Mission 024: Specimen 524

[super_astute]

The hiss of the elevator doors opening left Wheatley re-energized and he grinned back at Chelldon to offer encouragement.  "Go on then, there you go!  I know you're not that quick with those braces but you're doing well!"  Being cheerful and peppy, he'd read, made Test Subjects more compliant and better able to complete tasks.

And oh!  Oh, he really wanted to be the one to get that promotion to assembly duty next month!  The pay was the same -- ha, nothing! -- but he wouldn't have to follow humans around any longer!  He'd get some real world, practical experience!  Chelldon would understand.  Maybe he'd even make him a cake!

"Welcome to Chamber 24--"

"Yes, yes, we know, but thank yaaaooow!  You're kidding me!  A rabbit this time!?  Come on!

Comments

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

It was amazing, it wasn't metal, it wasn't shiny or firing at him or robotic. It was a live creature and there was no denying that for a brief moment, Chelldons eyes lit up. Because he had never seen such a creature before, what with never being out of this place, the closest he'd seen was a rat and at first he assumed it was a rat. But no, it was a rabbit... was that mutant rat?

He moved closer but not too close because this was Aperture and he wasn't stupid, as much as he would of loved something nice, he knew it wasn't. It must of been a test. A potentially fatal test.

Shame, it was such a funny little creature, he really did like it.

Crouching down, he watched it carefully from a safe distance. And did so for a painfully long time, neither rabbit nor subject moving. what fun!

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley made a long and overly dramatic sigh as he spread out his arms and leaned back against the wall. Oh, why did they punish him do? Why didn't he get Space Core's jobs? Why couldn't he be assigned to the Rat Man and observe his fanciful art? Why did he get the brain dead, frozen too long Chelldon?

"Chelldon?" There was no answer and Wheatley tiptoed a little closer. "Chelldon, if you're catatonic, say 'yes.' If you're catatonic and/or brain dead, just say 'yes' and we'll end the test. If you're fine? Then you say 'no'-- What am I saying?"

He slapped himself in the forehead.

"The last time I asked for you to say 'yes,' you jumped! All right, jump if you're brain dead!"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon turned his head to Wheatley and simply shook his head, he was not brain dead, he was just interested. He understood Wheatley but sometimes it was amusing to screw around with him so he did a little leap frog jump closer to the rabbit, it was up to Wheatley to take that as he pleased but he wasn't catatonic. He just liked the rabbit.

He could never have downtime without being called catatonic or brain dead!

He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out what remained of the protein bar he'd had this morning. Pulling some off, he tossed it to the rabbit, just to test if it reacted like the rats did

If it suddenly turned demonic at the taste of food and ate him then he'd have a better feeling of what he was dealing with. And he'd be dead.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Luckily for all involved, the rabbit just ate the bar. And a bit of paper that had been pulled off and fluttered from Chelldon's pocket. And some lint. And a speck of dust on the ground.

Wheatley, having nearly suffered from a heart attack -- well, as near as an Android could get -- stumbled closer to Chelldon and then crouched beside him. "Is this something to do with being biologicals? Like going to the pub?"

Wheatley had never gone, he'd only heard about it the next day around the water cooler before he was chased off to fetch his Test Subject or because he boasted about Aristotle. Again.

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon turned his head to Wheatley and just stared. Really? He was asking him? He'd never even seen a pub or been to one, let alone had he any experience in how it all works, invite and socialising wise. He doubted Wheatley was the hub of social interaction either. Blinking slowly, he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the rabbit with a small frown. Picking up a bit of chipped concrete from the floor, he tossed it towards the creature with a curious expression, just to test what happened here.

He had a worrying inkling here that this was not going to be a nice little pet.

Turning his head back to Wheatley, he gestured to the rabbit with a small frown on his face as the fluff ball somehow consumed the concrete. Was that the issue he had to tackle? Stopping it from eating them or finding a way to stop it from eating all together? What did he want?

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" Right, the test! he thought to himself. "Right, the test!" he exclaimed out loud and stood up, hands on his hips, as he once again scanned the specimen's files and the instructions he was meant to give to his Test Subject.

Oh. And how very boring.

"Observe and describe," Wheatley grumbled before he sat back down, legs crossed, and dropped his cheek into his palm. "His name is Walter."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

"Hello Walter," Chelldon mumbled as he watched it slowly begin to nibble at the concrete. Dropping down, he crossed his legs and watched with a playful smile as the rabbit twitched it's nose or sniffed the air. Occasionally it looked right at Chelldon, who clearly seemed to love that.

Sadly the creature didn't come any closer and Chelldon wasn't about to move closer either, just in case

It was remarkable how much it seemed to eat. Turning his head to Wheatley, he frowned slightly at how bored Wheatley seemed to be... didn't he liked rabbits?

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

This test was a bit boring, but Wheatley knew it was necissary. Would Chelldon keep feeding it? If now, what? Would he give it his clothing? Would he try to feet it bits of the wall? Bits of his robot companion-- HEY!

Wheatley shut partially down in his physical body to complain about the use of the word 'robot' when he was clearly so much better than the maintenance bots on C level. Never mind that he was meant to be collateral damage to the rest if came to that.

Chelldon was allowed to interact with the rabbit for one hour before the test ended. It was suppose to be psychological, to judge how he would react to loss.

"Oh....please...fourteen more minutes of this?!" Wheatley groaned and rolled around on the floor.

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Only fourteen more minutes? Frowning, he got onto his hands and knees, gun at the ready, and he made the great 'leap'. If it was going to end soon, he didn't want to regret not trying to get close. Stopping in front of it, he carefully set the gun down and with great gentleness and caution, he lifted the rabbit up and held it... and it didn't attack. It didn't even go for his neck and try to eat him.

He moved it closer to his chest and it leaned over, nibbling at his shirt. He didn't mind, it was so warm and he could feel it's heart beat. It was interaction with something alive and real!

His face remained neutral, not wanting to show how amused he was by this little creature in case something went badly. He crossed his legs and sat with the rabbit, peering over it at Wheatley. Yes, he had a patch in his shirt now where the rabbit was eating the fabric but he hardly cared.

Just to test, he held the rabbit at an angle for Wheatley to hold if he so wished it.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"No, mate, have at it. It's all yours."

Wheatley was more interested in reading files. Files on files. He was trying to learn classification systems to impress the ladies at the water cooler tomorrow before he was shoo'd off to collect Chelldon.

This would be the last test of the day. Walter would go off to his little bunny home to eat more radioactive material and make rabbit fur night lights for children without allergies to rabbit fur night lights. Chelldon would get some downtime. And Wheatley would go and find Adventure Core to find out about how amazing his day had been with his very lucky Test Subject.

"Now, Chelldon, don't take this the wrong way, but do you think you could be a little less...oh... I don't know...painfully dull? For the next nine point six minutes?"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon turned his head to Wheatley and let the rabbit nibble at him, he really did like the lovely little creature and part of him was tempted to steal it, no one could use a rabbit night-light quite like Chelldon, he had always wanted a pet, even as a boy when he'd first seen the rat. He hadn't been outside since the 'bring your son to work day', his memories of pets were lacking.

"No," Chelldon offered before stroking the top of the rabbits head. He really didn't know what Wheatley wanted from him.

This was fun, he would have more fun if he, you know, held the little fluffy ball of brilliance. He didn't want to join in so what did he honestly expect? For Chelldon to do something and woah him?

He was not a preforming monkey.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley just wanted to be known for something more than the poor android with the brain damaged test subject. Even though Chelldon was approaching the number of tests before termination record set by a rhesus monkey in the 80s, that wasn't good enough for Wheatley.

Though. Well. When put that way? In a sense Chelldon actually was a performing monkey. Or nearly one. Still ten chambers go before he could reach such illustrious levels!

And Wheatley would still need something to brag about! And rabbit stroking was not one of them.

The moment that the buzzer sounded, Wheatley keyed in the code to open the Aperture Science Object Emancipation iris where Walter could be dropped back off to his little home to await sheering. There was grass on the other side, but Chelldon was not to touch it.

"Time for tea!"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Oh? Parting time? He didn't want to but he knew how this place work and a moment of happiness was not worth ruining by getting greedy. Standing up, he walked across the room with the rabbit and set it on the floor beside the grass, peering into the lovely green room that he really wanted to reach out and touch. But the moment the rabbit was through the door, it slammed shut on him and that was that.

He wished he could of kept the rabbit but when as Aperture Science ever been that nice?

Looking at Wheatley, he awaited his orders. Was this it today? Because he could sense Wheatley was already fed up with this whole thing. Looking down, he poked his finger through the whole the rabbit had chewed.

He was definitely keeping this shirt as a memento.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Now, now, don't be sad, Chelldon. Shirts are easily mended." Of course he didn't understand that Chelldon might like human interaction, or even additional biological intereactions. He didn't understand lonliness. There were all sorts of humans here, but unless they were staff or scientists or Cave Johnson, it was generally frowned upon for them to fraternize. It built up morale or something truly damaging to the human mind.

Wheatley tried smiling and ushered Chelldon up the stairs and into the elevator once more.

"On a scale of one to infinity plus one, how would you rate your interactions with Walter? One, of course, being 'horrifying' and infinity plus one being 'indescribable even for superior minds like yourself.'"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Standing in the elevator beside Wheatley, he sighed and thought over how it was on such a daft scale. It was beyond Wheatleys understanding because the man didn't get it, he wasn't human and he didn't crave that sort of contact. Just like with the pub and other social interactions, Wheatley would not be a part of that world.

And, as much and Chelldon enjoyed the sound of it, he wouldn't either.

"You wouldn't understand," Was all he offered before he adjusted his portal gun and held it by the handle away from the trigger so it didn't accidentally go off and send them tumbling into an infinite loop of horror.

Flashing Wheatley a smile with no humour, he turned his head away. Telling the android he wouldn't understand made him oddly happy, it was nice to have something over him.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley's head was going to explode. Figuratively. It could only actually happen if he was introduced to something explosive, but then everyone's head would explode too. Everyone but probably Specimen 682. Oh, that thing was terrible. Played a very good game of chess, however.

No, he was getting too far off the subject. Wheatley fixated on the back of Chelldon's head before he cleared his throat and closed his eyes and tilted up his chin very arrogantly.

"Oh, I certainly understand but the scale is simply too immense for you to grasp properly. I'll put you down for a ten: still quite horrible." There was a click of confirmation and the elevator doors spread open. "I'd find it horrible to have my shirt eaten too. Well. No, likely not. It's just a shirt. Stop forming attachments over your clothing, Chelldon."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon was done talking, he didn't have too, he already wounded the mans pride and that left him amused. He even kept a smirk on his face. He crossed his arms and waited for the elevator to let him out, he didn't care much about the clothing but he was keeping this shirt and no, Wheatley would never understand why but what could be expected from such an arrogant little machine?

Well, sadly, it seemed like they were in this together for a while. So they were partners until stated otherwise, he wouldn't upset him too much, just enough to keep him happy.

He actually felt kind of sorry for Wheatley.

It must of been sad to live a life without any sort of affection ... he would know. But somehow he was resilient to it by now. He was happy just to be called brain damaged and annoy all the Doctors and cores by constantly existing. The joys of life.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley didn't need Chelldon to talk. He could still take him for tea, something that he actually was not allowed to do, but some of the scientists thought it was funny to watch the android make the subject tea, so they allowed it. In the kitchen in the staff area, devoid of course from staff to prevent contamination in any way, Wheatley set the kettle on the stove and turned on the burn.

"Other than the mindcrushing boredom." he said, quite good naturedly as if it was all nice to say, "you're really not a terrible test subject. Brain damaged a bit. And overly excited about damage to your shirt, but we can't all be perfect."

He put two sugars into Chelldon's tea cut.

"You know, when they first assigned me to you, they said I could never ever leave your side or I would die! Haha! Good thing that isn't so, hm?"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon gave Wheatley a look of disbelief because he really fell for that?... That explained the bathroom incident on their first day together, luckily he soon got over that but still, he was sure neither of them enjoyed that moment greatly. It seemed less like Wheatley was a highly evolved being and more like Wheatley was a bit of a dolt that got hazed a lot by the smarter doctors and cores. A bit like the kid at school everyone picked on without the kid knowing.

Was it any wonder why Chelldon felt sorry for him? Part of him would like Wheatley to succeed here... but then he'd have to put up with the fools ego from then onwards.

He knew all of this was Wheatleys way of being friendly and he was probably waiting for some glowing feedback from him but Chelldon was not that sort of person, he just perched on the edge of the soon to be decontaminated table and watched. Silently staring as always.

Brain damaged people didn't have to talk much, it was nice.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

After tea, Wheatley got Chelldon a new shirt, also against protocol especially as it was being used at the time, but again, the breach went either without notice -- there was a different sort of breach in one of the portal device control rooms when a different dimension was accessed and security personnel were busy fighting a rampaging horde of unspeakable horrors -- or Wheatley's handlers just didn't care.

Unfortunately for Chelldon and his android, the doctor they were assigned to was a little bit of a partaker in some afternoon delights of a particular substance a little bit like marijuana. The exact nature of the object was unknown, but so far there didn't seem to be any trouble with it other than allowing Wheatley to basically make a fool of himself like he once had when the other cores convinced him that leaving his rail would kill him.

It was still laughed about actually.

Even in front of Wheatley. Who laughed on with them.

"Hm, those buzzers are going on much too long. No matter. Shirt for you and shall we go home?"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon just nodded, Wheatley always spoke to him a bit like he was a lost child with mental problems but really, sometimes he didn't grasp that Chelldon was humouring him. Any idiot knew protocol and what was against it-- frankly he wasn't going to complain, he was just going to be glad he got Wheatley instead of the other cores.

The more efficient and pro-killing cores who'd want him dead for a laugh.

The new shirt was nice, he kept the old one of course just for future reference, but the new one had a different logo on it, still Aperture but clearly they were updating their design... one would think they would have better things to do.

Following Wheatley silently, he was more or less waiting for the sight of his 'home'. Sleep sounded good actually.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Everything at Aperture had a place. Walter the rabbit lived in a green grass paddock with nuclear waste to eat. Wheatley had a little storage bin a few floors up from the Aperture Science Relaxation Center's trailers that Test Subjects resided in when not testing, or being tested on their ability to sustain long periods of forced relaxation. No matter. Wheatley's secondary job was maintaining life systems at the Aperture Science Relaxation Center, though he was sure it was punishment to have to be around smelly humans all the time.

Literally. All. The. Time. Androids didn't get very good vacation packages.

After dropping Chelldon off, Wheatley headed up to check in on their assigned doctor only to frown rather unhappily at the pool of blood surrounding his head. "Odd," he mused. "Usually blood and brains stays inside a human craniu-- OH! Oh, you're dead. Ha! I understand now. Oh, all right then, right, suicide... Not condusive to fill in my score card... Really could have waited couldn't you?"

Wheatley sighed. He'd go and find Doctor Handy instead.

[handyhandyhand.livejournal.com]

Doctor Handy was a bit of an ironic name, one would assume from it that he was useful and capable of offering a helping hand... sadly he was not. Just absolutely not. He was so accident proned, he was one of the few highly qualified doctors who had restrictions and denial to high levels. He was busy prodding what appeared to be a doll but was actually a very unfortunate test subject that had been caught by those pesky dancing children again!

How was he meant to know what to do? He was made of stuffing! Did the poor chap still feel or was he just a stuffed toy now?

Looking up at Wheatley, he pulled back from his highly scientific subject poking and frowned.

"Wheatley? Did another test subject die? Is there brain in good condition because I really need a human brain, I may have lost my supervisors," But that was strictly need to know, of course.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Dr. Stable finally managed to kill himself," Wheatley responded, bored as ever. Funny how names around here usually pointed at the direct opposite of the doctor it was naming. Wheatley's doctor was never the most happy man. His wife left him, his kids hated him, his research always seemed to go wrong-- And he never filled out Wheatley's reports on time! He was constantly berated for failure to keep his android in line as well-- Wheatley was sorry for the chap, and whatever android they were talking about.

He waved his card towards Handy and frowned when Handy frowned.

"I need someone to check the boxes off for 'excellent' and 'very excellent' and for you to write how amazing my handling of Chelldon and the rabbit was. Oh, I know you didn't see it, but trust me. It was brilliant! Very well done."

[handyhandyhand.livejournal.com]

Handy looked rather crestfallen at the news of his colleagues death. This was not good. Oh not good at all. "Dead? He can't be dead! ... He owed me money!-- Well, suppose I'll have to get creative, do you think a lung is worth £45 or should I go for a spleen?"

He gave Wheatley a sideways look before shaking his head, not a wise question. Moving on! So anyway, he took the mans card and looked it over before ticking very excellent in all the boxes because this was Chelldon and he probably did do very excellent-ly. He knew the subject from his youth, very awkward boy, the cores had trouble doing away with him.

Wheatley? Well, he was probably less excellent.

"There you go, all ticked-- erm, could you possibly alert the clean up crew? If I do it, they'll think it was me who did it. It happened before, it'll happen again."

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"You did it? Oh, well sure, not a problem, just add that to my list of uncompensated tasks. Call the clean up for Dr. Stable. Oh, and fetch a spleen." Wheatley took back the card and then beamed at it happily to see that Dr. Handy had, in fact, managed to check off every box!

"Say." Wheatley's eyebrows waggled conspiratorially. Couldn't be helped, he was programmed a bit oddly. "Don't suppose you'd sign on to be my doctor? Adventure Core loves you and-- Oh, oh dear, now's not a good time for a nap Doctor-- And oh! There goes your subject, right out the door."

As the door opened and closed for the doll, Wheatley noted several armed guards heading down the hall and rolled his eyes.

"Guards. Always so dramatic."

[handyhandyhand.livejournal.com]

Oh great, he saw this coming the moment he approved of Wheatley and his subject, everyone wanted him, he was very good at marking high and often took peoples words for it. Sadly even being nice couldn't save Adventure cores raking because none of his subjects lasted.

Case in point, the escaping doll.

Oh God, there went adventure cores last subject! "Oh no! Guards stop him! He's the only one that knows about those children!"

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and looked the other side. Great, he was in trouble later for that. "Look, Wheatley, I like you and everything but I was assigned Adventure Core after the incident with Space core and I have been advised not to take on more than one.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Both hands on his hips, Wheatley tried to look haughty and not wrinkle the card at the same time. "What? What am I suppose to do? Run tests on me..." Something clicked in Wheatley's processing core and a slow, awful smile spread out on his face. "All right, doctor. Thank you for helping out. I am absolutely not going to run tests on my own and oh, I should probably tell you, but that alarm, just got the memo, slow response team evidently, means that there's been a dimensional breach. Again. So likely? Hiding, right yes, hiding would be good. See you later!"

Wheatley didn't have to hide. His mind was backed up in the software and he had a few additional bodies to work from if need be. While there was panic going on around him, he punched in his card and headed to his storage space to run diagnostics for a few hours.

When he ventured out again, there were decidedly less people around. Only two of the usual people were around the water cooler and all they could talk about was 'almost losing the whole thing' and 'oh, Black Mesa will win at this rate if we keep opening up dimensional portals that eat half of our staff!'

Wheatley found it boring. Of course he did! Today he had autonomous control over his testing!

First, to get Chelldon.

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

"Wait! Whatever you do, just don't act or go near your subject till we get a better doctor!" Handy yelled as he slipped on his doctors coat and took off running out the door and after his little subject and the guards. If there was a breach, it was safer to be with guards than be alone in a science lab.

Chelldon hadn't done much since he'd gotten back but sit on the bed, playing with his slightly ruined shirt. It was nice, it was like a prize from the rabbit. He wanted to hang it on the wall really, it'd be nice.

When he heard the noise outside, he looked up, already on alert. There were no more tests today, surely? So that meant something was very much wrong!

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Luckily, that sound was just guards running around like crazy trying not to get killed.

No. Tonight, Chelldon got to rest. If he could with all the screaming.

But tomorrow...