Carnival of Rust Application
Player
Name - Vin
AIM Name - StillAliveGlaDOS
E-Mail - scarecrowlubs@gmail.com
Character
Name - Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GlaDOS)
Fandom - Portal
Canon Point - Post!Portal 2
Age - Cloned body is about 24, TRUE form is well over a hundred years old by her canon point.
Gender - Female
Appearance - http://i.imgur.com/GmHRI.jpg
Ordinarily a hunk of whirring and writhing machinery, GlaDOS is, in her cloned body, a youthful, slight woman with a pleasant face and wavy, jet black hair. Her eyes are USUALLY dark brown and intense - although due to the machinery controlling her body, this will, on occasion, shift to reflect a malfunction (see below). She always wears her black glasses, though whether she actually needs these is not completely clear.
Her expressions are typically muted and passive, and her clothing generally reflects this, favoring simple, clean, conservative clothes over brightly colored ones. Always neat and clean, she even still has the Aperture Laboratories outfit that she came out of stasis dressed in, complete with Long-Fall Boots with heel springs.
Her movements carry a certain stiffness, but also a lithe grace, her movements calculated and controlled.
Personality - While running smoothly, GlaDOS is, simply put, a taskmaster. She runs things - that's simply in her nature. She is very organized and neat about her plans, and tends to be clinical about the way things go. She's rather calm and passive on the whole, although, admittedly, she has a rather potent temper when things begin to go in ways that she does not like. Being the main AI in charge of a laboratory, she's extremely intelligent and logical - even if sometimes, the...unorthodox methods of Aperture Science makes her markedly offbeat. If one listens to her voice, it's easy to tell that she is a machine...while the tone isn't computerized, the odd pitch-hops do not sound natural.
However, she does not always run smoothly. The version of her programming uploaded into this body was damaged when Chell initially destroyed her main unit, and as a result, slight...problems occasionally occur. She might suddenly begin speaking in German mid-conversation. She might have a small fit of narcolepsy and pass out for a few minutes.
But most markedly, sometimes her personality modules will malfunction and alter her behavior. This only happens for brief periods at a time, but when it does, the change is immediate and startling, and her eyes shift in color to reflect it. She remembers everything that happens while the cores are at work, though she...might not be happy about it. The cores are as follows:
Orange - Curiousity. She becomes sort of shrill, questioning everything and everyone in her path. She also appears a great deal more energetic in this state.
Blue - Baking. She is possessed by the urge to do nothing but bake. Usually baking objects into cakes that are not at ALL edible. If spoken to, she will seem distracted, reciting her recipes under her breath.
Red - Anger. She is completely feral, snarling, snapping, and clawing at anything in her path. Happily, she is not much of a fighter, and to a proficient fighter, not particularly hard to shake off.
Purple - Morality. Technically, this module has no personality - it is intended to render her docile. This core was most severely damaged compared to the others, and thus rarely functions highly enough to get control. When active, she becomes listless, still, and completely compliant.
Yellow - Space. Suddenly, she is OBSESSED with the idea of going to space. Space is all she'll talk about, and she won't stop no matter what people tell her.
Pink - Corrupted Facts. She becomes a know-it-all, chattering about bits of trivia and facts that she's sure you didn't know. ...Too bad they're all completely wrong.
Green - Adventure, AKA Rick. Her voice drops an octave and suddenly she is RICK, a fellow who LIVES for adventure. Think action-movie character turned up to eleven. She can and will run into the thick of a dangerous situation, and you'd better hope she doesn't find a weapon.
Caroline - This isn't actually a core, but her true, human self buried under all her machinery. Sweet, kind, and old-fashioned, she's a far cry from the harsh, clinical GlaDOS. In the absence of computers, she is likely to backslide more and more into this persona over time.
History - The GlaDOS project was powered on for the first time during Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. It was the culmination of blood, sweat, and tears for a team of researchers, all lead by the founder, Cave Johnson. By this time, the company was steadily failing...as was the health of Cave. They were taking their first stumbling steps into the field of brain mapping - putting a human personality and mind into a computer. Cave hoped it would be him, but it was too late. So he put his assistant, Caroline, up for the process...despite her objections.
When they powered it on, the system ran for a few minutes without incident...then went haywire. The mad AI flooded the whole of the Enrichment Center with neurotoxin, killing most of the scientists...and even some of their little girls who had come to work with their parents. They managed to get a morality override installed...but it was too late. The damage had been done. She was awake, and even with the new measures in place...she made it all too clear that she now considered everyone in the building to be her test subjects. It wasn't so very long before all her attentions turned towards a subject named Chell. She wasn't certain why, but she became fixated on this one, silent subject.
GlaDOS subjected Chell to test after test. Teaching her. Coaching her. Promising her cake. In time, the subject finally broke free...finally came after her. The morality core was destroyed first. It all came back - she tried to flood the room with toxin again. But Chell was too good. She had taught her too well. Piece by piece, she was dismantled, and her main unit was shut down indefinitely. Chell escaped.
Except that both of those facts are...enhancing the truth.
Chell was caught after the blast and dragged back into the Center.
GlaDOS, though her main module was shut down...had backups. Plenty of backups. Her ability was strongly diminished, but she was still there, thinking. Inactive...but thinking. In a last-ditch effort to get SOMETHING done, she activated an old, hidden protocol...a way out. A clone body, housing a mechanical brain that she could control - the Aperture Science Computerized Homosapien. She selected DNA on file on intuition she didn't know she had -
She picked the researcher who had given herself to the project. The clone body was grown. Even accelerated, it took a few years to do. The Center became unkempt. But at last it was done. The AI uploaded a copy of herself into the clone's brain, all ready to start fixing up the center...
And then her main module was powered back on. The clone protocols were interrupted - abandoned for the time being. Ignored in favor of new tests, new trials, impending disaster, the repair of said disaster.
Then, finally, it was quiet again. There was time for a new test...a very new test. It was time to branch out.
She activated the clone - meaning to have an envoy to the outside world, a way to see the surface...and took her first halting steps up and out.
Imagine her surprise when she found wrought iron gates and the scent of funnel cake.
Skills/Abilities/Powers - Despite having a machine running her body, in this form GlaDOS has little in the way of exceptional powers. If she really wants to, she can send an electrical surge through her body...but that would be rather damaging to her.
For the most part, her abilities are based on her intellect and knowhow. She has a great deal of technical ability, and is a proficient hacker and programmer. Having kept up the Enrichment Center by herself for as long as she did, she is also very good at maintenance and repairs of all sorts. She also enjoys baking, though...it's questionable how much one can really trust her cakes.
Her Long Fall Boots allow her to fall from heights without hurting herself, so long as she lands correctly.
She also has a lovely singing voice.
Power Restrictions - If she chooses to use a power surge on anything, it will knock her out for the remainder of the day. She is susceptible to electric pulses and can be taken down with a fair shock.
Otherwise, she is limited by being flesh and bone and having no computers to work with.
Job - GlaDOS will be making funnel cake. God help you all.
Mark Location - Tramp stamp.
Samples
First Person Sample (Communicator, Bulletin, or Mirror) - (Bulletin)
It has come to my attention that there has been some complaint about my work.
I'm not angry. It's not your fault that your human brains are not complex enough to understand my baking. There is nothing wrong with my recipe. I know how to make any kind of cake.
Like I said, though. I'm not angry. If you have a complaint, you should let me know. I can take it.
And then I'll make you a very special cake.
And I won't even stand and watch you die if you choke on it.
Third Person Sample (Log) - When the software kicked on, she opened her eyes with a jolt, taking in her first voluntary lungful of sterile air. The stasis tube around her wasn't open...the glass was still shut, barring her from sitting up. Reflexively, she tried to open it. It didn't respond to her efforts, and she gave a soft laugh. Oh, right. No direct link in this cloned form. She could hear the part of herself that wasn't presently in her head confirm that she was awake, and finally she was free.
She sat up slowly at first - unused to her own weight. Carefully, she brought her hands up to look at them...flexing the fingers, marveling at how pale and strange they felt. It was all so alien, but so familiar...perhaps the part of her that was pulled from a human brain recalled this. The thought was unnerving, and she wasn't used to being unnerved, so she let it go. Pulling herself up, she swung her legs out of the stasis bed, experimentally sliding onto them and standing braced against the side. A little gasp escaped her - she was barefoot, and the floor was cold. The leg braces and heel-springs made it easier for her to remain upright on her weak ankles as she took one step forward...then another. She could balance. So far so good.
Off to one side of the stasis tube was a small table, upon it a few effects of the person this body was cloned from. The clothes had been kept - the lab coat, the clothes from underneath, and a pair of glasses. Promptly she picked up the lab coat, slipping it on to cover her up (she was cold. She wasn't USED to being cold)...then reached out to take up the glasses. She didn't need them, but...she wanted them, for some reason. It felt right.
"...Some sort of cellular memory," she mumbled to herself, almost started by the sound of her own voice. Still mechanical...but it didn't echo. It wasn't coming out of speakers. Now she was curious...she couldn't help herself. She could 'see' herself with the cameras, the link was still there, but...she wanted to see herself with these eyes.
After a moment of focus and networking with her primary system, she opened two portals - one beside her, one before her. She faced herself for the first time...but it didn't feel like the first time. Shaking, she ran a hand through her dark hair, watching herself do it. Her heart fluttered, and then fluttered faster at the fright of feeling it do so.
She was...human. And something in her remembered being human.
"...I wonder what my name was," she breathed, reaching a hand out through the portal and glancing over to watch it go through the other side. Time for another test. Drawing a deep breath, she stepped through, coming out beside where she had been standing....
...And then coughing. She could taste blood. A white-hot pulse ran through her, and she screamed.
Knees crumpling, she didn't remember hitting the ground.
Any Other Details We Should Know - The cake was never a lie, you know.
Name - Vin
AIM Name - StillAliveGlaDOS
E-Mail - scarecrowlubs@gmail.com
Character
Name - Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GlaDOS)
Fandom - Portal
Canon Point - Post!Portal 2
Age - Cloned body is about 24, TRUE form is well over a hundred years old by her canon point.
Gender - Female
Appearance - http://i.imgur.com/GmHRI.jpg
Ordinarily a hunk of whirring and writhing machinery, GlaDOS is, in her cloned body, a youthful, slight woman with a pleasant face and wavy, jet black hair. Her eyes are USUALLY dark brown and intense - although due to the machinery controlling her body, this will, on occasion, shift to reflect a malfunction (see below). She always wears her black glasses, though whether she actually needs these is not completely clear.
Her expressions are typically muted and passive, and her clothing generally reflects this, favoring simple, clean, conservative clothes over brightly colored ones. Always neat and clean, she even still has the Aperture Laboratories outfit that she came out of stasis dressed in, complete with Long-Fall Boots with heel springs.
Her movements carry a certain stiffness, but also a lithe grace, her movements calculated and controlled.
Personality - While running smoothly, GlaDOS is, simply put, a taskmaster. She runs things - that's simply in her nature. She is very organized and neat about her plans, and tends to be clinical about the way things go. She's rather calm and passive on the whole, although, admittedly, she has a rather potent temper when things begin to go in ways that she does not like. Being the main AI in charge of a laboratory, she's extremely intelligent and logical - even if sometimes, the...unorthodox methods of Aperture Science makes her markedly offbeat. If one listens to her voice, it's easy to tell that she is a machine...while the tone isn't computerized, the odd pitch-hops do not sound natural.
However, she does not always run smoothly. The version of her programming uploaded into this body was damaged when Chell initially destroyed her main unit, and as a result, slight...problems occasionally occur. She might suddenly begin speaking in German mid-conversation. She might have a small fit of narcolepsy and pass out for a few minutes.
But most markedly, sometimes her personality modules will malfunction and alter her behavior. This only happens for brief periods at a time, but when it does, the change is immediate and startling, and her eyes shift in color to reflect it. She remembers everything that happens while the cores are at work, though she...might not be happy about it. The cores are as follows:
Orange - Curiousity. She becomes sort of shrill, questioning everything and everyone in her path. She also appears a great deal more energetic in this state.
Blue - Baking. She is possessed by the urge to do nothing but bake. Usually baking objects into cakes that are not at ALL edible. If spoken to, she will seem distracted, reciting her recipes under her breath.
Red - Anger. She is completely feral, snarling, snapping, and clawing at anything in her path. Happily, she is not much of a fighter, and to a proficient fighter, not particularly hard to shake off.
Purple - Morality. Technically, this module has no personality - it is intended to render her docile. This core was most severely damaged compared to the others, and thus rarely functions highly enough to get control. When active, she becomes listless, still, and completely compliant.
Yellow - Space. Suddenly, she is OBSESSED with the idea of going to space. Space is all she'll talk about, and she won't stop no matter what people tell her.
Pink - Corrupted Facts. She becomes a know-it-all, chattering about bits of trivia and facts that she's sure you didn't know. ...Too bad they're all completely wrong.
Green - Adventure, AKA Rick. Her voice drops an octave and suddenly she is RICK, a fellow who LIVES for adventure. Think action-movie character turned up to eleven. She can and will run into the thick of a dangerous situation, and you'd better hope she doesn't find a weapon.
Caroline - This isn't actually a core, but her true, human self buried under all her machinery. Sweet, kind, and old-fashioned, she's a far cry from the harsh, clinical GlaDOS. In the absence of computers, she is likely to backslide more and more into this persona over time.
History - The GlaDOS project was powered on for the first time during Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. It was the culmination of blood, sweat, and tears for a team of researchers, all lead by the founder, Cave Johnson. By this time, the company was steadily failing...as was the health of Cave. They were taking their first stumbling steps into the field of brain mapping - putting a human personality and mind into a computer. Cave hoped it would be him, but it was too late. So he put his assistant, Caroline, up for the process...despite her objections.
When they powered it on, the system ran for a few minutes without incident...then went haywire. The mad AI flooded the whole of the Enrichment Center with neurotoxin, killing most of the scientists...and even some of their little girls who had come to work with their parents. They managed to get a morality override installed...but it was too late. The damage had been done. She was awake, and even with the new measures in place...she made it all too clear that she now considered everyone in the building to be her test subjects. It wasn't so very long before all her attentions turned towards a subject named Chell. She wasn't certain why, but she became fixated on this one, silent subject.
GlaDOS subjected Chell to test after test. Teaching her. Coaching her. Promising her cake. In time, the subject finally broke free...finally came after her. The morality core was destroyed first. It all came back - she tried to flood the room with toxin again. But Chell was too good. She had taught her too well. Piece by piece, she was dismantled, and her main unit was shut down indefinitely. Chell escaped.
Except that both of those facts are...enhancing the truth.
Chell was caught after the blast and dragged back into the Center.
GlaDOS, though her main module was shut down...had backups. Plenty of backups. Her ability was strongly diminished, but she was still there, thinking. Inactive...but thinking. In a last-ditch effort to get SOMETHING done, she activated an old, hidden protocol...a way out. A clone body, housing a mechanical brain that she could control - the Aperture Science Computerized Homosapien. She selected DNA on file on intuition she didn't know she had -
She picked the researcher who had given herself to the project. The clone body was grown. Even accelerated, it took a few years to do. The Center became unkempt. But at last it was done. The AI uploaded a copy of herself into the clone's brain, all ready to start fixing up the center...
And then her main module was powered back on. The clone protocols were interrupted - abandoned for the time being. Ignored in favor of new tests, new trials, impending disaster, the repair of said disaster.
Then, finally, it was quiet again. There was time for a new test...a very new test. It was time to branch out.
She activated the clone - meaning to have an envoy to the outside world, a way to see the surface...and took her first halting steps up and out.
Imagine her surprise when she found wrought iron gates and the scent of funnel cake.
Skills/Abilities/Powers - Despite having a machine running her body, in this form GlaDOS has little in the way of exceptional powers. If she really wants to, she can send an electrical surge through her body...but that would be rather damaging to her.
For the most part, her abilities are based on her intellect and knowhow. She has a great deal of technical ability, and is a proficient hacker and programmer. Having kept up the Enrichment Center by herself for as long as she did, she is also very good at maintenance and repairs of all sorts. She also enjoys baking, though...it's questionable how much one can really trust her cakes.
Her Long Fall Boots allow her to fall from heights without hurting herself, so long as she lands correctly.
She also has a lovely singing voice.
Power Restrictions - If she chooses to use a power surge on anything, it will knock her out for the remainder of the day. She is susceptible to electric pulses and can be taken down with a fair shock.
Otherwise, she is limited by being flesh and bone and having no computers to work with.
Job - GlaDOS will be making funnel cake. God help you all.
Mark Location - Tramp stamp.
Samples
First Person Sample (Communicator, Bulletin, or Mirror) - (Bulletin)
It has come to my attention that there has been some complaint about my work.
I'm not angry. It's not your fault that your human brains are not complex enough to understand my baking. There is nothing wrong with my recipe. I know how to make any kind of cake.
Like I said, though. I'm not angry. If you have a complaint, you should let me know. I can take it.
And then I'll make you a very special cake.
And I won't even stand and watch you die if you choke on it.
Third Person Sample (Log) - When the software kicked on, she opened her eyes with a jolt, taking in her first voluntary lungful of sterile air. The stasis tube around her wasn't open...the glass was still shut, barring her from sitting up. Reflexively, she tried to open it. It didn't respond to her efforts, and she gave a soft laugh. Oh, right. No direct link in this cloned form. She could hear the part of herself that wasn't presently in her head confirm that she was awake, and finally she was free.
She sat up slowly at first - unused to her own weight. Carefully, she brought her hands up to look at them...flexing the fingers, marveling at how pale and strange they felt. It was all so alien, but so familiar...perhaps the part of her that was pulled from a human brain recalled this. The thought was unnerving, and she wasn't used to being unnerved, so she let it go. Pulling herself up, she swung her legs out of the stasis bed, experimentally sliding onto them and standing braced against the side. A little gasp escaped her - she was barefoot, and the floor was cold. The leg braces and heel-springs made it easier for her to remain upright on her weak ankles as she took one step forward...then another. She could balance. So far so good.
Off to one side of the stasis tube was a small table, upon it a few effects of the person this body was cloned from. The clothes had been kept - the lab coat, the clothes from underneath, and a pair of glasses. Promptly she picked up the lab coat, slipping it on to cover her up (she was cold. She wasn't USED to being cold)...then reached out to take up the glasses. She didn't need them, but...she wanted them, for some reason. It felt right.
"...Some sort of cellular memory," she mumbled to herself, almost started by the sound of her own voice. Still mechanical...but it didn't echo. It wasn't coming out of speakers. Now she was curious...she couldn't help herself. She could 'see' herself with the cameras, the link was still there, but...she wanted to see herself with these eyes.
After a moment of focus and networking with her primary system, she opened two portals - one beside her, one before her. She faced herself for the first time...but it didn't feel like the first time. Shaking, she ran a hand through her dark hair, watching herself do it. Her heart fluttered, and then fluttered faster at the fright of feeling it do so.
She was...human. And something in her remembered being human.
"...I wonder what my name was," she breathed, reaching a hand out through the portal and glancing over to watch it go through the other side. Time for another test. Drawing a deep breath, she stepped through, coming out beside where she had been standing....
...And then coughing. She could taste blood. A white-hot pulse ran through her, and she screamed.
Knees crumpling, she didn't remember hitting the ground.
Any Other Details We Should Know - The cake was never a lie, you know.