Portal RP discussion

"Don't TOUCH that." The AI snapped, turning to look at me. "Just do the test... And be obedient for once."

"Yeah... No. Not... my... thing... exactly. Unless you've got some painkillers just lying around here. Then maybe I'll do a few of your god damn tests."

"Why do you need painkillers? Knowing you and your deranged mental state, you'd probably overdose and kill yourself."

"Uh- no. That would be wrong. I'm not THAT depressed... jeez... bitch..." She muttered under her breath. "No... My ribs are broken or fractured or something like that. Whatever it hurts to move."

"Oh yeah... and I have bites all the way up my legs. And they itch." I said, starting to feel my legs sting in itching pain at the ankles, then my calves.

"Spiders."

I looked up, slightly wincing at the word, but mainly at the pain in my ribs, "... I'm sorry, What'd you say?"

"Oh... nothing." The AI taunted in a sing-songy tone

"Did I fucking stutter, bitch?" I snapped, pissed off at the way my entire shitty day was going. "I ASKED you what you SAID."

"Spiders." She said clearly.

"What about 'em?"

"Whenever I find them, I put them in the relaxation vaults. Where you sleep." She said pessimistically.

I itched the back of my neck , then my opposite shoulder, then my scalp... damn phantom itch. Why in the FUCK did she just have to go and say SPIDERS?!

"You... have arachnophobia...?" The AI said teasingly.

"Yeah. I do. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't-"

"You have ten piercings. What in the world would you do something like that for? Do you enjoy pain?"

"SURE. LET'S ALL PICK ON THE TEST SUBJECT NOW. Maybe NEXT time it'll be PICK ON THE AI," I said as I stood and quickly finished the test in silence, then I crossed my arms over my chest and exited the chamber via emancipation grill when- "Wait... What the-" I felt my ears pinch in throbbing pain.

Pausing mid-step, I felt my ears and felt--- nothing. Just skin. "You fucking bi- YOU JUST- OKAY THAT'S IT. I AM GOING TO KILL YOU AND BURN YOU AND DO SO MANY AWFUL THINGS TO YOU-" I raged. (( XD ))

"Piercings are useless... just as well as your tattoo..." She said in a careless tone.

I looked down at my ankle, where, sure enough, there was bloody flesh in place of my wiccan star. "Shit's getting serious now..." I growled.

"Continue testing, you immature weakling..."

"YEAH I DON'T FUCKING THINK SO." >:(
"First, you emancipate all of my piercings, then you REMOVE my tattoo via emancipation grill. DO YOU REALLY THINK I'M GONNA TEST FOR YOU, BITCH?!"

There was silence.

"That... That's what I thought."

"You are rejected from testing." She said after I paused, kicking a piece of rubble from the unstirdy frame of the ceiling into the wall.

"Oh. Shame. Wow. I don't really... care... all that much." I said sarcastically, flicking off one of the security cameras briefly.

-walks back to relaxation vault wincing at three things: blood-covered ankle, fractured ribs, and a headache from being a psycho-maniac-

Alyss had just returned to the hallway to go to her relaxation vault. She'd taken up from a two month long slumber to do more portal testing. She sighed. Just another day- or maybe it was longer than that- of testing and listening to a sociopathic AI once more.

"At least it's over for now. Or, at least, I hope it is," she said, murmuring to herself. It's what she told herself whenever she returned from testing, never knowing how long she'd be in stasis.

She felt lonely sometimes, hungering for conversation from someone or something other than an AI or a Turret. She remained out in the hallway a bit longer, not ready to go back into the vault yet. She leaned against the wall of the hallway, exhaling quietly.

I heard a door open behind me and turned around only to meet face to face with another orange-jumpsuited tester.

O_________O

"Whoa..." *n* "Looks... like... I'm not the only one here..." I said, putting my ankle behind my other leg to hide that blood.

Alyss glanced up when another test subject entered the hallway. She hadn't expected to come in contact with anyone on her way back to her vault. She was actually sort of pleasantly surprised by this. Finally, someone real to talk to. Someone who wouldn't call her crazy, fat, or slow.

"Uh, hello there," she said. She noted the girl looked a bit younger than her. How young did Aperture go? Did they go as far as to bring in minors? She wasn't sure. She'd never seen any other subjects to find out. Of course, she didn't plan on asking the girl's age. That'd be too rude and she barely knew her, after all.

"Uhm. How are.. You?" She asked, slowly, as if unsure how to socialize with her. After all, they were test subjects being used as guinea pigs by an sociopathic AI. What sort of conversation topics could they come up with? How's the weather? Neither would know, she assumed, depending on how long they were down here. What did you do today? Tested. Tested. And tested some more. Yeah, not much to discuss.

"Oh, you know. The usual. Getting my tattoos removed by a bitchy, forever alone, FUCKING AI WHO THINKS SHE'S BETTER THAN ME. Plus, she took the meds I was stashing in my jumpsuit. So... my hands are shaking twenty-four-seven. Damn Huntington's. I was on a bloody drug trial! For MONEY. PHARM paid me 3 grand to test that out and apparently she's worried it'll 'become a risk' for my 'already degrading mental health'." I said with air quotes and heavy sarcasm.

Alyss tilted her head in confusion. Well, she couldn't disagree with the girl on that. She wasn't fond of GLaDOS, either. She could understand the girl's anger.

The pills? So this girl had Huntington's. She'd heard of that sickness, before. She'd learned about it. To have that and be stuck in this place... What was Aperture thinking?!

"I don't see how that would become a risk," she said. "She likes screwing with people, so it's likely she didn't do it because of any 'risks'. Will you be okay without the pills?" She asked. Possibly a dumb question to ask, but she couldn't help but show concern.

"It was just a drug trial. So I was testing it out. So, I guess that means I was a guinea pig before I was a test subject. Meh... Yeah, maybe." I said, then cupping my hand to whisper something else, "Some doctor guy gave me painkillers on my way here, though-- He's hiding under the stairwells in test chamber 4." I whispered, making sure that AI bi-yotch didn't listen in on me

She blinked at her in surprise when she whispered that. She cupped her hands in response.

"You saw the illusive Rattman?" She whispered quietly, also avoiding the ears of GLaDOS. She'd heard about him. Test Subjects, or at least most of them, knew about him in some way or another. He'd left messages all over test chambers. Sometimes if you listened as the murals he painted, you could even hear him in the distance. Things like that. To have actually seen him, though? That was rare.

"Uh. Sure. I didn't ask for his name or anything that guy's nuts." I said, sort of giggling, then feeling where my earrings used to be and sighed, turning in the other direction to get a good look at my, or what USED to be, my tattoo with a sigh of frustration.

"Yeah, I heard he was," she said, not being able to help an amused smile. When was the last time she smiled? She was sure it had been quite awhile. How long had she been here, again? She couldn't remember. She just knew that she hadn't felt anything positive in a long while.

She noticed the girl looking back at something and tilted her head blinking.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Hm... well, it's not like it hurts... so, I guess I'm okay. But- Yeah. Tattoo got emancipated. *n* Down, but I guess I'm okay. How 'bout you?"

"Well, I haven't lost anything too overly important, yet," she said. "Unless you count my sanity..."

She glanced down. It looked like it hurt quite a bit actually. In a place like this, infection was a major concern.

"I've lost a lot to the emancipation grill. Jewelry, like rings that belonged to my family were... Fizzled, I should say."

"Oh. That sucks. Well, cus of that stupid robot lady, I'm probably gonna loose all of my piercings. And then they'll close up. And I'll have to re-pierce them." I looked over to her face of concern, then wiped away the blood with my sleeve. "What do you mean, so you're insane?"

"Well, GLaDOS has a habit of consistently pointing out how mentally insane I am," she said. "Although, that's mostly because she likes to goad people on. I'm not sure if I've any sanity left to lose, being stuck in this place for... I don't even know how long, to be honest..." She trailed off, scratching the back of her neck, nervously.

"Oh." I paused. "I guess so. Well, she's also been nice. She says my eyes are... interesting."

The other girl looked confused.

"Left one's blue, right one's green." I said, leaning my back to the wall of the hallway. "She freaks me out sometimes. Calls me paranoid. Who the fuck wouldn't be?"

"Oh. I see. Mine change color," she said. "And yeah, she does freak me out, too. With someone like her, it's hard NOT to be paranoid or freaked out. She just has a way of making a person very uncomfortable. Though I think she does that on purpose just to see our reaction. She is an AI after all, and they do things out of curiosity to learn. Or so I think."

"Oh. I told her that when I get outta here, I would find the fattest, ugliest cat and name it after her." I said, "You know, out of revenge. But then the blue ball thing crashed randomly out of the ceiling and then they started fighting or whatever-- so then I take her side because I heard about whatever happened to her and then After that she's been nicer to me." I shrugged. "I still don't know how to make her be my friend. Apparently she doesn't have any but I beg to differ..."

"Oh, blue ball...? Hm. That sounds familiar... If you mean Wheatley they uh, yeah they fight all the time," she said. "What happened to her?" She asked, curiously. "And GLaDOS does that. I'm pretty sure she's just using that sociopathic persona as a guard to prevent herself from getting close to people."

"They don't even have the respect for each other to use each other's names. Uh... he put her conscience into a potato." I said, shrugging as a voice came on the intercom.

"I found your knife test subject 9." The AI teased.

"Bitch..." I muttered under my breath, "Good, go ahead and keep it. I don't care... I'll get it back later. Somehow."

"A potato. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Poor GLaDOS hates talking about it," she said. "Wait... Now that I think about it, how did Wheatley get back from space? I didn't know he was back."

She looked up, hearing GLaDOS.

"Something you didn't lose to the emancipation grill?" She asked.

"No, I was hiding it in my room..."

"That moron crashed to Earth... Right into the facility." GLaDOS whined, then continued to criticize test subject 9. "You require supervision to do anything right. I told you to go to the relaxation vault."

"That would be great... if you were my mother." I retorted, crossing my arms. "Give me back my meds, my ribs hurt." I said in an irritated tone.

"Oh, wow. Well, least he's back. I've kind of missed that guy," she said. She looked up. "You realize that social interaction is good for human development? It also keeps people sane. You want sane people to test with, right?" She asked.

"And speaking of people in good health. Yeah, you may want to return the meds, GLaDOS," she added, trying to help the other girl persuade the AI into giving in.

"Sane? No, sane people are too generic. Plus, suffering subjects are most likely to obey the rules." She snapped.

I raised an eyebrow, a complete stranger was defending me? "Okay, okay, okay... It's not like I need them all that bad anyway." I said, trailing off.

I felt honestly bad for GLaDOS. I mean, despite her constant remarks about how she likes her life to be lonely, I know she's lying.

"Sure, whatever you said, GLaDOS," Alyss said. "No need to get snippy. I thought your anger core was removed?" She muttered that last bit.

Yeah, she'd defend strangers. That was just her way. She felt sympathetic for GLaDOS as well, but that didn't mean she'd let GLaDOS get away with things.

"I also don't agree with you that suffering subjects obey the rules more often."

"Cutting yourself makes you insane, and not to mention a masochist. A sick, insane, masochist who disobeys reason." GLaDOS said with a pushy tone.

"I'm not insane-- at least not on meds. So either you give me my meds and stop calling me insane or I'll keep doing it." I snapped back at her, narrowing my eyes at the camera.

GLaDOS ignored her, "Because of your continuous habit of inflicting pain upon yourself, it makes you mentally ill. And for that, you'll spend one week in the infirmary."

"NO!" I said with a gasp.

"Yes. You will. Or I'll make you." She insisted.

"But... WHY? I don't want to! I'm not insane! I'm fine! Perfectly fine! Completely SANE!" I yelled at the camera now, clenching my fists.

"You're in denial. I don't care if you 'don't want to' because you HAVE to. I won't give your medication unless I'm sure you won't overdose and kill yourself. I don't want a DEAD test subject, I'm already running low. You're going to the infirmary where you'll get your meds and I will give you anti-psychotics."

"No. I refuse to be called crazy by a homicidal AI. How do I know you aren't just going to give me stupid psyche treatments?" I asked, calm on the outside, when my heart felt it was going to leap from my chest.

"Insanity isn''t healthy. If you refuse to agree with being put into medical care, I will have to force you." She said. It was impossible to tell whether she was lying or telling the truth with that flat tone.

On either sides of the hall, turrets spawned, opening their guns, ready to fire.

I looked either way as Alyss pressed herself to the wall in fear of the white, spherical monstrosities. "Y-yo-you're b-bluffing..."

"One move and they fire."

"You don't have the nerve to kill me... You're b-bluffing..." I said, taking a step forwards in an attempt to run down the hall in front of me, only to be met by a bullet to my side. "AH-" I winced, keeling over.

Alyss listened as the other girl and GLaDOS went back and forth- GLaDOS being her usual critical self, and the girl defending herself as much as possible.

It didn't really surprise her that GLaDOS was hypocritically calling someone else insane. Of course, it didn't make it any less uncomfortable to listen to. She'd had her own arguments with the AI before, so she understood the other subject's reaction.

When the turrets came out, the first thought that entered Alyss' head was, "Oh shit!"

Without a portal gun, she had no way to get out of their line of sight or move them, so all she could do was get up against the wall.

She looked over abruptly when the other girl started moving and was promptly shot by a turret. She looked at the girl in shock and then up to the camera.

"Didn't you JUST say you didn't want a dead test subject because you were already low?!" She asked. "What kind of logic is this?!"

Before I knew it, I was lying on the ground, wincing with a mixed expression of shock (no doubt) spread across my face, now clenching my side to keep it from bleeding, but some of the blood dripped from between my fingers, feeling cold more than warm. I opened my mouth to speak but all the sounds I could make were gasps and winces.

"I told you they'd shoot. You didn't listen. Like you NEVER listen. And now you have no choice but to come back to the infirmary." The AI almost said nonchalantly, ignoring 9's gunshot wound as serious.

I tried to stand in an attempt to run away but she trapped me, a panel popping up on either side of me. Taking me by surprise, a claw dropped in and picked me up, pinching at the bullet in my side.

I started to panic as the claw squeezed me a little tighter, then picking me up into the infirmary.

She watched in horror as the other, younger girl was taken roughly from the room.

"Hey!" Alyss cried. That was really all she could do. She couldn't stop GLaDOS and she couldn't follow the other girl, either.

GLaDOS: You. Fifteen. Get to testing. She's my problem now.
[at Alyss]

Alyss looked up at the surveillance camera with a bit of a glare. She'd just finished testing and now it looked like, instead of going back into the relaxation vault, she'd be put right back on the track. She wanted to call bullshit on this decision, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice in the matter.

With frustrated sigh she pushed away from the wall and headed for the testing area once more. She hoped the other subject would be alright, though it was obvious she would not be able to go find out for herself.

"Just what I wanted to do after finishing hours and hours of testing... MORE hours and hours of testing," she grumbled.

GLaDOS: I can't ask 9 to test after being shot.
You'll have to take her place. Or if you don't want to test, maybe YOU should willingly walk out in front of turrets as well.

She paused momentarily to look up at the camera again. What kind of choice was that? Test or get shot. It wasn't a very complicated decision to make, even if Alyss did detest testing.

"Fine," she said, putting on a more confident air. "I'll do more of your heinous tests."

GLaDOS: Wise decision. And if you really DO wish to speak to that mentally deranged lunatic, you will. Because I can't talk to her. And she only talks to you.

At the conlusion of testing, you will be taken to the infirmary to talk some sense into that girl.

She listened as she made her way to the testing center, GLaDOS' words settling on her mind. There was some motivation in that. While she wasn't certain why the girl would talk to her, she, herself, would rather talk to a stranger than GLaDOS, as well.

Of course, the one who really needed some sense knocked into them was GLaDOS, but it was pretty obvious by now that nothing would get through to that AI's head.

A part of Alyss really did want to talk to that girl. Not just because she was the only one here or because they had certain things- like their situation- in common, but because something drew Alyss to her. Something she couldn't ignore.

GLaDOS: This next test will be timed. You have 30 minutes to cross the chamber without touching the lasers. Good luck