Portal RP discussion

I let my head fall into my hands in a kind of reverse facepalm. "Wonderful..."

"Well don't get hung up on it. It's dull in here already, no need to make it more dreary.."

I pulled my head back up, and calmly gazed into the nearby camera's glow for a few seconds before looking away, shrugging again.

"I'm not telling you."

"I get it already. No need to repeat yourself."

"It must irk you not to know," she started, "Human beings are like that."

"There's a lot of things I'd like to know, but can't. You kind of get used to it." I paused for a second.

"Wait, are you trying to get me to keep asking? It sounds like you're trying to get me to keep asking."

"Of course I am. This is fun."

"Of course it is. Of course dangling a metaphorical turkey leg on a string in front of me is fun. That's okay, it's not like I don't want to be messed with for absolutely no reason besides 'this is fun.' Carry on." I fumed, suddenly more ticked than anything. I was beginning to wonder just how many human traits had made it into the computer when GLaDOS was (supposedly) put in there.

I couldn't help but think that someone who used to be human would have a bit more empathy for human suffering.

"No. You have to find out yourself. That's the fun part."

"Oh, so it's 'no, I won't tell you but instead make you find out yourself because I like watching your feeble human brain utterly fail compared to my amazing processing power?'"

I paused again, then sighed.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still stressed about everything that's been going on lately. But that's what I get for coming here, of all places."

"I'm surprised you aren't amused. I take it you are frustrated."

Well, this was good that she wasn't getting annoyed at me so far.

"Very."

I was the curious type. Not knowing things bugged me, and so I wouldn't stop trying until it was either impossible to find out, or I did find out.

But she seriously expected me to try to guess who she was, out of all the people who could have been put into a computer? I guess I could narrow it down by the logic that they wouldn't have let just anyone run the entire facility, so it was probably someone important...

If Aperture even had any idea of what logic was.

"Well, I can't just /tell/ you. It's not like I like remembering things like that."

"And yet when I figure this out, you're probably going to end up remembering it anyway."

Boys were ruled out, obviously. And I must have seen or heard clues to this somewhere. I doubted she would task me with something impossible to figure out, as fun as she would probably find that. I didn't remember anything like that from up here, so perhaps in the older parts of the facility?

"I never said I didn't remember them. I just hate bringing it up, myself."

"Well then, excuse my brain's inability to function half the time..."

Nothing came to mind right away, so I started to mentally go over individual pieces of what I saw down there. I doubted anything that was in the trophy case was important, and I skimmed that anyway. I hadn't made any mental notes about the signs or anything on the computer screens I had passed, so nothing there, unless I missed something.

"Well, I'll leave you to thinking and blaming yourself for not having a great memory." She says flatly, returning to her own work.

Right, so now I could focus on the little puzzle I had here. I liked puzzles.

I went over everything I could think of that might be related to who GLaDOS was in my head, eventually ending up going in mental circles. I was going back to the things I had already gone over when I couldn't find anything that helped, and that lead me to other things I had already gone over, and, well, you get the idea.

I eventually remembered her strange behavior when certain prerecorded messages played. Weren't they the ones where that guy... Cave Johnson, I think, was talking to his assistant? It was odd... perhaps I could get somewhere with this.

Once I thought about it some more, I realized that GLaDOS's voice actually sounded a lot like Caroline's if you ignored the computerizedness of it. It could have been a coincidence, but still. Caroline would also fit the "important person" criteria, being Cave's assistant.

And if she was put into a computer, and the computer in charge of the entire facility at that, she could keep managing the place long after she normally would've been able to.

Well, it was worth a try.

"...Caroline?" I said, my voice just above a mumble. Who knew how she would react...

GLaDOS now acted as if the speakers were on mute, not responding. "You really shouldn't be screwing around in those halls, you know." She said, changing the subject.

"You're Caroline... aren't you?" I said, louder, but gently. I was sure she had heard me the first time, the fact that she tried to change the subject said so.

"Stop that." She grumbled.

"Which part, señora?" I said, smirking.

"I only wanted you to satisfy your curiosity and drop it."

"I somehow don't think that asking for confirmation on a theory qualifies as not dropping something... it's not like I was going to constantly nag you about it, anyway. I can imagine why you would be... sensitive, about it."

"Does it matter? Yes. Yes, this 'Caroline' is my apparent past facade."

"Okay. That's all I wanted to know."

GLaDOS is nearly glaring through the camera lens, "Alright, then." She grumbles, sounding grumpy.

I bit my lip slightly. Great. Now she was getting grumpy. Why did I always have to know EVERYTHING? My curiosity's gotten be more trouble than it has anything else.

there is a noise like a low sigh over the intercom and a bit of humming.

I started to rub Ashley's neck, and she let out a surprised "murr!" because I was actually paying attention to her again.

The humming continued, then stopped abruptly.

I raised my head a little, eyeing the camera questioningly.

"It's not nice to stare," she said flatly.

I rolled my eyes and went back to petting Ashley. She was purring, but quietly.

"You're quiet."

"So?"

"I hate quiet people. They make me so... nevermind."

"They make you so what?"

"Forget it."

"...I don't suppose Chell had anything to do with you hating quiet people?"

"I don't hate quiet people."

"Ugh, okay. Fine."

"They make things seem... melancholy," she said flatly.

"...My cat glows." I randomly stated, hoping to change the subject to much lighter things.

"I can make radioactive tobacco plants, but not cats," she scoffed, still sounding monotone.

I was starting to get the impression that the monotone wasn't a good thing.

"I never said anything about radioactivity," I mumbled, and then picked up my voice. "I just thought you would find it interesting."

"A false statement is occasionally interesting, yes."

"Why the heck would I lie about such a stupid thing? She glows, but just under UV light."

((Some real, but genetically engineered, cats do this, jsyk. Mice too.))

(Yeah, it's the same genome used in fireflies.)

"How interesting. You must be so proud of your cat."