The Family Christmas Adventure!

Community Challenges & Competitions
1

It’s Christmas. God dammit, it’s Christmas. I hate Christmas.

Remember your Great Nana Pearl? The one you haven’t seen in 15 years because she smells like moth balls and cat piss? Sure you do.

Remember all the fun you had in her one bedroom town home sitting on that 50 year old, plastic-wrapped couch and watching that 10-inch black and white TV that’s even older, yet somehow, magically, still works? Of course you do.

What about that her dog? The one that resembled a cross between a half-dead rat and three pounds of computer dust? Yeah, the one you’re pretty was pronounced dead upon its birth, but it was too fucking stupid to figure it out? Or how it looked like the vet took it ever so gently by the scruff of its neck and repeatedly bashed its face into a cast-iron skillet? Don’t lie… You know you miss it.

Well, guess what? She’s 97!. And for you and everyone else she sired, it’s time to wrangle the youngins, Tetris the car two suit-cases passed full, brim the tank, and make that long ass trek to Havre Montana… from Las Angeles for the party. Why? Because driving that distance is somehow cheaper than flying, and because if you don’t the Christmas spirit will rape you from now until the day you die.

So, being that I thoroughly enjoy RP, that’s what this will entail. Create me a character, create me a family (if you want) and create me a car. I will create the route for you, and you just have to drive it.

Rules:
I car not for what kind of car you have, or how expensive it is.
I don’t car if it has 3000 HP. I don’t care if it travels the whole distance sideways and on fire.
I just want a whole hell of a lot of people in this race. No one wins and no one loses.
Just make a car that can hold a minimum of two people and enough shit to hold all of you for 20 hours of driving and a week long stay in hell.

Every entry is a member of the family. So lets have us a Christmas party.
Since the trip takes 20 hours real time, I’m going to say it’s going to take three days to get there. After everyone has submitted their cars, we’ll start the race. Every 5 hours of driving will be seen as one day.
Start submitting now!

2

I may not live in America. I may not have a Great Nana Pearl. But as somebody who works the kind of public sector that works through public holidays, Christmas and most other public holidays are a nuisance that force me to work around them, trying to sort out everybody else’s plans while getting my own disrupted (true story, I may have Christmas day off, but to make up for that I cover the whole campus Boxing Day, and work through New Year’s too).

Worse, everybody’s got obligations as a family. Juggling that and work often doesn’t… work out. So this will be a great circumstance to kick off the Christmas cheer…

Now, getting into character, as part of the newly formed Gryphon Gear company, Strop hasn’t even mentioned to his family that he kind of “quit” his old job. His family are rather on the conservative side of the tracks, and this will no doubt be an awkward conversation, should he be unable to avoid it. For this, I think I’ll enter Strop and his daily drive (i.e. Peapod, before it got ‘converted’ by his coworkers), plus the rest of his family, i.e. brother, sister and mother.

3

Well, here my entry, a the 2014 JR Galaxy wagon. Since this isn’t a race, i’ll just post the lua here.

MmZ9yay.jpg728×479 31.6 KB

2014 JR Galaxy - Rev0.lua (87.7 KB)

4

Love the story :laughing:
However, I’m not quite sure I follow. What EXACTLY have we got to do?

5

In short make whatever you want so long as it can hold you, someone else and enough supplies to survive a 20 hour road trip, and a week long stay somewhere. So extra clothing and things of that sort, I assumed you don’t need to bring food or anything (unless snacks for the car ride, etc).

I just went full out and made a massive station wagon.

6

Make a damn car, tell me a damn story. That’s it.

7

Ok Boss :smiley:

8

Good Ol’ uncle Rick bought a kit car in the mid 70’s unable to afford a real rear engine exotic car with a 6 digit price tag. Equip with a “back yard built” 1.2L I4 from a motorcycle he has proudly driven the thing daily for 39 years. It gets 44 miles to the gallon, can be heard for miles around and has seating for 2 ( and lots of cargo space in the front boot). Being cheap, flashy, loud and capable of outrunning honda civics it has been Uncle Ricks dream car.

With over 300,000km on the body and 2 engine replacements in the 90’s its semi capable of long voyages.

1974 Prato Zoope Kit Car 1.2l - Rev1.jpg756×294 86.6 KB

1974 Prato Zoope Kit Car 1.2l - Rev1.lua (80.9 KB)

9

This is my Christmas drive car entry…

Dream 2014 - Rev0.jpg756×294 80.9 KB

Classic racecar looks with modern reliability and economy whilst being both retro yet comfortable in the cabin. A car to make you look and feel cool without the ugly reality :slight_smile:

Here is the .lua for anyone who wants to look at, modify or molest my dream of a classic Christmas! :smiley:

Dream 2014 - Rev0.lua (84.9 KB)

10

Oh man that car LOOKS crazy good. Who you taking it to ride with you?

11

I’d take the woman of my dreams with me; classically beautiful just like the car :smiley:

sigh still looking for both the car AND the woman… :ugeek:

12

Montes Efinity: Montes Efinity - Rev0.lua (90.4 KB)

13

My car is built, I’m just coming up with the family story (you know… the thing that VosNox requested and most of you are ignoring completely…)

14

I couldn’t come up with something that I liked. The closer to my own dream drive I came, the less comfortable with the whole situation I became. I didn’t want to build a car that I wouldn’t want to drive on my fantasy trip and the story felt too private to share with a bunch of strangers. So the end result is a nice car with a very “broad brushstroke” skeletal story so that everyone can imagine what they think fits best within the brief; Classic car (which can be modded) with a classic significant other (which for me is a classic woman, lol) and if this was really happening I’d not care one bit about the drive or the race, just getting to that point would be perfection for me…

So I’d rather my story be “imagine your own” rather than a stroll through my personal life!

15

Yes, it’s going to be a bit of a while before I think up the family story. I’ll also be drawing upon personal life, because family road trips can be the stuff of comedy (of the really painful, awkward variety), but I have to get the balance right, lest it hit too close to home, like HighOctaneLove.

16

I’m a writer. So I can just BS it all. :laughing: Close to home or not, I’ll be able to flesh it out a bit.

17

5 years of post secondary (not bragging its rather sad), I am nearly a lvl 97 BS wizard :-p

18

Er, er, well, I’ve won nanowrimo 3 times! Yeah! :laughing:

…I put on my robe and wizard hat.

19

Jason took a drag off of the cigarette, slowly blowing the smoke out and up as thoughts raced through his head.

Damn it. He chewed on his lip ever so slightly. He wasn’t so much worried about catching hell from Heather as he was about the upcoming trip. Sure, she’d tear his head off for smoking again. A steep price for one smoke every couple months or so.

The true pain he was about to endure lay hundreds of miles away. Another extended family Christmas. Something he avoided as much as possible. Only this year Heather wouldn’t let him.

Jason glanced over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of his wife through the large bay window that dominated their living room. Her sweet demeanor toward the public and her image as a devoted mother almost made him laugh. Sure, she had friends aplenty, and she and little Noah were practically inseparable. Jason had the honor of supporting their little family as the sole breadwinner. No, Heather’s online craft store didn’t count for crap. Didn’t even amount to shopping money for her.

The charmed life. What every guy is supposed to work for, right?

He flicked the ashes from his cigarette and took another puff. This time he turned his attention to the driveway. There sat the long silhouette of the carriage that would take them to see Great Nana Pearl. Given Nana’s age, it would likely be for the last time. And that is he only reason Jason agreed to make the journey.


Casting aside his cancerous vice, he strode slowly to the 2010 SportTanic he bought as an off-lease special last year. The color was hideous for a car of its power and luxury. Its automatic gearbox was just as much of a travesty. Both were Heather’s fault. The fact that he got the luxury sedan of his dreams was the only victory he could claim; he would have divorced her if he had been forced to drive a minivan home from the lot.

Luckily, the SportTanic had higher safety marks than any van they could find. And that allowed Jason to play to Heather’s only weakness: Noah. After all, Heather would be a poor excuse for a mother if she let him ride around in anything less than the safest car. He just… forgot… to tell her that the Touring model was turbocharged until a few weeks later. Jason paused and smiled, recalling the moment she found out, and the sweet vindication it gave him.

He slid one finger under the lip of the trunk lid, popping the electronic release. The SportTanic’s cavernous cargo area was full to the brim with diapers, toys, and various other items for Noah and Heather. Only a single suitcase and a garment bag belonged to him. All that he’d need to face the onslaught of cousins, uncles, and aunts that were sure to be there. And, for the first time in his life, he’d show up in something worthy of attention. At least, for reasons other than being rusty and dilapidated.