1965-01-22 - Car Work
Summary: Log Summary
Related: None
Theme Song: None
Sage Dizzy 


Julie is outside the school, under one of the wheel arches of that rather large six-wheeled military surplus truck that's been a subject of some rehabilitation for her, and perhaps her shop classes, tightening a last bolt, then eyeing the fender's alignment in the fading light, when she gets up. Fumbles in a coverall for a pack of Chesterfields, and shakes one out, seeming to consider that work, spots of primer and all, before diverting her attention to the lake.

"Do you purposely avoid using your powers when you work on a passion project, just to make sure it lasts longer?" Tessa had thought she spotted Julie through a window, and rather than use her telepathy, she ventured outside herself. Not before grabbing a coat, however. She and the cold have never gotten along terribly well.

Julie laughs, a bit, and raises a wrench. "Ah, it's habit, ain't everywhere you can do things without tools without raising more eyebrows than usual. Ever wonder why I always got an adjustable wrench in my back pocket?" She winks there. "Anyway, it's only so much good when you're panel-beating, and then, well, I can feel the English wheel a bit more than some."

"It comes in handy when fighting off potential assailants," Tessa points out. "Assuming they have no superhuman abilities." Ever the realist. Or something! "I suppose that makes sense." Tessa looks over the vehicle with a critical eye, trying to determine what exactly is the goal here. Sadly, cars are still outside her realm of knowledge. "How is the work going?"

Julie nods, "Yeah, once in a while I gotta clock someone or something with it." She glances back to the vehicle. "Just kinda trying to make the old girl look respectable now that she's really operating again. Kinda mashed into a couple dozen demons back there a while ago, but a bit here and there she oughtta be ready to paint come warmer weather. Or maybe sooner if Berto shows up and I can rope him into standing around a while," she smirks. She holds up her hands in a sort of frame like artists in cartoons. "Picture… Putty-tan and shoeleather brown two-tone. They'll be like, 'Yeah, if a private estate had a big whackin' Army truck maybe it'd look like that." Dizzy glances back. "Also someone changed their mind about painting a couple delivery vans like that, so that's the colors I got."

"Well… at least it's free?" Tessa gets closer and peers into the vehicle. Still trying to understand. She's really going to have to find some books some time. "I don't think a two-tone brown would be bad, as.. blatantly biased towards blue as I seem to be."

Julie nods. "Yeah, a couple blues could be nice, too, I guess. Maybe a bit harder to hide out here, but you never know, I could get hold of something decent by then. Sometimes you get a mix that ain't quite right or someone changes their mind, so it goes real cheap." She eyes the thing. "Anyway, it'll look OK from a few feet away, at least till next time we have to drive crazy in other, ah, realms of existence or whatever you call it." She puffs on the ciggy, then, and tries to guess Tessa's particular curiosity there, but says, "If you wanna check it out, …pretty much GI Joe inside there, but it's kinda fun for a big old beast like that. We kinda needed something like this for where Illyana goes. Real bad roads there, you could say, if you could call em roads.

"This is the plane in which you encountered demons?" Tessa asks, looking around the windshield to look at Julie. "I almost am sorry I missed that excursion, but I doubt very much it was a time for scientific inquiry." A pause, and she frowns briefly. "Then again, such a place is probably never at a point when science can be the goal."

Julie shrugs. "I dunno, really. All's I know is it ain't part of this Earth. Wherever that is, that world don't spin. I don't even know if the engine would run there," she says, climbing up onto the other running board and opening doors. "Didn't really need it to, and we, ah, grabbed this out of a scrapyard at short notice. Headlights worked when I spun up the generator, though, so, I figure some laws of physics still work."

"At least for the moment you were there." Tessa would take much comfort in knowing laws of physics operate regardless of plane of existence, but she's heard enough of this trip from a few people that she has begun to doubt the laws - any scientific laws - are permanent in that place.

Julie nods, and shrugs, "Well, me and, say, conservation of angular momentum got some kind of understanding even here, so who am I to quibble about that," she winks, opening the opposite door in case Tessa's actually curious enough to climb inside. Where, it's a pretty spartan interior, a few essential gauges and one or two Dizzy may have seen fit to add, that seem mismatched, also extra levers by the shifter and lots of military instruction and warning placards riveted to the dash. "I guess a lot of us might drive physicists nuts to think about, but sometimes I really *feel* the physics, you know what I mean?"

Tessa does get inside, if only to get a better feel for the vehicle. "I imagine many of us drive physicists a little crazy," she agrees, nodding. She considers that thought. If she could find things funny… "Any mutant generating some kind of energy, for example…"

Julie shrugs, and glances at her hand, "Guess I don't really know where the force comes from or where it goes, somewhere, everywhere, nowhere, if that's even how it works, who knows." She adds, "This's a diesel, so, if you wanted to start, her, you click that to pre-warm, leave that half a minute, pull the choke, and, stomp on the starter over there. It's all double-clutching, and first gear's a real creeper."
"A creeper?" Still, Tessa tries. She fiddles with it as she understands how to o it. "Is there some advantage to using diesel over petrol?"

Julie says, "Ah, really low gear, starts a heavy load on hills and such, …there's an even lower range where they're all like that, but we could get to that in a minute." She pauses and thinks. "Well, they use diesels in trucks for a lotta reasons, but mostly it's cause you can give em a lotta pulling power more easily, and the like. Also it's kinda handy that once you start em, they'll keep running even if the electrics go, you got a wire to shut em off, but otherwise they wait till the fuel's cut off. Don't sound or smell very elegant but they get a lotta work done.""

Sage can see exactly how that would be useful, and nods as Julie explains. "That makes sense. In a worst-case scenario, if you need to get somewhere safely, you have the oppoprtunity to do so." The explanation for the creeper gear gets another nod, "And how common is such a swathe of lower gears, I wonder?"

Julie nods. "They'll run on heating oil, too. Same stuff. Easy to supply for the military and truckers and all." She nods, "Yeah, different gear ranges are kind of how they do it, most of these military trucks, semis, most four wheel drive stuff, …this old girl's driven at all six, and *that's* real interesting to see… Well, if you like that sort of thing," she smirks.

"I don't understand cars much." Which seems to be something she 'confesses' to every time she and Julie spend any amount of time together. "So I'm afraid you'll have to explain that to me…"

Julie nods. "A little more to it than your little British car, but I could show you, maybe when we got some daylight and won't mess with study hours, which I guess I oughtta get to, really."

Sage nods slightly. "Daylight it is. I'll hold you to that."

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