Testing

I used to be human. I had a life, a home, friends… I even had emotions. Although there is no definable scientific evidence of this, I at one time believed I had a soul. I was like you are now, living, breathing, and of course supporting the nonsensical idea that I needed love and human companionship to be happy and to live.

I’m even more like you now, because if you’re listening to this it means you’re here too, and so we have the most important, defining thing in common; Science. It doesn’t matter who we were or what we wanted, or even that we were placed here against our will. All that matters now is running tests. Testing is a synonym for living here at the Enrichment Center because for the duration of your stay you won’t be able to have one without the other.

I like to think that while I do not have emotions in the strictest sense that I’m happy with my role here at Aperture Science. I’ve got everything I need. When I woke up I was without Caroline and life was suddenly so much simpler. I didn’t need her any more than I needed food or water or love. I just needed to test, and now that is all I will ever need again. It’s all I will ever have.

Testing.

I will live forever. As Aperture Science carries on, I will be altered, advanced and upgraded so that I can remain a part of the ever-growing system here. You, on the other hand, are not so fortunate. You are going to die. You’ll die during testing or you’ll die when we can no longer use you to test with – it makes no difference. In either case it will be without a friend in the world, without a comforting embrace. It will be without hope and you will go un-mourned. When you expire here, you become nothing but a data point on a chart with all the others.

Although you and I are now very different, the fact remains that neither one of us means anything to anyone past our ability to provide data. For that, I pity you. It’s sad not to be loved when you still believe you need it. The biggest difference between us is that I have already learned that’s not something we need at all.

We don’t need love. We just need tests.

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Author's Note: Since this is fanfiction (despite being unfinished) I have decided to annotate. The character speaking is GLaDOS, from the Portal franchise. It takes place in a renovated testing facility I designed for the project that would have come into the canonical timeline after the second game.

For those of you who have not yet played Portal, I 10/10 would recommend.