Kind-of-an-OOM: Car adventures!

[hasthehighground]

Clint's not entirely sure how Oswin's gained access to the car she has -- a sturdy four-door sedan.

Whichever way that happened, she has a set of keys and hasn't wrecked it yet. Clint's given it a look-over, including pulling out out of its parking spot and re-parking it in the middle of the lane, and now he's sitting in the passenger seat.

He hands Oswin the keys once she's buckled in.

Comments

[souffle_girlek]

"Whoo-hoo!" Because hey, third gear is faster, this must mean she's doing good. Or at least not horrifically badly. She'll take that.

Slowing down is a little jerky, since there is some sort of mysterious land between 'not pushing on the brake enough to matter' and 'we're totally stopping RIGHT NOW' that she hasn't found yet. It's like the Northwest Passage - you've heard about it, but good luck finding it.

And now for turning. This is the part that always seems to go so badly.

[hasthehighground]

At first she under-turns, then pulls the steering wheel sharply to the side to compensate for it.

Clint grabs the steering wheel, evening them out.

"Okay," he says, letting go. "Try it again with the next aisle."

[souffle_girlek]

Well. It almost wasn't horrible. She takes comfort in the small things.

"So up in speed now, right? What's third gear at?"

[hasthehighground]

Clint glances at her, amused "After you turn into the next aisle." It's going to be awhile until he teaches her how to speed up into a turn. If ever.

It could happen.

[souffle_girlek]

She makes a face at him because she totally knew that.

Really.

...

Sorta.

She was excited about the speeding-up part.

"Alright then, turning, we're turning here, we're not hitting anyone, Oswald for the win!"

[hasthehighground]

It's not the smoothest turn in the world, but Clint doesn't have to intervene which is a big improvement. "Okay," he says, and the faint approval in his voice is sincere. "You're going to want to switch to third gear when you get near 30. Speed up gradually."

[souffle_girlek]

She manages the speeding up, if not as smooth and gradual as one might wish (the gas pedal also has a mystical land somewhere between 'not enough gas to speed up' and 'GO GO GO' that she hasn't quite found yet).

"Right, so, off the gas, clutch, shift..." With a moment for quick, nervous looks at the stick to see where the heck it is now. "Aaaaand more gas..."

[hasthehighground]

She's learning pretty quick, compared to some automatic-drivers he's tried to teach driving a manual to. Fewer habits to unlearn, probably.

"You've got it."

[souffle_girlek]

Her grin is immediate and bright, and she tries to keep up the good work - the car's going a bit faster with less gas here, so less gas, more brake?

She pushes down, and the car lurches forward accompanied by her startled squeak because that's not the plan, there. She's got her 'oh god stop' and 'go car go' feet mixed up, and instinct isn't helping much here.

[hasthehighground]

Clint looks down towards her feet, automatically. "Just lift your foot off the gas, it'll be --"

Something catches his attention out of the corner of his eye, and his head whips up. He could've sworn they had a good stretch of aisle in front of them, but there's a garage door standing open in front of them, with a road and some greenery.

There's not time enough to coach Oswin into braking, so he grabs the handbrake, and pulls.

The car jolts to a stop, right after shooting through.

[souffle_girlek]

The car's engine crashes into a stall as Oswin goes with not pushing on anything, just to be safe.

...

Maybe a minute or so too late.

"... How?" She asks after staring at the giant ferns outside for a moment.

[hasthehighground]

Good question.

Clint unbuckles his seatbelt. "Crawl over, I'll go around," he says, opening the door and standing up. The air is heavy with humidity, and there's nothing indicating a way back behind them.

A wave of unease sweeps over him; the road is starting to become overgrown, and there's the air of desertion you sometimes get in the wake of war zones.

He unholsters his P30 before opening the driver's side door; it's difficult to get at seated, and he'll feel better with it available.

[souffle_girlek]

She shifts obediently, crawling over and getting buckled up again as quick as she can. There's this... feeling. She knows this feeling. She knows this one entirely too well, where somehow things have all gone very wrong but one tries not to panic.

"Is this..." She asks, nervous-and-trying-very-hard-not-to-sound-like-it, "Is this what happens, with cars? Because I don't think I want to drive if it is."

[hasthehighground]

"I've never ended up in another world while driving before," Clint says, adjusting the seat. He grins at her, sideways, clicking off the secondary safety on the P30 and setting it in the open pocket on the center console.

He rolls up left leg of his pants, and unharnesses his knife, putting it in the middle as well, still sheathed.

"Okay," he says, buckling in and adjusting the mirrors. "We have most of a tankful of gas, and if we have to there's probably a radio somewhere around here. Which direction do you want to try?"

[souffle_girlek]

The grin's familiar too, though she doesn't say anything about it.

Hellooooo there Binky Boy!
If it's a straight shot, I prefer Nina.
I'm loving this. The Nose and The Chin - you two could fence!

Only difference is last time she was the one making light of a rather horrid situation.

"The Bar very clearly isn't behind us, there's giant ferns on either side, so forward, and damn the torpedoes."

[hasthehighground]

"More cars should come with torpedoes," he murmurs, glancing behind them -- just in case -- before starting up the car.

Clint's taking it pretty slow, maybe 25 miles per hour. The roads are still in fair condition, but he can't help but shake the feeling something's up, and he'd rather have some forewarning before driving into danger.

"This your first time out of Milliways?"

[souffle_girlek]

"There was... somebody's apartment, she was moving and needed help unpacking," No, she didn't get the person's name, or if they were, you know, a goodish person, or even figured out if there was a clear way back before she just went. "But then there were killer robots so I came back."

Came back, ran back and hid in her room for a couple days, something like that.

"... There aren't going to be killer robots again, are there? There's repetitive, and then there's taking the joke entirely too far."

[hasthehighground]

Clint's not even sure what to say to that. If he had more attention to give to Oswin, he'd still not be entirely sure what to say to that.

"They'd probably rust," he settles on. "Hey, look."

They're just on the brink of a field that Clint can't yet judge the depth of, but there's a smattering of small white flowers across it. It's beautiful, and sun-bathed, and subconsciously eases some of his tenseness.

[souffle_girlek]

Oswin doesn't get a lot of that - this landscape is about as foreign as they come, to her. Very pretty, very open (which she appreciates rather a lot), but... wild. Unkept. Abandoned.

"Well, so much for being somewhat close to civilization." In her experience (which is, admittedly, very little and deeply skewed) you don't get landscapes like this on the same planet as a major port city. She's holding out hope that it's some sort of wilderness retreat camp for rich tourists.

[hasthehighground]

He breathes a laugh at that, thinks city slickers, and looks across the field -- then slows the car.

"Maybe." He looks away from the jeep in the mid-distance to scan the rest of the field. With nothing else in view, he sets the handbrake, and looks over to her. "I'm going to go check out that car. Place like this, it might have a radio."

Though only if it's owner was stupid. Or dead. The chance of a radio's too good to pass up.

[souffle_girlek]

"... You're getting out of the car?" She demands, incredulous, her eyes gone wide. Just. Why? No. She learned from last time. Don't leave the vehicle. Bad things happen outside the vehicle, Clint.

[hasthehighground]

Clint glances back at her with confusion, door already open. After a moment, his expression clears. "A radio can contact any nearby civilization," he says, tone lightly teasing. "You don't have to come."

[souffle_girlek]

She gives him such a look for that - if he's going into the field, she's going into the field. He's the one who has the know-how to get them out, she learned that lesson too, she's sticking close.

"Because staying behind is such a good idea." She huffs, and reaches for the door handle.

[hasthehighground]

Clint shrugs, holstering his P30 as he stands. He doesn't bring the knife; he has an all-purpose one in his pocket, and it seems like overkill for foraging in an open field.

The grass comes up to mid-calf. Clint doesn't shrug, just starts in. "Keep an eye out for snakes."

[souffle_girlek]

"Okay, snakes, keeping an eye out for snakes." She agrees, tentatively following in his wake.

After a few minutes of looking at everything with a low-grade sort of horror, she pipes up again.

"Clint, what's a snake?"