#android space core | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

froggipied · 1 year ago

Text

For Science- Chapter 1

Ao3 link; https://archiveofourown.org/works/41680413/chapters/104553549

Discord Server Link: https://discord.gg/KB6vWVAp

To summarize tags for those reading on tumblr; This is x reader fanfiction. This work of fiction is partially canon compliant, but is planned to be 'canon-adjacent'. This genre is Isekai, but mainly for explanatory purposes and forced omnipotence of the mc.

Portal mods included in story: Portal stories: Mel, Portal: Revolution

Word Count: 4.4k

----

Chapter One

Science is objective. Anything could be an experiment, and to Aperture Science, Ethics are a suggestion made by Morons.

–

You knew something was wrong the moment you opened your eyes. It felt like waking from a dream, although you were certain you had just closed your eyes for a moment while talking to a co-worker one moment you were in a bleak little office party with disinterested co-workers, talking to the one you could stand, and the next, you were in a little bleak creme colored room with one pair of doors opened on the other side of it. The hinges to the doors squeaked back and forth as they rattled opened and closed. Dazed, you stare around yourself, look down at your hands for confirmation. Not a dream. At least..you’re doubtful it were. Time would only tell, but most dreams have something off about them.

A panel to one of the walls collapsed before your feet as you stood up, revealing wiring and metal that didn’t seem normal. A room was built of panels held up by wood or metal framing, but this wasn’ a frame. You were no architect but even you knew this wasn’t normal for a panel.

The door behind you squeaks again, catching your attention, and against your rational judgment, you left the soft colored room out into the bleak.

Stark gray pillars as far as the eye could see, stretching into the sky and far into the ground below. The only walk-space you had was a narrow catwalk made of decaying bars that shuddered and creaked as you stood on them. Unnerving,you decided. You'd try to find an area not made of catwalks sooner than later.

You Give yourself another once-over while you walk. Same shirt, same pants. Same shoes, too. Nothing about your attire had changed. That'd be a first for a dream.

The catwalks stretched on for what seemed to be forever. As far as you could see, they connected and spiraled and led to different areas of a bleak open space. Somewhere broken with rusted metal hanging just over your head, other areas shuddered and clattered as you jogged across them. It felt like you were running behind something. The area itself reminded you of the backstage. Was there something on the other side of the panels? A show, maybe?

You entertain yourself with the thought, just for fun. Something to brush your mind away from bubbling worries of kidnapping or escapes.

What if, behind that very panel, were some actors playing a terribly done rendition of Macbeth? Funny enough, in your opinion.

The catwalks lead you through doors that whirr as they unlock, a little orange light turns green. Occasionally, they take too long to open, as though rusted. Like the rest of this place, you find yourself lamenting in annoyance. You wanted to get out of here quickly. Through one set of doors was a catwalk leading beside a time. One little blinking red light catches your attention. While the thing is familiar, you can’t make sense of it.

Though you try to walk by, a little voice stops you.

“I’m different.”

“Hm.” you have places to be, and you really can’t spend time with..whatever this is. “Nice ch–”

“Icarus flew to the sun on waxen wings, desperate for its warm embrace.Though gentle to the earth, the sun was not gentle to man. Icarus burnt,falling to the cold sea.”

“..Nice chat.” you mutter, thoroughly disturbed by the little thing as you passed by another set of doors. It’s just mythology. And not even accurate mythology.

There’s something familiar about all of this, though you couldn't put it in words. Something like deja vu, which seemed outrageously silly to you. Until you heard a voice, muffled behind a set of doors.

“I should probably bring you up to speed on something,right about now.”

Familiar. You decide. Like someone you’d heard before. You swear you recognize it, but you can't puzzle it out. You passed through the squeaky set of doors, glancing briefly down at the floor of tattered checkerboard,unaligned and broken, concrete raised precariously out of the ground that you had to step around to avoid

Familiar, you frown as you walk through the hallway and see it. Him, more like. A robot, followed closely by a brunette woman in a jumper with something in her hands. Their backs were turned to you while they walked, and while he talked.

You know where you are, and you felt silly for not realizing it sooner. A game you played as a kid, and what the hell were you doing here?

Though the robot wasn’t just a core, he did have arms and legs and a body as anyone would expect of an android..but the core for a head. Weird, you decided.

“In order to Escape, we have to pass through Her chamber…and she will most definitely kill us. If she's awake”

Your foot slips against a checkered tile, and it slides a few inches ahead of you, clattering around with the sound of fragile glass. It gives both the android and the woman pause. The woman looks over her shoulder, and her gaze narrows as she spots you. The android, on the other hand, starts walking over without another thought “Oh, Hello! Are you staff? You must be staff, since there isn’t anyone–” he pauses,optic blinking wide”er–ignore that, nothing’s wrong with the folks in suspension! Heh..-uhm..” he taps his hands together as you stare between him and the woman standing rigid behind him.

He follows your gaze and after a moment, he waves dismissively “her? She’s a bit brain damaged, you know how they are when they come out of it! Can’t speak at all..” he squints “I think.”

“Right.” You mutter. The moment you speak, the core’s head turns back around and he exclaims

“Ah-! You speak. Great, really great. I was getting a little tired of being the only voice in the room. uhm..So- I’m trying to get this one out of here. She seems eager enough, and er..that’s..that’s not going to be a problem, is it?”

“Ah..No, not at all.” why you were going along with what the moron set for you, pretending to be a member of aperture, you weren’t sure. To avoid suspicion? Chell, however, seemed perfectly suspicious of you, not moving from where she stood on the far side of the room. “She’s offline, as it were,so…testing can’t really er..happen.”

“Right.” the core nods, turning back around on his heels as he keeps walking after chell, talking loudly “So, to recap. Facility? Brink of destruction,totally unstable. Unfixable, even. Getting the lady-and myself-out of here through her..her chambers.” He grunts and shies away from the door once it starts opening from Chell’s proximity to it. “Actually– hold on, wait, we don’t have to. We should just– leave it be, yeah we should leave her be and–” the door reaches the top, and in a heap of dirt, dust and botanic life was a humanoid figure with an oblong head, optic partially hanging out of the ‘head’ “Whew– she’s off.” Wheatley mutters, hanging to the side of the doorway for a moment as Chell trudged ahead of him without stopping. You followed after the human and robot, and Wheatley whistled.

“There she is..” he steps delicately over her body while you walk around her “Nasty piece of work she was–right?” he looks at you with a wide optic.

“Right.”

Wheatley jogs to keep up with Chell, and you followed suit “A proper maniac she was, really. Word of mouth? She killed everyone in the facility once. Railway operations department was not happy about that.” he shakes his head. “Know who took her down, in the end? A human. Like you too. All flesh and bones took her down.Not much known about him. Just..took her out and went and uh..no one’s seen him since.” you almost find the prattling amusing. If you weren’t trying to figure out a whole different matter of how to get out of here. “And uh…not much has happened since. Just..a lot of quiet and then us escaping now so er..yeah don’t touch anything.”

While Chell walks ahead of the two of you, Wheatley just keeps on talking, which you don’t particularly mind filling the silence. “This place has seen better days,certainly. I’m er– glad that she’s gone, of course. But it was a lot cleaner when she was awake. There’s this one fellow I know? Obnoxious with the cleaning ‘this is messy’, ‘this chamber is filled with bones’, ‘this track is broken and i can’t fix it,what if someone comes’, just prattling, really.” he huffs “not the best of guys, either. My standards are..not everyone’s, of course. Probably fine. Probably a fine guy but uhm..he wanted to turn her back on. Tried to, too, I think. Dunno how that went down but seeing as she’s still off…safe to say he failed, i’d think.” you’re not even sure who the hell he’s talking about, but it is filling the silence, so you don’t interrupt him,for his own sake. “Ah, we’re coming upon a drop. Rusted bars n’ all. Might want to watch your head. And your feet. And maybe..” he glances over at you, squinted and scrutinizing. “You..don’t have fall boots.”

“Nope.”

“Well, that is definitely an issue, considering the drop. I mean, you humans are plenty fragile without the danger of drops or injuries or blood or–well actually, no, a drop like that might be fine, if you can stand a broken bone or two. Though, we don't actually have any way to reset the bone, so as long as you’re fine with a permanently odd leg, then it should be perfectly fine.” he eyes the drop over Chell’s shoulder, and starts up again “uh–lady, think you’ve got the boots to sp–” Chell jumps off of the railing without a second thought, hitting the floor rough and stable. She briefly turns, looking back up at the railing, before she takes a step back to rest against a wall. She’s waiting, now.

Wheatley glances down at the drop again, and squints “Actually, now thinking about it, a human’s head would split like a melon from a height like this. So, a good bit of advice doesn't land on it. Or your arms, either. They'll break like the legs. So uh..don’t go head-first. Or arms first. And especially not elbows first. I don’t have elbows, but if i did, i wouldn't want to fall on those. Or–actually, judging it..it is probably too high to jump without long fall boots. so…Metal man, Human..person.” he squints “More likely to survive a good old fall, yeah? Not made of plastic and all that.”

“You’d probably be fine.”

“Well...i did fall off my management rail and was perfectly fine, so..” Wheatley hums as he stares down at the drop. Unceremoniously, you were thrown over the android’s shoulder, which hurt far more than it should’ve, and dropped back onto your feet after the jump. “Et Voila!” Wheatley hums with a little flourish of his arms ``perfectly intact, the both of us.” Chell bumps her shoulder off the wall as she turns around the corner..to another set of catwalks. Wheatley yelps not long after, staring directly below himself “Ah- I do not recommend looking down, awful long fall…Ah-! Just done it again, terrible..This place just goes down. Miles and miles really. All sealed off years ago, of course.” The robot mutters, metal hand gripping the bars to the catwalk far too tightly as he shambled after Chell.

A silent woman on a mission, she was. Understandably so. A desire for freedom from the hell that aperture was at its core. A Tumor of unethical practices and a lack of humanity or morality.

Chell pauses upon coming across the main breaker room, and wheatley walks around her, squinting at the wall of buttons “Alright,” he chirps “So, there should be a switch labeled ‘ESCAPE POD’, don’t touch anything else. Not interested in anything else. Don't Touch anything else. Don't even Look at anything else, just--well, obviously you've got to look at everything else to find ESCAPE POD, but as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say ESCAPE POD, look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything else or look at any--well, look at other things, but don't... you understand." Wheatley rambles on as his head turns this way and that, searching up the wall of levers and switches with a narrowed pupil, humming to himself “No..no.. movement controls, interesting– no. nothing else. Lights…mmmnh no nothing else.” In a fluid movement, the android spins halfway to face you and Chell.

“Tell you what, Might be easier if I'm plugged into the system. And..the lights. Might need the lights. So just plug me on in and I'll turn on the lights.” You were going to ask how exactly to go about that, before Chell pulls a long cable from the main breaker, plugging the cable into the back of Wheatley’s head as he turns back around to the system. The lights flash on at once, and both you and the woman cover your eyes briefly as Wheatley gestures “Let there be light!”

“That’s uh…god. I was quoting god..” Wheatley trails off slowly, and when met with an awkward silence by both you and the mute woman, he grunts “Tough crowd.”

There was an issue you hadn’t considered. Glados. She was going to turn on, throw Wheatley to rubble and throw Chell into testing, but just what would she do with an outlier? And Anomaly, more like? A wrench in the plan, even. You’re not entirely certain you wanted to find out.

But aperture rarely left time for pondering, as the platform started to turn slowly, and Chell wobbled on her feet, grasping behind her for anything to hold onto. “Oh, it’s turning!” Wheatley chimes nervously as he laughs “Ominous..but fine, as long as it doesn’t start moving up. Now..escape pod..escape pod.” he trails off quietly to himself. The platform whirrs loudly as it starts moving up, and the robot grunts “Ah it is–it’s moving up.” he hunches over the control panel as he talks “Okay! No, don’t worry. Don’t worry at all, it can fix this, I can fix it–fixing it…now” Wheatley’s pupil shrinks to a pinprick as he looks above himself. “No..makes it go faster..uh-oh..”

“Can you still fix it?”

“Listen– don’t panic, stop panicking” Chell watches the robot with a stony expression as the main breaking clicks into place at the ground level. “I Can, I Can still fix this, I can still stop it.” Wheatley glances down at the main breaker as the intercom whirrs to life

“Powerup initiated.” Daunting, that’s what that is. A message in dead air of what’s to come. A very large part of yourself hopes that Glados finds you an interesting anomaly and keeps you alive.

“Ohh that is not good” Wheatley mutters “ah- oh.there’s password. That is..fine. I‘ll just hack it. Not a problem.” You’d say you and chell beg to differ.

As Wheatley tries to hack the password combination by combination, Chell’s expression steels at the sight of the android’s figure being lifted up from the ground by pipes and wires connected through the back of her neck. Her legs were in a state of disrepair, one torn with red and blue wiring spilling out of it, and blue and yellow sparks flew as water dripped out of cracked casing. Her head slowly rises and falls backwards while sparks flew from her head, optic pulling itself back in and establishing a connection.

“Can you help at all?” Wheatley mutters “I think…I did B already. Someone needs to write this down. Grab a pen or–”

“Powerup Complete.”

“Okay, okay alright. This is fine. Just be nice– totally nice, act natural, we’ve done nothing wrong.” Glados’ head falls forward as her optic constricts and contracts, before ultimately focusing on Chell, who stares right back at her. Without a lick of fear, that one. “Hello!” Wheatley chirps.

“Oh.” Glados’ steps forward and broken legs. It nearly looks like levitating,pulling along by the tubing out of her head “It’s you.”

Wheatley’s head spins to look between you and Chell. A silent woman, but her glare gives her away “You know her?” he questions.

“It’s been a long time.” Glados chides smoothly, not paying any mind to you nor the core, focused on Chell “How have you been?” Chell’s eyebrow twitches. You conclude that this ‘long time no see’ tone of phrase isn’t all that pleasing to the woman “I’ve been really busy being dead.” Glados breathes without the need to “You know, after you murdered me.”

“You did what?”

Two claws descend from above Glados’ chassis, lifting chell up from the hand, though if she were in pain, she betrays nothing to Glados. It’s commendable..if not worrying. Wheatley on the other hand, is lifted from the head, screaming “No no no—No no no-Agh!” Sparks flew as the wire connecting him by the head to the main breaker was ripped out and clattered by your feet.

“Okay, look. We both said things that you’re going to regret.” glados’ head doesn’t even turn to regard the core before the claw drops and grabs, crushing Wheatley's outer casing,and his optic blinks out as the claw tosses the body into a heap across from her. Something about even that reads to you now as restraint, exerting Control, even. Crushing the core as to not crush her enemy. “But I think we can put our differences aside. For science. You monster.”

As the claw slowly drags Chell over the incinerator, Glados’ voice takes on a lighter tone,body being dragged along by wires “I will say though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really really love to test. I love it too. There’s just one small thing we have to take care of, first.” You watch as the claw drops the woman into the incinerator. Only once it closes and the claw rises up and away, does Glados turn slowly around to regard you. The anomaly.

Glados’s optic stares down at you, a blinding yellow light amidst the decay, and you shrink back a step, towards the heap of scrap that Wheatley currently was, laying in a broken pile. The robot’s angular body shifts forwards as she walks towards you, wires dragging slowly behind her broken legs. Commanding, that’s what you think of her in person. She commands a respect about her, and she was downright scary, even smaller than you’d seen her in the game.

“You are not permitted to be here.” She states. Not a question. An objective, undeniable fact. “You are not a test subject.” Glados has no panels to her optic, like the core. It’s far harder to read her ‘expressions’ beyond tone of voice. The monotony of it doesn’t help you one bit. Mad? Intrigued? Civil? You couldn’t be sure.

“Yeah.” you trail off, not denying the fact.

Wires spill out behind her legs as she walks straight towards you, looming over your head.”What are you doing here?”

You don’t have an answer for her. What would you say, something as childish as ‘i dunno’? Absolutely not. So you lie. “..Studying.”

The robot’s head tilts backward as she scrutinizes you. Or at least, you certainly feel as though she was. ‘Go.”

“What?”

“Study.” She states, turning slowly on her heel. “When the incinerator is operational, your study ends.” You don’t like the sound of that. It’s not malice, but it’s undeniable that in the robot’s view, you were an intruder of some sort. “Take the core with you.’ It’s not a request for you to do so, she was telling you to leave and take the core with you through a different door she had opened.

“Why?” You don’t know exactly what compels you to ask. To question Her, while she’s telling you your time is limited. You don’t have the seconds to waste, and yet you were.

“A test.” she doesn’t turn around, nor turn her head to stare at you. Instead, she regards her facility in such a state of disrepair. “Humans are made of Will, in theory. She proves it.” You’d think that might be the nicest thing she’s said of Chell. “Either she is an anomaly, or you will prove it as well.” So it’s a test for you to get answers about her.

You don’t have it in you to stay any longer in the room with a homicidal rogue AI who is still currently upset from the encounter with her murderer, instead quickly hooking your arms around the broken core’s body and dragging him along with you back through the door, which slams shut as soon as you were through it.

Wheatley Whirrs back to life not long after, on the catwalks. You had dropped him not moments ago, the strain being too much to bear on your arms. He sits up, searching and bewildered as you laid your hands on your knees, breathing hard. Solid metal, you’re frankly surprised you got this far. A single turn away from the door you were allowed through.

“Oh…this is not good.” Wheatley mumbles as his cracked optic looks this way and that, constricting and contracting. A constriction too small for the iris, and sparks would fly “Agh-”

“Thank god.” You mutter “Heavy metal.”

“What?”

“You. Are heavy.” You point with one hand as you straighten back up, turning your head around to stare down the seemingly endless line the catwalks made.

“Well, yes, I’m-I’m made of solid metal and titanium bearings, of course i would be heavy. Not exactly meant to be carried. Or to do the carrying– really, but i did, if you’ll remember–”

“We’ve got to go.” You decide, squinting. In the first place, you needed to find some way for Wheatley to fix himself up. His optic hanging that loosely out of the ‘socket’ couldn’t be good, neither were the tears and large cracks in the casing. Wires hanging out of the top of his head.

“You what?”

“We’re running on borrowed time.” you don't wait for him to get onto his feet, although you reasonably should’ve. Now that you’re not carrying a hunk of dead-weight metal with no-functional springs, you’re running on adrenaline. Not healthy, doesn’t feel good at all. You wonder how chell was going to fair was the slightly drug-induced testing tracks.

You don’t actually like remembering the game, in this case. It’s bothering you immensely already, what’s to come.

Wheatley scrambles after you on wobbly legs as he stares around himself wildly “Look, I’m all for an escape plan. Clearly. Planned to escape her. Think it was a pretty good plan, if i do say for myself–which i am, really. It was a good one, if that main breaker had agreed with me. You know, all the bots down in the wiring department really should condemn a machine like that. Definitely wasn’t supposed to raise. I don’t think so, anyways. Broken as a heap–”

“But?”

“aha..Uhm. But this is ‘by the seat of our pants’, as it were, right?” Wheatley questions, shambling after you “i mean you certainly don’t know where we’re going, Scientists aren’t allowed behind the catwalks–and that's not to say that you wouldn’t be able to direct us, i’m sure you’d be great at it, but i have some idea of where we are and let me tell you, it is far too close to her.”

“I know. It isn’t a good plan.”

“So you agree, good, good.” You glance over your shoulder, just a touch offended. Wheatley’s iris contracts and sparks fly as he nervously backtracks “Like i said, like i said, i’m sure you’d be great at it if you knew where we were.”

“You’re welcome for carrying you.” you chided as you headed through a set of doors. Ultimately, he was right. You haven’t a clue where the hell you were right now. In the game, you would’ve been testing, there was no need to really know where the catwalks lead

“Right–yes, thank you. Greatly appreciated. Wouldn’t much care for being left to uh..die.”

“Who gave you and Her the concept of death?” you question while you walk. Filling the silence now. The chatterbox surely could fill it.

“Well- you would know, wouldn’t you? I don’t. They don’t exactly apply a ‘made by’ sticker.”

“Right. I haven’t been here in awhile. Excuse any lapses.”

“Totally excused!” Wheatley chirps “Actually, now that I think of it, this is a great plan. Get away from her, and then we can come up with something else.” and he claps his hands together with a metal thud “Oh! Great idea. We go get Her, the brain damaged one? Seems perfectly capable, that one.” he pauses, and you’re certain he’s staring at the back of your head, expecting some sort of back-talk “Obviously not to say that you and I aren’t perfectly capable, but apparently she killed Her before?” he stumbles right into his own plan a little “Oh! Hold on, really, that’s good. We get her to shut Her off, and then the three of us escape! The musketeers, our little trio’ll be, right?”

“Maybe shutting her off isn’t the best of ideas–”

“Think about it! I mean really think about it. Chances are, you die twice, you’re not coming back a third time, right? Just need to make sure the death sticks this time, like J– actually..shouldn’t say that.” the core grunts as you both pass through another set of open doors.

“Maybe.” You haphazardly agree. You really don’t like knowing what’s to come. “First things first, though, have to get you fixed up.”

“Right. Definitely, priorities in order. Put myself in working order, retrieve her, defeat Her, escape! One issue though, No spare parts. Another issue, no spare optics on hand. Third issue–”

The sound of other voices stunt you both in your tracks. The sound of yelling, arguing and monotony bothers you a great deal. What? They weren’t supposed to be anywhere near here.

“Fact, Adventure core is a Crass excuse for Indiana Jones.”

“What!? Have you got an oil leak in your main chambers? Indy is a crass excuse for Me.”

“I think…Indiana Jones should’ve gone to Space!”

Despite your apprehension, Wheatley goes jogging ahead of you with a tone of delight “Others! Isn’t that great?”

“Hold on–”

Now you’re shambling to keep up with a broken robot.

#portal 2 #portal #chell #glados #wheatley #wheatley x reader #Glados x reader #Chell x reader #X reader #gender neutral reader #portal 2 fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #fact core #space core #wheatley portal #adventure core #android wheatley

69 notes · View notes

froggipied · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter Two

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41680413/chapters/135096562

Word Count: 3.5k

---

Personality Cores are sentient Ai, built and programmed to complete one singular core function. Secondary programming outside of primary function regards these cores as defective. In the event of an encounter with a defective Personality Construct, The machine should be promptly removed and relocated to the nearest incinerator. Aperture’s Personality Construct Faculty thanks you for your contribution to science. Build a better future for yourself, and those after You.

—

You knew they weren’t supposed to be here this early.

Wheatley doesn’t stop walking when he hears the voices, in fact he rather heads towards them, with yourself begrudgingly following him. Rationally, you know the cores you’re about to encounter were fine. Kooky, sure, but that seemed a given for aperture. You knew this.

“Fact: Not one person has told Adventure core–”

“--Rick.”

“...Adventure core that he is incapable of adventure,as he is nothing more than a robot.” The nasal sarcasm hits you like nails on a chalkboard. Funny in a game, irritating in a real-life situation.

“I am fully capable of adventure, I'll have you know.” While Wheatley rounds a corner, following the catwalks, you can just hear the voices grow louder. It’s like Wheatley is searching for them.

“Do you think they’re close? Sounds close. Definitely seems close. Pretty sure.”

Alright so he IS searching for them.

Wheatley leads ahead of you, pointing with two fingers “It’s this way,definitely this way.” He turns down a different corridor for mere moments before turning back around with a muttered “Not that way,actually. dead end, that is.” and down the other hall he went with you trailing behind. There is far too much to think about. You almost wonder how the hell wheatley has the computerized processing power to do it…while effectively broken,even.

Maybe he’s just taking it one step at a time/ whenever a problem comes up?

“Hello over there!” Wheatley calls out when he can’t figure out just where the three voices were coming from. And granted, it works. It gets a reaction.

“..Think I can’t do adventure? I’ll show you, wise-ass.”

Just not the one you were hoping for, really.

Around a corner, previously concealed by piping leading far above your head and intersecting with the catwalks comes another core, only really distinguishable by a green, animal-like iris. Words weren't exchanged before Rick had pulled one loose-socketed arm of Wheatley's around his back “Now who are ya?”

“Woah–Hey” You step in, waving your hand in front of the core’s face “We’re just trying to find him someplace to get repaired”

“Can never be sure.” Rick reasons haphazardly as he lets go of Wheatley's arm, which falls limply to his side, nonfunctional. The lights lining the forearm die out once his arm starts moving. That’s great, you consider bitterly, now there’s even more work to do.

“Wow.” Wheatley mumbles as he stands, pushing the arm back and forth with a squint “uhm..Strong arm.”

“So, who might you be?” Rick questions in a far more friendly tone of voice as he walks around you once. Amusing as you might find it, you’d be lighter on a better day. Hopefully you'll find that sunny day soon.

“Not interested, buddy.”

“I’m not saying that you were!” Rick claims, raising his hands in defense.

While maybe a different day you might’ve been more compelled to give him the chance of day, you were on a single track; getting the hell out of aperture.

…you wonder if that’s how chell feels. Stuck in a single track-mind.

You grunt “Fine, really don’t have the time for this. Do you or your..uh two friends know where we can find any spare parts?’

“Eh? Not friends.”

“Do you or do you not know?” you rephrase just that much more bluntly, and out around the piping comes two other cores. Distinguishable only by calculating violet and bubbling orange.

“I do know where it is.” Fact core states as he moves around past Rick, Wheatley and yourself, effectively leading the way already.

..Part of you didn’t figure it would be that easy.

But it was. Almost an instant routine falling into line. You didn’t stray far from Wheatley,as he was undoubtedly more familiar to you. Rick and Fact walked ahead of you both, going round and round in a back-and-forth, while Space core bumbled along behind you, chattering in your ear about the glories of space and random things he either knew about space or wanted to see in space.

“Space…hm-hm.. Did you know- did you- that Jupiter has less than half the day and night cycle that earth does? But twelve times the year cycle! Want to see jupiter..moon rocks..asteroids..saturn…Saturn's rings! All made of-of asteroids. Asteroid belt.” You wonder briefly and bitterly if Aperture has any fancy noise-canceling headphones hiding somewhere. Maybe with whale sounds or white noise. You’d prefer static to quell a rushing adrenaline.

A Rag-tag group of idiots. It wasn’t fair to call Wheatley stupid when he really shines in comparison to the dynamic Rick, Fact and Space provided. Ceaseless chatter between the four of them, comparing stories, tidbits and randomized rants, enough to make your head spin silly. You were nearly considering whether or not you could just ignore them. But besides Fiction related endearment towards the cores, you realistically needed them. The three knew where to find spare parts, and Wheatley needed to be able to get Chell out of the testing tracks.

So you put up with the ceaseless chatter, an endless back and forth.

“I almost got a job in management once.” Wheatley chimes, and you could hear the pride in his voice “‘Course, didn’t actually pan out. Was too good for them, I guess. Don’t really dwell on it.” you’d beg to differ. You think he’s trying to make a good impression, so you won’t rain on his parade.

“Most Aperture cores have set black-box features akin to the central Ai. However, these features are used for recording menial shows rather than the Core’s death.” You’d give it to him, there are times where Fact catches your interest, before throwing it down an endless hole to the bottom of aperture. Maybe even hell. You’d choose to believe that the first bit was likely accurate.

“Management, yeah?” Rick scoffs “Try being in entertainment– sorry, Aperture’s Certified Motivational Positive Reinforcement department.”

“That one?” Wheatley sucks in a breath he doesn’t have. “Tough district, that is.”

“...What is that, exactly?” You ask, interest piqued.

“It’s a shoddy department of cores with personalities based around Mostly actors and characters from the 80s. The bigwigs–scientists.. Reckoned that some encouragement from a test subject’s favorite actor or character would make’em perform better.” Rick explains, dragging his hands along the rails as Fact leads the group ahead through sets of creaky doors.

“Did it?”

“Not at all.” Rick grunts “made ‘em worse, actually. Humans like to lie on ‘voluntary’ surveys”

“Ah. you mutter.

“Just scuffed up their floors. Almost feel sorry for the fool that’s gotta clean it.”

“Fact: While that core is indeed a fool and basic sympathy for plight may be provided by one, Cores are incapable of sympathy.” Fact doesn’t turn, only pointing a finger behind himself at Rick, who’s pupil constricts considerably.

You’re starting to understand it, you think.

“Speak for yourself, Bolt-head.” Rick grumbles

“If you were incapable of Sympathy,” you start, making idle conversation as you trailed after the leading cores through dusty and damaged corridors “then why are you leading us?”

“To prove that I am correct.” Fact answers simply. You feel like you should've expected something similar to that, really. A lapse in judgment for thinking otherwise.

There is rarely a change in scenery in the backside of aperture. Nothing other than a mind-meling row of yellowing storage boxes with openings you couldn’t deduce the reasoning for and mottled walls. It got cleaner the deeper into the facility you were led, but it wasn’t any better. No elevators, no breaks, and no adrenaline being pumped through to make you forget about the strain on your legs.

“..What do you make of them?” Wheatley Discreetly whispers to you. Discreet was a kind thing to call it, as cores could not effectively lower their voice to a whisper level, but it was close enough. Fat chance the three will hear him over themselves.

“They’re..interesting.”

“I think they’re defective. Corrupted, maybe? The one behind us, certainly, on and on with the space..” Wheatley glances behind himself briefly at the orange core who was ranting and raving about space cops and wondering if you were going to bring him to space, as you were a human. “Happens to them, sometimes.” Wheatley explains “A nasty fall and something cracks..a virus infecting primary functions..or just isolation.” he mutters “And this bunch is…actually, no, interesting is a good way to call it. Not bad, certainly not great, but just..interesting.”

“So by association, wouldn’t you be considered corrupted? She crushed you.”

“Hah..uhm..no.” Wheatley’s pupil constricts as his head turns, a nasty metal-scraping sound following it. “Well- maybe, but i just..it won’t be for long so you know, be perfectly fine.”

You’d beg to differ.

A grave of spare parts, disassembled bodies and broken down cores is where Fact brought the four of you, and promptly gestured to the ‘dead’ cores with a sweep of his hand. “Here we are.While Cores have no real concept of death, this is regarded as the ‘graveyard’. Inappropriately so, as no cores have been buried, and dirt cannot be found at this level of the facility. Whomever dubbed this the graveyard was effectively moronic.”

Wheatley seemed to be decently disturbed, although this really should’ve been expected. “The graveyard? Doesn’t that seem the least bit gruesome to you? Or..daunting. Daunting seems more fitting.”

“Something tells me we should hold a seance, just to see.” Rick claims.

“We will not. Seances are a practice for humans to invite ghosts into themself to be claimed, and deals closely with the soul theory. Cores have no souls. No seance.” and promptly, Fact turns on his heel and starts walking in the other direction, about to leave. Space follows after him, insistently asking about the existence of space-cops and being fed incorrect information about their existence.

“You don’t need us sticking around, beau?” Rick questions, pressing himself into the doorway of the ‘graveyard’ “Might need a stronger core to keep you safe and such. Humans are so so fragile, aren’t they?”

“I think we’ve got it handled mate, but er..thanks for the offer.” Wheatley mutters searching around the room and the dilapidated bodies strewn about the room for the parts he would need for himself

“Wasn’t talkin’ to you.”

“We’ve got it handled.” you confirmed.

“How’s about a code-word? Like.. ‘Damsel’?” Rick suggested, partially pushing himself off against the wall. Your expression sours at the suggestion, and the core back-tracks “Doesn’t have to be that, ‘course..open to suggestions.”

“How about egg-head?” Perhaps the suggestion came out a little more bitter than you’d intended, considering how the robot stands a little straighter, and teeters from foot to foot.

“Sounds good then.” Unceremoniously, Rickleaves, leaving you and Wheatley in the graveyard of broken down bodies, from which Wheatley had busied himself with ripping and tearing casing away from partially-dismantled bodies.

“So how is it that they ended up like this?” you question, crouching to look over at one of the bodies. The casing was partially melted and it smelled something like ash and paint thinner.

“Well, simple thing, really. Cores weren’t built to be all that sturdy.” Wheatley explains as he snaps off grayed casing from a partially melted robot. You wonder, briefly, if these were discarded bodies of the cores Chell had destroyed. “We’re built sturdy compared to humans, mind you. Solid metal n’ all. About as heavy as a wheelbarrow–”

“--heavier than that.” you interrupt.

“..Ouch.” Wheatley sighs “We’re not exactly built to withstand heat..or freezing temperatures..or..circuit damage, motherboard damage, exoskeletal damage–”

Fascinating. “You have an exoskeleton? Weird.”

“It’s not Weird” Wheatley squints, defensive as he gathered the pieces he’d plucked together, eye closed while he went on. “You know what’s weird, actually? Humans. Your bodies. How you take damage and just keep on. One fella dies in a shallow pool and another survives an avalanche, how’s that work, huh? Seems weird to me–weirder, in fact, than an exoskeleton.” He mouths off while you watch him in thinly-veiled amusement.

You don’t find him as stupid to talk to as you were initially worried about. He’s funny.

“What’s with the look?” Wheatley’s optic shudders and sparks as he squints at you “You’ve got a look on your face–”

“I meant weird as in ‘Cool’”

“Ah.”

You would not particularly describe this as ‘handled’, if you were honest.

Fixing Wheatley’s casing was a task easier thought of than performed, and it was freakier to watch, really. Out with the old, broken pieces of outer casing, which left internal wiring down to the main chassis exposed along with an array of wires, cranks and little levers allowing free-movement. To some degree, it would’ve been interesting..if Wheatley wasn’t talking his way through his self-repairs.

“So, had a thought, really. While we were walking with those..charming fellows. Now, not to say that there’s anything wrong with them, they seem like a fine bunch, but they’re not..travel companions, I don't believe. I almost missed the sound of my own voice. Never been so quiet. I’m actually not used to it. So strange, really is. More used to the whole monotony of uh..monologuing to myself…that's…probably not something i should admit to doing- don’t think most would admit to stuff like that but….maybe that’s humility?” his pupils constrict and the socket swirls as he pops out a piece of casing, which clatters to the floor “anyway, point being, I don't think you’d be judgy about that sort of thing, being a scientist and all. The fellows on that floor I met were fascinated with the core's learning. Not myself, necessarily, but I like to think that they learned plenty from me..maybe. Uhm..where was I..something-something..brainwaves…oh!” he gestures exaggeratedly, and a wire pops out of his head “So..Her, that’s the focus here, yeah?”

You’d zoned out entirely, listening to him talk and staring him down while he repaired his casing. It was so strange to see the exposed wiring..wouldn't it be like looking at someone's brain-matter? Morbid. “Uh..Right.”

“Well, that facty guy gave me an idea..sorta. So we’ll need to know where our brain-damaged friend is, so.. I could hack my way into the main facility. Hook it all up, take a peek through security cameras, check out where she might be and how dangerous things are getting for her.”

“That’s..a good plan.” you agree, still watching as wheatley pops a wire into place, before he pauses, staring back at you.

“Is it?” his pupil constricts and sparks, and he grunts “Well–uhm, thanks. Yeah.So..we find a central computer of sorts not directly connected to her and I hack-on into it and..we’ll have it covered, pretty certain.”

“I figured Cores had pain receptors.” You comment, baffled now by Wheatley harshly pressing a new piece of graying casing into place “Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Huh? Oh– this? What? No, it’s like…pressing an injury.”

“Weird”

“Is that another slang..thing..like.. Cool-weird-y?” Wheatley questions while he reaches behind his head,plucking disconnected wires from the jumble in the broken back of his head, pulling the broken ends towards his eye so he could see what he was doing. The action vaguely reminds you of someone brushing hair onto their shoulders. So weird.

“Uhm–Somewhat. It’s just odd they gave you pain receptors. You’d think if you make artificial intelligence, you’d want to keep them a little further away from humanity.” you twiddle your thumbs, really. Nothing to do but look at dead cores or your paces-from-servo-death friend repair himself, and you were never all that interested in robotics beyond surface level.

“Mm? Seems they were aiming the opposite.”

“Seems so.” You watch with squinted eyes while Wheatley pops his arm back into place, flexing metal fingers and turning his hand over a couple of times to check. You have to assume he’s had to repair himself before–or had seen someone repair a different core.

Wheatley reconnects the wires in front of him, fidgeting with them and pressing them back into place before setting a piece of casing into the back of his head.

“Are you..not going to do anything about your eye?”

“Can’t do much.” Wheatley stares around “Well–I could, but I'd be doing it blind as a bat..and while bats may be incredibly resourceful–Being blind isn’t..high upon a list of things I'd like to be. Along with dead–Dead’s..it’s pretty high up there in terms of what not to be.”

“Is it actually messing with your vision?”

“Not as much as you’d assume.” Wheatley stands off of the shaky little ‘desk’ he’d sat on to repair himself. “A hairline fracture,really. Well. I don’t have a hairline and can’t technically fracture anything in my body, but er..you get it, you understand.”

“Sure.”

Wheatley gets moving, and while he was moving more fluidly and looked a little less broken and ‘on death’s door’, he did look remarkably roughed up..with a crooked limp in one leg. But he doesn’t ask for assistance, and you’re fairly sure you couldn’t provide assistance even if you wanted to. It was already a pain enough to drag him out of Glados’ chamber.

The two of you were making steady pace, or at least, you figured it must be a steady pace to where-ever it was Wheatley was leading you to.

Some computer that Glados wouldn't have access to? You remember him saying that. Plenty gets lost in the translation of the core having so much to say.

“--Speaking of which, it is really nice to have someone to speak with. Now that lady, she’s plenty nice..i think. I mean, she didn’t turn her nose up at me plugging myself into things, or leading her around..orr coming off of my management rail..although she was a little uh..” wheatley trails off, walking slightly slower, giving you the chance to catch up to him. For a robot with a limp, he was faster than you. “Anyways, point being, it’s real good to have some back-and-forth. Not just talking to dead air–or just air. Hopefully she isn’t dead and well, if she is, then we will most definitely find her body and give her a proper burial–”

“You’re right, it is nice having someone to talk to.” You agree before he could spiral down a rabbit hole of unsorted thoughts.

“It is? It is.” Wheatley’s lower lid raises, and you choose to remark it as glee. Then he shakes his head and points ahead of you both “So– back to the task at hand. Finding our brain-damaged lady and getting her out of the testing tracks.”

“Right”

Wheatley re-explains his plan to hack into the camera system through a computer that he was pretty sure wasn’t connected to Glados. While it sounds moderately promising, you weren’t going to get your hopes up just yet.

Besides..

What the hell were you looking at that was gleaming on the floor under the dim lights overhead?

You stopped walking entirely, coming across a little tablet of sorts on the ground. Cracks inlaid throughout the screen, but when you picked it up, the screen blinks on. Wheatley stops walking, turning partially. “Something keeping you?”

“Someone’s tablet.” you mutter, swiping through it “no password. That's weird, isn't it?”

“Well..don't think so,” Wheatley squinted, looking down at the tablet with you while you went through the files that you didn't quite understand. “The sciency guys..they’d have to share stuff, I think. Wasn’t allowed too close in that department besides programming and other stuff.” he pauses while you flip through files, coming across a video file. “I don't think you should mess with it, though.”

“Yeah, but the scientists made Her. Made you too. What if they’ve got something to say they didn’t tell you?”

“Well–”

“You aren’t curious?”

“I don’t know if i really want to know what they have to say about myself.” Wheatley chuckles, decidedly nervous while you read through. The video Log was simply titled ‘E_S- Log_1- R_E_M.mp4’

“Rem.” you repeat, intrigued. Then, you look at the robot, who squints at the tablet.

“Rem?”

“You sure you don’t want to look? I can just watch it myself…” you trail off slowly. Wheatley shakes his head adamantly

“Well. Couldn’t actually hurt to take a peek. Staff here knew a lot.” You clicked play before the robot had even finished his thought. “Elvira Scott. Head of neuroscience. We are here today to consider something our CEO had breached the surface of. The human condition, and how it applies to our robots–”

#wheatley #portal 2 #portal #portal 2 fanfiction #android wheatley #fact core #adventure core #space core #wheatley x reader

15 notes · View notes