Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Ninety-One. The Defense

"Um... what's he doing?" Wheatley asked, gesturing to Claptrap with his lower handle. The other robot was lying facedown on the floor, his arms laid straight out. GLaDOS glanced at him.

"He's sad," she answered.

"And is that uh... how is that helping, exactly."

"I didn't ask."

"You alright down there, Claptrap?" Wheatley called to him, and Claptrap raised one hand in a thumbs up before letting it fall back down. It bounced a little before it went still on the floor. Frowning, he looked back to GLaDOS. "But why's he sad?" The only explanation he could conjure was that GLaDOS had upset him, but if he were here that couldn't be true! He'd've gone off someplace else! GLaDOS looked down at Claptrap again.

"He has a lot to be sad about."

"Like... like what?"

"If he wants you to know, he'll tell you," GLaDOS said, with infuriating calm.

"I'm done," Claptrap announced, sort of pushing himself up and hopping onto his wheel at the same time. "Let's hang, Wheats. She's busy."

Living with GLaDOS made Wheatley extremely wary of sudden, outrageous mood changes, but he hadn't learnt just yet what sort of help Claptrap needed in those situations. So he just shrugged and they headed off into the hallway, but he didn't know quite where they were off to so he hoped Claptrap didn't ask after it.

"She's gonna dump me, isn't she," Claptrap asked suddenly, sounding quite morose, and despite that hint Wheatley had to stop to think about that one.

"What's um... what's that mean? Don't think I've uh, I've come across that term before."

"It means..." He waved one hand in dismissal. "Never mind. I don't wanna know. Happens when it happens, I guess."

Oh God, not this from him too! "No! No, tell me!"

"I just... she could have anybody, and she's cool with me? Nah. This is gonna fall apart sooner or later."

Wheatley didn't want to get too much into GLaDOS's business, not before she'd gone through whatever process she did when deciding what to tell people about herself, but at this point he was going to have to edge into that territory. Especially since she wouldn't be able to sort this mess out alone. "She couldn't. Not by a long shot."

"What are you talking about? She's the perfect AI. And I mean that literally. Hyperion would've blown a – uh, they would've been super happy if they managed that! Anybody on Pandora would literally kill a lot of people to have her."

"The perfect AI, maybe," Wheatley conceded, not knowing enough about it to argue that point. "The perfect person? No."

"She is kinda mean sometimes, but –"

"Not kind of," Wheatley interrupted, moving 'round in front of him. "Sometimes she is very mean. Even with uh, even with people she likes. She'll make you angry on purpose, and say, and tell you things about yourself that aren't true, and, and play pranks on you just to amuse herself. And you'll put up with it, because she can also be quite kind and sweet and funny. When she wants to be. But if you keep expecting her to be perfect, the whole thing's gonna go up in your face again! Because she's not perfect, she's better! And it takes work. If you're not prepared for, if you can't manage that, then yeah, it'll fall apart. But if she didn't think you were up to it she wouldn't be willing to give it another go!"