SERENADE
FULL PROLOGUE
DECEMBER 2018
UNNAMED HIGHSCHOOL
UNNAMED CITY, NEVADA
They say that the last period was almost always the period that went by the fastest, and that definitely seemed like the case for 16-year old Mikki, except not right now.
The clock slowly counted down with its ever-present dreadfully sharp but faint ticking sound, the only sound audible throughout the entire room, and Mikki sat there in the rickety and rough plastic school chair, bored out of his mind and waiting for class to finally end, his eyes jumping around the room from behind his high grade rectangular eyeglasses, landing occasionally on the bell, and occasionally, to the blonde-haired girl in the seat adjacent to his.
He would occasionally let out a quiet sigh as his mind lingered about, first to his close friends, then his education, the situation, and after a racetrack of emotions, back towards whatever landed in the crosshairs of his four eyes. He rested his sharp chin on his palm, and just stared momentarily at the back of this girl’s head.
The girl in question, I guess we can call her Ashley for now. A high-school senior a year older than him. He’s a boy and she’s a girl, like that one stupid Avril Lavigne song Mikki’s been listening to thanks to his older sister’s influence, it can’t be more obvious than this. Although what Mikki, and most of their friends don’t know is whether she wants him as well. And time is running out for him to find out.
About five minutes before the period ended, the teacher finally sat up from her desk behind the students and walked over towards the front of the class. She went on blabbering about some announcements over winter break, which Mikki would record in his memory and store for later without much thought over, but one announcement in particular had caught not only his, but everyone else’s attention, too.
With that, the teacher ended the announcements, and the class helper called out for everyone to stand, pose, and bow, and not long after that, the bell rang, marking the end of the school day and subsequently the end of the Semester, with students pouring out of the classrooms and merging into one colossal soup of people all racing their way towards the exits, or perhaps to after school clubs.
Mikki was intelligent enough to just wait for the crowd to disperse, and so was Ashley. They stood there nearby the doorway as they waited for the rest of their classmates to leave, with him standing behind her, having a view that he’d seen way too many times now, standing there helplessly unable to do much despite the opportunity right there within his own arms’ length. Yet again, he’d have his mind rush to give him ideas, although something had caught his eye through the doorway atop people’s heads.
Prom Night - Save the Day!
The poster he’d seen many times even since his freshman year, a poster that he saw every day as he came into this classroom for the past three years.
It clicked, but still his heart engaged with a tug-of-war with his brain, it was a few months too early, but he couldn’t be sure, either, what if someone else had the same idea as him? What if he was too late? What if she thought of him as too pretentious?
His senses heightened, and he heard the clock ticking behind him through the loud bell ring, and at last he took a gulp, and he reached out to tug at Ashley’s sleeve.
“Ash…”
She turned around towards him, with her blue orbs meeting his own eyes yet again, and a sense of clarity hit him like a rock as her face turned fully towards him. He froze in place, not even his instincts knowing what to do.
“Hm…? Something wrong?”
“I…”
He felt the words ready to fall out right there on the tip of his tongue, but something continued to keep it where it was. His head started to feel light, and he felt his heart pound quicker with every milisecond that passed.
Yet, he stood still. He looked away from her face, and glanced behind her at the poster yet again, the tug-of-war between his heart and his brain was still being fought, until it wasn’t. He saw the last person leave the room, and his mind snapped back into reality.
“Sorry, pretend I never got your attention.”
With that anticlimactic line, he moved past her towards the doorway, and out towards the exit and into the large yellow schoolbus, whispering curses at himself along the way.
After another bumpy ride home, the sun slowly drifted down atop the roof of his neighbours’ houses, and once Mikki got home, he rushed up towards his room and hopped onto his computer and onto the first buy and sell website he remembered. The screen immediately popped up with the dozens of pre-pandemic car choices he could go for, but he wasn’t sure which just yet.
He grabbed his phone, and scrolled through his contacts until he landed on a particular one, and dialed the number on the screen, and after a few short minutes of ringing, it picked up on the other end.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Allan, I could use some help…”
“Oh, it’s you, Mikki. Hey-! Bring the phone closer!”
Right after that, Mikki heard some loud crash on the speakers of his phone, and he was forced to move it away from his ear to avoid it having blown out. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah just, leave it there. Hinde, punyeta! Diyan!” He heard scolding through the phone for a bit before finally, everything seemed a bit less hectic. “Sorry 'bout that, Mikki. What’s up, calling me out of nowhere like this? Something about the meeting this weekend, or…?”
“Something else entirely. You know that girl in our Japanese class…?”
“Uh-huh, of course it’s about her.”
“Hey! You were the same with Elise a few years back, don’t judge me! Anyway, thing is… y’know how prom’s coming up right?”
“Prom’s still a few months away. What now, you’re gonna ask her out to that? Oh, please! Naaalala mo pa ba yung nang yari kay Sofie? Don’t be stupid. That might’ve been five years ago, but-”
Mikki cut him right off there. “Don’t bring that up! I have a much better plan now, alright? It’ll go better this time, trust me. Me and Ashley knew each other since the beginning of high-school, I won’t make the same mistake. Plus, diba nga, mas mabilis ang mga babaeng Amerikano?”
“Mikki, a theory is a theory until proven.”
“This one’s been proven many times!”
“In Hollywood? Sa isang kanta ng Parokya Ni Edgar? Saan mo nanaman nakuha ang iyong inspirasyon?”
“Look man, it’s my last chance. She’s graduating this year, there’s a massive chance I won’t see her anymore when she heads off to uni, I want to at least make this year’s memories last.” Mikki flopped down onto his bed behind him.
“What will I get out of this?”
“I’ll buy you that Sendo GT Vintage Neo model.”
For a moment there wasn’t a response, and Mikki grew worried. He knew that Allan was the kind of person who was decently easy to persuade with enough reason, but Mikki’s reasons weren’t so… reasonable, per say. Eventually however, with a sigh, Allan responded.
“You drive a hard bargain, what’s the plan? I won’t openly judge you anymore.”
Upon hearing this, Mikki enthusiastically sat up from his bed with excitement, and began to explain his so-called masterplan to get the-senior-girl-from-his-Japanese-class’s heart.
“Righty-o! So I was thinking of buying my first car, since I’ve already got $4500 working at the local parks…”
“I don’t like where this is goin-”
“And I was thinking of getting one that could aid in-”
“Your desperate endeavor to find your whoever?”
“Precisely!” Mikki said enthusiastically as he sprung up from his bed.
On the other end meanwhile, there was a seemingly long silence, and Mikki stood there awkwardly for a good few seconds until finally he had heard a sigh and the phone being moved about.
“Hesus, Santa Maria… This can only go so well…”
A teenager, $4500, Prom Night, and the girl of his dreams.
Need I say anything more?
REQUIREMENTS
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Trim/Variant Year 1978-2004
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Model Year no older than 1975
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Variant Year must match Trim Year (No engine swap rebuild nonsense)
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At least 2 seats minimum
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2 seat rows maximum
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Maximum of 3 doors
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Coupe/Liftback/2-door Sedan/Roadster style body required. (aka no hot hatches)
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Standard Safety minimum
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Semi Slick Tyres banned
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Maximum price (according to the calculator) of $4500, hard limit.
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Catalytic Converter required
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Race Parts of any kind banned
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Leaded fuel of any kind banned
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Anything above 91 AKI / 95 RON “Required” Fuel Type banned (Tuned fuel type can be higher)
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Game version to be used: openbeta - LCV4.2 Opt-In Alpha
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An ad of some form is required. It can be anything, newspaper ad, Facebook marketplace ad, craigslist ad, fuck-you-baltimore, whatever.
PRIORITIES
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Realism
One thing I enjoy emphasizing on any challenge I host. If it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it. Do your research. etc. I’m not your dad. -
Looks/Aesthetics
Mikki does not like things that remind him of his own looks. Oh, he also has a preference towards red, blue, or white cars, though he thinks the girl he likes has a preference for yellow cars, so he’ll look for something like that too. He also won’t be looking for what is basically a souped up econobox or whatever. -
Comfort
Mikki will likely be using this as a daily driver, but more importantly, he doesn’t want his self-proclaimed future girlfriend to be turned away by how rough it rides. -
Driveability
He’s not looking for an ultra driver-oriented, “stick the shifter up my arse”, “feel the road through my asscheeks”, driving experience, but he does like some road feel into it. He also prefers manual transmissions over automatics because he prefers the ability to ka-chunk-chunk the gears around, and also because he does not want any of his other family members (sans dad) to drive his “baby”.
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Fuel Economy
Nevada has a minimum wage of 8 dollars and Mikki gets 5 bucks a week allowance from his parents. Sure, gas isn’t as shitfuck expensive as it is in California or whatever, but he’d rather not get a gas guzzler that consumes the entire Persian Gulf just to get to school and back. -
Prestige
He’s a 16-year-old with a girl to impress, obviously he wants something decently fancy for his money. A dedicated sports platform would be great, or a personal luxury coupe with sports pedigree could also work. -
Sportiness
Something that pulls on the interstate, makes a fun noise, and can be thrown around a corner like the young and dumb teen that he is would be greatly appreciated.
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Reliability/Service Costs
Sure, his dad might be relatively knowledgeable in terms of fixing stuff, but spare parts when you need to replace them are expensive. Better if they didn’t break every few thousand miles. Also, ever wondered how awkward it’d be if it broke down on the way to their highschool with the girl in the passenger seat? -
Practicality
He’s not looking for a minivan, but he’d like something he can store groceries in, or some of his larger after-school club equipment like model airplanes. -
Price
If something X can do the same thing as Y but cheaper, he’ll get that one. Yadda yadda value for money you get the gist. He’s obviously not getting a shitbox and he’ll use all of his money if need be. Remember to use the calculator linkedbelowmultiple times in this post!
FOOTNOTES
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Up to you whether or not this information is useful to you or not.
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This challenge is meant to be pretty diverse in what you can enter. Want to send in a 70s Honda Prelude? Sure. Will it win? God knows lmfao.
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You can tune for a higher fuel octane, Mikki only ever gets Super Unleaded like the idiot he is because he sacrifices his payments for other things.
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Mikki does not currently have a car of his own, and as such this is going to be his first car (this was mentioned in the prologue but i guess no one cares about my fanfictions
). He borrows his dad’s 1998 Yamada Commander SUV whenever he needs to go somewhere. -
Mikki wants a stock car that’s basically factory condition, aftermarket rim swaps are okay though so long as they’re not 24-inch donks or whatever, since he’s not a dollar menu millionare. But generally, most critical components he’d prefer to keep stock, like suspension, engine, etc. He also does not want to deal with someone else’s homemade botch-job of a modification. Exceptions are there for stuff like ASC convertible conversions.
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He does not like right-hand-drive because he thinks that driving one on left-hand-drive roads is stupid. Not an instabin if you send something in but will put you at a severe disadvantage.
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A rather random fact that Mikki knows about Ashley is that she has a mole on her chest. How he knows this is “none of your concern”.
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From what Mikki has heard, Ashley has a dog, and likes cute and fairly small objects. Mikki prefers larger vehicles, so he’ll have to balance this out.
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Mikki has a height of 190cm. He’s not getting a hairdresser’s roadster.
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Not like this is important, but Ashley has a height of 150cm.
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He also knows that she dislikes very loud noises, and as such he’d probably consider a car that isn’t too loud.
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Adding onto the previous point, Mikki does not like turbos all too much, but if a good enough car with a turbo comes along, he might consider it. But at the same time, he thinks turbos make wierd spinny loud noise that might turn Ashley off, so he’s putting that into consideration when picking a car.
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Mikki’s family’s garage only fits two cars, and considering his family has a lot of other stuff he’ll also put this into consideration when picking a car. He has vetoed that he will be putting his car in the garage, however.
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Mikki likes old retro techy stuff from the 80s and 90s, and would probably find it cool if he found a car with the original Cassette/CD stereo.
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Ashley is said to like green according to her friends, but Mikki can’t seem to confirm this on his own. Probably because he’s way too awkward to even ask a simple question such as this one so you’re now likely going to doubt he’s going to pull off his plan to serenade her beneath a starry sky, the cold winter breeze, and be captivated within Ashley’s gaze. yeah
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One thing Mikki does have confidence about with Ashley is that she likes pretty much the same genre of music as him, and since he’d want to listen to some banging tunes with her in the car, he’ll likely be looking at cars with a decent stereo.
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Mikki has a pair of New Balance 576s. Make what you will out of that.
Inspirations
ROUND OPENS
ROUND CLOSES
SUBMITTING:
Model/Family: CSR 144 - <your username>
Trim/Variant: whatever
PM the .car file through discourse ONLY. I will not be accepting entries on Discord except in very special and/or exclusive cases.
NOTE: When submitting a car, include in your PM if your car has TCS or not, because apparently Automation removes it upon loading in a new car from the importer. Not sure about Variable Power Steering, but tell me about that too. If you fail to tell me this information, I’ll assume your car has neither and will be judged as-is.
DISCLAIMER, READ BEFORE SENDING IN A SUBMISSION:
THIS IS ROUND THAT RUNS AN EXPERIMENTAL AND RATHER UNSTABLE VERSION OF THE GAME, SUBMIT WITH CAUTION AND EXPECT SHIT TO HIT THE FAN FASTER THAN A MUSTANG CAN HIT 60
BY SUBMITTING YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO BE FULLY AWARE OF THE RISKS INVOLVED
Enjoy!