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]

"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?