Portal RP discussion

GLaDOS: Oh, indeed. But making you paranoid is joy enough.

I let out a nervous moan. Why had I even decided- no, why had I even thought about coming here!? Was I insane!? At the time, anything seemed better than continuing living the awful life I was having.

And now I'd managed to tick off the killer supercomputer in charge of the whole place.

I should've left running away to abandoned facilities to the peacekeepers.

GLaDOS: Really. A fingerprick is all I need from you. Just a blood sample.

"Fine, okay!" I said, and unintentionally bit my lip so hard it started to bleed into my mouth.

GLaDOS: ... ... *Caroline mode activated*

*Ashlee is pushed through the doorway and the door closes again*

*for her to hug when her finger is pricked and for reassurance*

I stared in mild shock at Ashley before crouching down and picking her up. (And then standing back up.) She mewed quietly.

GLaDOS: Now take a seat and I'll get this over with.

I nervously sat down in the chair and rested my chin on Ashley's head, who for some reason wasn't purring.

On any other day she would be purring.

On the arm of the chair a small metal square tile is revealed.

GLaDOS: Place your forefinger on the panel and hold it there until I say you can let go.

I did as I was told by the murderous killer AI who goes mental periodically.

It would be a miracle if I wasn't injected with some sort of experimental something.

Liz feels a sharp pain in her fingertip, which goes numb after a second. the small panel is covered and removed by a small, thread-like claw which attaches to it and sets it on the counter top to her left before finding her a bandaid and laying it out on the counter.

GLaDOS: You may leave and return to the hall. Roam where you wish, I will not protest to your curiosity.

I left immediately after putting on the bandaid, holding Ashley with one arm. I wandered aimlessly until I found a place where I could get onto a catwalk, and darted on it and away from the panels. I walked out on it until I felt comfortable, then just leaned against the railing, cradling Ashley in my arms.

"Oh, Ashley, where did my life go so wrong? The only person I can even begin to trust is you. And you're a cat! I probably should have just went to go die in a ditch... why did I even come here, anyway? That was suicide in itself..."

GLaDOS: *listens in on her*

I started to stroke Ashley, taking comfort in the feel of her fur.

"Now I see why everyone hates her... why did I have to have so much sugar before I came here? Sugar makes me retarded. I know that! Retarded enough to practically throw away what little bit of a life I had left... even if I somehow managed to get back home I would be in so much trouble it wouldn't even be funny anymore."

I sighed, and rubbed her under her collar.

"At least you're here with me."

GLaDOS: *curiously moved the catwalk closer to the small office, that connected old Aperture to the her currently-controlled facility. To make up for everything*

[When I made the office, I was intending it to be a way to get some paper and perhaps a pencil into Liz's possession... but here we have the connection to old Aperture! lol]

I almost dropped Ashley when the catwalk started moving.

The heck!? I wasn't even safe from her on the catwalk!?

But then I noticed where she was moving it. It was the same office that she had rather roughly yanked me away from before she knocked me out for panicking about stasis.

But if she had wanted me away from there so bad, why was she moving me closer on purpose?

When the catwalk got close enough for me to go into the office, I did, but nervously. I kept glancing over my shoulder, expecting a robotic arm to suddenly appear and drag me away again.

GLaDOS: *lets her go on her own, she would not be able to connect with her over the intercom unless she returned to the currently-operating facility. She monitored her and hoped for the best, now trying to reconnect with the older hardware in case anything happened*

When no arms appeared to yank me away I started to relax a bit. Looking around, I saw that it was a plain old normal office, with nothing really special about it.

Except for the elevator on the opposite side of the room, of course.

I cautiously walked over to it, and noticed a sign to the left of it. It announced that the elevator was to the old facility. So that's why GLaDOS wanted me away from here so bad. She probably had no control over anything down there.

No control over anything...

I stepped into the elevator perhaps a little too eagerly, and hit the down button. This thing was definitely made before they decided to stop putting buttons on their elevators.

She had regained some of the common motor functions, elevators and doors. But that was about it. No way of controlling where she went. She would just have to watch and make sure she made smart choices.

The elevator stops at bottom-level.

The elevator opened, and I was welcomed into old Aperture by the stench of rust and salt. I nearly gagged because of how overwhelming the scent was, but I forced myself to get used to it. I walked out to a room that must have looked fabulous in its time, but was rather rundown now.

I put Ashley down and said, "stay close to me, Ash." She let out a short meow in response, and followed me when I started to walk.

She was such a smart little cat, and I often wondered where she had come from. She had just staggered into our yard one day, flea bitten and visibly exhausted, and we had taken her in. She had picked me to get attached to for some reason, ignoring all our other cats in a kind of snooty rich person kind of way, as if they were inferior to her.

[I'm kind of thinking of Ashley being an escaped genetics experiment, maybe you could have GLaDOS recognize her from some video logs or something when Liz comes back up?

And holy crap, my posts are getting big.]

She continued to keep an eye on her, currently trying to close off all pre-recorded messages.

I continued walking, passing through a few doors until suddenly...

"Welcome, gentlemen, to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians--you're here because..."

I jumped at first, but then just rolled my eyes as the pre-recorded message went on.

"...Voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest assured, she has tra-BZZT!"

Huh. Must be broken.

GLaDOS froze as if in fear, then resistantly let her continue.

I exited the room I was in to find myself standing on a catwalk above a lake filled with acid by the smell of it. Ashley walked over to the edge, looked down, looked back up at me, and mewed pointedly.

"Don't worry, neither of us will be falling down there any time soon."

At least I hoped we wouldn't. The catwalk was made of metal, but who knows how many years had passed since anyone had paid it any attention.

Well, all the more reason to get back to solid ground. I set off along the catwalk at a quick pace, aiming for where I saw the entrance into another room.

They both enter a large lab-like area, somewhat of a briefing room which overlooked a large vault.

Ashley jumped on a table while I looked around the room I had just entered. A briefing room lab crossover type thing, it seemed. I walked over to the window, and saw the biggest vault door I had ever seen in my life.

"Holy crap," I breathed, staring at the vault.

She would let her figure things out. Either way, she would have to return sooner or later.

(this is going backwards, it goes 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, then 50s, other than the other way around. So things will get more primitive the deeper she goes)

[Thank you for telling me that after I played the 50s welcoming recording. -_- Eh, oh well. Maybe they moved it up ahead or something.

But yeah, that does make sense... I guess Liz isn't the only stupid one here. X/]

After I had finished gawking at the absolutely ginormous vault door, I noticed a hallway attached to the room, and when I went though it I discovered a staircase leading down to the place the vault door was. Curious, I went down and through the door that was at the bottom.

The vault, being on the ceiling, would be hard to reach and would lead her back to GLaDOS. GLaDOS, however, did not retaliate.

[Just so you know, I really don't remember some parts of old Aperture that well. Last time I played Portal 2 I got stuck in a hallway not so long after I got down there, so I just skipped right to killing Wheatley.]

I stared up at the ridiculously gigantic vault on the ceiling for a few more minutes, then went back to the lab briefing room thing. Ashley was still sitting on the table.

I knew I couldn't stay down here forever, no matter how much I wished I could. I would starve to death. Actually, I would probably die of thirst first.

The point was, I would have to return eventually, whether I liked it or not. But not right now. I could stay down here a little longer.

I walked back towards the catwalk, poking Ashley on the way by to get her to follow me.

GLaDOS would not allow her to die or starve or be injured very severely at all. She had, indeed, sent a nannybot after her. At a safe, non-visible distance.

I randomly walked along the catwalk for a while, poking around in rooms and flinching whenever I heard any sort of sound coming from the catwalk or when it shifted because of my weight. I was terrified it would break and send me plummeting down.

Eventually, I found myself back at the elevator, having left the catwalk because of my increasing paranoia. I stared at it for a full five minutes, maybe more, before I finally sighed and stepped in Ashley following at my heels.

GLaDOS had purpose to this. She deserved to be on her own for a while. And see what it /really/ meant to be on her own. Without supervision, really, right next to her to guide her. It would both teach her a lesson and prove a valid point.

The elevator moves even further down, another, older-looking- far more inviting room than before. She is all the way into the 1940s archive.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a...

a voice comes on the intercom:

"There's a thousand tests performed every day here in our enrichment spheres. I can't personally oversee every one of them, so these pre-recorded messages'll cover any questions you might have, and respond to any incidents that may occur in the course of your science adventure."

"Your test assignment will vary, depending on the manner in which you have bent the world to your will."

"Those of you helping us test the repulsion gel today, just follow the blue line on the floor."

"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news."

"Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we've got a much better test for you: Fighting an army of mantis men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts."

I hadn't even touched anything yet when the elevator began to move down, and deposited me in a different room.

"Great," I muttered to myself. The elevator had moved on its own, so that meant GLaDOS had most likely been the one moving it. Why would she want me down here, though?

When I stepped out a recording played, talking about testing and repulsion gel and mantis men and all that sort of stuff.

When it finished, I simply started to walk around. The place was much friendlier, but also much older, than where I had been before. There were chairs around, too, but they were absolutely smothered in dust and who knows what else.

GLaDOS had further intentions. The doors in the foyer open as she steps through them, a tall elevator shaft going up, "MANTIS MEN" it said on the sign next to the freight elevator, a slightly rusted portal gun looked tossed to the side, evidence of something rotted on the end of it.

I stared at the elevator, the sign, and then the portal gun, then turned right around and headed back for the doors, muttering, "nice try, but no."

Of course, they would probably slam in my face and lock, but maybe, maybe she would let me turn around?

She had no control over what happened, what doors opened or closed. Archives were archives and she was literally miles away from Liz.

I had close to no idea what I was doing as I continued on through several doors and somehow wound up in a room overlooking the same acid lake I had seen before, but only now I was much closer.

I looked back over my shoulder, and I could see the elevator that had delivered me down here through several windows and a door. I gazed at it almost wistfully, then turned back to the acid lake and lightly shook myself. Right now I was relatively safe, why should I be wanting to go back up there? To Her?

Because you have no one to talk to down here, a small voice in my head whispered, She was the only one who talked to you up there. The cat might care about you more, but she can't talk.

Everything still awaited her, any decision she was willing to make. Next time, GLaDOS would think ahead. Copy her matrix into a core and follow her, her original self still controlling the facility. She would think this through beforehand next time...

I stalled by the window for a bit more, before heading towards the repulsion gel testing- without a portal gun. It's not like I would be doing the tests, anyway. Just looking.

And definitely not touching that gel.

It wasn't worth risking my bones to find out if the rumors about the repulsion gel were true. My curiosity didn't go that far.

GLaDOS could only watch. And if she were in true danger, sent the nannybot out from its hiding place to bring her back to the facility.

Several minutes of walking on the catwalks later, I was almost at the first test. The gigantic sphere it was contained in was broken at the top and there was a catwalk going right above the broken spot, so I could look in if I could get up there.

I ran along the catwalk, slowing to a walk once I had reached the spot where I could look in. Ashley stayed 20 feet behind me for some reason, on a lower section of the catwalk.

I had been looking through the crack for a minute or so when I heard a loud crack from the catwalk, and it started to creak, slowly bending down under my weight, its supports failing.

An android, much shorter than Liz, rolls across the catwalk, ushering her across, "Hurry, hurry~!" it sing-songingly says, pushing her to the other side as fast as possible.

My first thought when I saw the andriod was the hell, she sent a robot to stalk me!? But then I realized I'd better get moving if I didn't want to be dead in the next 10 seconds, and bolted off the collapsing section of the catwalk.

The bot has a quite annoying, girl-like tone to it's voice. "Testing testing testing!"

No more than two seconds after I had gotten to a safe part of the catwalk, the part behind me broke off with an earsplitting crack, then a bang when it hit the sphere, and then a splash when it fell into the acid pit below.

I could only hope it took that stalker bot with it.

"Testing, testing, testing~!"

Oh God.

GLaDOS, herself, is regretting letting her go exploring in the first place. She would have to wait until she found another way out. Otherwise, she'd have to transfer a copy of her matrix to a core sooner than she had planned...

I shot a death glare at the bot, who was still repeating "testing" like a brain damaged I-don't-even-know-what. I contemplated kicking it off the catwalk.