Trill: I don't own portal or any of its characters.
This is essentially my favorite thing: The Core-Driod theory. When a core becomes a droid... what happens to their artificial intelligence? all of the processors? Well.. this is Curiosity, waking up. Enjoy.
Wires sparked, and the sound of a buzzing electrical current- ever present- pulsed; they were her only company. She had been there, god only knew how long, body curled- back pulled in to a hunched position. Non existent muscled ached with a false memory a pain from not moving for so long. Long orange-brown hair fell in a curtain around her face. Eyes were clenched shut, and jaw was set firmly in place. Her nose was pulled into a wrinkle from the smell and taste of the stale laboratory air.
Hands gripped at the roots of her hair over her parietal plates (or where they would be if she had a real- organic- skeleton), flexing as the pressure at which they gripped changed periodically. Ports plugged into the back of her neck did nothing to sate the screaming that was taking place inside of her head.
Metaphorical cogs sung in the most painful pitch they could, wheels screamed and squealed like stuck pigs, left to bleed dry. Pistons and pumps grated against rusted steel and iron castings, long in need of an oil change and basic maintenance. And yet, with all of these thought processes running, there was nothing. Thinking had no meaning, no out come. The pointless turn of engines and processors made a constant grating that proved to serve no purpose other than to remind her that she existed.
She had no purpose. She had no meaning. She was a storage system, left to rot- and run on nothing- and to be filled with perpetual nothingness. How does one exist, if not with meaning? One doesn't: simple as that.
But then, Fate! One of the cogs turned a different way. One of her pistons pushed into a position that didn't grate or grind. A wheel stopped squeaking for only a fraction of a second. And in that second, she opened her eyes, and slowly lifted her head.
Pupils narrowed, then re-dilated, adjusting to the light of the room around her. Sensors she didn't know she had activated. Gears what ran on their own suddenly jammed to another gear, and started a harmonious orchestra as they formed nonexistent systems that started and finished in the same place, all powering each other in perpetual motion.
As everything stopped hurting, and she started feeling, her eyes landed on an obscure object on the ground.
"What's that?"
Electronic vocal cords, little used prior to her awakening, cracked with life, and made her voice tinny. Upon hearing herself- she stored the data away, and got a rush! It gave her little relief to the pain and emptiness she was use to. But little relief was more than she was use to, and it was euphoric.
She was learning. Learning felt good. She wanted to learn more.
She was curious.