Shitbox Rally 2024 - Journey to Holsia (Completed, Final Stage Released)

[Angelustyle]

Team Firulais

Stage 5: Dumb Fights, the “Braking” of the Tire Curse, and a Horrifying M.R.I.

(Mentioning @Happyhungryhippo [The Rhino Squad] and @Madrias [Shift Happens])

Early Morning at Mosoto.

Ana:“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! ÁNGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLL!!!”

Said Ana, sounding a roar of anger which was hurd through the whole eastern part of camp. She’d just realized what Ángel and Chantal had done…

And, while she had feelings that it would’ve been Chantal the one to do this, she knew there was someone… Smarter, who also looked for revenge: That YHD. That Kuril. That Own-Goal Scorer. That Single-Eyed, Russian-Japanese Mechanic.

She’d knock furiously at the Aurora’s Door. Ángel, for once, had slept really, really well. Being the best night he had since the one at Menes, and so far his best night in the rally. The Plush Rhino was making it’s effect. But of course, Ana’s scream had started to wake him up. And the true wake up call was those knocks on the door.

Ana:“Wake the f#¢k up, Samurai. I know what you’ve done, go out and meet you fate!”
(Reference intended there…)
Ángel:“W-Whut?”

Those were, ironically, Ángel’s last words before a small fight got underway at the Firulais’ Spot… And also Ángel’s last words for the next hour or so… Ana had the great chances to win, and, so it would be, as just a few tens of seconds after the fight became physical, Ana would recur to the almost always effective “Kick in the Gentleman’s Area”, and leave Ángel almost immediately resenting. It wasn’t too powerful of a kick (certainly not powerful enough to reduce Ángel’s possibilities to reproduce), but it was painful enough to make Ángel barely able to stand up for long without help for the next few minutes. And it also was hurting him enough to literally not allow him to take breakfast; his stomach hurt too hard after that.

The rest of the team watched nervous at first, thinking that things might get out of hand, but, after the kick, they burst into laughter (after all, those kicks were usually something only seen on movies or that sort of stuff). The only ones not to laugh were Ana, who was still Angry because she didn’t like her now blue hair (although, she’d later end up liking it, trust me), and Ángel, who was twitching wincingly on the ground. This time, not because of a mindreading incident…

And then, his pain just got worse. Ana then noticed her T-shirt just as Ángel recovered. This would trigger a chase that lasted some 15 minutes before Ana got to punch Ángel in the gut after he fell over by himself. Ángel’s clumsiness was sometimes his worst enemy. And he’d once again twitch as he was heading back to the car.

Tomás would drive for this stage. He ain’t necessarily a good driver, but, he lives in China, in a place of 1.4 BILLION people… And in Shanghai (one of the world’s most populated cities). He sure knows how to drive without crashing into someone.

Road to Lauda.

Ángel:“Smoooooth Roads… No failures so far… This feels like a dream… And at last I can relax… If it weren’t for Ana.”
Josué:“Does it still hurt?”
Ángel:“Just as it did hurt you to fail in your Casanova attempts last night.”
Josué:“Shuddup, you Jappie.”

The conversation wasn’t being much interesting, although it was getting spicy (“spicy” in the sense of probably going to generate a second fight), until they noticed something. Everyone had flats. Except THEM. For once they didn’t have a puncture. They were celebrating as their “curse” was finally over… Just to then suffer something worse… Because 20 minutes later, they’d find out something had gone wrong…

This is what was hurd in Radio Chatter, as the Radio in their car was on (without them noticing), and caught this piece.

Tomás:“G-Guys?”
Ángel:“What?”
Tomás:“I’m pressing the brakes and the car ain’t slowing down.”
Ángel:“Yeaaaah— Wait, are you serious…?..”
“…”
Ángel:“Oh, Блять. Alright… Can we… Like, Swap seats while we’re moving ? Or do I tell you what to do?”
(Блять [“Blyat”] = “F#¢k”)
Tomás:“I… Think I can handle this…”
Ángel:“OK, then, downshift as soon as you see those revs slow down enough, and, for the team’s sake, don’t hit the throttle. We’re gonna go Engine Braking testing mode… Of all the things that could fail, were the brakes the first to fail… When I was fixing this car, the brakes were amongst the least concerning things…”
Josué:“I mean… Aurora never really made cars which were exceptional at braking.”
Ángel:“They were exceptional… Exceptionally bad at it.”
[30 seconds pass.]
Ana:“I don’t think we’re stopping any time soon.”
Ángel:“You’re correct… Let’s try something, how fast are we going?”
Tomás and Andrés (at Unison):“40 KPH.”
Ángel:“Pull the car over, not entire on the grass, but enough so half of the car is— Hey, not so violently! Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Pull The— The Handbrake barely does anything, to the right, Tomás, to the right, think if you were learning how to drift! OK, OK, pull the car on that side, how fast are we going now? Move it not so abruptly, I felt like—”
[During said moments, some screaming and yelling could be Hurd… Notably, Thomas screaming in Chinese while trying to regain control… And Ángel yelling at him IN JAPANESE {talk about language malfunction} on how to do so. As Japanese ain’t the same as Chinese, the messages “didn’t translate” {quite literally}]
Josué:“Look, over there, pull to the right, Tomás, now!”
Ángel:“Aren’t we OK enough now that—”
[A bang was hurd]
Andrés:“What happened!?”
Tomás:“The car feels… Like if someone has lifted the left side…”
Ángel:“Lemme see… Oh, F#¢k.”
[Brief Pause]
Ángel (actually communicating on the radio now, the first message sent at will by them):“Uhhhhhh… People… W-We… Weee aaaareee ooon a ditch.”
Ana:“At least we’ve stopped.”
[Everyone laughs]

As the other teams passed them, they saw Ángel pushing the car out of the ditch… They managed to listen something more.

Ana:“C’mon Ángel, push…”
Ángel:“I’m pushing like a madman at the moment!”
Ana:“Just keep pushing like a madman.”

Some lifting up with the Tire Jack, Replacing the Torn Out Brake Lines, Filling the Car again with Brake Fluid, and making sure to bleed the brakes properly (one of the few things Ángel doesn’t do very well at with cars… But this time he did) took roughly one hour. Ángel, while still having the pains from the early morning, and the feeling of more incoming mindreading incidents ready to attack, would fix the brakes, and they soon got on the road again, in what was, for the rest of it, a rather uneventful day on the road, up to that point at least…

Lauda.

Ana felt right at home here. A big, big city, with commerce, a lot of people… She felt happy here. Sadly, someone who didn’t think the same was Ángel. He knew both of his incidents with Locals happened at somewhat major population centers, and with this one being even larger, he thought it was best to stay at the hotel.

After an hour though, he’d go out. On his walk thru the streets of Lauda, he’d meet up with Thomas, from the Rhino Squad, near a parts store.

Thomas gave Ángel some cash, and the order (or favour) to build a trophy for Chantal, so, Ángel bought the best tires he could afford (giving in the fact that Punctures and Flats and Tire Blowouts were a common thing for everyone [them included… Talk about having 3 punctures in a row]), and a few other parts, and after that, he got to work with what he had at the Hotel.

Some hours later…

Ángel decided to give himself a little break from building the trophy. So far, he was going very well… He just hoped his teammates wouldn’t come in the room and notice it… Specially Ana.

But then, he collided with someone from Shift Happens, without noticing. In this case, with Manikihali. Given most people in said team are taller and heavier than most, and Ángel is only 162cm and 52kg, he fell to the floor afterwards…

Ángel:“I-I… I-im so so—”

Was what Ángel managed to say before realizing with which team he’d cross into.

Ángel:“Uhm… S-Sorry…”
Manikihali:“Who is it…?”
Ángel:“I-I… I am Ángel, from the Firulais.”
Manikihali:“The team that was screaming on the radio just a few hours ago…?”
Ángel:“Y-Yeah… That one… We lost the brakes for a moment back then…”

“First team and/or person besides the Rhino Squad to NOT recognize me or us as the team with a mind reader… Nice.”, thought Ángel, who was still… A bit stunned. After all, despite this was the Host Team, Ángel was still a bit surprised that they were that big.

Ángel:“I suppose you’re the Team with the Bus, right…? I think someone had told me about you, when we were at Nevada…”

Here is where he’d begin to suffer… Literally mind-sentence, he was feeling something…

“Don’t, have, a, mind, reading, incident, Ángel…”, Ángel thought for himself, as he was feeling the next one coming. He would, for once try to resist. And, while he knew that most of the times he resisted, things would go wrong, he was hopeful that his mindreading incidents would retreat…

…But they wouldn’t. As their conversation carried on, Ángel would slowly, but surely, start to get more tense. His face expresion was starting to seem more… Painful. He began to tremble, and his tone of voice seemed to get more and more nervous… And that was all from resisting to the mindreading incident… Amongst the people who came later, being Kivenaal and Malavera, they could see him struggling. It was like an extreme version of holding up a sneeze.

10 minutes later…

It had passed several minutes of Ángel resisting his mind-reading. He’d been struggling for quite the time now. Manikihali also felt like something would happen. He already got the premonition a few moments ago.

Ángel:“A-A-Aaaand, uh… A-Any s-short advice you m-may have?”

It was weird that Ángel asked for the advice to be short. But it was a sign he was loosing that battle against the powers of his own. Ángel’s worst enemy, was, ironically, Ángel himself. His own powers were useful at times… But most of the time, they would cause agony on the very same guy who possessed them.

Manikihali:“First… This ain’t a race, keep that in mind. Your team seems worried about when they’ll finish… Or how well they are performing against others… Just don’t worry about that. And second, don’t overthink stuff. I see you get worried or nervous most of the time like you are now… If you overthink it, you’ll just extend your suffering even further.”
Ángel:“O-Ok… I-I need to go… B-B—S-Seeee ya…”
(He tried to say “Bye”, before changing it to “See ya”)

…and as he was turning around, the mind reading powers would kick in at fuller-than-full force. The scream Ángel let as soon as he turned around was similar to that of Ana earlier in the day… Only that, instead of having a tone of anger, it had a tone of fear rooted in desperation. The mind reading this time would last longer than the rest he had during the trip to the rally and the rally itself; normally, the mind reading lasts no longer than a few seconds. In some cases, Ángel reported feeling 15 to 30 seconds. In his worst case up to that point, which was the reading of Chantal’s at Thornes, he was there for about 40. The mind reading, which chose Kivenaal’s Mind this time, lasted not 5, not 15, and not 40, but 1… MINUTE. And 5 seconds. Way past the average, and certainly an agonizing experience for Ángel.

What did Ángel see, by the way ? If he was screaming this loudly, in this tone of fear, agony and pain, he must have seen something truly horrifying. To give basic ideas… Ángel didn’t like to think about the end of the world very much. Said question about the end of everything was one of the questions he overthought the most… Well… What Ángel had seen was the end of Aetherii. Thousands of years into the future. From Kivenaal’s POV. At that same time, it kinda reminded him how Yumeisotitanian Humanoids came to earth, which was in a similar fashion… Or at least, from what he’d hurd. Only that instead of escaping a planet that came down entirely to a war, the Yumeisotitanians came crashing down to the oceans of Planet Earth, after their planet, due to its unstable nature, “snapped”. The images, much like what you see after a major disaster, were shocking, to say something.

Ángel ran back to the Hotel’s main building, and, as his recovering process was far from over, he crashed into two locals, to which he properly apologized. He also apologized to Shift Happens in the process… But as he left Shift Happens back to their own things, they, same as Mirage, from Timeloss, felt it was a good idea to investigate this.

Afternoon, Night, and Late Night at Lauda.

After such an eventful day, Ángel felt like he wanted to go to the restaurant of the Hotel… He knew he had to deliver that trophy he’d made, and luckily, he’d finished a while ago.

After Thomas took the trophy however, Ángel felt the need to go back into his room. He was still affected by the events in the morning, the events in the afternoon… He now didn’t want any events to happen at night… He was fearful.

“What is going to happen next…?”, was the question Ángel often got that night. But he tried to ignore said question that constantly came to himself. He’d try to spread the words from Manikihali (“This ain’t a race”) to his team the next morning, but all he wanted now was to rest…

He wouldn’t rest though. After a while, came dinner, some gaming with Andrés, and then everyone came back to sleep… Well… I said “everyone”…

Ángel spent some part of the night wandering and walking across the streets of Lauda for some more, while everyone slept. He just needed to relax a bit, after such a day full of events that he could barely handle.

After that, near midnight, he came to sleep.

(…and as usual, collabs are open!)

P.D.: I just noticed how inconsistent I was while writing this, as a make the 4th Editing to this.

[Knugcab]

TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
PART 5.1 - A FIRE, A COMPUTER MELTDOWN AND A TIN CAN

Already when leaving Mosoto for the trip to Lauda, the IP was showing some trouble, being very hard to start.

“It’s rather hot, maybe I gave it too much choke”, Andreas said, pushed the knob into the dash and floored the accelerator, with no luck in cranking it.

“Eh…maybe I did not give it ENOUGH choke?”, he thought, pulled it out again, it woke to life, but sputtered along, barely managing to stay running by some sensible fiddling with the throttle and choke. It ran like shit…well, until it stopped running.

“Considering that fiddling with the choke and throttle seemed to help, I guess it is fuel related and not ignition”, Andreas said.

“Yeah… maybe rust in the tank or something, considering for how long it has been standing still. Well, then it is probably stuck in the fuel filter, good thing I was prepared and have some extras with me…”, Janne mumbled, while unscrewing the fuel filter and taking notice that there was…very filthy water running out of it.

“HOW THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN?”, Janne said, scratching his head.

“Looks like if there is half a mud creek in the tank, why is all of this coming now?”, Andreas answered, equally confused.

The gold Primus was passing, with Chanty making an even weirder face than…her usual one…against the team.

“Stupid kid!”, Marie said. “Oh well, good news, they won’t get far!”

“Wait, what?”, Janne asked and seemed really curious.

“I put gallons of filthy water into their fuel tank yesterday”

“YOU DID….YOU DID WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO SAY THAT YOU DID DO YOU…YOU…RAHHHHHH!!!”, Janne said and lost his temper for once. “ARE YOU REALLY SURE THAT YOU PICKED THE RIGHT FUEL TANK?”

“No. EHM I MEAN VERY MUCH YES, I AM TOTALLY…no…OH YES I AM TOTALLY SURE!”, Marie said, in a tone that would not have convinced a 4 year old.

“YOU STUPID FUCK, YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO LIE SO WHO THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING YOU ARE GOING TO FOOL, YOU FUCKING DRUNKARD! I AM TOTALLY SURE YOU DID PICK THE WRONG FUEL TANK, THAT’S IT, NO MORE BEER UNTIL YOU…”

“Oh, relax, I can fix it”, Marie said.

“YOU CAN’T FIX A FLASHLIGHT WITH A BAD PAIR OF BATTERIES!”, Janne answered. “THAT REQUIRES AT LEAST ONE INTACT BRAIN CELL, WHICH YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE!”

Marie, somehow getting grumpy said that she had enough, grabbed the jack, lifted the car up, and drained the fuel tank into a couple of empty canisters in record time.

“FINE, I HAVE FIXED YOUR GODDAMNED CAR IN SHORTER TIME THAN IT TAKES YOU TO OPEN THE FUCKING GAS CAP, CAN YOU STOP NAGGING NOW YOU…”

Everything was interrupted by Marie falling with the canister into the ditch, somehow pouring out all the gasoline into the ditch again.

“Well, this was probably not what they meant with “leave no traces”", Andreas said.

“Oh well, accidents do happen”, Janne answered.

“I am getting tired of this”, Marie said. “I need a break from the two of you”

“Hey, where the fuck are you going?”, Andreas said.

“I just need to have a smoke all by myself to calm down a bit, five minutes, OK?”

“HEY WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU THROWING THAT MATCH?”, Andreas said in panic when Marie had lit her cigarette up, only to see the ditch engulfed in flames.

“STUPID CLUSTERFUCK, CAN’T YOU DO ANYTHING WITHOUT CAUSING A DISASTER?”, Andreas said, now as furious as Janne, running for the fire extinguisher, but emptying it quickly.

At least the area saturated with gasoline was taken out, and the only thing remaining was burning grass. Janne managed to find a pond nearby and after some running back and forth with buckets of water, they managed to finally put out the fire, but still stayed for a while to be somewhat sure that it wouldn’t light up again. Finally, after filling up the tank with some fresh gasoline, changing out the fuel filter, they sputtered away for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, there was a kind of ice cold atmosphere in the butter-stinking cabin of the IP.

Arriving at the unusually fancy camp, Marie declared how tired she was of all drama and that she needed a drink at the bar (or two or twentyfive).

“YEAH BECAUSE YOU ARE CLEARLY INNOCENT WHEN IT COMES TO THIS DRAMA!”, Andreas said, still being upset, while Janne had calmed down. “Go watch her or I’ll tie her to someone’s roof rack tomorrow, for fucks sake”, Andreas said to Janne. “I am staying at our room and I will do it for the rest of tonight”, he continued, almost showing signs of regretting this whole idea.

Then, this little interlude happened.

Thomas and Janne went into the IP, and when Janne tried to turn the computer on, a smell of burnt plastics and electronics was spreading inside.

“Oh for fucks sake…”, he said. “…this is NOT good.”

“Wait…What? What is happening? Did we break something?”, Thomas said a bit anxious.

“I think so. Or rather, Marie broke something with forcing the connector to the tape player into the port upside down”. Janne started taking the computer apart and discovered some nasty stuff.

“Eugh…. This is a goner”, Janne said, shaking his head, looking at the burned motherboard.

“You mean…you can’t repair it?”, Thomas said, starting to lose his hope. “I…. I had so hoped to solve this problem with Chanty after all. She is wrecking my nerves with all her drama, and…”

“Are you trying to say that there is something I can’t repair?”, Janne answered in a grumpy tone. “Of course I can, but I would prefer to not have to do it with vacuum tubes or whatever exists in this world…”

Thomas looked unusually worried and sighed as if he had lost all his hope. All the strength was kind of running off him. “Is there really nothing we can do…”. It was obvious that his kryptonite now was Chanty’s well being.

“I’ll cook something up. Just leave me alone for a while…”, Janne said to Thomas that now was looking kind of doubtful, but respected his will.

A while later, Janne came to Thomas with a bag of salt, and a tin can that had contained sausages in baked beans from the Swedish military, but now was brazed together.

“Eh, what am I going to do with this ju…I mean stuff?”, Thomas asked.

“Well, this can is loaded with some very powerful stuff”, Janne said. “In case she keeps it close to her when she is asleep, she will be able to communicate with her mother in her dreams. But you have to tell her that. Having this power without the knowledge can cause really nasty situations, you know!”

“So that hocus pocus is supposed to wo…I mean, of course, yes, I promise”, Thomas said. “But the salt?”

“Well, in case she has any wounds she has to rub them with this first, because otherwise bad entities can enter through the wounds and take her into possession, so it has to be done very carefully!”.

“I understand…”, Thomas said, with a face that was turning into a mix of fear, curiosity, regret that he had even mentioned anything to Janne, and hope that Chanty would be able to communicate with his mother again. “…but tell me, what is it really in that can?”, Thomas asked.

Janne looked genuinely worried. “Oh, you really are not supposed to tell that. That may cause…nasty things to happen. And by all means, do NOT try to open the can up again. Like ever again. THAT….will get you into trouble!”.

Thomas, not knowing what he should think, still respected Janne since he seemed to know what he was talking about, took the can, thanked him for it and was looking for where Chanty went, to be able to show her the magic jar.

When getting back to the hotel room, Andreas asked Janne in a salty tone if he wasn’t supposed to look after Marie.

“Do you think earthquakes in Tokyo stops happening just because people are looking after them?”, Janne answered back.

“True. What have you been doing?”

“Oh, I just made a magic can for Thomas”, Janne said.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO GET PEOPLE INTO YOUR OCCULT STUFF NOW? I AM SO TIRED ABOUT THAT! UP UNTIL THE FIRST SHITBOX RALLY I THOUGHT YOU WERE KIND OF NORMAL! WHAT IS IT EVEN IN THAT CAN?”

“Some gravel… A couple of old spark plugs… Marie’s sweaty old sock…”

“And how is that supposed to help?”, Andreas said with a sigh.

“The thing is, it doesn’t. Damn, coming to ask me to do occult stuff. People watch too much TV! They think that it is just to pull something off in 5 minutes that makes wonders! The only thing that makes wonders in such a short time is the power of your mind, that is stronger than anything, and I am pretty sure the power of Chanty’s mind will overcome her trouble now…but she can’t see it until I have given her a fucking jar full of old crap”, Janne said and shook his head.

It all was interrupted by someone knocking on the door. “I think I forgot to lock it, just come in”, Janne said. Someone opened the door, said “I think this one is yours!” and with the help of a couple others, threw in Marie and closed the door quickly before Janne had the time to react.

“…hyuuuurggghhhh……”, Marie said.

“This feels way to familiar…”, Andreas said while looking at Marie lying on the floor.

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Madrias]

Shitbox Rally - Stage 6

Stage 6: Lauda to Björnes

Weather: Mid 20’s, a few clouds, and a light breeze.

---

Today’s trip takes us out onto a smooth, high-speed highway, wide enough and smooth enough for everyone, regardless of their vehicles, to travel between the two cities. It’s remarkably close to one of our modern interstate highways, which allows everyone to make some decent time on this stage. The train can occasionally be seen on one of the various crossing bridges, clearly traveling at a good rate of speed as well.

Unfortunately, someone must have been pushing the train a little too hard, as the train breaks down and has to be replaced with two smaller engines. This process takes about 3.5 hours to complete.
(@Elizipeazie)

Team Firulais is going to be making another trip to talk with Jayde for magic-based repairs after yet another burst tire. Timeloss also has some lost time to a punctured tire, and Cunning Stunts gets to patch up another burst bike tire. Likewise, the Spy Kids get to change another tire on their SUV after one of the tires grows a few warts on the sidewall, and Ramjet discovers another flat front tire, this time with a nail sticking out of it.
(@angelustyle , @Fayeding_Spray , @That-S-Cop , @SheikhMansour , @JCurtiss96, @Leone)

Transporttjäns Eriksson Aktiebolag Eslöv has to spend an hour on the side of the road after their van starts overheating. Everything seems fine after it cools down, and they finish the stage with no additional issues.
(@WoodenPlankGames)

Straight Outta Saratos also has to stop and fix an overheating issue - mostly by “letting the engine cool down” for an hour and hoping it’s nothing more than warm-ish weather and the high speeds causing the engine to get hot.
(@Shibusu)

After dealing with squealing every time they hit the brakes, Honey I Bought a S#!tbox finally spends the 2 hours it takes to change some brake pads… And replace the warped brake rotors on their car.
(@Rambow)

Machinas Con Passione is forced, once again, to skip camp and drive onward to the next stage after their attempt to replace some worn out brake pads results in smoking, flaming wooden brake pads, courtesy of the scammers getting scammed. Luckily, a proper set of used pads is found under the passenger seat, which will work for now.
(@SurrealCereal)

The Troublesome Trio and Theo have a spot of trouble when the car just conks out for seemingly no reason. After 3.5 hours of fiddling around and trying various different “fixes,” the car starts running again.
(@06DPA)

Team Peak Performance learns the hard way that misfires are bad for performance, and they have to stop and change out some spark plug wires. This is made harder because someone removed all of them at once, and they had to figure out the firing order.
(@HappyHungryHippo)

When we arrive at Björnes, it’s immediately obvious that this is Holsia’s main port city. At 700 thousand people, it’s another large city, with shops catering to a lot of seafaring trades, as well as a few other niche markets if you look hard enough.

Our camp appears at first to be a dedicated campground, but really, it’s just a compacted dirt parking lot on the outskirts of Björnes, with facilities provided by the HSR Steam Refurbishment Plant of Björnes… As well as plenty of noise pollution, which explains the lack of locals. At least we have primitive toilets that flush, and access to the plant’s shower room to get cleaned up… As long as you’re comfortable with a semi-public shower experience.

---

Spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQriVPEky_B00QiZ6lYrtLVt-u3XWPQW7CvfFNFordo91W4o4LYgWKmW6-SchgIpnTR4wQ6cfSyyQfl/pubhtml

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 6.1 - Need for Feed: The Buffet

as I have typed too much for the post limit, I need to split it up. And bringing the morning mess so early means other teams can adapt to it in their writing before publishing their stage 6 events.

Teams involved (in order of appearance): Team Firulais by @Angelustyle, Shift Happens by @Madrias, Hillbilly Rollers by @Knugcab and Highway Hooligans by @Madrias

Early in the morning, Thomas got up for breakfast, also dragging Chanty out of her bed, who, realizing that it was about food, got up in record speed. She was a bit sad that her magic jar she got from Janne did not help yet, but she felt like she might have done something wrong, at least she did not have a nightmare this time, so she felt like this thing worked somehow. As the Rhinos had their room on the same floor as the Firulais, and Jan noticed that Ana now had her hair colored exactly as his girlfriend.

“Eh, for not liking you, she seems to be quite a fan of you.”

“Oh, you mean the blue hair? Well, I guess it wasn´t her idea.”

“Chanty! Was that your work… as a prank?”

“Ehm… maybe??”

"CHANTY! But… yes, yes, it´s fun. And she deserves that considering how she treats Angel. “Actually, some other campers were very surprised how you told her a lesson some nights ago to stop her forcing him to drink booze. You`re propably a real lion if you want.”

“But a cute one. Like this: RAWR!”

, said Chanty, imitating a lion, and both laughed when going downstairs to the buffet.

Thomas stayed for another five minutes in the room, cuddling with Rudolph.

“Ah, Rudy, please continue to make my daughter´s live a bit easier. I am really… at the end of my power. I am exhausted, please make her feel better, no matter what you do.”

Chanty and food is a difficult matter, and after half an hour, she more or less plundered the breakfast buffet. People became really annoyed, but also didn´t want to tell her, since it was well known by now how sensitive she can be. Lauren from Shift Happens debated with her mates what to do, and prankster Kiva came up with the solution, and Lauren politely told the upset hotel staff that Chanty is a bit special but does not do that on purpose, as she suffers from a rare disease that forces her to eat absurd amounts, if she doesn´t, she would get mindreading attacks.

The staff felt sorry for Chanty and just refilled the trays, and all problems seemed solved… until Marie finally got up, causing her chair to make frightening noises, being late for finally grabbing food because of her hangover that had to be cured with tea and aspirine first. She just grabbed the whole tray with sausage and casually walked to her team´s table, while the other teams watched in disbelief.

“WHAT ARE YOU STARING? I am hungry.”

“MARIE! YOU JUST CANT GRAB IT ALL!”

“Andreas, I am eating exactly the same amount as that discount smurf, just without getting up five times and bumping into everyone else, this is more efficient.”

“For fucks sake, bring it back, you have embarrassed us enough by now”

“JANNE! WHY IS IT OK THAT THIS FAT SMURF IS ALLOWED THIS JUST BECAUSE SHE´S CRYING ALL THE TIME, BUT I AM NOT?”

"Marie, you are twice her age. Just look at her. That´s still a confused kid, so b r i n g i t b a c k N O W!

It seemed to go well… but exactly at the moment Marie has put the tray back after… taking a significant amount of food out of it… Chanty already grabbed it, and Marie was in a too bad mood to not make a comment about it.

“DON´T YOU THINK YOU ARE FAT ENOUGH?”

“Funny that you are the one asking me that, gollum!”

Meanwhile, at the table of the Firulais, Ana leaned towards Andrés:

“Oh, wow, the two fattest here starting a fistfight, that will be sure some fun!”

“Especially for Angel, as a jap he surely enjoys sumo fights.”

, added Josué.

“This is not funny. Marie could process Chanty to cat food if she wants.”, said Angel, being very worried.

“Well, it looks like she wants to, so I bet 10 bucks on Marie”

, laughed Josué.

“Where the fuck is Thomas now?”

“I am here!”

“Not you Tomas, I mean Chantys father, I think she could need his assistance now. I better get Maries teammates here to stop her, they are propably sitting to far away.”

Ana held Angel back.

“Her old man is outside smoking, and her boyfriend is already back upstairs. You do nothing. Let´s just watch and enjoy.”

What was Ana said before Ángel pointed to nowhere, Ana got distracted, and Ángel began to run as fast as he could (he ran quite fast) to outside of the Hotel, looking for Thomas. There, he found him smoking, and tapped his shoulder.

“トーマス、トーマス！ マリーとシャンタルが喧嘩中！ レストランでは、今すぐ行きましょう！”
(Tōmasu, tōmasu! Marī to shantaru ga kenka-chū! Resutorande wa, ima sugu ikimashou!, translated: Thomas, Thomas! Marie and Chantal are fighting each other! In the restaurant, go now!)

“What ? I don’t understand Japanese.”

, replied Thomas.

“Oh, god, I-im sorry ! I meant, Chantal and… Uhh… Marie ? Yes, Marie, have gotten into a fight…!”,

Ángel tried to explain.
He wasn’t able to finish the sentence, but Thomas got the message and began to look what was going on in there.

The discussion between Marie and Chantal heated up to the point that Marie pushed Chanty away, with surprisingly low effort, propably as a warning sign before she really explodes, then grabbed some cheese.

“NOT THE LAST CHEESE! THIS IS MEAN!”

Chanty complained and stole the gouda from Maries plate, and that was finally enough: Marie pushed Chanty hard against a table, the one of the team Highway Hooligans, and she fell over it. Cody immediately felt like entering the slugfest.

“God damn it! You two spilled my fucking coffee!”

“Jake, cool it. Chantal, when we get you up, I want you to go right over there and punch Jabba the Slut right in the throat.”"

The trio helped her up again, and it could have been over without too much trouble, but Chanty made the mistake to feel encouraged by the Highway Hooligans to run towards Marie and start a second attempt to steal her cheese, and this time Marie gave her a slap, causing Chanty to fall, but as it was no longer restrained as Marie lost her temper now, Chanty crashed into multiple tables before hitting a pillar head first. Marie grabbed a chair and was about to smash it on her opponent, and it became very silent, nobody dared to deal with 150 kilo of hillbilly rage - yet. But as she was about to potentially kill Chanty, the first got up from their chairs, but were relieved to see that Marie put the chair back where it was and continued walking to her table. Thankfully, this incident was nowhere as violent as the one after stage 2.

Thomas, having heard the noise, came just in to watch his daughter begging for her life to Marie, and had no time to react, so he was also relieved that Marie was not a mean person - she just has no temper management - seeing Chanty defeated and crying on the ground, made Marie abandon her attack and walking off as if nothing happened.

Janne meanwhile joined Chantal and Thomas, passing Marie and giving her an angry look.

“Oh, I apologize for Marie, is Chantal alright?”

“I think so… I mean, she begged for NOT to be killed, finally. Usually she would have asked Marie to do her the favor of ending her misery, so I think she is totally fine.”

“NOTHING IS FINE! I WANTED THAT CHEESE!”

When they took off for the next stage, Chanty insisted on driving and was soon raging at the locals with her primitive vehicles moving rather slow through the capital, so thankfully the translator ring failed at dealing with her dialect.

“ORRR! DIE FAHRN HIER ABORR WIE DIE HEGGNPENNOR!!!”
(better not translate this)

“ORRRRRRRR! Statt Schatzi kannste ooch ne Schaufenstorrbubbe ans Steuer setzen und trotzdem sind wir schnellor als de Schlafmützn!”
(she considers Jan an equally good driver to a mannequin, but the Holsians still manage to be slower)

“CHANTAL WATCH OUT! THIS IS A PEDESTRIAN ZONE! STOOOOP!”

Thomas left the passenger seat and took a seat in the back. When Chanty asked what was wrong, he just answered that… he felt last stage that the backseat is also comfortable…
Chanty was singing loudly along to Thomas 80s cassettes, a thing worrying both other occupants.

“SLAY! That´s a good one. I DONT CARE IF MONDAY´S BLUE, TUESDAY´S GREAT AND WEDNESDAY TOO…”

“Pssh! Thomas! I don´t think this is a good sign.”

“Me neither. Where have you been? I am gone five minutes for a smoke and then everything ends up in chaos again. What does Slay even mean in that context? That she will slay us… by crashing?”

“No, in our generation that means something really cool… and according to Chantys mother, it´s quite clear where she has that from.”

“A LIE! Nothing against my ex, but this… nah, as if I was causing trouble all the time.”

“Thomas, … all your relatives tell different stories.”

“They are all liars. Damn, that´s disappointing.”

The highway - surprisingly close to earth ones and quite well maintained - was where a car like the Primus Legacy felt at home. The mighty V6 was roaring, the expensive suspension filtered all of the few bumps - as Chanty was in some pain after her wrestling with Marie, this was welcomened - and the weight and size of the luxury car made it easy to pass this stage. While many others had trouble with overheating, the Primus was exactly made for frequent travellers driving long distances with high average speeds, and even after 33 years, the car still fulfilled the purpose it was engineered for.

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 6.2 - Chanty´s secret and the salty prank

teams included, in order of appearance: Firulais by @Angelustyle, Chitko by @MrdjaNikolen, Hilbilly Rollers by @Knugcab and Shift Happens by @Madrias

After a quite unspectacular stage, the Primus Legacy arrived at the site, with Chanty still being unusually excited for her habits.

“Oh this looks like a nice camping si… eeeh, nevermind.”

“Damn! This looks like some muddy parking lot for industrial vehicles.”

“Maybe because it is, Jan… but well, for being one of the few men that have never been on a construction site, that was a good guess, I must admit…:”

“Dad, don´t insult him! He is a real man as you are!”

“Hey, that was a compliment, Chantal.”

“I KNOW YOUR SO CALLED COMPLIMENTS TOO WELL BY NOW! And why are we only seventh?”

“Maybe because we had a food stop even if we told you that we could buy you something for less money after the stage and don´t have to order food on the highway restaurant.”

“BUT I WAS HUNGRYYYYYYYYY!!!”

Chanty now blamed herself for the mediocre result and took an emotional support cigarette. As she still had some pain after the conftrontation with 150 kilogram of hillbilly rage, with every part of her body aching like she was put in a car crusher, she was relieved of the duty to build up the tent, and Angel came over to look for her. As the teams built up their campsites next to each other in order of their finishing, both the Firulais and the Chitkos were close to the Rhinos, so Chanty had her favourites near her.

“Oh…”

“Mh?”

“It is just… that you look worse than I thougt…”

“Yes, I know, but I was not really a beauty before, so a few scars more or less are fine…”

“No, Chanty, you are beautiful, don´t say that.”

“eeeh, no free flirting here, hugging is free, but I charge an expensive fee for more from her.”

, laughed Jan, knowing well that Angel would never dare to take away Chanty from him, also well aware of the fact that Chanty wouldn´t dare to cheat on him either, but he wanted to ease it all up with a funny comment.

But actually, Angel got it wrong and felt like being caught and called out, as he really does feel very close to Chantal and stress started to build up, a factor well known for starting mindreading incidents.
The next step towards the inevitable disaster was Josué passing by, being curious what Angel is doing, asking him in a spiteful way, taking revenge for ruining his flirting at Mosoto:

“Look who is the Casanova now!”

Just in that moment Angel also realized which song Thomas was playing with the car´s audio equipment to motivate himself for cooking… and the title alone is self-explanatory while it finally made Angel having the next attack…

This time it was almost taking two minutes. For spectators, it seemed like Angel was burning alive, and he went through Chantys whole thoughts once again, but more in depth. He saw again all negative things, like the ugly divorce of the parents, her first pet dying, being bullied in school, losing friends, being cheated at… but this time it went deeper into details, also making him feel what Chanty feels for, or better said, against herself, and it is not positive, to say the least. He was not even spared of Chantys most painful core memory, and that was her father almost dying from a heart attack in Sweden last year.

As if this was not enough, he also went through some happy events in Chantys life, and there were actually some very beautiful memories in her, like her first feeling of love, getting an ice-cream after falling on her knees as child, or sitting on the lap of her father when he drove, being allowed to honk, and many more. But by sharing her thoughts, these wonderful memories made Angel also fall into an even deeper hole.
He just discovered the reason for Chantys sadness despite keeping positive memories. For her, it hurts more to remember good things that are no longer there. Or, if it was still present, her first thought would be when it´s over or the loved one would leave her in the one or other way.

The one minute and 43 seconds felt like an hour, and Angel remained on the ground, not even trying to get up again. He seemed stuck processing the information he had just seen.
What Ángel found was a very similar sight to what he usually saw… He being bullied not only at school, but at work, at home, even sometimes by himself… The cold feeling of Far Eastern Russia with a douce of Japanese Awkwardness, His never-ending clumsiness which always made him a troublesome person, or, more like, a person who easily got in trouble. His endless Own-Goal scoring Carrer… And, how could he forget, the war at the Kuril Islands, which is the reason why he has only one eye.

But seeing Thomas nearly die, that was the thing that put Ángel in shock. He understood the sort of traumatizing feeling that Chantal may have gotten when that happened. It was as bad as what he had with Kivenaal who lost his homeworld. This incident broke Chanty so much that her already existing depression became a lot worse from that night on, and Angel was forced to read all of Chantys plans what she would do after Thomas dies from a heart attack, and this would be too dark to even mention a tiny bit of it.

Only one single thing was good about this extreme mindreading incident - at least he was now relieved that his stronger-than-usual affection to Chantal was not neccecarily romantic interest, more feeling of her like a very much loved younger sister, as they have matching characters and have lived through similar events.
Jan, medically trained, checked for Angel, and he was… more or less alright, but having lived through Chantys mind clearly ruined his mental health.

“Damn, we need to cheer him up before we let him go back to his team.”

“Hey, Jan, I got an idea.”

Chanty took off her t-shirt and gave it Angel.

“So, its one with an angel, and I think that fits to your name…so, the little Rhino you got from me won´t miss me that much if you have something else from me.”

Angel opened his eyes, well, his one left, and stared at Chanty, and he blushed a lot before desperately trying to look away from her, which was easier said than done with only one eye.

“Eh, Jan, better bring me another t-shirt, I guess he´ll explode otherwise. Damn, Angel, have you never seen a girl, or what?”

Angel thought Jan was going to kill him now, but the opposite was the case - Jan and Chantal, despite arguing on a daily basis, have a very trustful relationship and are rarely feeling jealous.

“Well, baby, I take my time for getting you something out of our trunk, because I enjoy the sight even more than Angel does, hm?”

Thomas, busy with preparing food, ranted at Jan in response.

“CAN YOU STOP DOING BULLSHIT? MY NEED FOR DRAMA IS SATISFIED FOR TODAY. JUST GRAB SOMETHING FOR HER, THIS IS NOT OUR FKK BEACH!”

“Yeah, we should monetarize this and make you an Onlyfans account. With that income, we buy Thomas´garage, I become the boss and make him my assistant.”

“JAN! SHUT THE FUCK UP AND FOLLOW ME IN TOWN TO BUY MISSING GROCERIES. Chantal, make sure that Angel is arriving safely at his camp.”

Chanty did as ordered, and Angel, in need to talk with someone about his latest incidents to not lose his mind, started with Kivenaals mind content, describing what he saw in detail - a mistake, as Chantal did not know about this yet and started crying about the end of Aetherii that Angel described a bit too detailed. When arriving at the nearby Firulais camp, the others quickly grabbed Angel, telling him to help with the preparations for the next stage, while Chanty decided to have a mental health stop at the Chitkos. Pi was shocked when she arrived.

“OH NO! I heard what happened this morning, but… damn, this looks so bad.”

“I had worse … incidents … already, it´s fine.”

“Well, considering that Marie was your opponent, I guess you are very lucky that she left you alive. But still… that looks painful.”

“OH NO! DAMN!”

“What? Have I said something wrong?”

“Damn, I need that salt… eh… eh… here is it. I don´t want to have even more demons posessing me than it´s already the case.”

Before Pi could stop it, Chanty rubbed a lot of salt on her wounds, making her scream in pain and crying. Actually everyone in her surroundings was shocked seeing her doing this to herself, even if such behaiviour was more or less expected from her already by those that watched her a bit in the past days. Bong ran towards Chanty, ripping the salt out of her hands and spilling it all over the ground.

“ARE YOU DUMB? DO THAT ELSEWHERE BUT NOT HERE!”

“BONG! SHE IS NOT DUMB! JUST SPECIAL. How about being nice to her instead of being so harsh?”

Pi could not look at Chanty crying, as it was too painful for her, she grabbed some booze, and Andrea gently hugged her and then turned to Chanty, also comforting her.

“Why did you do that? And why in front of Pi, you know how much we like you, and that this will cause her nightmares. It might not look that way, but Pi is as sensitive as you are.”

“I … was told so. Janne told my dad that I need to do this in order to not be possessed and now the salt is gone, now I will be an easy target for demons!”

Bong, as a doctor, insisted on getting the salt off Chanty, but she refused, and he went back to his daughter Jakasxandra in order to rant, but now didn´t want their guest to hear this.

“Have you heard that nonsense? Is that Janne a total idiot? And why does her father even encourage her to listen to that?”

“I have, but as my loving father you can imagine how hard it would be for you if I was cursed by life like her, and you would try everything to make me feel better, don´t you think?”

“Sure, Jakasxandra, but why salt? This seems like a… questionnable attempt at curing her.”

“I once talked to Janne when he had a booze-fueled philosophic moment, and he said, at some point, mmh, let me put it back together, ah, yes, he said, healing and cleaning out your self-inflicted wounds is helpful to actually improve your own strength and gain trust in it. I think what Janne was up to is… that Chanty is actually very strong, but she doesn´t know that yet or has forgotten about it.”

But both really doubted that the instruction given by Janne included using almost all salt at once, causing Chantal to still cry in terrible pain after some minutes, and Bong, even if being very annoyed at his blue-haired guest about the incident, politely told Chanty that Jannes ritual includes using one single grain of salt - since it should not cause pain, but only keep the demons away.

Before arriving at her own campsite, she walked over to Shift Happens, asking for Kiva.

“Oh, what is it that late?”

“Angel told me what is in your mind. The end of Aetherii, to be precise.”

“Why did he do this?”

“He needed to vent, I guess?”

“And, what are you willing to talk about now?”

“I don´t want to talk, I just want to make your life a bit better.”

Chanty, way too small to give Kiva a “proper” hug, grabbed his leg and leaned against it, and the giant Valraadi sighed. Not that the things in his mind didn´t bother him, but having - from his perspective - kids dealing with it was not his intention. But for the moment, having the affection and gentle hug of Chantal had a positive effect on him. He even considered his team doing magic to let Chantys bruises heal faster, but on the other hand, he thought that a harsh lesson like Marie taught her might help her learning from mistakes, in this case, carelessly challenging superior opponents.

“Thanks, little one, I appreciate it. But looking at your makeup, you cried a lot today, hm? Let me bring you back to your team, someone charging other peoples inner batteries like you needs to recharge herself as well.”

When Kiva again gave her a lift “home”, Chanty arrived just in time to enjoy the dinner that Thomas and Jan had prepared and went to sleep with Rudolph, waiting for Jan to cuddle with her when he was done washing the dishes, a task usually Chanty did, but with her hands being injured, nobody expected her to do it this evening, and exhausted as she was, she was already sound asleep when Jan and Thomas joined her in the tent.

[Angelustyle]

Team Firulais

Stage 6: “Mind Reader’s Hell”, “Champion Andrés Defeated”, and Ángel as a “Bold Action Man”

(Mentioning @Happyhungryhippo [The Rhino Squad] and @Knugcab [Team Hillbilly Rollers])

Early Morning at Lauda.

Ángel:“GYAH! Ack! W-What…?”

Ángel said to absolutely no one as he woke up from a nightmare.

Ana:“Wake up, Jap.”
Ángel:“えっと…おはようございます、かな？”
(Pronounciation: Etto… ohayōgozaimasu, ka na?
Trans.:“Uh… Good morning, I guess?”)
Tómas:“We were waiting for you to wake up. Where were you last night, by the way?”
Josué:“Don’t tell me you took another ‘Accidental Dose of Booze’.”
Ángel:“You guys know I am not even interested in Alcohol. It is more likely from you to buy and drink booze than me.”
Josué:“Remember when we were at Tokyo on the trip to Nevada?”
Ángel:“I… Honestly don’t. I just remember having a mind reading incident while I slept on the Trip to L.A…”
Andrés:“Anyway. How did you sleep?”
Ángel:“Fine, I guess.”

“That is a lie…”, Ángel thought for himself.

Josué:“Well then. We’ll go down to take breakfast and we’ll get on the road a bit early. Remember, don’t call too much the attention, Ángel. We are in trouble already for that since we came to this country.”
Ángel:“Alrighty. But first, I could go into one of the rumoured magic stores here in Lauda. Maybe they’d have a cure for these Unintentional Mind Readings, but, besides I believe it’s unlikely, I doubt they even know what a Yumeisotitanian is. Oh, and, before I forget, guys, this rally, this event ain’t a race… It’s like the Mongol Rally, if you get it—”
Josué:“What the hell is the Mongol Rally?”
Ángel:“A charity rally that goes from England to Mongolia. There’s no prize, just the reward of having fun with your family, friends, other people… Unshitting your Spring or Summer Season, in some way.”

With that statement, they showered, changed clothes, and went down to take breakfast.

The Breakfast Mess.

It all began after Marie did her usual things and began stealing from everyone, a bit jealous about Chantal. Ana and Josué got to joke about it, but Ángel was nervous.

(Tómas ain’t present… He arrived just as Ángel was wondering where Thomas was.)

Distracting Ana, he came down to tell Thomas (not to be confused with Tómas) about the situation, but given his nerves, he spoke to him in Japanese (Thomas must have been lost in translation at that point), and only after telling him in English, Thomas ran back to the Hotel.

After that, Ángel came back to join for breakfast, but not without trying to fix something that came with the Aurora first… The Heater and the A/C didn’t want to work, so he tried to fix it… Which didn’t work, but at least he didn’t worsen their situation: see, only Ángel knew it, but, the Heater was stuck in the fully on position, so, he’d secretly disconnected it as soon as they arrived to the US (before they even got to Aetherii)… for both safety and to not annoy everyone, specially on the hotter stages.

And after breakfast, he told his team he’d go on the search for the mentioned magic store or supplier.

An hour or so later, in Downtown Lauda…

Ángel had found his store. He wouldn’t check them all, just the first he could find. As said before, he’d look for some sort of cure for his issues…

Take in mind (an unintended pun may be done whenever I say those words with Ángel…), such cure doesn’t exist, or is capable of existing. Not even temporary solutions are on existence. And given Ángel’s race of ascendency, if the local storekeeper knew only a bit about Aetheriian Magic, about Yumeisotitanian magic, he’d know even less, if anything to a very minor degree.

Ángel:“P-Please. You m-must know how to help me with this. Couldn’t t-there be a way to…?”

The owner denied with his head, replying that he “didn’t know about Yumeisotitanian Humanoids”, but he’d “research about it, and hoped that he (Ángel) would hop again at Lauda afterwards”. Ángel, while definitely not able to find a cure (because there isn’t one), was at least a bit relieved by the fact he finally had a friendly encounter with the locals, as the ones at Menes, and at Thornes hadn’t worked out so well.

Ángel:“Oh… OK. Спасибо.”
(Спасибо [“Spasibo”] = “Thanks” in Russian.)

With that, he left back to the Hotel, and they began their trip to the next destination, Björnes.

Road to Björnes.

They left with high hopes of making up some time this time, but, it seems the tire curse hadn’t “braked”, or, at least, it did, but, only for a short period of time.

They’d have another flat tire. The 4th in just 6 stages. It seemed that whenever Ángel wasn’t driving (he hadn’t driven since Stage 1), misfortune struck the Firulais… And Ana had seemed to have enough as she was changing (or trying to fix) the tire as best as she could.

Ana:“Está maldita maldición me tiene mamada hasta los ovarios, carajo!”
(I better not translate this…)
Andrés:“Hey, Ana, calm down, you seem… Stressed.”
Ana:“Well, of course I am! Ángel painted my T-Shirt, my hair, and now we have yet ANOTHER flat tire, due to HIM not changing some 19-year old tires, these tires are as old as me! Ángel, malparido, ya verás cuando te toque manejar a ti!”
([…]“Ángel, you son of a b!tc#, you’ll see when you get the turn to drive!”)
Ángel:“Ana, calma. Si has visto, todos los equipos han tenido por lo menos un problema. La mayoría han tenido pinchazos.”
(“Ana, Calm down. If you’ve seen, all teams had at least one issue. Most had flats.”)
Josué:“Si, pero si nosotros hasta este punto hemos tenido 4 pinchazos…”
(“Yes, but we had 4 flat tires up to this point…”)

Josué spit a fact. He, same as Ana, was tired of so many flat tires. At least they changed the tire, again, and managed to do the rest of the stage without any other major inconvenience. Well… I said “major”…

Ángel (on the radio):“I don’t know if anyone can hear me, but, uh… Our wipers somehow have decided to work at will, Josué is pulling the lever, and the wipers just won’t go off. They aren’t squeaking or anything, but they don’t want to go off.”
Josué:“How much horsepower does this thing have?”
Ángel:“I think it had like 60… something, maybe a bit less, from the factory. When I tested it on the Dyno, it did 57 or something like that, not bad for a 4-pot, not bad for a 1.4l engine, and not bad for a car with 42 years of age.”
Josué:“So, 57?”
Ángel:“Yup, 57. Well, 56 now. The wipers just don’t want to shut down.”

Björnes.

Ángel:“Этот город… дарит мне атмосферу Владивостока. Если бы здесь не было жарко, я бы чувствовал себя как дома.”
(Pronounciation: Etot gorod… darit mne atmosferu Vladivostoka. Yesli by zdes’ ne bylo zharko, ya by chuvstvoval sebya kak doma.
Trans.:“This city…gives me Vladivostok vibes. If it weren’t hot here, I would actually feel at home.”)

Tómas:“这个地方让我想起了我的父母。”
(Pronounciation: Zhège dìfāng ràng wǒ xiǎngqǐle wǒ de fùmǔ.
Trans.:“This place makes me think of my parents.”)

It truly wasn’t exactly the best place to sleep, or to do anything. But at least Ángel got the vibes. Plus, the weather helped him to adapt to the conditions in Okinawa, which he expected to be a lot warmer than Vladivostok. Why Okinawa? Ángel would move there after the rally ended… He needed to feel closer to his family, after several years of living in Russia.

However, the thing that made this day “Mind Reader’s Hell”, was yet to come.

Afternoon at Björnes.
“Mind Reader’s Hell” begins.

It all seemed to be a good day for Ángel, despite the morning incidents and the flat tire, and the seemingly stuck in “ON” position wipers (which turned off as soon as they shut the car down, but would turn on again, whenever they turned the car back on). However, later in the afternoon, he would suffer a catastrophic mind reading incident.

The incident left him in such a shock that he later insisted for the other people in his team to drive for him in the next stage (Stage 7) as well as the next stage after that in which he would drive… He needed a little break.

He didn’t knew if telling Mirage from Timeloss, or the people of Shift Happens. He didn’t knew if trying to meet new people; while Marie wasn’t at all in the list of people Ángel would like to meet here, after the breakfast incident at Lauda, Ángel felt like talking to Janne might be a good idea (because he didn’t knew the occult things were… Fake). He could also come back to the Chitcos, or try chatting with his own team. But he didn’t know what to do. He was so altered by having 2 mind reading incidents that lasted over a minute in just 2 days, that he was essentially crumbling. He ultimately recurred to a very very short talk with Kivenaal, from Shift Happens, the victim of the mind reading incident prior to the one of today. The talk was about what Ángel had seen, and let’s just say that what he said didn’t improve much the situation. He told Kivenaal exactly what he saw, in his own words. But that hurted Chantal even further, or, so he saw it… So he preferred to not mention what he’d seen in Chantal’s Mind… for now, at least.

What he knew was that he would have the usual Pokemon Match of the Night, and that he’d make dinner; he did said thing first, making Bolognese Pasta, with surprisingly good results; even Ana said it was good. And then came the Pokemon Match with Andrés, for the tent…

In Andrés’ head, this was the music that sounded when he faced Ángel in this game…

…and this is the music that Ángel hurd in his head when facing Andrés.

(Note how they both come from the same game… Just that Andrés’ can be found very early in the game, and Ángel’s is the theme of what is, essentially, the final boss of the game…)

“Why do I hear boss music?”, he wondered. And, boy, it was their longest battle to date. The match lasted almost half an hour (imagine how much strategy they had in place)… And for once, a miracle happened.

Ángel:“Did I just…?”
Andrés"Condamner."
(“Damn.”, in French.)
Ángel:“私の勝ち ！ とりあえず勝てた！ 実際、私はアンドレスに勝ちました！ ついに ！”
(Pronounciation: Watashi no kachi! Toriaezu kateta! Jissai, watashi wa Ando resu ni kachimashita! Tsuini!
Trans.: “I win! I won for once! I actually beat Andrés! FINALLY!”)
Andrés:“Very well played, Ángel.”

The disasters of today were forgotten a bit by this one moment of happiness, as Ángel screamed of joy in the same tone a Japanese TV Game Show Host would.

However, Ángel had gotten so accostumed to the Aurora, that he honestly preferred sleeping in it rather than sleeping in a tent, so, he allowed Andrés to actually sleep in his tent for tonight.

Ángel:“Next time, we will actually dispute for that tent, though.”
Andrés:“I’ll make sure you don’t defeat me next time.”
Ángel:“Sure, Champion Andrés…!”

Ángel said jokingly (making a bit of a reference to the game they were playing), before they both noticed something… Someone had broken into their car’s trunk… Guess who was looking for booze.

Ángel:“おい ！そこで止まって下さい！”
(Pronounciation: Oi ! Sokode tomatte kudasai!
Trans.:“Hey! Stop right there!”)

Ángel shouted as he saw Marie doing her usual things again… And, for once, someone caught her “in fraganti”. They began chasing her thru camp, and said chase lasted long enough for Tómas to join as well. During said chase, one question arose…

Andrés:“Why the hell are we chasing her ? I mean, didn’t you say you don’t like Alcohol ?”
Ángel:“I said that, but I’m doing this for both Ana and Josué, and for you too, because Imagine how infuriated will Ana be realizing her beer got stolen.”
Tómas:“I mean… I’ve seen what happened between her and Chantal, so, I’m coming with you guys.”
Ángel:“彼女を驚かせようとします…”
(Pronounciation: Kanojo o odoroka seyou to shimasu…
Trans.:“I’ll try to catch her up by surprise…”)
Andrés:“What ?”
Ángel:“Uh… Nothing. You two go and persuade her, I’ve got a plan with some bold action.”

Without thinking it too much, Ángel would take a detour from the main chase, and divert into the next point the chase would arrive to. Marie wouldn’t notice, but Ángel did the tactic perfectly… By tackling her. It was good enough to stop her and make her fall over. “I’M THE BOLD ACTION MAAAAN…!”, would say Ángel before tackling Marie from the side, and, as said, the plan would go perfectly…

…Until the beer bottles shattered upon impact to the ground.

Ana (from the distance):“…What was that?”
Ángel:“Oh, crap.”
Marie:“I didn’t do anything, he broke them!”
Ángel:“Nuh-uh, SHE did, she was trying to steal it!”

They both said, pointing at each other.

Ana:“Andrés, is that true ?”
Andrés:“They both broke it.”
Ángel (almost at the same time as Marie):“何 ？”
(Pronounciation: Nani?
Trans.: “What?”)
Marie (almost at the same time as Ángel):“WHAT?”
Ángel:“I mean… You could’ve as well just asked for it, we are a bit more loose on this than the…”

…but again, Ángel wouldn’t finish before the person he was talking to left, in this case, Marie.

Ángel:“…rest. sigh”
Ana:“Well… You were the one who broke the beer, so, get those hands ready, we’re not cleaning any of YOUR mess.”
Ángel (a bit… annoyed):“…Really?”

So, Ángel would have to pick up the pieces of Glass by himself, by Ana’s Orders… Making himself some cuts in his left hand which he easily recovered from with some gauze and medical tape. After all, the beer wouldn’t have shattered if Ángel wouldn’t have made such an abrupt -yet brutally effective- move.

After that, and some more, they all went to sleep… Except Ángel. By 4 Moon (a very rough equivalent to what would be 10-11PM on earth), he was still awake, looking at the stars, wondering what to do. While the advice of telling the others that the rally wasn’t a race was… Working (?), the one about not overthinking about stuff continued to “not translate”.

And, again, Collabs are open as usual.

[Madrias]

Shitbox Rally - Stage 7

Stage 7: Björnes to Drur

Weather: Mid 20’s, some clouds, low but gusty winds.

---

A well-built and wide road carries everyone at a decent pace on the shockingly-flat first half of the trip. The second half has some hills in it, but nothing so awful that it would be a problem.

For Transporttjäns Eriksson Aktiebolag Eslöv, it’s a rough day. 3.5 hours lost to changing the failed water pump that was missed yesterday.
(@WoodenPlankGames)

Rhino Squad bursts a tire early on in the stage. The Spy Kids manage to pop a tire as well to keep them company.
(@HappyHungryHippo, @SheikhMansour)

Team Hillbilly Rollers spent a couple hours on the side of the road trying to find some mercy bush quills to get rid of the horrible smell in the van. After a few hours of looking around, but finding nothing except some normal-smelling flowers, they’re back on the move.
(@Knugcab)

Straight Outta Seratos has a similar problem to TEAE, losing 5 hours in total. 3.5 hours to the water pump replacement… And the other 1.5 hours moving cargo around to access the engine.
(@Shibusu)

Machinas Con Passione spends an hour “fixing” a misfire by wrapping all of the spark plug wires in electrical tape. It doesn’t work, but Giacomo swears it’s made a difference.
(@SurrealCereal)

Drur itself is a sizable town of roughly 43,000 people with a great view of the ocean. The hillside location is a callback to the medieval origins of the town, offering an excellent defense from archers and invaders long ago. The center of town holds a lot of older buildings and architecture, slowly getting more modern the further out you go. If you need common goods, you shouldn’t have any problem finding them here.

Our camp, however, is not in the town. The support train is parked on a spur in a nearby yard, normally used for rolling stock for the main station in Drur. Our camp is just off to the side, in a nice grassy clearing perfect for pitching tents. Unfortunately, there are no services in the camp, but it’s a short few minute walk to some actual toilets used by the staff and crews at the yard.

---

Spreadsheet is here: SR2024 Stage Results - Google Drive

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 7.1 - The BetterWheel

teams included: Highway Hooligans by @Madrias, Firulais by @Angelustyle (only mentioned) and Fuist by @Djadania

The night was free of interruptions, and Chanty started her day with a morning cigarette, while Thomas complained about back pain - he definitely preferred the hotel bed from the previous night.

At the same time, after having a session on the men´s toilet in the office building of the adjacent plant, Jan met Jake Storm, who was about to do what Jan just finished.

“Jan, do you have a minute?”

“Sure… what is it?”

“Do you remember me, too?”

“Yes, last year´s 24h in Sweden. You are… eh, I have a 33 percent chance to get this right now.”

“Jake, yes. And last year is exactly the point. Chantal looks quite banged up…”

“Sadly, that´s normal for her. She´s great at getting into trouble. We even can´t go bowling without her injuring herself. But it´s nothing serious, looks worse than it is.”

“Not only physically… I mean, she gained at least 10 kilos since then, and … well, she was more a shy one in Sweden, and also cried a bit there, too, but she´s totally exalted here.”

“I know what you mean, but you can believe me that I try everything to…”

“JAN! THAT WAS NOT AN ACCUSATION! But something must have happened since then, and I am just worried. Wasn´t that mindreader with you yesterday?”

“Yes… well, I wish he wasn´t, not that I don´t like him, his incidents are just bad for himself and also for Chanty who suffers a lot from causing Angel that pain. Yesterday it seems he read the whole mind at once.”

“Yes, I noticed that Angel is … very much down today. But, do you have a clue why Chantal´s state became worse after Sweden?”

“No, I mean, there was a lot happening. She bonded with an elk she had to leave… well, she even cries about throwing away a plush toy. But her first car was destroyed, and we had a DNF, that was hard to swallow. Not to forget Thomas was almost dying and I broke my foot in a serious crash. I guess all at once was too much for her, so Thomas and me were against competing here, but… well, she begged so much for it that we registrated.”

“How about asking Angel what he saw, he maybe knows what it is?”

“Are you sure? I guess dealing again with what he saw isn´t pleasant.”

“Jan, it is well visible that Angel really loves Chanty, not what you think, but…”

“Yes, we figured it out which relation they have, don´t worry. I think he sees her as his little sister.”

“So, Jan, if Chantal was your little sister and in need of help, wouldn´t you grab a rose with thorns for that?”

The time that passed until their departure was not eventful, in fact, it was almost boring this time. Chanty insisted on driving again, and nobody wanted to talk her out of it in order to keep her happy. She raced off with quite a pace, soon making her teammates look for the grab handles. Jan felt extremely uncomfortable, and as you should do when you are not sure if to panic or not, you look for the staff, and Jan decided to look towards Thomas, who nervously played with some buttons and had put his seat upright, as if he prepared for an emergency…

“Baby, are you sure that you are in the mood to drive?”

“SURE! Does that look like I am not motivated?”

“That´s not the point, eeh, your father is rarely scared in cars but he doesn´t look too happy…”

“It´s just his back pain, RIGHT DADDY?”

“I think if you continue driving like this my back pain transforms in no pain at all up there in heaven.”

Just in that moment, a tire popped, causing the car to spin. Even Thomas was scared at that speed, and somehow Chanty prevented them from ending in the ditch, not really getting how she managed to do that.

“That was… impressive. Well done.”

“Thanks…”

Chanty froze in her position, and tears started to pour down her cheeks. Another panic attack was about to happen, and it had to be avoided at all cost, if it was not too late for that already. Thomas looked to Jan, who also froze in his position, holding up the roof handle of the car that he ripped off.

Thomas was the first to react, addressing Chanty in order to distract her from getting one of her panic attacks.

“Let´s get out of here. Damn, I need a smoke. Chanty, you join me?”

“Y…e…s… do you have a cigarette for me?”

After getting out of the vehicle, Thomas opened the boot, already ready to complain again.

“OF COURSE THAT SHIT SPARE WHEEL IS ALL DOWN THAT MESS HERE, CRAP!”

“It… isn´t.”

“What do you mean, Chanty? The spare wheels of these cars are below the trunk space, not on the underbody of the vehicle like some other brands.”

“I don´t mean that.”

“CHAAAAAAAAAAANTY, WHERE IS MY SPARE TIRE?”

“I… felt a subwoofer would be of better use in that spot.”

“So that means we have no spare tire?”

“No…I mean… yes. We don´t.”

“CHANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!”

“But… now you can listen to your favourite music even louder… when calling a towtruck…”

“JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Thomas yelled a bit too harsh at his daughter that sat down and started crying, and a very pissed Jan took over and comforted her. Just in that moment, the Team Fuist stopped.

“Are you in need of help?”

“Actually yes, I need a spare tire fitting on my car, I have 5x115…”

“Eww, that´s a weird one. I am afraid our spare doesn´t fit. But, I have some tirefit and a compressor, if you need one…it is from betterDeals, so please do not expect too much of it…”

“Thanks, the tire damage isn´t too extensive, I think… I can repair it. Who are you, by the way, I am Thomas.”

“Louis. And that is Marceline. I think we haven´t met yet.”

“The slenderman there is Jan, my daughter´s boyfriend, and that smurf is Chantal, …”

“Your daughter?”

“Yep.”

“I think that´s the hungry one from yesterday. That fight looked nasty.”

Louis laughed a bit.

“Eww, it would be better not to tell her that´s your first thought when you see her. She is a bit sensitive.”

“I can see and hear that… damn, looks like she´s really not well right now. I guess anyone with blue hair is sensitive, because you just don´t dye your hair like that without serious psychological problems”

, answered Marceline.

“That´s a stereotype, come on, I know you didn´t mean it offensive but it actually is, so don´t ruin our first impression here.”

“Don´t worry, your first impression was giving us stuff to fix the tire, so…”,

said Thomas, already fiddling with the tirefit, while Jan slowly managed to stop Chanty from crying. She considered herself stable enough for driving when Thomas told his teammates that the tire is fixed, and she made use of the subwoofer, as Marceline passed Chanty a proper adapter for the Aux jack.

“ARGH. THAT IS NOT MUSIC, THAT IS NOISE. A very unpleasant one. And why does it just repeat the same stupid line over and over?”

“Daddy, THIS IS ART! It´s a queer-friendly band, and the text is addressing the toxic boomer mentality.”

“So I have to feel… adressed?”

“Nah, you are cool. Unlike uncle Wolfgang.”

“My brother is a bit… difficult, yes, but… that´s normal in families that they have difficult relatives.”

“Dad. This “come on, it is not that bad, get along with it” is exactly this boomer attitude destroying the mental health of us young people.”

“COULD YOU TWO STOP ARGUING PLEASE?”

, and it was really rare that Jan exploded, as he was otherwise the calm one of the trio, so Chanty returned her attention to the road and Thomas was pretending that he was enjoying the landscape.

[Knugcab]

TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
PART 6.1 - FELINE TARTARE

TW: DEAD ANIMALS, GORE-ISH

Surprisingly enough, the trip to Björnes, as well as setting up the camp there, had been very undramatic. Well, except for Marie complaining that she didn’t want to get to some childish piece of shit town (finally convinced by Janne and Andreas that it had absolutely nothing to do with the Swedish childrens TV show “Björnes Magasin” from the 80s), Marie stealing beer and…well, if someone saw the “semi public shower experience” that Janne and Andreas forced Marie into, that could be a sort of drama in itself.

However, in the rather warm environment, the butter Chanty once put in the heating system of the IP was now really starting to smell like shit.

“RAHHHH I CAN’T STAND THIS ANYMORE!”, Marie said after some miles.

“Driving with the sunroof and windows open won’t do shit anymore”, Andreas said. “Damn, and no recirculation either, becausee…well, the 70s.”

“You know how they made these cars?”, Janne said. “First, the heater core was coming down the production line, and then they assembled a car around it. I refuse to disassemble half of the interior to get to this!”

“So, we’re going to smell this shit getting worse and worse for every day?”, Andreas asked. “You can forget about that!”

“Nah…I guess I have a better idea. Do you remember the mercy bush?”, Janne said.

“Yes, and I remember I could hardly drive because of that smell…”

“M-hm. But we have a smell now that makes it hard to drive, too!”, Janne answered. “If you have to drive at half throttle in first gear, then be it. I mean, it has probably cleansed the car by tomorrow. And what we don’t tell Shift Happens won’t bother them.”

“Yeah”, Andreas said. “But we have to be really sneaky then”.

After walking and walking through the scenery in heat that our friends weren’t used to, for some miles, no mercy bush was to be found.

“This smells…boring. And this… And this…”, Janne said while sniffing every plant at the side of the road, in search of a replacement.

TW!

“This smells…gross”, Marie said, finding….something at the side of the road.

“What smells gross?”, Andreas asked, while Marie got some new ideas about pranking Chanty.

“Oh, just some…dirty water in the ditch”, she said, taking a plastic bag she had forgotten in her pocket somehow, to wrap around her….discovery. A half eaten stray cat that some larger predator probably had taken, just to be scared away by some even larger predator, or whatever had happened.

“Nah, there is nothing to find here, let’s go back to the car”, Janne said.

Somehow, Marie carrying the plastic bag went on unnoticed walking behind Janne and Andreas. She threw it into the rear of the van, and the gross butter smell in the passenger compartment somehow managed to hide the gross dead cat smell in the cargo area. Dizzy from the stench, our friends arrived at camp, as one of the last teams.

“OK, I have no choice, I’ll have to disassemble this shit and clean it up!”, Janne said, immediately starting to take out the dashboard of the IP.

Meanwhile, Marie noticed the gold Primus left unsupervised for some reason. She left the plastic bag with the half eaten cat inside on the hood, and left a little note taped to the plastic bag.

Totally undiscovered by Janne and Andreas that was very busy with arguing if that wiring, that cable, that screw was necessary to loosen to be able to get the heater core out of the IP.

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 7.2 - Sport, mean pranks and an adventure

teams included: Firulais by @Angelustyle, GECA by @Elizipeazie, Hillbilly Rollers by @Knugcab, Chitko by @MrdjaNikolen and Highway Hooligans by @Madrias

The Rhinos arrived with a surprisingly competetive result, thanks to Chantys maniac driving.

“I can´t believe it, we made it here alive!”

“You can believe on sundays, Jan. I didn´t know you were religious. Knowing is better than believing, and I know that we are lucky to be alive. Chantal, could you please… CHANTAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!”

“Yes?”

“Turn down the volume and stop trying to kill everyone, we are there. We are even well in the top 10 despite the time we lost. Damn.”

“YAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! SMASH!”

“Not Slay?”

“That also!”

While Thomas and Jan built up the tent, with Thomas having his usual temper at that task, Chanty started cooking, and when the Firulais arrived much later, Jan excused himself, but also had a feeling of hunger - and ate with his team before leaving.

Jan stepped towards the Firulais camp after eating, but Angel, who he wanted to speak was no longer present. Andrés was the only one at the campsite, and Jan tried is luck. Josué was also there, but at that time in the tent, relaxing and reading a bit.

“Eh, Andrés, where is Angel`”

“Propably reading the minds of the Cunning Stunts team.”

, laughed Andrés.

“Shit. I really need to talk to him.”

“He isn´t trying to date Chantal, it´s just…”

“Yeah, I know, it´s not that. But … I need to know what he read in her mind. She never tells me how bad it really is, because she doesn´t want to make me sad or worried.”

“Oh, in this case… Angel talked a bit about it to vent, because he couldn´t stand the pain Chantys mind caused him, don´t be mad at him, he really needed to vent a bit. But I am not your hairdresser, so I can´t just expose Angel and your girlfriend that much.”

“I am not mad… but I am curious. I just see Chanty destroying herself more and more, and last night, she was again crying and woke me up by desperately grabbing my hand while whispering for help.”

“In this case… it would be Angels will to help you, and… well, her actually. So, listen.”

Andrés told Jan more or less everything Angel revealed, and even if Jan knew that Chantal didn´t always had an easy life, it was new to him that Chanty can´t be happy about positive moments, as she assumes that after these are over, they will never come back, and that everything she loves can also be lost sooner or later. And also that Thomas health is a huge concern. When Angel told Jan what Chanty had planned in her mind in case her father dies, Jan just ran away in panic.

“Oh shit. JAN! SORRY! I didn´t mean to… ah, crap. WAIT!”

Andrés already regretted telling Jan that in detail.
When Jan arrived totally exhausted at his camp, he immediately startet yelling at Thomas.

“THOMAS! COME WITH ME! NOW!”

“Eh, what is it? I have just opened a beer, and you need a damn good reason to…”

“MOVE!”

Chanty was also alarmed by Jan´s unusual temper.

“What is it? What is wrong?”

The tension in the situation alone caused Chanty crying again, as she assumed something really bad happened, but Jan assured her that this is not the case, and Thomas and Chantal followed Jan to the GECA team.

“Damn, why would anyone ride a bike if he or she had a driving license?”

“DAD! THERE ARE MORE THAN JUST TWO GENDERS!”

“Alright, why would ANYONE OR ANYTHING WITH A LICENSE…”

“CAN´T YOU TWO STOP FOR ONCE???”

Jan then showed Thomas the bike of Hugh: It was the only one at least remotely fitting Thomas figure. Thomas was mad at first when he noticed that Jan forced him on a bike in order to improve his cardiac condition, but didn´t want to make a scene, especially when being at another team´s camp.

“So, you are Hugh?”

“Yes, and it´s a pleasure to show you the joy of riding a bike.”

“This is fun?”

“It is, and its nice to meet you, as I get to know many different persons in this event.”

“Yeah, would be for me too, if it didn´t involve doing sports…Do you have an allen key to adjust the saddle, please?”

“Sure.”

“What am I supposed to do with a knife?”

“Damn, wrong key, sorry…”

Valentin then explained the irritated Rhino Squad that Hugh is sometimes a bit weird and seems to have a neurodivergence. Actually, Hugh is a game character who is played by someone in a parallel universe, but nobody knows that. Thomas just made a weird face, Jan nodded in disbelief, and Chanty understood nothing at all, but soon after, Thomas sat on the bike- and Jan also, as he wanted to make sure that Thomas is really using it and not just riding to the nearest bar to get drunk.

“And me?”

“Sorry?”

, asked Valentin.

“I mean, I feel bad if they have to ride a bike while I am sitting lazy at the campsite.”

“Well, Ingrids bike might fit. But I have to ask her first. You would propably also not lend your car anyone, so I will be right back.”

10 Minutes later, Chanty was also equipped with a bike, and all three rode off to explore the region a bit. Drur was a beautiful city with ocean view and historic medieval buildings, so it made totally sense to do that biking trip here. After an hour, Chanty was totally exhausted and almost falling off the bike.

“STOOOP! AAH!”

“Oh, you´re exhausted already?”

“ALREADY, JAN?”

“Yes, sorry, I mean, that´s quite an archievement for you to ride a whole hour. And it´s great that you even bothered doing this. I am surprised you kept up this long.”

“Yes, I know, I am fat… and its a miracle that the bike didn´t break in half…”

Jan got off “his” bike and hugged Chanty in order to silence her with a love does instead of duct tape, and after a few minutes, she was feeling good enough to slowly ride back.

“Thomas, how is your state?”

“MY ASS HURTS FROM THAT FUCKING SADDLE! It feels like sitting on a sharp rock. The riding position is like being stuck inside a washing machine and … I HATE IT! I will ride back with Chanty.”

“Dad, no, please… do me the favour. Riding a bike is good for people with cardiac problems, if you still can go on, then please do it…”

“Yeah, fine, another 30 minutes more, but then I am also done, I also struggle to keep up Jans pace by now. And we have to ride all the distance back…”

Chanty seperated herself from the group, while Thomas started ranting again as soon as they continued.

“I CAN SEE WHY PEOPLE INVENTED THE CAR AFTER HAVING TO DEAL WITH THIS!”

“Thomas, damn, do you even know that we do this for you, in oder to improve your health?”

“Beer has vitamines, too.”

“Chantys mental state is also that bad because she saw you almost dying, the mindreader can confirm it. She isn´t over it.”

“Everyone has to die one day.”

“THOMAS! You know what she does when you are gone? Right at the moment, there would be two funerals at once then. This is not a joke. You can lock her up in the psych ward then, so my objective is letting you live as long as possible and that also includes sport and healthy food.”

“HEALTHY FOOD? YOU FORCE ME TO EAT RABBIT FOOD? LIKE SALAD?”

“So, Thomas. here is the deal: Either healthy food, or daily 30 minutes of cardio-centered excercises?”

“Yeah, well, I prefer sport then, let´s get back on the bikes.”

While Thomas tried to act cool, he clearly changed his mind to the bike not because he himself wanted that or had an interest in living longer - but for the wellbeing of his daughter, he would do almost anything - except for eating salad daily.
Chanty brought back the bike to Valentin, who checked for possible damage.

“You… have a checklist?”

“Sure. These are expensive and highly complex bikes for professional use. Any damage could be dangerous at the speeds that our team members are able to ride with their training and experience. Also, they are very expensive, so we have to make sure you did not cause us unneccecary expenses.”

“Ah, so… I guess it is still ok, we didn´t crash or such.”

“I hoped you would finish an activity without a disaster, and I am delighted that wish came true. Did you enjoy it?”

“Propably only Jan really enjoyed it, but we had a nice view of the ocean, and I propably did something good for my health as well, but I was just exhausted after an hour and needed to ride back, the others will arrive in an hour or so…”

“Definitely. And it does not matter how far you got, as you at least tried and successfully rode a few kilometers. Whenever one of you, or at best all of you, feel like doing this again, we might make that possible.”

Chanty was looking foward to some snacks, and this time, she really had earned them. She found a plastic bag next to the car, with a notice for her. Marie was obviously giving her half of a cat…
Almost everyone could hear the scream, and then the crying, thankfully, Angel was quite close and could look after her, but almost threw up himself from the stench and the… look of the slaughtered cat. Andrea and Pi also wanted to help her friend, but just couldn´t when seeing what was in the bag.

“We need to bury it… we can´t let it lay here like trash”,

cried Chanty, so terribly that the translator ring failed, and she needed multiple attempts to make the technology understand her.
Angel answered, that he could do this, but his hands are injured from the glass splinters… in that moment, Bong appeared.

“CHANTAL! Your cause my team so much drama! Can´t you just be normal, at least a bit? Why would you even…”

“IT WAS MARIE!”

, sobbed Chanty, still sitting on the ground and not able to do anything except handing Bong the notice.

“Oh, sorry, then it is definitely NOT your fault… this time. I heard you wanted to bury it, but you can´t look at it and your friend is injured? In this case, Angel, please get me a shovel and we will do this, no problem.”

Dr. Bong did as promised, and Chanty took a shower at the train yards employee bathrooms, she was, after doing some sport activity, in need of it anyway, and some fresh water would maybe help her clear her mind, too.

Meanwhile, Thomas and Jan are on the way back to the campsite, when Jan pulled over at a cliff for the beautiful ocean view.

“Thomas, do we have beer?”

“Plenty. What´s wrong that you want to drink alcohol? That´s unusual for you.”

“I mean, in your backpack. You won´t go anywhere without beer if you´re not in charge of driving a motor vehicle.”

“Yep! Here is one for you, and one for me. So, what´s the matter?”

“We will soon be back at home, right?”

“Yep. Chanty can´t wait to have internet again, and I can´t wait to get to work.”

“That is it, that internet thing. Acutally, we were about to break up before we went here, and it was about that damn social media.”

“WHAT?”

Thomas spilled a bit of his beer, looking at Jan as if he had seen a ghost.

“So, in her Tiktok and Instagram accounts she used to write SINGLE and, that with presenting herself like she does, generates… .attention. Briefly after we came together she removed “Single”, but didnt write taken. I asked her why she doesnt just write that then, and she said “I am no longer single here so its fine, isn´t it?”, I then replied nah, you are pretending I dont exist because you want more likes and thats not ok, she is also trying to not accidentally reveal me in her videos, even removing my stuff in the backgrund, and her recation was “YOU WANT TO OWN ME LIKE A THING OR WHAT”, and I honestly don´t want to own her, but I don´t want her presenting herself like a professional just for some likes of horny old men…”

Thomas sighed, and Jan waited for an answer that was apparently never coming.

“She´s old enoug. I see your point, so don´t think that you are wrong, but also, social media seems to follow some rules - back in my day, I was running after attention with fancy cars to show off, and her way is posing with sparse clothes to some weird music. I honestly ask you, do you think she would cheat on you?”

“Of course not!”

“So, I see that it´s not respectful to, well, let´s say, hide you in her account. But, on the other hand, that account is an artificial portrait of her. Social media is mostly fake. Don´t you think that most of the content there is realistic? Or they show their real life there? At least from the professionals, I doubt that. Don´t mix her online personality up with the real one that begs for the love of only one person, and that is you. Come on, let`s get the beer empty and ride back to the camp, I AM FUCKING HUNGRY.”

At the time when Thomas and Jan arrived at the camping site, Chanty and Angel were already on an expedition to the abandoned medieval castle. Cody from the Highway Hooligans, who also spotted Chanty desperately sobbing, proposed this adventure as a distraction, and Chanty actually is into ghosts and haunted things, but as she was totally scared of the possible outcome and Jan was not present yet, she insisted on Angel going with her - which he did, of course.

“Hm, it is becoming very dark… Angel, do you have enough battery on your phone?”

“Yes, for two or three hours of lighting it should be totally sufficient.”

“This looks really impressive. Uargh! I can already feel the ghosts.”

“We better stay in motion, let´s go into that area, the moonlight is shining through the windows, so we can save phone battery.”

“Good idea, Angel… do you mind holding my hand? I am scared…”

Chanty was firmly grabbing Angels hand to a point that it was almost squeezing, which was painful with the cuts he had, but he didn´t dare to complain - he was a bit scared himself, but the most important was that Chanty did not have a panic attack - this was the last place where he would like this to happen.

When they wandered through the giant hallways, Angel was asked to do a bit of filming and taking photos of their tour in order to later use it for social media, but suddenly Angels face turned pale.

Was asked to hide this because the story contains a large spider, please be aware of that before opening the spoiler

“Eh, what is it?”

“D…dont… tt-t-t-turn around.”

“Why? Is there a ghost?”

“N…no… what I see is v-v-v-v-very m-m-m-much real!”

Chanty was great at doing the opposite of what she was told, and of course she turned around.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! THATS THE ABSOLUTE HORROR WE MUST GET OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTT BEFORE IT KILLS US!!!”

“C…come on!”

“I CANT MOVE, MY LEGS ARE FROZEN! AAAAAAAAAAH!”

“I can´t carry you, you are too heavy…Should I get help or stay with you?”

“IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW I WILL TELL MARIE TO KISS YOU!”

“I…I…count that as… I should stay…”

“BUT HOW CAN WE GET HELP NOW?”

“What about the e-e-e-emergency ring?”

“My hand is so sweaty, I can´t activate it… WE WILL DIE!”

“Damn, I am shaking too m-m-much, neither c-c-can I.”

“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!”

Only a few minutes later, Thomas entered the room.

“DADDY! What are you doing here?”

“Bong has told me what happened, and then Cody joined and told me that you got Angel for that…eh…expedition. And I thought I can´t leave a team consisting of one with one eye and another one with one braincell alone… WHY are you crying for help, Chantal?”

“There…there … is …a GIANT SPIDEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!”

“Argh, what, you are hyperventilating because of a fucking spider? All right, let´s have a look at it. Where are your phones to make some light?”

“My…battery is dead and Angel lost his phone on the run… but… that spider…IT IS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE!”

“Yeah, sure, spider, wait, here is my lighter. So, let´s see… OOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Thomas shivered as he saw the large spider that was still looking at the humans and slowly walking towards Chanty who started another tear flood as she looked at it in detail, while Thomas almost burned his fingers with the lighter, then he continued, whispering.

“That…thing is … huge, yes. Boah, is that thing disgusting… the body is…as fat as a bowling ball…uuuuuuuarrrrrgh.”

“Thomas, do you have a plan? I-i-i-i-t is coming towards meeeeee!”

“Angel… eeeeh… eeeehhh… YOUR BACKPACK! OPEN IT!”

Thomas, scared as hell, carefully grabbed the spider as if he was defusing a bomb, then quickly throwing it in Angels backpack, and nobody on Holsia has ever seen someone closing a zipper as fast as Thomas.
Chanty slowly calmed down, as Angel comforted her, and Thomas grabbed the backpack.

“LEAVE IT HERE, THOMAS! I really liked my backpack, but I will never be able to look at it again, and I do NOT WANT THIS SPIDER IN THE CAMP!”

“Don´t be a pussy. It´s now trapped inside. I need Jan to check if it´s poisonous.”

“It is… uncommon to check that AFTER grabbing it.”

“Should I let it out again then?”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

When Chanty came back with Angel and Thomas, Cody was curious to hear how it was, and she told him everything in the most dramatic way possible, also crying again, and it is clear that she … isn´t over the spider encounter yet. So Codys teammate Trevor had the idea to just make a huge party, and Trevor handed Chanty another of their beers, while preparing a special surprise: The confetti cannon, made out of some plumbing stuff, and the 50 year old big guy proved that he can still party like when he was half his current age, and Chanty enjoyed that party very much.

Meanwhile, after Jan, who is very familiar with biology, confirmed that this spider looks terryfiying but actually isn´t, Thomas sneaked with the backpack to the Hillbilly Rollers, opening the backpack and letting the spider find some rest in the IP… right in the fridge where the Booze was stored, making sure the right person finds Mr. Spiderman…

[Angelustyle]

Team Firulais

Stage 7: A brief continuation of the Night, a Rather Uneventful Stage with an Eventful Conversation, and a Search for the Supernatural

(Mentioning @That-S-cop [Cunning Stunts], @SurrealCereal [Machinas Con Passione, just a mention] and @HappyHungryHippo [The Rhino Squad])

Continuation of the Night at Björnes.

Ángel continued to wonder about his life as he continued to look at the stars, with seemingly no clear objective… Just the one to relax after the events of that afternoon… He continued like that up to 6 Moon. In his stargazing however, he was starting to get familiar memories… Literally.

He looked at a picture of his family, more specifically, of him and his siblings (Ángel has 3 siblings… Kanna, Ryoga and María [not to confuse with Maria from Machinas Con Passione]). He missed them so hard. He hadn’t seen them in person in months, which may sound as little, but, for Ángel, it felt like an eternity. He lived isolated from them for a long time, and he didn’t exactly have much friends in Vladivostok either … hell, not even his neighbors had some compassion with him. He was, after all, Vladivostok’s troublemaker.

Ángel (to the photo):“I wish you could’ve come here too… We’d have such a good time. As soon as we return back to earth, I’ll make sure to tell you… And, also, don’t worry… I’m coming to Japan soon, you’ll see…”

This was just a fragment of what he said, before Ana rept screaming in her tent… Apparently something had happened to her, but, luckily, they’d discover she’d just had a nightmare…

… Ángel would also struggle with his sleep that day… In fact, everyone in the team was asleep heavily, probably excluding Andrés (who decided to quit sleeping for a moment and stay up for a while more, playing videogames), Ana, who just had one nightmare, and Ángel, who felt like his world crumbled whenever he had a nightmare, which happened more often than you’d guess… Take in mind (there goes the unintended pun), the fallout from Ángel’s Mind Reading Incident here was still very much present…

Late Morning in Björnes.

Josué:“This night was… Surprisingly… Smooth.”
Ángel:“You Say… Think about me…”
Ana:“Hey, what time is it…?”
Andrés:“It is… Wait… Why does my clock say it’s 6:23 PM… When it clearly ain’t…?”
Ángel:“Starting to get accostumed to Aetheriian Day and Night Cycles ? It’s, like, 2-Sun.”
Ana:“Which would be…?”
Ángel:“Let me think… If 5-Sun is like, Noon, and right now it’s 2-Sun-55, that means it must be… 80 by 80… by 20… Would be roughly the equivalent of 7, 8, 9 AM ?”

Of course… Ángel could be totally off… But, as soon as the team hurd that… They freaked.

They rushed breakfast, packed up as soon as they could… Ana didn’t even got the chance to buy booze of any sort, Ángel didn’t got the chance of taking photos of the Coast and missed breakfast, Tomás didn’t got the chance to meet someone else, Josué couldn’t make some shopping, and Andrés almost lost his cool, because he almost lost his phone in the Aurora’s Boot.

Ultimately, they sat off, with Ana behind the wheel, relatively late…

Road to Drur.
The Moment of Truth.

Josué:“Well… As sparkling as this stage is going for us… This stage is getting boring…”
Ana:“I think I know how we can spice this up.”
Ángel:“How ?”
Ana:“Well… What about you tell us what you saw in Chantal’s Mind at Bj… Bijoo… Ugh…”
Ángel and Josué (in unison):“Björnes ?”
Ana:“That place.”
Ángel:“I don’t know… What if it’s something very personal… What if it’s disturbing for y’all…?”
Ana:“Nah, we’ll see…”
Ángel:“No, no, seriously, I d—”
Ana:“Go on, tell it. Or otherwise, I’ll force you to dance at the next stop !”

Side Note: Ángel SUCKED at dancing. Mainly due to bullying at school, as people often took that as one of many things to pick on Ángel, and start laughing at him… Due to his social skills at the time, he felt… Embarrassed.

Now, not wanting that to happen again, 9 years later, he had to speak.

Ángel:“sigh”
Josué:“Go on, Ángel. Don’t worry, we’ll try our best to understand.”
Ángel:“Alrighty… So, I saw many memories of Chantal’s life, some not bad at all… But, many bad things have happened in her life… She was bullied at school, she had an ex…”
Ana:“I can relate…”
Ángel:“Last year… In… Uh… I think Sweden ? Somewhere around the Scandinavian Part of Europe, Jan hurt his foot, and Thomas nearly died…”

When Ángel’s Team hurd THAT one part: “Thomas nearly died”, the ambient inside that Aurora suddenly felt colder… drabber… more serious than expected.

Nevertheless, Ángel had a lot to tell, so he continued.

Ángel:“…Many things have happened in her life. She lost her first pet, her parents divorced -which, as disastrous as my relationship with my parents MIGHT be, mine are still together-, she was cheated on, she lost many friends… She was bullied in school… as mentioned, in Sweden, her father almost died…”

Again, the ambient seemed to turn colder inside that Aurinko… The only sounds were that of the engine, the vibrations of the road, the wipers, and Ángel’s voice…

Ángel:“Not all was bad though. As I said earlier, she had a lot of good memories too… Her first feeling of love… I understand that. Same as for being given an Ice Cream after falling… I used to fall so often… Yet, sadly, in Malokurilskoye there weren’t any Ice Cream shops… So I often got hot chocolate. Hell, she was even allowed to sit in the driver’s seat of her father’s car… She looked so happy at that moment…”

Everyone felt it… Specially Ana. Who had also passed thru similar bad things… Her pet had died a few months prior, she was also cheated on by someone -wouldn’t you know it… Ángel, Tomás and Andrés had passed thru that too…-, and her parents were on a particular situation as of marriage…

Ana felt sympathy.

Ángel might have sounded envious, but, he also had truly bad and good moments… Just that his were quite different in a unique way…

Ángel continued.

Ángel:“I don’t exactly understand why is she like this… I assume that her happiness lasted for very short, or ain’t lasting for very long… I believe it hurts for her to remember good things that are no longer present, as if her present day is some sort of shadow of the past… Why do we, humans, or in my case ‘Yumeisotitanian Humanoid Descendants’, or ‘Yumeisotitanian-Human Crossbreeds’, have more clear memories about things which are bad ?”

That was actually a question… But no one responded…

Ángel:“Guys. Guys ?”

“I must have said far too much…”, he thought.

And the rest of the stage, even the small fuel stop, was silent. All they hurd for those few hours was, again, road vibrations, engine noise, wipers, and probably some music from Ángel’s cassettes…

As they started to arrive at Drur, however, the mood started to slowly rise up again… The beautiful scenery was perfect for them… Sadly, their time of arrival wasn’t, but, honestly, who cared…? This wasn’t a competition after all. Josué had just gotten into that, as he didn’t really focus on how fast they were going, or, really, where they were going anyway… Andrés and Tomás had still to learn about it, and Ana… Well, she drove it like she stole it, despite having to make a pit stop for fuel…

Drur.
A Nice Talk with Cunning Stunts.

Cunning Stunts had a rather decent stage that day. Lana and Murray were just starting to set up camp at that point. Meanwhile, Ángel, Tomás, and Ana, were walking thru camp, having just arrived, and they were just passing thru there.

Ana:“Why, out of all things you could do, you had to tackle her ?”
Ángel:“What else could I do ? Besides, I don’t normally say this, but, it would -and did- look quite cool…”
Ana:“Gosh, I’m dying of thirst…”

There, they hurd a can of beer (“Four X”) being opened by Murray, and Ana, who, as mentioned, was feeling thirsty, saw an opportunity.

Ana:“Heey, can I—”
Ángel:“Ana…”
Tómas:“Ángel… Just, let her be.”

He thought it for a moment, and, after almost no time, he indeed let her be. Lana looked at them to see if they were hungry or anything, but, apparently, it was only Ana being thirsty. Ángel showed slight signs of malnourishment, but, nothing actually serious… In fact, it could be said to be the usual for Ángel… Remember, they sat off from Björnes in a hurry, and to speed up their progress, Ángel decided to sacrifice himself by not eating breakfast…

Lana:“You guys need anything ?”
Ana:“Can you give me beer, or booze, or anything ?”
Murray:“How many of you need Four X ?”
Ángel:“Just her. Tommy and I don’t really drink.”

Murray chucked a can of the beer with considerable strength, and Ana caught it with a bit of a jump. After all, the Firulais weren’t exactly tall… Right after, she opened the can.

Ana:“Gracias !”
(In Spanish: Thanks!)
Tómas:“You are the ones who blew a head gasket on the rift, am I right ?”
Lana:“Yeah… This bike doesn’t like to be babied, it likes high revs. So we somehow blew it.”
Ángel:“Hm… Well, we’ve had constant problems with our tires… As if we were cursed.”
Ana (mumbling):“Because this Gopnik didn’t change the tires…”
Ángel:“…But I can’t deny the fact that a head gasket failure is terrible in such an early stage-- hell, the rally didn’t even truly begin at that point…”
Lana:“It wasn’t all that bad though… The engine came off easily.”

Ángel gave a glance at that Motorcycle… He rode in motorcycles before, so, he kinda knows… But, he never rode one with an engine beyond 250cc. So seeing a 1100cc was just insane for him. He then realized something.

Ángel:“This Motorcycle has a similar engine size to that of our Aurora…”
Ana:“It kinda explains why our performance has been pathetic, even after you supposedly rebuilt the Engine and the Transmission…”

Yes, you hurd her right. They’ve only finished outside of the top 10 twice… And yet she considers their performance pathetic. For Ángel’s standards, not finishing last (or, in this case, just finishing) was an accomplishment in itself…

Ángel:“How much horsepower does it have ?”
Lana (dubious):“195 ?”
Ángel:“Almost quadruple our Aurora…”
Ana:“Guess Ángel’s restoration project with that Aurora was the peak of Finnish Tech with the quality of Russian Repairs.”
Ángel:“Look it this way… At least, apart from one overheating issue, and our brake line issue on the way to Lauda… We’ve had no problems…”
Tómas:“Also, apparently, no signs of your things today, right ?”

Ángel’s “things” were his mind reading incidents… And overall, his powers… Lana and Murray started to doubt. And Ángel was being forced to lie in order to hide the mind reading capabilities to at least one team…

Lana:“What things ?”
Ángel:“Uhm… S-See, I usually get a panic attack… f-for no apparent reason…”

Lana didn’t do anything menacing. But Ángel wanted to go back to camp. Not only he was hungry, being the only one who didn’t eat breakfast… But also, he felt pressure, even though none was being applied at him.

Ángel:“I-I Will go back to our spot in Camp… S-See ya…”

And then his clumsiness played a role in not hiding completely his skills… He somehow tripped over with something. Little did he know, when he thought about things, he was talking telepathically to someone… And not someone from his team.

Murray:“You better watch out for the railway ballast… Are you OK ?”
Ángel (telepathically, to Murray):“Yeah, Yeah, I’m—”

Compared to his mind reading, this was a minor, maybe even invisible incident. Yet he felt the need to tell Murray to not say anything related to this.

Ángel (telepathically to Murray):“You… Just… Don’t tell anyone I have telepathy, OK ? Unless I tell you otherwise…”

Ángel then walked back to the Firulais’ spot… And shortly afterwards, the other two did the same, after realizing there wasn’t really much to talk about…

Little did they know that the information Ángel gave them thru the stage, was now on the Hands of Jan.

Later that day…
A search for the Supernatural.

Ángel accompanied Chantal on her attempt to search for ghosts and spirits in an abandoned medieval castle. Ángel wasn’t exactly prepared to encounter a spider though and a big one too… Ángel has some fear for insects. Luckily for him, Thomas came on the scene just in time to save them.

While his backpack was in the hands of Jan who was examining the spider, Ángel returned to his team’s spot at camp… His team seemed a bit concerned by seeing him shaking and all.

Even Ana showed some worry.

Ana:“Ángel… You alright ? I mean… You’re shaking, and you look a bit more pale than usual.”
Ángel:“N-Nah, don’t worry, I-I’m OK.”
Andrés:“Also, are we going to play Pokémon tonight or what ?”
Ángel:“Y-You know what ? Y-You win by default tonight… M-My console… Uhh… Is out of battery.”

That was a lie…

Andrés didn’t feel exactly happy, but he conformed, meaning Ángel’s lie to not play that night had gone thru unnoticed.

Not much more happened that night, except some shopping (making hay about the fact they could buy here, and not commit the same mistake as in Björnes earlier in the morning), and maybe Ángel drawing imagery of the views. As a fun fact, he did later attend to the small party held for Chantal… But he only lasted there for 30 minutes before being too tired to continue, and decided to go to bed (or, should we say, the back seat of the Aurora) and sleep.

Weirdly, he was, for once, the first of the team to sleep…

I guess the Stage ends here…

And, as always, Collabs are open…

[Madrias]

Shitbox Rally - Stage 8

Stage 8: Drur to Hofrost

Weather: Low 20’s, dense clouds, and windy.

---

The roads are generally fine, if a little bit narrow or patchy in places, and they wind their way through the hilly terrain. For a while, we’re still following the coastline, but it does eventually start to become obvious that we’re heading toward the mountains.

Shift Happens is the first team spotted on the side of the road with the hazard lights on - Their wonderful driving AI panicked and locked the brakes up, refusing to move. Why? Because someone put a sticky note with “Ha Ha” over one of the front cameras… And some black electrical tape over a couple of the others. After spending 5 hours searching for all of the hidden tape, the team vows to find out who did this.

The Argonites encounter the bane of all drivers - A curb. One flat tire later, they’re back on the move.
(@Redfoxlol)

The advantages of a motorcycle are many, but so, too, are the downsides. Unfortunately, crashing the bike and having to use most of the repair spares up costs 5.25 hours of Cunning Stunts’ time after a failed “shortcut” attempt.
(@That-S-Cop).

The “Crazy” Eight are driven almost to the point of insanity by an irritating little misfire causing pops and bangs in the exhaust. Two hours later,the bad fuel injector is found and replaced.
(@TheYugo45GV)

Machinas Con Passione gets to experience the fun of changing a dead fuel pump. It takes two hours to splice the aquarium pump into the fuel line, figure out how to stop the cheap Chinese inverter from blowing the cigarette lighter fuse (by sticking a paper-clip in the fuse holder), and to get used to how underpowered the car now feels thanks to the abysmal fuel flow rate.
(@SurrealCereal)

Team Peak Performance spends two hours hunting down electrical gremlins. It’s amazing what a bad ground can do.
(@HappyHungryHippo)

Ramjet had to stop because of two flat tires. Luckily, they’re easy enough to change at this point.
(@JCurtiss96 @Leone)

Hofrost is an example of “Holsian Sprawl” with 78,000 people spread out over many hills and valleys, an otherwise-small city on the edge of Holsia’s mountain ranges.

Our camp is on the far side of the city, in the direction we’ll be heading tomorrow, with all of the crew told to pick a spot on a large, grassy hill. There are no services here either, save for some outhouses used by train crews. The support train is parked in a passing siding off the main line, not that far from the camp - we will be hearing trains for most of the night.

---

Spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQriVPEky_B00QiZ6lYrtLVt-u3XWPQW7CvfFNFordo91W4o4LYgWKmW6-SchgIpnTR4wQ6cfSyyQfl/pubhtml

[Knugcab]

TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
PART 6.2 - I ALMOST GOT THAT BASTARD!

TW: SPIDERS

“Do this fucking support bracket have to be removed?”, Andreas sighed.

“Yes, otherwise you won’t be able to get the heater core far enough to the left, to be able to pass it through so you can get it out of the door, and…”, Janne sighed. “Nevermind, let’s just say that it all has to be removed.”

“The engine too?”, Andreas said with a grain of salt.

“Almost”, Janne answered.

Lots of work later, they had managed to get the heater core out, but the whole interior was also more or less outside the IP. Janne did not lie when he said how those cars were built. A lots of scrubbing later they had managed to remove the butter residues, and there was now a possibility for the car to smell…well, at least a little less unpleasant. Needless to say, there was even more work to get the IP back together again. The sun was starting to go down when they were finished, both exhausted and tired, they decided to walk around for a while, to see something else than the IP.

TW

At around the same time, Marie came back from doing…well, who knows, Janne and Andreas had ordered her to do anything else than being around the IP to not risk having the heater core being shoved down her throat, at least she had no luck in looting beer, so she was looking into the minibar for something to drink when the giant spider jumped out from it.

“WHAT THE FUCK?”, she was screaming, while the spider was escaping the cargo area. “THAT FUCKER WAS AS BIG AS A FINNISH SPITZ!”. Marie took the axe and started chasing the potentially lethal monster.

“TAKE THIS YOU LITTLE BASTARD!”, she was shouting, swinging the axe, hitting everything but the spider.

With the spider trying to escape into the car, Marie didn’t calm down. “This is probably some poisonous bastard that will kill the whole camp!”, she thought.

“TAKE THIS!” - CRASH!
“AND THIS!” - CRASH!
“AND THIS!” - CRASH!

Scared for its life, the big spider was running away…somewhere else, while Janne and Andreas came back and…

“MARIE, WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE???”, Janne screamed, totally losing his temper.

“I just tried to kill a goddamned bastard of a spider!”, she said, sitting inside the smashed interior, with blood stains coming from her managing to hit herself rather than the spider.

“I… I… I JUST SPENT MANY FUCKING HOURS TO GET THAT DASHBOARD BACK IN PLACE, AND NOW YOU HAVE MADE IT INTO SOME GODDAMNED THREE DIMENSIONAL PLASTIC PUZZLE, I JUST CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE, RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Well, you should have worked faster then if you thought it took too long”, Marie replied, while Janne just went away towards Team Shift Happens without saying anything more.

“GREAT! We have to drive this POS tomorrow, and you have smashed it up completely!”, Andreas said. “What do you have to say to your…NO, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR!”, an almost as furious Andreas said. “Just…Just don’t say a word”, he said, starting to duct tape the interior together in panic, which didn’t repair the smashed windshield though…

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Madrias]

Highway Hooligans & Team Shift Happens

Stage 8

---

Cody looks around at the camp in the dark, quiet hours just before sunrise. The big furry fellows were definitely asleep, as was most of the camp. He pulls out a roll of electrical tape and starts covering cameras on the bus, giggling quietly as he wanders around. As a last act of defiance, he scribbles “Ha Ha” on a sticky note and adheres it over one of the front mounted cameras. His seeds of chaos now sown, Cody sneaks back over to the Ishu, chuckling quietly the whole time.

---

Kivenaal sighs as the alarms go off, announcing it was time to get up and start the long, tedious process of preparing to leave camp. Breakfast, pack Jayde’s tent into the Cargo-Trailer-of-Holding, get everyone onboard the bus and buckled in, inevitably have to wait an extra 10 minutes for Lauren to get off the bus and go pee, get out of the camp and onto a road, then enable the self-driving AI.

Like most days, things went pretty much exactly to plan, with the exception that it was Malavera who needed the toilet break instead of Lauren. The solution, crude and disgusting as it was, that Mal took to remedy the problem was simply to stand in the rear doorway, unzip, and let fly into the grass before straightening up his clothes and getting into his seat.

Things went great up until Kivenaal hit the switch to let the AI take over, and within 2 seconds, it piled on the brakes with enough force to nearly unseat everyone, as well as causing things in the rear shelving unit to crash around.

“Mal, Tak, your AI is being stupid again,” Kivenaal calls out.

Takaraya wanders forward and takes a look at the debug screen.

Sensor_Conflict_Resolution - Too Close to Vehicle Ahead.

“Seems to think there’s a vehicle in front of us,” Takaraya replies with a shrug. “Come on, everyone, let’s go see if there’s leaves on the sensors again.”

Most of the crew leave the bus, though Kiva, Jayde, Kasiya, and Inaelus stay on.

Mal peels the sticky note off of the front of the bus and holds it up for Kiva to see. “Someone’s fuckin’ with us.”

“May their whole fuckin’ team have an interesting night, then,” Jayde grumbles.

---

Five hours later, they’d found all of the little pieces of tape stuck all over various cameras and sensors, peeled them up, and disposed of them in the wastebasket by the front door. The bus makes a mostly-trouble-free trip into the latest camp, spotting a grinning set of Hooligans grabbing some beers out of the back of their Ishu Astrion with a trailer bodged onto it.

“Heard you guys had an unscheduled stop,” Cody says with a smirk.

“Laugh it up, Stay-Puft,” Kayden grumbles, looking over as Kaylie helps Jayde set up his tent.

Jake laughs, Trevor smirks, and Cody groans. “Ouch. That’s really the best insult you could come up with?”

Kayden gives a wicked, full-fangs-showing grin. “Oh, I don’t need to insult you properly, Cody. You already earned a surprise from Jayde.”

---

To Be Continued…

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 8 - A dumb idea and a new friend

teams included:Hillbilly Rollers by @Knugcab, Chitko by @MrdjaNikolen, Shift Happens by @Madrias, Firulais by @Angelustyle. The train for the photoscene has been provided by @Mikonp7

also as kitschy as some teenie romance in some parts, but thats because the real Chanty wanted to write more of her dialogues herself…

Chanty started her day with a serious hangover - the Highway Hooligans usually party VERY hard, so not only beer but also booze was consumed, and she was not woken up by her team in order to not make her emotional breakdowns worse by adding fatigue. But she finally did get up, and heard people chattering about… the spider!

“DAD! YOU BROUGHT THE SPIDER HERE?”

“Sure, stuffed it Marie in her throat. I think that is a fitting revenge for what she did to you.”

“NO! That spider was running across the camping site and this could scare people!”

“It´s just a spider and it will escape into the forest anyway. Spiders have a good sense of orientation and it will find the way back to the castle easily.”

“You have NO right to put other peoples feelings in question, that is invasive behaiviour of you.”

“Your generation is really … some pathetic snowflakes, come on, grow up.”

“Impose boomer standards that are going biological extinct anyway soon on people that will outlive you by decades and making them suffer for nothing but the sake of your small ego is pathetic!”

You could hear a leaf falling now, as it became very silent after Chantys rage, but suddenly some group of younger team members applauded Chanty, making her feel a bit uncomfortable. To escape the situation, as she didn´t want to stand next to her annoyed father for an eternity until he finally figured out to rant back, she decided for a shower, while Thomas just mumbled “young people are really weird these days”, but otherwise seeming to accept that he was considered being in the wrong.

By walking to the shower with her bag, Chanty passed Andrea who looked quite desperate this time, so for once it was not Andrea comforting Chanty but the opposite.

“Oh, you look so sad… what is wrong?”

“You don´t look much better, so… you first.”

“Just a hangover and I am still scared by that dead cat and the spider…”

“SPIDER? WHERE?”

“Ah, I will tell you on the way to the shower. You are coming with me?”

“That is the problem! A wild boar… or something similar raided my bag. We should really not have left our cookies in the bags, that´s attracting the local wildlife. Most of my clothes are gone!”

“OH NO! Can´t you take something from Pi, at least for your… upper half?”

“Pi´s stuff is also gone.”

“Ah well, I have an idea then. Finally I can tell Jan and my dad that bringing tons of stuff isn´t unneccecary!”

Chanty provided her friends with some of her clothes, which looked… weird. Pi loved her anime t-shirt, while Andrea looked funny in the hello kitty pyjama that was waaaay to oversized for her, but was grateful for the help, although she propably would had asked someone with a more… usual taste, but didn´t tell that, as she did not want to hurt Chantys feelings. She regretted not having asked Jakasxandra quick enough to not have been offered stuff by Chantal.

“You don´t like it?”

“Oh, I do, it´s fine, really. Its only for a day anyway, as we might have the opportunity to shop at the next destination anyway.”

Chanty, being happy to be of assistance and giving back her friends some support, leaned against Andrea and started cuddling with her.

“Oh, if we weren´t attracted by men, you`d be my one of my possible choices, sweetie.”

“I am actually Bi, but don´t tell that Jan, he is already jealous enough at boys!”

Both laughed until Thomas passed by in the Primus, honking and making wild gestures.

“COME ON! WE NEED TO GET TO THE STARTING LINE!”

“Let me drive! We need to win for once!”

“Are you sure that you are fit for driving?”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAASSS! Move your not-bad-for-your-age ass to the backseat!”

It could have been an easy drive, despite narrow and windy roads, but Chantal was by now used to the rather large Primus. But when they passed the Hillbilly Rollers for a start, Marie yelled something very mean at Chanty, and she almost started to cry, still trying hard to surpress it.

“Chantal? What is it? Was it what Marie said? I didnt hear it really, what did she say?”

“Thomas, you better don´t know, but I got it, too, and it was … not very nice.”

Jan put his left hand on Chantys right hand, and since they drove an automatic, were able to put their hands on the center console, and Chanty made sure she did not let loose for even a second, but being upset anyway, she drove again faster than one should, and they were quite far up front when they approached a railroad crossing. Actually, they were leading for the first time.

“Ah shit, all that speeding for nothing, you can have a stop now for a cigarette, it seems you need a smoke to cool down. That steam cloud seems like a train is coming.”

“NO WAY! We can do this!”

“Chantal, no, that won´t work. We are too far away to safely pass the crossing. I can´t tell it from that distance as I don´t see the train, but my experience tells me we will just wear down our tires and brakes for nothing.”

The engine of the Primus roared, as Chanty did a kickdown all the way back in second gear, which executed the old and worn transmission with a jerk that made all parts of the car clattering.

“BABY NO! THOMAS IS RIGHT!”

“CHANTAL JOLINA NILFERT, DON´T KILL US FOR FUCKS SAKE!”

“Relax, we have enough space left to catch up.”

“Eeeeeh… at lightspeed, maybeee… but it will be a close one! How fast are we going? The car almost falls apart on that road at that speed!”

“A… 130…135…140!”

“You two are aware that the speed limit here is 60? AND NOT 160???”

“Jan, we can read. Ok, this should be fast enough for survival. But … it SHOULD, not it IS. I would rather not do that, Chantal.”

“YOU TWO CAN´T BE SERIOUS!”

“Jans concern is valid, if I tell you to stop just before the point of no return, YOU DO THAT, UNDERSTOOD?”

Jan pulled the handbrake, but Thomas still hasn´t repaired it since it failed in Nevada.

“Are you insane, if that handbrake worked we would have spun in the ditch!”

“That is at least better than being crushed by a FUCKING STEAM TRAIN!!!”

“Oh, damn, CHANTY, WE ARE NOT MAKING IT! STOP! STOOOOOOOOP!”

“WE CAN DO IT!”

Now Thomas voice was full of fear, as he realized that the distance of maybe 400 Meter to the crossing is too long to pass before the train that is much slower, but only has like 200 meter left to travel. Jan tried to jump out of the car, but that would have been lethal at that speed as well, so Thomas stopped him by holding the door lock control rod down, overriding the door handle.

“NO, JAN, THAT IS LETHAL! CHANTAL, IF YOU DON´T STOP NOW, I WILL KICK YOU OUT OF MY LIFE IMMEDIATELY AND REFUSE ANY CONTACT! YOU ARE DEAD FOR ME THEN!”

Thomas then slammed with his head against the headrest of the passenger seat in front of him, as the Primus came to standstill with both rattling ABS and screeching tires, as Chanty pressed the brake pedal as hard as she could. In just that moment, the train passed them with a distance of maybe 5 centimeters, with the drag of the air causing the large car to shake like it was a small fishing boat in a thunderstorm in the ocean.

“Ooooofff… that was close! Are you all right?”

Jan left the car without saying a word, slamming the passenger door so hard that the window fell down. Chanty was still not even loosening her seatbelt, but silently crying.

“Heey, yes that was a very dumb action, but I won´t kick you out. You saved us by doing the right desision and listening to me. Heeeey, Chanty…”

Thomas put his hand on her shoulder, knowing that what he just verbally threw against her broke her heart in thousands of sharp pieces, but he did not have enough time to think of something milder that makes her stop in every case immediately.

Suddenly Jan, who first walked away from the car in order to not let his anger out at the others, made the unfortunate descision to come back, and ripped the driver door open, starting to yell at Chanty.

“I AM SO TIRED OF YOUR BULLSHIT! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I THOUGHT THAT I CAN LIVE WITH EVERY OF YOUR SHIT, LIKE EXPOSING YOURSELF LIKE A SLUT ON THE INTERNET, COMING HOME LATE AND DRUNK AND I DONT KNOW WHERE YOU WERE, REFUSING TO LEAVE THE BED, TELLING ME DAILY HOW SHIT YOU ARE EVEN IF I TRY SOOOO HARD TO PROVE YOU OTHERWISE BUT IF YOU START NOT JUST HARMING YOURSELF BUT ALSO ME THAT RECKLESSLY…”

“JAN! Take a breath! Don´t you see she´s totally collapsed? I see your point, really, and I am also REALLY pissed but that is bad timing! We will discuss th…”

“NO, THOMAS! NO! I AM OUT HERE. I will now use that ring and…”

“NO! Don´t leave her alone like that at this moment. Do me the favour of staying until our destination and then we will discuss that matter, but with fair play, not by completely wrecking her.”

“Funny, Thomas, usually it´s you who yells at her, and now I do it for ONCE, because she finally carried it WAY TOO FAR, and suddenly you are the saint and I am the idiot?”

“Please, Jan, be a man, get in the car, and I will continue the driving for today.”

“NO, I AM WALKING! NO WAY I WILL EVER ENTER A CAR WITH YOU TWO AGAIN! I AM DONE WITH YOU, CHANTAL! GO KILL THAT MINDREADER BUT NOT ME!”

Jan walked off, despite Thomas trying to convince him to just take a deep breath, and Chantys panic attack from being yelled harsh at by Thomas not only doubled but tripled from Jans outbreak, and she exited the vehicle, running to the intersection and sitting down on the rails, continuing to cry desperately in what is propably her worst panic attack yet.

“AH NO, NOT THAT! That was really missing at the moment to make the disaster perfect!”

Although he didn´t want to have Jan out of sight, Thomas decided to pick him up later, and sprinted towards his daughter.

“GET OFF THERE! The next train maybe arrives soon.”

“I DON´T CARE! It´s all useless anyway…”

“Yes, I think this time he´s REALLY pissed, but… it´s mostly the shock. He doesn´t want to leave you for real, but that was an extreme situation that you caused. You have to go through that for the next hours now. After that, he will surely calm down.”

“NO, HE WON´T, DIDN´T YOU HEAR WHAT HE SAID?”

“It would be the best for now if you heard what I say, and this is now that you should come with me in the car and get off the rails, and then we will somehow get Jan back on board.”

“NO, JUST LEAVE ME HERE! Everyone is better off without me.”

“CHANTAL! I still have duct tape in the car. You want me to use it?”

She shook her head, and then followed Thomas with hanging shoulders, while her father hastily lighted a cigarette, which he then inhaled in less than a minute.

“Damn, where is Jan? Are you a bit better now?”

“Aren´t you also hating me now?”

“Of course I am quite angry at you, but nobody hates you. And it wouldn´t help if I explode now as well…”

“Just erease me from your life as you said, and continue a better life without me… I will survive here somehow, and if not, nobody cares, and I could prevent some wild animals from starving, I am fat enough that they don´t need to stay hungry…”

“I AM TRYING TO BE PATIENT LIKE A MONK WITH YOU TODAY BUT ONE MORE WORD AND I WILL GET THE DUCT TAPE AGAIN! Damn, this is not a race, didn´t you listen to the driver briefing in Nevada?”

“Sure, but I wanted to win something to make you proud.”

“I am a winner, Chantal, I have a beautiful and lovely daughter, and Jan is a winner, as he propably has the best girl he could pick. It´s pointless to risk your life then in order to get something we don´t need. Give me the team radio.”

“Here…”

“Rhinos here. Has anybody seen Jan? He got … lost on the way. Please report to me if you spot him, thanks.”

Everyone reported negative.

“Crap, I think we need to ask Shift Happens to locate him. But that also means explaining this shit, damn it.”

Just in that moment, Thomas had a short brainfreeze, then turned the car keys.

“AH! I think I … somehow know where he is, not far from here. Weird. Anyway, you stay in the car then, I`ll talk to him from man to man.”

Thomas drove down a small forest road, and they found Jan after only five more minutes. It needed another 10 to convince him to at least enter the car and continue the stage to the finish line, and then discussing how to continue.

Nobody spoke a word. Thomas focussed on the driving, trying to keep it sane in order to not make Jan boil even more, Jan was… staring out of the passenger window, and Chanty was silently crying in the backseat, cuddling with her Rudolph.

“Eh kids, I need to speed up a bit, Jan, are you OK with driving a bit faster, just a bit?”

“Why that?”

“Look in the mirror. These swedes are about to catch up. Do you really want that Gollum finishes in front of us?”

“Actually not. Yes, Thomas, keep them behind us.”

Upon arrival, all three were silent, until Jan asked for the car keys in order to drive to the center of Hofrost to get an own tent, which Thomas considered childish, but he thought like letting Jan doing a drive on his own might cool down his temper. At least the fact that Jan looked for a tent meant that he would consider staying with the team and Chanty in general instead of going home and really breaking up with Chantal. Thomas also noticed, that even if Chanty still had some random crying attacks, she also giggled a bit between them.

“What is that funny? It´s ok that you have something to laugh about in that situation, but I want to as well then.”

“The town´s name… it sounds like Bofrost and NOW I AM HUNGRY!!!”

“Yeah, the food from Bofrost wasn´t that bad, true… mmmmh, yes, let´s cook.”

When the food was ready, the Primus rolled back onto the campsite, and it seems Jan found something, as he started to build it up after getting a bowl of food without saying a word to his girlfriend.
Suddenly, he was greeted by Kasiya, the god of Peace and Renewal. He sensed that he might be needed, and offered Jan to discuss the matter with an independent person, having even more life experience than Thomas but being emotionally not involved. It seems it helped a bit, and when Kasiya left, Jan announced his descision to stay in Holsia, and Chanty ran towards Jan and hugged him, giving him many kisses.

“So… you still love me?”

“I love you, yes, of course. but I am not sure if this is sufficient. I maybe have underestimated how our different characters can conflict with each other when I agreed to be together with you… Propably my fault.”

“That…means… you still want to break up?”

“Honestly, I just said I leave, not that I break up, that is what you make out of it because you are a drama queen, but I do not want to make a descision on that now, especially not so briefly after such an argument.”

Chanty then ran away in tears, and Thomas was about to run after her, but Jan stopped him.

“No, no, Thomas. I think if everyone talks and talks and talks to her over and over again it will not make anything better. She needs some time for herself just like me.”

“So, you, the idiot causing her crying, now tells me how to treat my daughter?”

“Thomas, I think I am NOT an idiot for being honest to her, this is what she deserves, because I really love her and I just do not want to tell her a single lie. Would you prefer me pretending something?”

“No. I don´t feel to well, my heart… I might lay down a bit.”

“Yes, but take care. I`ll clean up the dishes here, and DON´T DRINK ALCOHOL AND DON´T SMOKE WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADY ENOUGH SYMPTOMS THAT YOU ACTUALLY ADMIT YOU ARE NOT WELL!”

“Yeah, yeah, fair point, but just promise me to keep an eye on Chanty and… please don´t make too quick descisions.”

When Ana went to the toilet shed aside the train tracks for an obvious reason, an elder train employee carefully knocked against the doors of the ladies restroom, calmly asking someone to get out.

“Eeeeh, that´s a longer dump then, eh?”

“Excuse me, WHAT?”

“Uhm… sorry madam, that was a bit informal.”

“Indeed it was! But, maybe you can help me. It seems someone from your tourist group has a really bad day and locked herself in, crying. I do not want to be impolite, but… people need to get in there, and would prefer them not standing on the train tracks to wait for her to finally get out. The first ones are already waiting here and it is a security risk, although this rail is used to park your train, but you get the point if more and more people are piling up here!”

“Hm, thats propably Chantal. I`ll try. Psssh! Hey, Chantal?”

“M-hm?”

“Ana here. I don´t want to interrupt your session there, but you start to build up a queque here, so I suggest… you get out of there and tell me what´s wrong.”

“I thought you hate me!”

“No, I don´t, and that lady here also doesn´t judge you, it´s just that… we have needs, too.”

“But it was me who dyed your hair…”

“That was obvious, but you know what? I started liking it. Now, please open the door and let me guide to some safe place where you can tell what happened, ok?”

Ana was still considering Chantal as a very annoying person, but she developed a bit of sympathy for her on the previous stage, when Angel told about his mindreading experience, so she thought she could get to know her a bit better and offer emotional assistance, although Ana was generally bad at that. A bit later, Jan struggled to build up both tents, and Thomas was asleep after taking some strong medication, as Andrés walked by.

“Oh, you have two tents now?”

“How many do you count?”

“Two!”

“So, you answered that question now yourself, Andrés.”

“Jan, you seem upset.”

“You would be too, if you had to build that trash up! And be a bit more silent please, Thomas is not feeling well, and I measured his heart rate, it´s not good.”

“You mean, he will die like in Sweden? OH NO!”

“Pssssh! Damn it! As far as I can see, it´s serious but not yet dangerous with his health right now, and if he has a rest, this will be sufficient… at least for the moment. So, what do you want?”

“You are interessed in biology and read a lot of books about Holsia since you are here, right? So, can you tell me if… the nearby lake is safe to swim?”

“I can look that up as I know in which of the books it was written about Bofrost, yes, but as you see, I am busy.”

“Bofrost? You mean Hofrost? I can build up that tent for you, I am not too bad at such stuff. You are more the intellectual, I see.”

“Yeah, there is some food company named Bofrost in Germany so I mix that up. Anyway, that sounds like a plan.”

In the evening, Ana and Chantal were still swimming, although Chanty was now feeling really cold - and exhausted, as sport is not really something she usually does.

“Hah! Sending Andrés as mailman worked well. I am so smart!”

“Please, I can´t any longer. Since the sun is gone, I am freezing and I am also very exhausted.”

“All right, let´s get back to our teams…or if you are scared of them still being pissed, just come with me. But hey, that action was really savage. But guess what? I would have tried to race that train, too, without a doubt.”

“Yes, but your team wouldn´t hate you for it.”

“Oh, come on, Jan will calm down. I am astonished that he is such a phillistine, from everything you told me about him and your life as couple. He looks so cool, and then you find out he´s a pensioner just looking like a cool guy. Thats like buying an Audi and then seeing it´s just a VW anyway.”

“But… he´s the first not only using me for the one thing.”

“I guess, he is lame there, too.”

“Well, so lazy that I am afraid that he would rather get a pregnant woman instead of making kids with me when he finally wants some.”

“HAHAHAHAHA, CHANTAL, YOU ARE SO SASSY! I really like that! Listen, how about challenging Marie once more? Your face is almost normal again, but I enjoyed you looking bruised like having kissed a sledgehammer a lot…”

“That was so painful, that´s not funny! I really thought she broke half of my bones and I have to compete for the remaining stages in the back of an ambulance! I will dye your hair green if you don´t take that back!”

“Hey, at least a stretcher would have been more comfortable to sleep on than your matress. Hm, how about then… even after looking like having kissed a sledgehammer, you were still a beauty?”

“That´s a lie to please me, I guess?”

“Do I look like a people pleaser like Angel or Andrés?”

“No…i…think?”

“Come on, I was just mean at you because I was jealous of how a great person you are, hm? Argh, stop it Chanty, I am not a plush tooooooy!”

Well, Ana was indeed a bit lying to make Chanty happier, she really didnt consider her very chubby figure attractive, and even if she liked tattoos in general, having as much as Chanty wasn´t to her taste at all, not to forget that Ana would be the last person considering crying as normal, especially in the amount that Chantal does. But, Ana was actually doing something in order to let someone feel better for the first time in a veeeeeeeeeery long period, and she developed some sympathy for Chanty since that was really an archievement. Also, Ana, not really a physical person, would usually feel annoyed or even disgusted by hugs, but Chantys love dose finally made Ana feel something again, so she did not bother to stop Chanty any longer and accepted her fate.

When she went back to her campsite, she was very shy and insecure, knowing that the conflict was not solved yet, so she just stood there mute after arrival and was not really knowing what to do, so Jan, reading one of his scientific books, made the first step.

“Oh, there you are. I was starting to worry, and I am surprised you haven´t been with Angel, you were not with him when I saw him.”

“No…am I allowed… to come back? Where is my dad?”

“Inside, he´s tired, but don´t worry.”

“I… I fucked it up, and he´s in danger because of the stress I caused…”

“No, just tired. Don´t worry.”

This was clearly a lie but telling Chanty that she indeed caused an incident that made Thomas feel not well would not have improved the situation at all.

“Please, don´t sleep seperately, I can´t sleep with Rudolph alone…”

“I was about to talk about this matter, yes.”

“Please… make it short then… I can take it, I guess?”

“Please, don´t cry again. I haven´t said anything yet. So, the reason I did not follow you is that I wanted to have some time alone without you, and you propably without me, after we were more or less together on very little space all the time. So, how was it without me?”

“Terrible. I mean, I can do my own activities, but knowning you`re not “there” like you used to is a very cruel torture. I would rather go through Marie beating me up with a baseball bat every single day over and over than this.”

“That won´t happen because Marie would need to get past Thomas and me first, which we wouldn´t allow. To be honest, I also felt really shit being here alone without you. And this tells me, that you are indeed the other half completing me. That doesn´t mean that we don´t have to work on some things, and that definitely includes your social media addiction and … well, not trying to bring yourself and others in danger. And maybe, I need to relax a bit more, a bit of our arguments is surely on me for being stinky.”

“So… you are no longer mad at me?”

“Ah, now that my adrenaline is back on a normal level, I am over it. Actually, the result of our time off from each other was exactly as bad as I had assumed, and I am happy you are back here to clear this up. So, what to do with the empty second tent then? Renting it to Angel so that he doesn´t have to sleep in a car?”

“Hrhr. You know what couples are supposed to do after a really bad argument? Let´s move my father over there! He snores anyway.”

“Oh no, Chanty…”

“This was not just a proposal. Come on! You said yourself you need to relax more!”

“This is definitely not relaxation with you.”

“That´s your fault then, move now!”

[Angelustyle]

Team Firulais

Stage 8: Ana begins changes, Ángel Isolates himself for the night as Mind Reader’s Hell Continues

(Mentioning @That-S-cop [Cunning Stunts, just a mention], @HappyHungryHippo [The Rhino Squad], @Madrias [Shift Happens, Highway Hooligans], @Knugcab [The Hillbilly Rollers], @SheikhMansour [Spy Kids])

Morning at Drur.
First Time for Many.

Why is it the first time for many…? Well… Ángel slept well for once. This is his best night of sleep in the rally. No nightmares, no nothing. Probably some discomfort in the Aurora’s back seat, but, not much else.

This was also Ana’s first morning in a while without a Hangover.

For Andrés, it was the first night in which he didn’t make his Pokémon Match with Ángel, as mentioned in last stage.

For the other two though, it would be nothing more than an average night.

And an average (and therefore, rather boring) morning too. At least, they wouldn’t suffer anymore, right…?

Well, remember they have wipers permanently on since Stage 6.They, apart from not being able to solve it… Have another issue, which they discovered not long after Andrés turned the engine on…

Andrés:“W-W-What is that screeching ?”
Ana:“Wipers ? I mean… Could be. Don’t all wipers screech ?”
Josué:“Wrong assumption. They only do if the blades are worn out.”
Ángel:“I don’t think they sell spares here… Do they ?”

As they left Drur, and headed for the mountains, the screeching started to slowly but certainly gain loudness… Andrés, who was driving this time, felt stressed with it not long after the opera began. Soon the stress would go on to affect Ana, Josué, Tomás… And before they reached the halfway point of the Stage, even Ángel would be tired of that noise as well. Sadly, one of the things Ángel didn’t expect to happen was this… So he had no spares in case something like that happened…

After said halfway point, the trip would be as dull as ever. Apart from seeing the crashed motorbike of Cunning Stunts, not much else happened during this stage. Sadly, no cassette wanted to be played today either… so they had to enjoy the opera which was gratefully delivered by the windscreen wipers for their displeasure. Luckily, by the time they got to Hofrost, the mood improved.

Hofrost.
Reconciliation Time.

Ángel:“Alright, team…!”
Josué:“That’s my line !”
Ángel (giggling):“Извини…!”
(Извини (Izvini) = “Sorry”)
Josué:“Anyway… I think we should all, for once, separate to see what we can do. We’ll meet up at… What time is it now Ángel ?”
Ángel:“Well… We woke up at approximately 1-Sun-60, started at 2-Sun, and now I think it’s… Just past 3-Sun, maybe 4-Sun, my estimations may be wrong.”
Josué:“OK, hopefully there are clocks here. We meet up here at 10-Sun, or 1-Moon.”

Tómas sat up Camp with Andrés. Josué would go sightseeing. The ones to truly pay attention to are Ana and Ángel.

Let’s start with Ana. She needed to go to the bathroom, for an obvious reason, before finding out that Chantal was in the bathroom, crying. This was the turning point for Ana. She had to express her sympathy, and it worked out well…

…at the same time, Andrés became Ana’s Mailman. He’d not only ask Jan if the nearby lake was safe for swimming, but would also help Jan set up camp, releasing some stress from him. Andrés felt like he was becoming more of a messenger than anything else… But he didn’t felt annoyed by it.

In the end, the two blue-haired girls, of which one of them wasn’t blue-haired much more, were starting to reconcile with each other…

The ones who wouldn’t reconcile, however, were Ángel and his VINDICTIVE Mind Reading…

Quite some time later…
Mind Reader’s Hell Continues.

Little did Ángel know, or even thought he’d have a Mind Reading Incident today. He, for once, wasn’t exactly worried today. He seemed very happy today, actually.

That happiness would be thrown out of the window, as soon as he started to approach the Shift Happens team.

He thought it was best to apologize due to the constant MRIs… Plus telling Kivenaal in such an explicit way what he saw in his mind.

Ángel:“H-Hello… Again.”
Kivenaal:“Ángel ? What is it ?”
Ángel:“Nothing. I just wanted to apologize after the incidents during Stages 5 and 6 of this rally.”
Lauren:“What incidents ?”
Ángel:sigh“Uhm… You know. Manikihali… Malavera and Kivenaal all know about what happened when I came to them at Lauda.”
Lauren:“What happened there ?”
Manikihali:“He read Kiva’s Mind. Seeing him struggle so badly made me realize he ain’t exactly normal with that Mind Reading.”
Ángel:“So…?”
Manikihali:“Just be aware, you’ll have more, from what I can assume.”
Ángel:“I-I… I already know that… I just don’t know exactly… when. But, anyway… Yeah, I wanted to…”

And then it struck. Guess who of the +10 member team did it hit. Manikihali. Precisely the person Ángel was trying to apologize with first… and sadly, the shock would come back, after he heard this:

“You shouldn’t read the mind of someone who can see the future !”

Ángel attempted to reply by telepathy, but the pain the Mind Reading caused was so distracting that he just couldn’t send the message…

Luckily, something did actually translate, because Ángel, after 5 seconds of agony, would scream:

Ángel:“なぜ私なの！？なぜ今なの！？”
(Pronounciation: Naze watashina no! ? Naze imana no! ?
Translated:“Why me ?!? Why NOW ?!?”)

The Ring managed to catch that. Whoever got the message realized things weren’t exactly as they seemed… Because while Ángel would be reading someone’s mind, it would be wrong to assume he did it at will…

This first incident would last only about 20 seconds. But still, Ángel started to cry. The left lens of those round glasses got wet by the tears, and not long after, Ángel would start standing up, and walked away… Without saying anything else.

As he was walking away though, he’d crash into Trevor, from the Highway Hooligans, from behind.

Trevor:“Hey, look who is here… Aren’t you…”
Ángel:“…Ángel Yukobaiyaroslavl, from the Firulais…”

Ángel would still have tears in his face, but Trevor would notice more that particularly long surname…

Trevor:“Anngel Yuko… Yuko-what ?”
Ángel:“Uhh… J-Just… Juuuust… Just call me Ángel.”

It was then when Trevor noticed the tears in Ángel’s face. He wasn’t exactly as bad as he was just after the Mind Reading… But he was struggling.

Trevor:“You look bummed. Anything happened to you ? You seemed to have some joy yourself a few moments ago… And, as far as I’m concerned, you don’t even smile that much.”
Ángel:“N-N-No, Nothing happened…”

A tiny pause happened before Ángel had to admit the truth…

Ángel:“OK, no… Actually, things did happen. I had a bit of an incident with Shift Happens, the hosts, back at Lauda… And then I had another one at Björnes… And now I’ve just had another…”
Trevor:“You shouldn’t mess with them… Cody already got us in trouble because of that.”
Cody:“That I did what ?”
Ángel:“What ? How ? Why ?”
Trevor:“He messed their entire stage up. Put electrical tape on the cameras of that bus, and that didn’t allow them to move for a while… Jayde said he did something to insult us, but, we yet have to know what…”
Ángel:“I… I now understand why I was told to NOT crash into that bus. H-Hopefully it doesn’t happen… I think I feel ready to drive for next stage. And if not, for the one after…”
Trevor:“Well… Anything else you want to talk about…?”

Ángel saw this as a perfect chance to recur to Janne… Little did he know, the occult abilities of Janne were probably fake.

Ángel:“Yeah… I have a question… Do you know where is the camp of the Hillbilly Rollers ? The swedes ?”

Trevor gave Ángel some indications on how to go there. It wasn’t a long walk anyway.

Ángel:“Ahhh, OK… Well, ありがとう, and have a nice day ! Wish you best of luck with the hosts !”
(ありがとう (Arigatō) = “Thanks”)

Ángel knew the hosts were relatively understanding. But given how he was told to not crash under any circumstance with that Bus before the driver’s meeting, he felt a bit intimidated.

In any case, Ángel walked towards the Hillbilly Rollers’ IP.

Just before arriving though, he heard something go “bang” behind him. When he turned around, he found out that the Highway Hooligans were having a beer shower… As if the cans of beer they just opened decided to blow up…

“It’s either Jayde’s Punishment… Or them storing them in the freezer for some reason…”, he innocently thought.

Eventually, he arrived at the Hillbilly Rollers’ camp. He approached to Janne.

Ángel:“Uhhhh… Guten Morgen ?”
(“Good Morning” in German.)
Janne:“Did you mean God eftermiddag ?”
(“Good Afternoon” in Swedish.)
Ángel:“I… Y-yeah, I don’t know swedish… Anyway. Are you Janne ?”
Janne:“Indeed. And, you, as far as I’ve hurd, are the one who tackled Marie at Björnes, right ?”

“At least not everyone is recognizing me as the Mind Reader”, Ángel thought.

Ángel:“Да.”
(Да (“Da”) = “Yes”)
Janne:“Anything you need ?”
Ángel:“Да, да. I’ve Hurd you’re into occult stuff. That sounds to magic to me. So, I want to have some sort of cure for my Mind Reading… You may know what I’m talking about, if you’ve paid enough attention at camp…”
Janne:“I don’t know what you’re talking about… But, it sounds interesting…”

Ángel thought Janne was his savior. Finally, the 13 -maybe even more- years’ search for A CURE seemed to be over…

Until Ángel had his second Mind Reading Incident of the Day. This one was shorter, but, long enough for Ángel to realize Janne’s abilities were fake… Maybe Ángel hadn’t hurd of the salty prank on Chantal… But he at least found out by himself.

Janne saw the agony too.

Janne:“You… You OK ?”
Ángel:“I… I think I am.”
Janne:“Anyway… Want a cure or not…?”

Ángel gave some thought before ultimately denying the offer… He’d look for a cure later (although he doesn’t know that a cure for his condition doesn’t exist [!]). He later continued walking thru camp… feeling the need to meet new people…

(It seemed as if he, for today, wasn’t conscious… Wasn’t it best to NOT get close to people ?)

He eventually approached to the Spy Kids, this stage’s winners.

“Hm… A Touareg… I didn’t expect this… Oh, and it’s a V10… And a TDI !”, he thought, with excitement. “Hopefully, this doesn’t go as badly as some of the other meet-ups…”, he added in his mind.

Ángel:“こんにちは！”
(こんにちは！(Kon’nichiwa) = “Hello/Hi”)
Megumi:“こんにちは、どなたでしょうか ？”
(Kon’nichiwa, donatadeshou ka? - Hello, who are you ?)

“I… Didn’t expect another Japanese person here… She looked french !”, he thought.

Shay:“Look, Megumi, you found another Japanese Person !”
Megumi:“I know, right ? Anyway, what’s you name…?”
Ángel:“Ángel. Ángel Yukobaiyaroslavl.”
Petra:“That’s a long name ! Yukobai…”
Ángel:“You can just call me Ángel Yuko. Russian-Japanese. Let’s not complicate ourselves too much with that surname…”
Amanecer:“You like our ride ?”
Ángel:“Yeah, it’s awesome… I’ve seen Touaregs, but, never a V10 TDI…”

Fun Fact: Ángel initially thought of buying a Diesel Aurinko Wagon instead of the one they have. It would’ve been a more comfortable car to sleep in, at least.

Petra:“I’ve heard someone with an Eyepatch reads minds…”

“Here we go again…!”, he thought, before proceeding to point at himself and nod with his head.

Petra:“How does that work ?”

This time, it would be the person who was talking to Ángel the one to be interrupted mid-sentence. Ángel would suffer, AGAIN, reading Petra’s Mind. This one lasted 20 seconds, again, but, inevitably, he was suffering.

And, yes, everyone saw it.

Shay:“You… Are you alright…?”
Ángel:“Y…Yeah… I… That happens to me often whenever I read minds…”
Shay:“You look tense.”
Ángel:“Again… Happens to me…”

This time, Ángel would say about his condition…

Ángel:“I do it unwillingly… I can’t control it…”

Then Ángel remembered some truly brutal words from his older sister… “You can’t control your powers, then you’re a Useless Yumeisotitanian”…

Not being able to control the powers you have…

…it was a CURSE. A thing which he despised. And yet it didn’t have a cure… All he could do was attempt to survive with it, like it or not… And, seriously. His mind reading has got him in quite big trouble. Remember, he was almost arrested at Menes because he read the mind of a Local… And scared people off. He had struggled with this issue ever since he was 11 years old… And the misery just seemed to continue since.

Ángel:“I-I gotta go…”
Shay:“So quickly ?”
Ángel:“Yeah… Got to do some shopping…”
Shay:“Oh… OK. Have a nice day ! Good luck with the Mind Reading !”

As Ángel left, they had themselves a bit more of chatter.

Megumi:“I hope he’s alright”
Shay:“Yeah, it looks like he’s having a migraine…”

Ángel going shopping was… Actually a bit true. He felt like buying an Ice Cream would help him gain some good mood back.

However, while eating it… He would read the mind of a police officer… Out of ALL people possible, it had to be THAT.

What’s worse ? He didn’t even got the chance to enjoy his Ice Cream (because when the incident happened, Ángel fell to the ground and so did the Ice Cream)… He was on a meltdown… He had again, scared locals, and again, got in trouble with the police… This time, he decided to scarper rather than to talk about things… He had enough with the Mind Reading Incidents today…

He came back to camp as fast as he went from it to downtown Hofrost. He then had an idea… An Idea which, sadly, would mean his team wouldn’t have a ride for a while…

Around 1-Moon-10.
A Solution to Mind Reader’s Hell has been found !

Josué:“Yeah, I had some fun trying to read in Aetheriian… How about you guys ?”
Ana:“I’ve made a new friend.”
Tómas:“I bought some clothes…”
Andrés:“And I not only did that, but also helped Jan with his tent, and bought some more supplies.”
Josué:“Hehehehe, yeah, now we can go back to camp and…”

They would all get shocked by the fact their car had disappeared… How did that happen ? Did the “Not Worth Stealing” sticker on the back window work for nothing ?

Well…

1 - HOUR - AND - 30 - AETHERIIAN - MINUTES - BEFORE…

Ángel got himself on the wheel of the Aurora, before driving thru Hofrost, hoping none of his teammates (or, actually, any of the other people) saw him.

After a rather extensive drive to what could be said to be the Outskirts of the Outskirts, Ángel stopped somewhere isolated enough from population… Why ? Well… He thought that, if he isolated from people enough, he wouldn’t have any mind reading incidents… And, partially, he was right.

See, his mind reading has a radius of reach. Said radius is moderately large. But, if no minds (aka, Nobody) are on said radius, he can’t have a mind reading incident…

Take in mind, he would have headaches, truly brutal ones, like, mega migraine level… The fallout from the Crisis was still present in him… But for most of the night, he’d chill out, listening to music to ignore those headaches, practicing some Pokémon, looking at pictures of his family, and more, parked in a place just out of town… Soon, his mood was restored, and he didn’t felt like any more MRIs would affect him, so he returned back, late that night.

3-Moon-70.

Josué:“Look what’s arriving…”
Ana:“Oh… Is that Ángel ?”
Josué:“…and I who was thinking that someone stole our car…!”
Ángel:“…Evening !”
Andrés:“We are pleased… And angry with you, simultaneously. Sadly, you’ve missed dinner…”
Ángel:“Don’t worry, I’ll be OK…”
Tómas:“What happened ?”
Ángel:“I… Better tell that tomorrow. I feel like it would be best to do so… Because I don’t feel exactly ready… Like, if I “stole” the car from you, and didn’t come back until a while later, guess how badly I must have been these few hours…”

Ana hadn’t mentioned who her new friend was… At least, until then…

Ana:“Ángel… I don’t want to admit it.”
Ángel:“Admit what ? That you treated me badly for these last few days ?”
Ana:“…Chantal and I may be becoming friends…”

Ángel’s smile was the peak of the day for the Firulais… And the Night would still have something else to feature…

6-Moon-15.
Shady “Trade “Deals””.

Ana and Andrés walked thru camp, late in the night, after most people were asleep. Ángel was the only other person in the Firulais who was still semi-awake, trying to sleep in the Aurora’s back seat.

Ana (whispering):“Why are we doing this ?”
Andrés (also whispering):“We need some wiper blades… And I know from who may we steal them from…”
Ana (whispering):“I… Feel so bad, yet so good with that idea…”

They would go back to the Aurora, and remove one of the Wiper Blades. That would wake Ángel up… No need to tell, they were whispering.

Ángel:“W-What are ya doing…?”
Andrés:“We are stealing someone’s wiper…”
Ángel:“Who’s ? If you tell me it’s the…”
Andrés:“The Black Wagon over there…”

On a normal day… Ángel would disagree on doing such thing… But given Marie was the one who broke their beer… He couldn’t resist and joined in as well… Planning something else to add salt to the wound. As always, whispering.

Ángel:“I wonder if I can help and screw with them a bit.”
Ana:“How ?”
Ángel:“I feel like we could… Uhh… I’ll think of something.”
Ana:“…I know. Let’s paint their car…”
Ángel:“…”
Ana:“What ? Weren’t you an artist ? You’re the one who made my T-shirt !”
Ángel:“Alright… But what could I paint…?”

While Andrés and Ana stole one wiper blade of the IP, and put the Aurora’s worn out one in it’s place, Ángel thought about what to paint…

With a very thick brush, and a lot of black paint, he’d paint the hood… Then he painted some white stripes with a brush which was a lot slimmer. He didn’t thought of anything better which at the same time wouldn’t be obvious. Ángel usually painted with spray cans, but as this was a mission made with stealth, he tried to be as silent as possible and used acrylic paint instead. As a result, his job had still a few tiny bits of yellow here and there. But the end result was an IP which looked marginally better… At least, from the outside… The inside of the hood was still yellow…

You know… The guy sometimes needed to screw with people at times… But he wanted to do it in such a level it wouldn’t necessarily offend the other person, being more of a friendly prank, sometimes even a favour.

Would Marie consider it as such, though ? Time would tell, as Ana, Andrés, and Ángel went back to their tents (or, to the car, if you are Ángel) and enjoyed the rest of the sleep time they had available.

As always, Collabs open.

(Damn, I realized I now have to explain about Ángel’s lore next time…)

[Knugcab]

TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
PART 6.3 - MORE CLASS ON THE GLASS

(Yes, one, soon to be two, levels old now. But I will play catch up now when I have some days off. Co-operation with @Madrias .)

Hoping to get a solution like two years ago, Janne was approaching Jayde of Team Shift happens.

“Uhm, hello Jayde…”, Janne said while slowly approaching him. “Well, you have seen dyre wrecking cars, I guess…and it might have been our fault too, but…when was the last time you saw a car being wrecked by a spider?”

Jayde smirks. “Last time… Rental SUV came in completely wrecked. Insurance company wanted a damage quote so they could justify totaling the car. Turns out, the driver was arachnophobic, and a tarantula had gotten inside. They dropped the sun-visor to check their makeup, spider falls in their lap, SUV becomes a highway pinball off of six other cars before finding a bridge support.”

“That sounds high tech”, Janne said. “70s car, 70s way of doing it, I say. So, do you want a glimpse of…how to do it the old school way?”, he said and pointed towards the IP.

Jayde chuckles. “Do you mean 1970’s old school, or do you really mean 3251 After the War of Magic?” He then motions toward his right arm.

“I’ll need a little help this time. You’ll have to crush the glass if the windshield’s broken. Can’t do that with my right arm in a cast.”

“It might be 1971 years after someone blamed the holy spirit instead of the mailman, or 3251 after that war or…man you should read some of the books I managed to find on my grandfathers attic, they do explain a lot, but will leave you with even more questions, and…”, Janne started to explain to Jayde.

“NONE OF THIS SHIT NOW!”, Andreas said. “DO YOU WANT TO REPAIR THE WINDSHIELD OR DO YOU WANT TO PRETEND YOU ARE IN SOME FREAKING HARRY POTTER WORLD SO EVERYONE THINKS YOU’RE EVEN MORE MAD THAN THEY ALREADY KNOW?”

“…Oh well”, Janne continued and pointed to Marie. “Unfortunately this spider managed to walk on the car when that fat wreck over there was holding an axe and…”, he pointed to the interior, “…we managed to do an almost invisible repair there, except for all the visible duct tape, which honestly speaking is all of the repair, but, well, I can’t repair the windshield with duct tape.”, he said.

“I ALMOST GOT THAT BASTARD!”, Marie said.

“No, you only managed to cut your goddamned fingers so there are also blood stains on the interior”, Andreas sighed.

“Anyway, I think I have a solution”, Janne said and emptied a vodka bottle.

“HEY, THAT WAS MINE!”, Marie said.

“It was probably someone elses to start with”, Janne said. “AND I NEED THIS TO COPE WITH YOUR MOTHERFUCKING MADNESS!”, he continued and drank the last of it. Then he put the empty bottle on a rock, crushed it with a hammer and asked Jayde if it was enough or if he had to empty so many bottles that he would be drunk enough to appreciate Marie’s ideas before there could be a windshield repair done.

Jayde looks over the pile of glass shards, then over the windshield and how much glass was all over the interior.

“I think that might be enough glass. I’ll add to it - I need to take something for the pain anyway…”

Jayde quietly rummages in his bag and grabs a pale green bottle, downing the contents before breaking the green glass along with what Janne had already provided. He crouches down and sets a bowl on the ground, collecting up as much of the glass as he could within reason. After a few seconds, he looks over at the windshield, holding the bowl on his right palm before muttering a quiet incantation. The glass in the bowl begins to glow white-hot, before a flash causes it to vanish, the windshield suddenly becoming one whole sheet of glass again, this time with slight pale green hints throughout the glass where one of Jayde’s supplied glass chips had fused in and left a reminder of his work.

“Need the interior cleaned as well?”

“Thanks. Well, wouldn’t mind it, it will probably take care of the butter residues if nothing else”, Janne grumbled.

“IT WAS THAT STUPID SMURF!”, Marie said.

“If you would not upset that stupid smurf all the time, the stupid smurf would not be smurfing around all the time and smurf all our stuff”, Andreas tried to explain to her.

Jayde laughs.

“And here, I thought you got pranked by the Hooligans. I’ll clean that up, then we can figure out some form of repayment for the energy cost.”

Jayde uses a familiar cleaning spell, last used on the Hillbilly Rollers’ pink van after the mercy bush incident. With a flash, decades of dirt and dust and grime vanish, the butter disappears from the air vents, and some of the other smells are lifted.

“I will sure find out a way”, Janne said, with an air of mystery in his voice. “AND WHATEVER I FIND OUT, MAKE SURE YOU WON’T RUIN IT!”, he said and pointed to Marie.

“I haven’t done anything!”, she said.

“No, but you were probably going to…”

Jayde nods softly. “Food works. I’d request alcohol, but I suspect I know where it’s all gone.”

“So…”, Janne said. “What do you think about our ride this year, spare for the broken windshield then. A show winner a little over 40 years ago”, he said, without trying to hide his pride. “Maybe not so much now…”

“Well,” Jayde admits, “if I thought I’d fit in it, I’d drive it. Granted, at my size… I’d have to turn the poor thing into a convertible.”

“Yeah, the common panel van struggle”, Janne said. “A divider wall where you would like to have your seat. Oh well, having…someone…mid bench does not help with the space either.”

“I HEARD YOU!”, Marie said.

“Happy that you listen to what I say for once”, Janne answered.

“The bus is a lot better than our… First year’s choice. Could still be better, but this is at least good,” Jayde admits. “At least no one’s stuck with a pair of gear-sticks in their crotch.”

“Well, if you can cure seats with saturday night pukes, eh, or even worse things… on them using magic, the choice of a bus all of a sudden makes sense”, Janne said.

Jayde smiles. “It’s a used city bus, so, yeah, it’s something that made a lot more sense here. Lower speeds. Lots of space. Relatively comfortable when it’s not driven by an idiot.”

“Oh well”, Janne said. “Thanks a lot for the repairs, I hope that if I get back to you it will be for a more fun reason…”

“Not a problem. It’s reasonable to ask one of the magic users when someone has decided to axe-murder your car,” Jayde mentions. “Just… When you’ve figured out a form of payment, let me know.”

“No problems”, Janne said. “Because I guess you don’t want an annoying crew member as payment…”

“I HEARD YOU!”, Marie said.

Jayde starts laughing. “We don’t have the room. Rukari volunteered to stay behind so Inaelus could go with us, but we have 11 people and 11 seats. And she wouldn’t want to ride with us - We don’t have any alcohol onboard.”

“Oh well, I guess I will have to check the vehicle through for tomorrow now”, Janne said. “But thanks a lot and see you!”

Jayde nods and heads toward the bus. “You’re welcome. Maybe next time…” Jayde pauses and gives a smirk, pulling his staff out of his bag.

“Next time Marie grabs the axe, maybe it’ll become a snake.”

Jayde taps his staff twice on the dirt, then puts it back away.

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Madrias]

Shitbox Rally - Stage 9

Stage 9: Hofrost to Talrem

Weather: Mid teens, strong showers, very windy

---

The road out of Hofrost is generally fine, but a bit narrow in general. On either side, the road is flanked by mountain ranges, increasing in height as we go along, with a small river running alongside the road. Along the way, we drive across a bridge over a larger river, about 30 km away from our destination.

Cunning Stunts lose a couple of minutes when they change out their burned out headlight bulb, so they can be seen in the rain.
(@That-S-Cop)

The Interceptors, on the other hand, slide a little in the rain and pop a tire. Two “new” used tires are put on the rear axle and they’re on the move again.
(@AndiD)

For Straight Outta Seratos, it’s just a routine matter of changing a windshield wiper after realizing the one they had did a better job at fouling up the window instead of cleaning it.
(@Shibusu)

Machinas Con Passione has to slow way down after their attempt to fix the windshield wipers results in a near-total electrical failure. After some clever use of chewing gum, paper clips, a pen spring, and a jumper cable, the car is running again, but they’ll have to push on to the next camp if they hope to keep up with the group.
(@SurrealCereal)

The Troublesome Trio and Theo get to enjoy a quick pit stop to figure out why all the lights are flickering. An hour later and a new alternator installed, the lights are steady, and as an added bonus, it no longer reeks like sulfur in the car.
(@06DPA)

What’s more fun than changing a tire in the rain? Team Fuist knows the answer - It’s changing two tires in the rain.
(@Djadania)

Ramjet has to stop long enough to change out a windshield wiper so the driver can see where they’re going.
(@JCurtiss96, @Leone)

It’s clear that this is the beginning of a mountain pass, right about the time that we arrive at Talrem.

This little village houses 28 people, with their handful of houses, a few farms, and a nice bakery.

Our camp is the village. The train is parked at a crude station made out of wooden planks set up near the track - They see a train maybe once a week in normal service, so we’re not blocking anything important. It’s clear that our presence is a little overwhelming to the locals, but they’re trying their best to be accommodating to the crews. The good news is, there are some facilities, though they are a bit primitive - Some wooden outhouses for toilets, and some medieval-style open-air bathtubs.

---

Spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQriVPEky_B00QiZ6lYrtLVt-u3XWPQW7CvfFNFordo91W4o4LYgWKmW6-SchgIpnTR4wQ6cfSyyQfl/pubhtml

[Happyhungryhippo]

Stage 9: A Savage Business Plan

including Highway Hooligans by @Madrias, Hillbilly Rollers by @Knugcab, Firulais by @Angelustyle, Fuist by @Djadania, Honey, I bought a Sh!tbox by @Rambow, mentioned only: Shift Happens by @Madrias

“YAAAAAAAAAAWWWWN!”

“Damn, Chanty!”

“Sorry…”

Now, that Jan was away with her, too, both crawled out of their tent. As Thomas slept more or less for half of the previous day, he got up early and had the car already jacked up, with using some planks to have a solid ground that you better not asked where he got these from this time.

“What are you doing there this early?”

“Fixed the window you smashed and now the handbrake. So… it seems you had a very short, or let´s say … eventful night?”

“DON´T SMILE THAT DIRTY! Chanty, where are you going?”

“To Andrea and Pi, my shower buddies. I mean, I won´t go alone.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but after doing some repairs and becoming dirty, I had to make the experience that there are none here. You can wash your hands, that´s all, or maybe hold your hair into the sink.”

“Naaaaaaaaaw! Damn.”

“Could you two please prepare breakfast, I AM HUNGRY AFTER WORK!”

“You are not the only one, dad…”

“JAN! Your job then! I don´t trust Chantal, she will propably eat half of what we have just while preparing.”

When they wanted to proceed to the starting line, Thomas started the engine.
Wrwrwrwr…SRRRRMMMMMMmmmtaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktak…

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”

Thomas turned off the engine and stepped out of the car, walking in a circle with visible despair. Then the withnessed how Chanty tried to sneak back from the front of the car, holding something… silver.

“Chanty? Is that a wrench? WAIT! Don´t tell me you have been knocking on the grille to make me think the engine is gone! JUST DON´T!”

“Eh… I would NEVER, I mean, …eeh…”

In the bush behind, giggling was audible, and Thomas found Cody there.

“Let me guess: That was your idea?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah, really great, when I would have started I might have rolled over my daughter, idiot!”

“You sure that this works with your rear wheels still jacked up? I mean, my grade in physics wasn´t great and I could be wrong, but I am just asking…”

“Ah, CRAP! I knew I forgot something!”

Cody and Chanty could not hold it any longer and bursted in laughter, so that Thomas couldn´t really be mad at them, especially since it was such a pleasant sight to see his daughter having fun and being honestly happy at the moment.

The stage itself was not very spectacular. Thomas was driving fast, but not reckless, and they had to do a fuel stop since the V6 didnt generate power out of nothing. But the roads became bumpier in the last third of the stage, and Thomas managed to hit a pothole very hard, causing the CD (after the cassettes were all played through) to start hanging.

“AAAAAAAAAH TURN THAT OFF! TURN THAT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFF!!”

“CHANTAL! DONT TELL ME YOU ARE STILL SCARED BY A HANGING CD! Please…”

But it had no use, Chantal was already crying from being scared to death by that loud and, well, eerie sound. Thomas had to stop and let navigator Jan change from the passenger to the rear seats in order to calm her panic attack down.

“Thomas, I don´t think you should judge her! Weren´t you afraid of tube radios?”

“Jan, that comparison is unfair, because I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD! Plus, that weird sound when it wasn´t warm and that scary glowing of that thing were really frightening.”

“You were what? HAHAHAHA!”

Finally Chanty forgot to be scared of the scratched CD because she now focussed imagining her father being a scared little boy…

Upon arrival, their “host family” served them some kind of soup. and the portion size was… not exactly what would fill the stomach of both Thomas and Chantal. So Thomas remembered that he could buy sausages from the train, but no coal, as that was sold out. Even the bakery had no coal to sell - they needed that for their own bread oven, leaving Thomas behind with some frustration. And as he already drank beer, Jan was outside exploring nature and Chanty nowhere to be seen again, he couldn´t drive to the nearest larger town where he possibly could get coal.

But Thomas would not be Thomas if he just accepted his fate, a trait that might also grow one time on Chanty, too… by seeing the bath oven, he remembered the WM66 washing machine from GDR, without automatic heater - you had to put that off when having the right temperature, there was a thermometer for it. Thomas used it to boil sausages and wash dishes… and the bath oven in their host family´s bath was tempting. But since Chanty was complaining that she might soon run out of clothes (she won´t objectively, but… its a girl, in the end), he also thought he might be able to fit a drum in it.

The first effort with a wiper motor failed, as this was underpowered. But then Janne entered.

“Here are two beer, as you asked. So, what´s the matter?”

“Can you weld?”

“Looking at that sad fragment of a Primus in front of the house, I think I can at least better than you.”

“You´ll get that back. Anyway, can you repair a defective alternator regulator?”

“I think so. And how should I weld here? With what?”

Thomas connected the battery of his car with two starting cables and an electrode he got out of his toolbox, and a visibly impressed Janne noddeed, and asked for some good sunglasses.
While Thomas boiled sausages, Janne tried to get the alternator back to work, and the host family was thankfully not present because they were all out on the fields working after they waited for the team to give them the keys…
After bathing, cooking and dishwashing, it was soon time for the fourth function: The washing machine… Chanty and also Jan left behind a lot to wash, and Thomas was running out of stuff, too…

Chanty was outside, and crowded by cats and dogs, which she assumed were strays (propably not, but… its not that Chanty could know that), and the hungry animals cuddled with her.

“Meow.”

“I know… but… I have nothing left of the sausages… because… I was hungry msyelf.”

“Meow :(”

"And, … I dont have any money to buy you something.

“Meeeeooow. :(”

“I know, I am useless, I am sorry…”

A desperate Chantal was crying again, when Ana passed by.

“What´s wrong?”

“The animals are hungry and I have no food for them… and no money to get some.”

“Oh, well, they don´t look starving, Chantal.”

“NEITHER DO I, BUT I AM ALSO HUNGRY AS FUCK!”

“AGAIN? Didn´t you just eat?”

“I am at the point I would eat Kivas fried scorpions again…”

“That can´t be hunger, it´s something psychological - you need distraction. Well, I was just looking at these great small and windy roads. What a perfect place for some spirited driving…”

“You are right. The locals can´t really use that with their ancient shitboxes. They barely make it to 60”

“Oh, Chanty, I got an idea. I am going into the nearest town to shop. Should I get you some taxi customers?”

“What?”

“Yeah, one hot 5 kilometer ride plus the way back, 500 Holsian Krona, and you can feed a lot of animals then, I guess. I`ll buy animal food in advance for a 1000 Krona since I guess you will get at least two passengers here. I will drive against you, since I want some fun and the others propably, too”.

“But… with what car? And how did you calculate the price?”

“Yours? I mean, you can drive, can´t you? I will tell some in my team to distract Thomas, so you can get the keys. I guess he leaves them openly somewhere in the house you are accomodated? And come on, just look at the store prices of common things and put it in a fair relation then, so the 500 Krona are more or less … 30 dollars in today´s purchase power. Or 27 Euro, if you don´t know even that excange rate.”

“Yeah, sorry, you know that I am dumb. We need to look for the keys then…”

“Do you expect me now to tell you, naaah, you are smart? No, Chantal, I won´t lie to please people. I honestly got to like you a bit but it´s not that you`re smart, but you have friends and family to help you, so it´s not that much of an issue. You are good at many other things. Ah well, I´ll give you company, you can dye my hair then, because you did THAT as good as a professional hairdresser, really. I think that blue was nice, makes me more individual.”

“So… you like it?”

“Escuchame, Chantal. You are begging to be liked. I don´t need that. I just want to be respected. And you should, too. Almost everyone here in the camp likes you, and I got an idea why now, but the majority also makes fun of you. I would be really upset if that happened to me. Although, you showed me that respect doesn´t need to be deserved by intimidating others, and I am grateful for that. But damn, stop focussing on likes and let us get the car keys now.”

Where the keys were, was also the action right now…

“THOMAS! Isn´t that a bit hot?”

“Yeah well, you can´t just make a 30 degree fire… Fire is hot or it´s not. I better put that out now… but the water is still hot. Damn, I knew there was a difference to the WM66 and it´s the fact the heater isn´t electric but a fire made with wood.”

“Your fault for letting the grabbing stick sliding into the drum. Whose stuff is in there now?”

“Chantys… OH NO. She will kill me if we don´t get it out in time.”

“Yeah Thomas, I can see that.”

“HIDE OUTSIDE. I WILL LET THE ALTERNATOR GO FULL FORCE SO THAT THE DRUM THROWS IT ALL OUT BY THE OPENING! Stay away a bit, since it spills some water that is propably at least 60 degrees…”

“Thomas… are you…yes your are. This does not sound good”

“And it´s making some nasty vibrations… OH LOOK THERE GOES A SCREW.”

“And there… a weld… ONE OF YOURS BY THE WAY. The side that I welded is still holding up, not that this helps now, but I think it is worth a mention. I AM OUT OF HERE, SEE YOU OUTSIDE!”

With a BANG the bathing oven more or less disassembled itself, with a lot of smoke and steam spreading all around the house, thankfully, Thomas jumped out of the window in time and joined Janne in a safe distance.

“Alternators have surprising amounts of power, hm?”

“Yes, they have. And now, Thomas?”

“Collecting my daughters stuff, … if we can find it.”

“Some of it might be in the stratosphere now…drifting pink unicorn t-shirts might not be the perfect motivation for aliens to search for intelligent life on Holsia…”

“DAAAAAAAAAD! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?”

“Why do you think it was me? It could as well have been Janne.”

“BECAUSE I KNOW YOU!”

“The power of genes is surprising, isn´t it?”

Janne grinned a bit and looked at an amused Ana, a Chantal close to a nervous breakdown and a Thomas slowly realizing that his invention had a weak spot - it lacked a correct balancing mass.
Chantal was … well, not amused that some of her clothes were indeed washed to hot and changed from size [no, I am not allowed to reveal that in public] to size 38, maybe 40.

“NOT ALSO MY UNIC… DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”

“well, doesn´t Andrea took some of yours last stage? I mean, maybe it fits to her, she is really small.”

“Hm, or… Ana, since you have blue hair now again, you might like that too…”

“Nah, Chantal, I am not your barbie doll… I don´t think that… EEH, stop dragging me, heeeeelp… ok, yes, I can at least try, if you want…”

In the end, Ana was not sure what to think.

“Hm. I definitely look more individual now, but … I don´t want to be associated with being cute, I prefer being seen as tough, but I also feel like I am going through a change of my mentality in this rallye, guess what? I`ll take that stuff and see how my team thinks of it, feels less wrong than I thought.”

Ana and Angel, who was very … irritated to see Ana with now really blue hair again and even Chantals style, went off to advertize their racing taxi event, as Angel was immediately in when he heard that it was to feed animals and help Chantal. They returned two hours later.

“So, here I am. A bunch of people will come over to be driven by you.”

“All right.”

“You look scared.”

“I am… I am not good at taking responsibility for others…”

“You do all that for feeding foreign animals, believe me Chantal, you ARE good at it. Just don´t try to crash and it´s fine.”

“But … if another car comes?”

“Here is absolutely not a lot of traffic. But we can block the road, sure. But with what?”

They finally asked other teams to assist them with a little help, using their cars as road block and telling the traffic to wait a bit until the two race drivers arrive. They asked the team Fuist, as they both might be interessed to assist as they actually are race drivers and might enjoy doing the favor without telling anyone what Chantal and Ana are up to, and the team Honey, I bought a shitbox listened, as they were standing nearby, but Clara was busy with doing some checks on their ride, so Vivian smiled at Chantal, as she saw her giving her father a lecture about bringing the spider to the camp and triggering anxiety of others and thought of that as very brave.

“Oh, some wild things your boomer daddy won´t appreciate? I am in for sure! But, what´s in for us, then?”

“So, you would drive with the team Fuist and secure the road for us?”

“Yes, but there is one thing. Clara just won´t do that for nothing. She is VERY competetive and just wouldn´t help the competition… and a bit of a loner, unlike you.”

“But… I am totally broke… all I can offer is… well, myself for whatever she wants to do with me, or…”

“Well, maybe a ride with your car is tempting, as our Pablato is really slow. The one you got there is definitely more fun.”

“But… it´s my dad´s ride… I am not sure if I can do that, he will kill me if something happens…”

“Ah, come on. If you crash, it´s the same problem, and Clara is a great driver. In addition, I assume your dad loves you despite being some oldfashioned dinosaur, at least from what I saw of him to this day.”

“So… eww… ok.”

“Yep, don´t be anxious, it is not really a loss if someone crashes into our Pablato, but Clara will definitely not abuse your car too hard, she is a cold loner but doesn´t want to cause you trouble by being too reckless”

, added Vivian.

Louis turned towards Vivian, visibly relieved.

“So, you are facing the, well, race track then at the finish line, while I am a few meters off in front to warn other cars in time to slow down? Would be great, because my Fuist might be a cheap mass-marked trash vehicle, but it is inherited and it means a bit to me, so I would not want to have it damaged.”

“Sure, grab yourself two camping chairs and some coffee and have a relaxed evening while dealing with irritated locals, we will be where the action is, but I need to talk to Clara first, she´s over there and I will need a bit of time for that, as she is really not the social one of us, depression hits hard”

Louis was a bit irritated.

“But, Vivian… Sorry to state it, but it seems obvious, Chantal is also depressed and the polar opposite, so, how is that possible?”

“Yes, because illnesses can have many different symptoms and outcomes, one is crying and overly emotional, another person can as well be introvert and a loner locking herself in from everyone else. I think it is totally wrong to imagine how somebody has to be just by suffering from a certain condition.”

“Oh, I did not want to be impolite…”

“Louis, that´s fine. Acutally it´s smart of you to ask me such questions instead of quietly judging my wife, Chantal or anybody else.”

Louis and Marceline got in their car and had a chatter, while Vivian talked to Clara, and Chantal and Ana prepared the cars. Taking the keys for the Primus was easy, as Thomas was again distracted with Janne, rebuilding the Nilfertinator 3000.

“So… let´s try again. By the way, Janne, what is that for a weird installation?”

“I added a fourth function. Marie is unbearable when she has no booze, and I need to do Jayde a favor that is… basically, providing him alcohol.”

“Eh… so?”

“It is now also usable as distillery. While your design was great idea, I was able to make it more efficient. These parts are no longer needed. Where to put them?”

“Ill throw it out of the window... well, of whats left of it.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Oh, sorry Angel, I didn´t see you. Are you ok?”

“Oh, e…e…eh yes, Thomas. You don´t need these parts anymore?”

“No, collected these from some backyard anyway, so that was junk we don´t need to bring back.”

“I think that I have use for them, thanks.”

Meanwhile, it was turning dark. The roadblocks were installed, and by now a group of 20 to 25 people waited for their ride. The first ones were a group of young men that were really irritated to see the driving done by blue-haired girls. While Chantal did all four runs herself, the drivers in the Aurora were changed after every run, first was Ana. She drove a bit reckless, not particulary skilled, but it went well in general. She finished behind Chanty, but the Holsians that were not used to speeds higher than 80 kph were equally excited or even terrified in both cars, needing to… look again at what they ate that day.

The second driver for the Firulais was Josué - and he had a calmer and smoother driving style, so the second run was offered at all “customers” with sensible stomach, with Chanty adapting to the speed of the Aurora to keep it balanced.

As some people asked for a “smooth” ride, after noticing the pale faces of the first group, the third run was almost identical to the second, with Josué and Chantal going for a sane risk level, but still entertaining the locals.

The fourth run was reserved for the daredevil passengers that wanted the scariest experience possible. Angel took over in the Aurora, asking Chanty to send the Primus as hard as she could, then he put on a cássette with Initial D music… not a good sign at all at this point.

Both cars drove hard at the limit, and even if Chanty was quite fast for her limited experience and generally shy nature, she was now so excited that she just focussed on beating Angel. The cars even banged some times, but the damage was superficial - for the Primus, just some rust was shoved off the panels, with similar effect on the Aurora. Every few seconds the lead changed, and the droning four-cylinder of the Aurora tried it´s best, but the Primus was just stronger uphill, but the last part of the improvised track was downhill, and with a totally insane drift, Angel finally passed his opponent and slided as first through the last corner, but Angel forgot about one thing: The Pablato blocking the way for security reasons, and the skidding Aurora missed it only by centimeters.

Clara was the first to react.

“Damn, there missed our insurance money.”

“There also goes some food again, what a waste”

, said Marceline. Vivian was not really willing to look at the dizzy passengers getting out of the cars and being busy with re-dining. Clara turned to Chantal, who lighted a cigarette to deal with what she just saw - Angel almost crashing hard.

“So, this was my part of the deal. Now it is your turn. Keys now.”

“They…are inside… left in the ignition, the engine is running to cool down…”

, answered Chanty, still visibly scared.

“Don´t worry, I will neither harm your car nor the passengers. As soon as they are ready, I will drive them back to the starting line. You can take a seat in the Pablato, Vivian will take you with her.”

Chantal then proceeded to Angel, who was also quite done with his nerves, but remaining professional and very polite to his passengers, as a Japanese should.

“Angel, Cigarette?”

“No, I don´t smoke… but, I could need a drink later, after my driving tasks are fulfilled. I might drive a bit slower then, if my passengers prefer this.”

“YES PLEASE, FOR FUCKS SAKE!”

, was the reply, and Angel might have nightmares for the next sleeping period from what had just almost happened.

Clara luckily didn´t go as fast as she could, but still had great fun pushing the barge hard on the six kilometers of Holsian backroads before handing it back to Chantal.

“Interessing. I could finally try it out one of these old sofas with some engine power. The engine is quite rough for such a luxury car, but the car feels light and really well balanced, while the suspension is on the comfortable size. Don´t these have adaptive dampers at last?”

“Hello, …eh, Clara, I guess? So, they weren´t ordered by the first owner. The whole car is configured very weird, has almost everything but no seat heaters or the suspension upgrades, which were usually the most common. BY THE WAY: CHANTAL JOLINA NILFERT! GET IN! NOW!”

“I… am dead now. Please…remember me…”

A desperately sobbing Chantal got inside with hanging shoulders as her father who appeared out of nowhere told her, and Angel stood there a bit helpless, not saying anything since he thought he could make the situation only worse. Inside the house, it became a bit loud and definitely more heated than the seats of the Primus ever could without the option ordered…

“You have done that for WHAT?”

“Stray animals… and if enough money is left, maybe feeding homeless. We saw some in the streets… we can not just drive here with such a large car, have fun and get drunk while others have to exist in poverty and remain hungry…please don´t yell at me, just hit me, that is easier for me…”

“Chantal, STOP! Have I ever hit you?”

“No, just thrown things…”

“Yes but not at you but at the wall!”

“Poor wall…poor cups, pillows and pencils… they suffered instead of me… you should aim at me now, with a hammer maybe…”

When Thomas was about to use the duct tape in order to silence his daughter for what she again started to say, Jannes voice was audible.

“READY! I have no idea what drama your freakshow causes again, but I will invite to … Holsian Midsommar now. We really distilled too much to fill that in the bottles we have.”

“THE DISCUSSION IS NOT OVER! YOU WAIT HERE UNTIL I AM BACK, CHANTAL!”

Jan went downstairs, complaining.

“What is this for a shitshow again? I WAS JUST BRINGING THE KIDS TO BED, NOW THEY ARE AWAKE AGAIN! Chanty, please help me calming them down again.”

The pair did its best to make the three kids of the host family, aged from 4 to 9, sleep in peace again, as their parents asked Jan to take a bit of care for them, since they worked as farmers and had to do repairs in the barns and were grateful that they got the time for it with Jan trying to be a nanny.

“Damn, you would be such a good father.”

“Don´t start this topic again.”

“But… you know, this is my dream. Our little happy family. Honestly, how am I doing at this task?”

“Fairly good, actually, you´re really a person that kids seem to like. They are sound asleep. I needed an hour for this.”

“So… how about names for our own kids then? But we need two of them, like all in my family have.”

"Wait what, what is Thomas second name then? I mean, yours is Jolina but I never heard his.

“Peter.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT?”

Thomas Peter Nilfert, coming back to continue the discussion with Chantal, just heard the last part about making him a grandfather, and he immediately freezed in shock, then just gasped for air and decided to get drunk as fast and hard as possible with the others that already enjoyed the freshly made booze.

[MrdjaNikolen]

Team Chitco
Part 3

Because there was draft that ended up not being saved, quick summary is in order and it covers what fun and interesting stuff might had happened that wasnt covered by some other team
This covers events from Stage 4 to Stage 8

Chanty misses her mom; Lauren is summoned

Salty situation
Talk Jakasxandra and Bong had afterwards can be summarised as “Well Chanty is weird, but so is obviously the case with half of this team. She is good person and enjoyable company.”
Bong, not known to be enjoyable company in most cases, could just agree with daughter.

After events of this Bong had utilised shovel again…to disdain of teammates that figured out the reason
Atleast he is going to have something to do: only time so far someone welcomed one of Marie`s pranks

Pi had experimented with some magic gloves without supervision of someone more qualified. As result, some travel bag was massively set on fire…she kinda got too scared to admit her wrongdoing
Consequences were Andrea`s clothing troubles which inspired talks about how Jakasxandra, for longest time, utilised clothes of good old Mrdja - because back then such was the case with Chitco fellas.
What was not of much bother is her smaller and slimmer build compared to said guy…
Either way, Andrea and Pi using oversized clothes that were generously borrowed was mostly the same, but with more…distinctive outfits.

Almost all links have names used as reference to why they are relevant to this team in particular…but are not limited to just interactions with Chitco team
Exception, while descriptive and informative, is likely too much so for some people and as such is SPOILERED below

SPOILER: Reference of "this"

Half-eaten cat