loose, having fallen off the entirety of its pulleys.
“Susmaryosep…” He cursed under his breath as he got up and looked towards the road. “We’re only a few miles away from camp, what the hell could’ve caused that?”
On the side of the road where they stopped, not too far away from the town of Raiegarda, was a rather pretty-looking lake. Romulo observed some of the locals as they stared at some of the vehicles that passed by them, and some who looked closely at their own red vehicle. Had this been the human world, they likely would’ve been made a laughing stock by the people around, and yet these people who had never before seen an automobile with an engine so compact, so advanced and so alien, simply stared in awe and curiosity. Fortunately for him, not one of them approached the broken down Yamada as he continued waiting for the engine to cool, as every once in a while he’d lean his hand over the engine to check if the heat had dissipated enough for him to stick his hand in.
Finally, after a long process of checking over the engine every now and then, it had cooled down enough for him to reattach the belt, and once he’d fidgeted around enough getting it back on, almost bumping his head into the hood and having himself cut in half, he asked for Watson to start the engine back up, which did so compliantly and they were now on their way towards the campsite.
They arrived at the campsite a bit later in the day, with the area being more full than usual, they had a bit less freedom of choice of where to set up camp, but eventually did decide on a spot a bit near the lake. The team split up into those working on the vehicle, and the other setting up camp. Emily joining Romulo whilst Watson and Charlotte set up the tent nearby. Their first order of business was jacking the car up, which after ensuring the car was indeed on stiff enough ground, they proceeded with caution as the nose of the red SUV lifted up off the ground.
“We’re going to have to take the bumper off and the wheels if we want to have a proper look at this. Thankfully, quite easy to do on this car.” Romulo said as he prepared his tools for the long task ahead of them. “We’ll need to be quick, otherwise sunset shall come soon.” Emily said, tying her long golden hair up into a neat ponytail and tying her sleeves up to avoid them getting too much into the way. Romulo stared a bit as she did so, and he felt his face heat up ever so slightly before he quickly averted his gaze. “Y-yeah…”
Romulo took a stool nearby to lift himself up into the engine bay, where he disconnected the bumper foglights and unhooked the clips, which made the bumper fall right down onto the ground with a dull, plasticky thud. On the other hand, Emily took one of the wrenches and began to take the nuts off the wheels one by one, and in a matter of time, she was ready to assist Romulo in searching for the problem.
“Right, so quick briefing. The drive belt is a belt that… well… drives the vehicle’s other components. I believe in older engines, they used separate belts which, while very redundant, were probably not as efficient. This car uses just one belt, and it’s loose, and that’s what we’ve gotta find now.” He said to her.
“Which components specifically? You did not mention what they were, however you did say they were critical.” Emily inquired.
“Well, on this car? To my knowledge, the alternator, which produces electricity for the rest of the car’s functions, the water pump for the radiator, and the air conditioning. Thankfully, the power steering has its own redundant belt, so that’s all good.”
“I see. I presume the alternator is a modern equivalent of a magneto? That does sound quite critical… Shall we get started, then?”
With a nod, the two proceeded on searching their way around the engine, but as they were about to get underneath the car, a thought had quickly passed through Emily’s head from earlier. She remembered the rattling noise from when the car started itself, but she was unsure as to where exactly it was. “Hold on a minute, I think I may have an idea of where it came from,” She quickly tapped Romulo’s back before he could get underneath. “Could you start the engine for me? I may be able to pinpoint exactly where it came from.”
Romulo once again nodded as he moved back towards the driver’s seat, and with a thumbs up from Emily as she leaned in towards the side of the engine where the belt was, the engine started up with the distinct cranking noise and the rattling she had heard earlier. She asked for him to stop the engine, and once it did, she climbed up towards the engine bay to have a closer look. “Start it up! And do constantly adjust the throttle!” She called out, and when the engine shook itself into life again, she managed to trace exactly where the clattering of metal came from.
A round component within the engine bay dotted with holes that was connected to a bracket just off of the engine block and hooked up to the belt. It shook itself and jostled around with every rev, and she had managed figure the issue out. She called for Romulo to stop the engine and come out, and when he did and came to her side, she was quick to point directly at the culprit. “Something’s loose with this component specifically. It rattled around when the engine started, and only got worse as you increased the throttlle.”
Romulo looked down into the engine bay where she was pointing. “Oh, the alternator! Pulley’s gone bad, maybe?”
Emily leaned in a bit closer, moving nearly her entire body down closer towards the engine and jostling the component about and seeing what the issue was. The piece of metal that held the alternator the the engine block seemed to be the loose object here. She continued moving it around, and thought about it for a minute. “Do you perhaps have a small enough wrench that could fit through here?”
“I think I do.” He looked around through his toolbox, before pulling out an adjustable wrench that looked small enough to fit. With a thank you, she took the wrench, moved herself back in closer towards the alternator and twisted the bolt that held it tighter. The first few twists didn’t seem to do anything, so she moved onto another bolt closer to the engine block, and began to twist the head down into it. Once it had been sufficiently tight enough for her, she gave it a good wiggle, and the alternator was now put. “I think it should be better now. One way to find out is to have her started up again!” Emily said, enthusiastic about having worked on an engine she had never seen before, an engine built nearly a hundred years into the future where new technology was available.
Romulo ran over into the cabin and turned the key over, and immediately Emily was able to hear the clanking of the metal bracket no longer, and they were cheerful upon having fixed the issue that would’ve otherwise brought the Yamada to its knees. “Nice work! I think we’ll finally be able to relax a bit more now and go a bit more wild on the throttle.” Romulo said as he shut the engine off and went back out. “Now, to put the car back together…”
The two got to work reassembling the car, and in the midst of it, a certain curiosity pricked Romulo.
“Say, Emily, what got you into airplanes?” He asked as innocently as possible.
Emily paused for a moment, and gave herself quick few seconds to think before she went back to what she was doing. “I’d say it started when I was a small girl, I guess?”
"That was… 1927…? Nearly ten years ago, now that I think about it. The first transatlantic flight, a pilot flew all the way across that ocean from America to Europe. I was still in Britain at the time, and when I heard the news on the radio. It was broadcast everywhere in the empire, I believe that’s where my interest started. I was piqued about the new invention of aeroplanes. Everyone around me was quite surprised when they heard I had grown up from dolls and other such ‘girly’ things and began taking up an interest in the field of aeronautics.
"But where it all truly started? Not too long after that, when I was invited by my uncle to Italy to study the aeroplane. I was unsure at first, going into a country where they thought of women as not much else than the husband’s tool for housework, though they did promise me that I would keep my studies a secret. But that’s still not it. Prior to that, there was a great competition for a prize called the Schneider Trophy…
"It was 1929, I had witnessed one of the aircraft competing fly overhead, and that one was the Italian Macchi… The lines of its fuselage, how it gently curved with its distinct flair and beautiful red colour… Not too long after, I saw the Supermarines that took the prize that year, whilst elegant in their design, they did not match the beauty of the Italian aircraft that once dazzled me as it flew overhead. And that was when I knew.
“If I wanted to design an aeroplane as beautiful and as elegant as that one, there was only one place I could learn such form, and that was Italy.” She smiled at him as she cranked the last wheel nut into place.
“Aircraft are not too different from the automobile. It all stemmed from a desire for man to go faster, and further than possible. Through the principles of nature, these mechanical creations can be shaped into the most beautiful creations one could ever hope to sculpt.”
That is simply the beauty of speed.
…
Glossary
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TEVR (Timed Electronic Variable System) is a system developed by Yamada to improve the efficiency and performance of a four-stroke internal combustion engine. The system allows for higher levels of performance at higher RPM and lower fuel consumption at lower RPM. TEVR utilises a series of camshaft profiles that can be selected hydraulically depending on a number of factors. The system differentiates from a traditional valve timing system which only changes the timing, and does not switch cam profiles, nor valve lift.
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New Direct Injection or, ND-i is a proprietary digital electronic direct injection fuel system developed by Yamada.
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Anahaw - A palm leaf native to parts of South East Asia. Sometimes called luyong in the Philippines, and called serdang daun bulat in Malaysia.
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French Indochina - The predecessor colony to the countries now known as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
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Susmaryosep - Jesus, Mary, Joseph.
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Schneider Trophy - A prize awarded to a race for seaplanes originally ran in the 1910s to the early 1930s, and again since the 1980s.
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we might want to discuss the specifics then
either in Forum DM’s or Discord
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Yes, just have to finish some interaction with Madrias first.
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RK Series Racing; Stage 5 Drive; Part 2
About half an hour of Connor flooring the “throttle” later, first impressions can be drawn on Robert’s performance. While the boiler had ample capacity to supply the engine with enough steam, even at zero cutoff (equivalent to full throttle), the lower maximum engine speeds seriously limited top speed.
On the straights, the car loses all of it’s grunt at about 70MPH and doesn’t go past 75, unless manhandling it downhill. As such, Connor’s momentum-biased driving proved even more useful, granting ludicrous cornering speeds to counteract the lack of top end.
The remaining drive wasn’t exactly eventful, precisely because of the sheer speed they were going at and the somehow clockwork-like pitstop when refueling both tanks of the Tangerine Tank Engine.
Just under 6 hours later, which is substantially quicker than they expected, Robert rolls into the camp, the team seated within, while announced with a toot of the whistle.
to be continued
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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! (Co-op with @Madrias - hence the somewhat different format.)
When the team had been relaxing at the van for a while, arriving early as they were, they saw Kaylie from Team Shift happens coming towards them, with Rukari coming after, a bit ashamed it looked like. According to Kaylie, Rukari had something important to say.
“I apologize for side-swiping the van.”, Rukari said
“Side-swiping? No shit, Sherlock, that’s the least thing one could say! How the fuck were you driving?”, Andreas answered.
“I guess we could call it Van Gogh now”, Janne said and pointed towards the now one-mirrored van. “You get the point?”, he asked, smirking.
“Did you get your drivers license in a package of corn flakes or what?”, Marie asked, a bit salty.
Rukari grimaced, though was grateful when Kaylie let go of his ear. “I learned to drive in the Grundzahiri,” Rukari said.
“He’s military,” Kaylie explained. “Grundzahiri is their army.” She did, however, smirk at Janne naming the atomic-pink van as Van Gogh, then added, “Not a bad name for a one eared, rather artistic van.”
Rukari glanced at Kaylie to see if she was done speaking, then said, “We were heading to rescue another team. I drove as fast as I could to get to them, considering our surroundings at the time. A breakdown in Dyre territory is dangerous.”
When Marie quipped that Rukari got his drivers license in a package of Corn Flakes, Kaylie snickered. “In the United States, we’d say he got his license from a Cracker-Jack box, so it’s good to see some things stay the same.”
“What is a drivers license?” Rukari asked. “Vilzahir Arunika Veldrothan-Rhuthan has given me permission to drive any vehicle I need in a time of war, and during a time of peace, any non-military vehicle I deem appropriate.”
The deep sigh that came from Andreas could almost be heard over the entire camp. “Yeah…” he said. “We heard some chatter about that on the CB, but still…”, he said with an even more deep sigh, “…is it really worth driving so you put other teams at risk just because of that? Oh, I forgive you…mirrors aren’t really needed in this world anyway.”
It was almost like if Andreas had calmed down a bit. For some reason it was like if he had no energy for any of his usual outbursts. One could hear that he was just tired of this now.
“But please, next time, don’t drive like a maniac if you don’t have control over the situation”.
“You are almost starting to sound grown up now. I am getting a bit worried for your sake now.”, Janne said with a sigh.
“Well, have you ever mentioned the time you put my Dodge Dart in a ditch, so we had to…”, Marie continued.
“WELL ENOUGH OF THAT, THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THAT STORY!”, Andreas said in a very annoyed tone. Now everyone could recognize him again, so there was probably nothing to be worried about anymore.
“I thought I had more space. Forgot about the mirrors,” Rukari admitted.
When Marie mentioned the time that someone put her Dodge Dart in a ditch, however, and Andreas tried to claim they weren’t interested in that story, Kaylie gave an almost wicked grin. “I wouldn’t mind hearing about this. Seems our resident emperor-to-be isn’t the only one with a history of wrecking cars,” Kaylie said.
Rukari glared at her. “I did not wreck the truck,” he said.
“No, but at the Trafikjournalen 24 hours of Clunkers, you totaled our Sinistra Traville,” Kaylie replied.
“It still ran when the race was done,” Rukari shot back.
“We had to sell it for scrap value! You sent it into the wall so many times that there wasn’t a straight body panel left. You shattered the driver’s side window, caused the front suspension to collapse, making me kiss an airbag, trashed the rear suspension bad enough that we had to fabricate a bracket to keep the rear axle in place, and scattered bits of debris around the track!” Kaylie retorted, smirking.
“Yeah, anyway, we were kind of late for a party…”, Marie started.
“First, it was all your fault, because it took half the day for you to get finished, since you were so drunk so you didn’t know which planet you were on. Second, not everyone calls “some backwood drunkards getting even more drunk as fuck while setting fire to random things” a party just because we do, worth keeping in mind. Not that I think that Shift happens is some city sissies, but still.”, Andreas answered.
“Yeah and he was driving like a maniac…”, Marie continued.
“Like a maniac…sure…with a tired old 318 that has some traces of compression left on at least 7 cylinders…sure…but yeah, keep on humiliating me.”, Andreas said in a somewhat salty tone.
“Well, and I said that we should turn left at the next intersection, but appearantly I was just a stupid drunkard that should keep my mouth quiet because we should drive straight ahead according to Mr. Fittipaldi here…”, Marie continued.
Janne was trying to hide his laughter now, which didn’t succeed very well.
“Only that you could not drive straight ahead there, you could only turn left and right, which he obviously took notice of since he stomped on the brakes, but since this was late in the evening in the spring in northern Sweden, the snow had melted during the day, then freezing in the evening, so he tried to brake on a patch of black ice, and…”, Marie continued.
“My poor beercans didn’t really survive being airborne then…”, Janne pointed out.
“So, we basically did a Dukes of Hazzard jump down in the ditch, which at that time of the year was more or less a puddle of mud, so let’s just say we could not get anywhere, we had to walk for kilometers to get a farmer to pull us from there with his tractor…”, Marie laughed.
“Haha, do you remember how we were scrubbing mud from the floor for days after that?”, Janne asked.
Andreas was turning more and more red in his face, which probably was due to equal parts of anger and shame.
Kaylie laughed, then said, “Black ice is the worst. There’s a reason we set up The Lair in Nevada, and that’s because there’s no snow. We tried to get set up at Malavera’s place in Alaska, and that stopped after the first day where I slid all the way down the driveway and out into the street, then had to crawl back up the driveway with my claws.”
Rukari chuckled. “That sort of party does sound interesting. I think Kivenaal would enjoy it more, though. He has an unusual talent, manages to make water explode.”
Kaylie shrugged lightly. “Kivenaal, and I don’t know how he does this, can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. I’ve seen him make fire, so I’m assuming then that he adds a spark, and you get a deafening bang. Twin-tailed bastard nearly scared my stripes white when he detonated a water bottle behind me. When he’s having a laugh, sometimes he won’t light it, so the blast is just pressure splitting the bottle.”
“My brother likes to scare Kaylie,” Rukari admitted.
“Technically, they’re not exactly brothers, but the Valraadii have no word for distant relatives. Because both of them share a direct family lineage by bloodline, both of them have the same first part of their last name, they claim each other as brothers,” Kaylie explained. “So, even though there’s almost 8,000 years or more between them, they claim each other as brothers.”
“We both have the Khakrin blood. My father’s lineage and his father’s lineage can be traced back to the same source,” Rukari mentioned. “Though I know not when he developed a taste for scorpions. We don’t have them where I am from.”
“Oh, we’re used to snow and ice where we live. You know, we don’t have garden furniture, we just sit on the snowmobile for the only week of the year when you can’t drive it, that’s sort of…summer”. Of course, Janne said that as kind of a joke, but he had no idea if they would take him seriously or not. He listened with great interest (unlike the rest of the team) to what Kaylie and Rukari had to say, but his concentration was now mainly on one thing.
“HEY! Did you say oxygen?”, he shouted.
“Rukari, Kivenaal, and Malavera would like that kind of weather. The three of them are built for cold climates. My brother and I, not so much, and I suspect the same of Jayde as well,” Kaylie mentioned.
When Janne asked if they mentioned oxygen, Kaylie nodded. “Yes. Kivenaal has the ability to split plain water into hydrogen and oxygen. He’s also a bit stoned on cinnamon right now,” she said, before turning to Rukari. “How long will that last?”
“It has been a little more than an hour. He should be relaxed, hungry, but in a more normal state of mind,” Rukari admitted. “Cinnamon isn’t long lasting, but the relaxation from the experience can last a day.”
Janne did not listen to the cinnamon part, instead he opened the tailgate of the van, took something out of it, and started running towards Kivenaal. You could hear another deep sigh from both Andreas and Marie now.
Do anyone of you understand that man at all? Because I don’t…”, Marie asked.
“Nobody does…”, Andreas answered.
Kivenaal looked up as Janne ran toward him, looking a bit curious. Jayde, who had also been keeping an eye on Kivenaal to make sure he didn’t do something stupid like try to take a swim while impaired, looked over at Janne.
“Need something on the van fixed?” Jayde asked, grabbing his staff and getting ready to head over there at a moment’s notice.
“Nah…but this oxygen bottle. It is empty. Can any of you guys do anything about that?”, Janne asked.
“After all, if I get this oxy/acetylene torch to work again, I could help other teams which might spare your magic. So you can really benefit from this in the end, right?”
Kivenaal nodded. “I think I can do something about that, though getting the hydrogen out is going to be a bitch. I know it leaks out of seals, and it’s hard to contain, but not using it for a few days and avoiding sparks and open flames isn’t an option, I’d guess.”
Jayde looked at Kivenaal as the four-armed Valraadi grabbed a plastic water bottle with barely a splash of water left in it, a few drops that hadn’t come out, then watched as the water suddenly vanished and the bottle swelled up, dangerously close to bursting. “There is a lot of lift-gas in there. I’ve worked with airships before, I can get that out of a container,” Jayde admitted.
Kivenaal smiled, pointed the swollen bottle in a seemingly safe direction, and with a practiced flick of his thumb, popped the cap free. There was a fairly loud pop, followed by Kaylie startling as the bottle cap hit her in the back of the head.
“Kivenaal!” Kaylie yelled. “Stop destroying the caps on our spare water bottles!”
Kivenaal chuckled, then told Janne, “I think we might be able to fill that bottle, then.”
Jayde reached into one of his robe pockets and pulled out Kaylie’s adjustable wrench, having been cleaned since the Dyre battle, but still looking relatively ordinary. When Kivenaal told him to remove the valve and gauge from the top of the cylinder, he did so, though it was obvious it was a bit of a fight for him as he got used to the unfamiliar tool. Kivenaal, meanwhile, grabbed an unlabeled water can off of the roof rack and the funnel Kaylie used to fill the radiator out of the toolbox, plopped the funnel into the neck of the cylinder, and poured a rather large amount of water in. Jayde then put the valve and gauge assembly back on the bottle, opened the valve slightly, and focused his magic to only let the lift-gas out of the bottle. Kivenaal, likewise, focused to make the process slower so he didn’t either spit a bunch of oxygen, hydrogen, and water out of the valve, or worse, detonate the tank. For five long minutes, there was a loud, steady hiss from the valve as the hydrogen escaped, before Jayde finally closed the valve.
“I can’t feel any more lift-gas in that container,” Jayde admitted.
Kivenaal looked at the pressure gauge, then said, “Looks like I put a little bit much in there. We’re a little over-full.”
Janne smiled a bit about the comment. “Nah, I think it is hard to avoid sparks and fire with an acetylene torch”. He looked with amusement on the process of filling the bottle.
“Wow, I am impressed. Anyway, if something needs some heat or can be fixed with soldering or welding, just send them to me and you’ll spare some magic for when it’s better needed I guess.”, he offered.
“By the way, Kivenaal. How much do you know about IP?” , he continued.
Kivenaal smirked. “Fire and heat are my speciality, but I understand. Saving Jayde from having to do so many repair spells will be beneficial,” Kivenaal said, holding up his upper right hand so that only the two of them could see the searing-hot blue flame that he had coating the claw of his index finger for a moment. “I’m fireproof. Can’t be burned,” he added.
When Janne asked Kivenaal what he knew about IP, Kivenaal stopped to think for a bit. “I know the 4Z engine is damned reliable. Got two military surplus generators back home with them. They’ll run on just about anything you can feed them, so long as it will burn. Knew someone at the Alaskan secret base I grew up in who had a military truck with an engine built to share a huge amount of parts with the 4Z engine. I think Kaylie resto-modded a 1974 IP Rugger by making an adapter plate for the transmission and shoving a 5.2 liter Sinistra Sidewinder narrow-angle V8 in there. Yes, the ones that are meant to go sideways in a Traville. But I don’t really know much else. I mean, I probably do know more, but… Not off the top of my head like this.”
Janne got a bit excited when he heard that Kivenaal already knew a bit about what he was going to ask about. “Yeah. That military truck… Maybe you know that Sanju heavy industries is the mother company of IP, and that they also make the Sanju brand of trucks. So…what youre talking about is probably a Sanju MDM44 “Wolverine”, right? Well, I heard some rumours that you are into old military vehicles and I have a friend that is absolutely nuts, he has a couple of hundreds of them, everything from motorcycles to tracked vehicles to huge trucks. Anyway, in some months he will be importing a Wolverine…can’t wait to see it”, Janne said and paused for a while of breathing.
“You know, the engine is sick, the 8ZV. As you said, it shares a lot of parts with the 4Z. A V8 with the same pistons, same rods, twice the volume of course. One of the heads is even more or less similar to the ones found on the 4Z. And the thing that is absolutely sick is that it uses dual distributors and dual carburetors that is identical to the ones on the pre 1987 4Z. If something breaks, you can just kill four of the cylinders and run it as a V4, kind of what Cadillac did with the 4-6-8 engine, but manually, so it works. Also, it was advised to do it when going down steep during off road driving to improve engine braking. He has been looking for one for years, you know, if he finds out that something is missing in his collection, he has a hard time sleeping at night, haha”.
Kivenaal nodded. “Sanju, that’s the name. Was escaping me for a moment. The MDM44 is, from what I’ve heard, a damn-reliable piece of equipment. And the 8ZV is an incredible engine. I’ve heard stories of them coming back into their home base, shot full of holes, almost no oil pressure left, engine’s a total write-off but somehow the poor thing still ran well enough to get the soldiers home. I’ve wanted one for years myself, but finding one and finding someone willing to import it into the United States… That’s harder,” Kivenaal said. “And yeah, I’m into military vehicles myself. Not just old ones, though,” he added, holding up his key-ring to show three keys that, at first glance, looked identical, but had different cuts on them. All three were in the same Desert Tan plastic housing, with the key being black-anodized metal. “I own 3 2009 Bricksley Quagmire military trucks. Also,” he said, flipping to another black-anodized key, this time in an olive drab housing, “I have one Bricksley MHT-23 “Salamander” armored troop transporter. Big beast of a machine, quite heavy, nearly impossible to drive it anywhere because you won’t find parking spots big enough, but it’s great in the winter. Well… As long as you know that’s a snow-drift and not concealing a car under it when you decide to park in the snow drift.”
Janne nodded at what Kivenaal had to say. “Yes, I am sure that you and Arne would have a lot to talk about if you met, haha. By the way, what happened to the Anhultz yesterday? You sure were gone for a while. Did you do some heavy repairs on it? Because it seems to be working now.”
Kivenaal gave a half-smile. “I didn’t see much of what went on, but their team converted it to steam power after a catastrophic distributor failure. I… try not to be seen around here if possible, I look too close to someone I am not, and I have no desire to be worshiped,” Kivenaal admitted.
Jayde, on the other hand, spoke up. “Valentin had a brilliant plan. I couldn’t just fix the distributor because it was missing too many parts, but… We were able to tow them to a steam-works to get their car fixed. Rukari blew the radiator hose off of the truck, and Kaylie made him change a brake so he understood how hard fixing these carriages can be. We were there a long time, they were there a long time. If you want specifics on how it works, however, you’re better off asking him.”
“YOU SAID…STEAM POWER?”, Janne answered with eyes big as saucers and quickly ran away towards the tangerine tank.
TO BE CONTINUED
(Might contain valuable info for @MrdjaNikolen and @Elizipeazie )
Also, @BannedByAndroid , thanks for giving me some names of cities in Ariya, Sanju is now officially the home of IP.
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Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Stage 5) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
Choo choo: Itzgard to Raiegarda
It was a long night for everyone, but we grew accustomed to that.
As was covered quite some time before, it would prove to be specially long for Shift Happens and RK Racing.
They spent quite some time overcoming certain mechanical struggles.
For no particular reason, Chicota was awake when they returned and would be first member of our team to learn about current status of Dione.
Why does it now sound so different, what they have done to it, why were they towed by Highwayman?
That will be confirmed in morning and potentially checked out in next camp.
Some more beer later, he joined his teammates made of flesh in dream-hunting.
His dreams had featured his beloved girlfriend of sorts Costalonca.
Yes, she is also a robot.
Morning came and news about weird sound of Dione were transfered to rest of team, now with visual confirmation that there are some big changes.
Yes, this will definitely be checked out in next camp.
“Choo choo motherfkers” along with whistle had confirmed RK team moving towards next camp.
Why does this move seems so much like handling a steam locomotive?
Aydar took the wheel and kinda enjoyed the drive followed by occasional slide here and there, which lasted until “cobblestone” part of road.
We overtook Team Witchlight, that had definitely struggled with their RWD barge, but were still doing quite fine in both control and pace regard.
Without any obvious issue, we finished in around the mid-pack: 9th out of 17 cars, to be precise.
Priorities had differed in relation of who you are asking:
- Klimentol and Chicota decided to pay the visit to RK Series Racing
- VerBanka and me had gone for a swim in lake, bcos damn its hot out here.
- Aydar and Pi had stayed at the car, to prepare for gathering supplies
It was rather unfortunate that distributor went bust, but it does seem Valentin had found a way.
Work was obviously done well, not surprizing considering that it was done with help from professionals.
Valentin was enthusiastically explaining how this system works, showing that he was:
a) indeed one coming up with idea, as was noted
b) very involved in transformation itself
At first, our duo was sceptical about effectiveness of these updates, but taking closer look did reveal that scepticism was unjustified.
As much as we werent happy to be beaten by aftermarket-steam-engine-swapped car on this stage (which btw had indeed happened; they finished 7th), it was clear that Valentin’s enthusiasm and good plan had paid off.
With enough determination and tad bit of external help (now its understood why exactly we encountered Bricksley in opposite direction), prob biggest change to entrant vehicle during the entire journey could be made.
Oh, forgot to mention…its not just Anhultz Dione or Tangerine Tank anymore.
Now its also named Robert, like few friends i met at uni…and prob lot of other people.
As for swimmers…
Since we are now talking about much calmer water, something i had regularly encountered in my entire swimming experience IRL, we needed no additional teammates to guarantee we arent gonna drift away bcos of current.
This had indeed proven to be refreshing experience and we just relaxed.
Aydar and Pi had went to town.
They also got taste of what lake has to provide, mainly bcos Pi had noticed some chick drowning in water and went in wanting to help.
She had rescued little animal, but slipped and suddenly got into water that was tad bit deeper than she was tall.
Aydar decided to rescue them both, Pi not letting go of small animal.
This freshly wet trio went to town, chick being on Pi’s back.
Undettered, they had nevertheless finished grocery run.
Being the main attraction, it was obvious both did fair share of explaining and interacting with general population.
Someone had even put their daughter on Aydars back, so he was also ridden like a horse.
Daughter seemed to enjoy this experience.
Chick had found its mom when they were returning back to camp. Both animals were happy to reunite and this duo had returned to car with groceries.
Ok, that wasnt entirely true…
(Sounds of munching)
Aydar had started to pay attention. Munching was coming from his back. He requested Pi to remove some stuff and have a look.
Little girl was still there, forgotten by everyone by this point, happily munching on some stuff that was just carried.
To his credit, Aydar was heftily packed with stuff of different nature, more akin to pile of stuff with legs than to dog.
Girl was removed by Pi, allowing both to look at her, which resulted in her wanting to go back.
“What are we supposed to do with you?”
“Food food food…i want food.”
“Bruh. We need to unpack, then we will return to town to give you back to parents.”
“No.”
“You are aware that we literally cant take care of you?”
Kid havent understood that. But had the answer:
“Bruh.”
Pi: “That wasnt kind of influence we meant to leave.”
Aydar: “Why cant that kid just understand stuff. Its simple. We need to return her back to parents.”
Pi, being tad bit more experienced at being stupid/not having lot of knowledge: “Probably doesnt know what complicated words mean. She doesnt feel being in any danger.”
“Bruh.”
Unpacking followed, kid taking chance to consume food.
Then they went back into town, this time kid was on Pi’s back.
This allowed Aydar to rescue yet another individual from freshness of the lake, this time rescued being some local under local equivalent of drunk.
Swaying like crazy, he approached other two.
Noted that Pi is lizard he never saw before and took kid in his arms then started running surprisingly fast towards a lake.
Ofc while being in water, he misstepped and kid was sent flying into the water.
Aydar went quickly again into water along with Pi.
He once again picked up drunk dude and pushed kid towards shore.
“Ohno ohno ohno, what have we done. Why this needed to happen? What to say to her parents, if we find them at all”
Fortunately, someone had indeed prepared very elaborate and detailed answer.
“Do it again”
Kid got some experience of being thrown into water, happily she was fine.
Quartet had entered the town.
“You do be hairy lizard. Never saw such ones before.” drunktard commented on his ride aka Aydar.
“Has anyone saw mom of this girl? Dad? Anyone know her? Please?”
“I…know just what makes me moist. Wideness of your mom…” ye, drunktard is comic relief here.
“Try to explain that to ones that needed to rebuild my mom after my birth. I cant under clear mind be forced to call myself a puppy, but i technically was just born, soo…”
Soon enough, they had found girl’s parents and explained why she is wet
On lighter note, she had eaten very well and was overall fine.
Since she grew fond of riding someone it was decided that Pi will carry her to house.
Drunk guy was in fact uncle of little girl and would too be accomodated until next day, when he would be sober enough to return home by himself.
With that sorted out, they met with Chicota and Klimentol at the car.
Two of us were still swimming.
2 Likes
Did you 3d model that thumbnail image? Im wondering if you did it online or its some 3d model
Team Slow
Chapter 2, Part 6, A third team member
As the fusebox was half-assedly installed. Some say that German cars are terrible at long-distance rallies, they surely are. They may do it, just do it when the warranty is still active, and not 20 or so years evaporated. John looks for the owner’s manual as Matt goes to the bar to find his girlfriend, who has been there for a vacation. Matt goes up to his girlfriend and comforts her, as she has been doing other things, she agrees to join the team and then she gets in the front seat of the car. “You finally got a bitch, have you Matt” John replies. “YOU COULDN’T GET ANY JOHN SHUT UP!” Matt aggressively replies. They get to work on fixing the car using the XL53’s repair manual. They probably sold every single one of them included with a car. They put the fuses back in the correct spots. “Honestly weird this car is unreliable as fuck.” John says as he sighs fixing the car for the second time. We get driving to the campsite.
New member introductory info and current team ages.
Her name is Isabella and she is matts girlfriend. She is 5’6, and unlike the two. She doesn’t want to argue as much. Also happens to be an ex-Schnell engineer. She is 23 years old, Also happens to be a cute-looking ginger. They have been in a relationship since middle school. So they have known eachother for a long time.
John.S, 25, 6’0ft
Matt.T, 21, 5’8ft
Seating available: 2/5
Dialogue:
Matt: Hey, Isabella I need you over here,
Izzy: Hm?
M: Did we get the fuses correctly?
Izzy: I worked at the company for a while, but not that long ago. But it looks right?
M: Alright, by the way. Could you please tell me anything classified?
Izzy: Sorry, I legally cannot do such a thing. Hate to say that.
M: Ok, I respect that.
Izzy: You actually have 4WD? She sees the hackjob underneath seems messy. But it will do.
John: Whatsup?
Izzy: Hi there John.
Matt: It really is warm out here.
Isabella takes the wheel of the XL53, and drives to the campsite. Eventually at 6:58 Sun, after some driving, we arrive at the campsite after that fusebox failure she helped with. We set up our tent which half of it happens to be situated inside the car, which happens to be the sleeping quarters. “You better not be trying to hit on my girl” Matt says, not long after sleeping next to Isabella in the car, who just happens to be barely awake looking on her phone, then she sleeps a minute later leaning onto his shoulder. John is the only one awake for the hour. He goes and makes a meal for them later on when they wake up, putting it in foil to make sure it doesn’t get cold too fast, whilst Matt talks to his girlfriend in his sleep for 20 seconds. “Looks like they’re making out” As John leans in to try confirm, when they weren’t. he gets slapped across the face by Isabella, “Move” she says to John. John moves away and gets back to cooking.
OOC: Conversations open in rp.
TBC
2 Likes
Machinas Con Passione’s Collaborative Shitbox Adventures, Part 1 - Stage 5.
(Written with the man the myth the madlad himself @Madrias)
It’s H O T. Good for the engine, relatively speaking, not so good for it’s human operators. Regardless, The Aerodynamic Wedge Shaped Beast was looking slippery as ever. Though there was one small issue that had arisen within Team Machinas Con Passione.
“You know, I was wondering how to bring this up, but uhh, well, the van is decidedly NOT RWD, Giacomo. ” Thibault, his normally neatly trimmed hair plastered seemingly haphazardly about his head, was informing Giacomo of the fact that he was understeering quite severely when trying to treat the car like a rear wheeler. Not that Thibault was mad to have an advantage, he just wished that he was aware of it. Giacomo looked incredulously over at Thibault, raising his hands in surrender. "How was I supposed to know? Ask Chad! He told me it was rear wheel drive!” Thibault facepalmed, reminded yet again of the… particular… nature of his team owner. “Okay, lets try this. Why didn’t you double check? Do you even know what rear wheel drive looks like?”
“…”
“…”
Silence.
Thibault sighed deeply. “Yeah I saw that one coming. Anyway. Uh. I’ll go get ready for the stage. Try not to drown this time. Maybe try feeding the cat instead.”
And thus, Giacomo foraged about for some food to give their cat, now named Bill, as Thibault steeled himself to do the job he was born to do yet again. Thibault entered the zone once more, almost ignoring Maria’s precise co-driving, preferring to use the might of his skill honed through 3 seasons at the WRC, Thibault would seemingly anticipate each bout of oversteer throughout the treacherous gravel first, then severly worn cobblestone roads relishing in the abrasive surface to maximize the grip created by each motion of the wheel, on his way to securing Machinas Con Passione a firmly mid pack finish. During refueling stops, Chad McChad wound up thoroughly tenderizing Giacomo’s ankles by utilizing the patented Jackswing™ while getting the Van hoisted up to ensure their previous tire woes wouldn’t dog them yet again, and Doctor Dover spent the remainder of the stage applying “Pain Cream” (Read: water) to Giacomo’s ankles.
(Note: this is a jackswing.)
After The Stage…
Alas, it was downtime, and as Thibault and Benjamin discussed a strange bug bite the former had received, Giacomo came up to their extremely patient and generous hosts, Team Shift Happens, to pester them with a request.
G: “Hey Rukari, can I ask something of you?”
R: “Do you need help with something?”
G: “Yes, you see, I was wondering if I could use those powers of yours to create a portal.”
Rukari raises his eyebrow at this.
R:“… For?”
G: “To watch the NASCAR ra-”
R: “No.”
G: “Pleaaaaaaaaase?”
R: “No. I was thinking you needed something actually important. I’m not gonna do all of that just so you can watch a race, WHILE IN ANOTHER RACE. The answer is no.”
Kivenaal, overhearing this conversation, has a great idea. He moseys on over to Giacomo, and hears his plight.
K: “Oh, you wanted to watch the NASCAR race? I take it you’re a big fan?”
G: “Of course, I’ve even started my own team! You wouldn’t believe how cheap it is these days!”
K: “I get a strange feeling that’s relative, but I’ll take your word for it. Do you have anything reflective I can show the race on?”
With this, Giacomo brings out his phone, which hasn’t been connected to the internet or charged for a few days now, leading to it being reduced to a fancy screen with some buttons on the side.
K: “Why did you bring your phone? That’d make sense if we were on earth, I guess, but it’s not like we have cell phone towers lying around everywhere. Or even a satellite, now that I think about it.”
G: “I dunno… I thought the luxury of being connected to the internet every waking moment would just… last forever…”
This gives Kivenaal a great idea.
K: “I have an idea. If I use a little magic, I can make the race show up through there, if you like.”
And so, after convincing Giacomo to release his deathgrip from his smartphone, Kivenaal was finally able to conjure up a decent view of the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. From here, Giacomo began to explain, in rather thorough and excruciating detail, the story of how he found a young kid from Japan, Ryouchi Katou, “The son of racing royalty, mind you!” and had tried to finance his entry into Formula One. Ryouchi took the traditional route to F1, starting with Karts from 2009, advancing into Formula Ford in 2011, F4 in 2014, F3 in 2015, and joining Formula 2 in 2017.It was here his career began to stagnate and after 3 seasons, during 2020 the then 20 year old would be released from his contract for middling performance, before the decision was made with Giacomo to join NASCAR. Upon funding a ride for Ryouchi in the Xfinity Series, Machinas Con Passione wound up moving to Cup, where Ryouchi would drive the #13 Machinas Con Passione Chevrolet Camaro, with the number 13 being chosen because “all the other numbers from first to 12th were taken! Unbelieveable!” Giacomo also went on about his nephew, Johnny, who was also making starts for MCP in the Truck series. Holy shit Giacomo, at least breathe in every now and then.
Kivenaal was not particularly amused, though was glad he’d planned things this way, because what was about to happen couldn’t possibly happen to a better person. He fought to keep a smirk off of his face as Giacomo rambled on about “his” cars and “his” team.
The race went on as usual, though Giacomo’s team notably struggled, staying mid-pack throughout the race. Giacomo and Kivenaal would talk about the race and NASCAR as a whole in-depth, with Giacomo detailing his many failed attempts to enter the series long term, from entering his own cars in the 90s, to buying up rejected cars in the 2000s, with Kivenaal feigning a vested interest for Giacomo’s unending chatter.
After a while, The race was nearing its conclusion, with Giacomo’s team on place for a steady 15th, which, though not a win, was rather close to one as far as new teams were concerned. It was the start of the final lap, when the veteran voice of NASCAR, Mike Joy, called over the broadcast: “Trouble! Turn 3! It’s the Machinas-”
…
The broadcast had completely faded to black, leaving Giacomo staring at his phone in utter disbelief. Longtime followers of NASCAR may know that Mike Joy calling for trouble means someone has crashed. The steady realization that he may very well have lost the race slowly crept in.
…
… …
… … …
“NO GOD! NO, GOD PLEASE NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Giacomo’s resounding cry of grief could be heard across the entire camp, not least of all the Team Shift Happens site, where Giacomo began to (finally) ruffle some feathers.
(no, seriously, you’d think he would have irritated someone on day one.)
Kivenaal smirked as his prank had worked perfectly. The middle of the last lap, his stored magic on the phone had run out, leaving Giacomo staring at his phone in disbelief. “Guess there was one too many cautions,” Kivenaal said, covering his prank under a thin veil of truth. Had there not been plenty of cautions in that race, mostly caused by the #13 car, his prank likely would have failed without him intervening. He got up and returned to the Bricksley to find something to eat.
Rukari chuckled as his brother, even slightly stoned on cinnamon, managed to pull off a perfectly good prank. It was good to see Kivenaal relaxing for once since they had arrived here, and at least this prank was harmless.
Kaylie heard the shouting and saw Giacomo holding his phone. “Hey, just because you can’t check your social media pages doesn’t mean you have to have a breakdown in the camp. Everyone else here seems to be doing fine with no signal and no internet. Might do you some good to unplug for a couple of weeks,” Kaylie said.
Malavera growled as Giacomo screamed in disbelief before getting up from his seat and heading back to his tent. “If your phone died in the middle of reading a good book, I’d love to introduce you to the idea of reading actual paper ones,” he grumbled under his breath.
Jayde, meanwhile, just shook his head. Kaylie had told him a few times that Kivenaal was a prankster, but this was the first time he got a chance to see it in action. Harmless fun, but at someone else’s expense, though in this case, someone who had no idea just how much energy it would take to open portals to watch one race. He couldn’t blame Kivenaal for wasting some energy in order to waste someone else’s time, especially someone as self-centered as Giacomo had been. Then, as he sensed the magic that had been used, he had to fight the urge to laugh. “Kivenaal, that was clever,” he said under his breath to himself. The whole race had been nothing but an illusion, created with details from Giacomo’s explanations and Kivenaal’s knowledge of NASCAR.
Kivenaal walked past Jayde and chuckled, overhearing Jayde’s comment. “Best part is, he can’t confirm it out here,” Kivenaal whispered back just as quietly. “So he’ll have to wait two weeks to realize the truth.”
Machinas Con Passione’s Collaborative Shitbox Adventures EP 1 - Fin.
Watch Ryouchi actually win HAHAHA Giacomo will never know.
also there may be some more wacky adventures to come who knows!
2 Likes
Machinas Con Passione’s Shitbox Side Stories - Part 1: Does this look infected?
“No, I’m just saying that it looks way too big to be ‘no big deal’! Look at it!”
“Oh, please Thibault, you’re just exagger- HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS ON A STICK WHAT IS THAT?!”
“Should I be worried? I’m kind of worried anyway. How about panic, should I start now?”
“Uh… Look, It’s… Uhh… Not… THAT bad…”
“Doctor, don’t lie to him, look at that thing.”
“Okay, Thibault, it’s pretty bad.”
“Why did Maria have to coax that one outta you?”
“Never you mind! Anyway, I vote in favor of cutting it off.”
“You know it actually matters if he dies, right, Doctor?”
“Silence, Maria! I’m thinking.”
“You know, I can probably find that bush that got Marie high earlier.”
“I’ve been sober the whole trip. I’m kind of offended that you went there.”
“No, not you, I mean Marie from Hillbilly Rollers.”
“Ohhh, those guys.”
“You say ‘those’ guys like you’re judging them.”
“Ehhh, I might be, a little.”
“What?! They’re kicking our asses, you know.”
“Ehhhhh Fair.”
“Okay Thibault, now hold still as I cut along the edges…”
“Woaaah, shouldn’t we be using anaesthetics?”
“Ha! No.”
“Yeah, sorry Thibault, we don’t really… Yknow… Have any.”
“sigh. I hope you have a plan B if it gets infected.”
Maria and Benjamin look at each other, and back at Thibault.
“Don’t worry. We don’t.”
Fin
2 Likes
i’m assuming that girlfriend is not local to Crugandr, as she is claimed to be an ex-Schnell engineer
but that begs the question:
how did she make the earth-to-crugandr jump?
4 Likes
I think i know who might be to blame.
2 Likes
Indeed not a local. Happened to make it there through some kind of journey. I could imply teleki-
Made it through a long distance plane journey. Or if that doesn’t allow in the rp, Vehicular driving?