Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Thirty-Four. The Mandelbrot Set

Part Thirty-Four.  The Mandelbrot Set

 

Some days Wheatley could not keep Caroline away from GLaDOS no matter how hard he tried.

“Sweetheart, mummy’s working,” he called out to her, but she only giggled and sped along the management rail in front of him.  He could have stopped her forcibly, but he hated doing that.  He only did it when she was in actual danger.

“I wanna visit her!” Caroline said cheerfully, ducking around a corner.  “An’ she wants a visit, anyways!”

“Really?” Wheatley asked, wondering if this was true, or just one of those things Caroline thought was true. 

“Yeah!” Caroline said, nodding enthusiastically, and before Wheatley had a chance to ask her how she knew such a thing she had already gotten into GLaDOS’s chamber.  “Hiiii Momma!”

GLaDOS glanced up at the two of them, bent over a sheaf of paper and holding a long white pencil.  “Hello.”

“Sorry, luv,” Wheatley said, shrugging apologetically.  “She… she got away from me.”

“I’m here for a visit, Momma!” Caroline announced, stopping next to GLaDOS and peering down at the paper.  “Whatcha doin’?”

“Drawing blueprints.”

“C’n I draw blueprints too, Momma?”

“I doubt it,” GLaDOS answered dryly.  “You lack the required technical knowledge.”

“C’n I draw somethin’ else?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno.  I c’n find out if you gimme one a’ those papers and one a’ those… things…”  She waved ncertainly at the pencil with her lower handle.

“A pencil?”

“Yeah!”  She bounced up and down enthusiastically, and she honestly looked so excited about her idea that Wheatley forgot all about the fact that he was supposed to be watching her so GLaDOS could work.  “C’n I have them, Momma?”

“You don’t know how to use the maintenance arms yet,” GLaDOS said, though to Wheatley’s surprise she didn’t sound that convinced.  Maybe she really had wanted a visit.

“I’ll learn!  Please?”  She was wiggling back and forth and giving GLaDOS her best pleading look.  If it’d been Wheatley she’d been pleading with, he’d’ve broken a long time ago.  But GLaDOS was a bit tougher than that.

“Ask Wheatley to show you how to use the maintenance arms, then, and we’ll see.”

“C’n you show me, Momma?”

“I’m working.  Ask Wheatley.”

“I don’ wanna,” Caroline said petulantly, staring sternly at GLaDOS, but she was no longer looking at the little construct. 

“I guess you don’t want a pencil or paper, then.”

“I do but I wan’ you t’show me, Momma!”

“And I want you to go ask Wheatley.  And you’re not doing it.  Are you.”

“Carrie,” Wheatley interrupted, before GLaDOS got annoyed enough to say something she didn’t mean, “come on, sweetheart.  You’ve had your visit.  I’ll uh, I’ll show you how to um, to use the arms, and then you can come back and use them with mummy.  Okay?”

“No,” Caroline said sulkily.  “I wan’ Momma to.”

“Mummy’s busy,” he said as gently as he could.  “Come on, princess.  I’ll show you, and then when we come back mummy won’t be busy anymore.  Okay?”