Prompt:
"You know what I've never seen, ever? Chell paired with a core other than Wheatley (or GLaDOS).
Chellventure (Chell/Rick). Or... Chact (Chell/Fact). Chace (Chell/Space)? I'm a factventure fan myself, but Id love to see them in different situations! Android, human, core, it doesn't matter".
Rating: K+
Genre: Friendship/Romance
I do not intend to take ownership of anything more than the story presented here. Portal belongs to Valve.
Lapsus Linguae
"Fact: We are not going in the right direction".
Oh, she could tell. She could really tell.
They had been tumbling around the Facility for some time now, thanks to the nature of this place and the absence of her own internal clock, she could not tell if it had been days or hours. She knew she should have passed away from exhaustion some time ago, if it were not for this Adrenal Vapor and the incandescent lights. A shame, because she didn't even have the excuse of her own biological needs to shut her ears off a bit and stop listening to the infuriating robot.
"Did you know that your legs are less overworked than your eyes?" said the sphere with a pink eye behind her in its synthetical, off-tempo voice, "to put it into perspective, you would have to run 80km per day to keep up with all the exercise your eyes do without rest".
She looked behind her shoulder, more than a little tired of its habit of throwing irrelevant facts at her repeatedly in the lamest of fashions. The metal ball stopped it´s movement and stood behind her, as if waiting for her.
It´s eye was unfocused, letting her to think that he had been suddenly cut short of electric stimulus, but it seemed to notice she was looking at it and gave back a glance that reminded her of one a plastic doll returns when you turn its head towards you.
She let out a frustrated puff. She knew from experience the inhabitants of this place were not as inhuman as robots tend to be, the psycho looking for her everywhere in this exact moment was good proof. Even robotic lines could transmit emotions, anger, sadness, sarcasm. She had stopped doubting her nemesis human likeness after she had almost murdered her in the Incinerator.
Could machines do that? Kill for revenge? She didn't know what the hell the engineers had done to replicate so faithfully a pattern of behavior only human minds could possess, but really, she didn't care much. There was no time to answer philosophical questions when the subject of study is on your heels threatening you to test keep you as a lab rat forever.
She had started to assume all the robots were like this (she didn't know what she would do if her theory was debunked and she came to the realization that all of this was an illusion crafted by her fragile mental state), but her sudden awakening executed by this talking information module had made her question if it applied to everyone.
"He", as GLaDOS had called it, was a corrupt core. The Fact core, she remembered, a fitting name for a robot whose only dialogue had probably been pulled from a magazine of curiosities. Being faulty as he is, it explains a bit how off it felt to interact with him.
Sometimes he was as responsive as an ATM, giving explicit options and executing commands in an almost comical simplicity. Other times he would just stare at her when they traveled along the Portal Gun, avoiding her gaze when she turned to check why he was so interested in her face. It was unnerving, this sway he put her trough, stuck in the Uncanny Valley. She couldn't even tell if he was doing it on purpose.
"We are- "there was a burst of static in the robot's dialogue as if it were a nervous tik. It happened from time to time since the clash with the matriarch machine, an incident she recalled was one of the reasons she wasn't sure he was as inert as a scrap of metal.
He had-screamed. Screams as real as that little broken voice box could produce, and it had hurt. The same part of her brain that activates when she emphasizes with a fellow human had alerted Chell he was in danger, that he was going to die…he could have lost him.
She wasn't sure how she felt about that.
His voice seemed to return to normal, the lingering cords coming together in an understandable string of sound.
"We are not close to the docking station". He sounded unsure, and she raised an eyebrow at him.
They had been following the instructions of the map he conveniently had inside of him for some time now, enough for her to notice how painful the constrictions of her boots were. Even if they had made a wrong turn (she highly doubted that, since he was the one keeping all of their information and he hadn't even squeaked on their way here), she was sure they were closer than before. What was up with him?
"We should not slow down. We are not close to a place where the test subject could rest. Fact: People who sleep from 6 to 7 hours a day live longer. If humans slept all 24 hours a day, they would be immortal".
The sphere slid above her with what she thought was confidence, it was difficult to know when the one you are looking at doesn't have eyebrows or a mouth. Confused, she followed, trying to comprehend why he said one thing when his face indicated another. He was driving her mad!
As they got closer to a pair of gray doors, the catwalk came to a stop. The silver spiderwebs slowly turned into a far more clinical looking floor, and she noted as he too stopped his running spree, so did the rail.
He looked down at her expectedly, opening his black handles and motioning the robotic eye as a bouncing ball. She didn't understand at first, but a quick glance to her Portal gun reminded her of what he was asking for.
She had not caught him the first time, thinking that it was just a safety protocol the spheres had and deciding that she was done following orders from this place. That time, he had demonstrated that he was not like the Announcer, reciting already existing lines of text in its circuits for any general audience that happened to pass by.
He had blown a really colorful dialogue after his face plate came in contact with the floor, all in it´s usual formal tone, which made a giggle escape her. After she had come to pick him up, he had recited something about mentally ill orphans having a signature incapacity to play fetch, or something like that. The whole thing had been bizarre, but it had put the seed of doubt within her that just bloomed and grew in her mind with every altercation.
Maybe he was just built differently.
She opened her arms and prepared herself for his weight, for the spheres were heavier than they looked. She heard a faint click go off as the sphere closed his eye, bracing himself for another nasty fall, but she didn't disappoint this time.
He looked up at her in her arms, a giant pink eyeball appearing to be extremely happy that she had caught him, wiggling his handles and making her smile a bit. For a moment the white robot stopped his maneuvers, pausing as laugh rocketed her body. She looked at him weird, still trying to decipher why he was always looking at her face.
As if he was caught doing something improper, the core looked violently away, making her loose her balance. She growled, annoyed at how they almost ended in the floor again by his fault this time, and the metal plates that served as his eye lids rose in apology. Jeez, she was starting to get the strange body language robots used, she really needed to get out of here.
As she crossed the door, sphere in the grip of the Portal Gun, she noticed something strange. The letters on top of the room read "Docking station", and as she turned the handle slowly, she recognized the likeness of the room in front of her to the map´s croquis.
Wait, so they were going in the right direction? That didn't make any sense! Then why had he told her-
She glanced down to the core. He looked as impassive as ever, the perpetual neutral look of a robot waiting for instructions examining her face with devout attention.
"We are currently not in the Docking Station" he said, answering her confused eyes. "Though the name suggests an assembly place for Aperture made machinery, that is actually one out of 100 refreshing stations Aperture provides to it´s employees for their personal necessities. The name was given after several altercations against the place where the station would be originally located, left the new wing unusable. A provisional space was made in which they found a new place to settle, right next to a maintenance line, but for unknown reasons, the work was never completed".
Well, that made sense, she thought. Aperture was known to cut budgets, risks, and general guidelines in half if that meant it proved to be too bothersome. She could totally picture a group of engineers just giving up after they got told that their hard work had to be delayed because some idiot forgot to chain his robo-dog or something.
"Several rumors suggest different perpetrators for the original incident, this may vary from Big Foot, the cursed corpse of Mary Curie, and a loose beam in the department next door".
She shot him a frustrated glance, trying to hide her laugh. It was as if he could not say something that was useful without delivering a really lame punchline afterwards.
Both entered fully, safeguarded of the cameras by the antiquity of the room. The first thing he said had been correct, as she soon saw the structures covered in dust and grime extending in a row of bunkbeds trough a hall, similar to the military dens she saw sometimes in movies. She tried to flick the lights to life repeatedly, but it didn't work.
She then went on to trying her luck with the restrooms, leaving her friend in the dark and mouthing that she would be back soon. The sphere didn't react, just moving his eye in the metal socket as what she hoped was an affirmative, turning on the flashlight they had used before to direct her to the white rooms without the fear of tripping over a rusted steel rod.
It was a miracle, but the tap received her with a leak. She paused a moment, strangely preoccupied about how much water it had leaked before she had found it, but she shook her head at her environmental worries. She was sure that concerning that department, Aperture had hurt the Earth in more grave ways than a leaking water key.
She cleaned her face, rejoicing in the feel of the cold-water drops gracing her skin. She went on to clean her hair, arms and hands, a very welcomed feeling of cleanliness making her smile like a child.
She went on the room again, noticing that her partner had turned off his flashlight. Were cores equipped with some type of night vision? Maybe he was just designed to not fear darkness as humans did. After all, fear came from the unknown, and to her, this thing knew the place as the back of his metaphorical robotic hand.
She rustled her clothes loudly so he could know she was coming. At her arrival, he shot the pinkish light directly on her face, blinding her for some seconds before she recovered, a bit angry and amused, as most of their interactions tended to leave her.
"The power was cut off from this service area upon warning of a reactor failure" said the core once she had recovered from the shock. "It should be possible to reactivate it with the help of an Aperture Science Port for Non-Perishable Employees".
He signaled a hole in the wall, the familiar cables indicated where to collocate the pieces of equipment designed to do simple tasks, or that's what she had interpreted. She had many questions about how this place used to work, she was shy to admit that most of them didn't come from her survival instincts, just pure curiosity. But without a voice, and a companion that she was sure was not programmed to read human body language, she just had her imagination and intuition to fill that void.
"Fact: 1 of 4 people confess that they don't wash their hands after using the bathroom" said the core as she tried to pick him up, earning an offended glance from the brunette.
She signaled her hands and mimicked the way she had washed herself in the bathroom, away from his inquisitive eye. The sphere had the courage to doubt her, lifting the lower plate of his eye and moving his handles as if it was a curved eyebrow. She puffed her chest and made her way back to the bathroom, offended but determined to show the core that she at least remembered basic hygiene, she was not that one of those four people he was talking about!
She returned, and the sphere looked a bit happier. How dare he.
She rolled her eyes and proceeded to pick him up, but once again the sphere refused.
"Fact: Wet hands spread 1,000 times more bacteria than dry hands".
Oh, c´mon! She had been carrying him around the Facility for maybe 3 hours, and now he was getting picky about hygiene? Also, he was a robot! He couldn't get sick!
With a bit more force than she had intended, she ripped him out of the bed and neared both to the open port. As she saw the light go down and heard the mechanisms of her little partner work, she felt the need to close her eyes or turn around, trying to avoid seeing something she was not sure why she thought was private. It also didn't help that he always had this blank look while he was hooked up there, as if he was not entirely in control of himself when they opened doors or redirected the paths behind the tests. It unnerved her.
The room started to light up as he worked, making all of the right-wing visible. When the work was done, the port got rid of him immediately, dropping him into her arms. He took a moment to come back to himself, but when he did, the pinkish iris returned a bright smile.
"Task complete. Welcome to the Docking Station, Aperture Science volunteer".
The rest of the time there was spent making herself feel comfortable. She managed to find fresh sheets and a mattress that didn't smell like rotten vegetables. She decided to not sleep on the bunkbeds, after several crashes between her skull and the metal frames of the structure had proved to get in the way to make her bed.
It took a lot of time and muscle power, but at last, she was resting a top a comfortable surface, tuck in a cocoon of grey cotton to combat the chill that had set in her bones. She was happy for the first time in ages, she just wished she could have found something to eat to make the experience more enjoyable.
"The chassis only has access to fully computerized areas within the main Aperture Facility" She heard the core say from his place above a lower bunk bed next to her. "Not only the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System is incapable of reaching us, but it also doesn't know our current location. This may change however, in the next 8 hours, thanks to the structural design of the Facility, our intermission with the equipment cannot be erased from its memory. Our distance is large, the notice is not immediate".
He seemed to want to ease her worries, but she honestly hadn't thought of that. She came to the realization that she had just started to take every piece of advice from the metal ball as a fact, not stopping to think if She could catch them or what she would do to her once She did. She thanked her mind for that, the little moments of peace spent behind every chamber following the voice of a strangely tranquilizing text to speech software.
She didn't want to think about that, it would only ruin her sleep! Although, she thought distress, it was inevitable. She tossed to her side and stared widely at the sphere, as if saying "Well, I am awake as ever now, happy?" But really, she couldn't blame him for reminding her the danger she was in.
She sighed into her pillow. She just wanted to rest.
"Recommendations state that the rouge test subject currently running on low resources goes to recharge, sometimes known as sleep. There will be enough time to do so if she does it right now".
Ha! If it only was that easy, little guy.
She nodded her head and made a sign that was supposed to tell him about her sudden unwillingness to sleep. It took a few tries, but it eventually seemed to work.
"Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can cause difficulty falling asleep" Yes! He got the hint.
She nodded enthusiastically, giving him a thumbs up at his right guess.
"Some tips to avoid insomnia are: regulating room temperature, avoid alcohol and heavy meals, use breathing tactics…"
She nodded again, this time telling him that it would not work. She hadn't eaten something in ages, she sure as hell didn't have the patience to go trough a breathing tactic when her mind was keeping her occupied with the weight of her reality and the possible scenarios endings if she didn't get on to a lift as soon as possible. And she couldn't regulate the temperature in the room, this bed chamber would remain as impassible and cold as the rest of Aperture, it would bot change for her.
He got the idea of getting up and letting him in charge of the latter, though her weak legs ached a reprimand and she gave it up. Even If she did get him hooked up there, it didn't feel right to sleep so far from him.
A lightbulb lit up when her head stumbled across something she did when she couldn't sleep. She eyed the bot shyly, not sure on how to get her message across.
The one-sided conversation trotter over the concept of somniloquism the first couple of tries, letting her to believe that simple hand gestures won't do anything in place of a real voice, but he finally got it.
"In order to fall asleep faster, web links suggest engaging in a relaxing activity, this helps the brain to acclimatize to a resting status. Some examples are meditating, reading a book, and ending the night off with a calm conversation".
She nodded again at the last part, letting him know that that was exactly what she was thinking about. Maybe talking a bit would scare away the demons from her mind and help her find happier dreams. She just needed someone to do the talking for her.
"Test subject proposes to engage in a conversation, activating of the socialization protocol in needed for this move. Do you consent in activating the Aperture Science Socialization Protocol for Personality Cores, also known as ASPPC? Nod for yes, sway for no."
There he goes again, making the simplest of task sound close to a nuclear launch. She felt a little nervous when she heard the technical language, a part of her feared he would just explode right there because she hadn't met the proper requirements, activating a self-destruct sequence that served as an anti-hacking wall, but she nodded, her curiosity winning over her paranoid side.
The sphere relocated his eye to look directly into her, adopting a posture that could have wanted to imitate one of a man trying to sit straight.
"ASPPC activated. Miss (REDACTED), what subject of choice would you want to discuss?"
Oh, well, that was easy. She wanted to state her real name at first, but knowing she wouldn't even go pass the second letter in this makeshift language and not wanting to overate her companions capacity to read her, she decided to put back in the queue. Hm, what about that thing he had done when they first arrived? Could it be considered lying? Not really, she didn't see him as a very good liar, it was as if he had been incapable to say the truth, that´s all. She had been just as clueless as him.
She signaled to herself, then to him, and then to the Portal gun. She moved her arms around her sides to imitate running, puffing air out of her mouth to indicate the moment they had arrived, when she had been more tired. She signaled the room and then to himself, swinging her finger from side to side.
"Interpreting non-verbal message, please wait a minute". It took him more time to decipher the whole message now, the sound of gear filling the cold room. When he was finished, a little bell ringed from inside, similar to an oven announcing that the baking time was over.
"Syntax is as follows: Ms. (REDACTED) and the Fact core were traveling through maintenance step 112-5 in an act of insurrection looking for a place to hide and recover resources. Memorandum recollected from that time indicated that the Fact core erroneously indicated that they had moved away from the destination, when both test subject and personality sphere where at 2.5 meters from it".
She nodded affirmatively, surprised at his exact recollection of her signs.
"The Fact Core apologizes sincerely for this incident". Said the sphere as his lower eyes touched the bed sheets, bowing in apology. "This behavior is not the way the Fact core is supposed to use to interact with the environment. A professional psychoanalysis may suggest the possibility that the Fact core is corrupt. When personality cores are left without maintenance for a long time, their functions are affected by the environment in a rapid fashion.
Fact: The Fact core´s original purpose was to serve as an Information Module where scientist of all areas of the Facility could report their daily discoveries and share them with each other. The Fact sphere then would report it all to a virtual server, and by hypothesis, would make assumptions on the employee's discoveries and determine if the data was correct or not".
There is a pause, the sphere appeared dubious to say what came next.
"Fact: The Fact sphere is corrupt. It cannot express true sentences all the time anymore".
That was a lot of information. She closed her eyes slowly, recollecting what he just said. So that´s why he said completely buffoonery in the middle of a correct explanation? Because of a faulty program? The entrance of the Docking Station hadn't been the first instance on where he said things that just weren't true, like when they tried to take a supposedly accessible elevator trough the pedals in the breaker room, and he suggested to turn all of them up. They hadn't been facts, they had been approximations, mere chances of being true statements.
They had been traveling in the dark for some time now, a thing that made her feel as if her stomach had fallen to an abyss.
So, that meant all he said was to be interpreted backward?
"Please deposit another conversation request to continue enjoying your free trial of ASPPC. Any other suggestion?"
The confession had left her way shakier than before, and she was tempted to just call it a day and accept that in this state, she wasn't going to sleep, but she just sighed and pushed it away from her mind as quickly as possible. She had very good luck, given the situation, they could have gone in a wrong turn that would lead Her to find them anywhere, but somehow the same deity that had allowed her to stay imprisoned here had also blessed her to not fail so easily. Good luck or bad luck, nah, it was all the same.
She used mimic again to ask her next question. She signaled her face and then at his eye, trying to imitate the almost dreamy look he gave her from time to time, as hazy as two optic plates and a pink iris could be. While he was in the mood to talk, why not answer the furtive glances? Was it because his face recognition software was also broken?
The machine took time to process her gestures, and in an almost shy smile, he answered.
"Ms. (REDACTED), I am sorry to inform you that the Fact Sphere, series number 11B03, finds you very unappealing, in every sense of the word. You are the most hideous looking human this piece of equipment has come across; distinguishable ugliness is a signature on you. Fact: Throughout the Facility, various series of paintings and murals can be found. Though they are unofficial, some of them featured a female model that shares similarities with you. The Fact sphere, along with any other Personality Core, is designed to identify patterns, and has concluded that the pictures scattered along the walls are all of you.
The test subject is a very uncommon specimen. As conclusion, it takes long data recordings and analysis for the Fact sphere to comprehend it completely.
The Fact sphere does not wish for escape, (even though) since it is forbidden by the official Aperture Science Manual for Integration and Learning given to every employee under Aperture´s vigilance. Though corrupted, the Fact Sphere wishes for it´s purpose to be found in not guiding the test subject to the Outside, and with that too relocate its purpose in society.
The Fact sphere wishes for its thoughts to be abhorred by the test subject, be it in a physical or verbal matter. The Fact sphere does not apologize for its disarrangement in human traditions and rituals, it will ensure that your experience here onward develops in the most lethal way possible".
"The Fact sphere wishes you the worst. Personality Cores are designed to imitate human patterns of relationships and social circles, their primary purpose is to interact with humans, although not all of them have the chance to create a large circle of friends.
According to studies, people with more friends have the lowest blood pressure, suffer less stress, their defenses are higher, and they last longer. In addition, friends drive away depression, help overcome illness, and produce satisfaction, pleasure, and happiness. The Fact Sphere has calculated the pros and cons of a relationship with you and has decided that the test subject under its watch is the perfect candidate for a first shot at fondness.
Fact: The Fact sphere is the not the most handsome sphere. People with the same level of attractiveness are more likely to end up together, as says the Matching Hypothesis. The Fact Sphere does not aim more than the business relationship in which both he and the test subject would experience a set of emotional reactions where there are neuronal and hormonal discharges as well as acid gases and odors that, when mixed, form an internal revolution resulting in reactions that explain the signs of falling in love.
The Fact sphere offers you a deal. Please, nod your head for yes, do a back flip for no".
Chell gaped at the sphere´s words, trying in vain to wrap her head around it all.
At first, he had insulted her…or that´s what she had thought. He had a very robotic voice, more so than the other A.I¨s she had encountered to the way there, but the tone hadn't been malicious, it had been…shy. Like the soft clicking of a keyboard in the middle of the night.
She then had come to the realization that most of the statements were backwards, and instead of relieving her, it had left her more confused. She had already gone pass that "is he really a robot?" reasoning, but this? What?! She could almost laugh in the absurdity of it all. She was trapped in the deepest vowels of Earth, with no food, water or shelter, a murderous queen at her heels, and now an inanimate object was confessing love to her?
Good luck, bad luck. It was all the same.
She looked at the sphere square in the eye, unsure of what to do. It was weird, but she didn't know how to deal with this uh…stream of sincerity? Could it even be considered that, seeing that most of the things he had said were lies? Oh, everything was upside down now, she was feeling dizzy. She left out a yawn, indicating that the pep talk had fulfilled its task as a sleep capsule, and she rubbed her eyes and absently nodded, a full smile splattered across her face.
Oh well, lets roll with this. It was enough crazy before, but know? She wasn't going to question it, in case this was another trap made by Her, to maybe test her patience and finally abandon her only guide because of an absently supernatural hallucination.
And she wasn't really feeling the black flip thing. Sure, she said, already done with Aperture and its bizarre robots. She would date a corrupt metal eyeball then, you win.
"Processing nod as an affirmation" the sphere emitted a bell ring of triumph. "Thank you for participating in ASPPC program, in a rate from 1 to 10, how would you rate your experience?".
She laughed a bit and shrugged her shoulders, because really, what was she supposed to say? That she was satisfied?
"Interpreting vague answer as 10. You may engage in the obligatory cuddling after-math. Please handle the Fact Sphere with caution, the absence of arms will prove to be challenging, but we know you can make it".
It was surprising the number of times she had quirked an eyebrow at this robot. What?
"Snuggling releases natural pain relievers that will speed the charging process in the limited time we have to spare. Please, adopt the cuddling position and relieve stress towards the sphere".
She took him off the mattress and positioned him next to her, covering herself in sheets. The sphere waited peacefully while she rearranged, and then smiled when she approached, a giggle dissolving in the faulty voice-box.
The feel of metal touching her body was unappreciated at first, but then again, she remembered she wasn't hugging a white panel. He had got his point across rather boldly, comically so, but hey, at least he didn't want to kill her! That´s better than she had had in the first run. And she wanted to drink up that bit of affection right up, as much as she tried to deny it, only if it turned out to be genuine at the end of the day.
She fell asleep with the sphere next to her, her breathing motion being captured by his pink iris with great detail, checking her vitals trough the sensors behind the white casing and counting the pico-seconds for his friend to wake up.
The echo of Her chamber resonated trough the night, threatening, sending warnings in morse code to the rogue personality core and his new-found partner.
Fact: The Fact sphere is the most intelligent sphere. And with that intelligence, he was not going to lead both out of here.
A/N: The next chapters are going to need more time in the oven, so to not let this abandoned, I will update periodically until the big boys are done (one here, the other as a separate story). I will be the first to admit this one is not the best, but after 3 days of writing it, I think it´s good to go.
Just a little "what if?" about the Fact core taking the place of Wheatley in Portal 2. A writer I really like (Thursday´s Dove here on FF) suggested something on her blog about an idea of Fact/anyone and I wanted to use it to write a bit of more Chact. I went a bit far from the og post, sorry about that.
I will try to update a bit more, since I won't have as much free time in my hands next year. Thanks for reading.