Testing Is the Future, and the Future Starts With You!
WHO: Wheatley, OPEN to all willing victims potential test subjects
WHAT: The little personality core's gotten himself in a bit of a fix.
WHERE: The new and improved Aperture Science Testing and Application Center in Zone 4
WHEN: Roughly mid-week. The center will be open for as long as it is functional, however.
WARNINGS/NOTES: STARTED IN PROSE. ( Read more... )
WHAT: The little personality core's gotten himself in a bit of a fix.
WHERE: The new and improved Aperture Science Testing and Application Center in Zone 4
WHEN: Roughly mid-week. The center will be open for as long as it is functional, however.
WARNINGS/NOTES: STARTED IN PROSE. ( Read more... )
At least the greeting is friendly enough as you step through and into the large, empty receiving room. On the other side is a doorway, which leads directly into an elevator. As it takes you down, the automated voice speaks up again.
"We here at Aperture Science would like to thank you for your willingness to participate in our testing procedures. You should feel proud knowing that you are among the first of your kind to be monitored for these tests. Please rest assured, all results are recorded and will provide helpful incite for future participants."
The elevator finally comes to a stop, and the doors slide open to admit you into another room. Another doorway lies just ahead. Within the room itself is a large block, presumably to be used as a bench. To the side is a hatch with a handle, built into the wall. The sign above it is printed in the local language, reading: Weapons Storage Unit. It has a helpful arrow pointing down.
"It is highly recommended that you leave any weapons you have brought with you in the indicated compartment. Our testing courses employ the use of Material Emancipation Grills, which will vaporize unauthorized equipment that passes through it. However, as we are aware of your potentially robotic make-up, modifications have been made to ensure that your bodies are left intact. Due to the nature of testing, internal weapons systems will be temporarily deactivated. If you experience any vital deactivation or if passing through the Material Emancipation Grill has emancipated any limbs or circuitry, please be sure to make note of this in your personal evaluation report, which you are required to submit upon successful completion of these testing chambers.
"The doors will open, and testing will begin in 3...2...1...."
And indeed the doors do open, and they will remain so until you pass through them, upon which they will close behind you. The door to the elevator has already shut, and there doesn't seem to be a button to call it again.
If you move through the doors, there is a short corridor. The doorway it leads to seems to glow with a transparent sort of energy field. This is probably that Material Emancipation Grill that was mentioned. Passing through should give you nothing more than a brief jolt, although this can potentially short your weapons systems. Of course, since Cybetronians aren't as familiar a subject as humans, there's a chance it might not work at all, or some other technical problems may occur. It shouldn't be anything serious though, right? And besides, what's a little testing?
((OOC: Regarding the Emancipation Grill effects, please fill free to have it fail or affect you as you will!))
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And Wing desperately needs to be helpful, right now. He's felt unbalanced since leaving the Outworlder prison, whipsawed between Perceptor and Magnum and...whatever he could still believe in.
But Wing is a law-abiding mech, after all, so he carefully stores his two small blades in the appropriate cubby. The voice gives him pause. Testing? He's not here for testing.
Is he?
Wavering won't help Wheatley, however. And the poor thing sounded in need of help. He steps through the Grill, feeling a sudden sharp shock along his back, shocking along the folded panels of his wings.
That...wasn't good.
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Further along the hall, Wing will come to the first chamber. The first thing he might notice is the large button on the ground just to the right of the doorway he'd be coming through. Depressing it will make a hatch on the other side of the room open, which seems to be the only other exit. However, the moment he steps off of it, the door closes again.
Not to worry though! There seems to be a large cube sitting at the opposite end of the room. It's also apparently blocking a bright red laser beam from connecting to an opposite receptor on the wall across from it, redirecting it towards another blank wall. This beam isn't all that high, easy enough to be stepped or jumped over. Wouldn't recommend touching it for very long, although getting hit will give you a jolt.
There's also a strange podium a few meters into the room upon which a smaller button is set. Pushing that will deposit another cube from a tube overhead. Just be careful it doesn't land on your head.
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He circles the podium. "Wheatley? I am here to help."
No response.
He moves over to the cube, giving it a nudge, testing its weight. Perhaps, he thinks, he can lift it to place it on the button by the entrance?
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He hopes so. But he's beginning to see--and really become anxious--why Wheatley might be in trouble. What kind of 'testing' is this?
The podium, he supposes. There has to be a way out--otherwise someone would be in this room with him. He can't be the first. And if they could solve it, he could. He moves to the podium, trying to figure it out. Well, staring at it won't help Wheatley. He presses the button, braced, prepared for--he hopes--anything.
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The podium button makes a little sound as it's depressed, and up above, some several feet from where the button is, a large tube opens, dropping another cube down. This one is slightly different from the other one. Parts of it seem to glow with some strange opalescent hue, not too unlike Energon, actually. Looks like GLaDOS was experimenting with new things before she'd left.
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All right. Moving that cube blocks the door he needs to get to. But this cube looks like it might refract light.
...it's time to admit he needs help. Wheatley had been able to comm the network from this place: so can he.
"Perceptor? Can I ask you some advice?" It would be nice to talk to him about something with slightly less tension than...Magnum.
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"Apparently the switch over here by the door needs to be depressed to open the next door I need to go through. This laser," he indicates it, "Raises a wall if the cube is moved and I cannot get back to the first switch."
He directs his gaze to the new, glowing cube. "This...might help but I don't know how." A sheepish laugh. "I am better at fighting than puzzles, I'm afraid."
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"Have you made any attempt to touch the illuminated cube? If it is safe to come into contact with, and if it can be moved, could it be placed upon the switch to activate the door?"
He studies the glowing cube a bit more, noting the almost energon-like glow ir emits. "I hesitate to suggest placing it in the path of the photon emission, as I am concerned about a potential adverse reaction between the excited photons and whatever the substance is that produces the cube's illumination."
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This is why he asked a scientist to begin with.
"All right." He moves to pick up the glowing cube, heading back to the floor switch. He doubts it's this easy, though.
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It's a very good idea that Wing doesn't place the glowy cube in the path of the laser. That would have been pretty messy. In its current place as it is set on the switch, it seems to do just the job of keeping the button depressed as once again the doors open on the other end.
Nothing else happens, and the way to the next chamber looks pretty clear. Guess it is this easy. For the moment.
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"That worked! Thank you, Perceptor."
It occurs to him that he hasn't explained where he is or what he's doing. "Uh, Wheatley--have you met him? Small, round, very chattery? He's trapped here. I'm...trying to help."
As he proceeds through the newly opened door, he gives a sort of ironic grin. Accent on the 'trying'.
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"Wheatley? I do not believe that I have met him in person, yet, however, I have noticed his presence upon the network," he replies, frowning when he notes the "trapped" and "trying" parts of Wing's explanation.
"Should I prepare the clinic for injured? Do you require assistance there, or would you prefer that I remain in contact, but external to your location?"
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"Perhaps for right now it's best you stay there--the last thing we need is two of us trapped."
He steps forward, standing in the threshold of the second chamber. "All right, let's see what this room has for us." He feels much more confident having Perceptor with him, even if just on comm.
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