"You're really not gonna tell me?"
"It'd not be a surprise were I to tell you so soon!" Mina protested again. She steered the car along the side road they'd been directed towards, shifting in her seat a little.
The guards at the gate to the lower track had been helpful enough in showing them where to go, but they'd seemed a little confused when Carl had immediately acknowledged their directions and gotten out of the car with Mina so he could use his inventory to turn the vehicle around and speed up their exit with all the people and other cars milling about. He wasn't about to make a big deal out of it, obviously; maybe other people who came to do practice racing complained or demanded special treatment or whatever, but he wasn't that kind of dad.
"Alright, alright, I'll just have to look forward to it then," Carl said. What the heck could she have ordered at a ceramics store? At least we didn't have to go back to the cult lady. Not that I've got any problems with cults, obviously, but it's not my thing.
"Indeed you shall," Mina said, grinning. She moved a bit in her seat. "On another topic, however, I must say that it's quite nice being able to drive without needing to wear my goggles."
"Windshields are great, huh?"
"They most certainly are."
They pulled up before a gate that was manned by half a dozen people. A car ahead of them drove through when it opened, and then there was a tall woman with a white bandanna over her mouth knocking on Mina's window.
Feels almost like being pulled over. Carl chuckled to himself. Still seems crazy to me that there's no traffic laws or anything that people have come up with just to prevent everything from turning into a big disaster, but things seem to be working somehow even without them. Only saw that one accident so far with that weirdo getting run over yesterday, and she seemed fine afterwards anyway. Maybe you just take reduced damage from being struck by vehicles once you're past a certain level?
Mina twisted the lever which opened the door's latch and pushed it open a little. "Hello," she said to the not-a-police-officer who wore a pendant with a badge on it. "I've come to practice my driving?"
"Fifty marks," the woman said, holding out her hand.
Mina reached into her pocket and retrieved the remainder of the coins Carl had given her earlier.
The woman accepted them and nodded. "Victory be upon you," she said.
Huh, the white bandannas are a little more common than I thought now that I'm paying attention to them. Kind of a neat system. Like an in-game dating thing. Wonder if there's an equivalent that guys wear. I'll ask Vol if I see her again maybe. She seems like she'd know all about that stuff. What a character.
Mina closed and latched her door again, then tugged on her safety harness. "I should add some sort of mechanism for engaging with someone outside the car," she mused.
"Eh, no need to be too fancy, Mina," Carl said. "Just add some handles to roll the windows down into the door like normal."
She raised her hands up and ran them over the sides of her head. "Yes, of course."
"Don't have to reinvent the wheel with everything you do." See it too often with junior people in tech. Always gotta come in with their new solutions instead of reusing what's there.
"Brilliant," Mina muttered, placing her hands back on the wheel so she could drive them through the gate and into the tunnel beyond.
"Still can't believe a sex doll made all the parts for this," he said.
"Yes," Mina said slowly. "It certainly possesses a level of usefulness I was unable to anticipate."
The car emerged from the stone tunnel and Carl squinted again at the bright light. "Too bad you can't make that adaptive sun-blocking glass."
Mina furrowed her brows. "Perhaps," she said. "But in a more immediate sense, what do you suppose the protocol is for practice driving?"
There were a number of cars scattered around the space between the tunnel's exit and the track, with a greater number of people swarming around.
Carl shrugged. "I don't know, I guess you just jump on the track when there's nobody coming?"
"I suppose I can simply claim I was unaware of the rules if I'm questioned," Mina said. She drove forward, steering around a few people who seemed not to care that there was a car trying to get by.
"These safety harnesses are really comfortable," Carl said when he felt it restrain him again. Seem pretty sturdy too. She really is a whiz with all this crafting stuff.
"More for you than me, I'd wager," she said with a grimace, once again trying to adjust the fit of the two harness belts which crossed over her chest. The tightness of the harness pulled her shirt taut and left no illusions about the shape of her torso, which was a figure that Carl both imagined many girls would be envious of and felt, as a father—even though he wasn't her father—was gonna attract more of the wrong sorts of boys, meaning that he was gonna have to keep Dad Mode at a really high level while somehow still letting her grow and be her own person. "I should have spent far more time testing this rather than relying solely upon my designs," she grumbled.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"Uh," Carl said, not really sure how to respond to this sort of odd situation that he'd never had to consider previously since it wasn't likely to come up in real life—not that that was a problem or anything like that, of course, since he loved Sammy and Bobby more than anything else in his life no matter how they looked or grew up, and nothing would ever change that no matter what—but at the same time was one he sort of wished he'd thought about at least a little so he wouldn't just be sitting there rubbing his beard with nothing to say as they were about to drive onto the racing track while she adjusted her harness yet again. "What about a pillow?" he tried. "Like, a small one you could maybe put under the harness?"
"I believe I've already got quite enough pillow," Mina said, giving him a wry look. "But perhaps, and I appreciate your concern. Now then, if we're quite resolved with the matter of the comfort of having breasts while wearing seatbelts, I believe we can shift our attentions to my aspirations to become the queen of racing?"
"Sounds good," Carl said, feeling like he's really managed to navigate that tricky Dad Situation with an almost supernatural level of aplomb, which was another great word that didn't see nearly enough use. "Let's see what you've got."
"Very well," Mina said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She took a deep breath, then another. "I… I must confess, being at this place, I'm feeling some level of nervousness that I'd not anticipated." She took another breath.
"Relax," Carl said soothingly. "It's just driving, right? And this is just practice. Nothing to be nervous about. You're even driving the awesome car you made."
"That's…" She took another breath, then swallowed. "Yes, that's true. And you're here as well."
"Well, of course I am," Carl said with a slight amount of indignation. "I'm not gonna miss m—your first time out on the track," he finished, narrowly correcting himself from using a different form of address which felt accurate but was not.
Mina took another breath. "Yes. Yes, you're correct!" She took one more breath, then stepped on the pedal. The car inched forward, and its front wheels settled onto the track.
A red car zipped by along the inside of the track, followed swiftly by a black one.
"I will defeat her," Mina whispered.
The car continued forward until it was fully on the track. It then began to speed up.
"See? Not so scary," Carl said. Kinda scary how informal this whole thing is. I figured there'd be some kinda line to get on the track or something, but it's all pretty free-form. Could be worse, I guess. Just feels weird.
The car continued to drive at a steady pace around the outside of the track, and it was soon lapped by the red and black cars, which were now neck and neck.
"No, it's still quite terrifying," Mina said, her breaths coming rapidly.
"What's terrifying?" Carl asked. "It's just you and your car and driving. Don't you have a lot of confidence in the car you made?"
"I do…" Mina chewed on her lip. "I do, but…"
"Don't think about any buts, just think about driving right now," Carl said, quietly powering up to Dad Mode Four in order to give her the reassurance she needed. "It's just you and this track, Mina."
"Just me and this track," she repeated quietly, her knuckles turning white on the wheel.
"You're gonna be the queen of this track someday," Carl said. "This is your track."
"My track," she repeated.
"You can't be afraid of your own track, can you? When you're driving your car that you worked so hard on?"
She began to nod. "My track," she said again.
"Your track."
"My track."
The cars passed by again.
"You gonna let these peasants pass you like that on your track?" Carl pointed to the cars that were speeding away.
Mina frowned. "They dare?"
"Seems like they're daring to me."
Mina clenched her jaw, her nostrils flaring as she took in a slow, deep breath.
The car accelerated.
----------------------------------------
"How's it feel?"
"Glorious."
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"Alright, now if you wanna go faster—"
"I always wish to go faster."
"—you're gonna wanna actually take these curves a little later and sharper so you can sp—Yup, just like that."
"Ooh, yes, this does feel speedier."
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"I'm feeling quite experienced now, Carl. I'm going to begin driving with more speed."
"Wait, how far were you—"
"Approximately one eighth."
"Oh no."
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"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Carl, please, I'm attempting to concentrate."
"Sorry."
----------------------------------------
"When you're racing, you're gonna have to practice passing at some point, too."
"Ah, look, another challenger."
"Uh…"
"You were speaking about passing?"
"Well, you're probably not always gonna have the exact position on the track that you want—"
"Ooh, yes, that's an excellently made point. I'll need to also practice taking the curves much more circuitously. And there may be times when I'll need to navigate amongst other steamcars like this…"
"Whoa, did you see that guy's face?"
"No, a queen needn't bother with those behind her, Carl."
----------------------------------------
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"What's this? They've attempted to hold me back!"
"Yeah, they're boxing you in pretty good. I think you really rustled some jimmies."
"I've what?"
"Uh, nothing. You gonna let them—"
"Their fates were determined at the moment they sought to drive upon my track."
----------------------------------------
"Hah! Take that, you whose jimmies have been rustled!"
"Uh, that's not…really…"
"What? Have I misused your idiom?"
"Well…"
"What? Stop laughing!"