Still Doing Science (F, human GLaDOS from Portal) - Part 1/?

[Starry_Screamer]

ALRIGHT! I decided to write this after I read a Portal story that was written a couple years ago on the forum, Only a Moron Would-... by Vav! I've been rereading it too, and it never fails to offer some inspiration.

And, while Wheatley is great and all and he's captured my heart too, GLaDOS is my current preferred victim. XD Soooo, this is inspired sort of by that story, but it's definitely going to be different. There may be a few similarities in parts and I'm sorry if it comes off too alike!! /)w(\ But either way, I do hope you all enjoy it~ Let's start, shall we!

It's not very interesting right now, but the action's going to hopefully pick up in the next part! This is mostly just setting the mood. ^-^

QUICK WARNING:The middle and end of this part involve an injection and brief mentions of blood. If needles, injections, or blood bother you, be really careful while reading this!! >.<

Without further ado----

Still Doing Science

PART 1

Waking up to mechanical noises is eerily familiar to GLaDOS. It’s how she’s woken up nearly every time she managed to somehow fall asleep, or, the last time she remembers waking up -- when she rebooted after being dead.

However, the sensations she’s currently experiencing are strikingly unfamiliar, or at least unfamiliar to most of her mind. There’s some small part of her that seems to understand what she’s feeling, a faint notion of deja vu. She feels... human. Her skin is pale, pink-tinted, and squishy... she actually has skin instead of metal. Her vision is coming from two sources, two eyes, instead of one optic. There’s a distressing feeling of having to draw air in through her mouth or nose, every few seconds. Failing to take in air, even for about a minute as she tries not to, results in a tight burn tugging at something inside of her chest, and a lightheaded, dizzy feeling almost as if she’s going to shut down. ... Shut down? No. That’s not the right word for that. Humans don’t shut down, they... pass out. Go unconscious. And that’s the last thing she needs right now, so she decides it would be in her best interests to not hold her breath again.

Everything is overwhelming, and her eyes quickly dart around wherever she is to try and gain some of her bearings. Why is she in a human body? Where’s her old body? Where is she? Who did this? Are they going to put her back in her old body? Are they even going to let her go? What is this, android hell?

Before she can even think about it further, there’s a crackling sound from somewhere, before a male voice that she doesn’t recognize at all starts to blare at her.

“Hey, I see you’re awake! That’s good, we’ve been waiting for you to wake up, Miss Caroline.” The voice pauses, and then he gives a short, mirthless chuckle. “Or, are you GLaDOS right now? We weren’t exactly sure which name you preferred, uh, but we put Caroline on all the forms. Sounds less like a robot. A lot nicer of a ring to it, don’t you think?”

The teeth she’s discovered she has grind together, as she continues to look around. Where is that voice coming from? And who is it? And... how does he know about Caroline? It’s at this point that it becomes apparent to her that she can’t see anything besides white. This whole room is white, save for a small speaker in one corner and a camera in another. There are no windows. There’s nothing in this room but the walls, the bed she’s lying on, the monitoring apparatus,a vent, and a door. From typically being on the other side of this situation, she knows the door is either a trap or simply locked, and the vent cover cannot be removed, so there’s almost certainly no use in getting up and trying to escape. “My name is GLaDOS. That’s all I’ve ever been and all I will ever be. Do not address me as Caroline. That is not my name.” She doesn’t expect anyone to respect her wishes, especially regarding this matter, but she is most certainly not Caroline and she feels the need to assert that fact, helpless as she currently is.

Another laugh comes from the man’s voice, although this time it does sound considerably more amused. “Of course it’s not, dear, of course it’s not. Well, how do you like your little room? There were decorations up, originally, but then we decided that you probably wouldn’t like those. So, we took them down before we settled you in.” Oh. What a horrible, condescending bastard.

Her lip snarls, and her eyes rove around a bit more. “You know, I thought the only color that was so boring as to induce sleep was beige. Congratulations, you’ve managed to find another. This room is shockingly white. Really, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

“Oh, I get it. You’d shake my hand, but...”

“But? But. But... I don’t know where your hand has been. Also, I’m sort of locked up with no memory of why, and no reason to trust you. My sincerest apologies.”

The man is silent for a moment, then comes a short hum through the PA speaker. “Aren’t you cute. Simply precious, quite frankly. You’re lucky we didn’t just transfer you to that body and then leave you for dead. You wouldn’t have lasted a day in a human body without us. Considering all you’ve done, it would have been a nicely ironic punishment, but we couldn’t let you just die.”

“I’m supposed to be grateful to you?” She almost barks out a laugh upon hearing that, but she's feeling less and less like laughing by the minute. There's a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, something she can’t ever remember feeling... or perhaps may have felt, if she’d had a stomach before. Something is simply not right here. Perhaps this is how her test subjects felt when they first met her. “Alright. Let me see if I understand this correctly.”

“Oh, yes, please summarize for your own benefit. I’ll even wait quietly and give you a nice grade for it.”

“-- You take me away from my home. You put me in this disgusting body. You trap me in a room that, more and more by the second, feels as though you intend to make me claustrophobic. You don’t show me your face. You don’t even show me a glimpse of where I actually am. You provide me no means of egress in the event of an emergency. And you have the audacity to suggest that I should be thanking you for all of this?” Her eye twitches, an odd physical expression of the anger she’s using to repress her fear. “Who’s cute now? You’re not going to get a word of gratitude from me, and you’re a fool if--”

“If we expected it? Well, someone’s getting an F on that summary. Truth is, we didn’t expect it. From what we know, others are almost always at your mercy, not the other way around.” His voice is lower now, though still easy to make out. “Tell me, GLaDOS, how does it feel now that the shoe’s on the other foot? It must be pretty humbling. You’re in a body you hate, which is in our hands, and we intend to keep you weak enough so that you can’t do anything about it.”

The heart that she can feel in her chest almost stops at that notion, but there’s no visible indication of the fact that she’s afraid. What does that mean? She doesn’t feel as strong as she would if she was in her old body, but she doesn’t feel markedly feeble either. “You don’t scare me. I feel fine. Just dandy, in fact. I could get up and dance right here, if I really wanted to.”

The man clicks his tongue, giving a small sigh over the system. “Naive little creature. Of course you feel fine right now. The nurse hasn’t been in to give you your shot yet. And, actually, you know what? I think now is the perfect time for that. She’ll be in momentarily. Just relax; it’s going to hurt more if you try to attack her.”

... A shot? As in, an injection? What the hell are they going to inject into her?! This is madness. They can’t do this to her... they can’t. She’ll put up a fuss, that’s exactly what she’ll do. Maybe he’s right and it will hurt more, but if it means she won’t have to be injected with something, the pain will be worth it. “The only way you will get me to sit still is if I’m dead first.” Oh, what she wouldn’t give to be able to flood wherever he was with neurotoxin right now.

“Please calm down,” the same voice harps, sounding utterly nonchalant to any feelings or desires of hers. “You wouldn’t want us to also have to administer something to cause temporary paralysis, would you? I hear that injection stings going in. This one you’re getting now is relatively painless as far as shots go.”

“No...” The first assertion of her unwillingness comes as a whisper, choked out and barely audible. But as soon as the door opens to reveal a woman dressed in white and holding a syringe, panic builds up and GLaDOS all but throws herself off the bed. Being unused to the way her new body works, by the time she’s able to scramble to her feet, legs wobbling, the nurse is at her side. “No... no!” she cries, swinging her fist toward the woman. It’s no use, however; she’s not yet in control of this body, and aiming something you’re not in control of is horribly difficult.

The nurse takes advantage of this by grabbing her arm, forcing her back onto the bed. “Lie down. This is going to be over before you know it, okay?” Her voice is surprisingly unfazed and even, not unlike the voice GLaDOS herself often employed during testing in the Aperture facility.

With all the strength this human body has in it, she struggles even as she’s pinned to the table. She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want to be injected with anything. This isn’t okay! “No! No, no, no, no, no!!” Her arms and legs thrash as much as she can will them to, but there isn’t much momentum behind them. She is no longer strong.

In the end, even though tears have begun welling up in her eyes, it’s all for naught anyway. The nurse manages to still GLaDOS’ arm long enough to jam the needle into her vein and pump the syringe’s contents into her blood. On the heels of this action is a shrill scream from the former AI, her voice shattering in several places. She continues to wail, even after the nurse has made shushing noises and placed an adhesive bandage over the injection site. It’s bled, even just a few specks of blood clinging to the bandage, that’s enough to make her mind crack. She really is human. She’s experienced worse pain than a simple prick before, but the blood she saw is an undeniable confirmation that this is really happening. Everything else could have been explained as a vivid dream or a hallucination, but there’s no way for her to explain the cold feeling that crept through her after seeing her own blood.

The woman is gone now, but GLaDOS can’t bring herself to sit up again. She curls up on the bed, her side against the stark sheets and her knees clutched to her chest. All of her energy has disappeared, and the place where the nurse plunged the needle into her flesh is pulsing with uncomfortable heat. What’s even worse, she’s struck with the urge to reach up and scratch it as hard as she can. But she’s smarter than that. A lot of knowledge has been retained, and one bit of information relays that even if it itches, scratching at a wound will cause pain. The thought of more pain is more than she can bear at the moment.

Her chest heaves as she does her best to keep from crying. She can’t look any more vulnerable than she already has so far. If they see that, they’ll exploit it. They’ll use any little bit of vulnerability they see against her. It’s hard... with all her strength gone, she wants nothing more than to stay in this position and sleep. Sleep? That’s what humans do. That’s what they need to do... their bodies, and her body now, requires rest for at least six hours a day. Humans can’t hook themselves up to a port to recharge, or switch out batteries. She’s going to waste so much time just sleeping, and it’s all she wants to do right now. What a repulsive thought to desire something that throws away time. She’s disgusted with herself.

After a few more seconds, the intercom sputters to life again, and once more, out comes the voice of the mysterious man. “I told you to just relax. But you didn’t, and what happened?” He clicks his tongue. “You’re the only one who got hurt, sweetie. Next time, please follow my suggestions and you’ll wind up in a lot less pain. It’s not good to be so self-destructive.”

Her hand swipes across her eyes, splashing her tears to the floor as she glares at the speaker. How dare he. They think they’re going to break her? They think they’re going to put her in a cage and she’ll back into the corner, she’ll become a frightened animal? Fat chance. She’s not going to take any of this lying down. She’s going to fight at every step, no matter what they do to her, even if she loses each time. “You monster. What was in that syringe? What did you put inside me? What symptoms can I expect? Is it going to kill me?”

A chuckle spits out of the intercom, and she can practically feel him looking down on her. “Kill you? That would be counterproductive. Killing you would just be too easy. We wouldn’t get to see you suffer, or record the results of said suffering. No, no. That injection you just received is a special serum designed to weaken certain parts of your immune system. I’m glad we only developed an intravenous version... it’s a lot more fun than just drinking a liquid out of a little cup, isn’t it?”

She can’t help herself then. She laughs. “C-Certain parts?” she repeats, blinking rapidly as her vision starts to swim. She’s getting dizzy, and it feels like her bed is rocking on waves beneath her. Beads of sweat form on her temples, accompanied by a sharp pain pounding against her skull. “Not my whole immune system? Oh. Oh, boy. You really are a bunch of... morons...”

With that, every muscle in her body goes lax as she slips into unconsciousness.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Starry_Screamer

[EnbySneeze]

Oh my goddddd you capture GLaDOS' lines perfectly~ I love this so far~ Are they implying that her human body is Caroline's? Or is it a whole different body in general? Well I like the mention of her name~ a true fan!

[Starry_Screamer]

Oh my goddddd you capture GLaDOS' lines perfectly~ I love this so far~ Are they implying that her human body is Caroline's? Or is it a whole different body in general? Well I like the mention of her name~ a true fan!

Eeeee thank you!! I was hoping I got her lines down, because most of them I could hear in her voice so I'm glad you think so too. X3 Her human body is actually not Caroline's, they developed a weird technology to design a functioning human body and all they were missing was her personality... details are a bit iffy but clearly it worked, and hey, it's science, they don't question science. XD They just know about what's happened to GLaDOS so far, and figure that calling her Caroline will push some buttons~ Thank you!!

[SneezyPony]

OH MY FLIPPIN GOD!!! THIS IS PURE GOLD!##

TOO BAD NO SNEEZES! AT LEAST THE INTRO WAS GREAT!

WHEN WILL YOU UPDATE?!?!

[Starry_Screamer]

OH MY FLIPPIN GOD!!! THIS IS PURE GOLD!##

TOO BAD NO SNEEZES! AT LEAST THE INTRO WAS GREAT!

WHEN WILL YOU UPDATE?!?!

I'm glad you like it so far!! As for updating, I might be slow in writing this but I'm still working on it! Second part's about 80% done as of right now!

[meepsy]

Dude this is really cooooool! I've never seen a portal fic on here before, and human GLaDOS is an unexpected treat! You really did capture her character very well! I can feel the rage behind the contempt haha! And I'm so interested to discover more about her circumstances and this mysterious intercom man. You have me on the edge of my seat!

Edited February 16, 2015 by meepsy

[SneezyPony]

Takes as long as you want:)

I will be waiting;);)X)

[Starry_Screamer]

Dude this is really cooooool! I've never seen a portal fic on here before, and human GLaDOS is an unexpected treat! You really did capture her character very well! I can feel the rage behind the contempt haha! And I'm so interested to discover more about her circumstances and this mysterious intercom man. You have me on the edge of my seat!

Squeals thank you, I'm glad you think it is! The only other Portal fic I've seen here involved Wheatley, so I though it would be fun to try GLaDOS instead... plus I might be a little obsessed, ah well. XD It's great to hear I'm getting her character down and making people interested to read more!

Takes as long as you want:)

I will be waiting;);)X)

Haha once my initial excitement fades, I'm usually pretty slow actually. XD For now though, waiting's over!

Heyyyyy I'm back! This part isn't too exciting, but it has a little more action than the first part, and I really like the ending. xD It'll get better in a fetishy sense as soon as I get some of this beginning stuff out of the way, I promise!

Mess warning though! It's not too bad, but it's there! ^^;

Enjoy!!

Still Doing Science

PART 2

When GLaDOS wakes up again, she’s shivering. In fact, after a moment, she realizes that the clacking noise she hears is the thin bedframe rattling due to her shivers. The room is freezing, and this is not how it was before she fainted. Her skin is plastered with raised bumps induced by the cold, and upon trying to open her mouth, her teeth begin to chatter with enough force that she was afraid the first one had chipped a piece of enamel off of one tooth.

Her first movements are sluggish, as she pushes herself up off the bed. The frigid air has made its way into her muscles while she slept, making them stiff and hard to move quickly. In particular, her fingers feel like they’re going to break off if she moves them. There’s also a dull thumping across her temples and forehead, though she can’t be sure whether or not it’s from the cold.

Her entire body trembles as she carefully swings her legs over the side of the bed, lowering her feet down to the floor. Almost immediately, any heat from her skin is transferred to the floor, a frosty sensation of pins and needles catching her off guard. She nearly loses her balance, but instead snatches her feet back up from the cold tile, hugging her knees to her chest and glaring at the ground as if it tried to kill her. The bed shakes some more as she continues to shiver, gold eyes scanning around the room in the search for a blanket. Why is it so cold in here? Every little part of her feels the temperature, right down to a tingle in the tip of her upturned nose. Attempting to combat this, she gives a short sniff as she curls in on herself. It doesn’t work well, and to add insult to injury, the tingle blossoms out toward the bridge of her nose and her nostrils. How lovely, now that pins and needles feeling has made a home in her nose too. Clearly not learning from her mistakes, she sniffs again, but it makes no difference in alleviating the sensation.

The PA speaker hums, and then the man’s voice meets her ears again. “It’s a little chilly in there, isn’t it, GLaDOS? Don’t worry, it won’t get cold enough to cause any serious problems. We’ve set the thermostat just low enough to make you uncomfortable, and to further atrophy the parts of your immune system that protect you against minor infections. Did you know that cold, wet conditions reduce your resistance to common viruses? Tsk. You better take care of yourself and make sure you don’t get exposed to anything nasty.”

Glancing toward the end of her bed (“her” bed, great, now she’s really resigned herself to this), she makes a grab for the sheet that’s bunched up there. It’s wrapped around her shoulders with no hesitation, although it doesn’t offer much warmth. “As long as you all deny me any actual interaction, I doubt I’ll be catching a virus anytime soon. I f-feel great.” The stammer in her voice from the temperature betrays her confidence, but it doesn’t matter. Her back is straight, her shoulders braced, determined not to appear weak.

“Is that right?” He chuckles, as if there’s a certainty that she’s going to do something extremely humiliating. “Well, that’s good. In that case, perhaps I should tell the technician to turn the temperature down just a bit more. I wonder if you’d still feel great when your lips are turning blue from frostbite.”

What is that, a challenge? Oh. Oh, no. Nobody challenges her unless they want to be proved wrong.

She practically hops off the bed, her sheet dragging on the floor behind her. “Don’t be stupid. You know who I am, right? I’m the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System!” Well. Trapped in a disturbingly squishy human body, but she is still to be feared. “A little drop in temperature isn’t going to bother me.”

“What are you doing?” her overseer scoffs, with a hint of cruel curiosity in his voice.

After a few seconds, the position she aimed for is achieved; sitting on the floor, cross-legged, directly in front of the air vent. The chill of the tile beneath her is terrible, and the vent is puffing a constant blast of icy air into her face. Despite all this, she sits almost perfectly still. A few breaths are taken in through her mouth, although that’s effectively a slap to her lungs. Breathing in cold air, through her mouth at least, is making it difficult to breathe at all, considering that the stream of air is cold enough as to be numbing. “S-S-See?” she hisses, blinking several times to keep the ‘breeze’ from hurting her eyes. “This is g-great. It’s brisk, is a-all. I love it.”

Her teeth clatter together, and finally, she purses her lips tight. She can’t do that anymore, she can’t continue to breathe in through her mouth; the air’s just too cold. Instead, the next breath is taken in through her nose, which would actually have been easier on her... if not for one thing. As she breathes in, the frigid air feels like a thousand little daggers, prickling against her sinuses. It only intensifies the tingle that had already been there, and before she even knows what’s happening, her mouth is open again.

Her breath begins to hitch, forcing her to draw in air past her lips as her chest heaves with each one. Short silver hair quivers as her head tilts back in succession with her gasps, her spine arching. The itch continues to bristle in her nose, and her eyes snap shut. “Hiiiiihhh... ehhh -- haaah!”

What’s happening? She’s heard of humans sneezing being caused by a multitude of things -- illness, various pollens, dust, animal dander, sometimes even light -- but cold air? They really must have put her in a body that can’t tolerate much. It feels like there’s something frozen bouncing through her nostrils, its sole purpose to cause irritation. Furthermore, it seems to be jumping between present and nonexistent, every few milliseconds, which feels horribly unfair.

At last, the tickle comes to a head, deciding to jerk her forward and almost bend her in two. As this happens, her face lands in the sheet that’s wrapped around her hands. “HhhETTsschhhhh! Ihhh’APPscchhhhu!” With that, it’s gone. There’s still an unpleasant tingle thanks to the temperature, and she has the odd compulsion to wiggle her nose, but the tickle has vanished.

Well, hopefully that’s the last she’ll hear from it. That was far from the most enjoyable experience she’s ever had.

Although, there is another thing she finds less enjoyable than fighting with that itch, and that’s the fact that now there is a wetness seeping through the paper-thin sheet toward her fingers. Does she even dare to try and pull the sheet away from her face? Ever so slowly, she does peel it off, and shakes her head as she can both feel and see a sheer thread of... something... clinging to the cloth, and when her eyes follow its path, she sees it coming from her nose.

Immediately she feels absolutely sick, and quickly closes her eyes as if to blind herself to this abomination. A groan escapes her lips, though she’s too revolted to move at all. “Did that come out of me?” she whines lowly. “That’s disgusting... humans are disgusting...!”

The man on the other side of the intercom has been silent throughout all of her little escapade. Finally he speaks up again, sounding utterly unimpressed by her actions. “Well, you’ve done it now, my dear -- someone needs a tissue. Would you just look at this mess you made? Don’t worry, though. A nurse is on her way in with some tissues and another sheet for you. It’s probably not much warmer than the one you just ruined, but at least this new one will be relatively clean.”

GLaDOS keeps her eyes firmly shut, but she can feel that for whatever reason, the cold air still being blown at her is making her nose run even more. To fight this, she continuously sniffles, and she might rub at her nose if she had gotten over being repulsed, but no. She can’t yet get over just how gross she thinks it is. Besides, the freezing air has made her whole body start aching again. She doesn’t want to move at all, so she just sits there, in front of the vent, eyes squeezed tight and sniveling pathetically.

Or, that’s what she does at least until the door opens and her eyes follow that action. In walks a nurse, though not the same one who gave her the injection before. This is a different woman, and she looks tired, worn down, unwell. Her face is flushed, a contrast to the rest of her skin being awfully pale. A bag is slung across her front, presumably holding the supplies that the man mentioned. The woman approaches, and bends down, virtually tearing the dirty sheet from around the other’s body before grabbing her arms. GLaDOS is swiftly yanked to her feet, then scooped up into the nurse’s arms. The next thing she knows, she’s being deposited back onto her bed.

She’s out of the biting cold, for now, but the ever so slight shift in temperature has its effects on her... or, specifically, her nose again. Her back all but jumps up off the mattress as the tickle returns briefly. This time, there’s no build-up, no teasing or teetering. This set of sneezes simply rip out of her throat as she does her best to redirect their force, wanting to avoid the positively horrid secretion that accompanied the first two. “Ahh’EHPpktschhh! Hih -- ihKKtchhuuu! HEH’pschewwww!”

As soon as the last breath leaves her lips, she’s not given the time to take another before a wad of tissues is clamped over her nose. The nurse, appearing to be rather fed up with their subject, is holding them and pressing down on one nostril. “Blow.”

GLaDOS gives a small groan, realizing what she’s meant to do. Honestly, she feels as if she’s being treated like a child; to her knowledge, most humans over the age of ten can hold a tissue and blow their noses by themselves. It would be much less demoralizing if she were allowed to do this herself, no matter how many tries she’d have to take to get it right. Making no attempt to mask her disdain for the way they’re handling her, she puckers her mouth closed and harshly blows into the tissue, alleviating some of the presssure left behind by the sneezes. When the nurse switches her finger to hold down the other side, she repeats the action. You just enjoy that, now, is all she can think with a bitter mental smirk. If they’re going to treat her like she’s a helpless little baby, she has no shame in taking sadistic pleasure in their stupidity and condescension.

“Good job.” The tissues are balled up and simply tossed onto the floor, as there’s currently no wastebasket in the room. Briefly, the former AI grimaces at that; how unsanitary! Well, good thing she’s the only one really spending a lot of time in this room. Otherwise that would be much less hygienic than it is. A few seconds after those tissues have been ‘disposed of’, the nurse reaches down with a fresh one and roughly wipes GLaDOS’ nose, cleaning her up. “There, all better. I’ll leave these here.” She leaves this tissue on the floor as well, and places the packet of tissues from her bag at the end of the bed. Reaching into her bag again, this time a white blanket, only marginally thicker than the one she sneezed into, is produced. The nurse drapes it over GLaDOS, tucking it around her arms and legs and under her chin. “And, that should keep you warm enough.” A few coughs trickle out of the woman’s mouth, muffled into her fist, then she reaches back into her back once more. “Sir? Should I administer medication now?”

“Medication...?” GLaDOS feels a bit groggy, probably due to the frigid air, although she assumes it wouldn’t be wise to fall asleep until the blanket raises her core temperature a bit. But at the mention of medicine, sharp mind goes on the alert. Another shot? No... no, no, no. She doesn’t want another shot. The first one is still making her skin crawl. “Oh, God, noooooo...” she mumbles, squirming to get at least one arm out of the blanket to swat at the nurse with. “I don’t want it. Whatever it is, I don’t want it.”

The man speaks up over the intercom. “Well, now, that’s just too bad. It’s time for your allergy pill, and you’re going to get it one way or another. Please swallow it willingly; we don’t want you to choke if you try to spit it out.”

She hisses softly, but cautiously parts her lips when she sees a red pill between fingertips coming her way. At least this one seems to be for her own benefit instead of hindering her -- ‘allergy pill’ is typical human colloquialism for antihistamine. Perhaps her new body is a bit prone to reactions like that... and, even if not, anything with antihistaminic properties should help her recover from those... disorienting fits. So she opens her mouth with only minor hesitation.

The pill is dropped in, and slides down her throat. She nearly coughs it back out, as it doesn’t exactly go down easily. There’s a slight burning sensation as it passes through, enough to have made her actually, truly choke had she not given another hard swallow as soon as she felt the difficulty. “... Ugh...”

The nurse zips up her bag, blinking her tired-looking eyes. “Need something to wash it down with?”

She shakes her head, barking out a few more coughs as she turns onto her side. “No. Just go away.” She’s now fully turned away from the woman, and it’s her hope that the nurse will take her curling up as an attempt to block out the other. Or, alternatively, the fact that her back is now toward the nurse could also be taken as a non-verbal “Kiss my ass”. Either way it’s interpreted, it’ll work out pretty well for her.

A soft click signals that the door has closed, and the nurse has left. Good. Now GLaDOS has all the oxygen in the room to herself again. Just the way she likes it.

She rolls over onto her back again, bright eyes staring up at the blindingly white ceiling. After a few seconds, the persistent tickle comes back to her nose again, and she quickly moves her hand up to rub at it. It takes a couple of up-and-down strokes to squash it, but thankfully it seems to work. Thank goodness, it just won’t leave her alone. Why the hell does the cold air keep making her want to sneeze? “... Ow.”

“What’s wrong?” the man’s voice sighs over the intercom. He sounds fully prepared to order the nurse back in, as if any small annoyances to her are completely fine, but if something’s seriously wrong with her, it’s time to send in the troops. “I can see that you look fine, so what are you complaining about?”

Her face twists into a scowl, glaring at the camera in the corner. “It’s too cold in here. I keep having to sneeze. Fix it.”

“Mmm, afraid I can’t do that. See, that’s one of the things we’re trying to accomplish by keeping the temperature so low. Sorry, princess, you’ll have to deal with it. Anything else?”

“Hmph.” She yanks her new blanket up, sniffling as she resumes her mindless scrubbing, swiping a finger under her nose. Eventually, though, curiosity gets the better of her. “... What is this body -- allergic to?”

Several seconds go by before she hears a laugh from the PA system, followed by the man’s answer. “Nothing, yet. Let me explain, in case you haven’t caught on yet. We created that body just for you, GLaDOS. Our technology has gotten amazingly advanced, to the point where we can build a fully functional, completely organic human body. Blood pumping, heart beating, nerves processing pain. An actual human body. Isn’t that fantastic? It’s what scientists in the past only dreamt of... similar to the outlandish ideas that filled the mind of your former boss, if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, long story short. We can build a human body exactly how we want it, save for a personality which you so generously provided, but there are certain... shall we say, default settings that we haven’t figured out how to totally overcome yet. We can’t program immune deficiencies into a body, nor can we program things like allergies. However, we can develop medicines to do those things once the body is in operation. Like yours is. Nifty, isn’t that?”

Her eyes widen, gawking at the intercom with a golden gaze as her painfully slow human mind processes that information. The injection they gave her before was designed to lower her immune system, something they apparently can’t do before the body’s being used. Of course, that makes some sense. Since they can’t punch a few keys and decrease the immune defenses when the build the body, they have to use a ‘medicine’ to produce the same effect after it’s been... activated. So, going off that logic... oh. Oh, dear. She can only pray she’s not understanding this correctly, because the potential consequences on her new body are horrifying to her. “... I just swallowed a pill to give me allergies, not lessen their effects.”

Another laugh crackles out of the intercom. “You know, they say the first two days of showing symptoms are when a sick person is the most contagious. So, would this be a bad time to inform you that, in addition, the nurse whose hand dropped the pill down your gullet came down with a terrible cold yesterday?”

[SneezyPony]

Her breath begins to hitch, forcing her to draw in air past her lips as her chest heaves with each one. Short silver hair quivers as her head tilts back in succession with her gasps, her spine arching. The itch continues to bristle in her nose, and her eyes snap shut. “Hiiiiihhh... ehhh -- haaah!”

What’s happening? She’s heard of humans sneezing being caused by a multitude of things -- illness, various pollens, dust, animal dander, sometimes even light -- but cold air? They really must have put her in a body that can’t tolerate much. It feels like there’s something frozen bouncing through her nostrils, its sole purpose to cause irritation. Furthermore, it seems to be jumping between present and nonexistent, every few milliseconds, which feels horribly unfair.

At last, the tickle comes to a head, deciding to jerk her forward and almost bend her in two. As this happens, her face lands in the sheet that’s wrapped around her hands. “HhhETTsschhhhh! Ihhh’APPscchhhhu!” With that, it’s gone. There’s still an unpleasant tingle thanks to the temperature, and she has the odd compulsion to wiggle her nose, but the tickle has vanis

That was beautiful, by her being flushed istshe.running a feverhinkthinking

[Ignis]

Yessssssss ahhhh this is incredibly delicious for some reason, seeing GLaDOS in such a helpless state. Keep going, great job!

[meepsy]

Wow I am SO into this. This is going to sound weird, but I really dig that GLaDOS is like, so cleary a robot in a human body. Like how she's so disgusted and horrified by the mess from her own sneeze. Your subtly with it is really a testement to your skills as a writer. That and the fact that you continue to nail her character perfectly. Awesome job, dude!! Can't wait for the next part!

[Pilgrim]

If this ends up with a cold and allergies stacked on top of her at the same time I'ma freak out. Awesome stuff!

[Gallatea]

Ohhh please MOAR!!!

[telltale]

This is such a cool premise. I'm really liking it.