smash_logs | Welcome back Smash Academy!

Entry tags:

Welcome back Smash Academy!

Who: GLaDOS and everyone.
What: The school's been repaired and everyone's back.
Where: ~~Aperture~~ Smash Academy
When: July 31st.
Warnings: GLaDOS being nice, messing around with the portal guns and other Aperture Science devices, etc.
Reference: Planning post.

That flood had certainly been a learning experience for GLaDOS. She had learned that the Hands weren't as powerful as she thought. She had also learned that her "human" body wasn't as human as she predicted. She could still be damaged by massive amounts of water, causing a literal shock to her systems.

It was unpleasant.

Still, it was, on the grand scale of things, a minor annoyance. One that was rectified easily enough. After the damage to the school , it was obvious repairs needed to be made, which was when the AI's mind when into overdrive, forming a little scheme. She had offered to do the repairs to the school herself, as well as upgrade into into a far better learning facility than it had been before.

As she predicted, he accepted her offer. Once he had accepted, she informed him that the school would need to be emptied before she could start. A hotel was booked and off everyone went on their merry way. Meanwhile, GLaDOS put her plan into motion, having built several construction robots to set up the new school. They worked hard during the week, setting up every last detail of her blueprints (save for the few times they acted up) until finally Sunday came. By that time, the school was finished and GLaDOS had re-uploaded her mind into her new chassis. All she needed now was for the students and staff to return.

Thankfully, it's Monday and those buses are pulling up.

[ooc: Alright guys, so this is the return to the school log. As stated in the ooc post here, you don't have to be signed-up for the Aperture Academy event in order to post here! Everyone is welcome to mess around, use the portal guns and other Aperture Science stuff, or just return to your dorms and chill. Have fun!]

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What an uncomfortable week. It felt like he had no privacy, and that made him restless. He couldn't relax with his roommates around and felt more comfortable leaving the hotel altogether or spending time with his brother when he was available. Now they were finally returning, and Cress had been impressed with how quickly and efficiently the repairs had been made. Why, it looked like a flood had never consumed this place at all! Well, except for a few trivial differences in design. He entered the dorms with Chili and stopped cold once he comprehended the drab, paneled interior.

If fate had a brain and the judgment that came with having one, then it was deliberately playing the cruelest tricks on poor Cress. How many times need he be reminded of the most grisly moment in his waking life? Was it impossible to plunge the brutal memory deep within his subconscious without it being forcibly emerged over and over again? He tried fiercely not to let it bother him so much any more, but it was easier wished upon than done.

Frozen by the entrance, he began to tremble, wide-eyed and terrified. The resemblance of this room to that laboratory he'd just as soon forget about forever was uncanny. Were those... portal devices? It felt like his heart had been plugged into the wall and electrified with fear. "..."

Chili stood next to his present triplet brother, their shoulders nearly touching. GLaDOS' message went right over his head as he stared at the objects some of the other members of the academy were collecting for themselves: those were the very same boots and the very same portal gun available in that laboratory, and the appearance of the school resembled it unusually so. This spelled trouble; he worried not only for himself, but for his brother. He couldn't let this happen again, not to either of them. He made a mistake last time and was forgiven, but who was to say he would continue being forgiven? He hadn't had enough time to prepare himself for such a shocking scene, and...

It appeared that Cress hadn't, either. His brother looked pale. Chili swallowed, edging ever closer to Cress. "... ...Cress?"

He'd been bottling up the reaction that would follow, only he felt more like a shaken soda can than placid liquid in a plastic container. The impact was just too much for him, and at the sound of Chili asking his name he flung himself against him and clung for dear life, uttering quiet and scared half-sobs, half-mutters that didn't make sense against his shoulder. Being confronted with the mere sight of a room like this made his insides into a trapeze artist.

The one exclamation definitely translatable was a loud, muffled "But... why!"

At first, Chili was startled at the sudden impact, his arms suspended half-way around Cress. Of course, he was quick to respond, letting his arms encircle him in a reassuring embrace. He gave him a brief squeeze.

"Maybe we should... head outside for a little," he suggested, eying the scenery suspiciously. "I don't like this either, to be honest." Besides, it would probably be wise to direct him out the door, where the creepy sterile-seeming room wouldn't haunt the two.

Cress nodded against him, allowing him to escort him back outside.

Once the paneled room was banished from sight, Cress took a gulp of the biggest breath he could. Calm down. It was just a room and nothing more. Chili is here and alive and everything is just fine. As many times as he reassured himself that his reaction was unjustified and he needn't freak out every time something reminded him strongly of the traumatic event, he still couldn't shake the crippling anxiety that overcame him.

"I-I'm sorry," he apologized, looking to the comforting sight of green grass below. "I don't know what got into me..."

He bit his lip, keeping a hand fixed tightly upon Cress' shoulder. "No, it's understandable." Beyond that, however, he couldn't figure out what to say... How do you console your brother about your own death that actually didn't happen, but totally did? Chili wasn't too keen on revisiting that moment in their life; he couldn't imagine how he'd end up had he been the one watching Cress' murder. That didn't stop his imagination, of course, and it made him feel ill.

He waited for his next move, concern written across his face.

Cress kept his body stiff, his fists loosely clenched. Why, from the looks of it, he might start spilling tears at any second. "What sort of an atrocious remodeling job is that?" he spouted, very blatantly agonized. "And why must it look like..." He released his taut posture and plunged backwards against the side of the building to rest there. "Oh, it's as though I've been cursed with bad karma! I must have wronged someone in a past life. I'm sure of it."

If only he could have prevented any scarring incidents from happening in the first place...! How he wished he could travel back in time and patch that moment back up. Chili frowned, worried for his brother.

"There must be some mistake!" he exclaimed, glaring at the doors to the school. "Do you think this has some connection to that... place? Aaah, why can't things just go right for once!"

He was clearly frustrated.

"Of course there's a connection," confirmed Cress gravely, trying to summon up a more self-possessed state of mind. "Everything about that place has been replicated flawlessly. There can be nothing coincidental about it." He hated to ponder what that ominous decor could mean for them in the future. "If it involves performing dangerous tests for a pitiless robot again, then... I'm not sure if Cress is inclined to stay at this school much longer."

He gave Cress a sideways look. "They were providing that same equipment just inside, you're right! Do you think tests might actually come hand-in-hand with this remodeling job?" he asked, unsure. His expression dropped.

"If it does, then you're probably right... I was really looking forward to training here, but I don't want you to have to see that again." And he didn't want to leave Cress, Cilan, and Pansear alone. How awful that would be. He didn't want to think about it any longer.

Bringing it up again caused his heart to trip a beat, his chest to tighten. He shut his eyes and let his head incline down, the curtain of hair closing in to obscure even more of his face. "It makes one feel fragile. Does it not? How many times we've flirted with death in such a short amount of time..."

Though the subject was a heavy one, Chili tried to make light of it. "Flirted? I think I got pretty intimate with it, if you ask me!"

...Then he considered the gravity of the situation. "Maybe that was in bad taste. Sorry. Listen, I'll do whatever it takes to keep both of us out of harm's way. You can count on me!"

Edited 2012-08-12 06:28 (UTC)

Cress's head snapped upright and his one visible eye glinted wildly at Chili, full of fear. "What if you... What if you die? For good this time! No, I cannot allow it!"

He shook his head fiercely. "No, I'm not gonna die anymore, Cress! Stop worrying so much! I'm here to get stronger, and that's what I intend to do, and you know what they say: No pain, no gain!" What a reassuring thing to say.

How could he be so cheery amid their grave and heavy circumstances? Cress could only wonder. There may have been a wish submerged inside his heart that wanted to burst out and forget all the worries caked thickly against it. While it could not bring itself to become sunshine like Chili's attitude, it was nice to at least bask in.

But that didn't mean Cress stopped being a worrywart. Trepidation still pounded strongly inside him. He had calmed down since his last outburst, though. "But there will be no gain if you lose your life again. No matter how much pain you'll undergo... Please, at least show me a more cautious approach to things."

Chili almost brushed off Cress's worry as nothing, opening his mouth with the same aura of confidence as before. But he stopped and his smile was replaced with a thoughtful expression.

"I'll think about it, maybe," he said. He smiled again. "But only because you're so worried about me, Cress!"

Those words tugged his emotions, and tugged him forward to wrap his arms around Chili in a grateful embrace.

"You mean so much to me..."

His brother returned the hug, squeezing Cress tight and letting go.

"Haha! Okay, well, whether we want to or not, we've got to get moving and head inside. I'll stay by your side for a while, so you don't need to worry about me! Come on!" Chili beckoned for Cress to follow him into the building, meaning what he said. "I'll watch after you, too. That's another thing you don't have to worry about, promise!"

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Welcome back Smash Academy!

only one thread please; open after chili tags

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