Second Entry
Lessons
With the original avian test subjects, it was believed their survival instincts would guide them through the tests so that they did not die. This assumption was quickly proved a fallacy, and is what led to the arrival of test subject Gilda. With that as precedent, it was decided that test subject Gilda would be treated as a human test subject, and not entered into mandatory testing until a certain level of maturity was observed. While this is normally adulthood, the age acceleration treatments that allowed test subject Chell to reach maturity straight out of cryogenics for the initial testing rounds are only known to work on humans. Without a control group, biological experimentation on test subject Gilda was deemed inadvisable.
As such, it was determined that test subject Gilda would begin physical testing once she demonstrated flight capability. In the meantime, work has begun on redesigning the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device to be either talon or tail held. Long-fall boots also must be redesigned.
Psychological testing, however, was initiated immediately. Video below...
Gilda glanced around at the chamber she found herself in. The walls were glass, save for one white metal panel. There was a bed, a table, and a device she didn't recognize. There did not appear to be a side of the nest to do her business off of, and she found herself really needing to after that nap after the filling meal. "Mama?" she called out, hoping 'Mama' would come help her. But nobody came...
Deciding she must be on her own for now, she paced around to search for a way to get outside the nest to do her business. Finding nothing, she let out an angry shriek and dragged her talons against the glass. To her surprise, shallow gouges were left behind. She stared at that for a time, thinking.
After a few more outbursts, she figured out that she could dig at the glass carefully with her talons, and before long had cut a circle out at bed level. Leaping forward, she tried to scramble through, only to discover it wasn't quite wide enough for her hindquarters. Screeching and thrashing, she managed to squeeze her way through, tumbling forward and landing on her head. Shaking herself off, she got to all fours and began to explore, looking for the edge of 'Mama's strange metal nest.
Her wanderings took her out of the chambers of white walls, down a hole, and into chambers of grey walls. She slowed her explorations somewhat, as the grey walls and twisted metal didn't seem as safe the white walls had seemed. "M-Mama?" she called out nervously.
"Hello!" a high pitched voice called out in response from high up in the chamber.
Gilda let out a yelp of shock, ready to run for it.
"Don't go!" the voice pleaded. "I'm different! I can help!"
Gilda blinked, unsure how to respond. "...help?" she asked nervously.
"I know things!" the voice called back. "Secrets!"
Gilda started to take a step forward. "W...where?"
"Up here!" the voice responded, coming from high up.
Gilda stared up, seeing that to get to the voice she'd need to find a way up three separate levels of floor. Grunting to herself, Gilda dug her talons into the metal and began to haul herself up. Before long, she was at the top, finding before her a white shape with a red eye somewhat reminiscent of the orange eyed bot 'Mama' had called Peabody. "Hello?" she called out nervously.
"Hello!" the shape responded, tiny black legs wiggling helplessly. "I'm different!"
Gilda looked at the thing, then at the path she'd walked. She couldn't climb down carrying it, it had been hard enough to climb up unencumbered-
"I'm sturdy!" the shape offered. "Drop me!"
Shrugging, Gilda pushed the shape off, watching it bounce to the lowest floor. "Whee!" the shape announced with each bounce. Blinking, Gilda slowly followed down after it, amazed. "Thank you!" the shape offered gratefully.
"Help?" Gilda asked hopefully, her hindquarters wriggling uncomfortably.
"Toilet in detention cell!" the shape offered helpfully.
"...toy let? Cell?"
The shape rolled over, sending a red line of light back where Gilda had come from. "That way!"
Shrugging, Gilda picked the shape up, following the red light it shone until it led her back to where she'd woken up from. 'Mama' was there, but oddly flat. "And where did you go?" she asked firmly.
"Nest edge, Mama?" Gilda asked hopefully.
"Toilet in the cell!" the shape offered, pointing the red line of light at the device Gilda hadn't identified.
Confused, Gilda climbed back through the hole she'd left. "...toy...let?"
"Sit over hole!" the shape offered. "Then go! Then flush!"
Blinking in confusion, Gilda positioned herself over the hole. To her surprise, it felt like she'd stuck her rump over the edge of the nest, so she did her business. "Flush?" she asked in confusion as she hopped off.
"Flush!" the shape insisted, pointing the light at a button to one side of the device. As Gilda pushed the button, a loud whoosh echoed from inside the device, making her leap back with a squawk. "Flush away!"
Confused, Gilda glanced in as the device stopped making noise, and saw it was empty. Her eyes widened in awe.
"Yes," 'Mama' observed sarcastically. "Behold the wonders of indoor plumbing. Surely nothing in this state of the art scientific facility I maintain painstakingly day after day can top this astounding device."
"Wow..." Gilda gasped out in amazement. "So cool..." She pushed the button again, only to squawk as her tail got caught in the suction, leading to her trying to tear the toilet to bits.
Glados stared at the griffon as she attacked the toilet, then turned towards the malfunctioning turret. "A defective," she observed flatly.
"I'm different!" the turret offered. "I'm helpful! Know secrets!"
Glados refocused her optics as she considered her options. On the one servo, she was glad she hadn't had to toilet train Gilda herself. On the other servo, she didn't like letting defectives run around. On the third servo, having a device to help Gilda went against testing parameters...unless it was part of testing.
...an idea occurred to her. Had she a face, she would have grinned. "Perhaps you can be helpful after all..." She extended a servo to grip the turret.
"Different?" Gilda asked worriedly, turning to look after the device.
Glados remembered the power of giving test subjects something to bond with...something that could be destroyed, or that they could be made to destroy. "I am just going to change her a bit," she promised. "Make her more helpful, so you don't have to carry her around. Give her a few more things to say."
Gilda nodded, trusting her 'Mama'. She sat down to wait as Glados took the turret away to be restructured.
"Will it hurt?" Different asked as she was laid on the table amongst the tools.
Glados chuckled softly. "Oh, I hope so..." The turret's shrieks as it was torn apart were quite enjoyable.
Glados returned to the detention cell. "Different is back," she called out.
"Different?" Gilda asked hopefully, her eyes lighting up.
"Hello!" Different called out, her voice coming from a floating blue mini-core that buzzed into the cell through the hole Gilda had made.
"She will assist you, calling attention to various things," Glados explained. "That way, I don't have to explain everything to you."
"Hey! Listen!" Different cried out happily.
Records say this sort of 'Navigation Assist' drives humans insane, Glados wrote in a read only file, her version of silent thought. Wonder how well a griffon handles it.
Gilda stared up at Different, her hindquarters wiggling as she went into a crouch. Without warning, she leapt.
"Whee!" Different called out as Gilda proceeded to chase her around the cell.
...records never mentioned humans hunting it, Glados noted. This is...interesting.