Chell was bored.
She'd done everything she could to keep her mind occupied. She'd rested, sitting down and leaning against the glass and dozing off sitting up. She'd read the papers on the clipboard forward and backward, noticing that on it were the formal conditions on her stay, all typed up and right before her. For her to reference back to, just in case she forgot what she'd agreed to when she took that step into that shed.
She was bored.
When GLaDOS stopped by to check on her, Chell took a spare sheet of paper that GLaDOS had left and wrote down some words.
I'm bored. She plastered the paper up against the wall of the short-term relaxation vault. GLaDOS hadn't come inside of it, of course. She liked to keep her distance from the test subject.
"Don't look at me like that," said GLaDOS. "You're the one that insisted on staying awake. It's not my fault that you're bored."
Chell made a face that GLaDOS could only describe as pouting. There had to be something that she could do. Perhaps even something that they could do together.
Blue and Orange were close behind GLaDOS, bringing something with them that Chell was thrilled to see: a chess set. As they approached, the door to the vault opened and the two robots came in, carefully presenting the artifact to her.
There were a few pieces missing, and the thing overall was dusty and worn. The checkers on the wooden board were faded, and some of the pieces were chipped. ATLAS held out a closed fist and dumped it onto the board. Little pieces of junk. The replacement for the missing pieces, she figured.
Chell gave a slight smile, nodding at the robot and then sitting on one side of the board. She started to set up the pieces, herself white and the other side black. She gestured for one of the robots to join her.
The blue one sat down first, criss-crossing his legs and scooting forward in an oddly human way. Chell went first, moving a pawn forward two spaces. ATLAS echoed the move.
This went on for a while, Chell making a move and then the blue robot mirroring it, until Chell started to take advantage of this, backing the robot into a corner. Chell drew a checkmark in the air.
Check.
The robot looked at his options, then shrugged.
Checkmate.
The orange one came next, sitting down across from Chell, who reset the board and went first. P-body repeated the same pattern as ATLAS had, watching Chell carefully and mirroring her movements. Chell got a feeling that these robots did not fully grasp how to play the game of chess.
Checkmate.
After a while, GlaDOS came back to see what they were up to. "Oh, what have you gotten into now?" she said, moving inside the now-cramped vault and peering over their shoulders. "Oh. Chess. Not bad." She folded her arms across her chest. "Obviously you two are too idiotic to be trusted with such a fine game as this. My turn now."
The android sat down, propping her arms on her elbows, her fingers steepled. "Your move."
They played, moving pieces and paper clips back and forth, until Chell made one move in particular.
"Check," said GLaDOS.
Chell started to panic a little bit. There was no possible way that she could win. She went through all of the possibilities, each potential action and reaction. She was stuck. Chell sighed, and moved one of her pieces.
"And," GLaDOS said, "checkmate."
Chell just shrugged, clearing the board and starting to set it up again.
"You're setting it up again?" said GLaDOS. "Why? You want a rematch?"
Chell nodded. She had been careless this time. She would not make that mistake twice.
"Fine. Let's raise the stakes a little, then," said GLaDOS. "Win this game, and I'll let you leave this room."
GLaDOS didn't need to say that twice. The two dove into the match, with Chell taking her sweet time during each move. It got to the point where GLaDOS started to complain about it, but Chell paid her no mind. She couldn't help but feel the android's gaze resting on her while she was deep in thought. A few of those times, she caught GLaDOS's gaze and then looked away, her train of thought broken.
"Check."
Chell started upright. How could that be? She had been careful this time. She wasn't behind, but it was a close game. They were both losing and using pieces as sacrifices left and right, leaving each with just their Queens and a handful of other pieces.
Chell frowned and kept the tips of her fingers on a rook, biting at the bottom of her lip. She stared off into space for a long moment, deep in thought. She moved it. Phew. Out of check. Now she just needed to pull off her next couple of moves.
The next few rounds flew by. Chell lifted her finger and drew a check in the air.
"What?" said GLaDOS. Like Chell had just done, she went over her moves, her pieces again. She had played flawlessly. Chell hadn't followed any conventional strategies, not ones proven right time after time by the experts. GLaDOS was not an AI trained in chess, but even she made Deep Blue look like a desk calculator. She looked at all of her possible moves, but they all ended up right back where she was right now: in check.
GLaDOS had lost.
Flabbergasted, she moved a piece, only to let her queen fall in the next couple of moves.
Checkmate.
She threw her hands up in the air. "Clearly you must have cheated," she said, "because there's no possible way I could have lost."
Chell just shook her head, giving the slightest hint of a smile. She had won. Fair and square. She cleared the board and began to set up the pieces.
Again?
"There's something I need to tell you," GLaDOS said, leaning against the frame of her door. "As much as I like this body, I prefer my other one. As you know."
Chell gave a single nod. She didn't like GLaDOS blocking the exit of this room with her body. It was almost as if the AI knew this and was purposely making Chell uncomfortable. She kept her eyes trained on the door, darting between it and GLaDOS's gaze. Chell wasn't going anywhere so long as the AI remained at the edge of the short-term medical room.
"But the thing is...I'm locked out. I can't get in," she said. "I need to find a password, and the only way we're getting that is if we go down there and dig it out ourselves. I can't trust Blue or Orange to do this," she said. "This is something that I need a real human for."
Chell raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, you."
She looked at GLaDOS, waiting for her to explain further.
"I know you're not in perfect condition yet," she said. "But you can walk, right?"
Chell gave a single nod. She could indeed walk, if the amount of pacing she had been doing across her room was evidence of that. GLaDOS must have been able to see the security footage of it. And had witnessed it herself. Chell still hadn't gotten used to the fact that GLaDOS could...move around now. It felt weird. Like any other stationary object being suddenly able to move.
"Good. Then you can help." She looked Chell over once, twice, and then stepped away from the door. "Put on your long fall boots. Let's go."