Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Thirty-One: The Euphoric Response

Part Thirty-One.  The Euphoric Response

 

I really do enjoy it when he does this.

Every once in a while, Wheatley will see fit to clean off my chassis.  It’s probably not even dirty, seeing as I now live in an all but sterile environment, but the gesture is nice.  Not only that, but… it feels unbelievably good.  Better than the last time he did it.  The time when I was awake, and I thought that was pleasant.  All this stimulation is a bit heady, honestly.  I don’t really get a lot, for a robot with haptic sensors all over her body, but when I do…

Caroline is sitting on one of the panels below me, as usual.  I’ve been watching her to make certain that she doesn’t roll onto the floor, but she doesn’t seem to have realised she can move her handles yet.  Oh well.  She’ll figure it out when she figures it out.  Though if it seems to be taking her overlong, I’ll have to try tipping her forwards to see if she tries to balance herself out.  If she doesn’t, I’ve got some debugging to do.

How is he so good at this?  For an awkward little idiot who drops things that are attached to him, he’s remarkably proficient at… whatever this is.  I can’t quite come up with a name for it.  It makes me feel a little like someone with severe atrophying, because human parents do something a lot like this to such children so as to encourage muscle activity, but I remind myself that that is not an appropriate comparison and return to feeling it.  He’s so gentle and… and tender about it…

He’s gone inside of my case, where I never get any stimulation at all, and for some reason this generates a wave of euphoria that I can’t contain, because I wasn’t expecting it, and causes my body to shudder.  He stops, which is decidedly unpleasant.  My body has tensed, waiting for him to continue with the other half, the anticipation so bad it almost hurts.

“What are you doing?” I ask, as casually as possible.

“Did I hit something important?” he asks.

“No,” I answer.  “You’re doing fine.”

But he doesn’t continue, and instead drops down in front of me and begins rubbing his upper handle on top of Caroline’s chassis.  “You must be pretty bored!” he says to her, and she smiles and makes a delighted noise.

“She’s a baby.  Babies don’t get bored.”

“Sure they do,” he says, rubbing his optic into her side and making her laugh.  “You’re bored, aren’t you Carrie?”

She makes a noise that neither confirms nor denies this statement, and I try very hard not to become annoyed.  Does he have any idea what state he’s left me in?  He can’t just run off and not do the other half.

“You have no idea what’s going on, do you, kiddo,” he asks her, and she blinks at him and smiles.  “Well, I’ll tell you.”  He leans in very close to her and looks at me out of the corner of his optic.  “I’m playing a game with your mum.”

“Oh, that’s what we’re doing,” I say dryly.  “I thought I was waiting for you to get a move on so I can continue with my day.  Or are you giving up in the middle, as usual?”

I don’t think I’ve ever told myself to shut up before, but I am now.  What am I doing?  If I discourage him, he’ll never come back.  And he has to, because I don’t know how long I can take this.  He’s left me with a peculiar crawling sensation that’s running up and down the neglected section, and it’s making me anxious and tense.

“Well, I don’t have anything else to be doing, so may as well take my time, right?”

This is one of those days where throwing him in the incinerator seems like a viable thing to do with him.