"Well, you know what they say," GLaDOS said as Chell finally entered their 90s era base of operations. "The soggy log gets the moss."
Chell gave a tiny frown, but took a few steps into the office area. A few large desks had been pushed together and were covered by a neat array of papers, but she did not approach it.
GLaDOS looked from the other side of the island of desks, her eyes falling on the clipboard cradled in Chell's arms. "Again?" she said, a bit disappointed. The woman had been using pen and paper for days now, even though they both knew that sign language was faster and more robust.
Chell nodded. Part of her regretted speaking with American Sign Language, because now GLaDOS felt entitled to that method of communication all the time. Using a second language may not be a big deal for a robot with built-in translation software, but it was exhausting for Chell to use.
"Well, if you change your mind…" GLaDOS said before she bent down and then rose with a rectangular chunk of fabric.
Chell stared at the object, but before she could determine what it was, GLaDOS squished it into a vaguely round shape.
"Catch," she said, lobbing the light object toward Chell.
Chell tracked it with her eyes but made no motion to catch it. When it landed with barely a sound, she momentarily set down her clipboard and then picked up the object. She pulled apart the crumpled fabric to find that it was an unzipped and empty duffel bag.
"You're lucky there was nothing fragile in there," GLaDOS said, "because it would have broken with that graceful catch of yours."
Chell untwisted the carrying strap, and then slung the empty bag over her shoulder, all the while waiting for some sort of further explanation.
GLaDOS gestured toward the bank of desks between them and Chell cautiously approached. As she drew nearer, GLaDOS took a few steps back and looked down at another desk as if examining something.
As Chell got closer to the papers, she began to see some detail. It was a floorplan of this level of Aperture.
Well, this would have been useful earlier.
She spread her hands out wide, as if smoothing out a rolled-up map. Something about the motion felt familiar to her, though she couldn't place why. She knew she had never been a cartographer or anything like that.
As she leaned closer, palms easily pressed against the edge of the desk, she noticed that these lines didn't appear to be printed—they appeared to be hand-drawn. She almost hadn't noticed because of the precision. The lines were perfectly straight and the corners ninety degrees. The labels above each area were as consistent as a font. But there was a quality to the ink—a sheen that looked different than the matte of printed pages-that confirmed this was hand-drawn. It shouldn't have surprised her that the lines and penmanship were flawless since they were drawn by a computer.
Chell studied the layout, letting the lines crawl into a three-dimensional mental map. Her eyes were drawn to the areas crossed-out with a thin x. One was a server farm. Another, a power substation. Near the far border was a testing element control room, similar to the gel control stations she had come across in Old Aperture, she assumed. Then there were a few forbidden rooms that made less sense—a records archive, a few private offices, and other unmarked rectangles.
What this blueprint failed to show Chell was how it connected to her new duffel bag. She glanced across the table, shifting the bag on her shoulder.
"Blue and Orange are taking a break today," she said, not mentioning she was the one who needed a break from the bots. "You're picking an area of this level to investigate today, and there's bound to be something around that you'll want to take with you. A bag can carry more than two hands."
Chell nodded, turning back to the map to reevaluate with the new mission in mind. The crossed-out areas made more sense now, for the most part. She tapped a rectangle designating a forbidden private office and glanced up.
"There is nothing in there that you need," GLaDOS said, "so there's no point in wasting time sifting through them." She approached the bank of tables and then pointed toward a few other areas. "Look-any of these would be more useful to investigate."
Chell picked up her pen and wrote her first words of the day.
Why am I picking?
GLaDOS hesitated. "I thought you might want—you might be more comfortable—" she broke off. She did not finish that thought. "Just pick something, or I'm going to pick for you," she said, an edge of annoyance to her voice.
Chell felt her heart lighten by a shade. Maybe GLaDOS had absorbed something from their last heart-to-heart. But a part of her hesitated to accept this olive branch. Did GLaDOS have something to gain from letting Chell choose an area to explore? Was there some sort of angle to this that Chell could not yet see?
GLaDOS must have seen her reluctance. "It's nothing bad, you know," she said. "If letting you go on a scavenger hunt through dead peoples' things keeps you from throwing another tantrum, then it's worth a try. Plus," she said, "I can't spend all my spare time entertaining you. I'm busy. So are Blue and Orange. So be sure to grab a book or two while you're down here."
Chell pursed her lips, giving a vague nod. She reached the end of her pen across the floor plans and tapped on a significant sub-section of the map.
Employee Apartments.
GLaDOS felt a little bit of surprise, but she wasn't sure why. The choice made sense when looking at things from a human perspective. Employee housing units were bound to have essentials for mental and physical maintenance. It would doubtlessly improve Chell's quality of life on a day to day scale. So why did this pragmatic choice surprise her? What would she have chosen first, if she had been in Chell's position?
Chell used the non-marking end of her pen to trace a careful path from the housing wing to their current position. It didn't look too complex, but Chell wasn't sure if she could remember directions for places she had not visited yet. She began to gather the grid of papers.
"We're not going to get lost," GLaDOS said, but Chell did not halt. "You should leave those there for next time."
Chell finished getting the papers in a stack, then tapped the bottom edges on the desk to align them. She set them on top of her clipboard and then clipped her pen to the clipboard. She looked up at GLaDOS, ready to go.
"You're stopping again?" GLaDOS said, after realizing that she was several steps in front of the woman.
Chell shuffled through the hopelessly out of order papers, scolding herself for not numbering them. She bit down on her pen and pulled out sheets that covered the areas they'd already passed through and set them into the duffel bag. Looking up, she squinted at a few plates drilled into the walls and then flipped back a few pages. She moved that sheet to the front, and then turned it ninety degrees. There. That matched.
"Would you like to take the lead, then?" GLaDOS said. Clearly Chell did not trust her directions.
Chell shook her head and dropped her pen into her pocket. Despite her lack of organization, she was finding the map to be incredibly useful. It was better to take her time and learn the area while she had no real danger of getting lost.
They continued in relative silence until Chell raised a hand in GLaDOS's periphery. GLaDOS stopped, and Chell pointed at a booth settled in the junction of the hallway ahead. She tilted her clipboard toward GLaDOS so that the robot could see her point at the corresponding empty space.
That's not on the map.
"Security checkpoint," GLaDOS said, resuming her walk.
Chell frowned, hesitating for a moment before continuing on. She looked at the booth as they approached. One section stuck out from a larger, back area.
Security checkpoint?
She paused, taking a moment to sketch in the booth and label it before she looked back at GLaDOS, and then back down at the map.
GLaDOS looked back. "What?" she said. The woman had finished her drawing, and yet still seemed entranced by the checkpoint.
Realizing she had not given GLaDOS any indication of the question on her mind, Chell added a question to the margin of her paper and held it out.
Why?
"What, you think Black Mesa was the only place with security guards? We had to get serious at some point about stopping information theft."
Chell shook her head and tapped on the map area again. When there was still no response, she added a couple of words to the margin.
Not listed.
Chell tapped that phrase, and then her first one.
"I didn't think it was important."
Chell raised an eyebrow.
"I had to simplify the maps. If I wrote down every single architectural feature, you'd get too caught up in the details to be able to tell where you were."
The woman side-eyed GLaDOS as she approached the front of the dark booth. It was encased in thick plexiglass, with an embedded speaker and a slot near the counter for passing documents back and forth. Chell set down the clipboard and leaned in, cupping her hands around her eyes to see better.
A side wall was made up of a grid of small black and white televisions. Closed-circuit TV. She couldn't make out details, but she didn't need to. Just the same cameras pointed down the same, unchanging hallways for years and years. Chell pulled back, and then gestured toward the televisions.
"I already have access to those cameras."
Chell wrote another phrase.
TVs - wasting electricity.
"Oh. You're right. We should turn off those monitors." She moved as if to approach the door to the booth. "You're single-handedly cutting down on our power bill. What will we do with those savings?" GLaDOS said, and paused. "Oh wait, we don't have a power bill. We have our own nuclear reactor."
Chell huffed and looked back into the booth. The doorway between the rooms provided a glimpse into the dark back room, and while she could see items hanging up along the wall, she couldn't identify them.
Chell straightened, walking over to the door to the booth. She pulled on the handle. Locked. She pulled again. Still locked.
She took a step back and then waved over GLaDOS.
The computer hesitated, but then approached.
Chell extended a flat hand, hoping for GLaDOS to hand her Henry's keycard.
GLaDOS pulled the card out of her coat's pocket and curled her hand around it. She reached forward as if to drop it into Chell's hand, but then used the card to push Chell's hand out of the way and walk past her. "I doubt there's anything useful in there," she said, "unless you're expecting your friends from the surface to pay us a visit."
She pressed the keycard flush with the pad on the wall and the lock cycled. When Chell took a step to follow the robot into the booth, GLaDOS looked over her shoulder and frowned. "Stay there," she said. "I'll be right back."
Chell gave a reluctant nod. The door locked behind GLaDOS and Chell circled back to the front and leaned into the thick glass. She couldn't see much—GLaDOS didn't turn on any lights in the back room—but she could tell that the robot was poking around for something. A few moments later she heard a jingle of metal, and then saw clearer movement as GLaDOS moved into the fuzzy illumination of the television screens.
The booth went dark.
Afterimages stuck to the screens, along with a shadow where she knew GLaDOS had been.
She could almost feel the uncomfortable hum of the static electricity and took a few steps back. The robot exited and Chell looked up expectantly, but she said nothing and they continued walking.
As they stepped through the double doors and into the employee apartment wing, Chell noticed an immediate change. Numbered doors and framed art lined the hall at equal intervals. The floors were carpeted. The heel springs on her boots sunk in slightly, and she noted with joy that the carpet fibers parted in different directions when she dragged the spring back and forth. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen a hallway lined with carpet. Old and flattened carpet, but still carpet.
Chell tried the first door on the left, which was locked. Naturally.
She heard a jingle as GLaDOS dug out a ring of keys from a pocket. So that's what she had found in the booth. The robot flicked through the keys at a faster-than-human pace, finding the correct one and then jamming it into the lock and twisting.
Chell pushed the door open wide as they entered and then took in the employee apartment. Much like her vault, this apartment was shaped like a shipping container. The only immediate difference she saw was a kitchenette that broke up the entrance from the rest of the living space. Particle board cabinets hung above tiny appliances. Her eyes raked across the counter as her mind raced, imagining the canned goods and kitchen tools she could snag from these apartments. A dirty plate sat on the counter, and the shiny lining of an energy bar wrapper sat next to a sink also full of dirty dishes.
"Can't beat company-subsidized housing," GLaDOS murmured as she picked her way further into the apartment, taking care to step around abandoned objects.
Chell took a step to further investigate the kitchen, but was distracted by a door on her right. Sticking out her leg, she used her foot to pull open the ajar bathroom door. A wadded-up towel leaned against the doorframe. Ambient light from the apartment gave just enough light to provide visual suggestions of the items contained within.
The door drifted back against the dirty towel, not making a sound as the two nestled back into their old position.
"Remember when we were walking and I told you 'while we are walking, pick one area of the apartments to focus on so that you don't get overwhelmed'? And then you nodded, indicating that you understood me?"
Chell's eyes flicked over to the robot and back. GLaDOS was right - this bag wouldn't hold the contents of entire apartments. Moving into the main area, she approached a set of drawers and let the bag fall to her side.
Tube socks and underwear. Lots and lots of tube socks and underwear. Chell pulled out a few of the clean and tightly-rolled pieces from the top drawer, only to find they were men's underwear and certainly too large to be useful for her.
She moved on to the next drawer.
Meanwhile, GLaDOS opened the closet. She pushed clothes aside and scanned through the contents and made a 'hmm' sound.
Chell glanced up, hand currently half-buried in a stack of folded shirts.
All men's clothes," she said, pulling back. "I'll go see if I can find an apartment rented by a woman." She spun the ring of keys on her finger.
Chell gave a shrug, half-looking at the shirts and half-watching GLaDOS as she exited the apartment. She heard GLaDOS grumble something about an employee gender gap as she went.
She made quick work of the shirt drawer, tossing clothes into one of two piles based solely on the feeling of the fabric. The ones that didn't immediately repulse her were unfolded and looked over. As she spread out these acceptable shirts in a semi-circle around her, an unexpected bout of tears rose up.
She had choices of what she could wear. No citizen uniform. No test subject uniform. She could pick out her own wardrobe. She could pick out what she wanted to wear each and every day. She didn't have anyone to impress. She didn't have anything that hinged upon how she was perceived by other people. She could create the world's ugliest outfit, and not even GLaDOS could pressure her out of wearing it.
There were so many options, and she was just in the first apartment.
Chell blinked a few times before she went back to sorting, thankful the android wasn't around to make fun of her for getting emotional over clothes.
After going through the rest of the drawers and the closet, she gathered up her favorites and headed into the bathroom. One stack was draped over the edge of the combination bathtub/shower, and the other pile she set on the closed toilet lid.
As she picked up a pair of khaki pants, she glanced down and realized she still had the long fall boots on. It was unlikely the pants would fit over them. At best, they would still bunch up and look silly. She leaned from side to side for a moment before she reached down and released the straps. Comforted by the fact that she probably didn't need their help today, she slipped them off and set them next to the door.
The socks against the bathroom tile felt slippery, and Chell found herself still balancing on her toes. Her feet would ease back down to a normal position. Eventually. She resolved to find herself a regular pair of shoes after she figured out (or remembered) which size of shoes she wore.
She changed into the pants and a button-down shirt. Taking a moment to smooth down the shirt— a little bit baggy, a little bit too long— she looked at herself in the mirror. Her thumbs slipped through the belt loops and she tugged up and then re-smoothed the shirt. If she didn't find a closer fit, she'd have to grab a belt from somewhere.
As she twisted from side to side, she kept her eyes on the mirror. These clothes were nice. Professional. Clean. Or, seemed like they would come clean after a wash or two. The outfit was something that she could have seen herself wearing to work.
Work.
Chell frowned at the word. Work, work, work. She knew she had worked. She knew she had worked a handful of jobs in her life. But as she tried to follow that thought deeper into the labyrinth of her memory, the thread evaporated.
Reeling herself back, she looked back at her reflection. This looked nice. She'd keep it.
She tried on the remainder of the clothes, folding up the ones that she liked and stowing them in her bag. The rejected clothes were left in a pile in the bathroom. It almost pained her to leave the apartment in a messier state, as if she was a chaotic force in the world.
After checking the suspiciously quiet apartment, Chell grabbed her bag and boots. Her heels sunk a bit closer to the floor as she stepped into the carpeted hallway. A handful of opened doors extended out from the walls.
Was it really taking GLaDOS so many tries to find a room that hadn't been occupied by a man?
She walked briskly past open doors, but slowed as she heard some grumbling from a door on the right. The speech grew clearer and as Chell came up to the crack of light between the door and the frame, she could make out GLaDOS swearing like a sailor.
Language, indeed.
Chell took a half-step back, gently lowering her items to the floor. From her crouched position she slowly and silently adjusted so that she could see into the apartment. What could have gotten the robot so riled up?
The android was sitting on a chair, deeply struggling with a pair of slacks. At least, Chell assumed the bunched-up clothes at the robot's foot were meant to be slacks. GLaDOS had one hand stretched to the max between her calf and heel spring. It seemed she was trying to squeeze them closer together. Her other hand fumbled with the pants, trying and failing to hold them open wide enough to slip in her foot.
Chell raised a hand to lightly cover her mouth. Oh, this was good.
GLaDOS gave them an impatient tug. The fabric caught onto the heel spring, pulling tight. She grumbled and adjusted, sliding her left hand toward her angle and attempting again to squeeze the heel spring against her leg. Finally, she got her foot into the pant leg and the fabric bunched around her left hand. The robot did a careful trade-off, left hand tugging up the fabric and right hand grabbing her leg and heel spring through the fabric.
With the most patience that Chell had ever seen GLaDOS display, the robot methodically worked the pant leg to her knee, past where the heel springs melted into her calf.
"Ha!" she exclaimed. Her posture straightened.
A snicker escaped from Chell. She pressed both hands across her mouth and froze in place. Maybe the android hadn't heard her.
But of course GLaDOS twisted, letting go of the heel spring. The pant leg instantly puffed out and pulled taut.
By the time they both glanced down and processed this, Chell heard the fabric rip. The heel spring bounced into place as if it had never been restrained in the first place.
"Oh!" GLaDOS said as the door was pushed open. "It's just you."
Chell's eyebrows furrowed. Who else would it be?
"I thought—you looked like—" she said.
Chell had reminded her of a ghost-the ghost of any nameless Aperture employee. Seeing one-the brief but irrational thought that one was inexplicably alive-had sent fear through her. But that was silly. There were no ghosts in Aperture-besides the one living inside her systems.
GLaDOS gave a kick and wiggled her foot, the ruined pants falling to the floor. As she gathered her composure, her expression shifted into a frown. "You should have knocked."
The amused look on Chell's face faded.
GLaDOS had made it clear that she knew Chell's location at all times, so Chell didn't see the logic to alerting the AI of her presence. But then she thought about the look of concentration on GLaDOS's face, realizing the AI must have been focusing so much that she hadn't been paying attention to her location.
Chell wasn't quite sure how to feel about that (was she really less interesting than a pair of pants?) but it felt nice to know she wasn't being actively monitored twenty-four seven. If Chell hadn't known better, she would have seen that as a signal of trust.
Taking a large step back, she raised a fist and rapped on the door. A hint of a smile returned. There—she had knocked. Just as requested.
GLaDOS narrowed her eyes. That wasn't what she had meant and Chell knew that. "Come in," she said flatly.
Chell grabbed her things and strode into the room. She crouched and picked up the pair of slacks, balancing on her toes while she flipped the tag to look at the size. Her hand ran along the torn edge, noting that despite the straightness of the tear, the edges on either side were more rugged. Good. Chell would have been a little bit pissed off if the robot had turned something like tearing a pant leg into a precise art.
Pants in her palms, she glanced up at GLaDOS. Why had she been trying on pants anyway?
It took a moment, but GLaDOS seemed to see the question. "Oh, those weren't for me," she said.
The question in Chell's look did not go away.
"I don't know your clothing size," GLaDOS said. "But it seems like we might be around the same size, so…" she trailed off, watching as Chell glanced at the android body and then back to the pants.
Chell gave a shrug, trying to pass it off as casual. Even if GLaDOS was being truthful and had tried on some clothes for her benefit, finding the "right" size wouldn't have mattered when wading through the non-standardized ocean of women's clothing. Every brand had their own scale.
Chell set down the pants and then noted the size in the margin of her papers. She also set down her bag, then held out the clipboard.
Be right back.
GLaDOS gave a tiny nod. GLaDOS swore that she saw something mischievous glint in Chell's eyes as she turned away and exited the apartment.
About fifteen minutes later, GLaDOS looked up from sorting clothes at the sound of a knock. "Come in."
Chell crossed the threshold with a bundle of fabric in her arms and held it out to offer it to the robot.
GLaDOS eyed the carefully-folded clothing, noting a handwritten note on the top. GLaDOS read it, keeping her arms folded for the moment.
Try these - should be closer to your size.
She glanced up at Chell's face, but the woman was looking down at the fabric intently. GLaDOS plucked the note from on top of the present and tucked it into a pocket, folding it with a single hand. She then reached out with both arms to receive this gift from Chell.
She took a moment to glance down at the patterned fabric, wondering what it could be. She wasn't familiar enough with the different textures and types of fabric to distinguish one material from another. This fabric felt a little less sturdy than the slacks, with a more slippery feel to it. She dropped a hand and let the mysterious item of clothing unfold with the assistance of gravity.
It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at. The waistband appeared to be a somewhat normal (albeit larger) size. But the pant legs…
GLaDOS reached down a hand and pulled at the pleats that ran down the pants and then pulled them to the side, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled. The fabric unfolded like an accordion.
"What the..?" She took a moment to look down the pant legs from the top. She may have needed some extra space for her heel springs, but these pants were far too large. She could have easily fit her entire body down one pant leg with plenty of room to spare.
She felt a little bit of frustration. The faint but whimsical pattern did not help.
These would accommodate her heel springs, yes, but the pants looked as if someone had sewn two skirts together. Was Chell's spatial intelligence really so poor that she hadn't realized these pants would fall right off of the android body? Not to mention how hideous they would look. These pants had to have been out of fashion the moment they were manufactured.
She tried to remind herself that Chell had gone out of her way to find her this…gift…and that it wasn't advisable to snap at her for doing something that had a relatively nice intent.
She felt herself gritting her teeth. It was not a physical response that she was used to feeling, but she felt that the added tension in her jaw helped her hold in the frustration.
"While I appreciate your thoughtfulness," she started, and then glanced up to see something strange. Chell had her shoulders turned away from her, with a hand covering her mouth. Her shoulders shook in something her body language recognition software registered as laughter.
"What..?" She frowned.
Chell laughed a bit harder.
"A fat joke. How original," Caroline said, as the realization dawned upon GLaDOS. While GLaDOS was processing, Caroline continued. "You see, the joke is that you are so large that you need massive pants."
GLaDOS felt indignation rise in her. "You little-" she said, letting that angry feeling cover up the sense of embarrassment that she felt deeper down. "Oh, ha ha. You're hilarious."
Chell didn't make eye contact or rub in the joke, but a hint of a smile remained on her face as she exited the apartment. GLaDOS didn't know where she was headed and she didn't care. Chell could go and continue pursuing her career in comedy for all she cared.
"Doesn't feel so good to be on the receiving end of that one, does it?" Caroline said, and the worst part was that GLaDOS could agree. She wouldn't admit it, though. Not to Caroline or to Chell, at least.
What surprised GLaDOS was when Chell darted right back into the room with another set of folded fabric. She backtracked a step and then hit her fist on the door frame to re-announce her arrival. GLaDOS looked up and Chell made sure that she had the android's attention before she tossed the clothes to GLaDOS.
As the clothes arced through the air, the AI considered letting them fall to the ground. Instead she caught them gracefully, a little surprised that Chell's throw had been accurate. She glanced down, noting that these were nice slacks as well. "You know," she said, "jokes aren't so funny when you use the same one twice in a row." A part of her winced internally as she said that.
She moved to set the clothes aside, but Chell shook her head.
"No, as in it is funny or no, as in it's not a joke?" GLaDOS tried, not quite understanding what Chell was trying to communicate.
Chell held up two fingers.
All right, the second option it was, then. She eyed the folded up clothes with even more suspicion than the last time. She lifted up both pairs and examined them, finding nothing to be amiss. A quick look at the tags showed that one pair was a size up from the ruined ones, and the other pair was two sizes up.
Her gaze softened. She had been prepared to be frustrated in the same way she got frustrated when Blue and Orange repeated the same mistakes in test chambers, or when they got distracted from their goal by waving and making other inane gestures to one another. But this wasn't like that. This actually showed some thoughtfulness from Chell. And yes, while the woman had made a joke at GLaDOS's expense, it had been exaggerated to the point where it was clear that she had been joking.
"I-" She wasn't sure how to respond. Was she supposed to thank Chell for this? She said, "I will have to try these on later. I think I'm done with pants for right now."
A part of her suddenly felt silly. She didn't need the clothing of long-dead humans when she could somewhat-reasonably manufacture something to her specifications. Her current outfit was proof of that. So why had she felt drawn to try on these clothes too?
She moved over toward a stack of clothes that she had created while Chell had been on the hunt for the clown pants.
Chell hovered near the other end of the apartment, not entirely sure what her next steps were.
"I set aside these while you were gone," she said. "They should be around your size." She paused. "Your real size."
Chell felt a slight feeling of surprise and she approached the stack of clothes that sat on top of the unkempt bed. Chell began to pick through the pile, both looking and feeling each item of clothing. She noticed right away that there was a theme. All of the clothes in there were quite dressy. It was quite a contrast to the state of this apartment, which was the messiest one that Chell had seen yet. The clothes must have belonged to some sort of executive in the company, because the clothes seemed tailored for a schedule full of press conferences and meetings and publicity events. Chell felt her brow furrow a little bit, and she nearly winced when her hand met a sequined top. That was by far the most unpleasant material in the group, but many of the other fabrics felt stiff and unyielding and itchy. Though Chell appreciated that these had been available to her, she found that none of them so far had called out to her. They were quite elegant, yes, but she couldn't see any possible situation in her future that would require such an outfit.
GLaDOS noticed Chell's lack of enthusiasm as she was going through the pile. "Is something wrong?" she said, but Chell shook her head no.
Chell picked up her clipboard. She wrote down a quick phrase and then showed GLaDOS.
Not my style.
GLaDOS looked up, and Chell gave a shrug.
"Not your style?" GLaDOS echoed the words, not quite understanding. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Chell sighed, pulling the clipboard back and then moving over to the side of the bed opposite of GLaDOS. How was she supposed to explain a sense of style to a robot? Chell knew that GLaDOS knew about fashion, but also the AI had worn the same outfit since the debut of the android. It wasn't something that she would have had much experience in. Chell glanced over at the android and couldn't help but notice just how dramatic and striking her outfit was. How could she wear something like that and not get that Chell also had a sense of style as well?
She sighed again, raising the writing instrument to her mouth and biting gently on the end. She wanted to be careful with her words here. Deliberate. She had already gotten GLaDOS a bit annoyed earlier, so she didn't want to push things.
Meanwhile, GLaDOS watched for a few moments while Chell wrote.
Chell could feel the burn of the eyes on her and after a little bit, looked over and frowned, making a shoo motion with her hand.
GLaDOS took that as a sign to get up, and so she did. She moved around the apartment, idly looking into drawers and cabinets to at least get somewhat of a sense of what was contained in here when they inevitably returned to ransack them again. She kept glancing back at Chell, who appeared to still be deeply in thought. She wanted so badly to urge the woman to hurry up and just write down her thoughts already, but a surprisingly insistent part of her reminded her that she should not punish Chell for communication or initiate any other sort of action that would dissuade her from communicating with GLaDOS. Communication was essential at the moment - without Chell expressing to her information about her internal state, GLaDOS was left to make guesses. She needed more than guesses - she needed solid information. Their last major altercation had been a breakthrough, and she did not want to backtrack. But at the same time, it wasn't like Chell would even notice GLaDOS's lack of pushiness. No one would praise her for a lack of action.
After an eternity, Chell handed the paper back to GLaDOS.
GLaDOS looked at the paragraph, where Chell had written a bit about clothing and identity and how a person's choice in clothing can show off aspects of their personality as well as act as a form of expression. However, they could also influence how other people perceive a person - for example, people might wear professional clothing because they wanted to be perceived as competent and sharp. Sometimes clothing was about expression but sometimes it was about creating an appearance or persona, but it could be hard to find a balance between them.
Hm. GLaDOS wasn't entirely sure that she followed this. "So what is your sense of style like?" she asked.
Chell grabbed her duffel bag and handed it over to GLaDOS.
The robot began to pull out the clothes, unfolding and setting them down as she examined each one. "What's the point of picking out clothes if you're going to make choices this boring?" she said. The choices were unremarkable in every sense.
Chell gave a sigh hinted with exasperation. She extended a hand and GLaDOS handed the clipboard back over and Chell made a quick addition.
They are comfortable and look nice.
Chell had no one to impress, but that didn't mean she didn't want to look nice too. Though she appreciated comfort, she didn't want to look and feel like a complete slob.
"Your choices are certainly practical," GLaDOS said, with a bit of hesitation, though Chell felt as though there was still the hint of an insult in the AI's voice. "I can see the value in that."
Chell felt a bit surprised at that and wasn't entirely sure how to react. She let the silence linger.
"But if that's what you're going for, why not stick to the jumpsuit? You could wear a new one every day for the rest of your life and never run out of them. You wouldn't even have to wash them."
Chell paused for a moment before writing.
It's not about my choices - it's about having the choice. The jumpsuits are dehumanizing.
GLaDOS squinted at the words. "What do you mean?" she said.
Chell pursed her lips.
The Enrichment Center doesn't care about the individual person. Every person looks the same - like a test subject.
GLaDOS stared at the words. Even though it didn't take her long to read those words, it took her a bit longer to process them. Of course the test subjects looked like test subjects. That was their job, their role. The jumpsuit uniforms were a signifier of that role. Individuality among test subjects was not something that she had considered before.
"Test subject individuality doesn't matter," Caroline piped in. "They are all just data points in the end."
"I do have unique files for every test subject," GLaDOS tried.
Chell just scoffed. Yeah, right. As if GLaDOS actually cared about any of that information. She probably didn't even reference it. They were all just humans to her.
GLaDOS tried to wrap her mind around what Chell was saying / the sentiment Chell was trying to express. Chell didn't like the jumpsuits because they made her look like a test subject. So Chell didn't feel like they allowed her to look like her own person. She frowned before speaking. "Is this why you tied the sleeves around your waist?" she said. "To look different?"
Chell gave a noncommittal shrug.
"You didn't have to do that to stand out to me."
Chell made herself suddenly busy by looking through the new stack of clothes. As she perused the pile and tried to not think about what GLaDOS had just said, she found she wasn't paying attention to the clothes themselves. She took a moment to pause and to refocus, and looked at the clothes again.
She paused on a particularly nice dress that was definitely not her style, realizing that perhaps the robot had picked these out because she liked them, and not because she thought Chell would like them. Picking outfits seemed like a new concept for her. She probably hadn't realized Chell would have different preferences when she was having a hard time comprehending that Chell even had preferences.
She carefully pulled the dress out of the stack and smoothed it, feeling bits of static electricity creep up her arm. After a moment, she handed it to GLaDOS.
GLaDOS took a step back. "I'm not your coat rack." She briefly pulled her hands behind her back. "If you want it, it's got to fit in the bag."
Chell shook her head and pulled in a small breath. She held out the dress and set it in GLaDOS's hands a bit more insistently. Maybe this was a dumb idea.
GLaDOS looked down, her hands now loosely holding the dress as Chell went for the clipboard.
For you to try on
"You think—" GLaDOS paused. "I should try this on?"
Chell nodded, pointing at the bathroom. She added to the paper.
More your style.
"And what is that?"
Chell went back to sifting through the pile with all the zest of an overworked retail employee. Her movements were smooth but not fast. She wanted to keep up the illusion of being busy. Though she felt GLaDOS's eyes on her, a part of her hoped that this feeling of being watched would fade to an acceptable background level, like it felt when she was in the middle of solving a test and GLaDOS did not interrupt.
"Hey." The android stepped farther into Chell's visual field. "We were having a conversation."
Chell's eyes flicked up. She folded a dress over her arm.
"What did you mean by 'more my style'?"
Chell gave a tiny wince. She shrugged her shoulders and set the dress aside. It was nothing. Really. She waved a hand dismissively.
"I want to know."
Finally, Chell wrote a single word. She paused. She handed it over.
"Extra?" GLaDOS bristled.
She gave another tiny wince and pinched her thumb and index fingers together. Only a little bit-which was a lie, but perhaps it would help mitigate the offense that GLaDOS took to it. But it almost seemed like the robot wasn't as irked as she had feared.
GLaDOS glanced at the dress in her hands, comparing it to her current outfit. It didn't make quite the same bold statement but perhaps it was acceptable. She paused. "I do have a flair for the dramatic," she said, looking in the mirror and turning on her toe just to watch her long jacket swoosh. Perhaps Chell's assessment was fair. "Worth a try, I suppose."
Chell watched the robot make her way to the bathroom until the door clicked closed, and then began to sift through the remainder of GLaDOS's pile. She paused, flipping ahead a few outfits, and then pulled out a luxurious dress. Her fingers followed the thin velvet trim with a careful lightness.
This dress was far too fancy for her.
Even now, when she didn't have to pay for it, it was far too frivolous of an outfit. She couldn't even think of an occasion in her past where she would have needed a dress—no, gown— this formal. And now, there was no point. There was no one to see it, and it would probably just get ruined anyway.
Still, Chell found herself holding up the midnight blue dress in front of her body and gazing into the mirror. When she looked at her own face, she saw a hint of mourning. Sadness. Longing. A spectre of a future she'd never have.
She was about to return to her task when the door clicked open and GLaDOS stepped out.
Though she didn't startle, Chell also didn't move gracefully. She took a half-step back and tossed the dress back onto the bed with as much of a casual air as she could manage. If GLaDOS had paid any attention to it, she didn't give any indication. Chell leaned back, half-sitting on the bed.
The android walked to the mirror with a hand pressed flat against her collarbone. She grumbled as she bent forward, plucking at the rumpled hem with one hand. The other hand remained pressed against the bodice of the dress.
Chell folded her arms.
"This design is fundamentally flawed," GLaDOS said. "But I shouldn't be surprised. It was made by humans."
At first, GLaDOS had wondered if there was a flaw with the android itself, like a design or functionality issue she had overlooked. But after comparing the range of motion of her shoulders versus the range of motion of an average human's shoulders, she determined that she wasn't the problem. It had to be the dress.
As GLaDOS continued to preen, Chell noticed that the upper fabric of the dress split in two directions. The zipper was nestled at a point between the android's shoulder blades. But then the robot straightened, her long white hair obscuring the problem.
After listening to the robot grumble a bit longer, Chell shifted to standing. She took a deep breath, partially to keep herself from sighing and partially to steady herself. She took one, and then two, deliberate and slow steps forward.
GLaDOS watched Chell in the mirror. "What are you doing?"
Chell pointed toward the back of GLaDOS's dress.
GLaDOS stared.
Chell shifted to point at the back of her neck, and then back at GLaDOS's dress.
At first GLaDOS didn't say anything, just watching and staring at Chell, evaluating her. "All right," she said, with a bit of resignation in her voice.
Chell watched GLaDOS's face for a moment before she finished approaching the robot, keeping herself a bit off to the right so that she wasn't directly behind GLaDOS but wasn't out of her peripheral vision. She switched her glance between the mirror and the back of the dress, the zipper still obscured by the android's hair. Why did an android even need hair? She thought about that as she waited for GLaDOS to push her hair out of the way.
When she didn't, Chell reached a hand forward, hesitantly pushing aside the robot's synthetic locks. She kept her touch as light as possible, and it took Chell a couple of sweeps to push all of the stray hairs out of the way. She didn't pause to think about how the texture of the hair almost felt like her own, but with an added strength .
A part of her wondered if the synthetic strands were braided together to make them more sturdy. The texture of the hair wasn't quite as soft, almost reminding her of hair that had used too much conditioner. Chell let her hand linger as the thoughts drifted by. Even though she held her hand on the hair for only a moment longer than necessary, when Chell caught herself, it had felt like an eternity and she was suddenly embarrassed.
And so she got back to work, reaching for the delicate metal zipper and beginning to pull it up. Chell couldn't help but see the exposed metal—she couldn't call it skin—along with a few faint seams where the panels came together. This was most visible where the paneling of the android's back and shoulders met with the paneling of her neck. Though the cracks blended in well, they remained a stark reminder of her mechanical nature.
After a little ways, Chell felt it catch in the way that zippers often do, and so she backtracked a little bit, but ran into the same problem when she tried to advance again. She felt a bit of annoyance and gave it a good tug, and the zipper shot up to the base of the android's neck. They both jumped and Chell stepped to the side.
"I don't know why a human would design a piece of clothing that requires another person's help to put on," GLaDOS said. Her hand carefully lifted from the front of her chest. She gave a small hum - a thoughtful noise, Chell was learning. "But despite that, this isn't bad."
GLaDOS looked at herself in the mirror, judging the dress despite not knowing what she was looking for. At one point she glanced over at Chell in the mirror, as if asking a question.
Chell gave a tiny nod of approval. Chell had been right that it had seemed more of GLaDOS's style, and it fit well. And yet she felt weird giving her opinion on the dress, even in such a minimal way.
GLaDOS watched as Chell turned back to the piles of clothes.
The woman paused for a moment to idly smooth out the blue dress she had set aside earlier. Even though she didn't smooth it out entirely and didn't even fully look down at it, there was something in the way that Chell's hand passed over the fabric and then lingered that caught GLaDOS's attention. There was a gentleness in the motion that she wasn't sure she had seen before. But then the moment passed, and Chell was working through the clothes once again.
She turned away from the mirror to face Chell. "That dress," she said, nodding her head in that direction. "Are you going to try it on?"
Chell paused for a moment. Then, she gave an unconvincing shrug of her shoulders.
"You might as well try it while we're down here," GLaDOS said. "All it's doing now is collecting dust."
Yeah. She could try it on. Even if Chell never ended up having an appropriate occasion to wear it, at least the dress would have the possibility of being worn. And she didn't have to commit to keeping it right now, either. It couldn't hurt to see how it looked.
Chell flipped over the dress, noting that it had a zipper that went right up the spine. But she was not concerned. Unlike GLaDOS, she had spent years in her own body and had zipped up plenty of dresses in her lifetime. This wouldn't be an issue.
She moved into the bathroom—nearly identical to the one in the first apartment, but just with a flipped configuration—and slipped into the dress. She enjoyed the feeling of the soft, capped sleeves on her shoulders and how it contrasted with the sheer fabric near her collarbone.
She slid a hand behind her back and pulled up the zipper as far as she could from that awkward angle. She switched positions so that she was reaching over her shoulder, and then felt for the zipper handle. It was so tiny, and metal, and Chell felt it slip as she grasped at it, but she could not get a good grip.
Ah, shit.
Chell shifted so that her back was to the mirror and then looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, the zipper was in the dead center of her shoulder blades. She took a minute to stretch her arms, and then tried every configuration possible to pull up the zipper. She bent her shoulders forward, then backward, then pulled them up toward her ears, but she only stopped when the discomfort in her shoulders shifted into pain.
Chell huffed and then sucked in a breath and tried to shift the dress upward, but the more form-fitting sides didn't allow for much movement. Chell untwisted her arms, then pressed her palms against the edge of the counter. The rounded, hard edge dug into her hands.
What was she going to do?
She wasn't sure she could walk back out there in her other clothes, claiming the dress didn't fit. Or, she could say it had fit, but she just hadn't wanted to look at it in the full-length mirrors. But she did want to look at it in the full-length mirrors.
Maybe it would be worth it to dislocate her shoulder. Just for a moment, until she zipped things up.
Chell pushed a few flyaway hairs out of her face. As she glanced at how her ponytail had become a bit disheveled, she had an idea and tugged out the hairband and her fingers to comb it into an acceptable mess. She pushed most of it behind her to cover up the loose zipper and then straightened her shoulders. She experimented with that, pushing her shoulders out as far apart from one another as possible to decrease the slack in the fabric.
There. That almost looked normal.
She exited the bathroom feeling self-conscious and rushed to the full-length mirror. She didn't even really look at GLaDOS much, just wanting to take her look in the mirror and then get on with her day. She let her stiff fingertips brush against the pleats of the dress.
But as she looked at her reflection, she felt herself relax. This dress truly was beautiful. The rich color reminded her of the sky after the sun dipped beneath the horizon and the stars began to come out. The teary emotion she'd felt earlier began to resurface.
A lock of hair had drifted into her face at some point, and Chell reached across her body to brush it aside. The fabric under her buckled and bunched and began to slide. Chell immediately dropped the hair and pressed a hand to her chest to keep the dress from slipping down any further. She gave it a quick tug upward, glancing up into the mirror with the hopes that GLaDOS hadn't seen any of that.
GLaDOS had, of course, seen all of it.
Oh God, she's going to have a field day with this.
She wanted to close her eyes and disappear. This was a stupid idea. She should have listened to her initial impression of the dress and just left it in the pile. She didn't need anything this upscale and beautiful. She never averted her gaze and used both hands to hold up the dress now, and turned to vanish into the bathroom. Maybe this whole expedition had been silly to begin with. Maybe there really was no point in choosing her own outfits if there was no one around to see them.
"Wait," GLaDOS said.
Chell briefly closed her eyes, cursing internally. She forced her feet to stop moving and then turned to look at the mirror. She watched as GLaDOS took a few steps forward, with some hesitation, and then looked at Chell.
"May I?" GLaDOS asked.
Chell searched her face. The robot's expression was light, but appeared to be lacking the eagerness for malice that Chell had been expecting. That was suspicious. And yet, she gave a tiny nod.
Goosebumps rose on her skin as GLaDOS pushed her hair to the side. The android's fingers curled under Chell's dark hair, fingertips briefly brushing the exposed triangle of Chell's back. Chell reached up a hand to hold it all in place. She considered putting it back into a ponytail, but then she determined it would just drag this out.
"See what I mean?" GLaDOS said, beginning to zip up the dress. "It's a design flaw."
Chell didn't react, her eyes trained on the robot and her body too focused on the proximity of GLaDOS's hands. She felt the zipper catch about three-quarters up, feeling a light tug on a few strands of her hair. She began to reach her arm back to get it untangled, but GLaDOS stopped her.
"I've got it," GLaDOS said, hooking a finger around the offending strands and then yanking them aside.
Chell jumped and hissed from the sudden pain, startling GLaDOS.
Confusion crossed her face. "You could feel that?" she said. "But human hair is made from dead cells-the keratin-"
Chell twisted her body to glare at GLaDOS directly, and then reached to finish the last bit of the zipper after she had made sure no additional hair was caught in it. She pointed at her scalp, where hair connected to head.
"Oh," GLaDOS said, quietly. "I didn't know."
Chell smoothed her hair and returned to the mirrors. She let her shoulders relax. She wasn't going to let GLaDOS ruin this moment for her. Her hands had been gripping the fabric in bunches, but Chell found them relaxing over time as she became more convinced that the dress wasn't going to fall off of her.
She turned from side to side, extending her arms as she twisted to get a better look. She almost didn't recognize herself. But she loved the dress.
When she was done, she turned back toward the bed and her duffel bag. It was a good thing that she still had space left, because this thing was going to take up that space, easily. She thought about offering to also carry up the android's previous outfit-or the new dress, if GLaDOS changed back-but then decided not to. She poked around in the bag and pulled out the outfit that she'd worn down here. GLaDOS may be more comfortable in dressy clothes, but Chell certainly wasn't. And she wanted her long-fall boots back on.
But as Chell turned toward the bathroom, she felt her stomach sink.
She was going to need help getting this dress unzipped as well.
God damn it.