Portal RP discussion

I was silent for a few minutes, just thinking.

"I'm probably going to be a terrified wreck when I get back up there." I eventually said, frowning under the mask.

"Oh, don't be such a downer."

"Seriously. Don't you realize how mentally scarring putting someone whose worst fear EVER is of being put in stasis in stasis? And for defending her cat, at that!?"

"You're being over-dramatic." She groaned simply.

"No. I'm not. That was a ridiculous reason to throw a fit and put me in stasis. And you know it."

I was probably going to regret this sooner or later.

"Listen, I know it was probably not the best thing to do. And, I'll admit- I'm actually just a little bit sorry about it."

I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I stayed silent.

Thinking back to what GlaDOS had said earlier about me being the first human in here in a good two decades, I realized that she would probably need to get used to dealing with humans again.

Of course, I might be wrong. Who knows what she needs or doesn't need to do? After all, she is a supercomputer...

GLaDOS continued moving until she found another vault-like door, about 8 feet tall. She gripped the vault-lock seal and twisted it with ease, the door cracking open. "Make sure you keep that mask on."

"I see no reason to take it off."

She gripped the rubble that covered the bottom of the doorway and managed to crawl inside the small hallway, ahead was a series of doors.

I followed, but somehow managed to scratch myself on something. I let out a hissing breath in pain.

"Never mind the acid pits, the doors down here are deadly enough!" I whined, examining the now bleeding scratch on my arm.

GLaDOS turned, whirling around and slowing down to give Liz room to catch up, "I'll get you out of here in less than an hour, Alright?" She said, "Consider it a promise."

I just grunted in response, and clamped a hand over the scratch to try to stop the bleeding, but then quickly snapped it back. The sweat all over my palm had gotten into the scratch and made it sting even more. I properly folded my sleeve up to my shoulder to keep the blood off it, grimacing all the while.

GLaDOS went ahead a bit further, opening up three more upcoming doors before showing her to an elevator, "If these directions are correct, this elevator should take you straight to the facility. I won't be going up with you," she said, letting Liz and Ashley into the lift before hotwiring it, the lift going up the elevator shaft slowly.

Well, here I was, going right back up to the much more modern portion of Aperture. Where I wouldn't be able to say anything without being terrified that it might upset GlaDOS.

Perhaps I was overstating things a bit, though. She was still kinda nice, I supposed. And I guess maybe the being put in stasis was kinda my fau-

No. No no no no.

Her fault. She decided to put that catnip in the cube and then punish Ashley for its effects.

And then she displayed all the maturity of a child and put me in stasis for defending the one person (cat?) I could trust.

I sighed and leaned back against the side of the elevator.

The elevator stopped an entire 45 minutes later, a staircase in front of her. The halls were clean and a path was made straight for the infirmary. There were no harm or danger signs. GLaDOS' voice came on the intercom again, "I see you've made it back. Try your best to hurry on to the infirmary." She said, a bit urgent, "You can remove your mask as well. The air has been purified to clean out your airways."

I took off the mask and started walking towards the infirmary at a semi-quick pace.

GLaDOS kept a careful eye on her, making sure she didn't trip. The doors to the infirmary were already open, beds were lined on either side of the long infirmary hall, there was one nursebot in sight, setting a bed on the far side of the room.

I paused in the door to the infirmary, suddenly nervous. My eyes darted around, finally settling on a camera in the corner of the room. I gave it an unsure look.

The nursebot studied the gash on her face, then the one on her arm, not able to give vocal response, GLaDOS spoke for it. "It wants you to take the dressing off your wound."

I walked further into the room, and took the bandage off my face, wincing at the pain it caused.

The nursebot walked Liz over to the sink, then ran cold water for her.

GLaDOS spoke again, "You can clean yourself up if you wish, or if you desire, you can choose to have the bot do it instead. It's usually more effective to let the bots do the work."

"The bot can do it. I don't care." I said, knowing I couldn't live in fear of everything in Aperture forever. I would give trying to trust this place another go.

The bot took a clean, damp rag from the sink and carefully cleaned the wound on her face, then the one on her arm.

"There's a restroom past that door behind the desk if you want to go clean yourself off. And get those tangles out of your hair."

I smiled slightly and went into the restroom, re-emerging about 20 minutes later a lot cleaner and with much less tangled hair. Properly brushed, it hanged down a few inches past my shoulders in all of its golden brown glory.

The nurse bot had left a bandage for her face and gauze for her arm on the bed for Liz, the bot itself wasn't anywhere to be found.

"I have no access, physically, tot he infirmary. So, if you want to stay there to sleep, I don't mind. I know you probably don't like me right now. So, I give you any right to hate me. I get it."

I went over and put the bandage and guaze on, then just sat down on the bed.

"I don't hate you... well, not yet, anyway. A more appropriate way to describe how I feel about you right now would be to say that I'm scared of you." I said as I pulled off my long fall boots and put them down on the floor.

"And you did scare me. Very, very badly."

How the heck was I not stuttering?

GLaDOS' voice continued calmly as well, "Well... I hope that I haven't..." She was dragging on, as if trying to think of what to say. "I hope that I didn't scare you too harshly." She said, "I didn't mean to scare you. Not intentionally."

I opened my mouth to bash her about the stasis incident even more, then closed it almost right after.

No... I'm not going to keep going on about that. She already sounds guilty enough.

"I... um," I stared down at my hands.

"It's probably going to take a while for us to figure out how not to clash so often. So, it's fine, now, I guess." I ran my fingers through my hair for the lack of things to do at that moment.

"Alright. I'll leave you alone, then." She said, then silence fell over the intercom.

She turned the cameras off, all but one. Any visible to Liz fell limply, as if hanging a head.

I sighed, and made my way under the covers of the bed. I briefly wondered what time it was, then it occurred to me that down here, time hardly mattered. It could be the middle of the night, or the middle of the day, and it wouldn't matter.

I rested my head on the pillow and closed my eyes. The fact that this bed wasn't in one of those relaxation chambers allowed me to relax much more than I would have otherwise. I closed my eyes, and was asleep within 5 minutes.

GLaDOS turned the cameras back online after a few hours, for precaution.

I woke up feeling more rested than I'd been in a long time, and I didn't bother opening my eyes, or even moving for that matter. I was laying on my stomach, and I soon noticed a weight on my back. Confused, I moved slightly, and the weight immediately started to purr.

"Aaashleeey..." I groaned.

GLaDOS actually found this amusing, only slightly containing a stifled laugh. "Oh, sorry. It's just too funny to ignore." She said in a slightly sarcastic tone, although, that was how she always spoke.

I opened my eyes and propped myself up as much as I could without disturbing the fuzzy purring lump on my back.

"She always, always does th- augh!" I said, being cut short by Ashley coming up and rubbing against my face, giving me a mouthful of fur.

"And why would she do that? Does she dislike you?"

I sat up, and pulled Ashley onto my lap, where she settled down, still purring at me.

"No... the exact opposite." I said after wiping the fur out of my mouth. "Cats tend to lay on people they like. And rub on them. They'll love them to the point where it gets annoying."

"That sounds like a stupid thing to do. That cat is obviously only using you for your lack of dominant scent. Therefore, they are merely placing their scent on you."

I sighed.

"Not everything is as emotionless as you'd probably like to think." I said, and rubbed Ashley under her chin.

"Cats are just animals."

"You're just a machine."

"Yes, but machines are meant to serve humans. Well, most, anyway." She chuckles. "That cat is needy and will always need you. So if your cat outlived you, which is unlikely, it would starve and die."

"She." I growled.

"My apologies," She sarcastically snided.

I glared at the camera.

"And for your information, most cats are not 'needy' in the sense that they would die without humans. If they had access to the outdoors, they would be able to take care of themselves quite well. Ashley is one of them, if the various rodents and birds she kept bringing home were any indication."

She sneered at the mention of the vermin. "Well, that's good for them. Race of feline mammals."

"They also have a nice little talent for chewing through wires." I seethed. Ashley had stopped purring and also seemed to be actually glaring at the camera.

Although it couldn't be see, her optic was glaring at her, "Keep your animal contained, then. It would be quite a shame if it- she got electrocuted." She said firmly.

I scowled and then returned to petting Ashley, now completely ignoring the camera and GLaDOS.

GLaDOS went offline again, keeping the cameras and intercom on, just keeping herself quiet.