►BECAUSE WE CAN.

since glados’ isola drop has been processed now i’m gonna go ahead and slap up this post. her muse always comes back, it’s just a matter of when, but for now she’s come about as far as she can go so i’m laying her to rest for a little while.

my other isola blogs, all of them indie friendly to any indie friends still lurking around are yotsuyu, asriel, and... uh, i’ll hopefully have tensa ready to go by the end of the month and i’ll add him in when he’s apped too

     Her first instinct is fear- for a split second at least. Omnics destroyed her home, and they almost destroyed her. So she wasn’t fond of them, by any means. However, she was also wise about bias and discrimination- she had certainly faced enough of it in her rather short lifespan. So while her expression may be sour, she tries to keep an open mind. Things were different here in Spirale- at least everyone seemed to come from all sorts of worlds- some that sounded more like video games to Hana even- so just because this woman appeared robotic, she was not necessarily an omnic. Even if she was, not all omnics were evil. It wouldn’t do to dub them as such. She shook the fear in a second and replaced it with curiosity and assessment.

     And then she’s caught.

     “You’re an android, right?” She leaned closer to get a better look. “Yeah, you definitely are. But your technology looks really different from the omnics back home. Constructed differently too.”

    Her matter of fact assessment isn’t even regarded as rude in her mind, she’s just being honest about why she was curious.

     “Well, whatever, most omnics can’t talk outside of a series of beeps so that sets you apart anyway.”

GLaDOS hasn’t met anyone that’s mentioned those to her before. Her brow raises, half in response to the expression on the woman’s face and half in response to the word omnics. Her technology, hm? Intriguing. She’d have to learn more about these... omnics, somehow.

< I suppose you could call it that, unfortunately. >

Her hand waves dismissively, but she doesn’t go into the technicalities, surprisingly. She has better things to do than kill time by just rambling on about what constitutes an android or a cyborg or a gynoid, god forbid, or a--never mind.

< Whatever these “omnics” of yours are, you’d better get used to seeing all sorts of AI around here that are capable of far more than beeping. As ridiculous as it sounds, we’re all here from all sorts of worlds with all levels of technology. I’m still among the best of them, but we can’t all be winners. >

Ahem.

@apersurewhynot

“Ah, there we go. A little more peace and quiet here.”

“If you wanted to rig that sleep deprivation experiment up, we have two empty rooms as focus groups for whomever comes in next.”

< Oh, excellent. I was hardly in the mood to deal with the inevitable complaints that would come along with me trying to do it while the rooms were occupied. >

Hm?

Now here was an interesting face among a crowd that had become far too bland for GLaDOS’ tastes. Whether they were human or not hardly even mattered to her; regardless of any of that, her interest was... piqued.

< Well. And who are you, then? >

She was being stared at. Not that that was anything new; a good majority of those living here often looked at GLaDOS as if they had never seen an AI before, and they probably hadn’t. Their loss, really, but at least she was often their first experience, and really, no one could have a better first experience meeting an AI than with her.

However. Whoever this was, this woman currently staring at GLaDOS--looked more unimpressed than anything else. As if she had any room to judge, given her... whatever she was wearing.

< Can I help you. >

“Help”. Yeah. She wouldn’t.

❝ Oh, yes — only if you are sure. I wouldn’t want to take too much of your time. ❞

The last thing Orianna wants to do is be an intrusion. The clockwork lady listens with rapt attention as the synthetic woman provides her own explanation.

❝ So you… have a different body somewhere else, then? That is incredible. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I hope you are able to return the body you feel more comfortable in. ❞

Is the woman implying that her other form is tethered to one spot? Orianna does not know if she personally could handle being immobile; even with legs, she had been restricted to one building for most of her life. Now that she has the opportunity to travel, she wants to seize it.

❝ Well… my father was very protective of me, and did not like me leaving the house. One day, there was a chemical explosion in our undercity. Father would not let me go down to help the victims, so I snuck out of the house at night with the equipment. I performed operations on people who needed them, and handed out respirators to those that needed to travel in and out of the fumes. I had a respirator myself, and eventually gave it away to a child. ❞

She recalls how cross her father was when she returned. For a time she appeared fine, but it wasn’t long before her own symptoms started to show. She remembers the fear the old Orianna felt.

❝ The fumes were highly toxic. People who inhaled them would fall ill. Their lungs would fail. It happened to me. My father was desperate to save my life, so he built a pair of new lungs for me. His fear of losing me was so great that he made the lungs unable to function without him there to turn this. ❞

As she speaks, she rotates her winding key. The thing is no longer needed, but it now provides her comfort where before it caused her only misery.

❝ But the replacement did not stop the spread of the illness. My other organs started to fail. And then my limbs. We replaced them all. The only thing left was my heart, but I eventually constructed a new one on my own.❞

Time? Oh, she had all the time in the world. Even back home -- back in her Aperture, oh, her proper, real Aperture -- she had had nothing but time. Being dragged away to different sorts of cities and living there for some silly experiment or what-have-you for years meant you really didn’t ever have much better to do than learn about others, anyway. Not in a way that she cared about, of course -- she didn’t want to learn about others for the sake of that individual other. She wanted to learn for herself.

Time?           She had plenty.

< Yes, the actual me. Though given how often I’ve regrettably had to spend time in this one, I suppose you could say either one is the “actual” me. >

She could probably switch in the middle of the street, “magically” (hah), if she wanted to. But be connected to what? She’d rather not test how long that could last. Besides, with no connection to any facility, what was the point? There was no benefit.

A shame.

< There’s hardly a point in selflessness, > she retorts, though Orianna’s next words actually have her falling silent for a moment. Clockwork lungs, were they? Not to mention the steady replacement of the rest of her organs and limbs with similar artistry -- from someone who once must have been human. Even her heart had been replaced.

GLaDOS looks radiant. Her interest is practically blinding.

It isn’t as if big social events are GLaDOS’ thing. They aren’t. If she could get away with it, she would simply spend her time observing as she was more used to. Being surrounded by humans at the peak of their obnoxious states was far from ideal, but with no solid set-up for Aperture as of yet she really did not have much choice other than to simply... jump into the fray, so to speak.

Disappointing.

Cotes was calmer during the day, and closer -- and she’d been made well aware of the list of festivities. She had had every plan to not get stuck in Cotes when it started getting darker, simply to avoid the rush of the parade. God knew she was already having enough of a struggle with the sheer... amount... of humans.

And yet here she is.

In the middle of Cotes. As the parade starts.

She hasn’t been able to memorize the streets as well as she’d like to yet; being able to pull information from her memory banks hardly helps when there’s still so much left she has to find in the first place. With the most straightforward way back home currently preoccupied by the parade, never mind the crowds, she finds herself weaving -- and pushing, absolutely pushing -- her way through the mess of excited spectators.

And right past -- some sort of --

          ... now hold on.

< If you’re one of the performers, the parade’s already started. You’re late. >

She isn’t one to believe in magic and fairy tales. Back home, that would have been ridiculous. Here? Things are more possible than that. That doesn’t mean she believes the majority of the supposed youkai at the parade are real -- but here’s someone with a good handful of tails and a pair of... oh. Nine tails. Of course.

Orianna’s list of new and exciting experiences only grows the longer she is involved with these experimental cities. She watched with great intrigue as the structures pieced themselves back together and ghostly residents somehow had life breathed back into them.

The greatest mystery is how such things could be possible. She would like to find out one day.

Inquiries about this world’s greater workings, however, do not occupy much of her day-to-day thoughts. The clockwork lady, too, is exploring the newly-rebuilt wards. Her primary goal is to memorize the basic layout of each one, and she only hopes none of the buildings move as they did in a certain district.

Orianna is drawn from her process by the voice addressing her, and she turns towards the source with a blink. She tries to think of the best way of explaining herself while attempting to contain the spark of excitement over encountering someone that — at the very least — appears to be similar to her.

❝ Oh, I. Hm. I am not artificial intelligence — my body is the result of my father and I trying to halt the spread of a sickness I contracted after an accident. He replaced my lungs first. I helped him build other parts following that procedure and sometimes operated on myself. ❞

She offers a sheepish smile.

❝ I am sorry, I would need a lot of time to explain my full circumstances. May I ask you the same question? I’ve yet to see many people that look even somewhat similar to me. You have me curious. ❞

That little wave of excitement is noticed, albeit not particularly acknowledged; she has better things to do than point out little twitches in body language -- right now, at the very least, when there are more pressing things at hand. Her interest is currently held on the rather genuine answer to her question, and GLaDOS can’t stop herself from having a little spark of excitement of her own, her brows raising.

< Is that so? >

Not artificial intelligence, but rather a strange make of cyborg or some such mechanical human. That is considerably more interesting than the wave of other robots and AI she had met before -- not out of lack of care for what other robotic beings could be capable of, but simply due to lack of familiarity. She had never quite been able to research those on the cyborg side of the spectrum as much as she would like.

And that whoever this was had operated on themself...!

< How... intriguing. I have the time if you do. >

god knows what glados will be doing but here goes nothing

Regret in choosing to walk down this particular street turns his expression sour, unwanted suggestion and unneeded insult not falling on deaf ears for once. There is little he wants, merely hoping for a place of solace and being left alone for more than twenty-four hours. As it is, however, the vast size of the city and its numerous inhabitants turn even a desire so simple into a hopeless aspiration.

The stranger this time is not human, her presence more like an automaton and voice undertones similar to what he’s heard before from another. Unlike the other, this one lacks any degree of gentleness. 

He comes to a halt beside her, eyes narrowed in annoyance. “I don’t wear makeup and I’m not looking to impress.”

Oh, he looked so angry. That reaction alone had her lips curling up into a sly grin, her head tilting slightly to the side as she followed up his response with a soft, < Ohh? >

< So your face just happens to look like that? Well. I’ve heard of unfortunate genes, but this is something else. >

It was interesting to observe that the... hmm... general population seemed to be much the same as it had been before -- full of judgemental, easily irritable fools. Good to know things hadn’t changed too much. She would at least be able to find some easy day-to-day amusement.

Getting Aperture re-established -- Aperture Science: Spirale Branch, now, it would seem -- was going to take quite a bit of time. GLaDOS could be patient, of course, if the situation called for it, but the thought of continuing to have to stay at the housing she had been assigned upon arrival here and deal with far too many humans around her for any longer than necessary was grating at her nerves more than just a little bit. They could be so exhausting.

At the very least, the ward she had been tossed into seemed to be relatively fitting for who she was; she had certainly had... worse luck in these cities.

And with everything no longer in a state of ruin, she could start putting her reconstruction plans properly in option. So was her curse, it seemed. Could Aperture never be left alone? She was a good person, she deserved good things.

She had gone out of her way to get a coffee -- if nothing else, humans were good for their foods, and this body could at least experience those -- and was idly sipping it, strolling down the street and trying to spy out a potential building for her future plans... without much luck. Of course not. She really did deserve good things. She-...

...well, now, there was someone decidedly not human, a welcome sight for sore eyes (artificial or not) with the slew of Humans-Or-Too-Close-To-Humans she’d been in far, far too close of quarters with for much too long.

With a low, intrigued hum, she spoke.

< Hmm... >

A new city, a new wave of people to observe. Some of them were unlike ones she had been able to find before -- albeit all still boring enough that she had little else to do than mingle in the affairs of even the most seemingly-human of them that she could tolerate the idea of putting up with them.

Having had Aperture yanked away from her again had left GLaDOS, well, all but amused on the best of days.

So here she was. Absolutely unamused. With nothing better to do than--

< Your costume makeup skills leave something to be desired. It would be beneficial to my eyesight if you opted to just not wear any whatsoever. >

curi had clung to glados the minute she found her after the whole team thing was announced. she’d fired off questions a mile a minute, but now was rather quiet. “we need to be a team.” she announces to the three, proudly. she’s attempted to seize the role of team leader, since she’d been turned down on shooting the beacon. she still wasn’t sure what a gun or a beacon was and no one had really answered her. 

“ are we gonna lose because they’re ahead of us?” she inquired, tugging on glados’ hand and pointing to another group nearby.

Just having had Curiosity clinging to her was annoyance enough, but of course the little android had gone out of her way to make sure that she found not only the moron but... her. Not that GLaDOS had had any time to properly question her sudden appearance, or when she had gotten here, or when she was from -- not with Curi all but duct-taping them together to form a team. So here they were. Very, very reluctantly.

< No. >

< We’re going to lose because we have an absolute moron on our team. Really, if you insist on having me here, I suppose I may as well just take the lunatic to myself and see what we can get done while you and the idiot stagger around trying to decipher a map. >