Office Hours [Open, everyone feel free to bother GLaDOS]

[fabricaketions]

One of the Sensoriums is active. Inside it's been made to look like a spacious office. A whole wall of windows opens up on a bright but indistinct cityscape. The decor is sleek and modern, though the predominant black and white with no color is perhaps a bit too stark. Some absolutely untouched-looking books sit on a shelf and a plant that is far too green to be real sits in the window collecting dust. There are barely audible stirrings of bad office muzak that are not entirely blocked out by the walls. It's all very sterile and feels off, like it's been put together by someone with a precise list of things that an office is but no understanding of what it's like to be in one.

Suspended over the desk is a gigantic robot.

It glares balefully at anyone who looks in. Or at least it seems to, thanks to that yellow "eye" in its "face".

"Oh. Hello. Come in. Make yourself at home," GLaDOS says. Under her attempt at a flat tone is the faintest hint of resentment.

She does not want to be here. At all.

Comments

[fabricaketions]

GLaDOS was skeptical. The world ran on laws that were consistent, repeatedly demonstrable, and if not always fully understood then at least consistent in their specific brand of nonsense. Magic was a long, tedious list of exceptional cases from her perspective. Frustrating.

"Ah, yes. Anyone can break the laws of physics if they read the right book," she said. It did not sound like a reality she'd enjoy.

[wizardsaregodtier]

Yeah, those portals totally worked within physical laws... as did all that gel...

"It's not breaking the laws of physics of one simply posts that an energy source exists which can be manipulated or affected. I hear that they do wonderful things with electricity on some worlds," he said, still amused. He'd learned plenty about the uses that electrical force had been put to that seemed frankly insane to a medieval mind, since coming aboard this ship, after all.

[fabricaketions]

Yes! Portals were totally respectable laws of physics at work! Nothing uncertain or magical at all. Because that just wouldn't be SCIENCE.

"Electricity is not magic," she noted. "I run on electricity."

[wizardsaregodtier]

"Ah, but on my world, the only known means to generate or control electricity is by magic," he said. "We haven't discovered such things as generators or conductors, nor come anywhere close to conceiving of them. But that doesn't make electricity created through magical means a different sort of electricity than that generated by technological ones."

[fabricaketions]

"Were all technological advances fueled by magic?" she asked. Perhaps it had made these people lazy and they'd come to rely on it instead of science. How sad.

[wizardsaregodtier]

"Hmm, that's a complicated question, and requires a complicated answer," he said, folding his arms thoughtfully. "Some background: My homeland is at approximately what the histories of Earth I've studied refer to as the late-medieval period, prior to the invention of gunpowder but after the evolution of full plate armor. However, it has remained at that approximate level for hundred of years, and I believe that is due to both the presence of magic as an equalizer force rather than technology, and the fact that amongst the rulers of the land, 'divine right' is literal fact rather than a justification for rule."

[fabricaketions]

"It doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to live," GLaDOS noted. She was being entirely sincere.

[wizardsaregodtier]

He shrugged. "Well, as an elf and a ruler I had about the best of it you could ask for, but really, what place doesn't sound inferior to a more advanced or more prosperous world? It was, let's face it, better than being on this ship."

[fabricaketions]

"Arrangements aboard the Transmigration 9 aren't exceedingly terrible," GLaDOS replied. "I have a steady supply of test subjects. Although I'm not allowed to test them according to my own standards, it could be worse."

[wizardsaregodtier]

He read a few things into those words, and chose to follow up the deduction about GLaDOS's origins instead of the one about the danger level involved in the testing. "Was that always your interest, avia testing?"

[fabricaketions]

"Avia testing? No, that's much too narrow," GLaDOS replied. "I prefer not to limit myself."

[wizardsaregodtier]

"A generalist, then?" he said, approvingly. "I agree with you. There are certain spells I would never cast for ethical reasons, but to completely forbid myself from even studying or comprehending them seems to me completely narrowsighted and sheltered."

[fabricaketions]

"The laws that govern our existence are intricately interwoven. Most disciplines feed one another," she said. "However, sentient organic life form behavior doesn't seem to follow hard rules. As a result that is where I have been focusing much of my research."

[wizardsaregodtier]

"What about sentient inorganic life?" Aibghalien said, thoughtfully. "We have more than one example of that here; are they similarly unbound by hard rules? Do they have avia?"

Did it occur to Aibghalien that he'd indirectly asked if GLaDOS had a soul?