Happy Easter By Shiro Byakko Settings: Pre-Portal Characters: GLaDOS!Human, Wheatley!Human, Coraline (OC for interaction), Caroline, [Random children/employees]
Coraline nodded and perched herself on a stool and started to peel off the shell of the egg. Coraline swept her green hair from her face and was about to take a bite from her chocolate egg when she heard a Crash! She turned to see a fellow girl from school collapsed on the floor. The girl was pale and was barely breathing. She was clutching something. It was oval in shape and brown in color. A lady behind her let out a bloodcurdling scream.
It's another annual Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. That doesn't sound too bad for GLaDOS. She had gradually adjusted herself to supervising the kids run around the facility. Looking after them is one thing; the other thing is to make sure they stay out of trouble. One child once "forced" an Aperture employee to turn on the Neurotoxin generator, which she was blamed for blatantly.
But today would be different from the other days that the children would run around causing destruction everywhere they go. Today's Easter day as well. Another blissful day for daughters to run around and find core-painted eggs in the facility of Aperture Science. To make things worse, she was assigned with Wheatley to make and hide the Easter eggs.
GLaDOS went to the kitchen wearing a dandelion-yellow apron on her plain white dress. She tied her white hair into a bun to avoid getting hair on the Easter Eggs she'll make. She had experience in cooking. She made casseroles, steaks and chops, pizzas, and salads. But her signature in cooking was her Black Forest Cake. If she can make cakes, then chocolate eggs are just a piece of cake.
She busied herself by gathering all the ingredients that she'll need, which are miraculously found in a extremely large refrigerator, when Wheatley entered the kitchen with a paper bag where the egg molds are.
"G'morning luv." He said pleasantly as he extracted the egg molds from the paper bag. Wheatley grabbed a blue apron from a compartment and took off his gray vest before putting it on.
"Morning." GLaDOS said plainly. She just started to pre-heat the pot for her to melt the chocolates a little later. She re-checked her ingredients. Chocolates, rice crisps, sprinkles, other toppings, the mold, the wrappings. Everything was here.
"What c'n I do to help?" Wheatley suddenly asked GLaDOS.
"Can you melt the chocolates?" GLaDOS asked him first with a raised eyebrow. Her golden eyes glinting with caution. She won't take any risks of destruction from Wheatley.
He chuckled nevously, "Uh, I think so... Not that all sure that I can do it... properly" he shook his head, "better leave it to you. You're better than me at.. uh.. cooking."
GLaDOS let out a resigned sigh. She's going to be with someone for the rest of the morning and that person has to be useless. This might be the worse punishment she had. "Just get me coffee. That wouldn't be too hard for a moron like you." she said.
Wheatley saluted happily and exclaimed, "Okay luv!" He took the apron off and threw it on the counter as he exited the kitchen with a cheery atmosphere.
"And stay out of trouble while you're at it." GLaDOS yelled after him.
A few minutes later, GLaDOS had successfully melted the chocolates and she began to monitor the temperature with her food thermometer.
Wheatley opened the door and went in holding a cup of coffee, panting a bit. His light blue hair was messily scattered on his face and his glasses were lopsided. "H-here's your coffee." He wheezed and offered the cup to GLaDOS who rolled her eyes.
"What happened this time?" She asked as she took the cup from Wheatley.
"I got into a fight with a sentient coffee maker." He replied.
GLaDOS raised an eyebrow, "You got into a fight with a sentient coffee maker?" That's quite... impossible, knowing that there were no sentient coffee makers in Aperture.
"Yes, long story. Better not really ask 'bout it."
GLaDOS sipped from her cup. "How about you do one other simple task? Something that will not get you into any fights with other sentient machines."
"Uh..." Wheatley hesitated, "yeah. I guess..."
"Pour half a cup of milk into that pot of chocolates." GLaDOS pointed at the refrigerator. "The milk is in there."
Wheatley grabbed his apron once again and wore it around him. He took the milk out and poured half a cup of milk quite slowly and carefully as he could into the pot. GLaDOS watched him as she took another gulp of coffee.
After three hours of melting, molding, and cooling the eggs, Wheatley sat atop the counter, painting the eggs with plain colors; pale light blue, yellow, pink and green. GLaDOS designed the pale painted eggs.
The kitchen doors suddenly burst open revealing a stressed out woman around her thirties, accompanied by a lime green Easter bunny… Her hair was a tangled mess and her gray eyes twitched. "What are you two doing sitting around?!"
GLaDOS surveyed Caroline with utmost curiosity. Her white dress was filled with ruffles and her red scarf that was supposed to be tied around her neck was draped on her shoulder, opposite the one where her curly tangled hair flowed. Caroline raised an eyebrow, "Well?"
"We're painting the eggs ma'am" GLaDOS replied dutifully, gesturing to the stack of painted eggs in one basket. Caroline whispered something to the bunny before turning back to GLaDOS and Wheatley. "We need those eggs hid in an hour; the children are almost finished with their science fair." She said and hurriedly left the kitchen.
The Easter bunny had two large baskets of homemade Easter eggs and leaned to whisper something to Wheatley. GLaDOS looked at the bunny suspiciously and went back to painting the eggs.
"'Ey GLaDOS," Wheatley suddenly said after he finished painting his set of eggs a few minutes later, "I'm gon'na hide the finished batch of eggs with Easter Bunny." he said as he got the basket with eggs.
"Make sure you don't break any of those." GLaDOS warned him. "We all know who'd get the blame if you did."
"Yeah! See you later GLaDOS!"
Coraline gazed happily on her finished potato battery powering a small lamp. She brushed locks of green hair from her face as she peeked at the other science projects her classmates had made with curious green eyes. It seemed that all of them did the potato battery, which was kind of disappointing for her. But the sight of a papier-mâché backing soda and vinegar volcano made her laugh.
"Alright children!" Teacher Caroline gathered the attention of the children. "It's time for an Easter egg hunt! The child with the most Easter eggs would get a prize!"
Chaos happened in Aperture. Children ran to and fro the facility, looking for eggs. Coraline walked through the hallway with little interest with what's happening around her. She's going to the little girl's comfort room. She knew nobody would even care looking in there. And she knows there's at least one in there.
She rounded a corner and opened the door to her left. It was a clean cubicle. And to serve her right, there was an egg on top of the sink behind the bottle of soap. She took it and headed out of the cubicle. She found a barely empty room with only two children and Teacher Caroline in it.
"Hello Coraline!" She said, "How many eggs have you hunted?"
Coraline showed her the egg she found.
"Oh, one? Well, keep on looking then!"
Coraline nodded and perched herself on a stool and started to peel off the shell of the egg. Coraline swept her green hair from her face and was about to take a bite from her chocolate egg when she heard a loud Crash! She turned to see a fellow girl from school collapsed on the floor. The girl was pale and was barely breathing. She was clutching something. It was partially oval in shape and dark brown in color. Caroline let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"THE EGGS ARE POISONED!"
GLaDOS turned to see Caroline running to her as if she was harassed. "What?"
"GLaDOS, what did you put in the eggs? One of the children died because of poisoning!" Caroline exclaimed very fast in panic.
"Nothing ma'am. It was only milk and chocolate, some toppings." She said in confusion. "Neither chocolate nor milk cannot kill a child. Maybe it can produce a barelydeadly gas if a lactose intolerant child ate it."
"This is not the time for jokes GLaDOS!" Caroline panicked. "What are we going to do?"
"I'd recommend to gather the children in the classroom and take the eggs away." GLaDOS said in a matter-of-fact manner. "I'll try to warn the employees who smuggled eggs not to eat it. I'll help in every way I could ma'am."
Caroline hurried away to gather the children leaving GLaDOS thinking what was the poisonous ingredient that killed the child.
No, it can't be any of the ingredients, thought GLaDOS as she walked past the offices, taking a hidden egg from one of the decorative plants. Out of date ingredients couldn't kill a person as well, unless they have large doses of it. Unless someone slipped poison in the melted chocolate, which is impossible, seeing that I melted the chocolates and Wheatley po-. GLaDOS stopped walking, a scowl forming on her face. Wheatley!GLaDOS headed towards the employee lounge in extreme haste. Wheatley has something to do with this. It's the only logical explanation. She opened the door to the lounge.
GLaDOS stepped back in utter shock and disbelief. The lounge was in disarray. All of the employees were dead. Tables were out of place, seats knocked down, mugs shattered on the floor. GLaDOS slowly made her way through the lounge. It was difficult with bodies littered almost everywhere. But something caught her eye that sent chills running down her spine. It was a blue haired man lying on the floor, lifeless. Wheatley.
GLaDOS ran to Wheatley's side to check for a sign of life. Any sign of life, a pulse, breathing, a heartbeat. She tried to lift his body to a sitting position. But she quickly let go of him as she caught a glimpse of a small snake tail disappear through Wheatley's nostrils.
Wheatley's upper lip twitched. Not because he was alive, but rather, because of the snake that freed itself from within him. The snake was red with blood. Its beady eyes gazed at GLaDOS fiercely, hissing and baring its fangs.
GLaDOS backed away from it and accidentally knocked over another dead body. Just as it fell to the ground, worms started to crawl out of his eye sockets, mouth, nose and ears.
She jumped back and knocked over a mug turned upside down. And it was like that for a reason. A red beetle came out of it and dug itself in the flesh of the human nearest to it.
GLaDOS stifled a scream. She ran out to tell Caroline this. And during that time of running, there was one thing she asked herself:
Was it even poison that killed that child?
GLaDOS ran in fear and panic. What was happening? The Easter eggs were made by her. But she did not plan for this. She did not mean for this to happen. No. She did not mean for this to happen!
Or did you, GLaDOS? Asked a voice from deep within her mind. Great. That's the next thing she needed. Imaginary voices. Just ignore it GLaDOS,she told herself.
She burst into the classroom where Caroline and the children were. And a terrible sight it was.
GLaDOS saw the light from Caroline's eyes disappeared as the chocolate egg was forced down her throat. The Easter Bunny stood, with a bitten chocolate egg in hand. It had forced Caroline to eat the egg poisoned egg. The children were all collapsed on the ground, unmoving. GLaDOS was ready to run.
The door shut behind her as she made the slightest movement to flee. The Easter Bunny faced her and looked into her eyes with dead, fake took the bunny's head off to reveal the man behind the mask.
"Hel-lo, GLaDOS." The man said pleasantly, his alien green eyes glinting with glee. His old wrinkled face twisted up to form a smile. "I am greatly sor-ry for... the los-s that you had this-s Eas-ter." He paused to take a shaky breath, "but I h-hope that you... ah... had fun."
"Had fun?" GLaDOS said with a controlled voice, "You think that was fun?"
"Oh ye-s. I ex-pected that you had fun yours-self." He chuckled lightly. "I even took the lib-erty of putting ex-otic pet-s from Xen into the egg-s."
"Oh, then you poisoned the eggs as well then?" GLaDOS asked poisonously.
"Well..." He paused, looking to his side then he returned his gaze on her. "It was not my doing." he took a shaky breath, "I do know why they're... poisoned. R-remember Rick's Ap-ril Fool's Da-y prank?"
GLaDOS' mind traveled back a few weeks ago. "It was a total disaster. That fraud imbecile replaced orange juice with propulsion gel, blueberry juice with repulsion gel and milk with-"
"Convers-sion gel. Yes."
Damn that bastard. GLaDOS thought bitterly. That little idiotic bastard. Wait until I get my hands on him."Nevertheles-s GLaDOS, I am ter-ribly sorry but I ne-ed to depart for s-some... important is-sues with someone." He said with a sorry creepy smile. He went over to GLaDOS who kept her head bowed down. He took her hands into his and placed an egg on it. "Happy Eas-ster GLaDOS."
With a flash of green, the man disappeared, leaving GLaDOS alone, locked in the room filled with dead children.
In a mixture of rage and sadness, GLaDOS threw the egg at the wall. She glared at the egg as it hurled to the wall.
Crack.As the egg shattered into pieces, a swarm of black, hungry-looking mutated mosquitoes flew out. Their multiple red eyes were swollen and shining. Their slimy green wings flapped in a swift motion. They bared their fangs. The mutated mosquitoes devoured the nearest child, leaving nothing. Not even their skeleton.
GLaDOS fell to her knees in fear and shut her eyes tight. Covering her ears, she screamed.
Let this be a dream.
Author's Note: Look, I did this for a contest in nurturing narratives. I was in the mood and at the same time not, so I really tried my best to engage myself (and my readers, hopefully) in this story. I don't know what happen'd . It just did. Once again, I can't get a hang of G-Man's speaking issue. I tried to prolong the "s" in a way but people who doesn't know him ends up thinking he's stuttering. (Damn.) As far as I can see, GLaDOS here is kind of "OOC" partly because the pre-portal stage I was talking about was before she started burying her feelings. I really think Caroline is the kind of girl who would panic in this kind of situation in such a degree that she doesn't really know what to do. I don't actually think that she's a super intelligent gurl in Portal 2. I don't know. We really have the least idea on who she really is, as we've only heard her a couple of times in Cave's recorded tapes. The cover, on the other hand, was totally unplanned. I don't know, I'm nocturnal. I literally drew that in the dark. I had a flashlight and my mom and dad were asleep and I just drew it. (And a lot of other drawings.) I'm sorry ;.; I dunno anymore /leaves
Editz:
This was written for a contest, right? I'm thanking the judge right now as I was one of the two winners. I'm glad I've improved /this much/ right after two months of hanging out with /certain people/. Thank you!