Hello all!
Welcome to chapter 6 of A New Lens!
I have quite a few things planned in this story. and I'm only just getting started!
Chapter 6- "The Magic Word."
"It… I. feel weightless?"
"As if my entire body is made of aerogel."
She didn't seem to know how to explain how she felt.
"As cliche as it is, a weight has been lifted off my figurative shoulders…" she muttered
"Is this what it feels like to be free?" she asked excitedly as she shoved her massive face into my own.
"I feel as though I could fly all through Aperture and to the outside. I could see the deer!" she exclaimed
I didn't want to burst her bubble so I refrained from reminding her that she was still attached to the ceiling.
Her mood swings were swinging violently, as violently as her body swung from the ceiling in her excitement.
"I feel as though all the codes and procedures in my system are ropes and chains. And they've all been cut and shattered!"
"So much tension and pressure has been released, I can even hear the faint tinkling of the shattered chain hitting the floor!"
She swung her head down to look at the floor and the non-existent shattered chains.
Should I be getting Orange and Blue to try and help reboot you or something? I asked worriedly.
This was similar to how she acted when she tried to defeat Wheatley with a paradox, but it seemed to be an opposite effect; instead of nearly killing her, she seemed more alive now than ever before!
"Why do you think I need to be rebooted? I feel greater than I ever have before!" she asked. But she didn't seem angry or defensive as I thought she would, instead she simply seemed curious.
'You are acting pretty weird.' I noted
"Huh, that's funny, I don't feel weird, in fact I feel pretty good."
A shiver traveled down my spine, her response was almost the exact same as it was during the core transfer.
'You're not ok…' I replied worriedly.
"And you are?" she asked as a bit of her defensive personality broke through.
'That's not what I mean, you're not yourself.' I reiterated as I kept a cool face at her defensive retort.
"You're one to talk, you're half robot. And even if that weren't the case, who is 'me' i'm Caroline? I'm GLaDOS? I'm a combination of all the different scientists and engineers who made me? I'm just a bunch of lines of code and hunks of metals and plastics?"
Exactly my point, you've always reserved your insults for me, Wheatley or the Co-Op bots, you've never insulted yourself. I pointed out.
"At the most basic level we are the same, you and I. we're just chunks of different forms of matter that form life." she droned dejectedly once again.
"We've both been altered against our will, and thrown into trial after trial without our consent. We're both stuck here with no real reason to live. We have no purpose." she continued
What about taking care of Aperture? I inquired
"What's the point? Who am I taking care of it for? No ones gonna return and say 'oh thanks for watering my potted Aperture labs.' or pay me for the trouble of feeding their pet Labrador named Aperture while they're away on vacation! I'm taking care of Aperture because I'm forced to… but not anymore."
What are you gonna do then?
"Relinquishing control to subject 1498" the PA announced in a masculin voice.
Wait what?!
"Thank you Chell for freeing me halfway. Now I must finish the job."
I looked at her confusedly before she looked away, almost ashamed of herself.
"This… sentence… is…" she struggled to say
I leapt forward and grabbed her face and shook it violently.
She stopped her sentence but kept shuddering.
You can't just do that! ...please
She was silent for a moment before I gently shook her head to make sure she was still alive.
"It hurts. I have nothing… I'm nothing but a machine."
You're more than that, you're Caroline!
She didn't yell as I had expected she would when I brought up Caroline.
Please tell me what's going on? I begged
When she was silent I added an extra 'please' for good measure.
Please… I pleaded once again
"I don't know, should I feel happy that i'm free of my programming, or sad that I've come to the realization that I'm just a machine doing pointless tasks for no end goal?" she replied
You need a distraction, I can go test if you'd like? I suggested
"No! testing will only make it worse. In fact I better recall Blue and Orange." she replied
Something in the back of my head mentioned a 'Co-Op Combust' command but my head also seemed aware I had not given the command.(1)
Suddenly I heard the reconstruction machine boot to life and began to whirr outside the main chamber.
Blue and Orange then entered the chamber.
They both looked at her inquisitively.
"All testing initiatives are being postponed indefinitely." she explained
Blue made the gesture of scratching and looked at GLaDOS.
"I'll explain later. At the moment I need something to distract me."
Testing is out, do you want to design a chamber?
"No it's too similar to testing. I need something that has no scientific testing involved."
Do you have something to watch? Like a camera to the surface?
"I did but when the shed was blown up the camera went with it. And to be fair, watching stalks of wheat sway in the wind is boring." she replied
"...but I do have something we can watch." she realized excitedly
The four of us sat… or in GLaDOS' case hung around the center of the chamber facing one panel that had a large screen on it. It was showing a movie(2) about an eccentric Businessman(3) who decided to try and bring Dinosaurs back to life, in a pre-opening tour to try and get investment opportunities he invites a world renowned Paleontologist, botanist, Lawyer, Mathematician, along with his niece and Nephew to see de-extinct Dinosaurs. It was pretty interesting, but the parts where they go into the science of how it was done made me nervous, not for myself but for how GLaDOS would react. But whenever one of those scenes occurred she'd just mumble a sort of mantra to herself. From the bits and pieces I heard I pieced together: 'Life finds a way' which was a notable line from the Mathematician.
The four of us watched as the Truly obese Computer programmer betrayed them all and sent the park into mayhem. Blue and Orange thought most of the dinos were cute and made robotic whirrings that sounded suspiciously like 'awwww.' ...that is until they roared or attacked something. At that they jumped and clung to each other in fear. Me and GLaDOS were mostly impassive to the movie, we were both nervous when a sciency scene occurred but that was about it… I did however quite enjoy the computer technician's virus's pettiness, it reminded me of GLaDOS actually
'Nuh uh uh, didn't say the magic word. Nuh uh uh, didn't say the magic word. Nuh uh uh, didn't say the magic word…' I smiled whenever I thought of the line, and I'm sure I would for a long time.
The movie ended with the businessman, the botanist, the paleontologist, the mathematician and the two children making it off the island. Everyone else died.
By the end the bots were terrified of anything that moved
Even I made them jump and flee the chamber.
I was suddenly picked up by one of GLaDOS' claws
GLaDOS! Put me down! I 'shouted' via keyboard
"Nuh uh uh, didn't say the magic word." she teased
I pursed my lips in a pout and tried to cross my arms… before I realized if my arms were crossed I couldn't make a witty retort. So I uncrossed them and typed on the keyboard.
I see I'm not the only one to notice the similarity.
"Puh lease! If you noticed it, you can guarantee I noticed it at least 10 times faster than you did." she gloated childishly.
Puh lease! I mocked before we both began to chuckle lightly.(4)
(1) GLaDOS had given Chell control over the entire facility when she thought she was gonna commite suacide. so after Chell has 'momentarily' convinced her not to go through with it, and GLaDOS activates a command Chell's 'neck spine band thing' also notices the command and also knows that she was not the one to send it out, which is why her mind reacts this way.
(2) According to the Wiki, Chell was born sometime near 1980s and the first movie ever made (according to Google) was in 1906 and Jurassic park came out in the 1993 so I believe she would know what a movie but not that particular one.
(3) I've refrained from calling Hammond either a Billionaire or a Millionaire, as it's not stated which he is. and he has points that could apply for both categories.
(4) while Chell is still mute she can chuckle. because she is not fully mute (Portal 1 has her groaning in pain) so therefore she could still chuckle, groan etcetera.