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[thepartwhereikillyou]

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Brette
AGE: 22
JOURNAL: ofchessycats
IM: packofchessycats
PLURK: thechessycats
E-MAIL: packofchessycats [at] gmail [dot] com
RETURNING: 1; Erik Lehnsherr

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Wheatley
SERIES: Portal 2
CHRONOLOGY: Chapter 9: The Part Where He Kills You
CLASS: highly incompetent villain

BACKGROUND:

In the 1940s, Aperture Fixtures was formed by Cave Johnson. The company's primary purpose was to create shower curtains for the US military. By 1947, the company would be renamed Aperture Science Innovators. This was primarily done to make the products sound more hygienic, though it would not be long before the company would begin engaging in actual scientific research. Cave Johnson eventually purchased an expansive abandoned salt mine in northern Michigan, which would become the site of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center in 1952.

Over the years, they would develop portal technology which creates a doorway between two separate locations in three dimensional space. This technology would evolve from a bulky machine strapped to the back of the test subject-- the machine perhaps as large or even larger than a human-- to an easy-to-carry handheld device.

In the early days of Aperture Laboratories, they sought the best of the best as test subjects, bringing in individuals from astronauts to Olympic athletes to perform various tests for them. The tests were puzzles that required the use of the portal device to solve, along with other various inventions of Aperture Science, such as gels that gave the user the ability to jump higher or run faster, and beams of light that created mid-air walkways. However, the tests were created with little regard for the safety of the human test subjects. Over the years, many test subjects would be subject to disabling injuries or death, making it much more difficult to find willing individuals to participate in the tests. By the 1970s, they had long since given up on finding the best of the best to act as test subjects, instead settling for anyone willing to participate in tests in exchange for $60.

By 1978, Cave Johnson had become mentally unstable from mercury poisoning. He created new divisions of Aperture Science, including the Counter-Heimlich Maneuver (a maneuver designed to ensure choking) and the Take-A-Wish Foundation (a program to give the wishes of dying children to unrelated, entirely healthy adults). Both of the aforementioned developments were presented to the public, and predictably did not go over well. This led to an investigation of Aperture Science by the U.S. Senate. It was this investigation that made the portal technology known to the American government. They were highly interested in the technology, and granted Aperture Science a contract to carry on their research. Eventually, Aperture Science would make testing participation mandatory for all employees. This increased the quality of their test subjects, though employee retention severely suffered.

Work on the artificially intelligent research assistant GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) began in 1986, partially in response to Aperture Science's rival corporation Black Mesa beginning to work on portal technology of their own. By this point, Cave Johnson's illness had progressed to the point that he knew that death was near. He had originally desired for his own consciousness to be placed within the AI system, but upon realizing that he would not live long enough to see the completion of the project, he passed control of the facilities to his assistant Caroline, and designated that it would instead be her consciousness that would be placed within GLaDOS.

⚛

In the development of GLaDOS, numerous cores were created. Some cores served to aid in essential functions to the AI, such as the Curiosity Core. Others served more eccentric purposes, such as the Cake Core and Space Sphere. Wheatley was originally created as the Intelligence Dampening Sphere, intended to generate bad ideas in an attempt to distract GLaDOS and make her less dangerous.

According to GLaDOS herself;

"The engineers tried everything to make me - behave. To slow me down. Once, they even attached an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me. It clung to my brain like a tumor, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas."

"He's not just a regular moron. He's the product of the greatest minds of a generation working together with the express purpose of building the dumbest moron who ever lived."

Granted, GLaDOS is a pathological liar, but Wheatley's behavior and actions directly support this.

At some point, Wheatley was disconnected from GLaDOS and given alternate jobs within the Aperture Laboratory Enrichment Center. Eventually, he was put into storage with other deactivated cores.

In May 2000, GLaDOS was fully activated on bring-your-daughter-to-work day. She immediately proceeded to flood the facility with deadly neurotoxin, killing virtually everyone present within Aperture Laboratories at the time. The remaining staff created a Morality Core, which was attached to GLaDOS to prevent her from using the neurotoxin in the future.

Within the following decade, the Black Mesa Incident would take place. In Black Mesa's experiments with their own version of portal technology, they would open a gateway to another world, which would lead to the invasion of Earth by the Combine, an alien crossdimensional empire. Within two decades of the incident, the Earth would fall subject to this dystopian regime. The AIs within Aperture Laboratories seem to be unaware of this.

A woman named Chell eventually finds herself awoken inside of the facilities, where she has been brought as a test subject. GLaDOS' statements indicate that she was a part-time employee of Aperture Laboratories. GLaDOS subjects Chell to a series of tests within the laboratories, with the intent of simply killing Chell when the tests are complete, if she even survives the testing process in the first place. Chell had a strong will to live, and made it through all of the tests, then managed to escape GLaDOS' attempt to kill her. As she worked to escape the facilities, GLaDOS grew increasingly aggravated. Eventually, Chell managed to find GLaDOS within Aperture Laboratories and deactivated her.

Following GLaDOS' deactivation, Wheatley and many of the other cores were reactivated to maintain the facility. Wheatley was placed in charge of the Extended Relaxation Center, where test subjects were kept in stasis. The position of tending to the humans was viewed lowly by the AIs within the facility, including Wheatley himself. It appears that he neglected his duties, as it can be inferred that the humans in stasis were not tended to as often as they were supposed to be.

Wheatley eventually decided that he desired to escape the facility after an unknown number of years (likely several decades, though perhaps as much as a century or longer). He sought help in this endeavor from whatever test subjects remained alive. The human who he re-awoke turned out to be Chell, who had been placed within the facility by a robot following the explosion that occurred when she deactivated GLaDOS.

Wheatley led Chell to GLaDOS' chamber in their search for escape. In his attempts to open an escape hatch, he accidentally reactivated GLaDOS instead. GLaDOS attempted to crush Wheatley, and forced Chell to resume testing, reactivating parts of the facility in the process. Wheatley caught up with Chell, informing her that he was still alive and intended to help her so that they could both make another attempt to escape the facility. He helped her avoid a death trap by GLaDOS, guided her in sabotaging GLaDOS' turret production and supply of neurotoxin, and then led her back to GLaDOS' lair.

When they confront her, the facility recognizes that GLaDOS is a corrupted core, and upon detecting Wheatley's presence within the control center as a secondary core, the option of performing a core transference is presented to them. As Wheatley has thusfar been presented as friendly and his nature as an Intelligence Dampening Core is unknown to her, Chell proceeds in transferring control of the facilities over to Wheatley, rendering GLaDOS impotent.

Immediately upon gaining control of Aperture Laboratories, Wheatley became corrupted with power. He showed his resentment for GLaDOS by transferring her consciousness into a potato battery. He was moments away from letting Chell go free when he was overtaken by his superiority complex and a paranoia that Chell and GLaDOS were somehow conspiring together. He pushed both of them into a pit that led miles underground, deep into the facility where decades of antiquated testing facilities had been stored.

While Chell had to work her way up into the main portion of the laboratories once more and eventually formed an alliance with GLaDOS, Wheatley was busy attempting to continue testing within the facility, as being connected to the mainframe had instilled within him a need to constantly run tests. Still, his poor decision making skills remained at work. With the absence of human test subjects, he attempted to modify both turrets and companion cubes to be able to run the tests, which failed horribly. Even more importantly, Wheatley allowed the facility's reactor to approach nuclear meltdown, completely ignoring any warnings given regarding the impending explosion.

When Chell and GLaDOS returned to the main portion of the facility, Wheatley immediately forced them to begin running tests, most of which were simply tests that GLaDOS had created herself, sometimes sloppily cobbled together. At his canon point, they have just arrived in the control center to attempt to regain control of Aperture Laboratories and prevent it from exploding.

PERSONALITY:

Wheatley was expressly designed to make bad decisions. He is very good at serving that purpose.

The other AIs within Aperture Laboratories looked down upon him. Even though he was simply fulfilling his purpose as the Intelligence Dampening Sphere, his purpose was one that was understandably seen in an extremely negative light by other AIs. Thus, he was assigned to what was seen as the most menial task for an AI: assisting and tending to the humans. This led to a resentment not just to the other AIs within the facility, but toward humans as well. He accused the humans of nepotism for giving worthwhile jobs to other humans rather than to robots (or more specifically, to Wheatley himself).

Wheatley is someone who has been pushed around for his whole existence, and this obviously effects him in multiple ways. He is something of a coward and will often behave in a tentative manner, afraid of pain and of being struck down, though he will show bravado if he happens to have someone to hide behind. He harbors bitterness toward both machines who are in positions of authority over him, and toward humans in general, though he will attempt to hide this resentment if he thinks that someone can help him.

Though he may not come across as the "dumbest moron to ever live" to a human observer, it is quite obvious why other AIs view him in such a way: because his actions lack the strict logic that machines generally adhere to, and he almost seems to behave in a more human manner because of it. If he is not able to immediately solve a dilemma (even if it is something that would be easily comprehensible to many of the other AIs within Aperture Laboratories), he will take a more haphazard, trial-and-error approach to it. For example, if he cannot find a door, rather than calmly taking the time to look for one, he will be more likely to simply attempt to slam something into the wall until he creates a hole to travel through.

Despite his resentment toward others and the rebellious attitude that has come from it, at one point he did try to behave and do as he was told. This has only furthered his resentment, as doing as he was told did not lead to anything good for him. At various points he finds himself doing things that he has never done before in his decades of existence, such as turning on the flashlight that is attached to himself, and detaching himself from the guide rail he is connected to. He had apparently been told that doing either of those things would kill him, but he actually suffers no ill effect whatsoever.

Wheatley's resentment toward others also does not manage to stop him from being quite talkative, regardless of who is around and whether they choose to or are even capable of talking back to him. There are time where it seems that he is holding entire conversations with himself.

Given his history of being viewed poorly and being relegated to menial tasks, it is no surprise that Wheatley becomes drunk with power the first time he ever experiences it. He wants to show the world that he's not as pathetic as people viewed him to be, and get back at all of those who wronged him by oppressing them just as much as he viewed himself to be oppressed. He stubbornly clings to each poor decision that he makes, believing that sticking to his choices will make him a good leader, and listening to other people telling him that he has made a bad decision will only undermine his authority.

At his canon point, he is still connected to the mainframe of Aperture Laboratories, which also effects his personality. He feels the compulsive need-- an itch-- to run tests, and feels a deep satisfaction when the test subject solves one. There is a great deal of factual knowledge that has been placed in his mind, but he is not capable of actually synthesizing the information and understanding it. He knows that 2+2=4, but he does not actually comprehend the logic behind it.

POWER:
The City's Worst Technopath:

As a formerly computerized being, Wheatley can speak computer languages, directly interface with computers simply by touching them, and hack things. However, he does so extremely poorly. His attempts to tell a computer to do something are most likely to result in him ending up on the losing end of an argument with said computer. He may succeed in hacking someone's encryptions, but somehow accidentally translate the conversation he is attempting to read to Portuguese in the process.

Breaks Everything He Touches:

The majority of Wheatley's attempts to use various forms of technology will simply result in him breaking said items, often in spectacular fashions that one would barely think possible. This ties into his previous power, as many of these malfunctions will be the result of him attempting to use his technopathy on various items. However, even non-computerized items will still manage to malfunction as Wheatley attempts to use them. An engine would spontaneously drop out of a lawnmower, or a toaster would explode when he is simply trying to toast a bagel.
Communicators issued by the Porter will be exempt from this power.

Intelligence Dampening Sphere:

Wheatley's last power, which will take some time for him to notice, will be the ability to do exactly what he was created for: to reduce the intelligence of those around him. This may effect them by simply reducing their IQ, or it may effect them by causing a stream of bad ideas to run through their mind. This will only effect those within a 30-foot radius of him, and will act sporadically. It will randomly go off and on, and he will have no control over its occurrence.

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
What is this?! Where am I?! Why am I fleshy and pink?!_

I will have you know that I'm important. Very important... No, immensely important, for that matter! And I have some important tests to be running! Sciencey-type tests. It's all very complicated, I'm sure you wouldn't even understand._

And I tell you, I am through with being bossed around by these lady-AIs. Thinking they can boss old Wheatley around. The last time that happened, I trapped her in a potato! A potato, ha! That's what's happening to you next, you hear that, Lachesis? See what happens when you try to push ME around, take me out of my laboratories and make me all human..._

I bet you don't even have any deadly neurotoxin._

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
It had been a number of hours since Wheatley had arrived in the City when he had finally accepted the fact that no matter how long he threw a fit, no matter how much he moped, he was still stuck in this place and in this human body. And more specifically, the human body had needs that his previous form had not possessed. Most prominently at the time, the need to eat.

Grappling with this reality was enough to derail his train of thought from how horrible it was that there were so many humans in this place and so few computers that actually possessed self-awareness. It was even enough to distract him from his daydreams of formulating an elaborate scheme to usurp Lachesis and exacting his revenge upon her.

The whole concept of food was one he had never spent much time grappling with. Frankly, the whole idea seemed rather disgusting to him. Stuffing one's mouth with dead animals and dead plants that were grown in the dirt, not to mention the entire process of digestion and waste excretion... It was borderline barbaric.

He spent at least an hour devising a plan to break into a hospital to steal the necessary supplies to feed himself intraveneously before he found himself detouring by the McDonald's across the street from the hospital, not at all because he had happened to notice that they were offering curiously green milkshakes and sparkly purple fairy Barbies with the purchase of any Happy Meal.

Which we both things that he clearly needed.

For science.

That was how he found himself purchasing his first cheeseburger, and all reservations were immediately thrown out the window. He had made his way to the nearest grocery store and proceeded to stock up on whatever grocery items he felt the compulsion to try. His second day in the City, he found himself with a kitchen full of apple juice, jell-o, zucchini, horseradish, spam, canned yams, Hot Pockets, salsa, and pumpernickel bagels.

It was one of the bagels that he had decided to contend with that morning. He had placed it in the toaster, which proceeded to spit the bagel back out seconds later. it had taken him three more tries before he had finally managed to get the toaster to actually begin to toast his bagel, which had been followed by a minute or two of gloating about his own state of superiority over said toaster. He had then made his way into the living room to resume work on the lovingly painted wall mural declaring his MAC apartment to be the new headquarters of Wheatley Laboratories.

It was ten minutes later that a loud bang was heard in the kitchen, followed by the immediate presence of smoke and drywall dust throughout the apartment. Upon hurrying into the kitchen, he was greeted with the sight of a gaping hole in the wall that seperated his apartment from the neighboring one-- the residence of GLaDOS herself.

"Oh bloody hell, even the toaster is conspiring against me now..."