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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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.

Sakura had earned a rather garishly colored outfit, though she couldn't see much of it herself. "I hate this technology," she ground out, twitching her hand and the accompanying crop she 'held' in it. Looking to the side, she straightened up, Marco's pace altered as someone approached them both.

"Gotta get 'im in the gates," the little man said, reaching for Marco's reins. Sakura pulled them up, out of his reach, if it was an awkward tug on Marco's mouth at the same time.

"Which one?" she asked, sounding grumpy. She didn't want to play along, and it was evident in her tone of voice.

"Three," their would-be leader said, frowning up at her. "Get going, we don't have all day."

Only they did.

Hell, they had all week!

"You heard the man," she groused, muttering at Marco under her breath. "Are things like this common on your world?"

Pity Marco couldn't see Sakura at all right now (he really wasn't a fan of blinkers, he'd decided), because he'd have loved to make fun of her getup. <Hey, don't pull!> he said. Okay, reins were another thing Marco didn't like.

<Wait, you guys don't have horse races?> he said, taking a few unsure steps - although not actually in the direction of the gates. <And oh man, I have to race? That's so not fair! I can't even bet!>

"They may, in some of the rich civilian cities, but I haven't heard of them. I hadn't seen a horse for myself until you. I've never ridden anything until you." Outside of boats or piggyback.

"The gates are to your right, by the way." Sakura shifted, leaning her weight the direction she wanted him to go. "Unless you want to get off the field and see what happens."

The helpful gate man was back, and Sakura held her crop out at him, pointing. "We're going," she said, eyes narrowing.

He backed off again, rolling his eyes.

Maybe he and Marco were related.

Who knew who GLaDOS based these characters on.

... Who knew GLaDOS did any of this, really!

<Fine, but if it turns out that the racetrack turns into a lava pit or something, I am totally blaming you,> Marco said, ironically rolling his eyes. Or at least attempting to. It was kinda weird when you had horse eyes. Going into a trot, he walked over to the gates and calmly walked inside.

Well, calm until he actually got into the gates. Cassie had freaked out too, when she'd ended up in one of these - but somehow it hadn't really occurred to Marco to consider that, and once he got in the horse's instincts took over. The gate was too small - he was trapped! In a mild panic, Marco reared up. (Yup, Marco definitely didn't like this either.)

"Yes, because I regularly turn things into pits of boiling rock on you."

... Yes, she was definitely feeling fatigued with the whole GLaDOS situation. Which was fine and dandy until he was rearing up, which felt like a stupidly dangerous situation. She ended up yanking on the reins accidentally before hugging his neck, clinging to him and shouting, "Marco, calm down!" and sounding more exasperated than concerned.

She half figured he was having her for a lark, except for the fact that he wasn't usually this piss poor in choosing the timing of his jests. Or jests like this at all. Marco liked using words.

Probably because those could be tossed out on the run. Not everyone could string sentences together most the time.

Then the gate closed behind him, and something blared. The gate in front of Marco swung open, and they were both faced with open track.

Open track, and fourteen other lunging horses all at once.

"Okay, go!" And please, please, please don't do anything that will get her thrown off. The chakra she'd waste making sure her fall wasn't injurous would be more than she quite had back yet.

Damn GLaDOS for not having provisions for soldier pills!

Edited 2011-09-02 09:14 (UTC)

<You try being stuck in a box when you've got a horse's instincts, and we'll see how calm you are!> Marco said, trying to fight the horse's panic. He didn't have to for long though, because then the gate opened.

Freedom!

Sakura hadn't needed to tell Marco to go - he was outta there. The horse wanted to run, and so Marco ran, thundering down the track. Definitely time to hold on tight, because Marco was running at full speed. <Ya-hah!> he yelled.

She dropped the crop in order to cling to his wiry mane with her fingers, feeling his hair cut into her circulation as she ducked down close and did her damndest not to bounce around like a useless deadweight. It was harder than she'd thought, and very different from when he was a dragon -- different even from earlier trying to ride. With how she'd found her legs in stirrups, she near felt like she'd fall off, and she didn't have the technique down that the other riders appeared to know.

They thundered toward the first turn, Sakura forcing her eyes open to keep track of what the hell was going on.

Marco though, was pretty much paying no attention to how well Sakura was holding on. She was nothing more than a minor distraction - all his attention was focused solely on the run. Real horses might need to pay attention to their riders, but Marco wasn't a real horse.

With the way Marco was running at full-speed, he'd pulled ahead of the other horses. But unlike him, they had their riders to rein in their energy, and Marco didn't know enough about horse racing to know that he'd need that energy for the final stretch.

Paired with Sakura, who knew a lot about racing as a person, and nothing of racing as a horse, it didn't mean much for winning. They came around the second bend, now on that final stretch -- and that's when a sorrel to their left started pulling ahead, rider letting the reins out.

With the blinkers blocking his vision, Marco couldn't see the other horse at all until he was pulling ahead of him. He was beginning to regret running at full force now - he muscles were aching - but he wasn't really ready to give up. Hey, if Cassie could win a horse race, then he damn well could too!

So he tried to ignore the pain, and push through.

Which wasn't necessarily the wisest course of action, if he'd asked Sakura, but then again he was also male. This meant he should do what he was doing anyway, because that was just what guys do.

Sakura had a very interesting world-view.

Managing to stay on and not bounce at odds to Marco's pace, she saw the finish line approaching as they had another twenty-five yards down the stretch. "Go!" she shouted, moving the reins up his neck to reduce the pull on his mouth down to nothing more than the weight of the leather itself as it slapped lightly against his neck. "Someone's coming up on the left!"

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