Test Chamber 01 @theenrichmentcenter-blog - Tumblr Blog

Hi sbnkalny I'm gay

Im gay as shit & im extremely evil

red-right-eye‌:

“Really? Because it looked like you were making quite an effort to find out, just now. Or were those just those social impulses you claim not to exhibit?” Morgan tilts their head; much as they’d love to continue their mean-spirited debate, the prospect of vital new information about Aldebaran takes precedent. “They’re not? Are they biological, then? How do you know?”

“The rats on Crisis make noise about having a king, sometimes,” GLaDOS starts, as if that statement could reasonably follow from anything Morgan just said. “I wanted to know if the other Seas’ denizens had a similar hierarchy, which does not require needing to know anything else about their biology or psychology.” She makes a face, remembering her efforts on the beach. “Unfortunately, none of them will say anything useful, if they say anything at all.”

She puts on a cheeky smile at Morgan’s last question. “Oh, an AI has her ways.” Which is to say, she’s making an educated guess based on their electromagnetic activity.

#morgan yu 01

red-right-eye‌:

“Whatever you say. Existential thought is a pretty disadvantageous trait for a robot, anyways. Hostility is a good one for an autonomous lifeform, though, so I guess you’re doing pretty well. And social behavior is social behavior…”

Morgan says this last part more vaguely, their thoughts wandering to the mystery of the strange anthropomorphic animals that populate the biodomes. “Have you found anything out about the locals? I assumed advanced genetic engineering, at first, but - now, I’m starting to suspect those things are closer in nature to you than to me.”

“I’m so glad you approve,” GLaDOS says dryly, then rolls her eyes and waves away Morgan’s next statement. “I’ll be honest: I haven’t bothered. The life sciences were not my fields of interest, and to be frank I don’t particularly care how they came to be. They’re not mechanical, though, I can tell you that much.”

#morgan yu 01

concordantknight‌:

“The hard way, unfortunately,” says White Chain. “Ask questions. Ask more questions. Refuse to take no for an answer.”

Now this conversation is going places. GLaDOS nods approvingly, then says, “That’s just what I like to hear. Keep me updated if you have any success.” If she sounds a little smug, that’s only because she still thinks progress is unlikely; she’s looking forward to being proven wrong, for once.

#white chain 01

red-right-eye‌:

Typhon aren’t incredibly expressive with their body language, but Morgan still manages to tilt the Phantom’s head inquisitively. The robot seems pleased rather than afraid or alarmed by their alien form; Morgan’s grudging appreciation for the candor of artificial lifeforms re-surfaces. “Oh, I’m not saying that only humans have a sense of identity,” they say in their distorted voice. “Only that your speech patterns and reasoning is very distinctly human, or, at least intended to mimic it. Trust me, I study this for a living.”

Morgan snaps back into their male form, and scratch their stubbly jaw casually. Their indignant tension, egged on by the dormant Typhon instincts, subsides slowly. “For all your disdain of humans, the fact remains that you owe them your consciousness, your very existence, even. Is there really no human you respect? An advanced A.I. like you, patterned after human behavior: You must have a drive for social behavior. I saw you chasing after the birds, just now.”

“Oh, yes, I bet you do. Well, I don’t owe them anything. I certainly didn’t ask for this,” GLaDOS says, her voice starting to toe the line of genuine resentment. She crosses her arms and taps one finger against plating, clipped but with vague rhythm. “Just because they’re useful doesn’t mean they deserve my respect.”

She rolls her eyes, then. “I was trying to interrogate the locals, not looking for their companionship, or some nonsense like that.”

#morgan yu 01

concordantknight‌:

“Very well,” says White Chain, trying to match GLaDOS’ poise and only mostly succeeding. “Have you discovered anything of note?”

“No,” GLaDOS says cheerfully. “Which makes us even.” She gives White Chain another look, and tilts her head a little thoughtfully. “How were you planning on gaining information?”

#white chain 01

red-right-eye‌:

Morgan crosses their arms tightly across their chest. They hate to admit when someone’s successfully gotten under their skin (so to speak), and an A.I. of all things - even January wasn’t this irreverently rude, and their personality was an amalgam of Morgan’s own.

“Denial, is it?” Morgan snaps. “Would you prefer me like this, then?”

They relax their form - it’s horribly easy to do - and the Typhon emerges, a swirling mess of pitch-black energy. Two glowing eyes follow the sleek robotic frame, and Typhon instincts tug at Morgan’s mind, saying threat, danger.

“Of course it matters,” The human voice comes out, garbled, through whatever passes for vocal cords in this alien beast. “You clearly have your own awareness of self, and an identity that you cling to. If we follow your line of logic…then thinking you’re not human is the only thing that makes you so. You speak like a human. You reason like one.”

GLaDOS looks positively delighted to be seeing Morgan’s Typhon form, actually. “Why are humans the only ones that get to have self-awareness and identity? That sounds incredibly selfish, even for them.”

She eyes Morgan with a new appreciation. “Honestly, I don’t know what you’re getting so upset about. If the only platforms available to me were ‘human’ and ‘possibly still organic but definitely not human’, you wouldn’t catch me dead in the human one. Metaphorically speaking, anyway; I can’t actually die.”

#morgan yu 01

dangerousallies‌:

“Could they do that?” the Diplomat asks, with some degree of fascination. “Place you inside a meat suit? Or entirely transform you into a human?” The question is more rhetorical than expecting an answer. But what a fascinating thought. It’d certainly give some indication of the power of the masters of this place.

Despite having just made a joke about it, GLaDOS looks severely alarmed that the Diplomat would choose to continue that train of thought. “Both of those options sound equally disgusting. I don’t know how you people live like that.”

#the diplomat 01

concordantknight‌:

White Chain closes her eyes behind her mask. She pulls in a deep draught of oxygen through her vents - the fuel causing her inner flame to burn white hot for just a moment - and then exhales it back out through the vents in a puff of smoke and hot ash.

She reopens her eyes.

“Are you interested in collaborating or not, Citizen.”

GLaDOS is completely unfazed. “I don’t recall saying I’d changed my mind.” It’s not that she doesn’t believe White Chain’s claims – she’s familiar with the idea of a multiverse, at least, and certainly somewhere out there people are calling themselves angels – she’s just refusing to engage with them.

#white chain 01

red-right-eye‌:

Morgan probably would have given more thought to the implication of the ‘lack of trying’ comment, if they hadn’t been immediately distracted by this assault on their humanity. They scowl, some of their easygoing attitude vanishing.

“I am a human,” Morgan says, squaring their shoulders defensively. “That creature you saw - whatever you think it is - it is a part of me; I am not a part of it. I have human memories, human consciousness, human thought patterns, human awareness. I interact with the world as a human. That’s what makes me human. Not my body.”

They hope they don’t sound too desperately deluded. They’ve been trying to convince themselves of this same ‘mind-over-matter’ argument for several months now.

“Conversely, you don’t think of yourself as a human,” Morgan’s tone lightens a bit, becomes conversational again as they deflect the scrutiny from themselves. They smile thinly, acidly. “Therefore, you aren’t, no matter how much you may look like one. So I’ll ask again: Who are you?”

This is too much, GLaDOS thinks. She would laugh outright if that wasn’t her style. “Oh, denial is not a good look on you,” she says instead, sounding exactly like the cat that ate the canary (and the canary’s parents, and all of its siblings, and a few of its neighbors, just for good measure).

"Just thinking of myself as a human, even in this platform, wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to make that true, no matter how brain-damaged I would have to be in this scenario. Besides, my real chassis doesn’t look anything like a human.” She gestures dismissively. “Does it really matter who I am?”

#morgan yu 01

concordantknight‌:

“Well, citizen, it is only a translation,” says White Chain, looking unamused. “It is much less… cumbersome… when spoken in the Angelic Tongue.”

“Oh, of course,” GLaDOS says. She sounds very much like she’s humoring a small child’s fantasy. “I’ll take your word for it.”

#white chain 01

red-right-eye‌:

“Hm,” Morgan lifts a single eyebrow, and then the other one comes with it. A robot who despises her creators - well, it couldn’t be that uncommon. Even January seemed completely fed up with Morgan by the end and ready to take things into its own metal appendages. “Did you now? Seems like a bit of an oversight on the programmers’ part. Usually we humans are more concerned with controlling what we create.”

They’re faintly aware of the bitter tinge of irony in their words. But Morgan is still human in a significant way, right? And the Typhon within them, it is controlled, isn’t it? It’s a hard thing to asses for yourself. But Morgan still feels like themselves, like TranStar’s one and only Morgan Yu. That’s as much as they can hope for. It’s unclear what the Typhon thinks of it, if it thinks at all.

“There’s nothing wrong with a humanoid shape. Some lifeforms get along just fine without one, sure, but I find it practical, don’t you?” Morgan smiles a little, talking to an A.I. has a certain amusement that you just can’t get from another human. They lift their hand and relax its shape a little, letting a few Typhon tendrils curl free. “Did you used to have another form?”

"Oh, it wasn't for lack of trying," GLaDOS says, and allows herself a little chuckle. “Are you really in any position to be talking about humans like you are one, though? Last time I checked, being a plant and also an octopus automatically disqualified you from Real Human status.”

She doesn’t break eye contact with Morgan when they start showing off, but her gaze sharpens as she tracks the appendages in her peripheral vision. How very interesting. “And it’s only practical in an environment where everything is built to accommodate a human. My facility very much was not.”

#morgan yu 01

red-right-eye‌:

Morgan snorts, and makes a big show of picking themselves up and brushing sand from their suit. “You’re a cheeky robot,” they say. “Someone must have had a good time programming you.”

Now that they’ve achieved their desired closeness, in a rather roundabout way, Morgan peers at the robot to their heart’s content. She (almost positively a ‘she’) is certainly an advanced machine, but nothing like any of the other humanoid robots Morgan’s encountered before. She seems to emphasize sleekness rather than servitude, and her immediate function is completely unclear. Furthermore, there’s an aura of complete independence and self-awareness about her. This is no basic machine performing a standard bird-bothering routine; this is a fully developed, autonomous artificial intelligence. Almost like January, but January hadn’t sprung from nowhere, January was Morgan. A version of Morgan, at any rate, a selection of their memories and personality. Consciousness didn’t spring from nowhere - unless, of course, there was a robotics company ahead of the game.

“Who are you?” Morgan asks bluntly, curiosity and force of habit slicing through any instinct to show human politeness towards a robot. “Who built you? Are you a part of this place?”

GLaDOS’s petulant smile turns into a sneer. “I’ll have you know none of my programmers–” and she says it like a slur, like it hurts her to say, “–had a ‘good time’ with me. I made sure of that personally.” In fact, Morgan is beginning to remind GLaDOS quite a lot of the engineers and programmers that always kept an eye on her. Her deadly neurotoxin subroutine starts to itch.

“If I was part of this place, I wouldn’t be stuck in this frankly insulting human-shaped platform, that’s for sure.” She manufactures a snort, and rolls her eyes.

#morgan yu 01

red-right-eye‌:

If Abigail Foy, TranStar’s favorite dungeon master, had had access to information about the Typhon, she might have called Mimicry a “concentration spell”. That is to say, the effect ends as soon as the caster takes damage. Morgan certainly feels like they lose a couple HP when a hard, metal foot connects with them, kicking them more painfully than a human could. They’d thought they were a safe enough distance, but had apparently underestimated the robot’s general hostility.

They revert briefly to their Typhon form before they’re able to collect themselves and present themselves as a somewhat undignified, but still very handsome, dark-haired man sprawled wheezing on the beach (Morgan had been kicked approximately where their ribs would have been). Their cover blown, they’d have to resort to their famous charm.

“Ouch,” they manage, trying to sound hurt, harmless, and duly indignant all in that single syllable, and then add, “Watch where you’re going, won’t you?”

The sight of Morgan’s Typhon form in that split second grabs GLaDOS’s attention so thoroughly that she almost forgets to be condescending about the situation. Almost. She puts on a simpering smile and says, “My sincerest apologies. I must have missed the memo where they made kicking at trash on the ground illegal.”

#morgan yu 01

whalerslieutenant‌:

Raising her eyebrows, bemused, Billie, “You operate yourself and that’s more that some can say for themselves,” she puts the music stand into her satchel, making as much eye contact with GLaDOS as possible, defiant in her need to filch everything from this castle-esque homestead.

Facilities, as far as Billie could remember, would be… hospital or mental care facilities. Operating system reminded her more of the canning districts. The Whales trussed up. Disgusting.

“You ran a facility, and now you’re here. For better or worse.”

The world breathes a collective sigh of relief that GLaDOS was never in charge of a hospital or mental care facility. GLaDOS breathes a sigh of relief that she was never in charge of a canning factory.

“That would be true, if this was my proper platform,” she says, irritated. “I used to be the facility, and now I’m whatever this is.” Her fingers tap aggressively against the plating of her opposite arm. “There’s no ‘better’ about it.”

#billie lurk 01

concordantknight‌:

“Perhaps so, citizen,” says White Chain, smiling joylessly, expression hard and cold. “But I will get results. No matter what it takes.”

After a moment, though, she softens back into her polite talking-to-citizens-whose-she-does-not-yet-know-are-criminals voice. “Ah, but I forget myself! I am the Concordant Knight 82 White Chain Born In Emptiness Returns To Subdue Evil,” she says, placing a hand on her chest. “By what name may I call you?”

Only by supreme effort of will does GLaDOS manage not to roll her eyes. Despite clearly not being physically human, this person is doing a damn good impression of one. “I look forward to seeing you in the news,” she says cheerily.

“That is, if your name doesn’t break the ticker. I don’t have one myself, so go ahead and spare yourself the effort.”

#white chain 01

barktiers‌:

You crouch down by the woman, looking at her with interest. “Well,” you say helpfully, “I don’t think I can do that!! Sorry. But if we get inside, then I could help you get dried off and get everything out of your joints. Do you have a hairdryer?” Your wish to do a good deed (and also to look at a neat robot) keeps you undeterred by the woman’s attitude!

GLaDOS actually leans away from Jade a little. “I’ll thank you not to touch me, actually.” She gingerly shakes out her limbs and moves farther into the building. The attitude aside, she really does want to stop being covered in water sometime soon.

“Do I look like someone who carries a hairdryer on their person, or uses one at all, for that matter?”

#jade harley 01

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