...everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's...

Date: 3/1/2013
Time: 9:00am


Everything was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was fine. Wheatley was not at all worried at all, even a little. The static hadn't been at all familiar to, you know, that Reformat business last year. There were no voices in his head, no static now, and he had absolutely nothing to worry about except possibly there was something wrong with him and now she was here and he'd ruin his second chance and it was all going to happen again and what if he actually succeeded this time and everything was totally, completely fine. Just...

Well, he was probably overreacting. That was all there was to it. It had been a glitch, or something, that was all. Maybe he should just have Kefka take a look at him. Or maybe it was due to being out of the Facility for so long---he'd never been gone this long, what if there was some kind of... thing. Nanobots. Routine maintenance. Something? He'd never needed anything while he was there, but...

Or, maybe something had stuck around, when he'd been removed from the mainframe. Maybe there was something still in him, lying in wait.

Or, or, or....

Last year... the voices in his head had been one thing. He'd had a few friends at the time, especially Kefka, but they hadn't been through thick and thin, yet. And, it had all worked out all right, he hadn't hurt anyone. But... he'd wanted to. A lot. What if it was happening again?

And now, she was here. He was... What if...

No, no, no, no, everything was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was fine.

Wheatley hadn't quite realized he'd been heading over to the Inn until he found himself outside it. He'd been up to her room before, when they'd gone to get her a Christmas tree, but not since then... Maybe he should just go away. If something was wrong, then shouldn't he stay far, far away from her? But, what if it wasn't him, what if there was something big going on. She didn't know what this place was like, maybe he'd better warn her.

Or. Or. Well, alternatively, everything was fine and nothing at all was wrong at all and why shouldn't he just stop in to say hello? That last one was more likely. Surely more likely. Please oh please oh please.

He thought he could remember where her window was. Wheatley, to whom things like front doors were unnecessarily complicated, glided over to the side of the building, and after peeking in a few incorrect windows, would find himself outside her window, peering in. "Hello?"

It was a funny thing Wheatley decided to drop by today of all days, in retrospect, because the little core had been on Chell's mind too. It wasn't uncommon for her to wonder about him, every now and then, when she saw or heard something that brought him to mind--like a brief flash of blue out of the corner of her eye, usually just a brightly colored object or a bird, or hearing that naggingly familiar accent coming from whatever television program was on in the lounge at the time, so similar to the place from her homeworld she knew of, but could just never manage to place the name. As far as thoughts went, they were never anything pressing, usually just idle little questions, like what he was up to, or where he lived. Despite her long and torrid past with the core, since reuniting with him here, there was still so much she didn't know about him and his newfound life--other than that he seemed to have a knack for getting himself into trouble, and, for whatever reason, could now fly. They were never questions she wanted to outright ask him, though she easily could. She just figured they were things he would tell her himself whenever he deemed it necessary, and Chell was never one to pry. So, for now, they stayed just that: musings.

Today was different. Today, she was worried.

The brief, but concerning blackout from the night before had thankfully not resulted in anything too alarming, from what she could see. Once she was certain it was safe to do so, she had gone back to bed and slept soundly through the night, like always, noting that once she had woken up and peered through the window again, the city seemed unchanged. No blue gunk, no panic in the streets, nothing that seemed too out of the ordinary for this city. It wasn't until she had bumped into Impa on her way to breakfast that her worry for him started to set in, as, according to the Shiekah, there had been word that AIs from all over the city had been oddly and painfully affected by the sudden loss of power--static, burning sensations, and god knew what else. They still didn't know very much, and from the sounds of things, most of them had recovered as soon as the blackout was over, but Wheatley was different. He was small, not at all like the hulking, nearly unbreakable looking mechanical beings she tended to see around the city here and there, and she knew from experience that his pain threshold was not exactly the highest. Still, he had survived space, along with being crushed by Her... maybe she wasn't giving him enough credit.

And on a related note, she was a little irritated she was mentally fretting over him in the first place. Still, whatever she may have been feeling, it was for that reason alone she had been relieved to hear his voice outside her window--after she had gotten over her near heart attack, of course. With her hair still wrapped in a towel from her morning shower, the former test subject strode quickly from her bedroom over to her living room window, peeking through the curtains and giving him a surprised, raised eyebrows sort of look. After taking a minute to undo the latch, she swung the window open and beckoned the core inside with an outstretched arm, curiosity etched as clear as day into her features.

Ohthankgodshewasalright. There. See? Nothing to worry about. Stifling his mental sigh of relief, the Sphere glided effortlessly through the open window, at her invitation, and then spun on his axis to face her, his momentum still carrying him further into the room. "Wild, that stuff last night, wasn't it? Black outs, static... brr. Glad that's over with! You, um, you do all right? I mean, 'course you did, just the power gone out for a bit, nothing to worry about. I, um, I was just sort of in the neighborhood, and, well, thought I'd drop by! Since, uh, since... haven't actually stopped to, um, to chat much. For awhile, there. For a bit. And, well, it- it was really very nice meeting your friends, uh, with the Christmas tree. And, and all...."

He wondered briefly if she'd believe him if he said he as here to borrow a cup of sugar. That was a reason for stopping by, wasn't it? True, he didn't eat, but... possibly it was for another friend? Or, maybe he'd better just stick with was in the neighborhood, stopped to chat.

Now that he was here, he was beginning to think it was a bad idea. She probably didn't want him here, anyway. And, after all, it had only been a little power out. There had been plenty of things much scarier than this in recent months, and he hadn't come then. No real reason why he ought to come now...

But it was a little too late to back out. Clearing his "throat" a little awkwardly, he fidgeted, handles adjusting and readjusting. "So... so, how is everyone?"

Chell watched steadily as the core hovered rather effortlessly into her room, sharp grey eyes scanning over his outer shell and optic to look for any sign of damage, an indication that anything was amiss. Outwardly, he looked about as good as he ever had, but Chell knew enough about machines to know that any internal glitches could be hard to spot. It was something of a comfort to have him immediately launch into rambling again, though she made no effort to respond other than taking a few steps closer to him. He was asking her about the blackout? What about him? While it was certainly possible he hadn't heard it had been such a widespread thing amongst the AIs, it seemed highly unlikely that he hadn't been affected at all--and, on that note, she wasn't sure she liked the slightly nervous energy that seemed to exude from him either. It made her feel like something was wrong, and he was trying to avoid talking about it. He had to be there for a reason... she had never known Wheatley to just drop in on her like this.

Granted, it could be that he just felt awkward around her these days--and, honestly, she couldn't blame him for that--but with the blackout happening just the night before, and the talk she had heard as a result of it, this little visit just seemed way too coincidental. Did he need her help? The former test subject crossed her arms as he continued to chatter on, staring at him expectantly. If he had something to say, she wished he would cut to the chase and just say it already. She didn't mind hearing his ramblings on a good day, but when there was a potential problem at stake that he wasn't allowing her to fix, that's when she got frustrated.

And it was tooootally not at all a result of her still being worried about him. Nope.

Perking up a little at his throat clearing noise, Chell's mouth fell open a tad at his last question, suddenly looking wildly about the room for something. Apparently not finding whatever it was she was looking for, she pressed her lips together and held up a finger to the core signaling him to wait, trotting back towards her bedroom. A couple of moments later, and she was back with a notepad, scribbling intently as she walked. "Everyone here seems alright enough. Just a little curious about what happened last night, I guess. No one was hurt." Once she had had presented that message to him, she paused and resumed writing somewhat awkwardly, holding her next note up to him with no small amount of hesitance. Might as well try to get to the root of the matter. "How about you?"

Oh, what was he doing here, what if it the static happened again, what if the voices came back, he should get as far away from her as possible, what if he was just built to go bad, what if he hurt her. And of course, there was the blank stare, like he was talking to a brick wall. Was any of what he was saying even getting through? Was she even listening? Not that he was saying anything actually important, but that wasn't the point. It'd be nice if she'd just say- Well, no, sorry, the potential brain damage thing that was insensitive of him, but really it was kind of hard to hold a conversation all by himself here, I mean, he did his best...

Oh thank god she'd found her notebook.

Bending down to peer obediently at the scrawl, Wheatley relaxed visibly as he got to the status report on their end. Then, immediately, went back to awkward nervousness when the question was turned back onto him. "Oh, uh, fine! Just, just fine. Bit spooking, uh, with all the lights going out, but, uh, but nothing- nothing more than that. Really. Pretty, um, pretty much all that, that was really interesting. About, about last night. Um."

Yeah... Chell? This was his lying face.

Ohhhhh, Wheatley. Talking may have been one of your strong points, but you were still an absolutely terrible liar. Chell narrowed her eyes at him, all at once utterly certain that there was something wrong--or that, at the very least, something had been wrong. His demeanor shift once he saw her question to him was very telling, and the former test subject was able to read him well enough at this point that it was pretty easy to discern when he was upset about something, or trying to sweep issues under the rug. Still, in this case, it confused her--why was he trying to hide from this? If he really had come over for help, then why didn't he just come out and say it? She nodded slightly as he went on, biting her lower lip and suddenly paying very close attention to the ground. There had to have been something more than spooking. She was just sure of it.

Still... communication. Communication was key with Wheatley, she told herself. He was a verbal communicator, the complete and utter opposite of what she was, and that was where things got complicated as far as their conversations went. Hell, forget just conversations, their relationship in general could be summed up like this. It was incredibly frustrating to watch him flounder and avoid the point, but if she were to be honest with herself and look at it from his perspective, the unrelenting silence he often got from her end must have been frustrating too. It couldn't be helped, of course, but she did actually have a means to communicate with him now...

Best to try and meet him halfway, then. Finally bringing herself to look at him again, there was a glint of determination present in Chell's eye before she almost immediately shrugged it off, adopting a demeanor of slight nonchalance as she continued writing again. She had forced answers out of him with intimidation once in the past, and although it had been effective then, she wasn't keen on using it now. He didn't respond well to it, and truthfully, it wasn't exactly fair to him after all they had agreed on. Besides, he had been trying as of late, that much she could see. If she could somehow get him to open up to her on his own, then maybe they really would be able to help each other.

But then, of course, she had to remind herself that the unfortunate side effect of her possibly giving him too much information was him most likely worrying himself into whatever the robot equivalent of a coma was.

Deciding to choose her phrasing carefully, she finally presented her finished message to him, still doing her best to look casual. "It was just--blackouts being what they are, I know machines tend to suffer more from them then we do. AIs, in particular." Okay, obvious, but it was a start. Drawing her notepad back to her chest, she paused, letting her pencil hover over the paper for a moment before she wrote down her next line. She wasn't about to outright tell him what had been going through her mind, but she could imply it, could hopefully make him see that she wasn't making him uncomfortable just for the fun of it. "I was... wondering about you."

Having already once been called out on his blatant lies, it was a relief, albeit one that wasn't fully acknowledged, that she hadn't called him out on this one. He hadn't been able to pull the wool over Kefka's eyes for one second (which meant it he'd needed to lie extra hard, just to convince himself and his friend). It was a lot easier when the person he was trying desperately to convince just didn't question his bluff.

Unfortunately, her choice of words wasn't really all that more reassuring than Kefka's response had been, either. She'd been wondering about him. She... she thought he might have been affected. Broken, maybe. There was something wrong with him, he, he was just programmed to go bad, and he wasn't sure that she wasn't right...

No, no, no, no, everything was fine, remember? Everything was fine. "Wondering? About me? Pshaw... What's, what's there to wonder about?" That sounded nonchalant, right? Please ignore the nervous laughter. "Nothing- nothing's wrong with me, everything's fine!" Oh, he shouldn't have come what was he doing.

Everything was not fine. At least, not with Wheatley acting the way he was. Chell resisted the urge to glare and back him into a corner like it would have been so easy to do when he continued to dance around whatever issue was present here, even though part of her kind of really wanted to. It wasn't that she enjoyed the thought, as she had no desire to antagonize him or frighten him more than was necessary, but, truth be told? He was scaring her. Coming into to her home, acting nervous and jumpy, and then... not telling her whatever it was he was so anxious about?

She didn't like it, not a bit. Her feelings towards him may have been confusing and complex, but even despite the fact that she hadn't quite forgiven him yet... god, she didn't want to see him hurt, not even a little. In fact, the extent to as how much the thought bothered her was, quite frankly, troubling, and it was that along with a whole extra slew of things that, at the moment, made her want to slam her head against a wall. Repeatedly.

Her hands were tightening around her notepad. Admittedly a little surprised with herself, the former test subject took in a few deep, calming breaths, silently willing herself not to ruin this. Merely hinting at the issue obviously wasn't going to work, so maybe it was about time she was blunt. "Worried. Alright? I was worried." She felt like she had to write it twice, like the act itself would convince her that it wasn't so frightening to admit. "And I want to know if you came here for help. At all." Once she was finished with it, she practically shoved the notepad towards him, looking all at once irritated and a little desperate. "You can talk to me. I thought we were working on this."