InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hail to the King, baby."

Juno MacGuff [Juno] (sacredvessel) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-11-20 01:08:00

Entry tags:

!closed, *log, juno weasley, regulus black

WHO: Juno & Regulus
WHAT: Driving. And possibly parking.
WHEN: Friday evening
WARNINGS: Fluffy cuteness that will possibly give you diabetes?

Juno had been borrowing a Dodge minivan from Dean's shop, slowly--very slowly--working on actually buying the title from him with money from her part time jobs. He was letting it go for cheap, because she was sort of like adopted family, and it wasn't exactly his type of car anyway--but it was probably the only type he would let her drive in her condition. She'd quickly learned that while the Winchesters may be the type to risk it all themselves, they were way overprotective when it came to family. But that was okay.

She'd met Regulus out in the parking lot next to the apartment complex, where she'd introduced him to the porpoise-like vehicle, which oddly mirrored her porpoise-like figure (and she had dubbed The Cautionary Whale), and had run through the basics of driving 101. She thanked the gods and stars that it was an automatic transition, and proposed that before they drove to the lesser trafficked areas she introduce him to another wonder of muggle invention: the drive-through.

Once she had completed their fast food run to indulge her craving for fries dipped in milkshake, that was when the real fun began.

(Post a new comment)

arrogant_black
2010-11-20 04:27 pm UTC (link)

Regulus was going to learn how to drive a car, or that was the hope for the evening, because, he doubted this was like riding a broom, which came naturally to him. Though after looking at the rectangle, metal box she drove around in he was a bit heartened, something that unflashy couldn't be that complicated to learn, not to be offensive, but he couldn't help but make that connection.

The fast food was a nice touch, it was his first experience with fast food, and the whole drive through system positively amazed him. The metal box displaying the items for sale, the metal box you spoke into, to the food already for them when they reached the window, it was all rather fascinating and it was good that Juno was driving as he would surely have been too distracted to do it all.

The parking lot the van currently sat in was wide and empty, only lamp posts stuck in their cement cylinder bumpers dotted here and there. Regulus was in the drivers' seat, hands on the steering wheel mentally going over what Juno had explained. Peddle on the right was the 'go' peddle, the left was the stop - his foot was currently on that one. The round display showed how fast he was going in miles. There was a stick behind the steering wheel that when moved made a little spindle hover over certain letters: P, park; R, reverse, N, neutral; D, drive... and then some numbers. And that was the stick to grab first.

"Alright, move the stick over to the D, right?" He was partially seeking confirmation. "And then foot off this one peddle and over to the other one."

The concept sounded easy. Sorta. Brooms just responded to your weigh shifts and which direction you point them in, cars seemed to require some kind of coordination between hands and feet.

Hand first, he reminded himself and he gripped the stick and tugged it to over the D. He smiled over at Juno when it jumped into place - small accomplishment, he expected a gold star.

And then came the moving of his foot - which he did slowly, because he'd promise not to kill Juno or her unborn Sex Baby in the process. And the peddle switch went without a hitch and the car started rolling forward - which might have had more to do with the slight slope of the parking lot as he wasn't really doing more than rest his foot on the 'go' peddle. Juno go another smile - gold star, Juno, these will be collected at the end of the night.

"Hey!" Regulus, bless his wizard brain, was entirely too excited for a getting a vehicle to move forward at less than five miles an hour.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

sacredvessel
2010-11-20 11:00 pm UTC (link)

Juno had popped the plastic lid off her shake and was dunking her fries into the open top, happily munching away. "Mmhmm..." she confirmed, resisting the urge to whimper "Gently!" Like in the scene from The Princess Bride.

It seemed Regulus didn't need to be reminded, as he eased his foot onto the gas pedal and the vehicle started to creep forward, slower than Juno could waddle. "They should call you Butter," she crowed with him, "Cause you're on a roll!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arrogant_black
2010-11-21 02:16 pm UTC (link)

"Hmmm," Regulus chanced a glance at Juno, "Do I detect a bit of sarcasm in your tone?" He knew quite well they weren't going very fast, he'd been watching everything Juno did with the car when she'd maneuvered through the drive-through. She expertly handled the van while he really was just sort of wishing the car forward.

"I'm going to go faster." There was nothing in their path for quite some a ways, there was nothing wrong with making that needle on the display in front of him move up to the 5.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sacredvessel
2010-11-21 05:25 pm UTC (link)

Juno just laughed, applauding his bravery. "Between five and ten miles per hour is about perfect for parking lots," she said, though god new most people whipped through them way too fast. "Most places post twenty-five to thirty-five in residential zones, fifty-five in rural areas unless otherwise marked. We probably won't get that far out into the country, so you can just go ahead and take it easy."

She smiled. So far, there was no jolting and lurching like there had been in her behind the wheel class, but then, she supposed they had time to get to that later. "Do you want to take a couple of circuits through the lot, so you can get a feel for turning and signalling, and stuff, before we head for the park?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arrogant_black
2010-11-22 10:01 am UTC (link)

Regulus resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at Juno for her laughing. he was a sheltered wizard who might have taken his brother's bike out from time to time, but this driving a car was completely new to him. He was going above five miles per hours and he was damn proud of it.

"Okay, will do," he said as he started just turning the wheel any which way he felt like it, within reason so as to avoid the light posts. He some times fiddled with that blinker thing Juno had showed him, skeptical that the thing actually did it's job of telling other drivers he was going to turn. The speed hardly stayed steady, how wasn't used to how much pressure the peddle required, yes, here the jerking started, but at least he didn't hit anything.

Bringing the car to a complete stop - he'd played with slowing and switching his foot from peddle to peddle as well - he turned to face Juno, "Okay, to the park?" He was confident in his abilities.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sacredvessel
2010-11-22 12:47 pm UTC (link)

Well, he wasn't exactly smooth yet, but it was his first time, so Juno could forgive him. He was learning pretty quickly, and she was at least confident that he wouldn't kill them all.

"Okay, now as you pull out onto the actual road," she said, "You're gonna want to keep looking a good ways ahead. That helps keep you from weaving back and forth so much, and helps you stay in your own lane." She directed him to the exit, where she had him stop and check for traffic, and told him which way to turn.

"And we're off like a horde of tortoises!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arrogant_black
2010-11-22 01:13 pm UTC (link)

A horde of tortoises?! Well that was an apt description of their progress. It made him laugh.

"Okay, left to the park." Something easier said than done, as the roads were something different than an open, empty parking lot. And other drivers were not patient. But at least Regulus kept the car going straight.

"So, red light means what again?" He knew what it meant but he wanted to see what kind of reaction he could get from her when he didn't make an effort to slow down.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sacredvessel
2010-11-22 01:22 pm UTC (link)

"Red means stop, green means go, yellow means 'make up your mind!'" Juno said, feigning a little frantically at the end but otherwise sounding rather bored and unconcerned. She knew they weren't going fast enough that he wouldn't be able to stop.

She could also guess he was trying to get a rise out of her, because he was, after all, a Black. "What?" she asked, smiling innocently at him, "I don't care how sheltered you were, you can't tell me that you've never seen a traffic light before."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arrogant_black
2010-11-22 02:25 pm UTC (link)

It was clear Juno was on to him, he would have to try harder, but he figured the best time for that was not while he was in a car and he was trying to learn how to drive it. He let this one go.

"I didn't actually pay attention to them before." Which wasn't a lie, it's not like you really had to when riding a motorcycle, you could just weave in and out of traffic, or just fly over traffic it the motorcycle was Sirius'.

"So where to next, Direction Goddess?" They'd reached a point where he had to go left or right, finally, as the most he'd been able to do was about fifteen miles an hour, he was good at paying the honking horns and passing cars no mind.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sacredvessel
2010-11-22 08:09 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, well, my broom is in the shop, so..." Juno shrugged, and smirked at him from the passenger seat. Not that she'd ever really gotten the whole flying broom concept. A flying motorcycle might have actually made sense.

She took a sip of her milkshake and pointed out the window nearest to her. "Take a right here, and the next couple of lefts will be entrances to the park. There's all kinds of side roads and parking lots that wind around the lake and the conservatory, so you can keep cruising around if you want, or pick a scenic spot to...uh...park. So you can eat your lunch, or whatever," she added.

She wasn't sure she wanted to explain about a certain other pastime known as parking. After all, he was a guy; could probably figure that one out on his own.

(Reply to this) (Parent)