Personal Improvement Through Science: Aperture Laboratories Presents Physical Education (Wed/Per.2)

[gladigotburned.livejournal.com]

The locker room corridor was largely the same today, with one exception: where the portal-generating panel had been for the first couple of classes there was a regular (for this room, anyway) door. The sign beside the door was different, too, if you were observant enough to have remembered any of the details from last week's.



If you hadn't . . . too bad. You'd have to figure it out on your own once you stepped through the doors into the test chamber.

"You came back again," GLaDOS said, in an almost bored voice, once everyone was assembled on the platform just inside the doors. "It's almost reliable of you . . . or maybe Pavlovian. Personally, I'd be more gratified if it's a successful conditioned response. What are the odds that you actually remembered anything from the last test, though? Don't answer that."

A few bars of 8-bit music that might be familiar to anyone who'd watched the American Olympics coverage a few weeks ago began to play, echoing off the walls of the chamber, until she cut the sound abruptly.

"While we continue focusing on cardiovascular fitness, I've decided to go ahead and graduate all of you to the dual portal device this week. This week's test will focus on the principle of conservation of momentum through portals, and how to apply that to the high jump. If words like 'conservation' and 'momentum' are too challenging for you, let me spell it out for you in crayon: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing goes out." Wait, high jump? Like, over those glowing strips of light on the other side of the chasm? Apparently. "Then, just to test your sprinting abilities, a simple long jump exercise. Good luck."

She didn't add you're going to need it, but it was implied. It was never sincere, but always implied.

[OOC: Please hold for the OCD, or there isn't going to be a party for you.K/s> OCD is up. But I lied about the party, and one of us is going to feel awful about that. It just won't be me.]

Comments

Re: Activity 1: "High Jump" [PiTS, Week 3]

[dollpocalypse]

Topher took some time to just squint at this setup for a bit. He helped himself to a couple of tennis balls. He threw one toward one of the hard light bridges and wasn't surprised when it bounced off; then, the second ball (well, third -- he undershot the second one and had to try again) was chucked toward the fizzler to see if it was an annoyingly translucent wall or something else. If it was a wall, then clearly they had to find a way over or under it or something, but if it was something else... hmm.

When that ball disintegrated, Topher spent a less-than-intelligent moment wondering if that meant people would disintegrate upon trying to pass through it, then remembered the material emancipation grill from the locker room. "But we don't have anything now we didn't have before," he mumbled to himself, pacing across the platform and squinting toward the other side as he tried to figure it out. "So what does it..." His eyes fell upon the glowing pair of shiny portals he'd just made on the floor. "Oh."

He still had to figure out how to actually get to the other side, but that was just momentum. For right now, he was just proud of himself for figuring out what the obstacles did.

And he might even share, too, if you asked. You know. Smugly.