okay.
in that case the team leaves again as Kaylie just about finishes the repair.
which raises another question:
how far away is the Schnell parked from the Anhultz?
i am asking because your team might be within earshot of the latter segments happening.
and the distance now might become important later on
Approximately like, 50 feet.
There is a charged jump starter, jumper cables, and in case it does not work, a charged spare battery in the Freeway Star. I might actually have time for a little co-operation tomorrow.
The jump starter works. Just happens to be battery. Would be interesting to also see a Surfboard battle
Weather at Stage Start: Hot. It’s absolutely pouring rain, visibility is reduced as a result, and it’s not even cold rain, it’s warm.
Weather at mid-stage: Still hot, still chucking it down, but now the wind has added to the chaos by making it occasionally rain sideways.
Weather at Stage End (First Car): Hot, still raining but not as heavily, still windy.
Weather at 7 Sun: Warm, the rain finally stops and the sun begins to peek out from behind the clouds, as the wind dies down.
Weather at Stage End (Last Car): Warm, humid, with a gentle breeze.
The rain hasn’t let up from last night, and instead, it has only gotten worse. What was a dirt road leading out of Vallengarda has now been saturated with water, turning into nasty, slick, clingy mud. What might have been a somewhat fun dirt road a couple days ago has turned into a mud pit that people back on Earth would be enjoying with heavily modified 4x4 rigs. With several winding turns, a couple of railroad crossings, hills, dips, and gallons of mud, it’s a grueling slog for everyone. Thankfully, as everyone nears Addavuul, there’s more gravel and less mud, and the Addavuul campsite is a large gravel patch. Nearby, there’s an old, boarded up, abandoned mine, complete with an old minecart sitting out in front, filthy with coal dust in spite of years of weather trying to wash the dust away. Some of the buildings around the place also point to this mine having closed a while ago, as the roofs are in rough shape, though some still provide shelter against the rain. As the day continues onward, the rain eases up, though the ground is still slick with mud.
Notes: Randomization is active. Breakdowns are active. Time is in Earth Time.
For the next handful of stages, I’ll be releasing these every other week. This means Stage 9 will be out on June 6. Long story short, I’ve had way more role-playing going on than I expected, and I’ve realized if I’m going to keep up with all of it, plus the challenge duties, I need more time than just one week. Seriously, I wrote some of this on Sunday, the day before this was supposed to go live. This is only temporary, so don’t worry. I’m not ending the challenge early, I’m not canceling the challenge, and I’m not putting it on hold. I’m just slowing things down for a period of time to give myself more time to work with. Likewise, this should also help the big story writers out there, because instead of trying to cram art and story into one week, you’ll have two weeks to do it.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:13:23
Average MPH: 57.0
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
When it came to picking a driver, it came down to who has off-road experience. The only one who had any in a somewhat modern vehicle was Kivenaal, who has an off-road converted Bricksley Knight convertible that he uses, on occasion, to shame people in proper off-road rigs. Kivenaal, behind the wheel of the Highwayman, absolutely sent it, getting mud everywhere and claiming second place, only being slowed down when he had to wait for a train.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:39:39
Average MPH: 62.7
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Who knew that Chernobog liked the mud bog so much? Despite being up to the axles deep in the mud in places, and so heavily caked in mud from the tires that the truck looks mud brown now, the mighty Bogatir drags itself into the camp. It’s filthy, but this is what first place looks like when it decides to dump a weeks worth of rain in one day.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 10:20:11
Average MPH: 34.3
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
The ballsy move of bringing the Japanese hatchback to a long-distance rally didn’t pay off today. The Carica, despite being driven hard, spends an awful lot of time with the engine screaming, the tires spinning at 90 miles an hour, and going all of 30 miles per hour for doing so.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 11:22:31
Average MPH: 31.2
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Like the other RWD vehicles out there, the Claussient struggles into the mud and almost immediately gets stuck. A clever strategy of backing up through the mud is done instead, and more progress is made that way, despite the slow speed.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:15:54
Average MPH: 42.9
Randomizer: 12
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
While the XL53 doesn’t really like the mud, it does power through it just fine.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:47:31
Average MPH: 40.4
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
The Magistrate crawls through the mud pit quite nicely, although it’s hard to keep everyone under control when the tanks run dry and the team has to refuel. Dyre pups and mud mix all too well, and now there is mud inside the Magistrate. Just before everyone gets going, a mud-ball splatters on the windshield, leading to a hasty cleaning and a hurried double-check to make sure that was the only mud-ball the cheeky pups had.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 09:37:02
Average MPH: 36.9
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Not exactly quick, but the van makes it in one very muddy piece. Marie desperately wants a beer. Janne and Andreas have applied duct tape to the worst of the cracks in the broken windshield to keep the rain out. At some point along the stage, the atomic-pink van (now almost looking like a hideous attempt at camouflage between the pink and the mud) has to come to a stop for a level crossing. Instead of the expected slow, lumbering freight train, it’s Team RK Series Racing gliding along the rails.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 10:43:32
Average MPH: 33.1
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Rear wheel drive and mud are not great friends. It’s a good thing that Ambay is quite strong, because on multiple occasions, he’s the one getting the car out of the mud. After a while, it’s Finne who gets a brilliant idea to wrap the rear tires in chains. After finding an ancient, forgotten set of rusty snow chains in the trunk, figuring out how to put them on, and getting back into the car, they crawl along at a snail’s pace, though on the other hand, they are moving.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 08:54:46
Average MPH: 39.8
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Duct tape holds the world together, and in this case, it keeps the cargo in place. The Kontir splashes into the mud, and the small 1.9 liter engine struggles hard to pull through, but it somehow manages to hold up. The time won’t win any records, but at least you made it into the camp.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:56:51
Average MPH: 44.6
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
The lovely red paint is now mud brown, the windshield and side windows are streaked and caked with the stuff, and the Yamada desperately needs the wash that mother nature is sending down, but today, nothing went wrong.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 09:10:25
Average MPH: 38.7
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 4
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Other than the improvised roof hatch leaking quite heavily in the pouring rain, the four fuel stops, and the minivan looking like someone pulled an ancient dustbuster out of the mud, things went well for Team MCP today.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 09:56:49
Average MPH: 35.7
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Like the last time, it turns out that oil safety switch is a blessing and a curse. It keeps the engine from lunching itself when there is a problem, but when it keeps getting unplugged, it causes delays. This was made worse by the rain, because no one enjoys “hunt for the muddy connector” in the rain.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07.18.02
Average MPH: 48.6
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
It has almost become a routine: Chow down on MREs for breakfast, wash it down with energy drinks, slam the racing helmets on before anyone gets a look at you, hop into your trusty Dunav, and then proceed to kill another stage. Today, it’s blinding rain and mud, but the Dunav doesn’t care.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 16:39:45
Average MPH: 21.3
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
A little car, four people, and RWD in this mess, it’s a miracle they made it at all. On several occasions, the team had to get out and push in the mud to unstick the Yinzer, usually followed by getting it badly stuck again just a mile further down the road.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 09:31:05
Average MPH: 37.3
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
While everyone else was fighting with the nasty mud bog, Robert was loaded onto the rails and sent on its way. Sadly, the branch line doesn’t want you going more than 70 MPH, the weather makes it hard to see to go quickly, and the line sent you through two small stations before arriving at Addavuul. On the plus side, the only delays were caused by things out of your control, and you got to see Team Shift Happens and, later on, Team Hillbilly Rollers waiting for you at two separate railroad crossings.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 10:38:04
Average MPH: 33.4
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
Like the other RWD vehicles out there, the Dauer really struggles in the mud. Even being driven hard, making no mistakes, and not getting stuck isn’t quite enough to make up a time gap on the speeding trucks, SUVs, and crossovers with an extra set of drive wheels.
Distance Traveled: 355.2
Time (HH:MM:SS): 07:07:02
Average MPH: 49.9
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 2664
What a surprise, the machine built to handle bad roads, and modified to handle even worse roads, handles being dipped in the mud just fine. Of course, there’s no trace of the original paint, it’s all under a thick layer of mud, but third place is nice, right? Plus all this rain will eventually wash that away.
05:39:39 - Team Wayfarers
06:13:23 - Team Shift Happens
07:07:02 - Team Spy Kids
07:18:02 - Team Mrezhari
07:56:51 - Team Blazers
08:15:54 - Team Slow
08:47:31 - Team Oil Crisis
08:54:46 - Team Mravolinski-Chitco
09:10:25 - Team Machinas Con Passiones
09:31:05 - Team RK Series Racing
09:37:02 - Team Hillbilly Rollers
09:56:49 - Team Quick Rally 47
10:20:11 - Team Gearknobs
10:38:04 - Team Black Rabbit Corporation
10:43:32 - Team Witchlight
11:22:31 - Team Fallen Angels of the Past
16:39:45 - Team Jockey
Previous Chapters:
Cinnamon and Apologies - Stage 5 Drive and Stage 5 Camp
An Apology / Campsite Stories / I Have Gas! - Stage 5 Camp (Collab with Knugcab - Original Title: “Gimme Oxygen!”)
The Prank - Collab. with SurrealCereal (Team MCP)
A Tent-ative Meeting - Stage 5 Camp
Engine Troubles / Racing Stripes - Stage 6 Drive and Camp
Capt’n Crazy Capsizes - Stage 6 Camp Collab with Knugcab
Not the Face! - Stage 6 Camp Collab with Knugcab
The Saber of Light - Stage 6 Collab written by TheYugo45GV
Begging for Mercy - Stage 6 Camp
“Not It!” - Stage 7 Drive and Camp
Don’t Drink and Drive - Stage 7 Camp
“Green Light” - Stage 7 Camp Collab written by TheYugo45GV
Window Repairs / Driving Lessons / Natural-1 Moment - Stage 7 Camp Collab with Elizipeazie (Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3)
Kaylie groaned as she heard the rain still coming down. “Why is it still raining?” she grumbled.
Jayde gave a pained growl as he sat up in the tent. “Welcome to Crugandr,” he said, opening his bag and pulling one small, pleasant-smelling leaf out of a jar. “By the way,” he added, putting the leaf in his mouth and swallowing it, “I’m not driving today. I just took a mercy leaf because my leg and my back feel like I’ve gotten in a fight with a Dyre.”
“Not a problem,” Kaylie replied, also sitting in the tent. “Worst part of all this rain is it means a cold breakfast.”
As the two of them left the tent, with Jayde in his heavy black robe and Kaylie dressed in a pale blue shirt and shorts, they joined Kayden, Malavera, Rukari, and Kivenaal all sitting around what was once a campfire. Breakfast ended up being ham and cheese sandwiches, courtesy of Jayde’s bread and cheese supply, and Kivenaal’s shopping trip the day before providing some smoked and salted ham.
“So, who’s driving?” Malavera asked.
“The road’s going to be a swamp,” Rukari replied. “I’ve never driven in conditions like this.”
“Jayde can’t drive, he’s in a lot of pain and took a mercy leaf. And I don’t know enough about off-roading to try this,” Kaylie admitted.
“If this thing had two more axles, I’d try,” Malavera said.
Before Kayden could even announce that he was willing if no one else was going to drive, Kivenaal said, “I have a little off-road experience. A Bricksley Knight that I made into a 4x4, I’ve taken it out a few times to really shame people in multi-thousand-dollar rigs. Mud like this is a bit nastier than I’ve done before, but I’m willing to try it.”
The rain kept pouring down even as the clock in Vallengarda’s town square rang out one lone time, announcing it was 1 Sun. Jayde got up first and made his way to the truck, climbing into the middle seat in the rear bench with a grimace and a groan. Kaylie took her usual seat with Rukari stuck in the back row driver’s window seat to keep him away from the pedals. Kayden was in the front mid bench, with Malavera to his right, and Kivenaal behind the wheel to his left.
The Bricksley roared to life and scattered mud everywhere as Kivenaal crammed it into first gear and 4-low, quickly ripping through the gears across the campsite.
With locked differentials and a heavy right foot, Kivenaal threw the Bricksley into the mud. Immediately, the rear windows became covered in mud splatter, the truck squirmed underneath them as all four all-terrain tires tried to find some grip, and the engine snarled in response to the increased load.
“Can we try not to throw me around?” Jayde grumbled.
“Sorry. It’s mud, it’s going to be rough,” Kivenaal said.
“Next time, Jayde, lift with your legs, not with your back,” Kaylie said, though even she groaned as Kivenaal sent it over a dirt mound and got all four wheels off the ground.
“Fucking hell!” Malavera said with a grimace. “Don’t do that again!”
Kivenaal avoided the second one, but in the process, ended up lining up on a third one just as the Bogatir of Team Wayfarers shot past. The Bricksley took flight yet again, and Malavera scrambled around in the glove-box for the air-sickness bags he’d stashed in there, promptly losing his breakfast.
“Quit hitting jumps!” Kaylie yelled to Kivenaal. “Malavera can’t handle negative G’s!”
“Sorry, there was a truck there!” Kivenaal replied, sloshing the truck around the next corner as Malavera dropped the sick-bag into a plastic bag and tied it shut.
Another hill sent them sliding down in the mud where they reached the bottom with a hearty splash, getting mud up onto the windshield, the roof rack, the water cans, and all over the contents of the bed.
“This is going to be a bitch to clean,” Kayden groaned.
“It is raining sideways. The truck will be clean by morning,” Rukari said.
As they soared up another hill, three windshield wipers running on “Fast” mode, a crossing guard closed the gate, blocking the road leading up to the tracks. Kivenaal stomped on the clutch and the brake, the truck shuddering slightly as the back end kicked out and threatened to become the front end, hauling the big truck to a stop mere feet from the gate. They heard a whistle in the distance and Kivenaal scowled. “Even out here, I get stuck waiting for freight trains! This better not be a two-mile-long coal hauler!” Kivenaal grumbled. Then, they heard the whistle again, closer this time, a few long moments before the Dione of Team RK Series Racing rushed past. “What the fuck?” Kivenaal said, staring at where the Dione had gone. “How did they… When did they do that!?” Kivenaal asked.
“Are you blind?” Kayden quipped. “They had it parked next to our truck yesterday with that rail system on there.”
“Right, I’m never taking cinnamon again,” Kivenaal said, as the gate was finally opened. He put his foot down and the engine roared as the Bricksley clawed its way through the mud, up and over the railroad crossing, and back into the mud.
A couple of hours, a bunch of turns, a few hundred gallons of mud, a fuel stop, and two barf-bags later, Kivenaal saw a second railroad crossing, this time wide open with no trains nearby.
“No. No! Don’t you dare!” Malavera yelled as Kivenaal floored it up the slight uphill grade. The Bricksley left the ground almost gracefully, all four tires spinning and slinging mud, black sooty fumes blasting out of the exhaust, before crashing back down to the ground with a clattering, rattling thud. Malavera, likewise, filled another barf bag, adding it to his plastic bag that now contained four of them. “Keep. The. Truck. On. The. Ground!” Malavera yelled.
Not long afterward, they saw the mining camp approaching, along with a nice wooden sign saying, “Welcome to Addavuul” by the road. Kivenaal fought with the truck as it kicked the back end out sideways and managed to hit the sign with mud just before arriving on the gravel road.
As the Bricksley crunched its way, filthy and dirty, into the old gravel-covered mining camp, everyone in the truck was relieved that the long drive was over.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on the rings,” Rukari said.
“Not a problem. Chances are, some teams will have to tow each other out of that mess,” Kayden said, “but there’s always the chance that someone ends up left far behind.”
“Fucking rain’s going to make lunch almost impossible, though,” Kaylie said.
Jayde shook his head, clearing a space around a fire pit, pulling four sticks and a large, perforated square of leather out of his bag, driving the sticks into the ground around the fire pit, and then securing the leather. Kivenaal grabbed several large pieces of firewood out of the Bricksley’s bed-mounted toolbox-of-holding, brought them over to the fire pit, and helped get them lit.
“Now we have a weather-resistant cooking fire,” Jayde said.
Malavera looked miserable as he found a garbage barrel and put his four paper barf bags into it. “Kivenaal,” Malavera said, “if you ever jump the truck again, I’m going to knock your lights out.”
TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
PART 0.1 - A prologue to the prologue
PART 0.2 - Another piece of the prologue puzzle
PART 0.3 - Viva la IP 4Z!
PART 0.4 - Robotman
PART 0.5 - Interference problems
PART 0.6 - Can I play Tetris?
PART 0.7 - Tangerine and familiar
PART 1.0 - Now things got serious!
PART 1.1 - Hello, Thibault and friends!
PART 1.2 - Poor kitty
PART 1.3 - Curse you, Team Oil Crisis!
PART 1.4 - Interlude
PART 2.0 - Bird bird bird, bird is the word!
PART 2.1 - D. Head
PART 2.2 - Good night!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm
PART 5.0 - Mirror mirror on the…oh, crap!
PART 5.1 - Hello, little puppies!
PART 6.0 - Speed
PART 6.1 - GIMME OXYGEN! (feat. Madrias)
PART 6.2 - Steamin’ hot! (feat. Elizipeazie)
PART 7.0 - The Kayak
PART 7.1 - Marie the valkyrie?
PART 7.2 - Vegetables
PART 7.3 - Time to tie things up.
PART 8.0 - The hangover
PART 8.1 - The new team member
PART 9.0 - From pink to brown
Janne and Andreas woke up quite early in the morning, but the hardest part was to wake up Marie that was in a less happy mood.
“Have you been sleeping well?”, Janne asked.
“Yeah, until you guys woke me up. Fucking idiots.”, she said. “I had such a wonderful dream, the best one I have ever had in my life!”
“Oh. Let’s hear then.”, Janne said.
“I dreamt that everything I did touch became beercans, and then, I looked around, and the lakes were made of beer, and the river, and the ocean, and it started raining, and it was raining beer, and…”
“Oh. For some reason I am not surprised.”, he answered, a bit salty.
“If I found the bastard that stole our beer, he or she is going to regret it!”, she said.
The team packed themselves and their equipment into the van, but immediately found a puddle on the floor.
“Oh, crap. The windshield seems to be leaking”, Andreas said.
“Yeah. We have to try to fix it with duct tape I guess”, Janne answered.
“If it only had been leaking beer”, Marie said. “What’s the reason for being away from work if you can’t even get wasted?”, she sighed.
With some duct tape applied over the leak, this wonderful tune blaring in the speakers, and Sonic sleeping on the dashboard, the team was one of the last to get away. Though, rather immediately they were passing the Yinzer belonging to team Jockey, that they seemed to just have pushed out from a place in the mud where it had been stuck.
“Fucking jackasses. Bringing a little clown car to a race with stints requiring offroad capabilities”, Andreas said.
“Well, I am quite happy that we have the AWD version”, Janne said. “Not only is the RWD version hampered by the fact that it is only rear wheel drive, it is lower too, and does not even have a limited slip.”
“Sure”, Andreas said, “but it is absolutely not an offroader.”
“Negative”, Janne answered. "The fact that it is loaded down with all this crap does not help in the loose mud probably, and the A/T tyres are a bit worn out.
Still, with the wipers going on full speed, and an alarming consumption of washer fluid, the team managed to pass multiple 2wd cars with troubles. First, team Fallen Angels. Then Team Witchlight and Team Black Rabbit in rapid succession, and soon after, Team Gearknobs.
“The AWD seems to be giving us a slight favour”, Janne said and nodded.
“True”, Andreas said. “But I don’t want to floor it flat out. This large box is not exactly stable in the heavy crosswinds, and we are slipping around like a horny snake already.”
At the refuelling stop, all the team members laughed. There was actually not much visible of the pink paint anymore.
“Well, not even nature likes Marie’s paintjob”, Andreas said. “But honestly speaking I wouldn’t touch it now. It looks better this way.”
Shortly after the tank stop, they passed Team QR47 that seemed o be finishing off some repairwork on the Mara. Andreas was driving as fast as he dared to, but all of a sudden…
"Oh no, we will have to wait for a train now, he said, standing at the railroad crossing. Though the eyes of all three team members became big as saucers when the “train” passing was the orange Dione…
"WAIT…WHAT? This I need more info about., Janne said. “Andreas, floor it!”
“But…”
“I SAID FLOOR IT!”
Luckily enough, it was mostly gravel left for the rest of the stint. A surface Andreas was very similar with, and also what was blasting from all the wheels when they did a very rushed parking job close to the Dione.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IT?,Janne was screaming as he went out of the van. “IT IS FUCKING UNBELIEVABLE!” he said with his jaw dropped, pointing at the Dione
TO BE CONTINUED
@Elizipeazie @AndiD @Executive @Tzuyu_main @Fayeding_Spray @BannedByAndroid @NoahC
i shall get to you once i am at 8 camp with my plot
i got tied up coordinating three separate plotlines happening concurrently
Prologue
Part 0- Prologue
Part 1- Simulation
Part 2- Rev up your engines
Part 4.1- At the Starting Party (Technically part 3.)
Part 5- A mere absence. We are Back. And this time it is NOT A filler.
Post-Prologue- Onwards.
Part 1 Post Prologue- We’re in Crugandr.
Part 2- Are we there yet? (Filler version)
Part 3- We’ve gotten absolutely fucking dusted!
Part 4- Oh no, the undead! THEY’RE REAL!, oh wait its werewolves not zombies!
Part 5- May the tragedies, and travesties start.
Part 5.1- The Chickening
Part 6- A third team member (aka Matt’s new addition to the team, his ginger girlfriend and ex-Schnell engineer.)
Part 7- The awakening of the car.
Part 7.5, (Mini-short)
Part 7.6, Another Mini-short.
Part 8- Oh no! Our car, it’s broken! (Aka Izzy doing the driving sin. Reasonable rage sold seperately.)
Part 8.1, Mini-short 3
Part 9- Hopefully smooth-sailing!
The never-ending reliabillity (That Does NOT exist) of the XL53.
Meanwhile at Vallengarda Campsite, 1:30 Sun
(might end up using the Madrias format, pre-current stage, and current stage segments.)
After fixing the coil pack of the car, getting raged at, alongside staring at an automobile for 30 minutes. The car finally goes through the mud after shoving it into 4-Low, and some unknown terrains, the team head toward Addavuul Camp. Just prior to moving, the team disagreed on Izzy driving for the first half. She got into the vehicle, nearly tried driving there with it, and then Izzy was told to move it to the backseat. She then climbs to the backseat, accidentally revving the engine to redline, then slides off the pedal and then accidentally plants her ass onto the steering wheel, making a beep. Matt then pulls her to the backseat
“We do not have time to lose, also how the fuck is it possible to hit your ass on the wheel, arent you that short?” Matt said. He then takes over the driver seat as of the team’s driver change cycle sometimes. Izzy then sits in the backseat. Matt then gets the vehicle in gear and goes to the next campsite.
Heading to next campsite.
Now that that Matt has effectlvely had to cope with the driver seat height of the last driver who was driving. Which happened to be Isabella, which didn’t really make much of a difference in terms of driving height, Whilst Izzy was more-or-less looking at the the abandoned mine from the backseat of the car.
We eventually then reach the mud we have to go through “Alright, close your windows!” Matt says, and then John closes his window just before the vehicle gets caked in mud, like a cake icing. The vehicle struggles a bit, but then after placing it into 4-Lo it gets going. It gets a bit stuck and then Izzy takes the wheel for the second half.
“You know, this is actually fun to do, just be able to go to an entirely different world and drive there” Izzy says. “I actually agree” John replies to her. We then stick it into high range and arrive at 7:25 Sun.
At the Campsite
Izzy shuts off the vehicle, now that the team knows she hasnt drank an ounce of alcohol behind the wheel on the second half. John then cleans up the vehicle from that mud and then both Matt and Izzy just sit in the front seat of the vehicle, as she took the driver seat and reclined it back “Dang, it’s so comfortable I might actually sleep in the car. Oh wait, the handle doesn’t work!”
“You’re better off cleaning the vehicle Izzy, oh and when getting out through the window cause that door handle inside doesn’t work, make sure to not go on the accelerator and rev the shit out of it” Matt replies whilst Izzy tries climbing out the vehicle. She then starts the engine to open the window and then she climbs out. She then reaches in whilst reaching in for the ignition groaning and then turns it off and then she gets out the car, Matt also gets out the car and then cleans the vehicle up. Some time passes. 7:45 Sun and they start setting up the tent. “Isabella, whilst you’re at it, clean up the motor oil from your hands” John goes up to her and replies. “never realised how short you two are” he mutters. They then finish up setting up the tent that casually connects to the other half of the vehicle in a way.
Izzy then comes back with clean hands, and not ones with a pea sized amount of motor oil on them. Probably why we’re being accused. Matt sits on the floor on the tent in his sleeping bag. John makes the team some food. Izzy is in the frontseat of the car (Passenger) with the seat all the way back and taking an nap. John is then cooking the team hot-dogs. “Where even is my girl?” Matt says. “In the car, she might be out of there soon. given how hot it is, from the last time i checked the window was open.” John replies back to him. Just as he called it, Izzy then wakes up and goes and gets her sleeping bag and goes in the tent and takes a nap. 8 Sun rises, The food is finished, he then serves the food and cleans up the cooking utensils.
TO BE CONTINUED, Longer than usual btw. Most likely more narration than dialogue.
The night for them was a mixed affair. Constantin slept as well as always, despite the torrential downpour that peltered the area during the night and is still going strong. Tim somehow was very well rested, even though Robert wasn’t sealed at all due to the lack of a hatch window. Valentin spent most of the night in pain, but him having gone to bed early made it a semi-bearable experience. Connor’s only true issue was that he now is soaking-wet after having spent the night stood next to the car.
Constantin naturally was the first to wake up and went about his exercises. Before he could finish, Tim rose from his slumber, followed shortly by Valentin, who spent the better part of ten minutes trying to get out of his tent with little progress being made. Eventually, Constantin heads over to help Valentin onto his feet, with crutches and everything.
While tents were being packed as quickly as they reasonably could, Valentin went about entering the car with the procedure he established yesterday, helped by the fact that the driver seat was still folded flat from Tim having slept there.
With the team piled into the car, they started having some breakfast and in the middle of spreading some peanut butter onto a slice of bread, Constantin had a thought.
“What if it wasn’t an accident?”, Constantin said, handing the bread and peanut butter over to Tim next to him.
“What?”, Valentin replies, baffled by the possibility.
“Like… what if those chucks who spent the last stage driving shitfaced-drunk did it? They did spend a good half hour or something mulling about our car, after all.” he adds, followed by him taking a bite out of his slice of bread.
Connor, at that point halfway through the process of steaming Robert for the trip, paused the process and turned to Valentin.
“Can you show me your hands, please?”, Connor inquired. Valentin, in utter confusion simply presents both hands palms-up to Connor next to him. After that, Connor drags his index and middle finger along Valentin’s right palm, just to lick off what got stuck to those fingers, much to the disgust of Constantin.
“What the fuck? Why are you doing that?”, Constantin asks as Connor’s LED briefly flashes yellow before returning to a steady blue.
“I’m analyzing what is stuck to Valentin’s hands. Part of that is an engine oil which we do not carry.”, Connor replies.
“If those drunkards with the Schnell did that yesterday, wouldn’t that constitute a rule-breach of this event? I recall something being said on the likes of ‘don’t be an asshole’. Like… nobody can be that be that immoral to do this for a spot on an arbitrary list.” Valentin comments in disbelief as he lowers his hands again.
“Some people do stupid shit to be a little further up front.” Tim remarks, nodding in agreement to the potential of it being a ploy to slow down the only team not bound to poor roads anymore.
“Well… it does make ‘sense’, i guess… people overtaking juuust before they need to exit the highway to save those three seconds is the same thing…”, Valentin mutters.
By that time, Robert was steamed and they headed off to backtrack along the road they came from.
Not far into the drive along the rails, they turned off of the mainline onto a frequented branch line.
A few minutes later, they pass a white, rectangular board with a black W on top. A copy of that board was attached directly below the first one to the same post-
Tim immediately was excited as all hell, as this was the first time they truly had to use the whistle.
Valentin, adhering to procedure, turned the ignition key to the “start” position, sounding the whistle.
thoooooooooooooot
About a quarter of a mile further, the crossing came into view, at which point Valentin sounded the whistle once more, this time long enough to blast past team Shift Happens and their mud-caked Bricksley in doing so.
thooooooooooOOOAAAAAAAaaaaaaaat (my attempt at doing the doppler effect thingy… sorry…)
“Was that the host team!?”, Tim exclaims in a child-like excitement over having had a legitimate use-case for Robert’s whistle.
“Yup. They’ve probably been sitting there for a few minutes expecting a massive freighter or something.”, Valentin replies, grinning a bit.
Other than being held up by a slower-moving train ahead for quite a while, the trip was running smoothly, up until a certain shade of pink poked through a mud brick sat on another crossing just before the mining town of Addavuul.
“Damn…”, Valentin quietly mutters, having recognized the IP van of the Hillbilly Rollers.
“Time to mentally prepare for another round of show-and-tell…”, he adds in annoyance.
“Weren’t they with that one guy who got us kicked out of bed in the middle of the night?”, Tim asked.
“Yep. And i already am not liking it…”, Valentin replies while trying to not be too distracted from the unusual job that is ‘train’ driving.
They transition back onto the road using a crossing that went directly past Addavuul station at the end of the two platforms it had and make their way to camp, where they come to a stop close to the Bricksley once again.
to be continued
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
This is reply to last part
Mud slinging, duct tape
We are going strong once again, finishing our breakfast and jumping into car to go.
Will be rather useful to direct to this link:
in order to properly understand next part of this post.
-Now we are set with caaaargo being properly fastened to rest of car. Seems like only logical thing…(wipes right part of face)…is to return this duct tape to its legitimate Rollers.
Also i dont know why i still havent closed the window even tho we are travelling on this muddy terrain for quite some time.
-Bruh, front right tire seems to behave funkily. Can you pop head through window and see if everything is alright?
-Im literally on same side as aforementioned tire and i feel absolutely no reason for it to behave funkily, even tho i could definitely feel if something would be wrong with car.
-Still feeling uneasy, take a look pls.
Chicota popped head through and two things happened:
Chunk of mud had left the tire and got on perfect trajectory towards Chicotas mouth.
He returned closing the mouth, mud escaping from it.
Then went for some mud accumulated on side of vehicle and threw it across the cabin to hit Aydar in front right leg (here used to steer/control gearbox).
-You think that was funny?
-Yes. (Inspecting area hit by mudball) Seems we are even.
-WE ARE NOT.
-THIS…MEANS…WAAAAR!!!
Klimentol: Imma remove myself from battlefield
Aydar had adjusted to this new turn of events by opening his window so he could grab some mud from his side.
Klimentol had decided that sitting on Pi would be good idea for now.
-You are an asshole.
-Blame those two. I really dont want to receive mud bath.
-Im likely gonna get sore at the end of this…
-You will likely recover soon enough tho. Besides, i could try to decrease that soreness somehow or you can just decide to…like…not leave the current position.
-Fair enough.
(About 5 minutes later)
-Impressive showing you got there. But mud is still fresh and my revenge is still…(bumps into door bcos Aydar turned relatively sharply)
-Im not willing to back up that easily.
-This is to be decided on equal footing then…to the back seat!
Both mudfighters had moved one place behind, holding above Mrdja and VerBanka respectively, but not before Klimentol sighed and jumped forwards to take the control from his younger cousin.
Mrdja and VerBanka followed the suit soon after, leaving Pi on line of fire.
Splatter of mud is to be heard for some time and now indeed entire cabin was muddy in atleast one way or another.
After Klimentol expressed interest in not driving further, Chicota took the wheel.
Ok link to post of Knuggy starts being relevant…NOW
-So, as i said before i got mouthful of mud, we should return duct tape to Rollers.
-Prob would be appreciated if we would offer something as means of thanking them for duct tape we did use.
-I dont wanna talk to you trickster…but thats good point.
-Trying to be of help…also i noticed some fair bit of injustice going on.
(Lowers window down, gets pawful of mud and hurls it toward Klimentol)
-…Should have seen this coming (lowers window too, preparing for muddy battle he is about to engage in).
I have an idea tbh…TAKE THIS!!!..and i would like to receive an honest answer from you, Chicota
-I decided to postpone the mud war until convo is finished.
-Good idea Aydar…so?
How much original beer had remained in that tank?
-About 1.5 liters…oh i realize where this is going and dont like it that much.
-Eh, one must take sacrifices in name of greater good.
-Fine…do we even have three bottles of adequate size?
-Will check, i think we do.
Ok, so there is plan…
Upon arrival, bottles were gathered and beer was checked.
-Are you sure they would accept this beer? Afterall, we have this filled up tank now…(takes sip from said tank, frowns)…maybe not
VERBANKA!!! TF IS THIS
(Said VerBanka decided to play deaf and remove herself from area for time being)
-Well Chicota, this will have to do then…
Bottles were put in place standing upright, duct tape roll being around middle bottleneck.
They are two meters away from driver door, arranged in such line that they are parallel to car itself.
Im not sure how Hillbillys would react…thats on @Knugcab to explain if he wants.
Team has returned back to car, still rather muddy inside and out and settled in for now…
TEAM
The sweet intercourse of the night passed with deep solemn, and two bodies intertwined with lust had produced their scents and sweats as passion bonded in one.
Yet one was unsatisfied, indeed. The woman looked towards the man with eyes not of sorrow, but of dull discontent as she leaned towards her presumed lover, moving his golden strands away from his ear to whisper her tender words in her deep voice of succulence.
“Is there not going to be a favour from you this time?” A quiet murmur emerged from between the woman’s lips still moist with love.
Yet no response came from him. Just a silent smile as he gazed toward the muted and beige roof of the inn, softly flickering from the dim candles laid about that filled the room with a thick hypnotizing scent. She turned away from him, distraught with herself, even though she knew she was not to blame for anything.
Despite the lack of response, there was indeed a favour. Yet this one, would have been hard to sense.
“You care for them that much, it now seems.”
…
Left, right, left, right, left, right, left…
The continuous sliding of the vehicle’s wipers would be enough to drive a person mad, not helped by the constant pricking of the rain upon its thin metal roof. The thick grime which had gathered upon the Yamada’s metallic red paint had all come running down the steel bodypanels and back onto the nature below it, merging into a brown goop that circled around the air-filled rubber walls which held the vehicle upon its lifted struts.
Romulo sat in the cockpit of the vehicle, feeling every shudder through the steering wheel as he gripped it with his left. His right hand held the base of the shifter, where this weariness he began feeling through the plastic knob began to bite into his palm.
“It won’t be easy out there…” Charlotte commented as her eyes followed the movement of the blades upon the glass canopy ahead of her. She gripped the notebook tighter, her claws nearly digging into the soft leaf paper and leaving a dim impression upon its pages.
The front seats of the cockpit were filled with a high tension, but that’s not to say the back wasn’t either. Emily’s ears were anxiously perked with every rattle of the four-cylinder combustion engine, and her eyes constantly scanned the campsite as the rain continued drowning out whatever visibility could have remained. She spotted the blue and yellow Dauer as it sat idling on one end of the wet hollow, with constant drops landing atop the sleek lines of its two-door fuselage, blocking the view of the windows and subsequently its drivers.
Before long, a dim bell would sound from the large tower of town at an irregular interval as it harshly attempted to resonate with the strong downpour. Once again, the opera of engines would sing its raspy tones as the camp left.
But the start would not be filled with the familiar thick clouds of gravel, it would instead begin in a dash of water and clay as the vehicles lost their traction in the muck. The rear-wheel-drives all sending their pillars of brown semi-solids up their bumpers as they dug into the ground and struggled for the slightest amount of resistance that would move themselves forwards.
Admist the chaos, the red crossover had slid its front tyres around and engaged the rear differential, sending the power evenly all around and propelling it towards the exit. Earth began staining the windows as loose material shifted down the rubber grooves of the all-terrains, and up into the air as it landed on the sides of the vehicle, caking the faded red in the colour of the surface.
“Charlotte, notes, please.” Romulo requested as they proceeded onto the road, and the feline opened up the notebook to where she had it last bookmarked, revealing the multicolored scribbles that dictated the pace of their movements.
In a moment’s notice she began to dictate.
“Medium left into sharp right, fourty… Don’t cut…”
Words that mean nothing to those who lack the understanding of a rally stage, but crucial information to those who wish to drive their fastest. Pilot, copilot, and vehicle in sync to form an orchestra of rallying that played their instruments to their desires. Indeed, the scene of the ballroom and waltzes could only be the true comparison to the union between the man and the machine.
The contrivances and their users coupling into one system was the art of it all. One of many that danced around the unstable path that lay ahead.
Trailing behind the mud ravines of the cars in front of them that slowly filled with rainwater to form rivers and streams of their own, the Yamada’s tyres rubbed up and down the goopy trail. The suspension bounced up and down with uncertainty, but still the vehicle held its ground as it rode along the precipitious jolts of mud that formed from the vehicles ahead.
Goliath was the muddy topography of the trail, and David were the automobiles that desired to conquer it. Yet unlike the stories of Religion would have said, to some, the Goliath now seemed unkillable. An impenetrable fortress of petrichor and silt that boarded up their vehicles through the thickness of the trail.
Side to side moved the wiper blades of the red crossover’s windshields, almost in sync to the rear of the vehicle which Romulo wrestled with his two hands as he danced with the steering wheel carefully primed the throttle to the car’s movements. Brown sludge continued to blockade the windows and doors as it flung from the erratic spinning of the rubber around the steel rims.
Automatic four-wheel-drive, a system of lightweight all-wheel drive developed by Yamada for their crossovers and utility vehicles. A system which sent power to wheels depending on their traction levels and adjusted in real time. The stubborn folks would be quick to shun such a system just based on the level of mechanical complexity and proposed ineffectiveness over a traditional manual locking system.
Yet the folks who continue to use the system for their desired needs have no such qualms when it was all they needed. Lightweight and robust, purely mechanical in nature.
Mechanical.
Indeed.
Romulo pressed on the pedal more, and the steel within the aluminum heart of the machine only continued to pound harder and harder as it drove its round legs into the ground, yearning for the non-existent traction that it begged with every inch that it slipped past its moment of clipping.
Mud would continue to fly past the vehicle as it made it through the clay soup, narrowly missing the raised intake as the vehicle performed its mechanical respiration. Gasoline and air merging into a cylinder that roared with every burst of energy into the flywheel and into the gears which ground themselves against one another in their slime of oil.
What makes a vehicle different from a living being?
What defines life?
The machine presses onwards to its master’s commands. Go left, go right, go rise up on that pillar of loam, go dive into that goop of rainwater and silt. The machine’s duty is to serve its master, to work as its system for the benefit of those who utilize it. It had no ability to scream aloud by its own will, only the involuntary shaking of its steel body parts that vibrated and screeched as it clashed against itself.
A machine that works is a good machine, a basic principle.
The vehicle narrowly avoided a stump as it slid off the road, but with a quick correction, they were back onto the road and continuing its way through the slog.
Do machines feel a rage?
Against those who wield it?
Rage against those who use it?
One mistake. That is all that it takes. One puddle too deep. One bite too large. Just one.
Even with the lower gears, the Yamada struggled to get out. The undercarriage grinded itself on the loose soil which packed itself into a small hill, and the wheels only dug into water as the car hung and slid slowly. “Let’s fucking move!” Romulo yelled as he dug his foot into the accelerator pedal, yanking the wheel from side to side. The engine roared with a ghastly howl.
Charlotte’s eyes opened wide at the sound, her ears perked, and her face gloomed with horror. She had not heard something mechanical, but something that she dared to call alive.
“Could it be…?”
The howling continued as the wheels spun around, the engine moving close to hundreds of times per second as gas bursted in and out of the intakes and exhausts. The cylinders pumped with air and fuel as the hydrocarbons combusted in the lined chamber of aluminum. Oval-shaped cams that drove springs and valves open and shut spun multiple hundreds of times with every human heartbeat.
The car was singing a song that only it would be able to understand, one of its own very mechanical nature. Every instance that it revved, bumped, or moved, it produced a different rhythm that it matched to itself.
This instance, the steering wheel lightened itself, and the accelerator pedal heaved. The vehicle rattled itself and the loam beneath them came loose as the wheels splashed into the drenched mire. Splatter all around as the car lunged forward with a yowl of enthusiasm. Every thousands of revolutions there was a small burst that would respire, a burst of chemical energy that ignited with the spark within the tightness of its metal artery. Steam began to flow from the engine bay as the cold water contacted the headers, which rose into white puffs out of the seams that lined the hood.
The tyres continued to spin in glee with the controls lightened. Romulo’s eyes widened at the sudden enthusiasm, but still he held on tight. Charlotte had stopped speaking, which got the attention of everyone else. But the attention shifted towards the vehicle itself, for they felt a lightness within them, almost as though the car had stopped even though the windows around them showed movement.
Romulo loosened his grip on the wheel, and eased on the accelerator. He gave a good look at the badge in front of him, shifting his hand around the circumference of the steering device.
“If you have something to show me… then do it…”
The engine roared with pride as the car began to speed its way through the mud. Romulo pressed his foot down, and firmed his grip on the wheel, to which he now felt every jolt from the suspension. Every pain the mechanical components went through. The absolute bottled up feelings of an automobile hidden with a secret inner fury was now being let out. The inner desire of any vehicle was being broadcasted in full with every metre the vehicle sped through. White smoke that emerged from between the body panels ahead of the wheels formed ghastly shapes that continued to burst with dreadful spite.
The spinning of the crankshaft, the dancing of the pistons, and the compression and extension of the lifters and springs were no longer feeling mechanical, but continued on the dirty path of life. The vehicle’s blood was flowing within it and its veins bulged at its seams as it ran the oil around its delicate areas where its parts clashed against each other in its battle of freedom.
But slowly, these feelings began to fade away as the rain eased up. They still remained there however, and the passengers could all still hear the groaning from the vehicle’s mechanical aluminum-cast heart.
The bog soon gave way to a loose but compacted patch of road which vaguely resembled gravel, and the path now began to smooth itself out. The driver shifted into a higher gear as the engine neared its redline, and with a firmer foot and decisive grip, the car hummed along through the rain, the bright set of lights illuminating a way through the heavy rain.
With every kilometre, the ghastly feeling of life only continued to slip away from the wheel that Romulo held. His mind cleared up eventually, and he continued to focus on the road and task at hand.
Yet in the back of his mind, he failed to rid himself of what he was experiencing. Nothing would be able to accurately reflect what he had just had a sensation for. Only the wrestling of another being came close to these impressions upon his palms.
The team eventually arrived safely at camp, four others had already arrived, but the gravel-filled bottom was still relatively empty.
Romulo maneuvered themselves on one end of the camp, where they chose to wait the rain out.
Within the cabin was a distinct eerie feeling. Everyone had discerned a sensation they were not sure about, and they were uneasy. Emily’s ears still paid attention to the vehicle, ever since the howl of the engine she had been on high alert and her mind continuously pointed to something that she attempted to suppress.
“Do machines have a soul? Can they be alive?” Romulo rested his head onto the seat back, his fingers still wrapped around the soft-touch plastic of the steering wheel’s circumference.
There was a short silence, but with a gulp, Charlotte turned her head towards him.
“There have been tales of objects taking on souls… Some enchantments are said to have utilized one’s life energy. However, for a thing such as this one, I’m not exactly sure.” She sighed, turning her head to the window. “Being alive and having a soul, are two different matters. A being can be alive, but can lack a soul.”
“Now, comes the question of whether something can have a soul without first living.” Watson spoke. He too was looking into the nothingness of the raindrops as they perked down onto the wet soil. The melancholy and dread in his voice was obvious, as he had heard the machine’s cries as well.
Romulo slid his hands around the wheel, feeling the bumps and grooves of the circular device, and staring into his own reflection in the mirror-finish of the Y-shaped badge before him.
“It’s possible, isn’t it…?” Romulo said dimly. “To feel whether something is alive, or not?”
Only the tingling of the water droplets on their drenched equipment would fill the sinister void of silence when the team waited out the rain to reduce even slightly. Before long, the skies got slightly brighter and the weather was reduced to a light misting of precipitation, and at last they emerged from the mud-coloured vehicle, still with small bits of showers falling upon their heads and shoulders.
Nearby the car was a small shack, old with age and plant growth, but enough to provide themselves with a roof to hide under. The rest of the team did, but Romulo stood in front of the still-running engine, the vehicle’s stressed fascia had its lights casting a short beam under the drizzle, and he stood in front where he casted a soft shadow beneath his feet.
“What exactly are you trying to tell me?”
…
Charlotte stared back at the car’s eyes, the silt that covered its headlights gave it a frowned look, and she felt uneasy as the vehicle only continued to stare back. She took the bucket that had been resting beneath the rain for a while now, and had found it had collected an ample amount of water for a clean-up, and now her eyes glowed with a certain enthusiasm as she looked back towards Emily, who was staring off towards the camp’s entrance with a sleeping Ga’araiya leaning on her shoulder.
“Emily, would you like to do something with me?” The feline approached the long-haired blonde. Emily looked right back up at her and tilted her head so as to ask what it was.
“Surely, planes need a wash too, don’t they?” She began, and Emily simply nodded. “They do, it helps to keep the airframe smooth and prevent build-up of grime on any of the airfoils.” She responded firmly.
“Well, cars do too, y’know? There’s enough water in that bucket over there, and I think all this thing really needs is a good wash!”
Emily sighed as she looked at the caked vehicle. “Charlotte…” She said, her voice hoarse with uncertainty which alerted Charlotte. “What’s wrong…?”
“That car. Something hasn’t felt right about it since we’ve been running. I had a hunch, but I only felt it yesterday when Watson was behind the wheel…”
“You have…?” The feline’s eyes clouded with a disturbed gaze as she too pointed her head towards it. Her stomach began to feel fraught with discomfort as an aura seeped from beneath the vehicle’s tyres.
"The final stage of the Paris-Dakar rally begins now!
"… the factory-backed Yamada team has only a few points left to guarantee them a…
“Will they make it?”
A sudden flash came into Charlotte’s mind as her hand touched the mud-covered fender. She felt a moment where she woke up out of a daze, and found herself nearby the vehicle.
Yet the thoughts persisted in her head, the wails of the machine’s insides replayed constantly with a disturbing level of vividness. She saw the visions of the multicolour vessel roam its way through coarse terrain, much like she saw in the passenger seat of Romulo’s car.
She backed away from the vehicle, unable to decide on what to do, when a soft grip landed on her shoulder.
“Even with what I said, however, there’s nothing to worry about.” Emily said as calmly as she could.
But still, that distraught look in Charlotte’s heterochromic gaze was irradicable as she looked up towards the blonde. “I don’t think a machine such as this one would ever want to harbour feelings like those. It only wishes to perform a duty that it was designed to do.” Emily reassured. “It is a machine designed and built with passion, is it not? Like you have said, an aeroplane is similar to an automobile, they’re machines designed with a goal in mind, and both of them were designed with a kindling desire in their creator’s heart.” The blonde girl lifted her hand towards her hair, tying her hair up. The clouds slowly continued their retreat, and the sun shone down to tint the land with a bright hue.
“My uncle told me one important thing, and it is that ‘every machine ever made was made with an aspiration. Without that commitment, it wouldn’t have been created.’”
Emily walked over towards the bucket, lifting her short dress to reveal a pair of dark-coloured hotpants that stopped just above her thigh. She tied the green garment together by the bottom in a neat tie, before unbuttoning her top and dragging the plastic pail over towards the vehicle.
“You seriously invited me to wash this without anything to wipe it down with? Have you ever washed something like this before?” The blonde clicked her tongue as she scanned the area, before walking over towards the shack and swiping the keys off a chair. She unlocked the rear door and looked around, and emerged from the rear with a couple of dirty rags in her hands. “I guess these shall do. Are we going to wash this thing, or not?”
Emily tossed one of the rags towards the feline, who swiftly caught it firmly. Charlotte looked at the rugged cloth, coated in months or maybe even years worth of dirt, and crumpled it in her hand as she looked towards the girl standing across the vehicle. Emily tilted her head with a smile, placing her hand on her waist, and all Charlotte could do was sigh.
“Let’s do it then.”
Charlotte pulled her jacket down and away from her body, throwing it towards a chair in front of a shack. “Where do we begin?” She asked as she approached Emily. The taller girl carefully scanned the car, before coming up with a plan."
“We can begin with the upper part of the windows and windshield, then go down. That would be more efficient as we do not have quite as much water than would be preferred. Even then, there’s likely to be some dirt that we’ll be unable to remove. But so long as it doesn’t look like a barn animal, we’d be fine.”
With a nod from Charlotte, the two dipped their rugs into the bucket, and with it being sufficiently drenched, began reaching for the top for the car and wiping the caked-on sediment away, with droplets of brown running down the sun-kissed paint to reveal a deep metallic red that hid underneath.
Constant swiping away made way for their reflections in the vehicle’s glass, small beads of water forming upon the slippery clear surface that slowly made way to reveal the untinted insides of the vehicle. Charlotte walked back towards the bucket to rinse the rag and soak it once more, before dabbing it firmly onto the door panel with a splash that landed water right into Emily’s dress, her skin making contact with the cold and damp cloth that began clinging onto her back.
“Hey! Watch it!” The blonde retaliated by cupping her hand into the bucket and throwing the contents right towards the feline across the Yamada’s hood. Fortunately, Charlotte’s reflexes were enough to allow her to dodge right out of the way before the ricochet of the water on the hood could land on her.
“I’m sorry! Don’t waste the water! That’s all we’ve got!”
With a slightly agitated Emily now calmed down, they continued wiping down the car. The days worth of grime, dust, and clay that had gathered on the car’s steel bodypanels all came washing down to reveal the scratched but still glossy paint that glimmered in the sunlight like a maroon disco ball. The white pinstriping had held up, but was now tinted a slight beige from the sediment that had began to seep into the cheap tape, and was also visibly starting to chip along some of the edges.
“What ungodly speed! This will certainly be enough to grant the Yamada team a podium finish!”
For yet another time, the vision had glazed right into Charlotte’s mind as her hand moved across the battered fender of the Yamada, but she didn’t resist, and a small smile began to form beneath her snout as the dirt continued to wipe right off.
"Never, have I ever seen such a vehicle move at this pace. It’s as though a raging beast had been finally been rid of its chains. They’ve past the checkpoint, and their cadence is unbelievable! No machine had ever…
“No machine…”
That’s right.
More than a machine.
A shiver was sent down Charlotte’s spine as she backed away from the car. Emily was quick to take notice of her behaviour as the cat walked towards the vehicle’s fascia. Eerily, without anyone inside, nor any button on the remote that could have triggered it, the headlights began to dimly flicker without warning, but not enough to illuminate the area ahead.
“Morse code.” A deep voice called out from behind the girls, and standing behind them was the unmistakable tall figure that was Watson.
“What does it say?” Charlotte asked anxiously. Her eyes were unsure as she looked back up towards Watson’s highly analytical orbs. His green irises followed the blinking of the lights as he followed closely to what it said.
A thousand miles of lame turtles, what a barren cycle.
The infinite moment signals the start of battle.
Heed my call.
Local time: 5:75 Sun
The rain had only intensified as the Narrowblock’s snarling engine note roared louder and louder as the tires fought for traction, chugging down the carefully mixed combination of air and fuel at incredible rates. Had it not been for the pups making a mess of the interior, Team Oil Crisis would have made it to the camp way earlier. But the driving rain and the mud caked windows made it impossible to see.
“I can’t see shit out there and these wipers aren’t even doing anything.” Aedan lamented. “How much further do we have to go? So I can think of at least something positive.”
Consulting his compass, Malcolm then glanced at the map. “About 10 miles left, Looks like the road’s beginning to improve too.”
“Oh thank the stars, we are finally out of hell.”
A motivated shout came from all the way in the back. “Then put that hammer down and stop talking!”
It was with this sentence that a pedal went to the floor and an engine roared. The 8 cylinders fired at more than 4000 times a second as the 4 speed gearbox fed the torque into the transfer case and sent the power to all four wheels and within the next 20 minutes, the camp was in sight and several teams were already there.
His brother’s eyes widened “Aedan, we are going too fast. Are you sure you’re gonna make that turn?”
“Don’t distract me if you want me to!”
Several people in the camp had stolen a glance down the road as the green Magistrate barreled towards the camp at an alarming speed, the engine roaring.
“What are you planning!?” Kamino asked, unable to hide his fear. “You will likely kill us if this goes wrong.”
“It won’t go wrong.” said Aedan, unconcerned. Just then the ZAURTEK 4S kicked down and the Narrowblock V8 triumphantly roared as the RPMs rose sharply.
“Brace yourselves!”
Right as those two words escaped Aedan’s lips, the Magistrate hit the dirt mound which became a ramp. The RPMs rose sharply once again as the wheels lost contact with the ground and as the Magistrate left the ramp, it barreled through the air, seemingly floating as it completed a full barrel roll before it righted itself just as it came down towards the mound on the other side. However, the rough landing jarred the car enough to make it lose control of the rear end sending it into a spin, narrowly missing the Yamada, Schnell and Elbrus as it careened across the camp. In the next split second, the rear wheels finally regained traction, straightening out the Magistrate and in the final moments of the stunt, the green wagon coasted gently into a spot behind the Bricksley.
This is basically what happens although less gracefully.
To Be Continued (Like Always)
erm…
how is Oil Crisis parking between Robert and Bricksley if they were there before Robert was?
and even then, the space between the two is needed for our upcoming RP bit kthxbye 
Yeah, move away from where I am supposed to park a certain pink van… 
You can park behind the Bricksley if you want. But Robert is parked nose-to-nose with the Bricksley with some space between the two vehicles, and it’s needed for RP purposes.
i like how our car is actually “Robert” now, not just “Anhultz” or “the Brick™”
I made some edits to fix those oversights. Its now more ambiguous as to where the Magistrate rolls to a stop.
and
and
Just after they rolled to a stop near the Bricksley, Connor went about shutting Robert down for now. But he didn’t get all too far into the process, as an absolutely ecstatic Janne sprinted towards the Dione at a speed so fast, he might as well have teleported there.
Connor quietly continued de-steaming Robert, before having to halt the process once again.
“Constantin, can you please roll down the window?”, Connor said, followed by Constantin cranking the handle just far enough for a small slit to open. Connor then looks straight at Janne.
“Please step away from the vehicle!” Connor sternly orders in an attempt to free up space for the steam venting.
Janne initially had a face of utter confusion, but eventually takes a few steps back, followed by Connor pulling a plunger in the cabin, venting the boiler’s pressure to atmosphere with a loud and violent hissing noise.
Valentin then leant over and between the front seats to the rear to have a visual of Janne, but didn’t say anything yet. Instead, Constantin was the first to speak to him.
“Need anything…”, he asked in a stoic tone of voice, aware that he was the same Janne that woke the entire team up at 8 moon a few days prior.
Once the Dione rolled to a stop near the Bricksley, attracting the attention of Janne not that much later, it didn’t take long for Kivenaal, Kayden, and Malavera to get up from their various positions around the Bricksley and start to approach the Dione.
Which, of course, is when the mother of all snakes hissed from underneath the Dione, startling Kayden.
“Blowing the boiler down,” Kivenaal explained, “to avoid condensation in the steam lines and to blow out any water scale. It’s a maintenance thing.”
“Does it have to be that loud?” Kayden grumbled.
“You’ve opened bottles of soda before,” Malavera said. “This is like that, just way bigger and under more pressure.”
Once the hissing finally stopped a few seconds later, the three made their way over to the Dione, with Kivenaal adjusting his hat so that the water ran down his shoulders and back, instead of potentially pouring into someone else’s face.
Kayden stared in awe at the plume of steam dissipating into the distance, the aftermath of relieving the pressure in the boiler. “Twin Suns, that is impressive,” he said.
Of their group of three, it was Kivenaal who reached the Dione first, followed by Kayden, and lastly, Malavera. Unfortunately, this meant it was up to Kivenaal to mention why they were there.
“Sorry if we’re being a pain,” Kivenaal said a little nervously, “but the three of us are curious about the engineering of the Dione. I mean, It’s really quite impressive, and… Well… I have an interest in steam engines, so I’d love to get a good look at things. I swear upon all the stars in the galaxy, I’ll keep my hands off of it.”
Janne realized that he had been a bit to excited so when he got told to step away, he excused himself and did so. When he saw that they were venting the boiler he really understood, and stood there waiting for his turn. When Constantin asked if he needed something, he thought that the question was, in fact, almost stupid.
“NEED anything…uh…I need to know what the fuck you have done to it…or ehm…it’s rather obvious, but still…”, he said, a bit puzzled. At the same time Kivenaal appeared and told them why they were coming to the Dione. “Uhm, yeah…exactly. Me too.”, Janne said, which in this case, honestly speaking, was a kind of diffuse statement that could mean more or less anything.
As half of Shift Happens approached, Valentin immediately turned back around to the other side of the car, seeing Kivenaal through the driver window with Malavera and Kayden behind him. With Kivenaal’s appearance, him being this close to him, even if behind a window and no prior interaction easing tensions, Valentin wasn’t exactly eager to meet him. Still, he did the same thing that Constantin did with his window in the opposite corner, albeit electrically assisted this time.
“Uhm… mind waiting a bit for us to actually get out?”, Valentin said, before hastily closing the window back up again.
The others took note as well and both nearside doors opened up, followed by Constantin and Connor exiting the Redneck Railcar.
“I shall continue work on the investigation.”, Connor commented and went off in search for the Schnell of team Slow.
With Constantin out, Tim shuffled over and followed suit while Valentin got to removing his headrest in the meantime. It took a while until he finished preparing the seat, the headrest and seatbelt for his exit shuffle-job.
He inched his way to the back seat previously occupied by Tim and then moved over, back first to Constantin’s spot. There, he was aided (read: dragged) the rest of the way out of the vehicle by Constantin, with Tim reaching in to hand Valentin his crutches.
It was obvious that this entire ordeal wasn’t pleasant for Valentin, and the rain, even if it was pleasantly warm rain, didn’t add to the already less-than-ideal morale.
He looked around, at Janne, then across the roof and it’s rack to the members of Shift Happens.
“Now… what exactly do you want?”, Valentin asked, trying to keep calm in the midst of his latent pain, the poor weather and the unusual amount of attention he was getting.
As Valentin asked if he minded waiting for them to get out, Kivenaal smiled lightly. “Take all the time you need. I might be excited to see what you’ve done to the car, but I can wait,” Kivenaal said.
Once Connor left the vehicle and headed toward the Schnell, it was almost visibly obvious that Kivenaal became a little more relaxed, waiting patiently while Constantin and Tim got out, and then Valentin was assisted out of the car.
When Valentin asked exactly what they wanted, Kivenaal gave a light smile, then said, “Mostly to ask questions, but also to look, if you don’t mind, at some of the rather extensive and impressive modifications that you’ve done here. I have an interest in steam engines in general, so, I’m naturally curious. Especially after seeing it running down the rails.”
Janne looked at Valentin a bit confused when they were helping him out of the car, even more when he was jumping around on his crutches. It was obvious that he was in pain.
“Ehm…what the fuck happened to you?”, Janne said, feeling a bit guilty. “It’s not…is it…ehm. I hope that I am not guilty to this…you know, the ehm…flashlight incident.”, he said in a lowered voice.
With Valentin and the others now out of the vehicle and the doors closed up again, Valentin went about addressing the others, already drenched in rainwater.
First, he turned to Kivenaal and answered in as calm a manner as possible, given Kivenaals appearance being even more inhuman than Jayde’s: “Ask away and look all you want, but be at least somewhat specific with those questions please. I wouldn’t touch anything though, as most of it is still steaming hot.”
After that, it was Janne’s turn.
“Hard to explain, but it was not you, is all i can say in summary.”, Valentin spoke, trying to avoid the details of it, just to be backstabbed by Constantin.
“Tried, and failed, to enter the car through the driver window…”, Constantin added, followed by an annoyed stare from Valentin.
“Just go in and pop the hood for the others, please…”, Valentin grumbled as he tried to keep both visiting parties in his field of view.
Constantin went into the car through the front passenger door and pulled the hood release all the way on the other side of the car below the dash. Once back out, the door was semi-gracefully slammed shut again, followed by him propping up the hood for the visitors to see.
Valentin went a bit further up front, but kept his distance to retain an overview of what was happening.
Kivenaal stared at the mechanical heart of the Dione, the former four-cylinder gasoline engine now converted into a full-blown steam engine. “This is clever engineering,” Kivenaal mentioned, studying it a bit more. “Exhaust to the… Okay, the exhaust connects to what was the intake, and that goes to the radiator? So you’ve doubled the camshaft speed, and you’re feeding it steam through the spark plug holes. That is really quite clever,” Kivenaal said, following the plumbing carefully.
“Why is the radiator upside down?” Kayden asked, looking over to Valentin while Malavera carefully leaned in.
“Are those steam turbines between this exhaust runner and the water tank?” Malavera inquired. “At least, I think it might be a water tank.”
Kivenaal looked to Valentin, then asked, “What inspired the high-railer conversion? To take to the rails like you did is incredibly clever. Also, forgive me if I’m wrong, but some of these valves over by your turbines look… Maybe a little hazardous to reach without finding a steam pipe with your hands. I know you’d lose a little water capacity, but have you considered extending the valve handles up through the water tank? I mean, it might be a bit hard to do out here, but it’s an idea.”
Janne joined Kivenaal, Kayden and Malavera as they were looking at the powerplant of the Dione. “Yeah sure, you guys probably know more about steam engines than I do… but I have already investigated the powerplant…” he said, maybe more a case of thinking out loud than actually speaking. “What I wonder more about however is the high railer conversion. How did you even get that idea, I mean, that’s something I could dream up but I probably would never have done it myself, and absolutely not in just a few days. Well, I am honestly jeal…”
“HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN SONIC?”
Marie’s voice was interrupting everything which seemed to annoy Janne a lot.
“NO WE HAVEN’T SEEN SONIC, KEEP TRACK OF YOUR OWN DAMN PETS, WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!”
“Ehm…excuse me. Where were we?”
Valentin simply watched the group hunched over the engine bay and Janne taking slow paces around the car. Some questions arose surrounding the powertrain. Valentin waited a bit for them to queue up in order to reply in one go.
“Okay… so the camshaft gearing actually is stock, which is why i am taking the steam out of both the intake and exhaust valves and into the condenser up front. Speaking of which, i turned it upside down to use the cap as a drain for the result of condensing steam.”, Valentin explained as the group was staring and pointing at various things in and around the engine.
“Yeah i had to move the engine’s accessories away from the belts as i needed the pulley mount for the rail-wheel-drive. Also allows extended time spent stationary without drying up the boiler.”, he added.
as Malavera inquired about the turbines and water tank, Valentin simply nodded in response.
The high-railer conversion, however, was a different can of worms.
“Simply put. Rails are better than roads, especially in this place, apparently. We are sitting on worn cloth seats for ten hours a day, so i figured i’d smooth out the ride a bit by avoiding the need to do 70 on there.”, he commented, pointing at the packed gravel road leading away from camp and into town, the direction they came from and will be heading into tomorrow.
“I agree with you on the power steering turbine valve. The second one from the firewall. We tried running it, but the volatile load of it makes it impractical, so we turned that off and have been running with heavy steering since. Bearable, given that most of the day is spent not touching the wheel anyway… The alternator one is just se…”, he continued, before being interrupted by a screamish Marie from across camp.
He turns around, or at least attempts to, as Marie inquired about a certain “Sonic”, before being shut down by Janne in response.
Valentin then returned to the group and finished the last bit of his explanation for this round of questions.
“Yeah… we set that alternator one once and never really touch it. The control circuitry regulates load already so we don’t need to do that manually.”, Valentin finished while trying to keep his soaked hairdo in check. Not exactly easy, given the movement limitations that crutches entail.
When Valentin mentioned that the camshaft gearing was actually stock, Kivenaal looked a little surprised, then tried to puzzle through how the camshaft was still operating the intake and exhaust valves, now all exhaust valves, then shook his head, impressed. “Clever. I mean, I’ve made a few steam engines back home, but, nothing this complex. Little things that sit on your desk and give you a sense of accomplishment, but don’t actually get a lot of work done,” Kivenaal admitted. “To see this done, it’s impressive. Doubly so when one considers that, well, there’s no computers around. This was done the hard way, and I respect that.”
Kayden nodded as Valentin explained that the radiator had become the condenser, and as a result, was why it was upside down, so that steam entered up high, cooled down by fast-moving air, and exited through what was once the radiator fill spout. “That makes a surprising amount of sense,” Kayden admitted. “It’s still doing the same job, a hot fluid comes in, a cold fluid comes out. Just instead of it being a few degrees from intake to exhaust, it’s shedding more heat and returning from vapor to liquid again.”
Malavera gave a light smile, then said, “By having them like that, as long as you have steam, well, you have power, too. I’m surprised they had steam turbines, but, I guess in the end they’re not too complex, all things considered.”
Once Valentin mentioned why they did the high-railer conversion, however, Kivenaal smiled. “Makes a lot of sense. The Bricksley is nice, but I think Malavera would agree with you, the rails are smoother, and that last road was rough.”
“This fucker hit every jump he could find,” Malavera grumbled. “I threw up four times.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. Well… Except for the second railroad crossing,” Kivenaal said.
Kayden chuckled. “Kivenaal is our group’s prankster, when he’s not worrying about his past or his looks. Malavera can’t handle negative G-forces, so, Kivenaal being Kivenaal, decided to send it on the dirt,” Kayden explained.
Malavera, meanwhile, listened as Valentin mentioned that the valves were difficult to get to with the engine hot, as well as the volatile load of the pump making it just impractical to leave on all the time.
Kivenaal, likewise, was paying attention, though Marie screaming across the camp about “Sonic” startled him for a moment. When Valentin finished his explanation, that they had simply set the alternator one to on and left it alone, Kivenaal nodded. “Makes sense. It’s a very impressive bit of engineering, Valentin.”
Kayden then asked, “Does it really drive any differently from before?”
Malavera looked into the cab, then said, “It still has three pedals and a gear-stick, Kayden. I’d guess that it’s probably still the same.”
Kivenaal grimaced. “No, this would have way more torque. One, every piston in there is producing a power stroke, so it’s a bit like a two stroke engine in that respect. Two, given the lack of a starter motor, and the complex valve arrangement on the side, I’d hazard a guess that they’ve had the crankshaft modified, so for every rotation, each piston has a power stroke and an exhaust stroke, and nothing else. This thing might make as much power as a V8 twice its size, if not a bit more,” Kivenaal said. “Of course, I could be wrong in that guess.”
“I have driven it”, Janne said to Kivenaal. “I have to tell you one thing, the smooth and direct power delivery is something that needs to be experienced, not the easiest thing to describe”, he said. “I really dream about doing something similar now”, he said, “I’ve got a 1967 Saarland Kardinal that I have had some plans of converting to wood gas power, however, compared to this, that’s just meh. Maybe a steam powered Kardinal instead?”.
“Yes, strong indeed”, he said, “but if I remember right a drawback with steam engines is that they don’t really have very good effiency, so power might come at a cost I guess. You guys probably know more about that than me though?”
“Err… Thank You. Only having to look at a the wayside for signals and signage, with zero need for active turning and all that make for a rather pleasant drive.”, Valentin added in response to how nice Kivenaal thought the Bricksley was.
“Unless you have to walk half a mile to a signal box three times in this weather…” Constantin added, chuckling at how he was put in charge of informing the nearest signalman about how Robert was waiting for a signal to be cleared.
The tangent on how rough the road was and how Malavera emptied his stomach contents multiple times over was noted, but not acted upon to not derail too much from the existing show-and-tell nature of this.
As the attention moved to the inside, people questioned how it was to drive.
“On the road or on rails?”, Valentin countered, eventually deciding to elaborate on both.
“On the road, it works like any other car. Think of it as an electric but without regenerative braking, so you have to use the actual brake to slow down. I just leave it in third and not touch the clutch and gearbox. The lack of power steering, as said already, is annoying, though, but it is what it is… a quick-job conversion to steam to not DNF this thing…”, Valentin explained, mimicking the driving motions with his feeble arms during this part.
“On rails, it largely is one-pedal, since we obviously don’t have all that much traction to get going and all. No steering, just your right foot - and the fireman - dictating your speed.”, Valentin added, as Janne chimed in with how he test drove it in the middle of the night, also mentioning something about poor efficiency.
“It could be worse… The thing doesn’t rev all that far by internal combustion standards, but Connor reckons that it still does 120hp because of the two-stroke nature and more of 50 bars of pressure behind that boiler. And that was with all the pumps still belted straight to the engine.”, Valentin commented.
At this point, Connor returned to the group, but stayed back for now to avoid interrupting any ongoing conversations.
Kivenaal nodded. “Necessity is the mother of all inventions,” he said, before looking over the fireman’s controls. “Definitely complex, but then again, steam engines are. You’re quite a clever engineer, Valentin, to come up with a steam-conversion to keep in the race.”
Kayden, on the other hand, had another question in mind. “How fast do you think it can go?”
Malavera groaned. “It’s a steam car, not a rocket-ship, Kayden.”
“Some steam cars could do 100, Malavera,” Kivenaal said. “They don’t have to be slow.”
“Well thank you once again…”, Valentin replied.
“On road, we run into lead-steam issues at about 75. We need a longer diff or more RPMs to get faster, neither of which are easy. On rails, we apparently have no issues keeping up with mainline traffic. At least, that’s what the foreman told us when we got to that rolling stock maintenance facility yesterday… Connor claims it being able to do 135, somehow, but we haven’t gone much faster than 100 yet due to line speed limits and all… Before we send it, i want an actual brake on there, though. Just using the belt is rather temporary at the moment.” Valentin added, scratching his head a bit at the though of his railhead brake idea that is floating about as a possible addition.
Meanwhile, Connor quietly took Constantin and Tim aside to have samples taken from them, similarly to how Valentin was screened this morning.
Kivenaal nodded. “Brakes are always good to have. And going around 100 miles per hour with nothing but engine braking has to be scary.” He took a look at the side profile of the Dione, then said, “It would chew up some of your ground clearance, and it’s a bit primitive, but… Have you considered using a steam piston to lower a large brake pad down to the rail surface? If you have hinge points mounted here and here,” Kivenaal added, pointing near the car, but not touching it, “it would swing down parallel to the rail. Could use a spring to return it. I mean, it’s going to make a lot of noise, and finding something that won’t eat up the top surface of the rail could be difficult, but at least you’d have brakes.”
Kayden looked at the chain system running down the side of the Dione and smiled. “So the chain makes it all wheel drive on rails, right?” Kayden asked. “Any reason you aren’t just using the rear wheels?”
“Rails could be too thin, would potentially wear the tires out,” Malavera mentioned.
Janne was pretty quiet, but listened and looked at what Val and the staff from team SH was discussing, nodding every now and then. He felt that the information he got was pretty useful if he ever was going to build something similar himself.
Valentin thought quite intensely about the suggestion on implementing a service brake. Before he could reply, Connor returned to the group with Constantin and Tim in tow.
Valentin took note of this:
“How have things been going?”, he asked, keen on getting a result, but still sort-of hoping that it was just his stupidity that caused it all.
“Progress has been made and a number of samples were taken. I would like to have the last one taken from Mr. Mäkitalo.”, Connor replies, looking over at Janne.
“Speaking of which… who’s in charge of running all this? Like… of your team, who is the lead?”, Constantin questioned in the general direction of the Shift Happens members. With how progress was made, communicating it with the organizers made sense to him.
When Connor wandered over and interrupted their discussion, Kivenaal had a look of mild annoyance on his face, less at the interruption and more at the presence of the android being nearby.
However, when Constantin asked who was the leader of the team, Kayden laughed.
“Realistically speaking, that answer can go a lot of ways,” Kayden said. “We didn’t really designate a team captain. I’m a field medic, so definitely not the team lead. Rukari and Kivenaal are sort of like our scouts. They found out a route for everyone that should be equally fun and challenging. Malavera is our vehicle safety inspector, but also the guy who sent out the invitations. Jayde joined us after the start, and while he’s done some heroic things in his past, we can all tell he’s not the leader. Kaylie’s our designated mechanic, but… I suppose she is the only one hard-headed enough to be our team captain. She’s not afraid to threaten to tie Rukari’s tail in a knot, for example, and if she can stand up to him, I think she can handle whatever you’re throwing her way.”
Malavera gave a light nod. “Kayden’s right. None of us really want the title of team captain. On the other hand, all of us can be the team captain if we have to be. But, Kaylie’s usually the level-headed one. She’s got a temper, though, as we saw with the drunk driving incident.”
Janne got very suspicious when he heard what Valentin and Connor were talking about.
“Taking samples? What do you mean by that? What kind of samples are you looking for to take, and what’s the reason behind that?”, he asked, a bit annoyed. They should not believe that he would give in without questioning anything if they were going to perform some suspect experiment on him for no given reason.
As the team dynamics of Shift Happens were explained, Constantin nodded.
“Well… Kaylie it is, i guess…” he muttered, before awaiting Connor to be done with his work.
“I am investigating a case of possible assault against a competitor in this event. Therefore i am collecting samples off of the palms from anyone who was near the Victim’s vehicle around the time of the accident. Those will be compared to the sample taken off of the Victim’s hands as evidence. I would appreciate your cooperation to help further the case.” Connor calmly spoke, deliberately keeping the details vague to avoid unnecessarily alerting anyone. Though with Valentin now obviously being in crutches, the attempt was mediocre at best.
Valentin was intrigued, as this was the first time he has seen Connor do his designated work, but refrained from saying anything to not be a nuisance given the situation.
“Robot investigators. I suppose that’s one way to guarantee fair and impartial justice,” Kivenaal said with a light grimace. “I may not like robots or AI in general, and androids, well…” Kivenaal trailed off, realizing he was treading on thin ice there, before saying, “I’ll at least say that I’m glad this investigation will be thorough.”
Malavera chuckled. “Kivenaal really doesn’t trust AI,” Malavera mentioned.
“With good reason,” Kivenaal grumbled.
Kayden smiled lightly. “Connor’s one of the good ones.”
“Hrmpf, OK”, Janne said. “As long as it is just that, fine. I can’t say that I have anything to hide there. I just hope that some other bucketheads, won’t mention any names, in this camp get checked out too then. I think that I have seen several already that I would suspect long before I would suspect someone like me.”
You could still hear that he was a bit upset, but his choice was to not start a shitstorm over this right now, it was simply not the right time for that.
After a long bit of silence, Tim finally had something to say.
“Well apparently he’s from like te 2030s or something, where Androids as a whole are common already. He usually follows whoever he is assigned to like a slightly annoying and clingy dog. Then again he’s a very well-trained dog, so to speak.”, Tim remarked at how little care was needed to prevent Connor from doing stupid stuff.
Connor, meanwhile, went through the process by first directing Janne to present both palms to him. This was followed by Connor dragging his fingers across Janne’s hands, followed by him licking the fingers used to analyze the sample taken. His LED briefly went from blue to yellow and back to blue again.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”, Connor said to Janne and took a step back again, creating some distance between Android and Human(-oid).
“Yeah sorry about that… he’s very sterile when it comes to work…”, Tim added, having had first hand experience with this multiple times already in other, similar events.
Not long after, Constantin and Connor went off for the Bricksley to discuss the findings with Kaylie.
As Constantin and Connor left, heading toward Kaylie, Kivenaal again visibly relaxed. He looked around at the rear of the Dione, studying the boiler, though again kept his hands off of it.
Kayden and Malavera, on the other hand, took a last look at the Dione before returning to their tents to get out of the rain. After Kivenaal had gotten a last good look at the boiler system, he turned to Valentin. “Thank you for your time and patience. It’s a remarkably clever bit of engineering.”
“Yeah, thanks…”, Janne said. “Why didn’t I come up with this?”, he mumbled and gave the whole arrangement yet another look. Well, going on rails really had been a better experience than mudbogging with a cargo van, despite the mediocre AWD system fitted to it. Still, it was not without a kind of sour feeling he left everything. He still felt that it was a bit unfair that they suspected him, and he felt that he couldn’t be sure that they actually were going to test some of the way more suspicious ones that were walking around on this campsite.
“Because you don’t smash your head into the roof on every bump”, Valentin said in reference to his height being the biggest issue in spending the entire day in the Dione.
He simply watched Janne take another lap around Robert before leaving in silence, apparently drowned in thoughts. Not wanting to burst into then, he simply let it be, watching him as he went back towards the IP cargo van parked nearby.
Not long after, Constantin and Connor returned with Kayden in tow.
to be continued
and
and
John gets out the Schnell, starts setting up the barbecue in a torrential downpour, and then tries lighting a flame. It does not work, and then Matt tells him “Are you an fucking idiot? It will not light up in the rain!”
Connor approaches, having seen the stroke of genious that was an attempted BBQ, but decided to not comment on it. Instead, he went straight to the point:
“Good afternoon. I am investigating a case of potential assault against a competitor of this event and would like to ask a series of questions.”, Connor spoke, rather sternly and with absolutely zero emotion. He too was absolutely drenched in rainwater, but didn’t seem to care at all.
Matt then replies to Connor “Potential assault? I don’t think i did the assault myself. Probably someone in my team, are you able to describe them”
“I have a number of potential suspects, the appearance of which cannot be confirmed yet. Because of your proximity to the Victim, you serve as potential witnesses. Therefore i would like to collect evidence to support the case.”, Connor answered, glancing into the car at Isabella, before also scanning the vehicle she was sat in.
“Alright, here is the trunk.” Matt replies to the stern Connor.
Connor was confused initially, since he only inquired about questioning and not the vehicle’s contents, but with what was already known, taking a look into the trunk was very helpful for his work. There, he spotted the three cans of 10w40 engine oil, of which one has been opened at least once. “Is that the oil used for your vehicle’s engine?”, he inquired, unsure about the use for it as it might as well be carried for other use-cases.
Matt then says to Connor, “Yes it is for our vehicle’s engine.”
Connor nodded ever so slightly in acknowledgement, before he turned back to Matt.
“I would like to collect samples of evidence to compare against the sample taken from the Victim’s vehicle.”, Connor spoke, still rather stoic, but but not with an aura of authority.
“Those include samples from all three team member’s palms, if possible.”, he added, unsure as to how the two people outside the car at this time would react.
Matt replies to Connor, “Why the samples, What?” He is rather confused at this point, thinking its an DNA test.
“I can analyze samples taken in real-time. Please show me your hands, palms up.”, Connor ordered calmly, trying to not scare Matt on top of his apparent confusion. He then looked at John, then Isabella to see if either of them noticed as well.
Matt then shows his hands, palms up. John doesn’t notice.
Connor looks at those palms for a moment, before dragging two fingers along one of them, then the other like he did with Valentin’s hand this morning. Afterwards, he licks his own fingertips, accompanied by his circular LED on his right temple going from a steady blue to a flashing yellow hue. A few additional seconds pass, before the LED returns to blue.
“Thank you for you cooperation.”, Connor said in a voice that was calm, but the friendliness was still obvious compared to the previous tone of voice. He then nodded and went over to John, who was sat beside the not-lit grill.
John then looks at Connor. “Is this the uhh, test to verify if i have motor oil in my hands?”
“In effect, yes. I am checking every potential suspect this way to compare against the sample taken from the Victim’s vehicle.”, Connor replied. He was aware that John was nowhere near Robert, the Redneck Railcar at the time of the accident, but him being a team member might prove to be useful later on.
“Sure.” He then puts his hands, palms up.
Connor repeats the exact same process, followed by the exact same line of text thanking him for his cooperation. He nods a little to say goodbye and heads over to the driver window of the Schnell, behind which Isabella was sat. He carefully and lightly knocks against the door of the vehicle to get Isabellas attention.
Isabella says “Huh, what’s this about?”
Connor looks at Isabella, followed by a quick scan of the vehicle’s interior.
“Greetings. My name is Connor and i am working on a case of potential assault against another competitor. I am here to see if evidence or witness testimonies can be found to aid the case.”, Connor explained in a more friendly, but still professional way.
Isabella replies to Connor “Alright, that would work on my end.”
“I would like to collect a sample to compare against the one taken from the Victim’s vehicle. Please show me both hands, palms facing up.”, Connor ordered once more.
She then puts her hands up, palms facing up “This feels kinda awkward” Isabella says not long after doing that.
“I am sorry, but this is necessary to make progress in the investigation.”, Connor replies, before repeating the analysis procedure a third time.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”, he adds once he’s done taking the sample.
“No problem” Isabella replies back to Connor.
Connor rose from the window to address the team as a whole.
“I wish you a nice afternoon and appreciate the help in furthering the work on solving the case.”, Connor spoke aloud to all three and then turned around to head back to the other and of camp where the Bricksley, Anhultz and IP were all parked up.
Kaylie looked up as Constantin and Connor walked toward her after taking samples at the Dione while she was busy changing the Bricksley’s oil, currently in the process of adding the last quart. “Just a minute, I have a rule of no conversations until the oil cap is back on,” Kaylie said, finishing pouring the bottle, putting the cap on the Bricksley’s engine, then started cleaning up her funnel, emptying the drain pan into a jug that she then dropped into the toolbox, and wiping off her hands before closing the hood.
“So, what do you need?” Kaylie asked.
Both Constantin and Connor patiently waited for Kaylie to finish topping up the Bricksley’s engine oil.
Spotting the container of 10w30 synthetic oil being stowed, Connor gathered additional information for the investigation.
Once that was done, Connor didn’t wait long to get to the point.
“Concerns have been raised that the injuries Mr. Valentin Schrant sustained yesterday were not coincidental. I have collected evidence and would like to present them, for lack of a suitable superior to forward them to.”, Connor explained, calmly, yet professionally.
“Figured maybe one of those guy with the German V8 were less-than-lawful, since they’ve been snooping around our car for upwards of half an hour.”, Constantin added, crossing his arms as he did so.
“I see,” Kaylie said, a bit of an angered growl hiding behind her voice at the thought that someone could have been deliberately sabotaging other teams. The 9/16-inch wrench in her left hand glinted slightly in the Crugandr sun as she then said, “Very well, let’s hear this evidence, then.”
Before Constantin could warn about Connor potential bluntness, he started listing off what he discovered over the course of this day.
“I took a sample off of Valentin’s right hand, with which he grasped the roof rack before sliding off it. Within that sample were traces of grease, 15W20 engine lubricant used in our vehicle and foreign oil of 10W40 specification, supporting the initial idea of it being either battery or assault. At this point, the list of suspects had six entries, of which only four are currently known by name.
After arriving here, i took samples off of anyone of that list i could to see if traces of the foreign oil are to be found there. To finish assigning the samples to names and therefore people, i need to know who is competing using a modified Schnell XL53 V8”, Connor explained, not yet getting to his actual conclusions as the list of suspects currently is only partially filled with names.
Constantin, for now, just stood by, waiting for anything Kaylie had to say to him.
Kaylie’s eyes narrowed and her left hand clenched almost involuntarily, the poor 9/16 inch wrench bending under her grip. “The only people here with a modified Schnell XL53 V8 are the same trio of knuckleheads who thought driving drunk was a good idea. John, Matt, and Izzy. No, I don’t know their last names, they initialed their entry form,” Kaylie said in a deadly, low tone of voice, punctuated by a sharp snap as the wrench finally had enough and broke. The top of the wrench landed in the gravel with a metallic clink.
“Of course it’s them…”, Constantin mumbles under his breath, before Connor started going through his list of suspects.
“Thank you. I took samples of various people from three teams.”, he begins, his LED very briefly going yellow as he is recalling the data he has gathered.
“Constantin Schrant both never touched the Anhultz’s roof rack and also had no contact to any lubricant. Tim Redwood operated the grease gun used to prime the steam engine, but the viscosity didn’t match that found on the rack and on Valentin’s hands. Janne Mäkitalo was not present in a time frame close enough to allow intentional planning. By the time the accident happened, the lubricant applied would have diluted itself in dirt and dust. You were actively working on the driver-side window during your visit. Also, oil stains in fabric… or fur… would be very hard to get rid of. That leaves either member operating the Schnell, of which the taller male can be ruled out due to him not having been present.”, Connor cotinued after he had gotten the names, which weren’t of much use due to a lack of visual knowledge on who was Matt and who was John.
Connor was very thorough with his explanation, detailing everything known at this point in time.
“As of now, i only have the sample data as hard evidence. Questioning six people would have been substantially more time-consuming.”, Connor added, knowing that he jumped steps to get it done quickly.
Kaylie pointed at Connor with the broken end of the wrench still in her left hand. “You get any more evidence, I want to know about it. As it stands, I gave them one second chance, because everyone makes mistakes. Should have sent them home for that drunk driving stunt, but I was lenient. If it turns out that they did this,” Kaylie said, motioning toward the Dione and Valentin, “they will be going home. If they put up a fight,” Kaylie said, dropping the broken wrench and extending the titanium claws on her left hand, “they’ll get one.”
“I still have evidence.”, Connor replied, having stopped short of the biggest nugget that he had in stock.
"Traces of 10W40 oil have been found on Valentin Schrant’s hands. A suspect’s vehicle, the Schnell LX53, also uses 10W40 oil, of which they have three cans stored in the trunk. One of those cans has been opened at some point. In addition, residual oil was found on all three member’s hands.
I cannot confirm any intentional planning that would have caused injury to the victim, as it may also have been accidental. And without law enforcement in support, getting the investigation to progress further will be increasingly difficult.", Connor explained, sure of himself regarding the oil used, but also a bit disheartened at the fact that he had no legal basis to continue working off of.
“Yeah sure… ‘accidental’ caressing of a brass roof rack next to the nameplate. Mhm…”, Constantin muttered, now convinced, but equally unable to confirm it being intentional.
“With any other team, I’d give them a warning for being careless. They’ve had their warning,” Kaylie snarled, retracting her left hand’s claws abruptly with a sharp click. “It’s one thing to look at another team’s car. Twin Suns, even Kayden, Malavera, and Kivenaal had a look. Janne had a look. I had permission to help fix it. But I’d be willing to bet on it that none of them touched it without permission,” Kaylie said, holding up a Tigrilan crown coin. “Of course, betting isn’t in the spirit of this,” she added, rolling the coin back and forth across the knuckles of her left hand, more out of something to do that kept her from grabbing and destroying more tools than anything else.
She sighed. “Any other team, I’d tell them to be more careful. Team Slow is just reckless. Driving under the influence, and neither of their male team members had the thought to tell her, “No, you’re not doing this,” at any point? We’ve had impaired teammates. The worst was Malavera, who put his foot on the accelerator after he got a bit intoxicated and made Kivenaal have to fight a speeding truck. Kivenaal refused to drive under the influence. Jayde warned us that he wasn’t driving on this stage. At this point, they are endangering the safety of every person here. We’re all driving shit cars here to one degree or another. Malavera’s first rule was “Don’t be a dick.” Yes, he talked about breakdowns as the big one, but driving drunk is the ultimate dick move. That at the bare minimum, the day that they got a talking to about driving drunk, someone at the best was careless with oil, says they aren’t being responsible.”
After a few seconds, Kaylie shook her head. “I’m doing what I should have done for the drunk driving incident,” she said. “Team Slow will not be leaving for the next stage, they’ll be sent back to Earth. I’ll have to let Kivenaal, Rukari, and Kayden know, but I’ve made my decision.”
Constantin recalled their journey up to this point, taking a while to think and collect himself.
“We also had our share. Granted, none of us drink, as far as i am aware, but tiredness is as much of a killer as well. The very first day, all of us were knackered to shits and we ended up having Connor drive because he had no issue dealing with this whacky scale of day and night… And now that we are on rails, i am glad that our driver at least is guaranteed to be sober, even with both legs being in some state of fucked…”, Constantin said, vaguely pointing behind himself over his shoulder in reference to Valentin.
Connor simply stood there, having presented what he knew and was aware of, and was awaiting any specific orders from either Constantin or Kaylie.
Kivenaal, Malavera, and Kayden passed by as Constantin mentioned that tiredness was just as much a killer as driving under the influence. “Damn straight,” Malavera said. “We’ve had a few times where, even if Kivenaal might have been the better option for driving, we haven’t been able to put him safely behind the wheel because he has issues sleeping.”
“Seriously, he’s had at least once where he spent three nights waking up and not sleeping,” Kayden added. “Though, to be fair, he seemed to know he was too tired to drive safely because he never offered.”
Kivenaal gave a light shrug. “I don’t sleep well to begin with. It’s hard to be here for me, so… I try to deal with it. First, I tried to hide with alcohol, but after hearing about drunk drivers in camp, I poured the last of our moonshine into the fuel supply. I’m not saying I won’t ever drink alcohol again, but… Only to relax, and never alone. And after realizing how fucked up I was after the cinnamon rolls, stoned so completely that I didn’t even realize you’d changed the car so much, I’m never doing that again.”
Kaylie chuckled, though gave a serious look toward Connor. “Thank you,” she said, before looking to Constantin, “both of you, for bringing this to my attention.”
“At least no one else will get injured over this anymore… That shit with Val could’ve ended faaaaar worse than it did, really…”, Constantin countered, while Connor nodded in acknowledgement.
“Well i’m gonna head back and see if Val can be helped with his pain… somehow.”, he added, already in the process of turning around to head back for the Dione.
“Kayden, grab your kit and go with them, please,” Kaylie said. She turned to look at Constantin and added, “Kayden’s a field medic. Some of his stuff should be reasonably safe to use to help Valentin.”
Kayden nodded and grabbed a large black bag from under the rear bench seat. “At the very least,” Kayden said, “I’ve had it confirmed that the pain cream is quite safe. There may be a couple of alternative options, but,” Kayden sighed, “basically, the more I try to help, the more risks he’ll be taking. Now, I’ve been reasonably assured by my AI, Nova, that even the riskiest option is 95% likely to work, and that there’s no chance for death, but… Let’s just say that if I’m using that option, there’s going to be a lot of paperwork involved for me.”
to be continued once again
Does this imply i cannot do stage 9?