dont worry this would be a one time thing then.
1 Like
Presumably this being an actual offence like an CSR-kind of bin^
I don’t want to have to end a team’s run, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I’ll tolerate a lot of things on the roads, but drunk driving is a hard no. Because it wasn’t established as a hard no before (mostly because I figured no one would have someone crazy enough to actually do that in their team), this is a warning to everyone, delivered in character that it will not be tolerated.
I let it slide for Knugcab’s team because the effects of the mercy bush were more humorous in the moment, but as someone who has personally lost three friends to drunk drivers, I’m not letting drunk driving slide. I do not need to glorify drinking and then driving under the influence.
3 Likes
That’s a fair enough one then, Sorry for your losses though.
Team Slow
(Filler to C3, P8, and yet another mini-short, and a follow-up)
We have been warned.
Whilst Izzy was being screamed at by one of Team Shift happens’ team members during camp, alongside an announcement. “Why the fuck were you driving drunk, next stage i’m taking the wheel.” John says, alongside he places the cases of beers and hides them inside the spare tire well, under a spare tire and putting back the carpeting associated to it. “We don’t want to be teleported home, alright?” John says again, and then Izzy replies “Alright, fine, I’ll stop it with the drink driving behind the wheel.” And then they go back to the tent, knowing rest assured the beers are hidden away so it does not happen. “John, do you want to take the wheel before we all get teleported home, this may sound like something from a sci-fi movie on Earth, but this isn’t a joke.” Matt says and then agrees to John taking the wheel for Stage 8. “You nearly crashed the car doing that, not realising there was 16 people, could’ve jeopardised them all!” John says.
(TO BE CONTINUED, had to do this mini-short as a follow up to this whole incident. Smaller than average, but an quick response.)
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
Before the rest of the team woke up, Janne did some small tune-ups on the Freeway Star. Hopefully, it should be running well for the day then. Andreas was sleeping in the tent, and Marie…well…in a pile of sand they managed to drag her too last night. When Andreas woke up, it was almost time for the start of todays race, so the challenge now was to wake up Marie.
“Hyyyyuuuuurrrgggghhhh…”
“Have you been sleeping well?”, Andreas laughed.
“God damn, what happened?”, she asked.
“Well, I heard that you headbutted Malavera and Rukari to steal their moonshine. Not really your brightest moment, huh?”, Janne asked back.
“I don’t know…I remember I had a kayak, and then…just fragments”, she said, confused.
“Let’s just say that you HAD a kayak”, Janne answered, a bit cynical.
“Whatever. I need a beer!”, she said.
“There is no beer left”, Andreas said, looking very innocent.
“SAY WHAT! NO BEER?”, she yelled.
“You must have been drinking it all!”, Andreas said.
“No way! There must be plenty left…fuck…where is it?”, she said, starting to go through the van.
“Well, someone must have stolen it then, I presume”, Andreas said.
“WHAT THE FUCK! NO BEER! I am thirsty…fuck…VEGETABLES? Why did you bring a box of fucking vegetables with you?”
“We might be able to trade them for stuff”, Janne smirked.
“Yeah, trade your damn rotten cauliflowers for some beer then”, Marie said. “I am thirsty!”
“Here is a bottle of water!”, Andreas said.
“Euuuwhhh… Water! I hate water! It is gross!”, Marie said with a wrinkled face.
“What is so gross about damn regular water?”, Andreas asked.
“How can I be sure that frogs haven’t been fucking in this water?”, Marie asked, while Andreas just sighed.
“Now that question is actually legit”, Janne said.
“Marie, do you know that there is mostly water in beer?”, Andreas asked curiously.
“Yeah…but… Beer is different. It contains…ehm…beer stuff I guess? You know the one that tastes good. And makes me happy. Water only makes me miserable and sad”, she said.
“Well, we don’t have anything else, so water it is!”, Andreas said, trying to hold his laughter back, knowing where the beer was now.
The team got into the van, which was running very well, just as Janne predicted. In fact it was running so well that Andreas was impressed, and decided to stomp on the accelerator a little bit more. Someone that was less impressed was Marie, that was complaining about everything.
"UUURGGHHH…turn down the damn volume!, Marie said after being forced to listen to this on full volume, having the mother of all headaches.
“NO WAY!”, Janne and Andreas said. “Now you get Eddie Meduza on full volume, just like you always have wanted!”
Marie was keeping up with it for some minutes until she hit the radio with her fist, changing the source from “CD” to “AM tuner”, which in this world just meant silence.
“Ah, finally. But I want beer!” she said.
“Drink water, or you will be all dried up soon”, Andreas said.
“Probably not after the kayak incident of yesterday!”, Janne answered, and Andreas just nodded. At the same moment, however, Marie fell asleep and somehow managed to hit the transmitter button on the CB, which resulted in some very large amounts of acoustic feedback being transmitted to the CBs of the other teams.
“WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!”
Marie hastily woke up and managed to hit the CD button on the stereo again, this time it was at least a somewhat easier tune by Meduza to listen to.
Andreas felt right at home on the narrow, curvy forest gravel road where many other teams struggled, and managed to get to the finish relatively fast, without even refuelling once. Marie however was still in a terrible mood, having an even more terrible headache.
VEHICLE STATUS:
Interior unusually clean.
Airbag cover duct taped together
SRS light removed
Front bumper broken
Rear bumper scratched
Bull bar bent
Windshield cracked
Left side sliding door caved in, door handle broken
Right side sliding door being stiff to open and close, something must have happened during the werewolf fight
Left outside mirror mostly gone (only the metal base left, plastic housing and glass gone)
Running like a champ again!
No centre headrest
No lexan window in the divider wall
One hubcap missing
TO BE CONTINUED…
@TheYugo45GV - my thought is that maybe the dyre puppies starting to trash the seats is a stress reaction on the acoustic feedback being sent out on the CB. You decide yourself it it is the reason or not.
3 Likes
RK Series Racing; Stage 7 Drive.
The next morning was calmer than usual die to the added time they have before needing to depart for the stage. Constantin once again went through his set of exercises before the others even had woken up.
The rest of the morning was the usual affair, with equipment being packed up, the roadgoing Railcar being steamed and greased and a basic breakfast being enjoyed to the best of their abilites.
The entering of the car proved… a challenge once again as Valentin had to fold his massive frame to get to the driver seat from the passenger door. The same applies, to a lesser extent, to Tim for the seat behind Valentin.
“We need to fix that window here soon… I don’t fit into this thing already and folding myself in half to get in is not exactly my definition of comfort.”, Valentin burts out in annoyance on the way over to the driver seat.
“Though you do make a great contortionist”, Tim smirks in response, though he does agree that for him, it must be pain to get there.
They were the last team to leave camp and drove over to the Steamworks, where they were greeted by a cheerful shift of workers who got word of the story from the others. An empty maintenance bay was used as a transition point onto the rails, and the on-site workers were specifically instructed to not provide aid to the team to get a more accurate feel of switching modes on an open bit of line without any help.
It took numerous attempts and a lot of crank-turning from Constantin to transition to rail mode as they got a feel for how to align the rail wheels with the actual track. A good 15 minutes pass before they are on the rails proper, with the road tyres being suspended and floating in mid-air. Jonathan approaches the car and it’s occupants.
“Well… good luck on your journey! Hope my people did fine work.”, Jonathan says while stood at the fireman’s window, behind which Connor was sat.
“They are very pleasant to work with, thank you! As per their quality, we’ll see, assuming my engineering is sound to begin with…”, Valentin replies from across the car.
After that, the whistle is sounded twice to indicate a moving “train” and Robert the Redneck Railcar rolls out of the maintenance bay, stopping just shy of the shunting signal in front of it. The signal quickly is cleared and they roll across the Samiraie Steamworks yard one last time before joining the mainline, following the 2-00 Sun Longitude Express train.
As they roll out onto the mainline, Valentin cautiously applies more and more power, making sure that the wheels won’t slip. Despite having all-wheel drive, steel wheels on steel rails don’t provide all that much grip, which is compounded by not having a sander as a traction-aid.
Nevertheless, Robert gradually picks up speed, relatively quickly by train standards, but very slow by road car ones. 30, 40 and 50MPH come and go without a hitch. Approaching 60MPH, Robert starts swaying from side to side, which scares Valentin a bit, forcing him to pull back on the throttle slightly.
Reminding himself that at this speed, the sway is normal and nothing to worry about, he eventually pushes past, at which point the oscillation subsides and is replaced by eerily smooth running, save for copious amounts of wind noise.
As they approach the current speed limit of 100MPH, Valentin decreases throttle substantially and reaches over to the Fireman’s side to flick a switch over, changing the throttle’s behavior similarly to how electric cars have different settings for regen-braking.
Not long after, they are forced to slow due to a distant signal showing ‘danger’, indicating that the next signal will force them to a stop.
It turns out Robert actually outperforms the Longitude Express trains, especially in acceleration out of slower-speed sections, with about equal braking capabilities.
As they roll to a stop a good 50 feet in front of the signal, Constantin is sent ahead to the signalbox to notify the signalman that their “train” is stationary. As he returns, the signal shows clear, but a bit further down the line, a second signal at danger can already be seen. They once again stop there and repeat the process according to local railroading procedures.
The remainder of the trip turned out the be very pleasant, as the smooth rails (save for the occasional shoddy joint and the transition at points or switches) are much more comfortable than the poor dirt and cobblestone roads elsewhere.
A pair of stops for refueling were made, both of which turned out much longer than anticipated due to the comparatively poor availability of suitable fuel away from villages and tows. This forced them to wait even longer to let following, non-stopping trains pass, which they used to take a break and have a snack.
Apart from that, they arrived at the yard on the other end. Sure, the trip took about six earth-hours, but 6 hours on a “road” smoother than any interstate can possibly be is way better than spending eight on dirt.
As they roll in, a class-sized mass of people has piled around the entry to the repair bay, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Railcar.
Valentin aggressively sounds the whistle to get them off the rails, which isn’t exactly successful.
Thus, he inches ever so slowly into the building, forcing the crowd away bit by bit.
Soon, they come to a stop, followed by the doors being opened against the crowd.
Valentin didn’t really feel like engaging with a mass of people and stayed in the car with Connor for the time being. The process of getting it off the rails was much simpler, as raising the wheels needed less force and moving the drive belt wasn’t a work of delicacy either.
Soon after, the tyres are grounded once more and they drove the thing over to the other entrance, where they stop to arrange the departure times of tomorrow’s leg. This time, Valentin is forced to actually get out, much to his annoyance. The talks with the supervisor have been quick and pleasant, with Valentin returning not much later, just to spend a good five minutes folding himself back onto the driver seat.
“[Swedish Expletive], we need to fix that window, [other expletive]”, Valentin exclaims in anger on the way in, followed by the others grinning ear-to ear.
Then they drive over to the campsite, where the car is shut down and, once again, contortion exercises are done getting Valentin out of the driver position, though this time, Constantin helps a bit by dragging him out.
To calm down a bit, they resort to card games, with which they spend quite some time…
RK Series Racing; Stage 7 Camp
this part was written in collaboration with @interior.
As Team Slow’s vehicle rolls into camp, it coughs and sputters as the broken ignition coils sends misfires into the two affected cylinders. The freshly converted railcar of RK series racing is parked somewhat close to the Bricksley of Shift Happens where they are playing some card games. Kaylie immediately ran over to vent some perfectly reasonable rage at Izzy, as it turns out.
The team members of RK Series Racing look over at the Schnell in curiosity, which turns to widespread disappointment as they discover that Izzy apparently had done the stage drunk. Kaylie heads back, into the Bricksley Raioman’s seat and did a public announcement.
“Lunatics driving drunk… Thank fuck we’re on rails now.”, Valentin spoke, looking at the Schnell with a face of minor hatred.
“Hope nobody got their life… taken by the idiocy of them…”, Constantin added.
Isabella would go up onto the populated area of the campsite, after sobering up and then say “Look, I finally sobered up to see my mistake and now I apologise for drunkenly driving like that.”
She then walks back to the car and notices the cases on the passenger footwell being missing, and she says again “That’s good, they went flat anyway and tasted like piss. Not doing that drunk driving again before we get teleported home” And then she opens the hood of the car yet again and tries a certain home remedy to fix the ignition coils as there probably is no parts for that kind of car in Crugandr and had a spare amount of wire to try fix it back up after the home remedy possibly fails.
As Isabella walked up to the camp’s center and spoke her apology, The members of RK Series Racing looked at each other in distrust.
“Yep… what i would say if i was caught drunk-driving.”, Tim remarks, having been caught once as well. At least he got off easy, due to “only” being a wee bit over the limit and driving in the middle of the night with nobody in sight.
“Maniacs like those are the reason why people get killed. That and speeding, tailgating and people with a need to compensate.”, Valentin adds, having had his fair share of poor-driver experiences from a Cyclist’s perspective.
“The fact that the hosts let that slide is what’s irking me, tbh… You’d be forced to high-tail outta there if i was busted being drunk behind the wheel.”, Constantin explains, knowing that his statement may not carry too much value to Valentin due to previous events.
The attempt at fixing the broken coil is noticed, but not immediately acted upon.
Whilst Izzy was there fixing the car, she goes, “V7… Then now V8…” she says to herself as she tries to fix the coils with what she had on hand, and then finishes it shortly and closes the hood and sits on it and takes a rest on the car, slightly on the roof and technically sitting on the windscreen.
Confusion fills the group at the back of the Dione.
“Wait… was she just checking oil or what?”, Tim asks.
Neither remaining member responds, as even Connor cannot tell exactly what she did in the engine bay.
At some point, they simply lose interest and return to their card game.
John then notices Izzy sitting on the windshield and then advises her to get off it, “You might break the glass if you sit on that if i’m honest with you, Sit on the roof or something, but not the windshield,” Izzy then moves up to the roof and lies down on the roof taking in the sun. between the basket modification bars. “You know, I regret doing it drunk, Nearly got the team teleported home.”
And then Matt approaches Constantin, “Honestly didn’t expect this day to go to shit, Broken car, you know, cause the warranty ran out, then the coils got fixed now.”
Constantin turns around in response to being talked to from behind, followed shortly after by Tim and Valentin. “…i’d think that the car is of lesser concern to you than your teammates are at the moment.”, Constantin says in a cold tone of voice. The other don’t say anything yet to not interrupt the existing conversation.
Matt then replies dead in the eyes to Constantin “Oh, Izzy driving drunk?”
“I see no sensible way as to how anyone of you could let her behind the wheel in the first place, unless you are shitfaced-drunk as well…”, Constantin adds with a hint of resentment.
Valentin crosses his arms as he too is not exactly fond of someone intoxicated driving a car on a completely unknown planet with equally unknown roads.
“Honestly, i wasn’t awake to see the rest of it go down when she was driving” Matt replies back, after realising that she was intoxicated behind the wheel and yells “ISABELLA, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! Why were you drunkenly driving!” Matt yells out to get her attention and then she yells back “I ALREADY APOLOGISED TO THE WHOLE CAMP!”
“ALRIGHT.”, Matt blares back.
“Don’t you have a third member in that car of yours?”, Constantin asks, digging deeper at the attempt to dodge responsibility.
Tim leans over to Valentin and whispers: “You think he’d be a drunk driver as well?”
“How am i supposed to tell? I don’t drink.”, Valentin replies, also in a whisper.
“Yeah, that’s John, He’s sober,” Matt replies back to Constantin
“Cool… and he didn’t do jackshit to get this ‘Isabella’ away from the wheel and like… drive himself, alright.”, Constantin counters, mentally having had enough but still engaging out of inherent respect for Civilians.
“Sometimes he’d be an ass though” Matt replies back to Constantin sort of agreeing
“Being an ass sure qualifies if you are by-proxy endangering others in the process… So you need anything now or what?”, Constantin mutters, annoyed at the circumstances of it all, despite having had the most pleasant stage to date.
“Nah, i’m alright, I’ll get back to my car and see if she’s found the beers yet that we hidden.” Matt replies and walks back to the Schnell.
Matt then checks the trunk and the hiding spot whilst Izzy is not looking and sees that none of them are missing “That’s a good sign.” He then closes the trunk.
Constantin just nods in response and returns to the other two, continuing the halted game in the process.
“Well at least they have their Black and White flag now.” Tim comments, followed by a slight smile from Valentin and confusion in Constantin’s face.
“A black and white flag, divided diagonally is waved at an offending driver during motorsports events as a last warning notice before penalties are applied.”, Connor explains, filling Constantin’s lack of knowledge with a ‘TIL-Moment’.
to be continued
3 Likes
Vallengarda, Crugandr
Local time: 5 Sun to 6:40 Sun
Written with help from @Madrias
Green Light
As the announcement about DUI came through the radio, K’mino switched it off. He wanted no part in hearing about the dangerous activity and the consequences. He shifted uncomfortably as he stretched his legs out the passenger side window of the Magistrate. Plus, it was not as if he cared if someone who wasn’t him died. To him, Team Slow were morons, even before they pulled that stunt, Team Black Rabbit unsettled him, Especially the team member with the obscured face. Team Blazers? Not of any significant interest. Marvolinski-Chitco? They were different to say the least and Hillbilly Rollers, Two men and a chaos machine. Shift Happens were sort of a neutral in between, even with that annoying snow leopard with the metal arm.
But these thoughts faded as he saw Jayde. Earlier there had been the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber firing up. Did the lion man finally create himself a blade of light?
With a sigh, and some reluctance, K’mino got himself back into a regular seated position, and then exfiltrated the car, and began a stroll towards the slumbering Bricksley.
Jayde looked up as K’mino walked toward him, taking his eyes off of the elegant and slightly-ornate hilt for the first time in a while. He had been amazed at how well the weapon fit in his hands, how it felt nearly weightless yet carried momentum when ignited, and how vivid the green light had been.
“You look troubled,” Jayde said, not so much reading thoughts as intents, though K’mino had a look Jayde was all-too-familiar with on his face.
K’mino sat himself down on the log beside Jayde. “This day has been an absolute shit storm, first the pups tearing up the seats and then bandits attacking us, and now someone driving under the influence. Which, I’m sure you know by the reaction your teammate gave, is a very bad thing.”
Jayde nodded. “It has been a bad day, I’ll agree. Getting picked as the driver was not what I wanted today, but they played a little game to which I did not know the rules, and so I had to drive. It… is not easy, I was all over the road, and I’m sure that I’ve damaged the truck in some way, because it kept growling at me.” He took a deep breath and let it out, before adding, “And then we get here, and find out someone was drinking and operating a motor carriage. Even before Kaylie gave that speech, I knew it was a bad thing.”
K’mino glanced at the saber hilt before Jayde turned the lightsaber over in his hands again, then said, “Bandits, you said? Their leader wouldn’t happen to have been a smooth-talking highwayman by the name of John Mitzal? I know revenge is not the way, but,” Jayde held the hilt out in a safe direction and flicked the switch, the green blade igniting suddenly, “let’s just say that we’ve clashed a couple of times and he usually gets away. I swear, that man is resistant to lightning.”
As K’mino watched the blade he inhaled gently. “I picked up a newspaper from a newsstand the other day in Samiraie, and I found a headline about someone with that exact name, apparently his crew robbed a train just a few days before we got here and he tried to rob us and a merchant we picked up and later tried to rob us again, If Orlan hadn’t scared them off with his gun, we’d be walking the rest of the way. Anyway, I’m glad to see you made yourself a lightsaber.”
Jayde switched the blade off and smiled. “I’m not so sure I can say that I made it. I put all of the pieces into a bag and meditated while they were in the bag in front of me. This was the result,” he said, holding the hilt up for K’mino to get a better look. The titanium was a little rough in some places, it was obvious that it had been made using random spare parts, and yet it held some form of unrefined elegance, an almost-unfinished quality that showed it would, over many years, be improved as Jayde grew more confident in his use of the Force and his lightsaber.
“I don’t suppose that gunshot earlier was the end of Mitzal, was it? Someone like him always manages to slither away like a snake. Just like a certain sorceress that Rukari’s father killed, Mitzal will one day make a mistake and someone will take him down,” Jayde said.
K’mino shook his head before looking down at the ground again. “No that gunshot wasn’t the end of Mitzal, but it did bring down one of those giant lizards of his. Though, the size of the muzzle flash and the amount of smoke that was left behind made me think at least that it was some kind of armor piercing round. On the other hand, your parts choice for your lightsaber is a little unusual, but as time goes on, you’ll be able to upgrade it.” and with that he retrieved his own lightsaber and fired up the blade.
“Sounds like war-surplus .58 Pointed to me,” Jayde said. “It’s a black-powder round, loaded with as much powder as they could pack in, designed to punch through armor.”
When K’mino mentioned his choice of parts for his lightsaber were a bit unusual, Jayde chuckled. “Not a lot of choices around here, to be honest. Armor scraps, a plasma pistol barrel, my old crystal, the gold wire that held it to my chain, I worked with what I could find. Though it is good to know it can be upgraded still.”
As K’mino fired up his own blade, Jayde smiled. “Green and blue. Fitting colors for those on the side of light,” Jayde said.
Kivenaal wandered back in from the town with a bag of stuff, though before he found a place to sit down and meditate on what he’d brought, he heard the ignition of a lightsaber and startled slightly, raising his hands to fight until he realized the weapon was not aimed his way. He set down his bag and grabbed the last bottle of moonshine out of the truck, pulled the cork with a pop, and then poured the contents into one of the fuel tanks of the truck. “After seeing what it does to some people, I am done with the stuff,” Kivenaal muttered, putting the empty bottle away and grabbing his bag of supplies again, wandering over to a log not-too-far from K’mino and Jayde. As he reached in and removed a couple of seemingly normal crystals, Kivenaal placed them between his finger and thumb, then squeezed. There was a brief snap, followed by Kivenaal startling and nearly dropping the pair of crystals with an exclamation of pain.
“Ai!,” Kivenaal yelped, tossing the two crystals to another of his hands and shaking his upper right hand. “Did not think those would shock like that,” he grumbled.
K’mino looked in the direction of the truck. “He’s trying to make a saber as well?”
The contents of Kivenaal’s bag clattered as he set it down next to him. “I’m going to try, at least. Just, out here, it’s quite difficult to track down a proper power source and Kayden won’t give me one of his power cells. But, there’s been this guiding voice that keeps pointing me in what seems like the right direction, and these ‘mysterious lightning crystals,’ as they were labeled, might make a good start.”
The blue blade retracted with a hiss.
Jayde chuckled. “From what little I know of him, he’s persistent. Even only just barely knowing it’s possible, he’ll give it everything he’s got until he gets a result,” Jayde admitted.
Kivenaal studied his bag of supplies and gave a quiet sigh. “Small steps. Power sources first,” he said to himself. “Nothing can be done until I have some way to provide energy.”
“Small steps are the only way anyone can get started with anything really.” K’mino said. “Everything comes with patience and some training obviously. I think its likely for the best for me to wait for you two to construct your weapons.”
Then the three separated and went about their business. Upon returning to the car, K’mino opened the center console and rummaged around for a moment before fishing out a case of pre-cut cigars. Popping one into his mouth, he then turned his attention to the ice chest hidden under the rear seat bench, fished out a bottle of whiskey, poured it into a glass and dropped a couple of ice cubes in it. Shutting the ice chest and returning to his spot and putting his legs up out the window, he settled in to relax. The lighter flicked open and lit up with a click, igniting the tobacco and producing a plume of smoke.
To Be Continued (Like Always)
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
While Andreas and Janne was checking out the surroundings, Marie was staying at the van for a while, grumpy and tired as she was, with the mother of all hangovers. After a while, though, she was checking out the old logging office, where she probably could find a place to rest if things would get too tough. Although when walking out of it, she saw…something, and returned to the van. Janne and Andreas was checking out the pond and agreed that they would try out the luck fishing there, which would maybe have made for a good meal. It was disturbed, however, by the calling on the CB that someone had been driving drunk.
"For fucks sake…", Andreas said. "You know what, if we have such people here…no way…I remember that I forgot the keys in the van, I better remove them from there quickly, I think."
Andreas went back to the van, opened the door and tried to take out the keys, with no luck.
"Oh yeah, the shifter interlock, probably forgot it in D", he said, and jumped up on the front seat to put the column shifter in P.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH! he screamed and jumped up from the seat again, hitting his head on the edge around the door opening.
"OOOOOOOUUUUUUCCCCHHHHH!"
Stepping out of the van he saw the small creature that was sitting on the front seat, hissing and growling at him. In anger he was going to throw out the little wandering spike mat, without thinking very far.
"YOU LITTLE BASTARD, NOW YOU’RE GOING OU…YAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRGGGGHHHH!"
With a bleeding hand Andreas was jumping around, swearing at the little devil that now occupied the van.
"HEY! Be nice to Sonic! He is my friend, unlike the two of you!", Marie said.
"Sonic… WHAT THE FUCK MARIE, IS IT YOU THAT HAVE BROUGHT THE PORCUPINE INTO THE VAN!", Andreas yelled.
"He is cute! He is not going anywhere!", she said grumpily.
"HE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL!", Andreas said, once again without thinking what he was doing.
"YYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHWWWWWWRGGGGHHHHHHHH!"
Now bleeding from both of the hands, Andreas was jumping around even more angrily when Janne arrived and wondered what the matter was.
"MARIE’S NEW…SO CALLED…PET, IS LEAVING THE VAN…NOW!, Andreas said.
"HEY! Sonic is not going anywhere!", she said.
"You’re aware that Sonic was a hedgehog and not a porcupine?", Janne smirked.
"I don’t care, he looks like Sonic and he is staying with us!", Marie said.
"You know what?", Janne said. “I am so goddamned tired hearing the two of you fighting all the time! Now, let her keep that damn porcupine and shut your mouth! It’s not like he is hurting anyone anyway!”, Janne sighed.
Andreas was going to show his bleeding hands but Janne was already leaving. Now he was so angry that if he had been in a cartoon, smoke would have been coming out of his ears, but Marie’s opinion was clear.
"He said I could keep it and now we are two against one, right?"
TO BE CONTINUED…
(So, from now on, I guess that Sonic stays with them and is the official team mascot, no matter what Andreas says…)
6 Likes
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
Reply to previous part
To Vallengarda and beyond, now with extra something
We greatly enjoyed night in proper beds and Samiraie was great camp of sorts.
Aydar, being by far fastest of our team, was tasked to deliver the car to inn.
We then carefully checked to see if we arent forgotten anything or anyone.
The road leaving Samiraie is smooth and fast cobblestone, similar to the road leading into it. However, at the halfway point, the road roughly transitions into gravel, which, by the end, deteriorates into dirt as we reach Vallengarda. The lovely ocean view is swallowed back up by trees as we return to the forest that gives the next town its name. (Vallengarda = Forest Guard.) The winding, somewhat hilly gravel-and-dirt road is fairly difficult to drive through, with numerous completely blind turns, several sudden dips in the road right before or immediately after a turn, narrow sections of road barely big enough for the cars to squeeze through, and the constant looming threat of trees on either side, just waiting to break a radiator, crush a fender, or send a car spiraling into the forest after a glancing blow.
As was nicely noted above, road was very pleasant and easy to drive on at first, but to no surprize, going got tougher and speeds got lower.
Thanks partially to duct tape generously given by Team JAM and partially thanks to other ways to make sure cargo is going nowhere, we had no cargo issues during journey.
Actually, we had no issues, full stop.
Sadly, we havent repeated our stage win this time, but were instead in middle.
There we were now in new camp, likely gonna follow same fashion of sleeping in car…although there is option of logging office as well.
Two members of team representing extremes in age department had both found something that wasnt really up to their taste.
That deserves quick mentions: seeing that Mrdja is willing to swim at any giving opportunity, learning that ponds arent good swimming ground had left him dissapointed.
Chicota had now realized that his beer tanks are nearing empty, which havent made him particularly happy.
VerBanka had also given a try to that beer and unsurprizingly found it as terrible. She decided that joining Chicota on quest to get some more cheap beer would be good idea.
Klimentol and Aydar decided to complain how everything on Pi is broken, thanks to the fact she did managed to hurt herself the day prior by jumping from car.
Mrdja also decided he might wait for some moderately fresh beer delivered by duo we covered on beggining of this paragraph.
-Damn, you are one strong girl, carrying one big tank like that.
-I cant see anything. Wait, why am i carrying this in first place?
-So i could see and find best source of fresh alcohol beverage, which should also be cheap.
(Sounds of VerBanka bumping into local had happened)
-F u.
-Oh sorry, didnt mean…
-I will rearrange you using my fists. I had practiced punching for a while; noone bumps into me and not get taste of these.
Chicota: I had received some scary news. Joe is looking for ya, son.
-Who tf is Joe?
-Joe Mama
-Again tf…wait, you insulted my mother…gonna turn your height into length real quick.
-You might prefer to turn to writer instead of puncher-that line was so good.
-Thanks…still gonna kick your ass.
(Some two-legged relic appeared)
-Before ya do that, im gonna serve my customers with best products they had ever seen.
-We want some cheap alcoholic beverage.
-Perfect…(refering to creature in background)come here…dont be afraid…say hello to our new customers
Creature obliged
-MEEEEEHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEMEEEEEEEEEEE
-Sir, this is…this is a goat.
-Yes, one of my best goats and they are all best.
-Still, i dont recall goats being used to make alcohol
-Bcos they arent, young man: they are used for milk, cheese, yogurt and some other stuff.
VerBanka: Expert for finding good booze, my ass.
Fella into whom she bumped: You…you have ass?
Old man: Ofc she has ass, everyone here has ass…even my beautiful goats…turn around my beauty.
Now all eyes were observing goats rear end. Goat decided this is perfect time to do toilet stuff, so they were done.
-Okkkk, now its time to move on…we werent exactly looking for milk or cheese…and def havent anticipated watching goat doing number two in front of our very eyes.
-I know! Isnt it relaxing?
Some solid piece of wood had flown into area, scaring goat away.
-Who dares scaring my goats like this? You shall pay…with blood.
-Im trying to get that boy i somehow interpret as son to come here and eat dinner.
-You are approaching me? (Old man gets walking stick and goes towards burly woman with rolling pin)
Swing of two objects resulted in clash, they got back, re-accessed situation and repeated.
Old man and woman both had swung their weapons expecting to hit other, but that merely ends in clashing of weapons once again.
That repeated few times, before oldie could go no further
-I perhaps trained you too well…you still scared my goat.
-I dont care about your stupid goats, i came here for my stupid goat.
She catched son at ear and started pulling this bad boy of few moments ago, who was now whiney child.
VerBanka and Chicota continued going and approached building that looked big.
-This is it, destillery. That pipe surely is their waste material, which we will now collect into tank you carried all this time.
Open the cap and put the opening on tank so liquid from pipe can get straight into it.
VerBanka felt this wasnt destillery, but still decided to follow instructions, squatting down near to watch when tank fills up, then appropriatelly seals the contents of tank with cap.
Chicota simply picks that up, happy he got some alcohol waste for basically free
Or so he thinks atleast as the duo rolls back into camp…
4 Likes
I know that some people have wanted co-operations but I will be a little bit busy the upcoming days so I have to say no.
3 Likes
Shift Happens and RK Series Racing
RK Series Racing; Stage 7 Camp; Part 2
(Thank you to @Elizipeazie for collaborating on this with me! Also, short header because, well… You know the drill by now.)
Vallengarda Campsite, 7 Sun
Now that Kaylie had calmed down again after dealing with a particularly-touchy subject, she opened up the Bricksley’s toolbox and grabbed her two wrench-and-socket kits, one in metric and one in imperial, then headed over toward where the Dione was sitting.
“Heard you guys might have some window problems. Anything I can do to help? I’ve got tools, and I’ve got some time,” Kaylie said, holding up her two tool kits. “Anyway, I also have a favor to ask of you,” she added, after a glance through the Dione’s window told her what she needed to know. “We’ve got someone on our team who, well… He’s doing remarkably well for having about a stage-and-a-half of seat time, but we need someone who knows how to drive stick to teach Jayde to drive. Most of us know how to drive, but we can’t really teach others how to do it, and, well, Kayden and I know a little bit about driving a manual, but I don’t want to be teaching him bad habits.”
With the group sat behind the Dione as usual, playing cards in the dirt, they were approached by another participant of the rally. Her polarizing inquiry startled the group initially, being broken by Tim replying.
“Yeah our resident lighthouse here apparently isn’t fond of getting in through the other side of the car.”, he commented, smirking at the less-than-clean joke he played.
“Try getting into the driver’s seat while stood on a foot-and-a-half of platform shoes. I dare you.”, Valentin quipped back in an unusual moment of uncontained anger. “Maybe once we are at eye-level, we can thing about that.”, Tim counters, unintentionally shooting himself in the foot, followed by both Schrants grinning at the self-diss. Valentin turns to Kaylie.
“As far as i can aware we all can do manual gearboxes to some degree, but i don’t know about how well the teaching part goes.”, Valentin explains, as both Constantin and Tim touch their nose, having started a similar game to the verbal variant ‘not-it!’.
“I can try…”, Valentin adds, knowing that Connor would not be part of this due to lack of insight.
Kaylie nodded, smirking as she realized the non-verbal game of “not-it” that left Valentin having to teach. She smiled, however, and said to Valentin, “Between you and me, I think he’s capable, he just needs someone willing to try. I mean, he drove the entirety of the last stage, but there’s too many distractions in the cab with the six of us in there for it to be a good learning experience. He’s got Malavera yelling about gear changes, Kayden groaning every time he grinds a gear, Kivenaal trying to get him to use the transfer case, I don’t know enough to teach him, and Rukari has a mile-long list of bad habits.”
As she looked into the Dione, however, she said, “Yeah, I don’t envy anyone having to climb over this mess. Why don’t you… Oh. That’s why you can’t just open the door.” She stared at the chains for a moment, then set her wrench kits down next to the Dione. “I’m going to get a couple of old shirts in case I have to open that door so I don’t scratch the paint,” Kaylie said, quickly heading back to the Bricksley, then returning to the Dione with a lime-green t-shirt and a rather large gray tank-top. “Got one of my green shirts. Tore a hole in it the other day and never got around to making it into shop rags. Also grabbed one of Kayden’s old tank-tops,” Kaylie said, folding each over each half of the chain, right where the door would open into them.
“Are you sure… Kayden is fine with you ruining his clothing?”, Valentin inquired rather sheepishly. The thought of going deeper into debt regarding favors done wasn’t overly enticing to him. At least this time he could hand something back with stick-shift lessons.
“I appreciate the offer, though getting in there sounds like a massive pain…”, Valentin adds, still insecure about asking others for help.
“If you want to do it, then i’m all for it.”, Tim blurts out, knowing that it won’t be any work shoved over to him if Kaylie does it, thereby settling the debate.
Valentin mentally relents, hard, now accepting the offer by faintly nodding.
Kaylie smiled as Valentin asked if Kayden was fine with her ruining his clothing, then pulled Kayden’s tank top off of the chain and showed the tear across the shoulders. “I tell him, every time, not to grab his shirts and just yank them over his head. I didn’t grab anything that he’d miss,” she said, carefully draping it back over the chain. “Plus, he used my pink towel to mop up an oil spill, so technically I still owe him one.”
As Valentin mentioned getting in might be a massive pain, Kaylie nodded. "It won’t be fun, I’ll admit that, but I think I might be able to squeeze between the front seats without kicking or stepping on anything important. If I’m really lucky, I’ll be able to do this without stepping on the seats, too.
When Tim mentioned that if Kaylie wanted to do the window fix, he was all for it, and Valentin reluctantly nodded his approval, Kaylie smiled. “Remember, Valentin, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help. Remember what Malavera said at the drivers’ meeting, about helping others out if they’re broken down? Well, I don’t mind helping out with minor fixes, especially for friends. Plus, let’s face it, by helping Jayde learn to drive without grinding gears or burning the clutch, that’s saving maintenance on the Bricksley, which means less time I have to spend spinning wrenches on our truck and more time I can spend helping other teams.”
She looked into the Dione, again double-checking the gap between the seats, before she grabbed up her tool kits, brushed off the dirt and rocks, then set them in the front passenger seat. She opened the rear passenger door, studied the center console to make sure she wasn’t about to come into contact with any of the gauges, levers, or valves, then with a surprising amount of grace, slid from the rear passenger seat into the driver’s seat. “Interesting. From here, it looks like just about any Dione I’ve seen before,” she commented, before studying the door card. “Power windows. Damn. I was hoping it was just a missing crank. Please don’t let it be a jammed window rack,” Kaylie said.
“Connor, is this held in place with screws or clips?” Kaylie inquired, “Because I really, really don’t want to break anything trying to fix this window problem.”
As Kaylie held up the torn-to-pieces article of clothing, Valentin was mildly relieved that it at least had no use as a tank top anymore. Still, he was a bit uneasy as it wasn’t her property to begin with.
“We technically aren’t stranded because of it, though… Yes it’s annoying, but the car itself works rather well, actually…”, Valentin muttered at Kaylie’s remark about helping out. He had no issue helping others if need be, though asking for help was a mental barrier to him.
As it became known that it was Jayde that he would be teaching, the very cautious optimism faded. Mostly because Jayde, next to Kivenaal, was the most intimidating member of Shift Happens.
“The door panel is held in with five screws and one electrical connector.”, Connor calmly stated in response to Kaylie’s inquiry about not wanting to tear the Dione’s interior to bits.
Kaylie smiled. “A jammed window is an annoyance I fix a lot at work. Never seen it on a Dione, admittedly, but I’ve probably fixed 20 windows stuck in various positions. Anhultz cars, however, I’ve only ever worked on one, and it was a fairly routine oil change. Honestly, I’m impressed at how well-put-together these cars actually are,” she admitted.
As Connor mentioned the screws and the electrical connector, Kaylie nodded, grabbed a selection of short screwdriver bits, carefully opened the door, and then carefully started removing the screws. Once the screws were out and the panel was loose, she moved it carefully until she could disconnect the electrical cable, then studied the switch. “Melted. Something in here, once upon a time, pulled a lot of current,” she said. “I’ll need a replacement switch for this, and,” she sniffed slightly, “judging by the smell of carbon, I’d say the window motor itself has failed.”
She reached down and wiggled the output end of the motor’s gearbox, seeing the window rack move the tiniest amount. “I don’t think the rack has seized up, but this gearbox is jammed.” She looked at the odometer, reading 069420, then said, “Only a little over 69-thousand miles? That can’t be right. Did this car roll over the odometer?” Kaylie asked.
Nothing newsworthy was happening out back behind the car as Kaylie climbed around the interior of the car. Kaylie sure was surprised at the odometer reading.
“It rolled over once, as far as i know. The previous owner had the thing from factory and joined the million-mile club with the thing. Sold it off to a group of travelers in need as he’d gotten a brand-spanking new car as a reward for pulling it off.”, Tim explained.
“Must be awfully expensive for the guys at the dealerships if every third car can do that no problem…”, Constantin remarked, aware of the reputation of most AMP-based vehicles at the time.
Valentin mentally prepared himself for the upcoming teacher’s job, going through how he would explain the driving process on a really dumbed-down level, should the worst-case scenario strike. As such, he was rather absentminded, with his head lowered and face hidden behind a curtain of blonde hair.
Kaylie just shook her head. “I might have to look into getting myself an Anhultz at some point. I swear, you give these things a bit of basic maintenance, they’ll outlast the world,” Kaylie said. She carefully removed the window motor, realized it was greasy and she had no good place to put it, then sighed. “Should have seen this coming,” she said, twisting slightly in the seat so she could pull a light pink cotton rag out of her pocket to wrap the dead motor in. “That gearbox is locked up, and that killed the motor,” Kaylie explained. “The good news is, the window rack is in great condition, so if we can find a replacement for this and another switch, it’ll be perfect.”
She carefully climbed between the seats, opened the passenger door, and retrieved the greasy bundle from on top of her wrench kit. “I’m almost curious if the rumors are true,” she said, before realizing Connor might know. “Connor, is the passenger’s side window motor and gearbox a direct replacement for the driver’s side window motor and gearbox?”
“The motor is identical left to right, the motor mount is not.”, Connor answers.
Other than that, the area surrounding the car was rather silent, until Valentin cleared his face of his hairdo and stood up. He walked around towards the front, almost getting hit lightly by the opening passenger door.
“Sooo… who is it that i should be teaching stick? Might as well get get it over which immediately.”, Valentin spoke, still agitated at the non-human nature of the Shift Happens crew members, even though some of them were genuinely friendly ‘people’.
“Ah, I’ll have to swap the motor mounts,” Kaylie said, studying the motor she’d removed. “Makes sense.” As Valentin walked up and nearly got hit by the door, Kaylie grimaced. “Sorry, Valentin. Bad habit of mine, I get a bit of tunnel vision when I’m working on things,” Kaylie said.
When Valentin asked who he needed to teach to drive stick, Kaylie said, “Jayde. Oh. Right, you haven’t been introduced to the whole team yet. Jayde’s the brown lion with the black mane. Probably wearing his black robe, sitting near the Bricksley. Sorry about that. I’d say it’s a face-palm moment on my part, but I’ve got grease on my right hand and I’d probably knock myself out if I tried it left handed,” Kaylie said with a light smirk. She saw the light flash of some emotion on Val’s face and set her tools down to look at him from where she was crouched on the ground.
“Valentin, of the six of us in the team, I’d say Jayde’s probably the kindest one in our group. Yes, his scars and his size make him intimidating, and it probably doesn’t help that he wears that robe a lot, but I think you’ll be okay with him. Remember, you faced a crew of 30 workers to fix the Dione. You can handle Jayde,” Kaylie said.
“Jayde… Brown lion with a black mane… a robe…”, Valentin instantly knew who was referenced by Kaylie and actually knew Jayde by sight from the supportive words at Itzgarde steamworks. Still, being anywhere near a stranger looking like what quite obviously was still a lion, albeit a bipedal one, proved to be a challenged that needed tackling.
He walks over and past the Bricksley, approaching Jayde, who was sat on a random stump meditating. Not wanting to break his meditative state or be rude, he simply shuffles around a bit, unsure on how one could start a conversation with a Leoni.
Jayde’s ear flicked as he heard Valentin’s slight shuffles, recognizing that he had company. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then opened his eyes, looking over to Valentin. “Good evening, Valentin,” Jayde said, giving a light smile. He looked over at the Dione, where Kaylie had what looked like half of the passenger door taken apart, then back to Valentin. “I’m guessing Kaylie’s being helpful again, yes?”
As Jayde opened his eyes, looked at Valentin and begins speaking, a vast array of thoughts is racing through Valentin’s mind.
Okay… he knows your name because it’s on the entry form… all is good… he won’t jump at you to rip your head off… He’s the guy who got the ball rolling at the steamworks! He’s friendly! No need to worry about him at all.
Valentin mentally tried to reassure himself that Jayde is not some bloo-thirsty demon that kills everyone daring to disturb his peace.
“Yeah… She’s fixing the driver window by breaking the passenger one.”, Valentin blurts in a rather uncoordiated response to Jayde. “I heard someone needs some driver’s education…”, he adds, unaware of the potentially insulting nature of this statement.
Jayde laughed quietly as Valentin mentioned Kaylie was fixing the driver’s window by breaking the passenger’s window. “A bit like making an omelet, then,” he said, smiling. When Valentin added that he needed some driver’s education, Jayde smiled and gave a light nod. “I’ll admit, that I’ve gotten as far as I have in a little over a stage and a half of driving is… Well, even I’m surprised,” Jayde admitted, not seeing any insult in what Valentin had said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have even known who to ask. I mean, before these,” Jayde said, motioning to the Bricksley, “if I had to go particularly far, I’d ride a bicycle or I’d walk. Usually, I’d walk. Long distances tend to give me a bit of grief.”
He got up slowly, wincing a couple of times as he leaned on the truck. “Sorry, got a few old injuries that, well… I may have been fine to sit on tree stumps for hours ten years ago, but now, not so much,” Jayde said. He slowly made his way around to the driver’s side of the truck, opened the door, then pulled off his heavy robe, leaving him in his light tan shorts. He rummaged through the pocket for the keys and tossed his robe in the back seat, made sure that the passenger side door was unlocked, then leaned over and opened it for Valentin.
Valentin eased up a little as Jayde owed up to his poor driving skills. When he continued about usually cycling from A to B, Valentin’s thoughts immediately went towards how someone of Jayde’s height could locate a bicycle fitting for him.
“Huh… my knees really don’t like walking, which is why i use my bicycle…s for any trip longer than half a mile each way”, Valentin explains with some caution, which is slowly fading as he realizes that Jayde in effect is a VERY weird looking human in behavior. A bit of that fear comes back once Jayde is upright, though, given that a full foot of height is between the two, but not in the direction Valentin is used to.
As he climbs aboard the Bricksley, he instincively buckles up through force of habit.
He notices that he, for once, doesn’t have to perpetually duck down to fit into a car, which hardly is surprising given the massive size of the vehicle.
He takes a look around the interior, which for a crew-cab Pick-Up was unusually plush, with soft leather seats and nice carpeting all over. At least it was nice from the factory, probably.
“Seems like your car has an identity crisis. Work truck outside and yacht inside, even with a phonograph of all things.”, Valentin mumbles half-aloud as he continues looking about the cabin.
“From what Kaylie’s said, she thinks the Bricksley engineers must have been drunk when they designed this. Supposedly it’s built out of the front two-thirds of something she called a ‘van,’ and they threw a box on the back,” Jayde replied. “It’s one of the most comfortable things I’ve sat in, even if it’s a bit cramped for me.”
As Valentin looked around the interior of the truck, Jayde fumbled with the keys for a few long seconds, before finally getting the right one to fit in the ignition switch. Even before thinking about starting the truck, Jayde looked around for where the seat belt was, then sighed, opened the door, and pulled the belt back in. “Why is it that this thing,” Jayde said, holding up the seat belt buckle, “always gets stuck outside the vehicle?” He pulled the belt over him and buckled it, then said, “I apologize in advance for any rough driving I do. I know what most of the controls do, but operating them smoothly is… Well, I’m trying to learn.”
Jayde stating that the controls are sort-of known made Valentin’s job that much easier, as he did not have to start from square one.
“Okay… so you know how to do it, but lack the practice and smoothness in doing it well?”, Valentin inquires, not really expecting an answer.
“In that case we’ll start with this. Take the key back out again and engage the parking brake. We’ll be stationary for the time being.”, he adds immediately.
“I managed to drive it here, but Kaylie mentioned that my gear changes inspired fear in everyone,” Jayde admitted. As Valentin instructed him to take the key back out and put the parking brake on, Jayde pulled the key out of the ignition and handed Valentin the key ring, which had the ignition key, door keys, and the two different aftermarket locking fuel cap keys on it. He then put his left foot on the parking brake, which creaked ominously before giving one last resolute click as he pushed the pedal down.
“Oh it’s a pedal brake… huh…”, Valentin commented, as that one last click was emitted from the footwell.
He took a glance down there and spotted that Jayde’s left leg was entirely mechanical, similar to Kaylie’s left arm. In his mind, that kind of explains the poor clutch-use, but he decides to not mention it for the time being to avoid venturing onto thin ice.
The key ring was placed on the dashboard in front of him for the time being.
“So we are effectively gonna dry-practice what would need doing while in motion. That is the sequence of taking the foot of the gas, putting the clutch to the floor pan, changing gear, clutch back up and re-applying the throttle as needed.”, Valentin explains.
“Hold on… i’m gonna switch seats to get a better view of the process.”, he adds and unbuckles the seatbelt. He then opens the door to leave the car, just to re-enter through the rear right door. He takes place in the window seat there, buckles up, once again because of habit. As he leans forward, he has to duck a bit to avoid some overhead plastic panel. The fact that the CB radio array is mounted in there is completely missed in the focus on his assigned work.
“Alright. I’m ready.”, Valentin confirms, intently watching the movements of Jayde.
“So, first gear, like we’re trying to go?” Jayde asked. After Valentin confirmed this, Jayde put his left foot down on the clutch, stepped on the brake perhaps a bit harder than needed considering the truck wasn’t going anywhere and again causing the pedal to creak as he tried to push the un-boosted pedal into the firewall, reached for where the key would be as if attempting to start the engine, and reached over to find the gear selector. Jayde muttered to himself, “Toward me and forward,” selecting first gear with a dull thud as he bounced the stick off of the shift gate in the process. He eased up on the brakes, though still had a considerable amount of pressure on the pedal as he started to lift his foot off of the clutch.
After a few seconds, Jayde admitted, “I can tell my foot is on the pedal because I can feel a spring pushing back, but I can’t feel if there’s any change in it right now.” However, he continued going through the motions, holding his foot roughly at about half of the clutch throw, easing off of the brake, and applying throttle as he eased off of the clutch the rest of the way.
When Valentin instructed him to try for second gear, Jayde did somewhat muck up the process by putting his foot on the clutch before releasing the gas pedal, then bounced the gear stick off of the 2-4 gate, knocking it out of his hand. He grabbed it again, this time managed to get it into second gear, eased off of the clutch, and again stepped on the gas.
Valentin closely monitored the motions of Jayde and agreed as he mentioned the lack of feedback through vehicle vibrations. Nevertheless, the movements for starting off seemed about as right as they can be given the practice environment. The shift from first to second was less smooth, however.
“Okay. The right foot needs to come off before you press the clutch to shift. Otherwise the engine will scream at you, having no load.”, Valentin pauses for a bit, trying to think of an analogy that might work.
“So… when shifting, right foot to 0, then left foot to 1. After that you move the gear stick. From first to second and back you can lightly ride along the gate-edge closest to you for guidance. Once you go to third you move it to the neutral channel and let the spring force carry your hand to the middle. Then straight forward. Once you are done shifting, left foot back to 0, followed by the right one to whichever setting you need at the time.”, Valentin explains, mimicking the what-would-be foot movements with both hands instead.
Jayde nodded, trying again by going back to first, again mimicking the starting-off procedure to the best of his ability, then this time remembering to take his right foot off of the gas, mash the clutch pedal with his left foot, pull the stick into the far-side of the shift gate and slid it into second gear, released the clutch, and placed his foot back on the gas. He then experimentally tried it again, a little smoother this time on the pedals, as he tried third gear, popping it out of second, letting the spring center the stick, then pushing it into third. Likewise, he was able to do the same for fourth. His attempt at fifth gear was a little less-than-graceful, but didn’t slam into any shift gates or leave him holding the gas with the clutch down.
As Valentin instructed him to try it a few more times, Jayde did so, becoming a little smoother each time as he repeated the actions of lifting his foot off of the gas, stepping on the clutch, picking the next gear in the sequence, releasing the clutch, and stepping back on the gas.
“Seems like you are getting the hang of it.”, Valentin says, watching the final moves of a 5th to 1st sweep happening. “Clutch to one and gearbox to neutral please”, he adds, followed by Jayde stomping the clutch and putting it in neutral. Valentin then reaches forward to move the range-box from 4H to 2L.
“When you are coming to a stop, you either put the clutch to one or pull it out of gear. Either way you’ll have to set of carefully to not stall it… Speaking of which, keys are on the dash”, Valentin continues, trying to reach for them unsuccessfully as they seemed to have slipped toward the windshield a bit.
“When you are setting off, you’re logically decreasing the clutch value from 1 to 0. At some point inbetween, the car will start to vibrate quite a bit. Remember whatever setting that is as the ‘bite point’. A little less than that will start the car into a slow roll, provided that you aren’t holding it back with the brakes and it is in gear. Once it’s not vibrating anymore you can ease off the clutch a bit more, up until it reaches zero eventually. You might need to add a wee bit of throttle as well.”
Valentin kept rolling with the programming analogy, continuing to mimick the foot-movements with either hand.
“I’m pretty sure it’s in low range now, but what ‘low range’ means in this car i cannot really say… Though you will at some point need to learn getting to grips with shifting at speed or setting off in 1-high.”, he added, informing Jayde on what might come later on.
Jayde reached for the keys, managing to hook a claw in the key-ring and pull them closer to him before getting a good grip on them. Cautiously, Jayde put his feet on the brake and the clutch, made sure the gear selector was in neutral even though he’d already done so, then turned the key.
The Bricksley’s old, somewhat worn out, and badly tuned V8 cranked for a few long seconds, before finally starting up with an almost deafening roar before eventually, slowly, settling down to a normal idle. As Valentin instructed Jayde on how to set off, Jayde listened, then tried to replicate the process, feeling a harsh vibration making the truck shudder as he found the bite point of the clutch. He carefully took his foot off of the brake, eased up a little more on the clutch, and immediately stalled it. Jayde looked around, then sighed. “Parking brake,” he groaned, stepping on the brake pedal, holding his foot over the parking brake pedal so it wouldn’t throw dirt at him, and pulling the release handle. He then put the gearbox back into neutral, stepped on the clutch, started the engine again, and tried to set off.
This time, he was much more successful, setting off with a slight lurch. The engine quickly climbed through the revs as Jayde guided the truck onto a road leading around the logging camp, followed by his first proper gear change on the move from first to second. Again, the low-range meant the truck raced through the revs, even though the truck was not quick at all, leading to a rapid change for third.
Valentin simply watches along, not really saying or doing anything until the parking brake mishap happened.
“Granted… i forgot that as well, though it is a brake that was holding it in place.”, Valentin said as the car hopped a bit.
After that, relative silence followed, as Jayde took the massive Bricksley for some laps around the logging camp.
Things were going well until Jayde tried practicing stopping for the first time. While he did put the clutch in before using the brakes, Jayde tried to push the pedal through the firewall. The brakes, still cold and grabby from not being used much, hauled the truck down in a relative hurry and caused the cargo in the truck bed to clatter and clank. “Sorry,” Jayde said, looking over at Valentin with an apologetic look on his face. “I’m still trying to remember that the brakes don’t need to be all or nothing.”
As Valentin moved the stick into 2-High and instructed Jayde to try setting off again, Jayde’s first try was a little less than stellar. While the truck didn’t outright stall, thanks to Jayde putting his foot down hard on the clutch, he used a little too much throttle when trying again, kicking up a spray of dirt and gravel. However, his third try was a little better, with less wheel spin and a little more control with the gas pedal. Like before, he was more comfortable with changing gears, and other than being still a little rough on the brakes, he was showing signs of improvement.
With how severely Jayde hammered the brake pedal into the floor pan, Valentin fell into the restraining mechanism that is the seatbelt, being pulled back and sideways into the nearside front headrest.
“Ow…”, he remarks in response, even though the headrest providing ample cushioning to soften the impact. Jayde’s face was rather hard to read, but seemed to be apologetic. Valentin smiled a bit, knowing that it was very early days for Jayde and his stick-shift endeavor and it carried over onto the first few attempts at getting the car going in 1-high.
“A wee bit more gas and slower clutch”, Valentin said as Jayde nearly stalled the first time around.
The second time was ‘successful’, though it sprayed the surrounding area in a shower of pebbles.
“Maybe not that much throttle.”, he corrected, smiling at the visible progress Jayde was making.
The third attempt was the smoothest as of yet, though sent some wheelspin through the rear tyres still.
“Still need to be a little slower on the clutch release if you don’t want to shower others with rocks.”, Valentin comments.
Apart from that, things were going fine and he didn’t actively do much regarding the brakes, as Jayde was already aware of his “on-off” driving style that he needed to shed.
Jayde nodded as Valentin gave some suggestions and mild corrections, trying to take them into consideration each time one came up. It took an additional lap around the campsite for Jayde to pull everything he’d learned together, from getting the truck going without stalling it or kicking up rocks, to changing gears without revving the engine or grinding the gears, to a couple of well-practiced stops that got progressively gentler each time he tried.
However, as they got closer to where the Bricksley had been parked, Jayde saw a stump in the path and mashed the brakes, hauling the Bricksley to a stop with a good foot to spare. “Sorry, Valentin,” Jayde said, grimacing. “I was looking at where I was planning on going.”
As Valentin gave Jayde some basic instructions on how to use the reverse gear, then moved out of the way so Jayde could see out of the rear window, Jayde followed them, being extra careful not to spin the tires and throw rocks into the camp, while turned halfway around in the seat, his arm braced across the bench, and ducking down to see under the radio console. He backed up a few feet, put the truck back into first gear, and cranked the wheel hard left to avoid the stump this time, before pulling the truck back into the spot he’d driven out of at the start. He made sure the gearbox was in neutral, turned off the engine, and stepped on the parking brake before taking his foot off of the brake pedal.
After removing the keys from the ignition, Jayde unbuckled his seat belt, then looked to Valentin. “Thank you, Valentin,” he said, giving a light smile.
Over by the Dione, Kaylie carefully put the last screw back into the driver’s side door panel, then said, “Okay, someone’s going to have to test this window to make sure it works. I’m fairly sure I got everything right.”
1 Like
With smooth working of the gears and pedals, they rolled back into camp, when Jayde suddenly stomped the brakes once more, repeating the impact with the front passenger headrest once more.
As jade apologised profusely, Valentin just grinned.
“You managed to not hit the stump and keep the engine going while doing so. no need to be sorry about that.”, Valentin remarked, as he looked out of the windshield.
“So… for reverse… clutch to one.”, Valentin began as he reached for the gear lever to feel how the gates behaved when trying to go into reverse. It turns out that it wasn’t protected in any way from the other positions or neutral.
“Okay… reverse works the same way as any other gear. Let the spring find neutral, then away and back. If you want to go into reverse, stop the car fully first, otherwise you’ll be brushing gearbox teeth.”, Valentin explains as he plops back into the rear half, making way for Jayde to see out the back through the center, if need be.
Soon, the truck was parked and shut down.
“Well i was seven deeds deep. Now it’s six…”, Valentin countered calmly after Jayde thanked him for the driver’s-ed class.
Over at Robert the Redneck Railcar, the window work was finished up, with Kaylie handing the test duties over to one of the remaining team members.
“You are already in there, you might as well try it.” Tim said, turning around and looking past the boiler into the vehicle’s cabin, spotting Kayle still strewn diagonally across most of the driver seat and rear bench.
“Plus, it’s Val’s car with Val’s problem, so there’s that as well.” he added.
“Not a problem,” Kaylie said. She reached up and carefully turned the key to the accessory position, then reached over to the switch on the door and carefully pushed the down button. With a sudden whirr and a squeak of glass against rubber, the window slowly rolled down. She released the switch, then pushed the up button, watching as the window just as slowly rolled back up. “Looks like your window is fixed,” Kaylie said, looking over as Valentin returned to the rest of the team.
“I’ve got your driver’s side window working, Valentin,” Kaylie said, gathering up her tools. “Just give me a couple of minutes to collect up my stuff and I’ll be out of the way. Also, you’ll be glad to know that both front door cards have had their screws tightened to the proper torque specifications, thanks to Connor giving me some accurate information.” She carefully switched off the ignition key, grabbed up her two wrench kits, then made her way out of the car by squeezing between the front pair of seats and back into the rear bench.
“I can see why you want that window fixed, though. Climbing in and out of there over all of that stuff has got to be a real pain,” Kaylie said.
Some minimal applause from Constantin and Tim followed Kaylie’s successful window “repair”, rending the other side non-functional.
Valentin approached the Dione as the window found it’s way back up, mentally breathing a massive sigh of relief, but not showing one bit of it on the outside.
“Oh the window’s done, i see?”, Valentin says, walking over to the now-operational driver side. He lowers himself a bit and looks at Kaylie through the now-closed window as she crawls about the interior trying to get out again.
“Now to see if it actually beats going in from the passenger half…”, he adds, waiting for Kaylie to get out.
Tim leans over to Constantin and whispers: “Bet you 5 bucks he either smacks his head somewhere or his massive hairdo gets caught on the chain.”
“Deal”, Constantin replies, equally quiet, followed by them nodding ever-so-slightly.
Kaylie looked over the car to make sure she had all of her tools, confirmed to herself that she had, and climbed out of the back seat. She then looked back at the car and sighed. “Aw, man. I am so sorry that I’ve gotten fur all over the seats. I think I’ve got some duct tape back at the truck, I can try to create a lint-roller to pick all of that up, if you’d like,” Kaylie said.
Tim and Constantin get up to take a view of what was now fur-sprinkled seating. The worst offenders were the rear-right and driver seat, with the fireman’s seat also having gotten some of the treatment. They then look, almost stare at Valentin, who now was the person in charge of Robert.
“Yeah i think we’re good, thanks. My fathers dog has phases where he basically dumps all his fur in one go.”, Valentin politely says, thus politely declining the offer of cleaning it up.
The other two just shrug and continue watching, awaiting the result of the five-buck-bet that is ongoing.
Valentin sighs, unsure on if his idea of entering through the driver window was a good idea. After all, a window offers far less area than the entire door.
He takes a seat on the fireman’s position and leans over, turning the key to the first position, followed by him leaning that bit further to roll down the actual window. His long wingspan makes it surprisingly easy to reach the switch from the other side. He gets out and heads around to the other side, intently watching the opening and mentally trying to figure out how to get in with some semblance of grace.
Kaylie nodded. “Fair enough. Just, well… You saw the inside of the Bricksley. I swear, after every stage, it’s like we go through half a roll of duct tape just getting the fur off the seats and out of the carpet. Malavera’s easily the worst offender, his white fur gets everywhere,” Kaylie said.
As Valentin rolled the window down, then headed around to the driver’s side, Kaylie realized his plan and gave a light grimace, recalling the last time she’d seen someone tall go through a window. Her older brother hadn’t handled it well, and now she was watching someone a bit taller try it himself.
Valentin takes a semi-deep breath and starts the process of getting in through the window.
Natural 1 moment incoming.
First, he grabs the brass piping of the roof rack with both hands, followed by his right foot being placed on the bottom edge of the hole where the window would be if closed up. His weight bends the door panel and window frame a bit as he lifts the other leg over and into the car, propping it up on the far side of the driver’s seat. The foot previously placed on the edge follows suit, but as he tries to slip deeper into the car, his hands lose grip.
In a split second, he tumbles backwards and away from the car, trying to grab the B-pillar in an attempt to save himself. Said pillar is missed by quite the margin as gravity took over.
The back of his head hits the ground next to the Tangerine Tank Engine, his chin being folded to the chest as a result of the upside-down angle his torso was at. His lower back is dragged across the chain next to the door. It being exposed didn’t help, as his unbuttoned shirt was, like all things, affected by gravity as well. Still inside the car, the chain of events wasn’t any more pleasant. With his upper back being pulled down, leverage took the better of his lower half, sending both knees careening into the upper frame of the window. Adding to that, his left lower leg was loosely finaggled between the blinker stalk, steering wheel and steering colum. “Surprisingly”, the stalk actually stayed together, which doesn’t help Valentin though.
Valentins immediate reaction was a looong-labored groan as he momentarily lost his senses, although not truly going fully unconscious. This was followed by an intense soundscape somewhere inbetween moaning and groaning in immense pain.
Immediately, Constantin rushed over to help as best he could, knowing nothing about what exactly happened to him. As he looks at and around Valentin, he sees a small puddle of blood forming on the floor below his head.
“Fucking hell he’s bleeding!” Constantin shouts, not yet touching Valentin in fear of a potential neck injury. “Get some… a lot of water and some bandages!”
The instruction was both directed at nobody specifically, but also everyone in the vicinity who was able to act and help.
“Shit!” Kaylie yelled, seeing Valentin taking a tumble and hitting the ground. As Constantin instructed that he needed a lot of water and some bandages, Kaylie dropped her wrench kits to the ground with a crash, then took off toward the Bricksley at a full sprint. She grabbed the small normal first aid kit from inside the glovebox, seeing that it had a roll of gauze bandages inside it after a quick inspection. She slung the strap over her shoulder to carry it, slammed the truck door, and grabbed four of the 5 gallon cans of water off of the roof rack, making sure not to grab any labeled cans.
Then, now burdened with 20 gallons of water and a first-aid kit, Kaylie made her way back to the Dione as fast as she could.
Aa Kayle bolted off to the Bricksley to get water, Connor’s led went to a vividly blinking yellow, making his way over to both Schrants in the process. Valentin, by this time had “raised” one arm down to his head to check the impact site himself.
“He’s safe to move”, Connor stated calmly as ever.
“Then let’s get him the fuck out of that car, goddamnit!”, Constantin blared back, looking at Valentin.
“We’re gonna help you as best we can.”, he adds in an attempt to calm Valentin down a bit.
“
What is happening?”, Valentin moans, now looking at the as-of-yet only slightly bloody hand.
“ You tried and failed to enter through the window. Now we are providing first aid as best as we can.”, Constantin replied, employing emergency dragging tactics by crouching down at the head-end of Valentin, lifting him up slightly to rest on Constantin’s thighs. He then reaches under both shoulders and wraps his arms around Valentin’s chest. He then practically dead-lifts Valentin’s upper body and backs away from the car in an attempt to drag the remainder of him out of the vehicle.
“Fuck…”, Valentin moans, his read resting against Constantin’s shoulder, staining it with blood in the process.
Tim only now realizes what actually is going on.
“HOLY SHIT ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”, he shouts at Valentin, rushing over himself, followed by Valentin looking at him blankly.
“Everything hurts like shit…”, he moans in response, the pain clearly visible in his elongated face.
Kaylie set her containers of water down near Valentin, Connor, and Constantin, then looked around for where Jayde was. “Twin Suns, he’s going to hate me for this,” Kaylie muttered under her breath, before taking a deep breath and saying to the group in front of her, “I’m going to call Jayde over here. He has some sort of healing magic, he’s told me about it, I’ve even seen him heal in seconds from something that should have taken him weeks to heal, and he doesn’t even have a scar to show for it.”
Kaylie, knowing she’d just betrayed Jayde’s trust, turned toward the Bricksley, a tear in her eye as she knew this might be the last time she was on friendly terms with Jayde, yelled out to him. “Jayde! Valentin’s hurt and we need your help!”
Jayde, despite the pain in his left leg, got up as quickly as he could, grabbed his staff, and ran toward the Dione, not caring that he would feel a lot worse later for having done that. He dodged around the rail axle, arriving just in time to see Constantin dragging Valentin out of the window and over the chain running along the side of the Dione. Likewise, he saw Valentin being at least somewhat alert and moving, a sign he probably wasn’t in any real danger.
“Come on, Jayde, why aren’t you using your magic to heal him?” Kaylie asked, staring at Jayde. “He’s clearly hurt and in a lot of pain.”
“Kaylie, he wouldn’t want me to use magic on him. Unless his life is actually in danger, I won’t betray his trust like that,” Jayde replied. “From what I can see and smell, this ‘first-aid’ kit will likely be enough,” he added. “So unless Valentin himself asks me to heal him, or unless someone tells me his life is in danger because of his injuries, I will let nature run its course.”
Upon hearing magic being mentioned, everyone except Constantin looks at Kaylie, confused as to what exactly is meant by “magic”.
“He needs medical attention, not some hippie-juice essential oil shit.” Constantin quips at Kaylie, now giving Valentin as a whole a good yank out of the car. The idea, in theory, was good, but backfired a bit as Valentin’s left foot got snagged on the blinker stalk, breaking it’s limit-stops in the process. As a result of the load applied to the ankle, Valentin yelps out in pain.
Soon after, both legs simply plonk onto the ground after their entire length was dragged across the chain, followed by Constantin also lowering the upper body again to a semi-seated angle.
Connor then went to work examining other damage done either by the fall itself or the less-than-elegant extraction.
“Right, because extracting an injured person by dragging them out of the window like a gorilla is going to be better than ‘hippie-juice and essential oils,’ let alone what I’ve seen Jayde do. At least turn him over so someone can clean up the wound on the back of his head and the mess you just made,” Kaylie quipped back, grabbing one of the 5-gallon cans of water.
As soon as Valentin was turned over and the extent of the damage was made a little more obvious, Kaylie flipped open the lid on the can and carefully started pouring the water, trying to wash out the wounds as much as she could.
“YOU try getting a good hold on a greasy, seven-foot noodle with absolutely zero visibility!”, Constantin blared back, finaggling himself around Valentin, this time more graciously, and moved him into a forward-leaning seated position. After that, he cleared the now-dirt-coated blonde hair away as best he could to get a view on the impact site. On the back of his head was a large, although at least rather superficial wound, visibly bleeding out of there, staining a substantial amount of the surrounding hair in the process.
As Kaylie went ahead and started pouring the water all over Valentin’s head, he didn’t really react all that much. The soothing, warm water made him feel at ease for the time being as he just let it run all over, drenching his entire hairdo, shirt and the surrounding area in water.
Connor, meanwhile, went back to the car to retrieve the vehicles first-aid kit out the back, just to discover it being expired. By 40-odd years. He returns to the car, not holding anything. Spotting the kit Kaylie has brought along, he briskly walks over and takes a look at it.
Valid until August 2041
He immediately opens the box, digging about for what is useful, eventually pulling out copious amounts of bandages and a compressive pad used to apply pressure in an effort to stem the bleeding.
Jayde picked up one of the cans of water, feeling tensions rising between Kaylie and Constantin and trying to keep himself from intervening unless it was absolutely necessary.
Kaylie laughed. “Getting a good hold is not a problem, it’s making sure I don’t grab too hard,” Kaylie shot back. “It’s why I didn’t try, because I knew that I couldn’t move him safely. Any ape could have done what you did, and make the problem worse. Hell, even I could have done that. But no, because you’re military, you have to be tough and can’t wait for someone to come and help. Even if you don’t trust in Jayde having magic, you can’t deny that he,” Kaylie said, pointing to Jayde with her right hand while maintaining a steady grip on the metal can with her left, “might have had an easier time of lifting your teammate.”
As the water ran out in the first can, she slapped the lid closed with a metallic clank of her chrome-plated palm against the cap, then grabbed the can out of Jayde’s hands, unaware of how cold the contents had gotten. She flipped the lid open, then tipped it to continue the process of getting Valentin’s wounds cleaned up.
“OOOOhhhhh, so you were just gonna have him hang there like a cow, upside down and his wounded head sat in the dirt. Just gonna let him there and bleed for a good two minutes. Sounds like the best thing to do.”, Constantin countered, watching Valentin’s reactions to the treatment, which weren’t exactly plentiful, except for a still continuous groaning in pain and some movement of getting wet hair out of his face.
As the second can was opened, the ice-cold splash was very unexpected to both Schrants.
Valentin immediately was filled with Adrenaline, his gaze shooting up and around, trying to figure out what was really going on. All the pain he had was washed away, literally. Though as his face rose quickly, the water flow naturally ended up there, resulting in him leaning further forward in an attempt to get away from it.
“WHUUUAUAAAAHH!!!”, he exclaimed as the cold water was running down and around his neck, traveling further across the shoulders, chest and back.
Constantin also got splashed by some stray water, immediately letting go of Valentin and sort-of heeling back in response.
Tim, at this point visibly concerned about Valentin, couldn’t hold in his laughter and heartily chucked at the impromptu ice-shower he got.
Jayde sighed as Constantin and Kaylie kept fighting, constantly trading insults and verbal jabs. He pointed at Kaylie and Constantin in turn, then said, “Stop. Fighting.”
Kaylie startled as, right before she could reply to Constantin after apparently dumping cold water down Valentin’s back, Jayde told them both to stop fighting. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten he was there, but instead hadn’t expected that he’d get involved.
Jayde waited a few seconds to see if either of them had something to say, and when neither of them continued, Jayde asked, “Now, can the two of you work together in a civil manner, or not?”
“Both of you have been fighting since Valentin was injured,” Jayde continued, trying to keep his voice calm. “What good is fighting going to do for helping Valentin? Yes, you’ve washed out his wounds with water, but you’re fighting, back and forth, about how he was removed from the window. Meanwhile, Connor is the one who is preparing bandages.”
Constantin was equally thrown-off by Jayde intervening. Granted, the vocal battle was very heated by this point, though in Constantin’s defense, so was the stress involved with trying to help Valentin.
He just blankly stares at Jayde for a moment, then at Valentin, sat on the ground as Connor hobbles over to actually provide useful help beyond simply brute-forcing him out of the Redneck Railcar.
Valentin, still being drenched in cold water, was absolutely baffled by the heated argument that had unfolded around him. He shuffles away from the stream a bit and actually starts to shiver ever so slightly to regain some of the lost heat.
Connor took note and approached Valentin calmly, completely ignoring the others above.
“I’ll have to take your shirt off so you don’t cool down even further.” he explains as he makes his way around the back and helps Valentin rid himself of his Hawaii-shirt.
“What in carnation is even happening?”, Valentin asked, now actually alert and mentally functioning.
“They are apparently discussing what is ‘good first aid’ and what is not.”, Connor replies as he starts applying the bandage to his head, using the pad as a pressure point to stop the bleeding from getting any worse.
After a short-but-awkward silence, Kaylie sighed. “Ever heard of verbal fencing, Jayde? It helps some people get through stressful situations,” Kaylie said. “I’d suspect Constantin’s one of those people. If he’s not, well, I know I am.”
Jayde looked over at Kaylie, then mentioned, “With a major injury, the faster you can get it cared for, the better off they’ll be. A few extra cuts, scratches, or bruises will heal. You can’t heal the dead.”
“Exactly. Time is paramount when it comes to first aid, so helping quickly is the most important bit of all.”, Constantin pauses for a bit, folding his arms and completely ignoring his wet arms and blood-stained chest.
“Verbal fencing, as you call it, is what you get when you suddenly are questioned about your decade of training.” he adds in minor annoyance at Kaylie.
Connor was in the middle of wrapping what seems like a mile of bandages around Valentin’s head, but took note of the discussion above.
“Valentin would’ve lost blood much more quickly if left as he was. Gravity would have drained blood from the legs, pooling in his head, shoulders and arms. The added pressure increases blood-loss.”, Connor explains as he neatly finishes up the bandage with a strip of what is the medical variant of duct-tape.
With the effects of adrenaline brought on by the splash of cold water fading away, the pain returned, making Valentin visibly uncomfortable…
“Everything hurts… knees, back, left ankle… everything”, he moans, looking down the stilts that are both legs.
“I know the importance of time all too well,” Jayde said. "Sure, I have a leg that lets me walk almost-normally again, but if there wasn’t an active battle going on, I might still have most of my leg. I may have lost my knee and below to a propeller shard, but,” Jayde mentioned, before rolling up the leg of his shorts and showing that at least half of his thigh was also gone, replaced with black metal and brass, “I wouldn’t have gotten the infection that required a second amputation.”
As Connor mentioned that Valentin would have lost more blood if left as he was, Kaylie nodded. “Damn. Well, it’s why I’m a mechanic, not a field-medic,” she admitted.
“Sorry, Constantin. I guess you did do the right thing,” Kaylie said. “I’m so used to rushing like that causing more damage to the things I’m trying to fix. And yes, I know the story about my arm, but I can’t recall the actual event. But I remember waking up feeling like hell because someone hit my head on two door-frames and cracked both of my knees into another bulkhead door getting me into the medical bay. I guess that’s part of “If she’s mad later for the pain, at least she’s alive enough to be mad about it,” and part of healing in general.”
Constantin respectfully nodded, now knowing that the ‘conflict’ was settled.
He turned a bit to get a look at Val and despite not having heard that Val was in pain again, he immediately could spot the scratches that were caused by the chain sliding down his lower back with Valentin’s full weight resting on top as it went down. He flinches a bit at the sight of it and sort-of-but-not-really regrets having gone that aggressive with the extraction.
Connor went about focusing on Valentin’s knees first, as they were more critical for his mobility and ability to operate Robert as the driver. The initial examination doesn’t yield anything of note, which is why he gets up and paces about the accident-site to piece together what exactly happened.
Jayde grimaced as he saw the scratches as well. “He might get some scars out of that,” Jayde admitted. “I wish I could do something for those, but everything I have might not be safe. A lot of it is meant for me.”
Kaylie looked over the scratches, then said, “I’m not sure they’re deep enough to scar. At least, not permanently.”
“If he keeps his back clean, they shouldn’t,” Jayde mentioned. He then looked to Kaylie. “Where are the drying cloths, again?”
“The towels? Under the front seat. Keep out of the clear bag, those are Malavera’s towels. Get him one of my pink ones, please,” Kaylie said.
Jayde nodded, then grabbed his walking staff and made a quick walk back over to the Bricksley. He looked under the front bench, grabbing one of Kaylie’s pink towels out of the blue plastic vacuum bag, then carrying it over to the Dione. “I’m not sure how to go about drying someone off with wounds like that, but I’ve got a towel in case that’s safe,” Jayde said, leaning on his staff with a grimace.
Valentin just sat there trying to keep calm and deal with the pain while Connor carefully reconstructed the events. At some point, he crouches down to Valentin again and re-examines the knees, coming to a conclusion afterwards:
“As he fell out of the car, both knees impacted the door frame, followed by them being put under a constant load as the force that prevented him from sliding out further. With the available equipment, not much can be done other than minimize load. The same applies to his left ankle, which got caught on the blinker stalk during extraction.”, Connor explains, just as Jayde returned from the Bricksley with a towel in tow.
Constantin and especially Tim just stood there, watching the process happen and unsure as to how they could be of added help, given that Connor seemingly took over medical duties.
“Leg injuries,” Jayde said with a pained grimace. “If he’s lucky, they’ll heal, but that’s not a fast or easy process.”
Kaylie looked around to see if she could find her brother, Kayden, anywhere, but couldn’t see him. Like Constantin, Tim, and Jayde, there wasn’t much she could do as Connor worked to do what he could to help Valentin.
Valentin was bummed out upon hearing the description Connor gave regarding his knees and ankle.
“[] Goddamnit… [
] Time to spend a good month off the bike again…”, Valentin muttered. At least the pain was reasonably bearable at the moment.
Connor took the towel from Jayde and gracefully went about drying off his back. Valentin winced a little every time the towel was tapped onto the area, but it didn’t take too long to finish the drying process. Valentin’s hair was still soaking-wet, but simply moved forwards to his chest, to which it promtly stuck.
“He sure does seem over the hill now…”, Tim commented, looking at Valentin sat on the ground, trying hard to refrain from claiming his winnings.
“It still hurts…”, Valentin mumbled. “Still… thanks for helping. Or attempting to help.” he added, having been aware enough to notice the verbal fencing that followed his extraction.
Jayde winced, understanding that losing a preferred method of getting around was bound to be almost as bad as the injuries that Valentin had sustained. Especially with the knee injuries he’d picked up and the injured ankle, Jayde believed that Valentin really shouldn’t even be walking if he didn’t absolutely need to.
“I wish I could have been of some help,” Jayde admitted. “By the time I got here, Constantin already had you out of the window, and Kaylie had already grabbed water and the red bag.”
Kaylie gave a light shrug. “Sorry for fighting when I should have been helping,” she said.
“At least you weren’t like the millions of asshat-motorists that see a car wrapped round a tree and blissfully ignore it because they don’t feel responsible for that. Trust me… barrel-rolling across a B-road, spreading bits of carbon fibre bicycle everywhere and ending in a ditch ain’t fun if you spend about 20 minutes there with no help whatsoever…”, he explained, both disappointed in the lack of aid given by the motorists and glad that the members of Shift Happens tried their best in helping immediately.
Valentin then began trying movement while sat on the floor, which for the knees worked reasonably well, albeit in substantial pain, but the ankle was worse, with only minimal movement being viable within his pain tolerance. With that done, nobody knew how well loading them would work.
“Can someone get me up please? I’ve been sat in the dirt for this entire time.”, Val asks, looking up and over his shoulder at the others.
Jayde nodded. “Yeah, let me help you up out of the dirt and the mud,” he said, sticking the end of his walking staff into the dirt before walking over to Valentin, leaning down and hooking his forearms under Valentin’s shoulders. “On three,” Jayde said, taking a deep breath. “One. Two. Three!” Jayde slowly rose to a standing position, taking care to hold Valentin’s weight and slowly letting him take more of it himself to see how injured he was.
Kaylie looked at the first aid kit, the four containers of water of which two were still full, the green shirt and gray tank top covered in grease and dirt, and over where she knew the two dropped wrench kits were. Then Connor handed back the pink towel, and Kaylie gave a groan. “I hate asking for help, but, Constantin, I could really use some help getting some of this stuff back over to the Bricksley. Whatever you feel like you can manage or you’re willing to do, I’ll appreciate it.”
Jayde helped Valentin get up, albeit less than gracefully from either of them, as Jayde failed to use his legs to assist in providing lifting power and Val could not help all that much either, not knowing how much load the legs were even able to take. As such, Jayde was forced to practically deadlift Valentin to a height where he could his feet below his body to make an attempt at supporting himself.
It immediately became obvious that mobility would be severely limited, as Valentin rebalances his entire weight to the right leg, with the left one only loosely resting on the ground.
He winces in pain and shakes his head in disdain as he discovers his left ankle to not be load-bearing. At least for the moment. The right leg wasn’t any more comfortable, but at least able to take his weight without agonizing pain bringing him back down into the wet, slightly muddy ground.
The weather taking a turn for the worse was the icing on the cake of misery today.
Constantin, meanwhile, nods a little.
“Sure, i can do that.”, he agrees and heads over to collect the greased-up pieces of cloth before taking them to the toolboxes and draping them in the clothing Kaylie brought along. He then picks the toolboxes up with ease and carries them over to the rest of the group for the time being.
“Now where exactly do you need those?”, he inquires, looking vaguely at the Bricksley parked a few yards away.
Kaylie grabbed the two empty water cans, then said to Constantin, “In the cab, under the rear bench, beneath the radio console. Doors should still be unlocked.” As she got to the truck, she put the two empty containers onto the roof rack, then headed back toward the Dione.
Jayde looked to Valentin, who was able to at least stand and take his own weight. He carefully led Valentin over to the Dione, grimacing as more water trickled through his fur, then once he was sure Valentin wasn’t going to fall, he looked through his bag to find a pair of leather and brass crutches. After pulling them out, he made a couple of adjustments to fit Valentin’s height, then said, “I know how much anyone hates having to use these, but… I spent the better part of half of a year learning to walk again, which is why I had these. As I got better with my leg, I used them less, and eventually, left them in there. The healer who got me patched up after the battle that cost me my leg told me if I ever saw someone who needed the crutches, pass them on.”
Kaylie grimaced as she picked up the last two containers, still full of water, making her way back over to the truck. “Of all the times it could fucking rain!” she grumbled.
Jayde retrieved his walking stick and waited to help Valentin out if he needed any other adjustments done to the crutches.
2 Likes
Valentin grabbed a hold of the car’s roof directly this time, avoiding the use of the roof rack for bracing.
Though it did not feel all that secure with only two points of contact between him and solid objects.
Constantin practically speed-walked to the Bricksley, where he temporarily sat down the box in his left hand to open the door. After that, he carefully placed the two red, metal boxes in the rear footwll and slid them below the seat. The draping cloths used to protect the door remained with the boxes for lack of an instruction on where to put them.
As he returned, Constantin took over duties in helping Valentin stay upright until Jayde pulled out a pair of axillary crutches from a bag that seemed too small to house them.
Nobody really looked hard enough to care, though, as Valentin was handed those rather pleasant-looking walking aids.
“Thank you.”, he says as he takes a look at them before trying them out for a bit. Surprisingly, they fit remarkably well, if a wee bit short on the feet-end. Still a pleasant surprise, given the fact that most things Valentin encounters are not made with his frame in mind.
A few, careful steps are made with those crutches to get a feel for them, the others watching as it happens.
“You’re welcome,” Jayde said. “If they need any adjusting, let me know.”
Kaylie wandered around the Dione, gathering up the remains of the first aid kit before returning what was left of it to the Bricksley, occasionally keeping an eye on Valentin as he made a few cautious steps with the crutches.
Jayde watched Valentin’s careful steps, and after he returned to the Dione, Jayde looked at the car with a curious look on his face. He crouched down and looked through the open window, seeing the seats were in different positions and, more interestingly, the seat backs were in different positions. He carefully stood back up, clearly thinking about something and trying to figure out how to word it so that it could be understood.
“If you can fold the seat back with a mechanism, why not fold the seat all the way back and climb over the seat? I mean, it might not work, I don’t know how these work, but… Maybe it’s an idea?” Jayde said.
Valentin took a lap or two around the Dione and felt increasingly secure using them.
He did lengthen them a bit himself on the far-side of the car, though to make them that bit more comfortable to use.
Once he returned, Jayde suggesting folding the seat backs flush kind of annoyed Valentin. Not because it was a bad idea, but because he failed to come up with that himself.
“Goddamn why didn’t i think of that!?”, he exclaims, also taking a look inside and mentally trying to piece together a process through which entering could be done.
“Not sure how well that works being burdened with having half a useful leg…” he adds, aware of his height potentially creating clearance issues even in a car of this size.
“I’m gonna start setting up tents for you guys…” Constantin remarked and got to work unloading the equipment from the roof with help from Tim.
As Valentin exclaimed in annoyance about not thinking of folding the seats flat, Jayde thought for a second or two before saying, “Tinker’s paradox. You focus on an idea that you’re sure will be the perfect solution, only to find an easier solution after all of the work is done,” Jayde said. “I’ve experienced it a time or two.”
When Valentin then mentioned his uncertainty of how well he’d be able to do that, Jayde thought on it for a few seconds again. “If I were shorter, I’d try and see if I could make that, but… One, it is not my vehicle in which to try, and two, I don’t think I’d fit.”
Valentin just stood there and pondered for a bit, looking into the car with all it’s modifications inside.
“I have an idea. Lemme try that.”, he says, hobbling over to the fireman’s door and opening it. He then turned around and took a seat, leaving both legs outside for the time being. After that, he chucks the crutches over into the back, watching them tumble down and ending up in the second row footwell. This is followed up by him shuffling across the center console over to the driver seat and had to exercise his upper-body flexibility to remove the headrest and fold the seat flush with the rear bench. Then he shuffles further across the back rest, turning in the process and ending up facing the front of the car while sat in the rear-left with his legs stretched out in front of him. At last, he shuffles back up front and returns the back and headrest to the normal (to him, anyway) position.
While this entire process wasn’t by any means pain-free, it was about the best possible solution he could come up with and bearable enough to execute a few times a day.
He pokes his head out of the driver window, looking at Jayde and Kayle.
“Well i’m in. Sort of, anyway”, he comments in some degree of discomfort, mostly due to his ankle.
Kaylie smiled. “Well, I’ve seen worse ways to get in. When we were practicing for a 24 hours of clunkers race, Kayden had been watching NASCAR and gave a window entry a try. Head first. Extracting him from under the dash was fun,” Kaylie said. “The important thing is that you can get in without too much trouble, and get back out again. I think Constantin might be best for helping on that, though,” Kaylie added.
Jayde nodded. “As much as I’d like to help, well… It’s best to have a teammate help out. They’ll always be around when you need them,” he said.
The two of them walked back toward the Bricksley, ready for a quick meal and calling it an early night.
“I’ll just have to see if it gets any better over the next few days… Thanks again for helping.”, Valentin replies, as he starts folding the seat flat again with the headrest removed. The process of getting out was much simpler, but required two people to accomplish.
He simply shuffles, backwards, to the nearside rear via the offside rear seat and pops open the door behind him.
“Constantin?”, Valentin asks, looking at him halfway through getting the tent set up after having assembled his own first.
“Yeah?”, he replied, turning around to face Valentin.
“I’m trying to figure out how i can enter and exit without making anything worse…”, Valentin pauses for a bit, aware that it one again is a request for aid. “I may or may not need a little help…”
Constantin simply drops the wooden tent-pole he was holding and takes all of four steps to Valentin.
“What should i do?”, he asks, stood next to Valentin outside the half-open door.
“Please get down here. I need some bracing to get to standing without eating dirt on the way out again.”, Valentin replied, unintentionally poking fun at Constantin and his extraction methods.
Constantin simply crouches down and moves around a bit to get as stable as possible a platform for Valentin to get a hold on.
“Ready.”, he said, followed by Valentin basically hugging him trying to get a good grip. “Three. Two. One. Up!”, Valentin counted once he was ready, followed by Constantin driving himself and Valentin to near-standing height via pure thigh-power.
After that, Valentin lets go and supports himself on the open door, asking Constantin to retrieve his crutches from below the rear bench.
Not long after, Valentin was “mobile” again, after which Constantin returned to tent-assembly and Tim was tasked with making dinner.
For lack of an alternative, said dinner ended up being “add-water-to-it-and-boil-it”-type Pasta, which wasn’t exactly stellar for a dinner meal, but given the circumstances and shitty weather, worse could be had.
The remaining evening was spent in relative peace, with them heading to bed earlier than usual to account for the early departure they are making tomorrow.
3 Likes
When’s the next stage going to drop?
By the same schedule the other stages have. So, in roughly 51 hours.
or two days and three hours
3 Likes
Team Slow
Chapter 3, Part 9
Hopefully smooth-sailing!
Whilst we were casually sitting near our car, in the campsite tent, in the nice morning, Matt sits there and John goes outside and aesesses any damage from that whole situation, besides like several accumulated scratches, dents and dings, nothing else mechanically broke,
We go outside and then Matt goes and knocks on the car’s window to wake up Izzy, she wakes up and then opens the door and asks him “Huh?” “We’re going to go look for “parts” to jerry-rig together if it breaks down.”
Matt replies back to half-awake Izzy. “Sure, I could do with some walking i guess.” She replies back, and then we go looking around the forest for anything that remotely is for a vehicle. After some time of finding parts, we find Wagon wheels, an jerry can “Oh, that could be useful, we could do with a few more” Matt sheepishly says as he has his horde of cans. Izzy finds a worn out steel wheel “That’s no use, it’s rusted out.” as she inspects it. John finds nothing at all, besides a tailight bulb. “Welp, Let’s go back”. They start going back to the car, walking past the Dione owned by RK Series Racing and walking back to the XL53 and to the tent. “We didn’t find much did we.” They all agree on the fact they didn’t really find anything.
John then goes and falls asleep on the tent floor, Matt and Izzy just sit there playing a game of poker, “You know, we should honestly take a look at that Dione RK Series racing has again.” Matt says as he ends up winning the game, both Izzy and Matt go along to the Dione and take a look at it. “You know, i really like how this car runs on rails.” Matt replies whilst Izzy is just taking a look at the car. They finish looking at the Dione after like, 30 or so minutes and get back, Matt goes and checks the vehicle has any charge in the battery, The battery is dead. He opens the hood, and goes and looks for the jumpstarter. He finds it beneath the parcel shelf and tries to start the car, no charge. “Damn, The battery is dead. We only have like 51 Hours or something like that left till next Stage- Oops, 34 Hours…” Matt says whilst he walked back to his bed in the tent. (OOC: If anyone has spare car batteries let me know.)
John and Matt tries going for dibs on various vehicular parts to find during the stage. “I claim dibs on an radio!” John says to Matt, and then Matt replies “Yeah? I claim dibs on an pull strap for the door.” Izzy then replies to the both of them “That’s child’s play. Why not parts for the whole car” whilst she’s trying to not laugh at their disagreement battle. “Isabella I dont think you get it.” John replies to her. “No shit Sherlock.” Izzy says back to John as she goes back to making herself some food. John goes and eats his food from the portable fridge. Izzy then finishes her dinner and starts eating her food. She then sits down on the floor, taking in how short she is like Matt. But besides that, they go rest for a bit. And then realise they’d have to do window exit if they’d ever have to get out the car during next stage if someone is driving the car because the driver inside door handle cable broke. “That’ll work, there’s other doors or methods to get out a car.” John says. “That’s fine.” Matt replies to John. They then go back into the tent and relax.
TO BE CONTINUED.
i have to ask when that happens. The team spends most of the 7 camp evening in the immediate vicinity of the car, so they will notice anything that is not looking at it from a distance.
Approx at 7:30 Sun.