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<11/24/2017 - 15:22 | Family Fun Mountaisia, Marietta, GA, USA>
Ever since this year started, I've been combing my mind to find out which kinds of activities would be most enjoyable for two telepaths to enjoy simultaneously. Before the last summer of this year, I managed to have some fun with Lumina at the arcade center, but ever since then, I've been longing for more.
My list of ideas is still fairly short, but today I've planned for something interesting. I got the idea from the last time I was at Six Flags. I never went back there with Lumina despite what fun we did have, mainly for the reason that the rides were rough enough to start a headache from whiplash. When I was on those rides however, Lumina felt every jerk and tug of direction change the rides made on their tracks, and I've realized why.
I may be repeating this, but it's important to keep in mind one of the many rules of physical sensation as it shares through telepathy. Aside from touch, even strong enough inertia or change in acceleration and gravity can be felt through our psionic link. In addition to this, Lumina has taken up a strange interest in the mechanics and design specs of automobiles, mainly race cars.
So, I brought her here today, at the Mountasia Fun Center, known as the place of an outdoor Go-Kart facility. Despite the cold air outside, this place still attracts quite a crowd, a crowd of those who linger in the arcade center, and a crowd of legitimate Go-Kart racers!
I don't care if it sounds cheesy to some. I don't have a driver's license just yet, and even if I did, street racing is both illegal and too dangerous for my taste. In a Go-Kart race however, the event is fairly safe. What I have in store for Lumina will bring out the best in both of us today, I'm sure of it.
"One ticket for the races please." I handed the exchange of cash for the ticket I would need to join up with the other Go-Karts, standing confidently since I didn't have anybody else here to spoil the moment. Coming here by myself with an Uber and calling Lumina afterwards was a good idea, because now it's just the two of us.
"Sure thing pal. It's only good for one race though. No sharing passengers is allowed unless you buy the couple's ticket."
Nodding in agreement to my anticipation, Lumina finally sounded off at how close at hand our race would be. "It's nice to get the discount on a couple's ticket, eh Reed?"
"You make it sound like I'm smuggling my girlfriend inside... Wait."
"That's because you are, goof. You can brag about it to your friends if you think it will make you look cool."
A cool statement by Lumina indeed. Too bad I have no friends to brag to this about in the first place. I didn't bother saying it though, since we had a mood to keep up with.
Once I made it out to the tracks, it was quite an amazing sight to see how much room and space we would be getting. Despite the guard-walls to keep the cars in, I took a quick guess that these Go-Karts would be quick enough. Having the 40oN air blast through my face would be mildly annoying, but I relied on this air temperature to keep Lumina here with all senses intact.
"You sure about this Reed? I mean, this defiantly looks like it could be fun, but is it safe?"
"Don't be such a baby. I've done this once before."
"Wait, you have?"
"Yeah, when I was ten." Despite making it sound like this was a child's sport, I clearly recalled coming here in the distant past. My father took me to these tracks then. So, I know how to drive a Go-Kart, plus it's safe.
"Looks like this skinny boy is joining in."
"Is he talking to you?"
Lumina should know by now how these antics work. "Of course the punk is talking to me. It's still a race after all. There's bound to be a rivalry." "Eh, you won't sound too tough when I smoke you one on one."
"Well see about that." Eye to eye, myself and this stranger glared at each other with squinted eyes, as if it were a duel moment of a popular anime universe. Afterwards, I chose a good kart to start with, strapping myself in with a bit of a wait.
As I did, some middle-age man called out to us, "You all get ten minutes around the tracks or ten laps. No bumping and slamming other cars into the walls. If I see what looks like foul play, I'll stop every kart at once and the offenders will be banned. First car to make ten laps will be the winner."
"Any idea what the prize is Reed?"
"First place Lumina. The prize is the satisfaction of winning, and also beating these cocky punks."
"You make it sound like it's a real stadium race."
"Get ready for a ride Lumina! The countdown has already started, and once that light goes green, I'm going to take off pretty fast. So hang on to your hat."
"What's gotten into you all the sudden?"
"It's called a racing spirit. Don't tell me you left it in the other room."
"It's a stupid Go-Kart Reed! It's not like it's going to just—"
Before she could finish the thought, I slammed my foot against the gas pedal as the lights in front turned green, opening the gate and letting all racers accelerate forward. Lumina's voice shifted into an unexpected holler of surprise. The sudden pushback of inertia shoving me to the back of the seat wasn't something Lumina expected to feel at full volume as well.
"Holy crap! It's faster than I thought it would be!" Lumina was either panicking or fully alert to the new situation I put her in, and she got to visually trace the track with my eyes through all the sudden twists and turns.
"Get used to it!" It was hard to hear each other's thoughts over the sounds of the karts, but we wouldn't need to anymore. Everything I was hoping for was already unfolding before us. Just as I expected, Lumina was accompanying me on the ride of her life, for all the changes in direction and acceleration pulses threw her around without physically affecting her body. Just as quickly, I heard her initial screams transform into cackling laughter as her eyes dilated with my own. Her instant enjoyment to this track gave me the courage to keep going as fast as I could.
Because of how lightweight the Go-Karts were, steering them was too easy, though bumping into the edges of the wall was also not hard to do. Since it had been a while, I wasn't perfect at evading random collisions in the beginning, but after a few more racers got ahead of me, I only became motivated to try harder to speed up. My motivation to win was still secondary to ensuring Lumina was maxing herself out on the enjoyment. Meanwhile, I had to ignore the fact that my face and hands were becoming numb to the freezing cold air around us.
"Just watch this!" Signaling Lumina to pay attention, I warned her before executing an awesome move I learned to master by playing endless hours of Forza Simulations. Right as I got to a difficult turn, I turned the steering wheel hard to the left, and waited to the perfect moment to go right from the winding path ahead of us. Had this been anything but a Go-Kart, I probably would have drifted right on this curve, but the design of the machine made this impossible. Even so, despite what we thought was possible, my kart did in fact drift to the left ever so slightly before making the next curve, while the timing I placed in worked out perfectly to excel me forward without having to break more than ten percent.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The results were impressive even to myself, as I had passed by the two karts who got in front of me earlier. It wasn't an easy maneuver to pull off, but I managed to put myself in second place while keeping my best speed so far, Lumina still cheering me on in the background with her excited pitch.
Lumina has better reaction times and reflexes than I do by default, but when I'm on the road with a vehicle, this isn't the case. All of the simulation practices I've done have given me enough experience to perfectly time breaking, steering, and drifting angles. Sure, if I tried this in an actual car, I might mess it up a few times, but out here on this track, I can mess up and not have to pay a big price for it. Having done this once before, I made the calculations I needed to with amazing grace and ease. This was probably the reason why Lumina was instantly impressed.
"You're amazing at this Reed! Go and kick their butts!"
"You don't need to tell me." I'm still in second place, though there are still nine more laps to go. A lot can change in that amount of time, but I know I have what it takes to catch up and win. All I have to do here is be patient and make zero mistakes.
Of course, when I finally caught up to the second place racer, the situation wasn't as simple as I had hoped it to be. The driver turned out to be the very same punk who insulted me before. While I could care less, him seeing my face pissed him off enough to change the dynamics of the plan. The moment we reached the straight path side by side, the kid beside me shoved his kart into mine, bashing me directly into the rubber wall to the left.
I wasn't expecting the rough play, and the slam my kart did pulled us into an intense spin followed by another, more intense forward slam to the other side of the wall. All I could process was the whiplash this caused myself and Lumina. Safe as this might be, it's still possible to wipe out hard enough to cause a mild head injury, especially when the damage is done intentionally.
Recovering myself quickly, I tried backing up, ignoring the incoming traffic behind me while asking Lumina if she was okay. I was bumped from behind again while asking her, so I had to divide my thoughts well enough to handle driving again while making sure all was okay.
"That actually hurt Reed. What the hell was that idiot thinking?"
"I'm sorry about that Lumina."
"Forget me. Are you alright after that?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." No thanks to that punk though. I lost quite a bit of early progress just because he couldn't play by the rules. Considering what I've seen before, the referee must not have seen what happened either, otherwise this race would have been over already from an emergency stop. No, that punk slammed me into a wall and got away with it, or so he thinks. "I can't say the same for that guy once I catch up to him though."
"Don't go looking for trouble. Just focus on getting done without getting banged up again."
"No Lumina. I came out here to have fun with you, and that asshole nearly ruined all of it. I wasn't worried that much about first place before, but this changes everything."
"You're in fifth place now. Are you sure you can catch up to them with only eight laps to go?"
"Tch! Watch me." With my motivations restored, I took charge of the road in front of me instantly, picking up the speed I lost while concentrating as much as I could about the process of saving time and making these turns without any collisions. It was something that took time and several laps, but Lumina was strangely interested to see if I could pull it off.
Even if I can't win this race, I know this will be a fun moment she'll never forget. Even so, I can do better, right here and now by eliminating that cocky smirk off the other racers. I may not be a Go-Kart master or a crazy street racer, but racing on this track is something I just know to do. I'll win this one not for myself, but for Lumina!
"This is some amazing fun Reed! Still, don't get bounced around again."
"Noted." She warned me just as I was finally coming up on the offender with two more laps to go. I wasn't slowing down or keeping my distance at all. Once I sped up enough to be in the same position as before, the racer in first took notice, of my kart and my face.
Patience was something I had to enforce strictly on myself, waiting for just the right moment for a straight away. He won't bump me until our karts are neck and neck beside each other, else he'll simply wipe himself out trying to play dirty. At last, the moment we were right beside each other again, as he glanced my way, I prepared my next maneuver, just as he shifted his hands to the steering wheel to the left again.
Not this time! My foot slammed the breaks in the same instance while I kept my wheel shifted to the right, correcting the slight collision from my front bumper to his rear. As expected, he wasn't expecting me to break so soon in his attempt to throw me off, and he wound up slamming his own kart into the bumper wall instead, allowing me to nick the corner end of his kart, causing him to spin out instead of me. As soon as it was done, I easily passed him with applied gas, leaving him in the dust.
Not taking any chances of reprisal, I kept going as fast as I could without looking back, certain to go the final lap without running into anybody else. Lumina was already celebrating early.
"You actually did it Reed! That was amazing the way you dodged him the second time."
"Would you believe me if I told you I learned that trick in a video game?"
"Please don't use Need for Speed as a learning reference for the real road later."
"Going two hundred miles per hour while dodging oncoming traffic? How could I resist?"
"You're joking... Right?"
"There are no cops on this road Lumina! Time to finish up!" Swinging around for another sharp turn, I could finally see the others coming up behind me, but it was already too late for them. The amazing race we had was already at its end with myself about to drive past the final finish line. Without any mistakes, I glided my way through the finish without a single kart in front of me. If only there were cheerleaders and confetti the moment they realized I won!
"You did it Reed! I never doubted you for a moment."
"Sure you didn't." Giving my sarcastic tone an exercise, I let myself relax as the karts kept going. The moment I passed the finish line, the system slowed down to half the speed while the gas and breaking controls locked in a fixed setting. This was an intentional design of the system. The moment a winner is realized, all karts enter a cool-down state, allowing any who passed the final lap to loop around slowly for parking purposes later.
"Well, I never expected you to be that good."
"Shouldn't underestimate my racing skills Lumina. Though, if I really taught you all you needed to know about cars and driving, I'm sure you'd learn quick and get better than me somehow."
"Probably. But do you even know that much about cars?"
"No, I know nothing really." I was once again reminded about this fact, that just glancing at a user manual for car parts or engine components puts me to sleep. Meanwhile, the same learning material would make Lumina drool on herself in ecstasy. I don't know why she likes cars this much, but if Lumina had to take on any random job on this planet, engine mechanic would likely be her first and most preferred choice. If she knew how to race on top of that, she'd be unstoppable.
"Can't you teach me more sometime?"
"Ugh, it's not that easy, but I'll see what I can do." This must be what it feels like to teach someone something I have no interest in. I'm glad she wants to learn, but she'll have to learn through me since she can't use her clairvoyance powers to find out anymore. Now that I think about it, ever since the purge, Lumina has only been able to learn everything about this world through my senses firsthand, with no other means to figure anything out... Whatever. As long as she had fun on our date, that's all that matters now.
"That was amazing though! I never thought I would be able to feel all those turns so easily."
"I told you I knew what I was doing here. I can't come here often since Ubers are expensive, but I wanted you to enjoy this at least once."
"It's not over already, is it?"
"I might be able to get another kart race going, but right now, I want to relax a little. They have a mini-golf course here."
"But I can't play mini-golf this way."
"Oh, right." See what I mean about finding two-player games? It's more difficult in a telepathic situation. Lumina can't just reach out and take control of my body, and she'll see anything I see. It's why open visual board games are the best match we've found so far. Still, I wish she could somehow take up a physical controller next to me. How badly I'd love to play with her this way. "We can still enjoy it though, right?"
"Of course Reed. I'd do anything with you. You know that."
I don't know if it was because of the intense happiness and serenity in her voice, or from the meaning of her words alone, that kept my heart going. We'd both spoken romantically to each other plenty of times before, yet this time in particular, I couldn't resist the warm feeling as it made me blush. "Then let's enjoy the rest of the moment." It's moments like these where I feel more in love and alive than ever.