Prompt Post Round 1
Prompts go here! This will be closed and a new post made at 3000 comments. Please link all fills to the Round 1 Fill Post.
This post is closed to new prompts! Post prompts at Round 2! Fills and comments can still be posted here.
This post is closed to new prompts! Post prompts at Round 2! Fills and comments can still be posted here.
GLaDOS wastes no time in catching sight of Chell. The moment she sees her former test subject, her eyes narrow into catlike slits, though her pleasant smile doesn’t move an inch.
“Oh, would you look at that. It seems the person I came for has finally arrived to greet me. Excuse us for a moment.”
She rises, and Chell is frozen with something between fear and a nightmare as GLaDOS fairly glides over to her, weightless despite the wires tethering her to the ground. One thin hand grabs Chell’s wrist with deceptive strength, and Chell nearly hisses at the cold touch. GLaDOS turns and pulls her along, and Chell can’t help but let her feet move as GLaDOS pulls her towards the other end of the tree’s shadow, away from the mass of confused people.
GLaDOS stops and releases Chell, regarding her coolly and with a mocking smile on her thin lips. Chell stares back at her, her fear now replaced with incredulity. She absently wonders how many tries it took for GLaDOS to make this body so… human.
“Well?” GLaDOS prompts. “Are you going to say anything, now? I heard from your friends over there that you talk quite a bit, now that you aren’t in Aperture Science with me anymore.”
Chell is silent. And then, rough and menacingly:
“What do you want with me.”
If GLaDOS’ smile falters, Chell doesn't notice because of the intense staring match the two are locked in. “Ah. You’ve grown smarter, haven’t you? Amazing. You were pretty smart to begin with, weren’t you?”
“What do you want with me?” Chell’s eyes are hard and her mouth is a thin line.
GLaDOS’ smile falters again, this time enough for Chell to notice. “Alright, alright, I’ll cut to the chase. You’re obviously very busy and very popular here and you must be having a wonderful time and you must want to get back to all your friends over there - by the way, I have a feeling they don’t really like you. I can read people like that. Like you - when I first met you I knew, I knew I should never trust you - “
“TELL ME.” Chell doesn’t yell her words, but the dark tone they take is enough to make a few people look in her direction.
For a second, GLaDOS’ face is frozen in an infuriatingly ingratiating smile. And then, suddenly, her face changes… and she looks desperate. Chell isn’t sure which is more unnerving. Then, GLaDOS speaks. Her autotuned voice is barely above a murmur.
“I need you to come back to Aperture. There, I said it. I’m admitting that I need your help. Practically groveling, actually. Did you know I made this body just so that I could get out of the facility and find you to say this to you? That is groveling. That is grade-A groveling, so you should just get into the truck and help me drive it already.”
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“Yes - “
“All of the friends, all of the people who care about me - “
“Yes - “
“All of the ‘not living in a facility where robots try to kill you’ - “
"Yes, in fact - “
“And go back with you to that hellhole?”
“Yes, yes, yes, a hundred times yes!” GLaDOS snaps, looking irritable now. “It’s not as if you’re doing anything worthwhile out here!”
“I’m helping to rebuild civilization,” Chell counters coldly.
“You’re wasting your life chopping wood and living off subsistence farming while I do science and make actual advances,” GLaDOS fairly sneers, gesturing towards the town and the slightly smaller group of people - some have become bored with watching the two of them argue and left. “Civilization isn’t going to jump back up within the pitiful 60 years in which you’ll still be alive! It’s going to take engineering and science and testing - oh, lots of testing - to get everything off the ground again!”
“We’ll do fine on our own,” Chell says.
Somehow, when she says that, GLaDOS becomes even more desperate. “You know this is pointless! You know this will take thousands of years to rebuild! You don’t even have any electricity in this pitiful excuse for a town! How are you going to make that, run around in circles until your legs fall off?”
“Why are you trying so hard to make me come back?” Chell cuts in, straight to the meat of the issue.
“I…” GLaDOS pauses for what seems like an eternity. Her face is contorted with contrasting emotions. Finally, she looks down at the ground and whispers.
“…I need you.”
Chell is somewhat surprised by her reaction, but she still hasn’t gotten an answer. “Why?”
“… I have the Cooperative Testing Initiative - two robots, who solve tests together. Shortly after I released you, they… they found an entire vault absolutely full of human test subjects in suspended animation. All the test subjects I would ever need. But… there’s a problem.”
GLaDOS looks up and cocks her head at Chell. “Did you know that your Extended Relaxation Chamber had no set release date for you? That it was dumb luck that you were woken up at all?” Chell has no time to react, as GLaDOS continues speaking. “Well, it’s similar with these test subjects. They’re stuck to be released in an incredibly long while - and I can’t get into the system controlling their Chambers; it’s been corrupted and even I can’t get through to fix the problem. It seems whoever put them under really wanted them to stay under. In… in any case.”
GLaDOS draws herself up to her full height, an entire head over Chell. “You will come back to Aperture Science with me to test, and to help me settle this whole business with the corrupted vault,” she stated, only the barest hint of apprehension in her voice.
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“I’m not coming back if there isn’t anything in it for me.”
GLaDOS blinks, relaxes, and responds immediately. “…Civilization.”
“What?”
“Civilization. I’ll give you the necessary materials to advance the creation and progress of your dinky little… town, here, if you’ll come back with me. …Temporarily, of course. Regrettably.”
There, Chell takes pause. She glances over at the other end of the town square.
“Think of what you could accomplish in 60 years if you had even one generator,” GLaDOS prompts her, seeing her gaze shift from house to house, person to person. Chell catches sight of David, even, standing off to the side with a few of the other people he and Chell had been working with earlier.
She glances back to GLaDOS, then back to the town.
Then, she nods.
The next day, they climb into GLaDOS’ white-painted truck after carefully coiling her thick wires into the flat bed in its back, where they’re plugged into a ponderous black box. GLaDOS takes the driver’s seat and Chell the passenger’s, and as the engine roars to life before them, Chell thinks: At the least, I won’t be bored.
(agkdjaflkdj ANOTHER CRAPPY ENDING. I'm sorry, I stink at writing endings. Uh, anyways, hope you enjoyed that! <3)
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Haha, I enjoyed this.
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