Team VSmgAB & Team Shift Happens
Stage 0 Camp, The Range (VSmgAB + Shift Happens)
Stage 0 Camp, Nighttime Breaker Trip (VSmgAB + Shift Happens)
Stage 0 Camp; Can’t sleep (VSmgAB; Machinas Con Passione)
Stage 1 Drive (VSmgAB)
Stage 1 Drive (Shift Happens)
Stage 2 Drive/Camp (Shift Happens)
Writer’s note: Other than a single relevant plot point during the drive to the second camp, nothing of note happens. Said event will be referenced below.
Stage 2 Camp; Hollenburg Campsite
After 9 hours of less-than eventful running along Nehmenweld’s railways, the convoy of four cars pulls into the lot with a little more than half of the participating vehicles already present, among which Shift Happens.
As the camp lights were already set up, they carefully navigated the mess of poles and cables strewn across the place before, as always, parking up smack-dab in the middle of the teams already present.
Immediately afterwards, power was set up, made evident by the entire camp being flooded with nearly useless lighting, given that it was nowhere near dusk at this time.
Once that was done, all the teams present and also drawing power got their share of angry electrons.
Now that Valentin had some time outside of necessary duties, he procured a small stack of three binders, which he skimmed through while sat in the driver’s seat of Robert the second.
“Wait what?” he mumbles in disbelief while almost staring into one of the binders opened up across his lap. As he flipped through further, it was patently obvious that the contents of it were not some elaborate prank or something along those lines, which sent Valentin into a level of confusion as if it was written in 96px impact font across his forehead.
Checking the other two binders did not help at all, containing what amounts to the same thing with some details changed up.
Eventually, he climbs out of the heavily reclined seat, hauling the stack of binders over to Kaylie of Shift Happens, who, together with most of the remaining team, was busy cooking up lunch on a charcoal grill.
“Uhm… mind if we talk for a minute? I have… uhm… high-profile mail here…” Valentin asks while holding up the three binders.
Kaylie nodded, motioning to Val to sit down at the folding table in one of the larger, reinforced metal folding chairs. “Sure, Valentin. I was on standby in case Kasiya needed help with cooking, but,” Kaylie said, motioning in Kasiya’s direction as the power-armored werewolf casually flipped pork chops on the grill, only occasionally having to prod one into the spot he wanted it to be, “as you can see, he’s surprisingly good in that suit. And don’t worry, I think he’s gentler in the suit than outside of it.”
“I’m just aware of what the suit is capable of,” Kasiya admitted. “It’s why I’m not moving any more than I must do for the purpose of cooking.”
Kaylie chuckled. “Yeah, apparently, Kayden never got the memo about “don’t talk with your hands while in powered armor.” He still moves his hands around without realizing that one dramatic arm sweep might leave someone with a bloody nose. Anyway, you said you have some high-profile mail, and wanted to talk, so I’ll shut up and listen. If you and your crew are in the mood for pork chops off the grill, you’re welcome to share.”
With how mentally taxing the news within the binders was to Valentin, he managed to be completely oblivious to armored-up Kasiya until Kaylie mentioned it.
Even then, he was remarkably calm about it.
“Anyway…” he starts, plonking the set of binders onto the fold-up table, “simply put. Multiple companies over here apparently want me as chief engineer for their railroads. I haven’t read them in full… yet… but i am ostensibly a foreigner to everyone here…”
Kaylie gave a light smile, then replied, “Well, you did make a bit of a statement last year. I’m not entirely surprised that you’ve got companies being interested in you.”
Kasiya tried his best to ignore the personal conversation, knowing he wasn’t technically invited into it, and as a result, trying to listen in would be more-or-less deliberately eavesdropping. “Hey, Rukari, mind if I borrow your magnetic-tape playback unit?”
Rukari looked a bit confused, until Kaylie, with a smirk, said, “He’s asking to borrow your cassette player.”
“Oh. Yes, just be careful with it,” Rukari said, handing it to Kasiya. Kasiya unplugged Rukari’s earbuds and handed them back, plugging in his own set and starting the tape, only to immediately flinch and scramble for the volume wheel.
“If he starts going deaf,” Kasiya said, “get on his case about the loud music.” He attached the player to his left shoulder with a velcro strap, then returned to cooking, now that he could suitably block out the conversation around him.
“I have no idea if that statement is still true… regardless, i have no clue what to do with these, since i also do not fancy moving away from earth for an engineer job of unknown pay-grade and working conditions…” Valentin remarked, completely ignoring the request for the tape player, but still being polite enough to not talk over that conversation.
Kaylie thought for a moment, then said, “I can understand that thought-pattern.” She knocked on the side of the Home Unit, then said, “Jayde, Malavera, I need your input on something.”
Jayde arrived almost instantly, just pulling on a warm coat before sitting in one of the chairs. “Mal will be out here shortly, but he’ll be a bit grumpy,” Jayde warned.
Kaylie groaned. “One moment, Val,” she said, before getting up and walking into the Home Unit’s living area. When she returned with Malavera following, however, it was clear she was looking a bit embarrassed.
Malavera, on the other hand, gave a light smirk with one of his two heads as he joined the other two at the table. “Well, now that Kaylie’s seen more of me than she intended to,” he quipped, “we can figure out what was so important that I need to put my nap off for a few hours.”
Kaylie sighed. “How was I to know this fucker sleeps naked on top of the covers?” she muttered. “Anyway, Val has some companies looking at hiring him here in this world. He also has no plans to move here. Is there a possible way to bridge between here and Earth for Valentin, should he want to do this?”
Jayde nodded. “I can create a mirror-bridge between here and Earth. It’s… Not exactly easy, but I did learn how to do it. I’d be a bit tired after doing so, but a night of rest and some food, I’ll be fine,” Jayde admitted, trying his best to avoid mentioning the word magic around Valentin.
“Payment wouldn’t be too hard to make legal,” Malavera said. “I have the deed to a silver mine in Nevada. We could have an agent involved, who uses the coin of the realm to purchase silver, transport that to Earth, it gets sold as a product of my mine, and you then have United States Dollars. Logistically… I’d hire you as an independent contractor so I could pay you your wages. Obviously, taxes are going to take a fair chunk, but… Considering how much silver goes for at the moment, it’s reasonable.”
“Money here is backed in precious metals,” Jayde admitted. “For example,” he said, putting a Silver Syrkal on the table, “that is worth $36, in equivalent buying power. But here, it can be used to buy silver, which when transported to Earth, could be worth more than $36.”
“Alright i am not gonna question your habits of sleep…” Valentin blankly commented, involuntarily exercising the thought of imagining the Shift Happens crew asleep, but quickly collecting himself and listening to what they had to contribute.
“So… we set up one of those mirror portal things like what you came to earth through… use Malavera’s silver mine rights as a middleman for legal purposes on earth, thus tying actual wage to earthen silver prices… and… one moment.” Valentin said, thinking for a moment about the process that would be used,
“That also means that actual wage would theoretically be linked to earthen silver prices, though, right?”
Jayde gave an appreciative smile, then said, “A traveling mirror between your residence and your place of work, that’s easy enough to do. Malavera’s the mine-owner, so, he’s the authority there. But yes, buying local raw silver with local currency, then transporting that to Nevada, where the silver will be sold for US dollars, at which point, you’ll be paid.”
When Valentin asked if his wage would be linked to Earth’s silver prices, Malavera gave a light nod. “Yes. Though if what Kivenaal says is true, it’s in your favor that way, at least at the moment.”
Kivenaal sat up on the roof rack of the Home Unit, then admitted, “A Silver Syrkal is worth about $36 in buying power here, compared to 1920’s and 1930’s era dollars. The amount of silver purchased with that amount of money and brought to Earth, well… I get about three ounces per Silver Syrkal here, and then sell three ounces for about $20 per ounce.”
Malavera chuckled, then said, “As mentioned before, prices are in your favor, even though it’s not guaranteed to be stable.”
Jayde then mentioned, “As for influence on the markets, what we’re proposing to do shouldn’t make too much of a dent. It’s not like we’re dropping Kasiya’s weight in gold on the market. Silver’s fairly common.”
“Uhm… sure hope the silver market does not crash, then…” Valentin mumbled as he rearranged the binders on his desk, picking one seemingly at random to dig into.
Said binder was made of leader and had a very ornate Logo fabricated onto it. A string of text made it obvious that this specific one belonged to the Holsian State Railways.
“Wait… are we not in Nehmenweld? Am i getting international requests now?”, he mumbled mostly to himself, but still loud enough for the others at the table to hear.
He then started actually reading through the proposal…
Kivenaal chuckled. “If you’re concerned about crashing the silver market, I can purchase other valuable metals and sell those as well,” he admitted. “Silver is just one of the easier ones I can buy.”
When Val mentioned he had an international request, Jayde took a look at the binder just out of curiosity. “Yeah, that’s interesting,” Jayde admitted, before pulling out a map of the world from his bag. He rolled it out on the table and carefully traced his fingers over it, studying the map. “We’re here in Nehmenweld,” he said, running a hand over the huge southern continent of the world." He traced his hand across the middle of the map, stating, “Equator is here. Then, up here, this is Holsia. Unfortunately, that’s all I really know about them is where they are on a map. Never been there.”
“Neither have I,” Kivenaal admitted. “I’d ask Rukari, but…”
Rukari stuck his head out from behind the HD-GV Home Unit and admitted, “Never been to Holsia. Have seen it on sea charts, but never been there.”
Kivenaal leaned down over the side of the roof rack, trying to smack his brother’s head for the mild startle, only for Rukari to grab Kivenaal’s hand and pull. The end result was both Valraadii giving a pained grunt as Kivenaal landed on Rukari, knocking them both to the ground.
Jayde looked over at them, then said, “Well, that’s certainly a new one. What’d we learn?”
“Rukari’s mean, but not clever,” Kivenaal quipped.
“Kivenaal is heavy and lands with elbows on you,” Rukari groaned out, slowly sitting up after shoving his bigger brother off of him.
“Those two,” Malavera said in an off-hand comment, “will probably never change.”
Valentin was largely busy reading the proposal -or at least what seemed to be the most important parts- and also studying the map of Jayde when both Kivenaal and Rukari went to the ground.
Shaken, Valentin almost jumps up from the table:
“You okay?”, he inquires as a fall from about 4 meters cannot have been pleasant.
“We’re both okay,” Rukari said.
“I’ll feel that one later, but, yeah, I’m fine,” Kivenaal added.
Kayden had heard the sound of someone taking a bit of a tumble and wandered out of the Home Unit’s cab to see both Rukari and Kivenaal laying on the ground. “Right, did either of you break something?” Kayden asked.
Kivenaal groaned and pulled himself to his feet using Malavera’s shoulder, then said, “No, just sore.”
“My foot fell off,” Rukari grumbled, taking a few extra minutes to put his prosthetic foot back on the end of his right leg before he stood up and settled at the table.
Kasiya, still mostly oblivious to the conversations going on, finally set a plate of pork chops down on the table in a clear spot, grabbing a couple of buns and a couple pork chops to fill them with as he settled down next to the end of the table, still able to use it like everyone else.
“Hey, Takaraya, food’s ready,” Kaylie called out. Takaraya, as a result, climbed out of the back of the Home Unit, settling at the table in one of the reinforced folding chairs.
“I am going to dig through these proposals for a bit…” Valentin commented as he returned to his seat between binders, a map and now a plate of porkchop sandwiches.
A while of reading follows until Valentin closes that binder up again.
“They are apparently offering about 11 million of their currency per year, plus a further 110 thousand for each engine built with my blueprints…” Valentin commented, having no idea how much money that actually would translate to, made worse by the ring of common languages apparently not translating the name of the currency in question.
He then quickly skims the other two binders for the proposed wages.
“The Queensdale Southern Central apparently offers 920 golden Syrkals… aaand…”
he pauses, flipping through the third binder,
“The *Northern and Mountain Transportation proposes 830 golden Syrkals, plus 1400 Syrkals for each design that enters production. What they mean by ‘entering production’ is inconclusive though…”
From Malavera’s wrist-watch, a dark holographic figure appeared, wearing a very-much military uniform, down to the fact that he was processing it in green color. “I may have an answer for part of your questions. By “entering production,” what they are referring to is, and I quote, “Any engine that is produced with the intent of usage in revenue-earning service. Engines built for testing or research purposes are not considered part of being in series production. Production runs of fewer than 25 copies are considered invalid for the purposes of this contract.” So, to summarize, any locomotive assembled in 25 or more units, built for railroad service, will count toward that bonus.”
Malavera looked over at Val, then said, “Well, you just met Hunter.”
Nova piped up from Kayden’s pocket, “Well, that was a dusty archive crawl that got me nowhere. Not one reference in my currency database to Holsia.”
Layara, choosing to appear holographically on the table at one-foot-tall, gave a polite bow in Val’s direction before admitting, “It appears that my archives are incomplete. I have no record of Holsia in my internal archive. However,” Layara paused for a moment, before continuing, “The HD-GV units have an onboard mainframe. It is possible that there could be data in there that I do not have remote access to. I can get Kasiya to go check the archives, though I make no promises that we’ll find anything in there.”
Suddenly meeting two new AI personalities, especially in visual form appearing in two very different places proved to be somewhat overwhelming to Valentin. Nova speaking from within Kayden’s pocket fueled this further.
“Uhhh… sure.” he stammers, not really knowing what he actually agreed to while his gaze darted back and forth between Malavera, Layara and Hunter in an attempt to match voice to ‘face’.
“One moment while I attempt to get Kasiya’s attention, then,” Layara said. She then turned to Rukari and asked, “Can you please turn off the cassette playback device?”
Rukari nodded, before pulling out his own set of earbuds and motioning to Kasiya that he wanted the player back. Kasiya nodded, stopping the tape, disconnecting his own set of earbuds, and handing the portable player back over. As soon as Kasiya had put his own earbuds back away, Layara looked to him and said, “I need you to check the HD-GV archives for Valentin.”
Kasiya shrugged, then got up and opened the rear cab door to the Home Unit, as it was the closer of the two vehicles to the table. His fingers, even in power armor, flew over the keyboard, logging in and opening the archive search function. “Okay, archives are open. What’s the search query?” Kasiya asked.
Layara responded, “Aetherii, Currency, country of origin, Holsia.”
Kasiya typed in the keywords, then hit the enter key with his right thumb. “Mainframe is now searching the archives on both the Home Unit and the Carry All,” Kasiya mentioned.
Then, after two agonizingly long minutes, the screen displayed an annoying result. “No information available,” Kasiya said. “It checked both trucks, there’s nothing.”
“Looks like this has to wait for a bit, then… might as well ask around for conversion rates if and when the time comes…” Valentin relented, closing up the slew of paperwork strewn across the table, even going as far as folding up Jayde’s map, which took a few attempts to figure out the folding pattern.
“Mind if i nick a porkchop for the way back to Robert?”, he inquires once everything was packed up.
Kasiya locked the computer, then dropped back down out of the cab of the truck, for the briefest of moments forgetting about his added weight as he rattled the dishes on the table. “Sorry. Forgot that I’m close to 1600 kilograms in this for a moment,” Kasiya admitted a bit sheepishly.
When Val asked if he could grab a porkchop to take back, Kasiya, however, smiled. “Take as many for yourself and Norse as the two of you will eat. We always end up making a little extra because what isn’t eaten today becomes breakfast tomorrow, and worst case scenario, we rely a little on Jayde’s bag of surprises.”
“Hey, I don’t have a carton of eggs in my bag this time, so don’t get any ideas. We brought a refrigerated cube for a reason,” Jayde admitted. “Thank you, Valentin, by the way,” he said, tucking his map into the front pouch on his bag.
As Val scooped up two more sandwiches and wandered over toward Robert, the rest of the crew started seriously digging into the sandwiches.
TEAM FRIENDSHIP! :D 
Oh, we’re from out of town.”
from 
another planet! 
whole continent! 
Bus! 
” cheered Riley, who seemed to notice nothing weird about this at all. “And actually, we were planning to decorate 
it as we went along, with something from each town we stopped at!”
or art traditions in Silvercreek, that we could use as a decoration?”
Oooh, Silver!” perked Freddie. “I can work with that! 
”
”
, officer! What’s wrong.”
Two 
” The car responded, complete with matching ‘body language.’
”
, sir!” said the car. “You’re welcome to use the ramp on the other side.”
” The yellow one offered.
” The driving one concluded.
”
