[open to anyone stuck in the mazes]

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

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.]]

Comments

[encourage]

"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!

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

<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.)

[encourage]

"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!

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

<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.

[encourage]

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.

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

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.

[encourage]

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.

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

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.

[encourage]

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!"