#alt title for this is chell hangs out with her 50 ft robot gf

[doug-rattmann-appreciation-club]

I’m in love with the fact that your chelldos iteration seems to wake up every day and choose violence so my writing prompt is maybe something a little sweeter? 👀 as a challenge

HA they really do choose violence every time I write them buuuut here’s something on the sweet side~

(thanks for the prompt friend!!)

--

Palpitations

“You know what I don’t understand about you?”

Chell lifts her head from where it’s nestled in the crook of GLaDOS chassis. This the part of the week they like to call recharging. Chell recharges specifically somewhere by or on top of GLaDOS. Right now she’s tucked away in that one part of her chassis that gets warm whenever GLaDOS is putting new test tracks together. She likes listening to GLaDOS work through the new tests. She also likes the tangents GLaDOS goes off on as her mind hypothesizes new ideas. And right now her chassis is blissfully warm. Her entire body thrums with concentration as GLaDOS splits her focus between the main chamber and other parts of the facility. 

Whatever thought GLaDOS has, it’s bound to be fascinating. Maybe insulting. Could go either way. “Well, not you specifically-” GLaDOS pauses. “Although are are an infinite amount of things even my advanced mind cannot comprehend about you.”

At this, Chell snorts. She could say the exact same thing about GLaDOS. In a way, they’re both anomalies. They were not programmed to fall in love with each other. On a data sheet, they’d be the outliers, skewing the data, generally making a mess of the research.

Oh, the studies people would conduct about them...

Floors below them, GLaDOS shifts an entire wall away. “Why do humans connect love to the heart?” the GLaDOS focused on the main chamber says.

So that is the question they are pondering today. Chell idly runs her finger along an edge of GLaDOS’ casing and listens to her think out loud. “I’ve studied human anatomy. It simply doesn’t make sense. The heart doesn’t generate the feeling of love. You could just as easily switch it out for the spleen or the large intestine, and each would be just as ineffective. So why?”

Chell never thought of it. She doesn’t even recall when or where love and the human heart came together. In her human mind, they just fit. 

“Love is a chemical reaction that originates in the brain,” GLaDOS continues, “but you don’t see tiny humans cutting up paper into the shape of brains and writing nice things on them. What compels you to credit the heart for something it doesn’t do?”

Most days, Chell doesn’t know the answers to her queries. They aren’t meant to be answered, but simply ruminated on. Chell stretches, her body fitting perfectly into GLaDOS’ chassis. Like a part that had been missing for a long time, but when finally found... Chell sighs. Idly, she places a hand over her heart, listening to the constant ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum that signals all is well within Chell’s system. GLaDOS is right. Love technically doesn’t come from the human heart. But this feeling... times like this, Chell wishes she could let GLaDOS feel her heartbeat. Chell is biology. GLaDOS is machinery. How does one understand the other when they are built completely different?

Thinking about her, Chell’s heartbeat quickens.

Not long after, Chell dozes off to GLaDOS pondering the elimination of gravity in tests chambers, dreaming of Valentine’s day cards shaped like human brains floating in a weightless test chamber. 

--

Later, when GLaDOS is distracted with more reconstruction, Chell paints. She’s never considered herself an artist by any means, but this does not require a great level of skill. Just a steady hand and clear direction. She finds black paint and a brush in one of the dens. She’s not confident she gets the anatomy correct -human memory and all- but as a whole, it doesn’t look bad. 

“I know you’ve been up to something.”

Chell’s head snaps up to GLaDOS’ optic glaring down at her. She expects this. Given her... track record, GLaDOS probably assumes she’s thrown something else down the incinerator. But Chell cuts her eyes to GLaDOS’ chassis then back to her optic. Her eyes say one thing.

Look.

GLaDOS immediately begins to realign one of the cameras in the direction Chell indicated. “Incredible. I can’t leave you alone for five minutes without you doing some kind of damage to the equipment...” GLaDOS trails off as she aligns the camera. “Oh.”

Painted on her chassis is a human heart.

“You...” Chell slowly approaches her chassis and puts her hand over the painted heart and then her own. She painted it over the part of GLaDOS that warms up when they’re together. Not quite the same thing as a heartbeat, but GLaDOS, with all her infinite knowledge must understand. “It’s anatomically correct,” GLaDOS observes. “You wouldn’t happen to be a doctor and a murderer, would you?”

Chell smiles. Her heart beats faster, and GLaDOS’ chassis is warm under her touch.