super_astute | Mission 026: Specimen 379

Mission 026: Specimen 379

The room was one of the smallest that Wheatley had ever been in. It was small than even Chelldon's relaxation chamber's bathroom cubicle and that was certainly saying a lot! In the middle of the room was an Aperture Science Display Pedestal with Specimen 379 proudly displayed on it. The small, crystal perfume bottle looked bland, really, for something so classified!

Given the nature of this test, all pertinent information that Wheatley would otherwise have access to had been expunged and the android was all too curious why. He speculated that it contained a drop of the sun and had forced Chelldon to wear eyeglasses and rub himself with sun screen just in case.

It was either that or deadly neurotoxins.

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Wheatley, however, did not like anyone. It was so strange then to follow happily along the corridors he knew so well and yet still got lost in sometimes with the human. "It's been an excellent testing day. We don't have anyone to sign off on the testing card but that's all right! I'll find Dr. Handy tomorrow. You'll be getting full check boxes of 'excellent!' again!"

He wasn't purring, but he was whirring a bit. The escaping air from his exhaust fans in his ears was causing it.

"And you have a really lovely shaped cranium. Not too many humans can say that. They're usually all odd and bumpy bur yours? Work. Of. Art. I'm not even joking. Go ahead, test me! Say...that technician caught in some rubble over there? Nice looking head but not as perfect as yours!"

Sometimes it was hard to tell if Wheatley was being normal or not, the only way he could truly tell was by the fact that he was getting praise and everything, usually Wheatley would find having a nicely shaped cranium a lovely compliment... personally Chelldon couldn't care less.

"His cranium is crushed," Chelldon mumbled as he watched the horribly pained technician with the rather gruesome head injury weep at his soon to be very slow and painful death.

What on Earth happened here?

He kept on pulling Wheatley along by his jacket, side stepping some rubble as they came up to hallway that contained Chelldons room. They just had to avoid being stopped and hopefully he could work this all out.

"Okay, well yes, true, but I don't think we should rule out loveliness do to crushing, do you? Maybe it runs in the family? Well, obviously not in his case, pretty certain it's the wall doing the crushing, but on the off chance--"

Wheatley found himself pushed into Chelldon's relaxation chamber, noting that the chocolate cake bits had all been cleaned up and, as requested a few minutes ago through the network, a box of crayons, 64 colours in all, were left by the bed.

He gave the computer network a nice thumbs up and happily smiled at the human. His good little Test Subject.

"Tomorrow, we should pick something with jumping to test. You're really very good at jumping. Quite excellent. I'd say jumping was your second nature. Like a toad. Or a rabbit! No wonder you and Walter became fast friends. Perhaps you're related on the human evolutionary tree. No rabbits specifically named, but one can't ever truly tell. Humans. Like the hotdogs of Earth mammals. Bit of everything."

Chelldon did love the gift of crayons, he let go to Wheatley and retrieved the pack from the bed, sitting down to have a look at what colours he had. He could draw Walter is he wanted and start a new more colourful tally chart. He let Wheatley mutter on as always, far more interested in other things than paying attention to a morons ramblings. He liked Wheatley and all but my God, he could go on a bit.

And Chelldon was much more interested in his new gift, he always was. He liked his alone time and he liked colouring.

Surprisingly, Wheatley had yet to retreat as he usually did which meant he clearly wanted something from him and he had no idea what. Some sort of test or maybe an invite in to play with his crayons? One could never be sure.

"Crayon?"

Wheatley blinked at Chelldon and tilted his head to the side with a smile. "Yes, very good, that's a crayon. A blue crayon," he cooed. He really was proud of Chelldon, that much came through. He even sat on the floor beside him and stared at the blank wall by the door. One wall was absolutely covered in hash marks, one had his bed and toilet and the other sported that ripped shirt-curtain. Where else was he meant to colour?

"Do you want to draw? Make art? Hah! And they said you'd never amount to much. Well you know what I'm going to say in your next report? Tenacious. Never gives up. Excellently shaped and not-at-all crushed skull. Good jumper. Quite a delightful scent."

Wheatley took a yellow crayon to the wall and drew what looked like little more than circuit boards.

Chelldon sighed and turned away. Yep, this was to be expected really. But sometimes he just assumed that Wheatley meant well and probably really did think he had brain damage so he was being quite nice, brain damaged him would appreciate it so if it did happen one day, at least Wheatley would know what to do and say to keep him happy till he was terminated. Brain damaged subjects were usually canon fodder.

Chelldon nodded in agreement at the assessment before grabbing a nearby crayon and drawing a rather childish but sweet drawing of Walter, a cake and what appeared to be Wheatley. He liked to draw out his week and what happened when he was a lad, when they stopped supplying him with paper, it had been rather sad.

But he always had walls, right?

And Wheatley could appreciate the rather lovely tribute to himself on Chelldons wall, silly glasses and all.

Wheatley was so proud! The moment he realized that the image on the wall was meant to be him, he nearly had a small weeping session in the corner. Instead, he just complimented Chelldon furiously until a directive from the central computing system summoned him away.

"I will... Listen, you've a drawing now, all right? Just sit here, don't be lonely without me. I will be right back, absolutely, I promise."

He even gave Chelldon a little hug, which was both awkward and adorable before he fixed his glasses and stood up. "Just a little emergency that they need me for...because you, yes you were very lucky to be assigned to me, someone who is very important here at Aperture Laboratories."

He lingered a little while longer, just chattering away while Chelldon ignored him.

It would be almost two weeks before Wheatley returned.

The whole event had been awkward because Wheatley was never that affectionate nor pleasant and the way he was acting? Well, Chelldon assumed he was busted so when he did turn up after a week, that was probably it, he assumed Wheatley was gone and had been retired. Shame as well, he had enjoyed Wheatleys company but he wasn't the first core he'd lost and he wouldn't be the last.

The next week Space Core took over his tests, which were few and fairly poor, more putting a cube on a button to open a window and look at stars. It got a little old after the first time but the hyper core seemed thrilled to play these games.

He actually sort of missed Wheatley. And he was curious as to what happened.

Which is why not longer later he wrote on the wall in his crayons for the camera to see - 'Where is Wheatley? Testing has stalled, this is bad for science.'

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Mission 026: Specimen 379

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