Y.E.A.R.
The Description of the TeamLast Episode (“We haven’t been smart… as always”)
Pre-Race Episode 1: "Reunification with familiar faces"
Introducing Ángel's New Team
Less than 18 hours for the race to begin.
Holjesbanan Rallycross Circuit
Höljes, Sweden.
The entirety of the team left the Minivan and the Trailer parked not too far from the race track itself. Ángel, who ended up riding in the Qua all along, fortunately didn’t got any inspection by the local police.
María checked in her pockets… She didn’t bring the lactaid. So it was all downhill for her from now on. This meant she probably wouldn’t enjoy dinner…
Hou also seemed particularly nervous… She didn’t even know what to do, with so many people around, she just wanted to remain in the car and hide. Luckily for our story, Catherine, who was in the back seat row of the Minivan, forced Hou out.
As soon as they entered the track, Ángel went asking for Chantal Nilfert… and while at first he wasn’t successful, Chantal ended up finding Ángel before he could find her.
As soon as the blue haired German girl saw our one-eyed mind reader, she immediately ran and jump-hugged him from behind. While they were both the same size (as in, Height), Ángel was much lighter, which ended up on both of them falling to the ground.
Chantal:“ÁNGEEEEL !”
Ángel:“Eh ? Oh-- Wha…!?”
Ryoga:“Hey, who is that ?”
Asked Ryoga, who was confused. The rest of Y.E.A.R. was present at this scene, same as the rest of the Rhinos.
Ángel:“Oh, Ryoga, Don’t you worry. Remember when I told you about the Rhino Squad ?”
Kanna:“We all do !”
María:“Well, I don’t…”
Ángel and Chantal stood up, and he started to introduce his team…
Chantal:“They are all your new team ?”
Ángel:“Yep. Say hello to her guys !”
Everyone (except Hou, in mild desynchronization):“こんにちは！” (Kon’nichiwa !, “Hello!”)
Hou (timidly):“こんにちは…”
Chantal:“ありがとう、そしてこんにちは！” (Thank you, and hello to you too !)
The whole of Y.E.A.R. is in shock. Even Ángel, who knew Chantal deeply, didn’t know she knew how to speak Japanese… Little does he know, she only knows a few sentences which are used in her favorite anime series…
Ángel:“A-anyway… Let me introduce them… Ryoga, Kanna, María, Catherine, and Hou.”
Chantal:“こんにちは ！”
Kanna:“Chanty!”
The Yukobaiyaroslavl’s Little Sister went over to hug Chantal. Kanna was smiling.
Kanna:“アンヘルはあなたに会いたいと言ってくれましたが、その通りでした。 初めまして、カンナです。” (Angel told me I would love to meet you, and he was right! Nice to meet you, I’m Kanna.)
Chantal:“…”
Kanna:“何が起こっていますか ？” (What’s Happening ?)
María:“I’m pretty sure you’ve confused her. I can’t blame her though, Japanese is a hard language for foreigners to learn.”
Ángel:“Hey, Mari, be calm with her…”
Chantal:“May I ask, where’s Ana ?”
Everyone but Ángel remained silent… Catherine, rather intrigued, had to ask…
Catherine:“…who is Ana ?”
Ángel:“She’s a former teammate back when I participated at the Shitbox Rally. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come here.”
Chantal:“Why ? She promised me she’d come !”
Ángel:“Yeah, but… Unfortunately, she was caught by surprise for some stuff back home and has to stay in Spain on race day. No worries though, you can call her if you want to.”
Thomas:“We’ll be leaving to get along with the Hooligans. They’ve invited us for some beer.”
Jan:“Well, you invited yourself.”
Thomas:“So what ? I AM INVITED.”
María:“May I come too ? But first I wanna meet the finnish team.”
Catherine:“I want to attend too… Will there be food ?”
Ángel:“Catherine…”
Catherine:“Sorry, Milksweet… I got hungry by the trip…”
María:“Hungry !? But if we stopped like 5 times to get you something to eat !”
Catherine:“What can I say ? My necessities are far bigger than yours, aren’t they…”
Ángel:“Hehe… Yeah, Honey Bunny. Gosh, I’m just reminded that I haven’t eaten anything…”
María:“Ugh, anyway, I’ll leave the lovebirds to do their thing…”
Chanty:“Ángel has a girlfriend ?”
María’s eye opened really big… Before she tried to deviate the conversation…
María:“Anyway… Do you know where are the guys from Finland ?”
Chanty:“Oh, you mean the Speed Freaks?”
María:“Yeah… Funny, I myself used to live in Suomussalmi. Welp, hope you have a good night guys…”
María left to meet the Speed Freaks. So did Catherine and Ángel, in order to get something to eat for the sixth time… well, for Catherine; Ángel hadn’t eaten in all day. Kanna and Ryoga stayed along with Chantal, but there was someone who hadn’t talked in all of this: Hou.
Hou:“W-What are you looking at ?”
Chantal:“So you are Hou…?”
Hou:“Uhhhhhhh… Y-yeah…”
Ryoga:“Awww, Come on, Hou, she’s just being nice to you…”
Said Ryoga, ignoring the fact that his crush was dying on the inside, due to her nerves…
Hou thought she needed a pretext to go away too… and fast.
Hou:“I… need to go to the Bathroom.”
Ryoga:“Didn’t you go there to wee on our last stop ?”
Hou:“Maybe the food we ate there didn’t do me any good… Anyway, bye…!”
And Hou went away too… The three remaining people on the spot looked at her, feeling so confused with the situation…
However, soon enough, the remaining three would start getting along with each other a lot better… So meanwhile, let’s deviate to whatever was happening elsewhere…
Hou bumps into an unfamiliar foe
About 15 to 20 minutes after meeting Chantal.
Still at HRC.
Hou didn’t go to the bathroom… She just wanted to scape from what she thought was a rather tense situation. As she walked around the remaining part behind the pit wall, she’d rather cross with a quite unfamiliar foe… Why was that ? Because it wasn’t a foe yet…
Mikko Harjanne, the angry Finnish Rally Driver, was walking quite annoyed after loosing several ventii matches in a row. Having lost over 300 euro didn’t do well for his brittle temper. He was hidden by one wall of the main building…
…on the other hand, Hou Niu, the Chinese Mechanic Girl, walked rather fast, unfrustrated, but nervous. She’d never been around so many people, and she only felt comfortable when friends were around her… She was hidden by another wall…
The way the two collided was majestic. Mikko’s wallet flew thru the air, same for Hou’s glasses, needed for her to even see.
Mikko:“Hei, mikä sinua vaivaa!? Oletko sokea vai mitä? On selvää, pikkutyttö, että käytät silmälaseja, koska olet sokea!”
Hou:“I-I… I’m sorry…”
Mikko:“Yeah, you better be sorry !”
Hou:“P-Please calm d-down… I personally don’t want to get in…”
Mikko:“Oh, well, you’re already in quite the trouble with me, Tyhmä tyttö!” ([…]Stupid Chinese Girl !).
Hou:“A-Alright, I-im heading out…”
Mikko:“You better head out now, you b…”
Mikko’s ranting was suddenly halted by an intimidating presence behind him…
María:“Anteeksi, miksi kutsuit häntä?” (Excuse me, what did you call her?)
As Hou got her glasses back, María grabbed Mikko’s shoulder, and when Mikko looked at the woman, she looked at him with dead seriousness.
…his reply couldn’t have been closer to the one of an a-hole…
Mikko:“Tyhmä tyttö. Ja anna minun arvata, olet toinen tyhmä kiinalainen tyttö, hänen pieni ystävänsä.” (Stupid Chinese girl. And let me guess, you’re another stupid Chinese girl, her little friend.)
María:“Hmph.”
Mikko:“I mean, that’s what you Asians are, right… You’re the Chinese Ones…”
María:“Let me correct you really quick, we are not a Chinese team, we are a JAPANESE team… And for as much as you bully her -because she actually is chinese-, she ain’t dumb… She’s just herself.”
Mikko:“It doesn’t matter.”
María (smiling):“It does matter, you little brat.”
Mikko:“How did you call me ?!?”
Hou (smiling):“小さな悪ガキ。” (Little Brat.)
Hou smiled for once… as Mikko stood there, not understanding.
María then sighed…
María:“Hou, you go away. I think I found one of the Finnish guys…”
Hou:“Uh-Uhm… O-Ok…”
Hou retired back to where Chantal, Kanna and Ryoga standed, talking.
Meanwhile, María left Mikko with a slight warning…
María:“Before you start ranting, take in mind there are non-finnish people who know Finnish…”
Mikko:“How do you know Finnish, jappie ?”
María:“Lived in Suomussalmi for a few years. Now I live in Hokkaido. AND DON’T CALL ME JAPPIE ! Stay out of trouble.”
And she left… but Mikko would completely ignore the memo.
The Other's Machines ! Meeting other teams... can go wrong
5 to 10 minutes after the Mikko Conflict.
Just as Catherine and Ángel returned, they decided to split. Catherine would try to meet the Finnish guys, while Ángel would remain with the Rhinos. However, when he realized Hou had come back, he decided that “I want to keep things balanced”… So he accompanied Catherine to meet the Finns.
First up, there was the meeting with the car of our fellow Yumes…
Chantal:“I… expected something else…”
Ryoga:“Hehe… Yeah, it’s not great, but, Ángel did a great job trying to prep it up for race day. Although, truth to tell, we are a afraid we may have brought up something that’s too much of a shitbox…”
Kanna:“Ryoga !”
Ryoga:giggles“I drive first, by the way. So I’m kinda like the experimental driver…”
Chantal:“It looks cool !”
In that precise moment, came Hou, not looking very well after a minor incident…
Hou:“U-Uuuuuhhh… H-H-Hi…”
Chantal:“Didn’t you need to go to the bathroom ?”
Hou:“I-I… S-Solved the i-issue.”
Kanna:“Awww, don’t worry, Hou. Chillax and Smooth yourself down a bit…”
Hou:“O-Ok… I-It’s just that I-I don’t like cold…”
Ryoga:“Need a warm-up hug ?”
Without asking, Ryoga hugged Hou. The girl from Chongqing got really red of embarrassment, but she wasn’t alone… Ryoga got quite red as well.
In the meantime, Kanna went to ask Chantal…
Kanna:“And I suppose you brought up the Police Car ?”
Chantal:“Yup ! It’s a Globus…”
Kanna:“María absolutely loves these cars… So does Catherine…”
Chantal:“Really ?”
Kanna:“I think you have a good chance to win… That is if you don’t break down, because these things are built to last a lot of hits… So it should be quite a survivor.”
Chantal:“L-Last time we had a small car, just like you.”
Kanna:“Did it ever split in half ?”
Kanna’s question alarmed Chantal, but she didn’t got a chance to do anything before Kanna continued…
Kanna:“Well… Ángel may have screwed us over a bit.”
Chantal:“Does your car do that !?”
Kanna:“I’m afraid… But hey, if it doesn’t, it should be quite solid too. We just hope to finish. It’d be a great success for this team. Unless we wreck extraordinarily hard, that car ain’t going in that trailer in 2 pieces…”
Chantal:“Also, I see, you have sponsors too… “Super Paper” and “Hok…” What ?”
Kanna:“Hokkaido and Northern Japan Regional Banking Corporation. The company María works for. She put on those stickers just for fun.”
Chantal:“And what is “Super Paper” ? Toilet Paper brand ?”
Chanty wouldn’t get it, but, it was actually a joke… Kanna and Ryoga started laughing and Hou actually smiled a bit.
Kanna:“No, it’s not toilet paper… It’s the… It’s the name of the car itself. We’ve put it a name !”
Chantal:“Why is that ?”
Kanna:“Well, due to the risk of the car breaking in half, we jokingly came with the name “Paper” because the car was as strong as. The original 900cc engine gave up when Hou Money-Shifted it, and Ángel put a 1.4l from an Aurora Aurinko he had sitting in his workshop…”
Chantal:“The car of the Firulais !”
Kanna:“Bee-bo ! And, tuned it, and we called it then “Super Paper”, because it sounded heroic, it sounded like if he had evolved…”
Chantal:“Like a Pokemon ! Or a Yume… Yummyse… What was it ?”
Kanna:“Yumeisotitanian.”
Chantal:“That !”
As the happy (well, if you count Hou as happy) quartet was looking at the #181 car, María, Catherine, and Ángel were on the other side of the track, looking at the Speed Freaks’ Sedlak Silva…
María:“At last, suomalaiset!”
Akseli:“Oh…”
Catherine:“Those are the Finnish guys, aren’t they ?”
Ángel:“They surely must be… Sedlak Silva with Finnish license plates…, loads of people, they speak Finnish…”
María:“Hei !”
Everyone (except Mikko, Daniel and Samuel [not present]):“Hei…!”
María:“I’m glad to see finns around… Well, except that one brat.”
Catherine:“Which brat ?”
Ángel:“Did someone get in trouble with you ?”
María:“With Hou and with Me.”
As the other trio of Y.E.A.R. discussed in Japanese, Jani interrupted them…
Jani:“I’m sorry to ask, but, who are you ?”
María:“Oh… Sorry, we haven’t introduced ourselves… We are one of your competitors…”
María/Catherine/Ángel (simultaneously):“Y-E-A-R !”
Jani:“Oh… So you are the Yumo… Yumeosite-what ?”
Ángel:sigh“You-meh-I-so-thai-taen-nyans. Yumeisotitanians. But, we are otherwise known as the Japanese team…”
Jani:“Oh… Well, welcome ! Come along.”
Alexandra:“Jani, we don’t know these people…”
María:“We should also introduce ourselves properly. Name’s María, and Next to me are Ángel and Catherine. Anyway, you see to have brought up a good car !”
Jani:“We hope to win with this ! We found it in a barn. It has the 1.8l Turbocharged engine…”
Ángel:“One of my teachers had one back at Vladivostok. I know these cars really well because he always asked me to fix it, hehe…”
While Ángel’s initial joke may not have been so friendly, he continued to remind everyone that it was…
Ángel:“…Still, something better than what we brought.”
Jani:“What did you bring ?”
Ángel:“A Qua Kruzar. It doesn’t have the original engine…”
Jani:“Why ?”
María:“Well, to put it quite simply, tämä idiootti bought our car in an auction. And it had a 900cc engine under the lid…”
Ángel:“I can’t be blamed ! I truly thought it was a GT !”
María:“Well… After one of our teammates blew the engine up, we replaced it with an engine from an Aurora Aurinko…”
Kari:“Those Finnish Auroras ! Glad you have Finnish horsepower driving that thing !”
Ángel:“It was from a car I used in an event called the “Shitbox Rally”. The engine almost never let me down, so that’s why we are using it… Besides, it was better than the one we had…”
Alexandra:“Leaving that aside… What happened to you ?”
Ángel:“Oh, this ?”
Ángel said pointing towards the eyepatch…
Alexandra:“Yes !”
Catherine:“Little Milksweet got injured as a war victim during a short conflict in the Kurils when he was younger…”
Ángel:“We are all from the Kuril Islands, except Hou, who isn’t present, but, is Chinese, and my Honey Bunny who is Canadian…”
Alexandra:“A fellow Canadian. Glad to hear !”
Catherine:“Je suis heureux d’apprendre que je ne suis pas le seul Canadien ici.”
Alexandra:“I-I’m from Ontario… You ?”
Catherine:“Nunavut. Sorry if you didn’t understood the french.”
Alexandra:“No problem.”
Ángel:“Meanwhile, I wanna check on your cars, because… They look awesome. I particularly like the ones of you and you… I mean, I like them all, but, if I had to choose my favorites, it would be the Yellow Car over there, and the wagon…”
Henrik:“Really ?”
Ángel:“I’m more of a sleeper car guy… I don’t like my car to look fast, and I personally like older cars… NEVER owned a car made after the year 2000… Partly because of a lack of interest and also partly because of a lack of money…”
Kari:“That’s the spirit !”
Ángel:“Yeah…”
Catherine:“Anyway… Do you have food ?”
Henrik:“I think we still have some sausages don’t we…?”
Mikko came back not long after Catherine asked that… He came along with Samuel and Daniel, which seemed quite pleased for having earned some cash thru ventii…
Let’s say, for Mikko, the fact that María was now talking with his teammates was anything but good… But interestingly, the woman didn’t even know Mikko was part of their team… She initially had said thought, but later she downgraded him for being just a brat. She thought he may be one of the locals… Boy, how wrong she was…
Mikko:“Eh ? What are you doing along with them ?”
María:“Oh, it’s that kid again…”
Alexandra:“Do you know Mikko ?”
María:“Ah, yes, that brat…”
Ángel, in a moment of bravery, decided to intervene. And speaking his best Finnish, he tried to calm down Mikko’s temper.
Ángel:“Aye, bud… I’m sorry, but, we don’t want any more trouble… Not that you are bad to me or anything, but…”
Mikko:“Don’t tell me that the stupid Jappie told you !”
Alexandra:“Mikko…”
Mikko:“That woman… Uhhhh…”
Mikko attempted to come out with a lie, but Ángel interrupted him.
Ángel:“I mean, I can’t blame you if María is sometimes a bit of a temper volcano, but, hey, you should chillax too… Word of a good racer here !”
And just as he said that, Mikko’s Anger rised to 11…
Another good driver ! WHAT IF HE WAS A RALLY DRIVER !? He had to take things seriously…
Without hesitation, he stomps on Ángel’s bare foot… And the pain of our favorite mind reader begins… He jumps on pain.
Mikko then pushes him out of the way, making Ángel to fall over…
Ángel:“Ayo ! I was trying to make you cool down, not to heat up ! Ack… M-My foot…”
Mikko:“Don’t talk to me !”
Ángel:“S-Sorry…”
Alexandra:“Don’t say sorry to him, Ángel. Mikko should be the one saying sorry to you…”
Mikko:“Shut up !”
María:“You should be the one shutting up.”
Mikko:“Don’t You Dare !”
Jani:“Mikko, please… We already got in trouble with the Rhinos, we don’t want more…”
Mikko:“Don’t You realize, you dumbass ? He’s a good racer ! A GOOD RACER !”
Catherine:“And a good mechanic as well…”
Mikko:“On top of that he’s a good mechanic ?!? Don’t fuck me up with this !”
Ángel:“Please everyone calm down !”
Mikko:“Don’t You tell me to calm down, jappie twat !”
Ángel was usually a really chill guy. But that night, Mikko seemed to make his rag come loose… but still, he’d keep himself contained…
Ángel:“Well, to be fair with you, I’m not the one who is a twat…”
Mikko:“Excuse me !?”
Ángel:“Because I don’t get in trouble. That’s my style. I don’t like to get in trouble, even when I do almost consistently. Hell, I didn’t even want to get in trouble with you. And also, why are you obsessed with the fact that I’m a good driver ?”
Mikko:“Because you are a direct opponent in my way to victory !”
Meanwhile, Samuel and Daniel had a small discussion themselves…
Samuel:“I thought the Japanese would be more respectful than this…”
Daniel:“He probably is. Just that not now. So he fails the test.”
Samuel:“Stupid Asians.”
This battle could’ve carried on… But Catherine had enough, and decided to put an end to it for now… The massive Canadian Girl decided to block both Mikko and Angel, who just seemed ready for getting into a real fight… And not long after they both started calming down (albeit Mikko calmed down a lot slower than Ángel, who got back to himself in less than a few minutes), the 3 members of the Japanese sextet left.
This left the rest of the Speed Freaks to have a discussion with Mikko, which didn’t make anything smoother…
Post-Meeting Teams Team Meeting
Some 45 minutes after meeting the Speed Freaks.
The Night was a bit stressful. Apparently, Y.E.A.R. wasn’t enjoying dinner… Sure, while a pizza always felt great, María was… just not in the mood…
María:“Don’t you see I’m lactose intolerant, Catherine ?”
Catherine:“Not my problem… Besides… I personally don’t want to discuss anymore. The troubles with the guys from Finland are giving me a bit of a sour taste.”
Ángel:“Nah… I’m sure Mikko… or whatever was he called is just a bit overly competitive. If that guy relaxes, I’m sure he’ll be golden.”
María:“Well… I don’t know what Hou will think of that.”
Hou:“I mean… He was really mean with me… I don’t think he’s just overly competitive.”
Ángel:“Well… In that case, the best we can do is not getting in trouble with that guy. I’m sure we haven’t left a very good impression of ourselves with them.”
Kanna:“At least Chanty loves us. That girl is so… Me… I look like her Japanese twin.”
Ryoga:“I can agree… And I’m pretty sure Jan’s one cool guy too… He’s just gotta come out of his bubble.”
Catherine:“I particularly liked both Alexandra and Jani… Although the rest of the Finnish team was good too.”
Ángel:“Except Mikko… My foot still hurts. Lucky me, I have to drive rather late…”
Ryoga:“Aaaaaand, thanks for reminding me… Anyway, I’m going to bed… Well, the Minivan.”
María:“We are all sleeping in that thing ?”
Kanna:“C’mon María, don’t complain… You haven’t even bitten your pizza…”
María:“Because I can’t eat it !”
Catherine:“Give it to me, then.”
This irrelevant discussion was coupled with refining the plans for race day’s driving schedule…
However, María was not only stressed out by her lack of food -she’d eventually get to eat a burger (without cheese), so that got solved rather quickly-, but also by so many other things:
Her job was on the line.
The dark part of her soul was pushing harder.
and Mikko Harjanne was a great source of stress.
She just hoped, same as the rest of the team, to finish… Or, if not, to fail by a mechanical failure, and not by a wreck.
And so, Y.E.A.R. (or, well, most of), went to sleep in the Minivan, some with higher hopes than others.
And that ends the Pre-Race Episode !
Now, yes, I’ll put the drawings of the prologue soon enough (a lack of time and other endeavours have really cut out time to make the drawings of this story). This part will also (hopefully) feature drawings.
Also, if you’ve read till the end, María, Ángel, and Kanna are all available for some more roleplay, so just ask.
Featuring:
@Happyhungryhippo (The Rhino Squad), and also @nicxv (Sienajoki Speed Freaks)