Path of the Vampire forum

<Kaelyn> [t] Jesse?
<Jesse Fforde> [T] Kae!
<Kaelyn> [t] Are you still available?
<Jesse Fforde> [t] I am.
<Kaelyn> [t] Did you want to start?
<Jesse Fforde> [t] Sure. Meet you at Limbo?
<Kaelyn> [t] Sure, I'll see you in a few

* Jesse Fforde was dressed casually, slipping back to Limbo after his discussion with Rhett. He felt like he was achieving something, these past few days - talking to people. Working **** out. It started to make him wonder whether he'd really dropped the ball, that he still had so much **** to work out. But he supposed the repercussions of his volatile illness were numerous, and not so easy to sweep under the rug. From the bowl on one of the dressers that lined the wall, Jesse plucked the keys for the purple car that was still parked in the garage. He wandered around, slowly, while he waited for Kaelyn.

* Kaelyn used her tome to make her way to Limbo where Jesse had requested them to meet. She was in a simple pair of jeans and an oversized sweater. Somehow she had managed the curls back into a ponytail so they'd be out of her face for this. Hopefully all the negativity she had felt lately when coming home would be settled quickly. She hated feeling like this around Jesse. She just wanted the normal familial feeling back. Victor was too busy being Victor to bother teaching her, even after all of his promises, so Jesse would take his place in this instance. Glancing over to him as she made her way across the floor, she offered a smile. "Hi."

* Jesse Fforde grinned at Kaelyn as she appeared. He held out a hand, the keys dangling from one finger. They were attached to a simple, silver butterfly keyring. "You better have these," he said. "But you don't want to learn in that car, do you? I hired one for the night - it's insured. It'll be fine," he said, his grin revealing all gleaming teeth.

* Kaelyn eyes widened as she saw her keys and her blonde head started to shake in protest. That was not the car she should start out in. She didn't want to crash something so pretty and expensive. But before she could open her mouth to say anything, he had moved on to tell her about the rented. Rented...duh, why didn't she think of that? Why had her mind gone straight to stealing someone else's car? Was she turning into -that- kind of person? At the moment it didn't matter. Jesse had made the right call. "Perfect, thank you! Hopefully I don't kill us."

* Jesse Fforde laughed at Kaelyn's expression, before tugging at her hand and giving her the keys to her present. From his pocket, he retrieved the otherwise ordinary keys and started for the elevator. "I parked it upstairs. We'll start in the back streets. Less traffic. It's an automatic - figured we'd get you used to being behind the wheel before throwing you into the deep end. Do you want to stick with automatic or do you want to know how to drive stick?"

* Kaelyn took the keys with the butterfly ring and stuck them into her purse. She then reached for the plain ones and nabbed them from his hand. Today was the day it was finally going to happen...she was going to drive a car! Automatic or stick...she had heard about this. Stick shift was more difficult. Maybe she'd learn that one eventually. "Automatic for now. Maybe we'll try stick after I can do this kind."

* Jesse Fforde nodded. "Barney is automatic," he said. He'd started calling the purple car Barney, after the children's dinosaur character. Because it was purple. He stepped into the elevator and waited for Kaelyn to join him, pushing the button that would take him to the atrium at ground level. "Are you nervous?

* Kaelyn snickered some at the name of the car. She had called it that the first time she saw it. As she followed him onto the elevator, fingers nervously picked at the hem of her sweater. Her head nodded. "Very much so. I don't want to crash or hit anyone. I just hope I don't suck"

<Jesse Fforde> "You'll be fine. If you crash it or hit anyone we'll call it ten points," he said with a grin. The elevator doors opened onto the glass-enclosed floor, and Jesse headed for the exit. The car parked outside was a 2000 model Toyota. Hardy, reliable. And about the same size as Barney downstairs. He headed for the passenger side.

* Kaelyn chewed on her bottom lip, holding back a giggle. Hitting people and crashing shouldn't be a game, yet...it sounded funny. "Crashing and hitting people are the same number of points? How high is winning score?" She stood next to the drivers side, staring at it a moment. She had never even so much as sat in the drivers seat of a car before, let alone drive one. Unlocking the vehicle, she climbed in and buckled up. It was still the law, even if she wasn't going to be killed.

<Jesse Fforde> "Actually - I'm not sure if crashing counts. Hitting people, though ... I'm not really sure though. I never played Grand Theft Auto," he said with a grin, slipping into the passenger seat and buckling up, just the same as Kaelyn. "Okay, so should I start by assuming you know absolutely nothing about driving a car?"

* Kaelyn stared at all the numbers and pictures in front of her. She had a few basics down. Key goes in ignition and she turns. Ok, that she managed to do without him telling her. "I know how to turn the radio on. And I know I have to push those pedal things with my feet and I use this wheel to turn"

<Jesse Fforde> "Whoah whoah okay, slow down," he said, reaching over to twist the key so that the car was off. "First, we'll make sure you know where everything is. Make sure the seat is adjusted to where you're comfortable - your wrists should be able to hang over the steering wheel. Adjust the mirrors - you should be able to see the back of the car through the side mirrors, but only just. Make sure you've got a good view through the rear view mirror..."

* Kaelyn pouted as the car was turned right back off. Darn. He started talking an awful lot. Where hands go, where to look, how to sit. She tried to scoot her chair up some so she'd be able to reach the pedals. "How do I move this thing?"

* Jesse Fforde leaned back in the chair, though he still faced Kaelyn. "There's a lever under the chair. At the front. Pull it and the chair will slide backward and forward," he said. He knew the chair was pushed back - he'd been the last one to use it, and he had long legs.

* Kaelyn reached beneath the chair and felt the little lever thing he was talking about. She pulled up on it and scooted forward...quite a bit forward. She wasn't all that tall. "Ok chair is situated." She glanced out the side mirrors. "How do I adjust those?"

* Jesse Fforde pointed to the set of buttons on Kaelyn's driver's side door. "They're pretty straight forward. Fiddle with them until you get the hang of it. You can control the locks from there, too. This will be different, depending on which car you're in. But you need to be able to see out those mirrors."

* Kaelyn nods and starts messing with them. First the mirrors went waaaay too far out. She couldnt see the back of the car at all. Then she brought them in waaay too close. She could only see the car. That wasn't going to do. Finally she got it just right...at least she thought. "Ok...I think those are good"

* Jesse Fforde pointed up to the rear view mirror. "And that?"

* Kaelyn started fiddling with it until she could see out her back window completely. "There!"

* Jesse Fforde nodded. "Okay. Now see the levers on either side of the steering wheel? They're your indicator, your windscreen wiper, and your lights. Go ahead and turn the car on ...."

* Kaelyn turned the key so the car turned back on. She looked at the sticky outy things. "How do I make them work?"

<Jesse Fforde> "There's a nob on the end of the indicator - you turn that to turn the lights on and off. You push it forward for high beams. Flick it up and down to indicate left and right. Have a play with them...."

* Kaelyn twisted the turny part and turned the lights on. She shoved it and they got bright, pulling it back made it back to normal. Pushing the lever up made a right arrow blink. Pushing it down made a left arrow blink. This was fairly easy. She could do this. "Ok, got it!"

* Jesse Fforde watched, slightly amused. Anyone looking on would wonder what they hell they were doing. It might look slightly amusing from a distance. "Okay, now muck around with the windscreen wipers. You can control how fast they go - and there's water in the tank, so you can clean the windscreen yourself, if it gets dirty..."

* Kaelyn suddenly shot that water out and was kind of startled. Even though he had just said it, she wasn't expecting it. Laughing she continued to fiddle with it. Fast wipers, slow wipers, stopped wipers. She then started putting on a light show. Bright, dim, bright,dim, blinkers. She even managed to find the emergency lights. After a few minutes of this, she brought it to a halt. "Ok, now what"

* Jesse Fforde laughed. "Okay. Now for the fun stuff," he said. "Make sure your foot is on the break. The big pedal..." he said. "Hand on the gear stick. We're going to put this thing in drive..." he said, grinning.

* Kaelyn eyes went wide and mouth dropped a bit. Which was the break? What if she hit the gas and they went crashing into a building? Big one...big one...which was that? She stared at the floor of the car, looking to see which was big. Left. Left was the big one, that one had to be the break. She put her foot on it and in the dark behind them, red lights shown. "Ok...is that the break?"

* Jesse Fforde noticed the red lights in the dark, too. He nodded. "Yup, that's the break. Now - press that button on the side of the gear stick and move it down to Drive..." he said. "Make sure you keep your foot on the break until I say so."

* Kaelyn kept her foot pressed hard against that break. She wasn't letting up for anything. Finger pushed at the button and she pulled it down to the "D" that she assumed meant Drive. "That one?"

* Jesse Fforde nodded. "That's the one. Now, when you ease your foot from the pedal, the car will automatically start moving forward. The driveway is curved, so make sure you turn the wheel - we're going to go in a circle for a while..."

* Kaelyn looked terrified...she felt it too. She was about to drive a car. Slowly, her foot lifted off the pedal and it started moving. She was astonished. Why? It's not like she hadn't been in cars...she just hadn't been in this seat. Crap! Curved driveway...whoops, they were now in the grass and her foot slammed back down on the break. "Crap!"

* Jesse Fforde laughed. "Okay. That's okay. We haven't hit a tree and a little grass never hurt a car. Turn the wheel, Kae. Left to go left, right to go right. Ease into it - don't yank it. Slowly...."

* Kaelyn slowly turned the wheel all the way to the right and her foot pulled off the break. Ok they were back onto the driveway...,but shoot! Too far, she needed to turn the wheel back the other way a bit. There we go, she had it going the right direction now and was keeping it pretty steady for the moment

<Jesse Fforde> "Okay. Now turn left out onto the driveway. Indicate left. I know there's no one to see, but let's practice indicating," he said. The driveway itself was a long stretch, which led out to the road that led into the city.

* Kaelyn chewed on her bottom lip nervously as she pushed down to turn the left arrow on. She then slowly made her way out onto the driveway. "Can I make it go faster?"

* Jesse Fforde laughed. "Of course. The acceleration is going to be different depending on the car, too. Barney is going to be far more powerful than this one, for example. Put your foot on the accelerator - very slowly and carefully. Don't slam it down..."

* Kaelyn moved her foot over the gas pedal and started to push down...very very very gently. It started to move faster. She pushed a bit harder and it lurched forward. Her foot pulled off as eyes went wide. Kaelyn tried again, pushing slowly at the pedal. "So Barney will move faster?”

* Jesse Fforde had expected a bit of jerking to begin with. It was only natural for someone who'd never driven a car before to take time getting used to it. "Yeah. Bareny's going to be a bit more sensitive. There's a lot of horsepower in Barney," he said with a grin. He imagined Kaelyn would enjoy it, once she'd got the hang of it.

* Kaelyn picked up more speed. She coudln't imagine driving Barney yet. If it was more sensitive than this. "This is kind of fun though...I like driving."

* Jesse Fforde laughed again. "We haven't done much yet. I probably should have made you study a manual on the road rules, first..." he said, pondering. Once they got into the city, things might start getting a little interesting.

* Kaelyn didn't realize they were going into the city. That might be a bit much for her right now. No that would be a lot a bit much for her right now. They were coming to the end of the driveway. "Now where do I go? What are the rules? I know they have the speeds I can go posted and what the signs mean, usually"

<Jesse Fforde> "At the end of the driveway, indicate. Turn left. We'll take the back roads to Moss End, rather than go into River Rock. It's quieter in Moss End - mostly houses. There'll be hardly anyone on the road, and there aren't traffic lights. For this first trip we'll just focus on the small things," he said. "For a while you'll constantly worry about your speed - but you'll get used to the way the car feels. It'll become second nature."

* Kaelyn nodded her head and put her foot on the break when they got to the end of the driveway. The blinker was turned on for a left turn. No cars were coming. She made the left turn and even made it all the way over into her lane without messing up. "Ok, sounds good. No lights. Just speed limits and possibly puppy dogs running out in front of me and children and moms and dads and other cars."

* Jesse Fforde smirked. "No, you'll be fine. It's past the kids' bedtime. They won't be out playing in the streets this late and if they are, maybe they deserve it," he said, clearly teasing. "Don't freak out, Kae. I won't make you do anything that'll get us killed. See? You're doing perfectly fine. Up ahead, there'll be a bridge, and then another left turn...."

* Kaelyn grumbled a bit "I'm not worried about us dying. We can't die." A bridge...they were going over water. What if she accidentally crashed it off the bridge and sent them plummeting into the river? Eyes stayed focused as she kept the car steady. She could do this. They made it over the bridge without any trouble. She turned her signal on and took the left turn. She was doing alright.

<Jesse Fforde> "Exactly! So you've got nothing to worry about ..." he said. The trees started to thin the closer they got to the city; the streetlights heralded oncoming suburbia. "Honestly, I don't think we'll get into too much trouble. We can just go around in circles for a while - unless you want to learn some other things? Parking? Reverse parking? What do you want to try to achieve tonight?"