Car culture

[melannen]

If you wrote your characters into an AU where they were part of a culture/setting where they were expected to have cars, what would they drive? (Or if they are already there in canon, what do they drive?)

I have this thing where I know just enough about Car Culture to have opinions on this, but not enough to be secure in my answers.



(Brought to you by the modern-Southern-Gothic Locked Tomb AU I keep playing with in my head and will probably never write, where I think, but am not sure and could be argued otherwise:

1. The First - John drives a Tesla. Mercy drives a rose-gold Subaru station wagon. Augustine I think drives what might be a classic muscle car but it's hard to tell under all the dents and grime and patches. Gideon drives a vintage Land Rover. Cytherea gets other people to drive her.

2. The Second drive a Ford police interceptor.

3. The Third - Coronabeth drives a pink Cadillac XT5. Babs drives a red Mazda MX-5. Ianthe drives a hearse.

4. The Fourth - They share Isaac's mom's old PT cruiser.

5. The Fifth - Some kind of mom van/SUV, in green. And also a meticulously restored old VW bug, because they're *cool* moms.

6. The Sixth - Sex Pal drives a Prius. Camilla drives a Jeep.

7. The Seventh - Dulcie is medically restricted from driving, but is lethal with a scooter. Protesilaus has a van with both kids' car seats and a wheelchair lift.

8. The Eighth has some kind of overpriced penis extension pickup truck (probably a lifted Silverado?), in spotless white.

9. The Ninth - Gideon has a small, ancient, beat-up pickup. Harrow has a black Honda Element that was once her parents'. Ortus drives a tow truck.)

Comments

[halojedha]

Of COURSE John drives a Tesla. I bet there are bones on it somewhere too.

[melannen]

That is one I'm pretty much sure of!:D

I don't think it's like, obnoxiously full of bones (unlike, say, Harrow's.) But he has at least one hot-topic-goth magnet on the bumper about how spoopy he is, because he thinks it shows he's down with the young people. And actual human phalanges hanging from the rearview mirror that he tells people are knucklebones for good luck, because he thinks he's clever.

[stellar_dust]

Since you introduced me to Locked Tomb by saying it's basically homestuck fic, I have been headcanoning John as Egbert on an extended god-tier power trip, and I'm pretty sure this is definitely a picture of him entering the River.

[melannen]

Yes. Truth.
(Oh man how many shipping diagrams do you think the Undying Prince, Lord of the Unborn Sun has hidden at the back of his clipboard?)

[stellar_dust]

Allllllll of the shipping grids. He gets upset when he loses lyctors because it means he has to cross out some of the possibilities DD:

[melannen]

He needs more lyctors, three isn't enough for a grid (And why didn't anyone *tell* him to add Wake to the chart? It works much better that way!)

[primeideal]

I do not know enough about car culture to say this for most of my fandoms. However, it is canon that Elfangor (from Animorphs)' first experience with a car is a yellow Mustang and he loves it so much he gets one when he moves to Earth. <3

[melannen]

....are you sure that wasn't Bumblebee from Transformers?

[stellar_dust]

Also, I don’t think Ortus drives a tow truck. I think he owns a used VW golf, but out and about you are much more likely to see him driving a tractor down a two-lane county highway with half a mile of very annoyed commuters behind him, which he doesn’t notice because he’s in the middle of his 17th listen to Wheel of Time on audiobook.

[melannen]

He drives a tow truck because of the very specific needs of the AU I'm playing with, but you are right, driving farm equipment on the highway also works. (The Golf is a diesel.)

[stellar_dust]

When he drives the tow truck it’s only because his mom wants him to be a mechanic like his dad was and he hasn’t worked up the nerve to tell her he hates it yet.

Also, yes diesel.

[melannen]

Well, yes, obviously the towing business is his mom's and he only works there because he hasn't got rich from his writing and quit yet.

[azurelunatic]

I would put Gideon in an ancient Cadillac boat, bought for $800 in cash at a corner gas station. It's been painstakingly restored but she really wants a very fast muscle car.

[melannen]

Whatever she drives, she bought it for $800 cash at a corner gas station and fixed it up herself. This is true. Also that her dream car is a very fast muscle car.

The Cadillac boat is also valid. I put her in a truck because I see her doing work/hobbies where the truck is needed, and she is also 100% definitely the person everybody calls when they need to move a couch or take a load of old metal to the dump, but I think the specific vehicle depends mostly on what was available for $800 at the corner gas station when she turned 16. Probably she has one of each, and the land yacht is named Crux and the truck is named Aiglamene. They are both old and butch and get absolutely shitty gas mileage, either way.

[hannah]

I write post-canon Spike as driving an Olds 88, because he loves his long, black "don't fuck with me" American cars.

Similarly, Buffy drives a sensible Toyota-type car, because she just wants a simple, reliable vehicle that can carry stuff and she has enough things to worry about beyond getting from place to place. Though if she has to go a long way, she leverages her resources for private jets - because, again, she has enough things to worry bout already.

[melannen]

Those both sound accurate!

Although I feel like Buffy would go for a sporty, fun little car if she thought she could. She'll just always buy the boring one first.