Pilatus

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

17/19 Girls vs Guys

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

Paige Kennedy

A little old to be selling girl scout cookies aren't we?

"Maybe, but you don't look like you've missed many girl scout cookies lately." Paige said quick as a whip and patted him firmly on the belly as she stepped past him through the doorway. It may have been a little bit of a low blow, but he started it when he called her "Princess" and now they were even. Milo wasn't exactly in bad shape as it were, though not nearly as lean as he had once been in Delta. She had the photo evidence to prove it and knew that after she left, he'd be looking himself over thoroughly in the mirror. She put her bag down on the table and proceeded to move her star back to her belt and gun to it's rightful place on her hip.

"Aw, did you get me something for our 'date'?" She said slyly reminding him of his earlier choice of words. Though she had thrown it back at him as a jab, the fact of the matter was that she hadn't gone on an actual "date" in years. Nor, as Milo well knew, did she have the greatest track record of keeping men. Once they learned of her profession or got a dose of her attitude, the conversation normally ended shortly thereafter as they ran for the hills. Even since she was old enough to date, her father hadn't ever needed the shotgun, Paige was perfectly capable on her own. Most of the time it didn't bother her that much, but occasionally it still crept up on her.

"We took care of that guy who assaulted your girlfriend's sister early this morning." She said nonchalantly changing the subject and again turned to raid his refrigerator the same as she had done before. It wasn't hard to connect the dots between the victim of the infamous jazz night and Milo, but it all amounted to an afterthought compared to what she'd discovered while digging around in Bob's past. She lifted another one of his sports drinks from its plastic casing and turned back to see what manner of gift he'd produced for her. "I didn't get to bed until after three," She ssid, "And I didn't wake up until you called."

@PrinceAlexus@RoccanIronclad

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

Joel Nicolosi

Joel nosed the car up to the line just as the brake lights went out on the GT-R to his left. Everything was in order and the mechanics of every second seemed to gradually slow down as the rest of the field filed in behind them. Inside his helmet, his world was closed off and sacred; each breath, waiting and warm against the padding. Hands gripped the wheel. In his gut he could feel the turn of the cams in the rhythm of the machine beneath him. The car itself seemed to be counting down with him. His blood pulsed under the restraints and his eyes watched as the red lights came up across the gantry. Five across, one blinked away, now four. It was no different than when raced back in high school at the streetlights. Another out, three...Revs up ready to launch. Don't spin the tires. Two... Ready on the clutch. One...

As the final pair of lights dropped away, Joel felt like a bullet out of a rifle. The soft rubber bit hard and almost in an instant they were soaring up the hill, the white lines of the streets zipping and curling beneath them like an electric dance floor. The black GT-R held fast in the main line. Joel had neither gained nor lost ground against him. They weren't the top team for no reason. He could see white letters of the tires blurring into rings under the fenders with a puff of exhaust flame. The first turn came up and he could hear his dad over the radio calling the inside line open. He geared down and tucked in behind the black of the state-of-the art Nissan so close he could see the shadow of the rear wing over his hood. With a turn of the wheel he followed through the tight surface street section.

Hard right and then left. Gear and brake, fingers worked the paddle shifters. The chassis shuddered against the hard streets that were never designed for motorsport. A barrier would come up and then flash away close enough that Joel could see the spectators faces. A waving flag, a shouting fist in the air, an ambulance and a safety marshal in bright green- all in their own soundless world against rise and fall of his engine's angry howl. A hairpin turn down a one-way street between two skyscrapers and a double apex right hander and they were headed downhill for the tunnel. Joel caught a glimpse of Old Harbor and the dark water of the river, full up with boat traffic, all the way over to Riverside as they ripped around the curve.

The downhill tunnel came up and Joel squinted preparing his eyes. The changeover from broad daylight to the dim tunnel at high speed was an adjustment that had to be compensated for each lap. Then the return to sunlight when they erupted onto the waterfront was just as bad. There was a period of temporary blindness before the first chicane at the bottom of the hill. He hung back slightly, not because he was concerned about a collision, but because he was setting up a pass on the second chicane.

The GT-R braked on time and took the turns swiftly. Joel went hard on the brakes late and nearly cut the chicane, almost glancing the wall. He came rocketing off the corner and headed towards the back of the black Nissan like a heat-seeking missile. The clever Japnese driver was ready for him though and blocked down into the inside line before Joel could get his nose in the corner. They both took the turn awkwardly allowing the rest of the field to catch up. Joel cursed. He knew he was faster through the harbor. They screamed down a long left-hander as the course narrowed again right on the waterfront. Sailboat masts blinked by like fenceposts. Two more quick turns and they were back on the front straightaway headed back up the hill. Lap one down.

Tommy watched the screens with Marlin gritting his teeth as Joel nearly straight-shot the chicane and tried to pass at the Harbor while Lou barked at him over the radio not to cook the brakes on the first lap. He looked out over the starting line as they came by with most everyone holding the same position. The GT-R in front was stretching its lead slightly on the long straight. No wrecks on the start was good, but Joel had to get ahead before the first pit stop for their strategy to work. He shook his head slightly and grimaced at Marlin. "Tense isn't it!" He shouted over the noise. He loved the competition and the excitement rivaled even his NFL days.

@Mattchstick@PrinceAlexus

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

@Ashevelendar

Yea, you can have NPCs just don't lean on them too heavily to carry your plots. We want people to interact with each other here. If you have two full-on characters then you can't rp with yourself. @PrinceAlexus is grandfathered in with his two Romus characters since he was writing them before we made the rule.

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

Paige Kennedy

Paige stared blankly at the phone screen for a moment after Milo hung-up. She hated being called Princess and he knew it. Asshole. She grumbled to herself. Tossing the phone aside, she contemplated going back to sleep, but decided against it. Her father had preached that morning back in Delta and after using the Bible to tune up poor Bob, she thought maybe listening to his sermon as she got ready to meet Milo might help balance out that bit of irreverence. Normally, she preferred to use the phone book, especially if it had the yellow pages included where she could roll it and bend it in her hands and really get a good swing in, however those were getting more and more rare in the digital age. She downloaded his sermon and let it play as she showered and dried her hair out. It was nice to hear his voice again. She could picture the congregation, the PowerPoint slides behind him and where she and Ana would sit, sometimes with Milo as well.

She had only began making a name for herself in Delta when he pulled her aside one day to talk. It was mostly congratulatory and encouraging as he was many times. She was no doubt her mother’s child. However, it was what he said last that day that never really faded from her conscious and she was sure that was how he meant it. Daddy had a certain, cutting way with words: Paige, I know you’re often faced with situations where you don’t have a lot of time to think, I just want you to remember whose voice it is in your head that you’re listening to. He had left it at that and walked away with his usual smile.

The thought of it gave her a slight chill as she put on her clothes and the sermon finished with a hymn. He was the only true moral anchor in her life and perhaps Ana and her mother as well to some extent. Now they were out of the picture and she was stuck in Sol with Milo of all people. She shook her head at the thought and tied her hair back in her standard pony tail as she started out the door with the keys to the BMW. With that silly street racing going on, she would need the lights on Xi’s remaining Ford to cut through the traffic and get down to Milo’s shop or at least to the general area where she could walk the rest of the way and not tip-off their dinner date. After exchanging keys with him, she set off.

Finding a parking garage a few blocks up, she left the car to walk. She packed her badge and holster away in a small book-bag so as not to draw unneeded attention and kept her pistol hidden in its usual, secondary spot. She looked at her reflection in the side of the glass. With a royal-blue, button-down long sleeve t-shirt, jeans and her bag she thought she looked rather studious for the first time in several years. The shirt had subtle orange stitching and a very discreet UF logo near the hem that she intended to annoy Milo with and simultaneously draw an underestimation from whatever manner of street thug with which Milo had managed to get involved. A two-for-one. She smiled slyly at the thought and sent him a text letting him know she’d be there shortly. Since she was coming in from the back alley to stay hidden, she was sure he’d have some smartass remark for that as well.

@RoccanIronclad

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

Back in the saddle now.

I'll see if I can post for Paige tonight. Tomorrow at the latest.

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

Joel Nicolosi

A Navy P-8 flew over the downtown waterfront flanked by an F-18 on each wing as the national anthem came to a close and the assembled crowd let up a giant roar of approval. Joel watched behind his sunglasses as the trio banked away and the Hornets split off with a surge of afterburner. The grid was suddenly bustling again as all non-essential personnel were busily clearing out for the last minute preparations. He turned and threw a leg over into the cockpit giving Tommy an affirmative fist bump.

“See you in about thirty laps,” Tommy said against the noise. “Don’t be late.”

“Don’t worry.” Joel replied with a smirk. He set about buckling himself in and as the masses cleared he could see the track out in front of him with only the rear of the black GT-R in his view. With its aggressive rear wing and wind-tunnel refined aerodynamics it looked like something out of Star Wars rather than a racecar. He was already visualizing it. If at all possible, he had to get ahead before the first turn. If he couldn’t get a pass in there, where the road was four lanes wide, he likely wouldn’t get another shot until they made it down the hill at Old Harbor and the longer it took him, the harder it would get. He could match them in the turns, but the long uphill straightaway would allow them a chance to flex their advantage in downforce. The barriers that enclosed the streets curled away gradually uphill towards Southside where the first long straight would take them. He stared through it momentarily, contemplating the moment that was soon to come.

Looking back, he gave Marlin a wink before slipping on his helmet: A combination of Sol City Orange and the American flag stretched around in a style he modeled directly after his racing idol, Ayrton Senna’s, famous Yellow and Brazilian flag. The grid lights were flashing in preparation for the formation lap as the last of the crews left the grid.

Alright, and now for those most famous words in racing… A voice suddenly boomed over the local PA system. The mayor could be seen taking to a podium on the many trackside mounted video screens. He seemed more at ease than he’d been in some time and he made the proclamation with a hearty tone: Gentleman, start your engines!

The sounds went off like a wave of technological thunder. The angry hornet V8 coming to life in the GT-R and 300ZX, high revving shout of the tuned NSX, the big-block thunder of heavy pistons in a Corvette and Viper. Exhaust and the smell of refined fuel filled the air with the international chorus of engine power. Joel tuned his radio to the team frequency and checked in with Lou and his dad who were watching from the top of the hauler with their own set of screens and active telemetry reporting back from car’s onboard computer.

The television camera panned back out from the helicopter as the commentators came back on watching the cars take off for the parade lap. The starting lineup flashed along the side of the screen again with team names, car types and photos of the drivers. Let’s take a look at some of the strategies involved today, One of the commentators started, Of course Sol City is the last race of the Formula GT season and can either be one of the most technical for a team or one of the simplest depending on your position… The screen flashed over various statistics on tires, average speed, fuel management and other highlighted factors from the race’s history, the second commentator chimed in again, That’s right by rule drivers have to switch places at least twice within the ninety-nine laps, and we know they’ll have to refuel at least once, however, tires have historically been the main factor in Sol, being a street circuit it’s very tough on the softer compounds, The televised image switched over to various shots of the cars weaving back and forth, warming up their tires for on the parade lap as they wound through the city streets, Its going to be a balancing act, He continued, A team can run the harder compounds and only change once, but you obviously have to stop twice anyway for the driver change, but changing tires twice takes time, the pit lane can make or break your day here. The cars passed through the chicanes at Old Harbor before the shot again went back out to the helicopter. Alright ladies and gents, we’re going to commercial one more brief time, then it’ll be grid set and lights out, stay with us, we’ll be right back…

@PrinceAlexus

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

The King has returned...

@King Tai

Had to say it.

What Are You Listening To?

Sol City [Modern Slice of Life] . (CHAPTER ONE COMPLETED!) . ARCHIVED

@Ashevelendar

We already looked/discussed in PM's so it's fine to be approved. As soon as English nap time wakes up and puts his stamp on it, you can move her over.