Flashing yellow lights reflect off her windows as a flatbed truck unloads a 1980 Lincoln Continental Mark VI in her driveway. Lulu Luck had found the car on the internet and purchased it sight unseen. The clunker hasn’t run in almost twenty years, but that’s okay. Lulu’s training to be a mechanic, and she wants something to tinker with. The thought of restoring a wreck to roadworthy condition makes her giddy enough to prance in place.
Her excitement fades as she starts examining the car. It’s a lot rougher than the ad had made it out to be. The fact that the engine doesn’t run isn’t surprising – she’d known that when she purchased the car. But the rest is disappointing. Rust is bubbling under what’s left of the vinyl roof, and there’s rust in the rear wheelwells. Most of the trim is missing, the hood ornament is long gone, one of the corner lights is broken, and there’s a pair of random holes in the hood for no discernible reason. The lettering that’s supposed to spell out Continental on the car’s trunk spells ‘N T N A’ now.
It’s rough, but it’s hers. The hood doesn’t sit level, which she thinks is odd. She opens it, finding that one of the hinges is gone, and that the hood is also bent. It’s then that she realizes the ‘random’ holes in the hood had been for hoodpins to keep the hood shut, like on a racecar. The catalytic converter is gone; stolen for its platinum content. She looks up the cost of replacing it, and it’s more than what she paid for the car.
The passenger-side rear door is jutting out, refusing to fully close, and Lulu tries to push it closed to no avail. She applies more pressure. Something has to give… and it’s the door. One of her hooves breaks through the rotted door as easily as if she’d been ripping paper. The door is still slightly ajar.
Lulu stares at the hole her hoof has inadvertently punched through the rusty rear door. The more she digs into it, the more she realizes this car has the structural integrity of Swiss cheese. There’s a reason this car was so cheap, and that reason is because it’s junk.
It would cost more to get this wreck roadworthy than it would be to just buy two nice examples of the same car.
Restoration is out. Hot rodding is out. There’s just no saving this poor car. The best use for it is parts.
[CHOICE]The car’s too far gone to fix. What should she do with it?
>Lulu decides that if she can’t restore it, she’ll have some fun with it instead. (chaos)
>Lulu gets discouraged and scraps the car. (villain)