Robert Lutece is an optimist (heads_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-12-01 19:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, glados, robert lutece, rosalind lutece |
Who: GlaDOS and the Luteces
Where: a restaurant
What: a deal falls through
When: recently
Warnings/Rating: PG for GlaDOS being a creeper, but really this log's just for fun
Status complete
The Luteces were already at the table, arguing about the best possible appetizer to buy for this meeting. They had the item they wanted to have examined on the table in a plastic bag. They’d done what they could with it, taking note of all its parts and pieces, but they couldn’t tell anything else about it. They knew it was some kind of communicator. Nathan had told them that much.
GlaDOS was interested in some pie. It wasn’t quite as good as cake, but she wanted to make a comparison. A proper scientific comparison. So she ordered three different pies. And a cake. The put up a blinking contraption on the chair next to her.
The Luteces stopped arguing long enough to look at GlaDOS and her machine. They didn’t know what to expect. She was strange, but she seemed harmless enough.
Rosalind folded her menu. “Pie will do.” She said to Robert.
He nodded and folded his menu up as well. “Well enough, anyway. What does that machine do?”
Just one of the android’s eyes swiveled to look at them, the other still staring at the selection of pies while she tweaked something on the machine. “Science.”
The Luteces shared a glance for a moment. GlaDOS was weird, and their confidence in their understanding of the situation was fading. Rosalind glanced at the communicator. It represented some kind of futuristic technology. It and the data from examining it could potentially be misused.
Robert twitched one should up a quarter of an inch. They’d run it through Bruce’s machines, and the data was useful, but having multiple opinions would also be useful.
Rosalind’s face shifted into a subtle look of distaste. They came here for a reason, and if she was dangerous she’d find some other way of obtaining the data she needed.
The pair turned back to her, their faces placid. “We’d like more specific information.” Rosalind said, her tone level.
“Science is, after all, a very vague description.” Robert supplemented.
“Science is science, regardless of discipline, “she explained, as if talking to third graders. Particularly inept third graders.
“Mammals are mammals, but one would not behave the same way around a mouse and a polar bear.” Rosalind noted, her tone slightly colder.
Robert braced himself internally. The last time they’d spoken to the strange woman across the table Rosalind had been furious all night as a result. “Why did you agree to help us?”
“That’s not a bad idea.” She tilted her head as she thought about it. Polar Mouse? Polar Mouse-bear? Intriguing. She checked something off and smirked. “Because this is what I was made for. Knowledge. Learning. Discovery.” In just a single second she could process more information than the entire networking capability of the United States could in a full minute. And that was just in this form. If she could just build her cores from the dreams…
Of course, she just had to keep herself sane in the process.
“If we may be so bold, it seems like you’re already in possession of some technology that is alien to this world.” Robert noted.
“Or access to someone who has such.” Rosalind supplemented.
Both eye swiveled towards them, her head unmoving. There was an unearthly yellow glow coming from her pupils. In that instant, her skin was too pale and too perfect, her features too symmetrical and her hair too shiny. Her voice however dripped with disdain and boredom. She did let some of the artificial quality from her dream life creep into it. “What was your first clue? I applaud your leaps of reason and intuition. You would probably be smart enough to avoid the floor in one of my test chambers. Probably.”
Rosalind put her hand over the communicator and dragged it backward, dropping it neatly into her purse. “I believe we’re done here.” After dreaming of her collaboration with Comstock Rosalind had no desire to work with people she didn’t trust.
Robert nodded. This one was way too creepy. He pulled out his wallet and left 2/3 of the price of their order. “It was very enlightening to meet you.”
“Morals. How quaint and useless when there’s science to be had.”