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“Upper Michigan?” she repeated, feeling the air suddenly lighten like a deep sigh. She was still in Michigan, not far from her city as she once firmly believed. While Kalamazoo was farther south from her current surroundings, it seemed like a few steps away in her ecstatic state of realization.

“I’m back!” she cried, eyes alight. “I’m in Michigan! I’m back!”

She reached out to grab his arms, but recoiled before she could touch him, remembering how vulnerable he must be with his exposed wires. The woman instead hugged herself for a brief while.

“I don’t plan on staying, I promise. I just need to get outside… but, I understand you’re not aware of where that is.”

The woman pauses, settling down as she scanned the room with wariness. “Are there others with you? More people I can talk with?”

There was a very brief flash of surprise in his expression at the human’s sudden outburst of joy, then there was another flash of shock as she reached out to him. His step back was proved to be unnecessary when she stopped, though. 

His wires weren’t exactly sensitive to the touch, but Mallory disliked contact in general. Her consideration was, while completely new to him, not that all unwelcome. It made her a little easier to trust, that’s for damn sure.

“ No, not people. You’ve been the first human I’ve seen in... ” He trailed off, not trusting his internal clock to inform him. All he got was a morose nine nine nine nine-- not too helpful, “ In a very long time. Other androids, yes, but most of them can’t deal with humans. ”

She stood after him, chin now tilted high to keep eye contact with him. And although he was looming over her by nine inches, much like an inhuman cryptid, the woman didn’t appear all that terrified. She was quite used to being looked down upon by taller people. 

Her fingers twitched a bit, though, as she reminded herself of the crudely made shivs she had always stored in her sleeves or tucked in the waistband of her skirt. They were precautionary tools, she reasoned, as she tried not to come across as tense.

“… That’s alright,” the woman replied, with a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “Still, I’m sure you’re familiar with this place. Could you tell me where I am?”

Oh! Finally, something that he can answer with confidence. It was still curious how someone could not know where this place was; Aperture Laboratories was quite the scientific superpower back in the day. Even more curious how the woman could end up deep inside of the facility in the first place, especially since the activation of the omnipotent, supercomputer CEO that was GLaDOS. One question at a time, Mallory.

“ Well, this place... ” He slowly swept an arm over the general area, “ ...Is one of the test chambers near Old Aperture. But in general, you are in Aperture Laboratories in Upper Michigan. ”

The exact location was programmed into even the most basic constructs, the name had no meaning to Mallory. But if this woman had been outside, maybe it meant something to her. He realized a bit too late that he mentioned the facility’s name already and a sheepish frown crossed his features for a moment.

Marlise had a hard time piecing together what this man was in her head. As stupid as she felt, she couldn’t help but second guess whether he was actually real. The skin looked human but it split into these strange inhuman wounds. It took a good ten seconds of staring to figure out that he was a walking machine, stuffed with metal bits and wire, like a–a Matrix… person (she hadn’t brushed up on her pop culture knowledge in years, how pathetic).

She had met strange things before: a french alien cactus man, two friendly fellows in one gray glowstick-like body, a man with a book for a face, a talking cockroach—Marlise was quite accustomed to strange things and strange people. A robot, however, was quite new if her memory served true.

The woman hadn’t moved an inch from her spot, still vulnerable and low to the ground. Unlike the man, her face was devoid of fear or agitation, looking bright with a sort of quiet curiosity.

“I was running away from my… old place, and ended up here,” she answered. “I’m trying to get outside. You must know where that is, don’t you?”

Old place? Was she a test subject? She didn’t have the orange jumpsuit that they all wore, so maybe she was from the outside. How anyone could end up several miles underground after escaping from another mysterious place was well beyond his comprehension. He needed to stop thinking about it too much before he catches on fire again.

Slowly, he detangled himself from the floor while still keeping an eye on the stranger. Standing at full height, it was easy to see why most humans found him intimidating; coupled with his unsettling almost-human-but-not-quite appearance, he was also freakishly tall. 

Mallory still looked very much on-guard, but the fact that he was no longer on the ground was definitely an improvement.

“I’m injured! Help me, I’m—!”

She screamed and jumped back as the heavy cubes collapsed near her. She was left unscathed, but before he had time to thank god for her un-crushed toes, she spotted him–that mousy looking man cowering from her.

The two were frozen, the woman staring silently at this stranger in a half-hunched stance, waiting for some sort of response from him, any indication that he could hear her or if he was even alive.

He should have been–she hoped it was the case.

However, after no sign from the man, Marlise took it upon herself to make the first move. She crouched down, resting an elbow on one of the cubes to balance herself. And in a quiet, cautious voice, she spoke,

“Are you lost too?”

Mallory flinched even with the decidedly non-threatening tone of her voice. He scrambled to stand, but only succeeded in turning himself to stare at the stranger with wide eyes. 

His more robotic features were more apparent in that position; the little rips in the silicon skin of his arms revealed some wiring and the grey of his eyes glowed in the dim light of the chamber, flaring just a bit brighter in his panicked state.

It took him a moment to gather himself and prevent any unneeded explosions in his system. Calm. If he was careful, then everything will be fine.

“N-No, I’m not lost. What are you doing here?”

Marlise had managed to slip through the crooked panels of the empty chambers without much interruption, which caused more anxiety than if she had been interrupted. This giant liminal space between the Office and the outside world gave her nothing much to work with in terms of answers or plans of escape. 

So far, she had only learned of its name, and what it purpose it might have served, and that it perpetually smelled of charred meat–and that it was also endless and abandoned. Soon after her second hour of inhaling strange, stale fumes and wandering aimlessly, the woman began to regret her decision of leaving the Office.

She was in the process of kicking out a loose wall panel when she heard the scuffle of footsteps, and the prospect of talking to someone and finding answers raised her spirits so high that she nearly lost a limb trying to squeeze herself through the walls and into the chamber. 

“Help!” she called out into the seemingly empty room, feigning panic to get the attention of those unseen. “I need help! I’ve been hurt!”

She wasn’t, really, but who would know that?

Mallory stayed silent behind the pile of cubes, suddenly thankful that androids didn’t need to breathe. The cry for help gave him pause, but he still didn’t move from his spot. He didn’t know anything about first-aid and the stress would just set off another outburst. That wouldn’t help anyone. If anything, it would just make whatever injury she had much, much worse.

As quietly as possible, Mallory shifted his position and made to crawl away from the human when--

Clang.

From the few and far-in-between times that Mallory had interacted with humans, he found that they weren’t usually very fond of him. Perhaps it was because of the somewhat haggard appearance or his tendency to self-destruct without warning. 

Either way, those unpleasant interactions were enough to damper his opinion on humans as a whole. When all of the human employees were suddenly gone, it was a massive relief; he didn’t need to worry about accidentally hurting one of them, as fleshy and delicate as they were.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s always just the same cycle of stuff around here.” For the most part, anyway. At least by now, he’d learned to leave well enough alone- or tried to. Things never really went according to plan anymore.

“It, ah… it was awful, honestly. Imagine bein’ important to people, bein’ happy. You’ve got everything going right for you. Then… one little thing goes wrong and suddenly… you’re not who you used to be anymore no matter how hard you try.”

He let out a deep sigh.

“And then no one cares.”

Something about what he said elicited a strangely familiar feeling in him. Never in his existence as a personality construct had he been considered important; being the product of mechanical failure does that after all. But somehow, he felt like he knew exactly what Oliver was talking about. Almost like...

There was a muted beep and whatever nearly crossed Mallory’s data banks blipped out of his reach. He shook his head and reached up to clap a hand on the other android’s shoulder. That was comforting, right?

“ Ah, well...if no one cares, then why should you? That, um, sounds a bit cold, but...it’s worked for me so far. ”