Chapter Text
Being a part of TurboTime it was clear that you would never be the main focus of the player's attention but that doesn’t bother you too much, what does bother you was Turbo himself. His egotistical attitude and his inability to be humble were obvious whenever he won but he was arguably worse whenever he lost no matter how few times that was.
If he lost during open hours he always blamed the player, which was fair considering they were controlling him, but if he ever lost during closing hours he would go one of two ways. He would either make up an excuse so he didn’t take the blame for his failure or he would basically throw a fit and smoke alone for a while until he felt better.
Of course you and Turbo aren’t the only two in the game there are also two other characters called the Turbo Twins, the Turbo Twins get the least amount of attention from the Players by far. They don’t care much but they both hate how much Turbo rubbed it in their faces, most players don’t even know their names instead they just call them ‘the Turbo Twins’ which isn't incorrect but doesn’t help them much either. Their names are Shift and Gear but you're one of the few people that actually call them that, not even Turbo calls them that most of the time almost exclusively referring to them as the Turbo Twins.
Despite how annoying Turbo is, Shift and Gear do make an effort to talk to him and invite him to Tapper’s whenever they go, Turbo usually denies their offer but they still try. You tend to hang around the game with him most of the time even though you very much find him annoying, if he hadn’t lost recently he would brag on and on for hours much to your dismay, you just ignore him most of the time and drown out his blabbing with your own thoughts.
Today is just like any other day after closing except for one thing, a new racing game was brought in just yesterday and quickly gained popularity with the kids. You see it through the large screen in the sky, almost right in front of the Turbo-Time cabinet was the flashy new racing game called RoadBlasters.
Turbo is going around the track for about the tenth time tonight, which isn’t unusual for him but he seems more grumpy than he should. You watch him go around for the eleventh time and sigh, Shift and Gear have already gone to Tapper’s for the night and it doesn’t seem like Turbo’s going to stop anytime soon so you decide to go into the workshop to work more on your kart.
”It’s been a while since I’ve worked on you ol gal, how you feelin’?” You walk over and kneel in front of your kart looking at the headlights that have been cracked for some time now. You didn’t care much about how your kart looks considering that with the game graphics nobody could even tell if something was wrong, but you wanted to kill time until Turbo felt better enough to talk to.
As you work replacing the headlights you try to think of anything that could be making Turbo upset, RoadBlasters comes to mind but you don’t get much time to speculate before Turbo walks in huffing and puffing unintelligibly.
“You good, dude?” You ask absentmindedly, whatever he was about to say you know you’re not going to be paying much attention to, you’re used to ignoring his grumpy rants as well as his boasting.
“Have you seen that new game, RoadBlasters?” He spat out the name as if it tasted revolting to even say, he leans against an old stack of tires crossing his arms and grumbling so much it resembles an engine revving.
“Yeah, it seems pretty cool, I get why the kids like it.”
“Ha! Cool? How can you think that overrated mess of tin cans is cool!?” Turbo laughs obnoxiously and walks over to lean on your kart. You prepare yourself for his usual rantings and ravings but when you look up at him he looks at you waiting for an answer instead of just going off on his own tangents.
You put down the broken headlight and stand up, it’s kind of funny standing directly next to him since he’s so much shorter than you but you try not to poke fun at him for it.
“Well, for one, it’s got pretty good graphics don’t you think? Our game doesn’t have that.”
Turbo Scoffs at your remark.
“Better graphics don’t mean much, what’s really important is character! My game’s got more character than that junk box ever will. Y’know, I bet I could beat every one of those ‘hot shots’ without breaking a sweat!” You roll your eyes and smile, despite how much you didn’t like Turbo there was something about him that charmed you.
“Do you break a sweat whenever I beat you?” You smile slyly as Turbo’s face shifts from egocentric to absolutely offended, he stops leaning on your kart and stands in front of you with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out confidently.
“You beating me is pure luck! If I ever actually tried to beat you I’d never lose!” He boasts, you snicker and lean over to match eye to eye with him.
“But you do lose, don’t you? Maybe I’m just better than you think I am!” You straighten your posture to look down at him both literally and figuratively, he grumbles trying to think of a rebuttal but he just growls and goes back to resting against your kart. You continue to work on replacing your headlight and hear him mumbling about RoadBlasters and his own jealous string of thoughts.
You finally finish changing out your headlight and get into your kart, you turn the key and rev the engine filling your body with the energy it has been lacking for the past few hours after closing. You stretch your arms and glance at Turbo who’s decided to sit on the floor and light a cigarette, he takes a quick breath in and out filling the area with smoke along with a smell you’ve gotten very used to over the years.
“Hey, Turbo, you wanna race some more? Bet I can beat ya.” He looks at you and then at his cigarette, he shrugs, takes another quick puff, and walks outside the shop heading back to his kart. You smile and drive out of the shop to meet Turbo at the dirt track you’ve gotten so accustomed to, you see Turbo in his kart holding his cigarette at the edge of his mouth. He gives you a thumbs up and turns to look at you with his classic “Turbo-tastic!” Pose.
The thoughts of RoadBlasters completely dissipates from your mind as you get ready to race to your heart’s content, you know you’ll probably lose but there’s always a chance at victory that you're willing to chase.