Y.E.A.R.
Description of the Team
Last Episode (“We raced like never before, and lost like always”)
Post-Race Episode:"Let's try to end things on a good note"
After the race.
It was inevitable that Y.E.A.R. felt really sour about the fact that they didn’t make it. Even 3 hours after the nightmare began, and 1 hour after she ran out of tears, María was as dull as ever.
Hou had personally recovered a bit from her crisis. She thinks she can improve still, but, I’ll take her a lot of effort. Besides, she feels bad with Ryoga, as she was the one who got him into this bit of a mess.
Ryoga was kinda muted. He feels a bit bad about Chantal’s recent commentary on his singing (“If you wanna see a truly horrible singer, watch María”, he thinks rather angry), and also feels a tad nervous by his behavior at the meeting with Thomas.
Kanna had recovered. She was now thinking of going elsewhere. She had little time to socialize during the race itself. And even when she was very sleepy, she was gonna stay awake as long as she wanted… Hell, as long as there was anything to drink, she was staying awake.
Catherine was busy eating at the table. She now felt quite a lot more relaxed, specially knowing what Ángel was doing.
And, now that we say: What was Ángel doing specifically…? He was standing on the table, feeling a bit inspired. And he began…
Ángel:“A’ight, people, we didn’t finish as good as we wanted to.”
María:“Of course we didn’t. We DNFd.”
Ángel:“Yeah, yeah, I’m already aware, like if I weren’t. But, let’s focus on the one positive about this.”
María:“Is there really any positive ?”
Ángel:“María. We at least didn’t finish last.”
María:“What do you mean we didn’t finish last !? If we didn’t finish to begin with !!”
She continued crying on the table. Catherine would’ve shared a burger, one of many she was eating, but, she remembered about how María was also suffering physically and she regretted it.
As María continued crying, however, Ángel remained put, and calmly continued.
Ángel:“I think you didn’t quite get it. Yes, we DID NOT finish. But we were NOT the first to do so.”
María:“Huh ?”
Ángel:“The guys from… What was it ? The Pablato from last year’s Rally, “Honey, I’ve bought a Shitbox”, that, they DNFd. The Hooligans ! The rocker guys in the Ishii ! The Marcel’s DNFd too ! Hell, even the goddamn exocage car went ! Sure, it went after we did, but, it still went ! And I who thought that thing would cause mayhem…”
María:“…”
Ángel:“HECK ! We even defeated THE GODDAMN HOSTS ! We had a significantly worse machine ! And yet with nothing but pure luck, wishes and hopes, we made it further than some ! Hell, with some more we would’ve even made it ! In half, but, we would’ve made it !”
Y.E.A.R.:-cheers-“YEEEES!”
María:“Yeah, that’s all cool, but it still doesn’t quite remove the fact that, 1-, we DNFd, and 2-, that I lost my fucking job…”
Kanna:“Big sis, chill out ! See this as a positive ! You are now unemployed ! Don’t you think you’ve removed a weight you were carrying with that company ? Now you can relax !”
It took María quite a while to understand, but, she soon got the point: she was unemployed, so she had all the freedom in the world.
At this moment, she didn’t quite realize that yet, but, Kanna’s words and Ángel’s speech really helped to motivate the team to keep on going.
Ángel:“Next Year, we will come stronger and better than ever… And if we don’t finish, well, we just have to keep on trying.”
María:“Yeah…”
Catherine:“Next Y.E.A.R., hehe…”
Hou:“Next Y.E.A.R. !”
Ryoga:“Yeah, l-lets focus first on what’s to come… Or, well, the present. Let’s take things easy and hope that on the Shitbox Rally we perform better.”
They then heard about something funny going on at the Rhinos’ side of the track. Hou, feeling a lot more motivated, dragged a less motivated Ryoga, while Kanna would’ve quite happily strolled towards that area too. But instead, she decided to head to Team Chitco’s area for a moment: apparently, she’s heard a Child entered her party, and, of course, given how Kanna is still a bit of a child on the inside, she couldn’t resist. “Beer can wait, for once”, she thinks.
Ángel and Catherine (after lunch) went ahead to the Speed Freaks’ area. Ángel in particular was interested in punishing Mikko in some way or another. Little did they know, but, Mikko (and others) were nowhere to be found, at least for now… They’d later see how Chanty gave him a lesson.
María, meanwhile, stayed there… She honestly wanted both to be alone and at the same time have some company. She felt lonely and pressed up at the same time. Maybe she heard about Chanty’s Strategy to get rich, and she’d try it out in a moment, if she could speak Swedish at all and if there was any store even near Holjes which sold Lottery Tickets.
In that precise moment, came Hans Gustavson, from the team which ended up winning… And also, quite sourly, the very last car Hou crashed into before they ultimately DNFd… He’d heard all kinds of stuff going into the final hours of the race: some guy by the name of Patrick Lindvall was in trouble, Mikko Harjanne leaving the track sooner than expected, mayhem in the Parking Lot with a learner driver, and now, that some woman in the team of the little white Qua had just lost her job.
Maria felt a hand gently touch her shoulder and turned to see Hans with a concerned look on his face.
Hans:“Hey, miss, are you OK?”
Maria wiped tears from her face with her hand.
María:“I-I’m fine… S-Sorry if I’m causing any mess here…”
Hans:“Mind if I sit with you? It’s Maria, right?”
Maria just nodded as tears continued streaming down her face.
Hans sat next to her and paused for a moment before continuing…
Hans:“You know, a long time ago, I was a race car driver. A professional one, not like our amateur event here. It was all I had dreamed of being since I was a young boy. So for a few years, it was literally a dream come true. Until the day I was told my services were no longer needed. And on that day, I looked quite a bit like you do now.”
Hans produced a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to Maria, who took it and started wiping her face.
Maria took a deep breath and turned toward Hans.
María:“So what did you do?”
Hans:“Well, after a good cry and probably a few too many drinks, I found a new opportunity as a test driver for a car company. Eventually, I moved to a desk job and worked my way up the ranks. And now I still get to work with cars, even if I don’t get paid to race them.”
Maria looked at him.
María:“I-I don’t mean to be rude, sir, but why are you telling me this?”
Hans:“Well, I guess my point is that right now it might feel like everything is ending, but the sun will still come up tomorrow, and you’ll find new opportunities. Speaking of which…”
Hans reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card that he passed to Maria.
Hans:“My company has a Japanese affiliate, Via, and I know some folks over there I can put you in touch with about a job. Come to think of it, I even have a favor to call in since Hirochi still owes me a bottle of top-shelf sake from that wager we made at our last conference.”
Maria looked at Hans with surprise.
María:“But-but why would you do this?”
Hans smiled at her.
Hans:“Well, I heard you worked for a bank, so you must be good with numbers. Financial spreadsheets and the like?”
María:“Y-Yes.”
Hans:“And you’re clearly passionate about your job and about cars, or else you wouldn’t have slapped your company’s logo on your car and come out here halfway across the globe for a race. So if you have useful skills and the passion, why wouldn’t a car company want to hire you?”
María smiled for the first time in a long while. It seemed that her job crisis, while intense, was coming to an end. But before she accepted, she remembered:
“Big sis, chill out ! See this as a positive ! You are now unemployed ! Don’t you think you’ve removed a weight you were carrying with that company ? Now you can relax !”
The words of Kanna sounded right in her head.
Of course, she’d be quite dumb if she denied the offer, so she decided to haggle.
María:“I don’t want to sound ungrateful…but I personally need some time to recover.”
Hans gave her a friendly clap on the back.
Hans:“Of course, take as much time as you need. And if and when you decide you’re ready, get in touch. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t want to leave Turbo Tom unsupervised for too long. The man can’t hold his liquor quite like he used to.”
María:“Thank you… I’ll be in touch.”
Hans turned and started to walk away before pausing and turning back to Maria.
Hans:“Oh, and one more thing. If you do take the job, maybe don’t slap the company logo on your car without approval from the higher-ups. After all, there is a reason why my team is called Team Off-the-Books.”
Hans gave Maria a smile and a wink. She chuckled.
María:“OK… I-I promise.”
Hans:“Good! I look forward to hearing from you !”
Hans then stood up and walked away.
María’s smile really determined how she actually started to feel in a better mood… She could very, very slowly, start to depressurize, and relax.
Just as this nice exchange happened, Ángel and Catherine were having their time with what remained of the Speed Freaks, in other words, Jani and Alexandra.
Ángel:“Hey, guys !”
Jani:“Heyo !”
Alexandra:“You doing OK ? We’re still a bit sorry…”
Ángel:“Ye, we’re good, we’re good. Still a bit sour, but, I guess it’ll eventually pass.”
Catherine:“Where’s… fucking Mikko ?”
Alexandra:“Oh… He’s gone. I got him out of here, that bastard.”
Ángel:"God F’in Damn It !
Jani:“You’re still holding a bit of anger towards him ?”
Ángel:“Absolutely. But hey, I’m glad he wasn’t the one who made it thru the finish line.”
Catherine:“Indeed. Besides, we didn’t do as badly as we expected. Finishing, what… 19, 18, 17, 16… 15th out of 19. That’s better than we expected.”
Alexandra:“Really ?”
Ángel:“I kid you not. We actually were expecting to finish dead last of the field. With such a puny engine, and such puny structural rigidity, we had not too many hopes…”
Catherine:“Hopes which were increasing as we progressed ?”
Ángel snickers.
Ángel:“Yeah… We at some point we’re hoping to finish dead last… of the cars still running, of course. I’m still quite frustrated, I worked really hard on getting the car ready, but, oh, well, it’s best to try next year. I’m not dropping the recipe for “Smaller is Better” though.”
Catherine:“Why not ?”
Ángel:“Unconventional Ideas work better at some point. Next Time we’ll bring something small that doesn’t snap in half.”
Jani:“Sadly we’ll have to wait for a year before we see you again.”
Ángel:“Not exactly.”
Alexandra:“Huh ?”
Ángel was on his way to explain, but Catherine decided to interrupt.
Catherine:“Hey, Milksweet, can you bring me the beers ? I left them on the Minivan. Lunch has made me both hungry and thirsty.”
Ángel:“But… if you just ate like 20 minutes ago… and more than all of us combined in like a day… A-Anyway. Hang on there, I shall bring them in a moment.”
Catherine:“Also, drink some yourself ! It’s no fun drinking alone !”
Ángel:“Honey Bunny, I don’t drink because uhh…”
Ángel was getting flashbacks of the Shitbox Rally this year. He is so weak to Alcohol, that he barely stands a single bottle, maybe even a single can of beer.
Yet still, he went for the beers.
In the meantime, Kanna hanged around with the Chitcos, first to say sorry for the Parking Lot Incident… and second, to socialize with the child that she heard entered her party.
Kanna:“Hey, guys…”
Pi:“Oh, Hi… Anything you need ?”
Kanna:“Well… First, we have to apologize for the Driving Lesson Incident. I mean, we somehow did expect it, but, we didn’t expect it to go so badly.”
Andrea:“It’s OK… Although, given how you all live in Japan, and more specifically, you and Hou live close to each other, I think you should teach her.”
Kanna:“Yeah… And, second, where is the kid ?”
Pedro:“Oh ?”
Kanna:“Well, I heard in my birthday party there was a kid, and I’d love to see him… Reminds me of my youth days.”
Pedro:“You mean Dennis ?”
On the distance, they heard a scream… Not Dennis’s, of course, but, still it sounded frustrated.
Ángel:“The last thing we needed !”
Kanna:“What happened ?”
Ángel:“Well… As if Hou hadn’t wrecked our car badly enough, someone has vandalized it.”
Kanna:“…huh ?”
Ángel:“The art on our car looks childish, like if someone had made it on a really tight… time frame ? But, also, it was made with crayons, so I can easily wash it and make as if nothing had happened.”
Pedro:“Crayons…?”
Ángel:“Yup. I can later wash it off and it’ll be fine.”
While they were having this short chatter, Dennis was hiding behind Y.E.A.R.'s Qua. And was continuing on painting there. Both teams that were talking at that moment were… unsuspecting.
Pedro:“It must have been Dennis then… By the way, ha anyone seen him ?”
Everyone:“…”
Ángel:“Dennis !”
Kanna:“Dennis ? Where are you ?!?”
Pedro:“Dennis !”
They heard some giggling behind one particular car, and the scene was now clear.
Kanna:“Here he is !”
Dennis:“Ah !”
Ángel:“Is he Dennis ?”
Pedro:“What do you think ?”
Ángel:“Yeah… He’s definitely Dennis.”
Dennis:“Do you like it ?”
“It” being the drawings on the Van and now also on the Qua.
Clearly, Ángel wasn’t so pleased, but, Kanna came up with an idea.
Kanna:“Well… You painted our Minivan, which isn’t so nice, but, you can have our Qua for painting all you like.”
Dennis:“Uh ?”
Ángel:“I-I mean… It’s not like it’s worth much for us anyway, so, you can have it. Although, please don’t paint the wheels or the engine… I shall take them out of the car later this evening.”
Kanna:“Why is that ?”
Ángel:“They are still usable. So is the Seat and a few less relevant bits. And also, cos I wanna paint too.”
Kanna:“I shall bring the paint. Hold on.”
And so, as Kanna brought the paint, so that the end result in the Qua would look a lot more uniform, Ángel suddenly remembered about the fact that he’d forgotten to bring the beer to Catherine. And, for as much as he would’ve liked to stay there painting, he felt like it was best to leave Kanna with Dennis. After all, she is much better at dealing with Children than him.
As all of this happened, Ryoga and Hou were about to join the party with the Rhino Squad. Hou seemed far more enthusiastic than ever before, as if she had forgotten all of her trouble a few hours ago.
Ryoga was personally a bit worrisome for once. Couldn’t he enjoy the last part of the day ?
“I don’t want to feel like María”, he thought. Wouldn’t they know, María was also heading to the party to grab herself a drink now that she was in a better mood, and also to socialize a bit more, now that she was feeling better.
Catherine and Ángel were heading there too, Catherine now chugging down the box of beer, while Ángel checked on his phone some polls on Facebook. While Chantal didn’t accept them because it’s an “Old Man’s Network”, Ángel did understand her… After all, who uses Facebook these days when the youth uses Instagram, and TikTok ?
And so, the day progressed rather loosely: and therefore, María got to interact with Robert Marcel a bit… Although she didn’t thought of what to say to him… Maybe sharing some drinks and Schweppes wasn’t so bad of an idea, and so, while she still had the chance to use money, she got to ask Catherine for some beeru… And succeeded.
María:“Hello !”
Robert:“Oh, you’re the… Japanese one, right ?”
María:“Yeah… We got wrecked by our silly Chinese driver on the last stint.”
Hou:“嘿 ！” (“Hey !”)
Robert:“The silly frenchmen decided to get us out of the race… There’s no car anymore, I can’t cover it with the insurance…”
María:“Hey, but… You… You shouldn’t look at things so dark… So did I see them that way… I lost my job because we DNFd.”
Robert:“Yeah… W-Wait, seriously ? How ? Did someone in your team fire you or…?”
María:-chuckles-“No, no, no, no, why would they ? I actually got into my troubles myself. Want a beer ?”
Robert:“Wish it’d have been whiskey, but, oh well, let’s start it easy…”
María gave him one of the Bottles.
María:“…I stamped some… Sponsors, into my car. Let’s say they didn’t got happy once they noticed I DNFd and fired me in the spot…”
Robert:“So the sponsors… you worked for them ?”
María:“Yeah, some bank in Northern Japan, if you wonder.”
Robert:“Well… If I ever get the chance to visit Japan after this, I now know which company not to rely on…”
María chuckled a moment, and then offered Robert some more. This short exchange between Robert and María helped them both to cool their moods down a lot (although they were both cooled down by the time this happened anyway)… not to mention that the drinks helped out too.
Later that Evening.
Yumeisotitanian Hell breaks loose.
Many things happened that night. Chanty beating the hell outta Mikko, for many people’s pleasure, some partying, music, and overall… everyone was having a great time.
Kanna had also come eventually, and ultimately was overtaking herself with the drinks… Even Catherine, who by herself was already a heavy drinker (both in the literal and figurative senses… Although she at least has a whole lot of body mass to account for the Alcohol) was already a bit alarmed by Kanna’s rapid pace.
Catherine:“D-Don’t you… -hic- think you’re going too quickly ? I want some left !”
Kanna:“D-Don’t w-worry -hic–eurp-… I…I d-drank s-since I-I was 14…!”
Catherine:“Since you were… What ?”
Alexandra:“Y-You drank underage ?”
Kanna:“O-Of course I-I -hiiic-, did ! Why would -eurp-… No one do that ?”
Alexandra looked at Catherine. But it was pointless.
Both big girls were the drunkest in the Jap team. Although they weren’t so far ahead…
Hou was close to passing out, and could barely stand on her feet, while saying Chinese Gibberish… Ryoga was the sole thing that was keeping her from falling face first into the floor.
María meanwhile, was close to that same situation. Drunk as hell, she’s feeling at an all week-high, but she’s close to either puking it all out, pissing herself, or having yet again issues with her Lactose Intolerance. She hadn’t realized yet, but she had just drank from Thomas’ Special Bailey’s Recipe.
Ryoga wasn’t so drunk. Still in good enough condition to be self-aware and actually able to do most stuff. Taking care of both Hou and María, he felt a bit overwhelmed. He wanted to play music, same as some others, but right now, he felt like never before… Like if he, for once, actually had a responsibility. Hou was his responsibility now, and he was aware of that. So, he was doing his best to keep up, and he wasn’t doing such a bad job… He would do nicely, as you’ll see later.
And then there was Ángel, our favorite mind-reader, who actually hadn’t taken anything to drink… Largely because he’s self-aware. Every time people have offered him a drink, he’d kindly denied, and when insisted to, he’d say that he’s “unhealthy” when drinking Alcohol and that it wasn’t recommended. And while it was a lie, it worked most of the time. The times he couldn’t deny no matter what he did he simply gifted the drink to someone in the team or to whoever would fancy.
So, what sort of Hell would break loose ?
Well, remember, Yumeisotitanians have powers (this is why I actually put the powers on each character description, duh !)… And Kanna’s suddenly got out of control… First she mind-read someone, without noticing. Luckily, she ain’t like Ángel, and therefore, it wasn’t painful nor noticed…
The next thing was a bit more noticeable… Saying Japanese Gibberish to everyone’s minds while singing in Japanese. While some did notice something was going wrong, some others put higher attention on her singing; even when heavily drunk, her singing was beautiful.
By now, however, both Ryoga and Ángel had noticed something was going seriously wrong. And then it did:
Kanna transformed into a Statue after moving abruptly, now nearly falling on top of Catherine. The big Canadian Girl had to hold for almost 15 seconds before Kanna de-transformed and then transformed again… This process repeated some 10 times that evening, and with different results. At the 3rd time she was holding a bottle of whiskey, which, when de-transforming, ultimately shattered. At the 6th she nearly fell in top of someone else’s car, at the 8th she nearly crushed Hou, if it weren’t fro Ryoga saving the situation and ultimately avoiding all dangers, and at the 9th, she nearly crushed Ángel, who got then nearly crushed by Catherine’s Butt (because she was also too drunk to stand still), and then he got one of his typical Mind Reading attacks.
However, the last incident (the 10th and last) was the one which capped the night off for Y.E.A.R.: Kanna and Chanty wanted to hug themselves one last time before potentially waiting 6 months for the Shitbox Rally next year…
Chanty:“ORR ! KANNA-AAA!”
Kanna:“C-CHANTHYYEEE!”
However, just before they got ready to make a Jump-Hug, Kanna transformed into a Statue one last time, so Chantal got hit in her whole body by what was a Statue. While she didn’t got injured, crashing into stone was… Not the softest thing, and therefore, a scream could be heard far in the distance…
Jani:“What… Was that ?”
Jan:“Oh, shit, was that Chanty ?!?”
Ryoga:“That… Sounded like her.”
Alexandra:“Indeed !”
Ángel:“Is she OK ?”
Ryoga:“Shouldn’t you focus on your big girl ?”
Ángel:“Shouldn’t you focus on your “Mona China” ?”
Jan didn’t got to quarrel and instead got to investigate as the two Yukobaiyaroslavl brothers were having a moderately calm discussion.
Just as that was happening, Chanty was kinda shocked, sitting on the floor, feeling quite sore. If she weren’t so drunk, maybe she would’ve taken the situation more calmly, but…
Chanty:“Kanna…? KANNA !! O-Owww!!! NOOO-OOO!!! YOU’RE NOW A…”
Just as that Happened, Kanna de-transformed back to her human self.
Kanna:“Has something -eeuppp- Happened ? C-Chantyii~~~”
Chantal fainted, due to the shock. And not long later, she puked.
Not long after that, Kanna also puked and blacked-out, falling just on top of Chanty.
And not long after both of those things, Jan arrived, to find both girls on the floor, and stinking to Alcohol.
“Are they… OK ?”, was his first thought before running to ask Ángel (One of the few who wasn’t asleep nor drunk) for some help…
Mentioning:
@HappyHungryHippo
@Dildoplocus
@oldmanbuick
@nicxv
@MrdjaNikolen
(Side Note: I didn’t make the drawings, unfortunately… IRL stuff has really slowed down Drawing Production…
But hey, I at least published… AT LAST !)
