Stage 10: Magic Moments
teams included: Shift Happens by @Madrias, Hillbilly Rollers by @Knugcab and Firulais by @Angelustyle
teams mentioned only: Chitco by @MrdjaNikolen, Fuist by @Djadania
In the next morning, Thomas had a serious hangover. Jan had to convince him to leave the bed at all, just like Chantal. Thankfully, Thomas can´t remember everything of the previous day, including Chanty doing her racing taxi and planning to make him a grandfather… which is propably a very good thing.
When they were about to proceed to the starting line, the radio of the car was blazing awful music at full volume!
“WHAT SHIT IS THAT? WHO USED THE CAR LAST?”
“CHANTY, WERENT YOU USING IT LAST NIGHT? I SAW YOU DRIVING OFF TOGETHER WITH THE FIRULAIS CAR”
“JAN, YOU DAMN SNITCH! AS IF I WOULD LISTEN TO THIS CRAP? WHAT LANGUAGE IS THAT EVEN?”
“SWEDISH!”
“ALL RIGHT KIDS, WE WILL PAY THIS BACK TO THE HILLBILLYS! BUT FIRST HELP ME TURNING OFF THE RADIO BY GIVING ME THE FUSE DIAGRAM!”
“DAD, DOES THIS MEAN WE HAVE NO MORE MUSIC?”
“FOR TODAY, DEFINITELY!”
A very disappointed Chanty then looked at her headphones as if she wanted to marry them, and then just put them on and solved the problem for herself with that.
The way up on narrow and muddy roads was quite slow and challenging, and Thomas was very happy to have fitted more or less still roadworthy all-season-tires on the car, so that the large RWD car could be kept on course, and a bit of playing with the traction control switch allowed for a good balance between not getting stuck and not skidding off the road. When Thomas and Chanty had a smoking break, they were surprised how much colder it was now, and had to grab pullovers to enjoy their cigarettes, and they hoped that it will be not THAT cold in Prentare, and the snow/rain combination would stop.
“What is this place here?”
“Prentare.”
“Looks like a shrunken capital. So, I can´t see a campsite, we are right in the city center.”
“There is none.”
“So, a hotel again? GREAT! My back was already getting used again to a proper bed yesterday. And even if the weather is now a lot better, its still cooooold if your aren´t kissed by the sun´s rays…”
“If the roadbook doesn´t lie, … we sleep in the streets.”
“WHAT? NO WAY I AM LIVING LIKE A HOMELESS!”
“Thomas, this might be a humbling experience for you then.”
“I SAID NO WAY. You can do what you want, but I will book a hotel room.”
“And that from someone born and raised in a socialist country, weird.”
“JAN! I HAVE BACK PAIN!”
“You skipped the biking excercises that you promised for two stages now. You should do that now, or do you want to die early?”
“Yes.”
Chanty, who just switched her headphones off and stopped dancing with herself, gave her father a hard slap with the roadbook, again crying and clearly being sad.
“DON´T SAY THAT! IF YOU DIE, I WILL KILL YOU!”
“Calm down, I meant yes to… that I should do cycling today… ok??”
A still crying Chanty then firmly hugged her father, pointing out that she saw a propably abandoned bike at the roadside only a few blocks away, and that she will get it for him, while Thomas organized a table in a nearby restaurant.
Thomas tried to read out what was written on a special offer advertizing, doing that loudly to make the translator ring translate it.
“I SUCK D—S!?”
Some heads turned towards Thomas, with a range of facial expressions going from amused to really offended.
“Nah that can´t be accurate, I need to work on my pronounciation of Holsian…”
Now as Thomas seems to talk with a ring, the locals just thought he … is an inpatient from the local hospital´s mental ward and didn´t bother much. Then, he finally read it out correct.
“ALL YOU CAN EAT. Well, that´s for us then, definitely. Let´s go in before that glutton gollum finds out then, because that discount troll and my little monster don´t work well together at buffets.”
The Rhinos entered the restaurant with only two members, as Chantal wanted to do something first that would make her hungry… And… well, the restaurant owner regretted it already when Thomas took his fourth dish, but then Chanty entered, excusing herself that she sweated a lot and needed a shower at a nearby public bath first… and started eating. Why she carried some bench seat… is a mystery for now only she knows the answer to.
The “All you can eat” advert was… removed even before Chantal finally considered herself some kind of saturated.
“Chanty,… you better stop now.”
“But why? Itff deliffiouf. Mmm.”
“The waiter and the cook will kill you soon if you don´t stop ruining them. So, eat your dessert and let´s get out of here.”
“Deffert? Whif deffert?”
“HOW DID YOU EAT THIS UP NOW? IT WAS STLL HERE NOT EVEN A MINUTE AGO! Move it Chanty, I better give them some tip… YOU BLACK FOOD HOLE!”
After finally leaving and relieving the restaurant owner, Chantal showed her father the bike, but Thomas already cheated by using a starter wired to… the battery of his car that was taped in place in the rear, building an E-Bike, since Thomas didn´t really want to do excercising.
“THOMAS! THAT IS CHILDISH CHEATING!”
“It´s not. I promised you to ride a bike, and I DO RIDE A BIKE NOW.”
“NO! This isn´t sport, that´s just… ah come on, it´s your fault then if your heart finally gives up.”
“YELLOW CARD, JAN! Don´t speak up to me like that! I warn you once, not twice!”
“Yeah, Thomas the Temper Engine, I see!”
Chanty was now having another panic attack from seeing her loved ones arguing, and jumped onto the bike and accellerated hard, as the starter of the car does have some force to crank that large V6 engine.
“DAMN! THIS BIKE DOES NOT HAVE THE BRAKES ADAPTED! STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!”
But it was too late, Chanty was already out of sight, and lost control with the extreme accelleration, unable to slow down with the almost non-existant brakes, and managed to hit a lamppost with high speed, and to put it mildly, after encountering Maries rage, she looked a lot better than now. Sadly, Marie was standing next to her now, as the Hillbilly Rollers were leaving a pharmacy, buying Marie some pills against her hangover headache. Janne was almost wiped off the sidewalk from the uncontrolled bicycle.
“OH SHIT! That was painful! Chantal! HEY, CHANTAL! CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
“Yes… DAMN! THIS HURTS!”
“You don´t get my painkillers, smurfette!”
“MARIE, YOU ARE NOT ASKED!”, answered an annoyed Andreas.
“Can you stand up?”
“I can´t… use my legs”
, cried Chanty, overwhelmed by the shock.
“Well, if you are now paralyzed, you can maybe ask your daddy for a wheelchair from Primus, these cars look like prescribed from doctors anyway!”
“SHUT UP!”
, yelled Janne and Andreas, perfectly sychronized, but what Marie said was already processed in Chantys brain, who was now terrified and cried even more, so that she was totally unable to communicate with others anymore.
“I wish that would have happened to you, Marie”
“Come on, Janne, you know that bikes are for kids and environmentalists only. So, that leftist kid got what it deserved.”
“You should be happy that you didn´t get what you deserve - YET!”
Janne tried to calm Chanty down and checked her for serious injuries.
“We will carry you to Shift Happens, they can perform magic, so that can be cured easily, if it is no serious injury.”
“Yeah, but this looks serious.”
“Andreas, I am NOT BLIND.”
In that moment, Jan and Thomas appeared out of nowhere, and very exhausted, as they ran as fast as they could. Thomas visibly suffered from seeing Chantal in that state, and tried to ease himself up with black humor.
„At least it´s the lamppost in front of a pharmacy, so the way is short to get medical supplies… and the hospital is right over here.“
„No, Thomas, we need some magic. I don´t want to hand her out to people with 1930s knowledge and instruments. When they see how her mental health is, they will propably lobotomize her. I will now use the emergency ring!“
„Fine, Jan, but they already weren´t able to help her with magic when we asked last.“
„That is something way more serious than feeling homesick. Actually, they did help us with magic already, remember when you had a weird feeling where I was when I insisted on walking ? That was them doing magic.“
“They should magically let her disappear instead, that would do us all a favor”
, said Marie, with Thomas heating up even more.
“YOU GOLLUM WILL NOW GO AWAY AND LEAVE MY DAUGHTER IN PEACE, OR I WILL STUFF YOUR MOUTH!”
“Looking at your daughter, you have already a hard time stuffing her mouth with food, but Jan could need a bit more to eat.”
Thomas pushed Marie, who … had problems keeping balance, as she was even a lot heavier than Chantal, and she fell almost on Chanty that would have become flat as a pancake, so Thomas tackled her to change the direction towards … hard cobblestone.
“AAAAAAAAAAARGH SHIT!”
“What is it Thomas?”
“I think that gollum is even so heavy that I broke my arm at the contact. FUCK!”
In just that moment, Shift Happens arrived, called by Jan with the emergency ring. They improvised with a bench seat in their bus as bed for Chanty, while Thomas, still standing on two feet, was checked outside since Chanty, now crying less and again aware of what happens around her, should not see her father being injured. Angel sent Ana to comfort Chanty a bit, as he himself didn´t dare to join - that much stress might trigger a mindreading incident. Jayde was setting up his stuff, while Lauren dried Chantys tears with her furry paw.
“So, it will be all right, Ana is here since someone will have to guide you to your campsite, as our magic drinks include a lot of alcohol…, and Andrea and her centaur friend… Ah, Pi, yes, that tattoo on Andrea is really a good reminder, were also here. They both can´t see blood so I told them to come back later, and sorry for throwing Jan out, but he was just too nervous and is propably better off preparing your campsite, as you are not in real danger. So, many people look foward to be hugged by you as soon you walk out of here.”
“That means…that I … have almost as many friends as diagnosed mental illnesses? Really?”
“Of course you have, and…”
“LAUREN! Can you please come over?”
Kiva interrupted them, and Lauren excused herself and went outside, and Jayde pointed on his casted arm.
„We need to make sure nothing is broken, as we can´t fix that easy. It would be a very risky magic spell, and we don´t even try that on ourselves because of the possible complications. Ana, I could you please do that? It might be easier if a friend touches her, and I need to get some herbals.“
Ana did as ordered, and Chanty cried a lot, as some pressing here and there caused some pain.
“Eh, if you still feel pain on everything, you are definitely not paralyzed, so, forget about what that hillbilly monster said, do you understand?”
“Yes… but… how bad is it? It feels like nothing is in place anymore?”
„Oh, oh, quite a lot broken, but guess what? There will be enough space on that giant cast for all people to sign it!“
Chantals eyes became empty as if her soul was leaving her, and Ana already regretted being sarcastic, but even if Ana changed a bit towards Chantys mentality, it doesn´t mean it would make her a totally different person in a couple of days.
“Please kill me!”
“THAT WAS A JOKE, SORRY! I thought… you would take that one better. After all you´ve told, getting into bad accidents isn´t new to you, so… I thought you`d be more relaxed…”
Outside, Kiva explained Lauren the problem.
“Thomas just wouldn´t calm down because we can´t heal his broken arm.”
“Well, we can actually, but don´t recommend it.”
“I DONT CARE! I have to work when we are back and I can´t need an useless arm then. I am not sitting at some fancy glass office in the city center, I AM A DAMN CAR MECHANIC! AND MY CUSTOMERS… AAAH! RELY ON ME! And not to forget…I … so, I … urgh. Where was I?”
“OH NO! Heart attack. Kiva, get Mani, now. And don´t let Chantal notice any of this! She´s feeling bad enough already.”
Inside, Jayde came back with some kind of… a drink, and asked Ana how Chantys state is.
„Surprisingly, she doesn´t seem to have anything broken. Just… well, in a fight between concrete and skin, the skin rarely wins. I mean, she is well-cushioned, so that is useful I guess.“
“But there was no pillow, just a fucking hard lamppost”
, cried Chanty, going through the shocking event of the impact once again. Jayde signalized Ana NOT to explain what she meant with “well cushioned”…
„We can try this magic drink then. Chantal, I will now make you sit up to drink it, this can hurt a bit, but you will be better soon.“
Jayde served Chanty something that… tasted the worst she has ever tasted, it was exactly like she imagined the sponge of the school chalkboard to taste, that was older than herself at that point and developing into some own kind of lifeform…. Added up by a spice resembling Thomas unholy chili wodka a lot.
Outside, Mani had to perform very dark magic with a lot of time pressure.
“Mani, he is almost dead, please, make it quick!”
“You forget that I can raise the dead if needed, I am not just a healer like Jayde, I am an actual magician. When I have to somehow fix this heart, I can as well also heal the arm. Now that Thomas has almost left this world, you can also put the bone in position, he won´t notice too much of it. But I don´t want to perform this out here where others can see me. This will cause me losing focus and also spectators would consider me an evil person for doing that dark stuff.”
“But Chantal is inside, she will notice then…”
“We have to risk that, if it´s that bad I can as well make her forget with another spell, lets carry him into the bus.”
Lauren did as asked, and Mani took a bit of blood from Thomas´nosebleed he also got from having enemy contact, and ripped off Thomas clothes, and writing mysterious runes onto him while spelling something that sounded really, really scary. After a 10 minute procedure, Mani sunk to the floor of the bus, totally exhausted.
“That… was exhausting. I have rarely used so much power in such a short time period. His heart… well, even if he didn´t become that upset today, I guess he would not have made it to the end of the rallye in either case. I can´t tell how long it will be fine now, but I guess it will give him 3 or 5 more years he can spend with his loved ones, maybe even more.”
Lauren gently took Manis hand.
“You did great. Plus, Chantal already got her medicine from Jayde… with… the usual side effect. She was immediately so fucking drunk that she didn´t notice anything that happened over here. Will Thomas wake up now?”
“No, propably not before tomorrow, by then the arm should be… well, maybe not totally fine, but he can use it again with only a slight pain. Damn, that medical bill will be …expensive, Thomas. Don´t get another heart attack over it, old man!”
“Mani, that´s a dark joke. Anyway, I guess he won´t mind you plundering his booze. I suggest you do it already now before writing the invoice because… Marie will definitely use the opportunity when she sees Thomas sound asleep!”
After exiting the bus, Chanty, totally lost and drunk, told Ana then what she did before joining the all you can eat: She removed the bench seat from the IP of the Hillbilly Rollers that now have to deal with… that revenge sabotage, but Chanty fell so hard in her home dialect that the translator ring failed, but… Ana had enough to laugh about anyway, as a drunk smurf is also something funny.
“Also, da habbsch mir also de Schraubnschlüssl jenomm, dis jing eigntlsch janz einfach… war abbor bissl schwers Ding da wegzutragn… ssch wees jarnimmor wosch dis hin hab…”
“Chantal, I have no idea what you are telling me, but I am convinced it´s great, yeep. So, while you tried to not to fall over your own feet, I asked Louis and Marceline, and they said Jan has put your sleeping bags in that unused subway station since he thought that´s the best rain protection. Can I leave you alone then?”
“Suuuuureeee…I`m just a lil delulu…”
“Oh, you don´t say?”
When arriving at the subway station, Chanty ran towards Jan and gave him a love overdose, and Jan was a bit irritated.
“Damn, are you drunk? But its good that you are fixed now, that was really hard to watch after the accident… but where is Thomas?”
“SSSH! Jan! Come over to me, I can not explain this loudly in the presence of her…”
Ana told Jan that Thomas escaped death once again with a lot of luck and black magic, and Jan was actually very furious at Marie now, asking Ana if she could take Chanty with her as he has to do something, then Ana remembered that she hasn´t given Chanty her share of the taxi rides yet, and would motivate her realizing her plans to feed the poor and hungry of Holsia, and that Angel will definitely help her with that.
An hour later, Chanty was already distributing animal food at the few strays in town, and since homeless also looked for shelter down there in the abandoned subway station, she thought about them and bought some snacks… with Angel more or less managing most of it as Chanty was too drunk, but felt great for being able to help others, but she worried a lot about Thomas and knocked, a bit less drunk by the end of the day, at the bus doors, and Lauren was stepping outside.
“Oh, Chantal, what´s the matter? We were already going to sleep, if it´s urgent, tell me, but otherwise you can come over tomorrow.”
“Is my dad ok? He is not at our … eh, campsite, although it basically isnt a campsite, but…”
“Yeah, I see, he still needs some rest.”
“Is it serious? Can I see him?”
“Chantal, look, I can promise you he is just exhausted, nothing serious, we fixed that broken arm and some extreme fatigue is the usual side effect of black magic, he will join you tomorrow in good shape.”
Lauren did not tell Chantal about the next almost lethal heart attack, as… Mani fixed the worst of his cardiac issues for some time now, and Chanty would not need any more bad news after having a stressful day herself.
“Can´t you fix … my shitty personality with that black magic, too? Like… making me less dumb and more happy, so I don´t annoy the others any more?”
Lauren sighed, then hugged Chantal and gently stroked her head.
“Chantal, you are perfect the way you are. I think even if your loved ones are a bit stressed with you, they would not want anyone to change a single thing about you. And the only one being able to make you happy… is yourself, and I think you were already on a good way today, but don´t forget about yourself when helping others.”
Jan, on the other hand, took away the itching powder from the host family´s oldest kid back in Talrem when he was doing the “babysitting”, but forgot to give it back, which he regretted since he promised to do so. On the other hand, this would be a good thing to put in Maries clothes, which he successfully did, but was then caught by Andreas…
“FUCKING HELL NOT AGAIN!!!” he screamed out of full lungs upon arrival to find a still conscious Valentin covered in his own blood.
