trans_9 | [open to anyone stuck in the mazes]

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[open to anyone stuck in the mazes]

With all the preparation for the confrontation with the Ohm, the battle itself, and the immediate aftermath, most of the crew were naturally focused on current events. But some crewmembers weren't so up to date on what was happening.

Mainly because they were stuck running mazes with GLaDOS. No matter what was happening the eternal, endless, quest for cake always continued.

[[ooc: okay, so this is basically just a general running-around-the-mazes log for my characters that are stuck running mazes with GLaDOS. It basically covers about a week before Lirath, Lirath itself, and a couple of days after - so anyone who was GLaDOS'd during that time can tag in. Marco, Celestia, and Daja each have their own thread, and Zita might tag in on occasion with GLaDOS herself if she has time.]]

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In a maze with black floors, glowing blue walls, and rows and rows of floating white spheres lining the hallways, Marco was seriously cursing GLaDOS as he ran along in wolf morph. Because behind him was a giant yellow thing with a big hungry mouth chomping up all the spheres. She'd put him in goddamn Pac Man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBExnfJIhQ8)!

This game was so much less fun when he was actually stuck in it.

Over an endless series of ledges hovering in the air ran Princess Celestia. The Princess was a little perplexed to find herself back in this maze so soon - but at least this time she knew the purpose. As Princess, she knew that taking care of one's health (and one's soul was important), so she cheerfully ran along charging into gigantic star statutes and leaping up to catch the glittering pixies, as instructed. Every now and then a pod of dolphins would leap up beside her, and always as she ran she was accompanied by a catchy tune.

Within an endless array of impossible staircases, Daja was busy just trying to figure out which way was up. She walking along, tapping at the stairs with her staff, and suddenly finding herself walking along what she was sure just a moment ago was really a ceiling, or a wall, or even a staircase on the other side of the room. It was all beginning to give her quite a headache...

Edited 2011-08-27 11:13 (UTC)

Eva's not a fan of being trapped. She's not a fan of dark mazes with eye-searing blue fluorescent lighting. She's not a fan of being 'helpfully' prodded along by GLaDOS.

But most of all, she's not a fan of getting chased around by goddamn Pac Man.

"See what happens if you grab the blinky ones!" she yells at Marco, whose morph makes him significantly faster than her. It may turn Pac Man into a killing machine, but what will it do for them?

<Mom?!> Marco yelped, surprised at the sudden appearance of his mother. He started to slow down, until he was running at Eva's speed. The wolf morph was good for him on his own, but with his mother here too...he didn't want to leave her behind. <When did you get here?>

He glanced up at the blinking sphere ahead of them. With a quick look back to make sure that the Pac Man wasn't going to catch Eva while he went ahead first, Marco darted forward to go and grab it the sphere in his jaws. Target now acquired, he ran back to Eva with it. Okay, so he had the blinking thing. <Now what?> he said, looking up at her. <Are we supposed to eat this thing?>

"About fifteen seconds ago," she says, figuring there's no need to yell since wolf ears can probably pick up her words perfectly.

She ducks down a hallway and Pac Man goes wakka-wakkaing past, then pulls the orb from Marco's mouth. "Do I look like an instruction manual? I just figured we should get it before it makes him stronger!"

<Course you do, you're always telling me what to do, remember?> Marco joked. Then he grinned, with all of those large wolf teeth. <I can get behind not letting him get stronger. Hey, do you think it'd make us stronger if we ate it?>

Without ceremony or warning, Sakura fell from seemingly nowhere upon the poor wolf who was sometimes also Marco, the youth from the as of yet unstated United States of America, a country and nation unknown to her until recent weeks, months, or similarly unclear periods of time.

And it was filled with flailing limbs, and (quite probably) fur.

Of all things, Sakura suddenly falling out of the sky and landing on top of him was not what Marco had expected to happen next. Normally the arrival of Sakura was a good thing, but not so much when he got squished in the process. He yelped, and did some flailing of his own as he attempted to get out from underneath her.

<Will you get off of me?!>

"Marco?" was only a sane response after rolling off a wolf and taking up a defensive posture with her bare hands because of the extraordinary number of times he had spoken to her with thought speak. She was, of course, not trusting this initially. While stuck in here she had encountered many strange things, and now she was tempted to say this was another, if wolves lacked complete symbolism on her world.

Or at least lacked a portion of his version of symbolism, if he knew anything about it, and could serve as an amusing allegory if they didn't end up killing each other or breakingup something she swore wasn't happening in the first place in some spectacularly horrid way.

Either way, that was a while off. She muttered off a number, watching the wolf. It sounded suspiciously like, "Form number..."

<No, I'm Krypto the Superdog,> Marco replied back sarcastically as he crawled to his feet, finally free. <Yes it's me! Who else would I be?>

He watched her, suspicious. Form number? Why the hell was she going on about form numbers?! <Barbie, have you gone completely nuts? What the hell are you going on about?>

No doubt about it.

That sarcasm?

That not quite wit?

That... Well, all of that?

Marco.

"... Thinking about all the forms piling up outside of here while I'm running games to keep my life chakra attached," she said dryly, standing up and dusting her pantsuit off. She had it fully extended, which would say something if Marco were aware of her wearing habits. She looked tired, harried, and about as cheerful as a sack of half-drowned cats. Not kittens, those were cute and pathetic. This was just full blown bedraggled. "Henderson and Anwei are going to be drowning in them by the time I'm back. Unless it's been one day. Fire I hope this has just sheen one very long day."

Oh did she sound tired, and now, the omnomnomming of a friendly neighborhood PacMan was heard in the distance. She looked down the neon black hall.

"Marco," she said after a moment. "There's no chance that's a nice surprise coming, is there?"

Not quite wit? Not quite?! It was completely wit, thank you very much!

<So in other, yes you have gone completely nuts,> Marco said. Seriously, who thinks of work at a time like this? He didn't know what her having the plant-suit on fully meant though - he'd never seen her wear it like that. It was definitely odd though, and made Marco wonder why she'd decided to put it on that way.

Marco didn't look down the corridor - he didn't need to. He already knew exactly what was coming. <That depends. Do you find giant yellow balls that eat everything in their path a nice surprise?>

"You know Naruto?" she quipped in mild surprise, before turning to head in the direction he had been, at a very sedate (for her) jog. "Any patterns to the devouring, or where it turns, or is this more of the endless stalker you can't quite shake off thing?"

Then she sighed, frowning and... Disliking what she was about to ask. "Any chance I could get you into something I can ride?"

Edited 2011-08-30 07:32 (UTC)

<That depends on who's playing the game. That's what this is - it's a video that we've gotten stuck in. And since the one playing the game is GLaDOS...well, you can take a few guesses about what kinds of pattens it follows.>

He send Sakura an odd look. <Why? I've seen you run faster than most of my morphs.>

She kept looking forward, heaving an internal sigh since she couldn't really afford an external one. "Usually I can," she agreed. "When not chakra burnt and working under limitations, which is fine, really, when I have some idea of what's going on, but I threw that out the window when I found myself running mazes through honey. Not literally," she added. "Everything just felt... thick."

She sounded incredibly reluctant to admit any of this, if she was nothing if not aware of her own limitations. "Alternately, you can tell me how this game is supposed to go, and I can see what these floating -- are those cherries? -- objects do."

Even now, Marco couldn't help but take note of some of the limitations on Sakura's abilities. Then he sighed inwardly, and started to demorph.

<Pac Man eats those for points,> he said as he changed. <And usually the game goes with it going around eating everything and avoidi--> Marco's thought-speak cut out, and he had to wait until his his voice-box had changed enough for him to talk again. "Avoiding the ghosts. Touching the ghosts kills it, unless it had gotten to one of the blinking dots first. Then Pac Man can eat them."

Edited 2011-08-30 08:00 (UTC)

"... And all of this makes sense to you. That's amazing." She shook her head, looking back toward the munching monster. Or her best guess where it would show itself. "It'd be nice if a sheet with some eyeholes in it and a spooky call would count enough to drive it away."

She was starting to look thoughtful. It would stretch her, but maybe... Enough for that?

"Hey, Pac Man is awesome fun. Well, not so much when you've been thrown into the game and getting chased around, but when you're actually playing it it's fun," Marco said, finishing his demorph and starting to morph again immediately. He figured horse made the most sense - not really good in a battle, but a dragon wouldn't fit in here and the rhino couldn't see properly, so horse it was.

"Knowing GLaDOS, she's probably made it so that this Pac Man can't get hurt bigh grrrshts eeneghchwarrrrrs..." Marco said, his speech coming out garbled his his head and neck morphed. A moment later, and he was fully morphed.

Sakura wasn't sure what he was at first, if it penetrated a moment late. A horse! Of course!

"Her program paramewhatevers stops her from actually killing us, doesn't it? So what the hell is the big idea in trying?" and now it was slightly grumpy hour, cumulatively because she'd asked for help, there was a giant yellow head bearing down on them, Marco was a valiant steed, which was hilarious in and of itself, and she... Had no idea how to ride outside of the whole dragon thing.

She also had less chakra available, barring on none, without risking significant backlash and longer term burnout. Well, time to learn another new skill. "Ah, you're tall, all of a sudden," she said by way of trying not to so obviously eye him over to figure the horse out.

<Yes, but they don't stop her from casing pain, do they?> Marco pointed out. He looked back at the Pac Man, feeling particularly skittish thanks to the horse's instincts. The horse knew the Pac Man was a predator, and it didn't want to stand around.

<Now can you shut up about my height and get the hell on?> he said, sounding irritated.

It was a step up from yelling woman, get on my horse. Not that Sakura knew that, of course.

She leaped on, landing with a pained thump because the back of a horse was not meant for cushioned landings, and hurt a bone of hers Marco would be lucky to hear about in other contexts (kind of) with no real comment other then a sharp intake of air and two hands twinning their way into his mane. "Ready whenever," she said, not bothering to look back, and clamping her legs tightly to his much less round horse barrel.

Marco stumbled a bit, not expecting her to leap on as if he was a cushioned landing. <Could you try to, I don't know, not jump on me like you're trying to do a hippo impression?!> Marco said. She was the one who went and demanded a ride! The least she could do was get on without injuring him in the process.

But Pac Man was coming, and if they were going to keep arguing - well, they could do that as they ran. Marco bolted, thundering down the corridors and pulling ahead of the Pac Man.

Were hippos some kind of monkey? She had half a mind to tell him she had seen blatantly stupider versions of this when researching for Analog, and that based on his build and more facts than he would bother listening to that he would be fine, but then he bolted.

She held on tight, ducked down low by his neck and not arguing due to a current need to not let her muscles sieze up or slide off in either direction. Maybe Marco had never benefited from riding s horse bareback at a gallop, but Sakura was fast learning how heart in throat that experience could be.

Bizarrely, part of her loved it.

... Maybe, just maybe, Marco had a point about the relative sanities of people from her home. Or her. Not like he knew anyone else from her world. Which made her think about home, and nations, and she had a question she sat on much like Marco himself as she noted the most odd shift in relative location... For one, the black and neon was fading in favor of light? Thunder rolled up behind them, and she chanced a look to the right.

Into the flaring nostrils and white eye of a horse with a small man, smaller than Sakura, squirreled up tight on the base of its neck. What in themship...?!

Well, generally Marco was the horse, as opposed to the person riding it. He didn't know a thing about horse riding. (But it couldn't be that hard, right? You just had to sit there and hold on. It's not like he was a real horse that you had to know the commands for, after all).

But before Marco could think on that too much, the scene suddenly changed. He reared slightly, startled by the new explosion of sights and sounds. <What?!> he said, blinking. <A racetrack?>

All around them were crowds cheering, and other horses being ushered into the gates. Why the hell had GLaDOS put them here?

Then, just as suddenly as they'd ended up here, half of Marco's vision was blocked out - by the blinkers that had appeared. And they weren't the only thing - in an instant, Marco had also acquired a brightly coloured saddle and a bridle.

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[open to anyone stuck in the mazes]

Marco

Celestia

Daja

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