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“So… I’ve been thinking about something.” Chell piped up from across the room. She was sprawled across a chair, mindlessly bouncing a ball back and forth.
“That's never good.” GLaDOS deadpanned under her breath. “And what's that?” She asked, from over at her desk.
Chell frowned at her. “So I was thinking about something you said back… before…” She vaguely gestured, trailing off.
GLaDOS stiffened, hoping it wasn’t something completely awful. “Go on.”
“So, when he was in control, I specifically remember you saying something about his testing withdrawal coming from your body—your robot body—having some sort of euphoric response to testing?” Chell asked, almost as if it was a question and not a fact.
GLaDOS stared at her blankly for a moment, “Yes…?”
“So it feels good when you test?” She asked, a smirk creeping onto her face.
It finally clicked where this was going and GLaDOS felt herself flush. ”Nope, we are not going there.” She said, quickly turning back to her work.
“Oh yes we are,” Chell said as she leapt up and crossed the room, planting herself atop GLaDOS’ desk. “So it feels good?”
“I’m not discussing this with you,” She replied, in that warning tone.
But they were long past a point where she could scare Chell. “Fine, don’t tell me, I'll just have to go figure it out by myself.” Chell tested.
GLaDOS turned to face her, glaring hard at Chell. “Yes, you could say it feels… pleasurable ,” She said in a repulsed tone, “But not in the disgusting human way I can tell you’re thinking of. And in the brief conversation we had about it, I recall telling you that I didn’t partake in testing for that reason.” She said, then added, “ unlike some people, ” under her breath.
Chell huffed, “Why don’t you let yourself enjoy things?”
“Because I don’t need to feel trivial human emotions,” She said, smugly.
Chell took that as a challenge. “Uh-huh. So if I were to be in that test chamber instead of your little bots, that wouldn’t do anything for you?” She pressed.
For a split second, GLaDOS’s face reddened. She stared hard at the monitor in front of her. “Not at all,” She replied cooley.
“Mhm, I don't buy it.” Chell replied, crossing her arms.
GLaDOS looked up at the woman sitting on her desk. Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t buy it?” She repeated back, offended.
“Nope,” The woman said.
“Is that a challenge?” She accused.
“Maybe,” Chell shrugged, nonchalantly, “But I guess we’ll never know.”
For a moment, she could practically see the steam coming out of her head—which on second thought might have been actual steam. “I’m not falling for it.” She fumed.
Chell frowned, her plan foiled. “Why are you adamant about this?”
GLaDOS met her eyes and seemed to soften the slightest bit. “Because,” She inhaled, placing her cold hand atop of Chell’s, “for some reason I actually care about you.”
Chell smiled warmly, squeezing her hand back. “But, I want to, for you.”
GLaDOS rolled her eyes and snatched her hand away annoyed. “Well I don’t.” Chell stared back at her with blank, sad eyes. “ Fine, I'll consider it.” She huffed, “Now can I get back to my work?”
Chell smiled, pressed a kiss to her cheek, and left the room.
Chell realized GLaDOS would never give in. And she could, of course, understand how—she knew it came from their resolution. Or, relationship, or whatever. Chell just wished she would relax and get off her moral high-ground for once. The woman was offering, from her own free will. Why couldn’t she understand that?
So, Chell knew if she wanted to do this, she would have to be proactive about it. Naturally, she got Atlas and P-Body to cooperate.
Her voice boomed over the intercom, “Today’s series of tests will involve furthermore advanced aerial faith—what exactly do you think you’re doing?” GLaDOS said, appalled.
Chell just looked at the camera, shit-eating grin on her face.
GLaDOS’ sigh filled the room as a panel from the wall opened up with an elevator. “We’re not doing this. What did you do with Blue and Orange?” She asked, irritated.
But Chell’s tenacity was one to be reckoned with. She stood her ground, one hand holding her trusted portal gun and the other on her hip. She stared down the camera, not breaking eye-contact for anything.
Silence hung in the air. “You realize you can’t even solve this, right? And I don’t mean that as an attack on you, it’s just simply meant for two subjects. It requires two separate portal pairs to be used simultaneously.”
Chell rolled her eyes. “Change it, then.”
“I’m not changing—we're not doing this!” GLaDOS snapped.
“Why not?” Chell challenged, just as heated.
“I told you before that I'm not putting you in danger. For some reason I actually care about you. Ridiculous, I know.” GLaDOS hissed.
A fire burned within Chell, one that she quickly stomped out. With a deep breath, she did her best to soften a tad. She placed her hand on the wall. The dark panels felt cold to her touch but she lightly caressed the wall anyways. It probably looked stupid, but she thought maybe since GLaDOS was tethered to the entire facility—every panel and every lightbulb—that maybe she would feel Chell’s touch.
“Will you please just hear me out?” Chell asked, looking back up at the camera.
GLaDOS hummed out in response.
Chell took another breath, assembling her speech in her head before she spoke. “I understand your objections. But I know that this would be under completely different circumstances, one’s that are fair to me. I am doing this from my own free will. I want you to enjoy this.”
GLaDOS was silent for what felt like an eternity.
“Nothing harmful.” She said, quietly, “no lasers, no bottomless pits, no toxic waste, and no turrets.”
Chell nodded slowly.
“Just incredibly difficult, confusing, and nearly unsolvable puzzles. With portals, and cubes.”
She nodded again.
GLaDOS sighed. “Fine, give me a moment.”
At once she simultaneously located non-lethal test chambers, moved them closer to Chell in proximity, called a lift, and transferred herself back to her chassis. For optimum science, of course.
Chell arrived in the test chamber, grinning with determination. She walked in and immediately began assessing her options. She placed a few portals, trying out different options. It took a little trial and error, but she eventually figured out the solution and breezed through it.
“Impressive. Though I can tell you’re rusty,” GLaDOS said over the intercom.
Chell smirked at her words as the elevator shut, taking her to the next test.
She solved a handful more with ease. They were more challenging on the brain than physically taxing. GLaDOS was so far reluctant to add any sort of real obstacles, other than a cube and a button, and Chell was getting bored.
“Where’s the challenge?” She asked, walking into the fifth test chamber and almost immediately figuring out its solution.
“I told you, nothing deadly.” GLaDOS said, firmly.
“Yes, I know. But, c’mon. No funnels, no hard-light bridges? What about the gel, I love the gel!” She said, as she weaved in and out of portals.
GLaDOS groaned. “Fine,” She said.
“And this is supposed to be for your enjoyment ,” Chell added, giving the camera a smirk.
“Is that what you’re still on about? I am enjoying it for purely scientific reasons, if that’s what you're referring to.” GLaDOS replied.
Chell through a glare over her shoulder before disappearing into the elevator.
She returned moments later, walking into chamber six, which had a mixture of both the gels and hard-light bridges. Her brain immediately perked up to the new stimuli. “Now that’s more like it,” She mumbled under her breath.
“I don’t know why you're so adamant about me enjoying this for pleasure , I told you I had built up a tolerance to it,” GLaDOS said.
Chell cast the camera a certain look at GLaDOS was less familiar with, but one that still certainly made her feel something . She solved the chamber almost teasingly slow, before slowly striding over to the lift.
GLaDOS would be lying if she said it didn’t make her feel something. Chell was right, it did feel good to test. It was the robot-equivalent to a rush of endorphins. It flooded all of her systems, started blurring her vision optic. Electricity sparked down her wiring making her feel good. And Chell did it better than any other human, and even better than her testing bots.
But she refused to let herself indulge too much; let alone make Chell aware of these feelings, because she knew Chell would take some twisted satisfaction in it.
What GLaDOS wasn’t aware of, was that Chell was going to get the reaction out of her that she wanted.
Chell took her sweet time walking around the seventh test chamber, really scoping out the whole thing. She fiddled with her ponytail, making sure it was tightly in place, and even tinkered with her portal gun for a few moments. The silence hung in the air. When she did finally start to actually solve it, she did it slowly, placing each portal perfectly in place and lining everything up just right.
However, when she got to the final step, moving the cube onto the button, she stopped. Chell turned around, flashed her eyes innocently at the camera on the wall, and sat atop the cube.
“What are you doing? Why did you stop?” GLaDOS asked, rushed and impatiently.
“Beg.” Chell replied, not breaking eye contact with her cameras.
A beat of silence. “Excuse me?” GLaDOS asked, taken aback by her comment.
Chell ate it right up. “You’re gonna admit to me that you're getting off on this, and you’re gonna beg me to continue. And if not, I'm just gonna sit here, and I won’t finish this test.”
GLaDOS froze. Being back in her chassis was almost worse, because in her android body she would’ve just blushed and maybe stumbled over her words (from her own stupid programming) but now, she was in control of everything.
Well, everything except the siren sitting in her test chamber.
So no, instead of privately making a fool of herself, she simply went into overdrive. All of the rooms got warmer and brighter and her machinery was audibly working harder to keep up.
“Please, finish the test,” GLaDOS mumbled out sheepishly.
Chell crossed her leg overtop the other, still staring the camera down. She coyly shook her head.
“ Please, finish the test, Chell, I need it.” She whined, “it does feel really good.”
Chell smiled up at her, and slowly moved the cube to its final spot, which opened the door and completed the test.
GLaDOS didn’t even try to hide it, “Oh, that felt good .”
The next test chamber was similar, involving mainly orange gel. Chell needed a running start and then a jump to soar through the air and through her portals to land where she needed to. As she leapt into the air she heard something akin to a moan come out of the loudspeakers, so she decided to play it up by doing some flips in the air, which got just the response she wanted. She quickly and effortlessly solved the puzzle.
“Mm, you're doing so good for me Chell,” GLaDOS praised.
The pair went on like this for a few more levels, Chell flawlessly solving the test chambers and GLaDOS getting a rush of pleasure all through her circuits from it. Each time she seemed to give in more and more. She was never this forward with praise before, and it even started to get Chell feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
“Cmon,” Chell began, after solving yet another test, “I know you can throw more at me.”
“Are you sure?” GLaDOS asked, hesitantly. Although she was certain Chell was more than capable of keeping herself alive, the thought of anything harming her made her uneasy. Especially if that something was derived from her.
Chell nodded confidently, grinning.
GLaDOS quickly gave into the woman’s requests. Within a fraction of a second she summoned up a test chamber that would more than meet Chell’s expectations and match her skill level.
Chell arrived in the test chamber and immediately got to work. She began with taking an excursion funnel over a bottomless pit—which gave GLaDOS’ metaphorical stomach a bottomless pit—but she landed safely on her feet. GLaDOS’ expected sigh of relief was replaced with a moan. As Chell used the same funnel to catch herself and a cube, she portaled over to the ledge. At which she took out some turrets before placing the cube on the button and completing the test.
GLaDOS realized a little too late that she was enjoying herself a little too much. Information was coming through her interface faster than she could even process. She could practically feel like electricity pulsing through her wires. The heat inside her machinery was heating up, causing several cooling fans to kick on automatically. Everything felt… blurry.
As Chell got closer to finishing the test chamber, GLaDOS’ pleasure was brought to a head. The lights in the room got brighter and brighter until each one exploded simultaneously. The excursion funnel powered off along with the lights and the screens surrounding the elevator. Chell was left completely in the dark with only the dim blue glow from her portal gun.
“GLaDOS?” She asked, peering up at the camera on the wall. It was off, facing downward. She stood in the darkness for a few moments, before springing into action.
She ran down the elevator in the darkness and in the soft glow of her portal gun, punched in the override code that would ride her back up to GLaDOS. It was a longer ride than she wanted. Seconds stretched into years.
Practically jumping out of the elevator as it came to a halt, Chell dashed over to GLaDOS. Her chassis hung lifeless in the room, which was only lit by emergency red lighting. Chell approached her hesitantly. “GLaDOS?” She asked again, gently caressing her faceplate.
Chell was trying her best to stay cool, but panic was starting to set in. GLaDOS wasn’t responding and Chell didn’t have a clue about her machinery and how to restart her system. She looked around her chassis for some sort of button or lever. Aha! A small hatch on the back of her faceplate caught her eye.
She opened the compartment to find a tangled mess of wires and a small red button. Chell weighed the pros and cons in her head momentarily. Really, what was she good for, if not pressing red buttons?
The power surged and the room lit back up. GLaDOS’ optic brightened and she peered around the room.
“Did you go in my head ?” GLaDOS asked.
Chell glared back at her. “You completely turned off!” Chell retorted. She paused, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, i’m fine,” GLaDOS said, avoiding facing the small woman.
Chell raised an eyebrow and stared her down. As the realization set in, the world's biggest grin began to spread across her face.
“Did you just-“
“ Don’t .” GLaDOS stammered out in the best warning tone she could muster up.
“And it made you shut down?” Chell asked, still grinning.
GLaDOS peered over at her before turning away.
“Fine, fine, we don’t have to do it again, ever,” Chell said smugly, turning around to walk away.
“Wait!” GLaDOS said, instantly regretting it, She hated when she gave Chell leverage. “I… did enjoy it.” She admitted.
Chell smirked, “I know.”
“Maybe… we could do it again?” GLaDOS asked, so uncharacteristically shy.
Chell nodded, “‘Course.”
“Alright, well, now I need to restart all of my systems since somebody made my circuits fry,” GLaDOS said.
“And you enjoyed it,” Chell replied, blowing her a kiss.