Chariot Race [November 2012]

Subject: Chariot Race [November 2012] Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:54 am

Quintus smoothed down his gray hair, using one armor-gloved hand to pat the soft wisps to the side while the crowd buzzed and roared. In front of him, below his wooden stand, was a line of chariots. Each chariot was different, unique with the symbols of their respective cabins on them. Participating in the race were seven different cabins, lined up according to their situation in the courtyard: Poseidon, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus, their chariot being the farthest away from Quintus' current position. He chewed his bottom lip in excited anticipation, eyes surveying each of the vehicles carefully. All of them looked dangerously sleek, their builders doing commendable jobs. Weapons were revealed on some of the chariots, but he was sure that most were kept hidden for surprise attacks mid-race. He nodded in approval to himself, then turned to face the crowd. On the top of his little house was a microphone, and when he spoke on the intercom at his side, his voice boomed over the loudspeaker, quickly drawing in the attention of the event's spectators.

"Welcome, one and all, to another Camp Half Blood Chariot Race!" He smiled, a charming, mischievous smile and the crowd roared. Campers threw up banners and pointed at their fan-made shirts. Satyrs stomped their hooves on the floors of the stands and bleated happily. Even Dionysus didn't looks as miserable as usual, his face expressionless as he sipped a diet coke, as opposed to his usual bitter scowl. Chariot races didn't happen all that often at camp anymore. But when they did, they were extremely lively and violent, with vehicles crashing and drivers driven into the dirt. Better than paper-viewing wrestling matches by far. And Quintus expected this event to be no different.

Each Chariot was lined with at least one driver, and at most two, each one of them having something in common. They all stared forward, eyes blazing with determination, fixed on the road ahead. Hopefully, they would not disappoint.

"As you know, we have a few ground rules. Each chariot is currently at the starting line. The starting line is also the finish line. You must do two entire laps around the track and pass this line for your second time before any other chariot. This is how you are proclaimed winner."

He cleared his throat and eyed every driver. "It's been four races since anyone has died, and we'd like to add another race to that record. Try your hardest not to maim or kill other campers, whether they be on the track, at the booths or in the bleachers! You'll be put in time out if you do." The sea of faces on the bleachers turned to one another and giggled, but Quintus continued in a strong, unwavering voice. "Apollo medics are on standby should an accident happen, and will be able to tend to the wounded after the race if it's not an emergency. But expect to take a few hits! This isn't just a race, after all." He smirked, the mischief returning in his voice. "It's a fight. Use your weapons, attack the other drivers. Don't let them cross that line before you!"

The armored man had a way with words. Even Dionysus was at full (or at least like 70%) attention. Those at the booths had a hard time diverting their eyes from the track and back to their jobs and purchases. "When I wave this flag down, you will begin. On your marks."

Every spectator grew silent.

"Get set."

People leaned forwards in their seats, squinting their eyes against the sun for a better view.

"GO!" The flag was pulled down, waving in the artificially created wind.

Without missing a beat the chariots took off, and so did the fans, throwing arms up in the air and standing on their toes, jumping around and shrieking.

Quintus sat back in his chair and adjusted the black bodyplate he wore with a smile, hearing the thundering of hooves and the battle cries of the chariot warriors. The race was on.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:59 pm

Time seemed to slow to a trickle as Quintus prepared the line of racers for the start. He swallowed back fear and grounded himself into the bronze box, bracing his legs against the cushioned stabilizers he'd added last minute. More of a comfort thing than anything else, since the cybernetic unicorns could pull, and they could pull hard. The horse power was unbelievable, and it had taken all his restraint not to cut springs and make his chariot like a low-riding car bouncing up and down. He did, however, allow himself fluorescent blue lights on the under side of the chariot, just to make it look kind of cool.

As soon as the word "go" was called, Grayson jerked the reigns up and slapped them down, triggering the two robotic monsters in the front to lurch forward and speed off in par with the rest of the chariots.

It was unfortunate for Dionysus that they ended up farthest away from the bleachers, as that seemed to be the safest place for the drivers to send weaponry that wouldn't hurt the crowd. It was also extremely unfortunate that Dionysus was gaining lead, rushing ahead in just a few seconds. Grayson hooked the reigns onto magnetic strips on the front rim of the chariot and moved his newly freed hands to what looked like a built in ipad with a green grid on it and side bar of fantastically dangerous weaponry that he and the rest of the cabin had spent the last several weeks inconspicuously installing. The height of the chariot wasn't simply for show--a majority of the weapons came out of cannons and missile launchers that would open up towards the bottom of their bronze contraption.

Tiny bleeps showed up on the grid as soon as Grayson punched in his password and estimated coordinates. His dragonfly, which had been wired to the front of the chariot as a mast of sorts, used its heat sensing ability to verify it, and on the grid yellow dots stood for the chariots racing around him. Grayson used his finger to tap on the one in front, Dionysus, and a menu of options came up. He figured soda sticky launchers would be appropriate, and executed the command. A metal circle on the bottom of the chariot turned, and a nozzle appeared. It aligned with the Dionysus chariot, now getting farther ahead, and spewed out fist sized capsules like a machine gun, most of them hitting the spokes and exploded a brown material across them. The liquid was primarily filled with starch, and enchanted with a few secret Hephaestus concoctions (never doubt their chemistry abilities) and it oozed across the hub and rivets, mashing together and creating a web like material. The wheels eventually stopped moving, and the horses that dragged the chariot along had something of a difficult time pulling a stationary wooden box. Grayson beamed proudly as he and the rest of the chariot racers passed Dionysus and left their cabin in the dust.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:09 pm

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: Act I. Scene II.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chariot Race [November 2012] Iris

The Aphrodite chariot was a thing of beauty as well as functional. The main body of the chariot was a metallic, fiery hot red with swirling, sparkling white designs and ornate, graceful silver wheels that had a pink tint to them. Lining the sides of the chariot was two stripes of squares, perfectly polished mirrors.

Iris had just slid into the chariot when Quintus began speaking, mouth quirked up at one corner in a confident smile. She mouthed a "Whew" at Paris and bared her teeth in a smile as she looked away. She half listened to what Quintus was saying, the roar of the crowd a dull buzz in the background. It was fair to say that even though the chariot race hadn't even started, Iris' heart wasn't in it. The only reason she was driving was because nobody had wanted to other than Paris - which wasn't all too surprisingly come to think of it. One person who signed up was still one more than she had expected, though.

When I wave this flag down, you will begin. Iris was shaken out of her thoughts and gripped the reigns, knuckles white and prominent as she held the reigns almost too tight in her anxiousness. She wasn't a proud person - and she inwardly admitted to herself that she was more than a little nervous.
On your marks. Maybe more than just a little. Iris' muscles tensed up and her eyes flicked from side to side as she watched the other drivers. They hadn't even started but she felt the pressure. A warm, thorny and sharp numbness pricked at her neck and cheeks in the anticipation.
Get set. Had he said that someone had died in one of these races? And what was the consequence for maiming or killing other campers? Time out?

Go. Although her arms felt extraordinarily heavy, Iris' flicked her reigns up and quickly back down again like any other chariot driver. The white stallions sprang forward and they were off. As soon as the initial shock faded, Iris almost felt... gleeful. Almost gleeful to let out a loud woop - but she thankfully repressed that urge. Driving a chariot wasn't so bad, she didn't know what she had been so nervous about. Driving the chariot felt great. Watching Hephaestus take down Dionysus with ease cause several of her initial worries to resurface, however.

Now trailing just behind the Hephaestus and Poseidon chariot, Iris drew up beside the Hermes and Athena chariots. Holding the reigns with her left hand, she turned to Paris and gestured toward the controls on his side of the chariot. "The lights!" She shouted over the noise of the chariot wheels and the pounding of the horse hoofs. She motioned toward the switch that controlled the bright floodlights installed on both sides of the chariot.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
so this is the end of the story / everything we had, everything we did / is buried in dust
eyes wide open (gotye)

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:37 pm

Chariot Race [November 2012] Tumblr_lat8avYsov1qepg3ao1_500_large

june helen prenston

June felt surprisingly small wielding the reigns in the dark red Ares chariot. It was a war machine, equipped with a few hidden tricks in case they needed to play dirty. Mostly, the chariot allowed James to tow around a hole heck of a lot of weapons while still allowing the chariot to be pretty aerodynamic. It was more dangerous than it was fast, but defenses where half of the race, right? On the smooth-turning wheels, June had demanded they hide spikes that could pop out and grind into other chariots at the push of a small red button. The sides of the sleak but long chariot were decorated with metal racing stripes, hiding knives that James could easily bend down and grab. As her black horses smashed together, June grasped the ropes tighter in her hands and stared off into the crowd, looking for a familiar face though knowing there would be no one. People didn't like June. The Ares kids would only be routing for her because they liked winning. Figures.

Glancing excitedly at James, June flashed a fake grin. "I trust you not to hesitate to take someone down," she confirmed, nodding slowly before turning back to watch the track. On go, June stopped thinking like a human and allowed herself to fall into a sink or swim mindset. It was familiar, like nestling back into her old skin. She whipped her wrists and cracked the reigns, taking off at full gallop and laughing at her own adrenaline. She was slightly behind Dionysus, who was pulling ahead with ease. That wasn't going to be okay, but June eventually decided to let someone else take care of them. Soon enough, Grayson did. June burst into laughter, but quickly regained her focus, not wanting to get into some sort of crash. Her hands weren't shaking, and she didn't let on that she was nervous, but she was unwilling to let herself lose the race for her entire cabin. They would never let her hear the end of it. "We let Tiny race. Of course we lost." She could already hear the monsters taunting her.

Filled with anger, June kept up a steady lead, though she wasn't pulling any farther ahead. She didn't want to make herself vulnerable, but she was too focused on driving to worry about James. As if it was second nature, June grasped the reigns with one hand, turned around, made adjustments after feeling a lurch and quickly threw a knife towards the rest of the chariots. It clinked into some sort of metal, but had done no real damage, unless the driver had been distracted. Unhappy with the throw, June grabbed another knife, swerved to make a turn, and flicked her wrist. The knife flew and sunk into a chariot, though she wasn't sure which one. Hopefully that was enough distraction to allow her chariot to keep their lead. Once word spread that Ares was throwing knives? There wouldn't be many cabins wanting to fight with them. "Scare them," June instructed over the sound of the wind whipping the girl in her face. "Some of them have real powers. We need to scare them into giving up already."

June was smiling with genuine enjoyment. The sound of people shouting was settling. The crack of reigns felt right. For once, her mind was off Caleb and her father, and on something that could easily become an escape. Without giving it any thought, June let out a happy cry, though it sounded an awful lot like an evil laugh. Maybe it was. June wasn't above sounding evil, playing evil, being evil.

built a wall around my heart

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:51 am

feed the fire, break your vision

Was James nervous that he was about to partake in a sport that may end up killing him? Hell no. If anything, the co-cabin leader of Ares got quite the adrenaline rush from the idea of slashing away at other chariots whilst trying not to fall from his own. James just wanted another victory for his cabin, and it was in his nature to be ruthless and merciless until he got it. At least, that's what everyone thought of him. He was starting to turn into the cruel teenager that everyone expected him to be, even if he did have a sensitive but hidden side. Or, he used to.

Armed with a wide variation of weapons within the chariot that they were racing in, James had to admit that he was pretty confident that they would win. He would probably end up hurting himself or someone else, seeing as June was taking over the role of driver, but he knew that it was a suitable price to pay for victory. His ice blue eyes looked over to her as she addressed him, sharing a nod before turning the spear over in his hands and getting ready. "Of course I won't." He promised her, a snide smirk twisting upon his foul lips as his turned again. He scared himself in a way, that the fifteen year old could behave this cruelly and have so little remorse on the outside, but that was who camp expected him to be.

Had you ever heard of a caring Ares cabin-leader? He didn't think so.

Then they set off, and James gripped his weapon tighter within his well sculptured fist. They were setting off quite fast, and he had to keep his feet well-positioned considering he was standing. June was telling him what to do, and he wanted to point out to her that he wasn't just the muscle in this operation, but he honestly couldn't be bothered. He was just glad that he got to realise his stress on the disgustingly beautiful chariots that were racing besides them. The corner of his eye caught the glistening of sunlight off a blade and his eyebrows raised when he discovered that June was throwing knives. Good. James waited for a chariot to come close enough to theirs before stabbing at it, not sure who's it was exactly. Perhaps Hermes? He wasn't sure; he didn't spend time remembering who looked after what cabin. They all looked the same to him. They all looked like idiots.

ooc; sue me

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:54 pm

Chariot Race [November 2012] Tumblr_m6kuwk49wu1rsjiwio1_r1_500

Nolan William Lewis
Son of Hermes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nolan grips the reigns of the chariot, and bites his lip. He is comletely terrified, he has know idea what he's doing. He really hadn't planned on being the one to end up driving the Hermes chariot. He thought some of his siblings would have signed up, but no they hadn't. Now because of that Nolan finds himself behind the reigns of a chariot, with no idea what he's doing.

Biting his lip, he makes the horses go faster. Nothing would be more embarrashing than losing, he atleast needed to beat someone. Though judging his lack of exerience, they wouldn't win. Looking ahead he notices another chariot not to far ahead of theres. Maybe he could pass them. He wasn't positive but it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Hold on I'm going to try passing them"he says over his shoulder to his half-brother Vinnie, who happens to be his co-leader, and defender. Nolan was pretty sure Vinnie didn't really want to be here either, but he wasn't sure. Staring straight ahead, Nolan flicks the reigns, and the chariot starts to gain speed. Up ahead the other chariot was nearing the turn. He could do this, he will pass this chariot.

ooc: not my best post.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:00 am

Chariot Race [November 2012] Tumblr_meenebYMKU1r8bnq5o1_500

skye

Skye swallowed, scratching the back of her head as she did. The chariot races were finally here. There had been lots of planning going into the chariot the Poseidon cabin had built. It was painted a sea green with golden accents, and a blue trident was painted to the front. The sides were decorated with patterns of waves and storms brewing. It looked pretty standard, made of metal. However, the chariot was a lot thicker than it looked. Dozens of weapons were hidden throughout the chariot, providing different sneak attacks if they ever got too close to another chariot. Skye had a utility belt strapped around her waist, various weapons adorning the blue fabric. Throwing knives, small bottles of water, and even small smoke bombs were the basics. Skye felt ready for the race. Nervous, as it was her first, but ready.
Missing, however, was a classic whip. Because Skye was able to communicate with the horses, she didn't feel the need to harm them. Come on, she wasn't freaking PETA. It was just easier without a whip.
She had been practicing with a sword a lot more than usual, feeling the need to stop with her dagger and bow for awhile and focus on the most standard weapon at camp. Skye was never very good at wielding swords, preferring the small and easy control of a knife.
Quintus was telling the racers to get ready. Skye adjusted the quiver on her back, quickly counting her arrows. She only brought 10? It better last. 'Way to plan, Skye,' she told herself, shaking her head. She cracked her knuckles, gathering the leather reigns in her hand, adjusting the arrows back into place.
Skye looked to the stands, spotting a couple of her siblings, but not seeing anyone she knew. Jared wouldn't have bothered to come, Jimmy was working the booth with some other kids, and Kylee was right behind her, being the fighter. She trusted Kylee with her life, and really hoped she didn't disappoint in the race, but she knew Kylee was too stubborn for that. Winning was the only option in their minds.
For a split second, Skye's thoughts wandered to her father. Would he be watching? Would he be rooting for them? She sure hoped so, but Skye tried not to think about it too much. He was a god, very busy...
Go! he said, and Skye flicked her wrists, clutching the leather reigns as if they were a life line, her knuckles turning white from the tightness. She started a split second behind the other cabins, her mind too distracted to focus properly. They were just behind most of the chariots for a few moments, but they eventually caught up.
Dionysus was out very early, Grayson from the Hephaestus cabin taking them out.
Skye spoke to one of the horses driving her chariot in her mind, bribing him to run even faster than he already was.
'Lot's of carrots are waiting for you at the stables if you run faster!' she told her horse, whose name was apparently Sir Davy. Interesting.
Skye felt pretty good, up until a whirring sound whizzed by her hand. A knife had pierced the side of their chariot! She looked around, keeping one eye on the track when she saw the culprit: the Ares cabin leader, June.
'What a surprise,' she thought, dislodging the knife from the side of the chariot and attaching it to her belt. The side wasn't badly damaged at all, so she figured they would be fine. However, she still looked back at Kylee with a daring grin on her face.
"Payback time," she said, drawing one of the throwing knives from her belt.
She aimed it towards the Ares chariot, which wasn't very easy while driving a chariot, and did her best to flick it toward the wheels. She knew after throwing it that it landed a little higher than that, but she couldn't tell whether or not it actually hit the side of the chariot. Skye knew that with it being Ares, they had tons of hidden weapons all over that death machine, but she had hoped she had at least damaged one.
Skye turned her focus back to driving the chariot, as they came around the first turn.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:41 am

Kylee Abigail Reeds
Daughter of Poseidon

Kylee felt herself grinning as she stood in the back of the chariot, ready to fight for the victory. She was proud to call the chariot Poseidon's, with the sea green paint job and heavy metal that would protect them during the race. The demigod hadn't been this excited in a long time, and guessed that others felt the same way. This was obviously Cabin three's time to shine, being that their father practically made this sport up.
Kylee looked at the stands for a quick moment, looking for anyone she knew. Considering she didn't really socialize much, she didn't see any of her friends. Or Aiden. Chewing the bottom of her lip, the demigod pulled her hair back into a ponytail, not wanting it to get in her way while fighting. Her wrist gripped her sword tightly, the three foot metal sparkling in the broad sunlight.
She glared at the other chariots, seeing the mobile death machines take their place on the line as well. Kylee took a moment to look at her own belt, and see what exactly she had place in it. The demigod hadn't been thinking clearly at the time, her mind wandering to the day of the races. Now, however, she felt that her mind was clam and confident. A rare occurrence, but Kylee wasn't going to take her state of mind for granted. She was to focused, stubborn, and cocky to let any other cabin claim the victory.
Kylee slid her fingers along her belt, feeling anything from Greek fire to water bottles. When in doubt, be by water, she would always think. Even if it was stored in a plastic bottle, the demigod thought it calmed her a bit.
Hearing 'GO!' caught Kylee a bit off guard. Had her thought been that far off? Apparently. She stood facing forward, seeing that Cabin Three was behind for a split second. The demigod was relieved to see cabin 12 be taken back by Greyson from Nine, and then they were able to catch back up. Kylee had to admit, she would've preferred if Puzzle, her horse, had been the one to drive the chariot, but she guessed that would be cheating, which honestly, she wouldn't have minded.
Tightening her grip on her main weapon even more, she glared at the other drivers and fighters, mentally challenging them. Kylee was itching for a fight, and couldn't wait to take out more chariots. She pictured the look on June's or James' face when they won. Smirking, she grabbed a smoke bomb from her belt.
Nodding at Skye, matching her grin, she watched the cabin leader's knife sparkle in the sunlight before ending up somewhere on the chariot of Cabin Five. Switching hands with her sword now in her left, Kylee threw the bomb at the Ares Cabin's, as if to say 'You mess with the bull, you get the horns,' "I hope they got the message," she said, smirking devilishly. The smoke bomb's had a small radius, and would create a thick smoke around the area which it had landed on. Kylee couldn't tell exactly where it landed, but knew it would cause something to happen either way.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:38 pm

The sun glimmered off the metallic gray siding of the narrow Hephaestus cabin chariot, sparkling through the spokes of the titanium wheels as it spun around the corner, towed by two monstrous tanking horses that steamed out of their heavy muzzles and kicked up track dirt as they flew. Grayson had latched the reigns to the chariot and, because the horses had already been programmed with the parameters of the race and the direction and speed they needed to run, his chariot was essentially on autopilot. It was necessary, see as how he was the only person it contained, and he kind of needed his hands for other things, like blowing people up.

Mind stirring in an dangerously unsettling fashion that tended to spring into gear when the boy was in a pinch, his fingers traced over several keyboards, some physically paneled into the rim of the chariot and wired down to the arsenal below, and some that could only been seen with a keen eye, holographic boards that were screened up surrounding him. It looked like Grayson might've been playing an extremely intense game of battleship.

He spun to the side, crouched down and plugged in a command. 'USERNAME: GDOG. PASSWORD: ***** INITIATING SEQUENCE O.M.E.G.A.' There was a whir of gears and a low buzz from the horses as their jaws unhinged and expanded, and their glass band eyes glowed a faint red color. A muzzle materialized within their muzzles, protected by razor filed, platinum teeth that looked extremely odd on a horse. Grayson muttered, "Boom, lovelies," and rockets propelled from the swells of their muzzles, spewing out trail of smoke and whistling as they soared towards the Aphrodite chariot.

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:43 pm

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: Act I. Scene II.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chariot Race [November 2012] Iris

When the floodlights remained dark, Iris looked over at Paris with a look of disbelief on her face. "Paris!" She snapped, giving him the dirtiest look possible. Was he zoning out? In the middle of an Ancient Greek death race?

Cursing under her breath, she switched the reigns to her left hand and ducked to try and reach the switch herself. Her head was abruptly and violently thrown into the side of the chariot as something exploded below them. The horses panicked and adrenaline seemed to rush through their veins as they sprinted forward, much faster than they had been before - almost dangerously fast. Spots of black burst across Iris' vision and she lost hold of the reigns. With the horses out of control, the chariot began to wobble dangerously. The wobbling chariot didn't help with the fact that Iris felt like throwing up, and just as she thought things couldn't get any worse, another missile exploded below their left wheel.

The chariot flipped once. Twice. Iris thought she notice Paris fly from the chariot shortly after the missile hit, but she couldn't be sure - she was a little more focused on hanging on for dear life. She wasn't sure what the proper protocol was when someone fired missiles at your chariot but hanging on was more out of instinct than by her own personal choice.
The chariot landed on its side. Iris' hands immediately unlocked from the railing and she dragged herself out of the chariot. Laying there for a moment, she shut her eyes and concentrated on breathing in order to forget about throwing up.

A weak whinny sounded from the front of the chariot and Iris' eyes flew open. Hastily crawling toward the front of the wreck of bent and twisted metal formerly referred to as a chariot, Iris sucked in a breath as she caught sight of the horses. Both of them had broken at least one of their legs for sure. Pushing herself up on her feet despite the rush of nausea and dizziness, Iris cut away the harnesses with a dagger from her belt. Blessedly, a couple of Apollo kids were making their way toward them. Iris had half a mind to look for where Paris had gone but her body clearly did not plan to cooperate.

Her last conscious thought being Whoever fired those missiles is one extinct dodo bird. And with that thought, her legs gave out from beneath her and she blacked out.

(( I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW FLIPPING A CHARIOT WOULD WORK ))

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
so this is the end of the story / everything we had, everything we did / is buried in dust
eyes wide open (gotye)

Subject: Re: Chariot Race [November 2012] Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:07 pm

~Sorry I'm so late guys. I had a lot going on~

Chariot Race [November 2012] Tumblr_manzhmSbbp1qdxxyt

Livia,

Livia wiggled her grey bracelet on her arm nervously. It was grey, a symbol of an owl woven into it’s intricate patterns. Faye had given it to her before the race. Livy glanced up at the other chariots. The drivers all had the same determined look on their faces. Their chariots were a variety of designs, from Hephaestus’ metal screw and bolts chariot to her own, a replica of the original that her mother had made. Since the Athena cabin got to make the chariot, Liv insisted on this design. Livia looked down at the buttons on the side of the chariot. They were bright colors, with big easy labels for her dyslexia. She squinted and reviewed the button combo that Faye had showed her earlier that morning - double red is panic, red, blue, red, green is throwing a javelin, double green, blue is greek fire. Livia had memorized them quickly, but now she doubted her abilities.
The sun was high in the sky by the time that Quintus announced the beginning. Livia ignored the rules. If Quintus wasn’t stupid, then he should know by now that the Athena Cabin played by only one set of rules - their own. And then they were off! Nolan, the Hermes Co-Cabin Leader drove nervously, his hands shaking at the reigns. One of the white horses whinnied, and as they rounded the first turn, Livia questioned Nolan’s abilities. They were going to ti- but they rounded the first corner without fault. ‘The first out of eight.’ Liv thought, biting her lip. “Do you even know how to drive a chariot?” She shouted to Nolan so he could hear her over the rush of the wind.
They were in third - no second, as the Aphrodite Cabin was knocked over by Greyson of Hephaestus. The chariots plowed onward. Nolan told her that he was going to try to overtake them. Livy looked back at the chariots close behind - Ares, then Poseidon. She turned to Nolan and nodded, drawing her sword and punching the color scheme for greek fire at the ready - Double green, double blue. With a push of a button (red to be precise) volleys of the green flame would launch out at Greyson. Livia held her sword slightly in front of her as she waited for Nolan’s cue.

» Chariot Race {November 2012}
» and thus the race begins [chariot race signups\vote]
» chariot race
» If you got a boo boo in a Chariot Race {Open}
» Chariot Race Driver!