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

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

It was the last class before the mid-semester break, and there was cheesy samba music playing from radios high up on the walls of the locker rooms. That was, considering GLaDOS, not an auspicious sign. Speaking of signs, yep, there was a new one up in the corridor just outside the classroom. As for the test chamber itself, aside from the area just inside the door it was mostly dark when students arrived.

"Well, you made it," GLaDOS said, sounding unimpressed or possibly even disappointed by this. "You all get to go somewhere far away from here for an entire week. Relaxing. Trying new and exotic things. Probably soaking up ten times the recommended level of ultraviolet light and then getting eaten by wild animals. Aren't you excited?"

A canned applause sound effect started to play, only to get cut off in a burst of static and fizzle out after about three seconds.

"You have an Enrichment Center Testing Progress Assessment Chamber to go through today. Extensive scientific research has proven that enjoyment of vacation is greatly enhanced by optimal personal health levels and/or retention of all one's current bodily components, so try and contain your excitement a little while longer." Oh, look, a midterm to go with the usual passive-aggressive idle threats! "Or not. How you choose to spend your break is up to you in the end, anyway."

The lights flickered on in the chamber, revealing a multi-part setup.

"Today's test will evaluate you based on several facets of standard physical education protocol: balance, agility, coordination, speed, and reaction time. You're also being monitored to see how well you've picked up standard Enrichment Center concepts by this point in the semester. Try not to fail miserably; you'll be going one at a time for this. Good luck."

[OOC: The Enrichment Center ~~reminds you that pinging in before the OCD is complete will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your permanent record, followed by EVIL GOAT STARING.~~ is pleased to inform you that the OCD is complete. You may proceed with the pinging. As a reward for your patience, we will now warn you that this next test is extremely d-- *FZZT*]

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Hanging in there. ~~Obvious pun is obvious.~~ It's almost time for fall break!

Korra

Jackson Whittemore

Liara T'Soni

Evan Sabahnur

Topher Brink

Ace McShane

Victor Mancha

Stiles Stilinski

Minako Aino

Hanna Marin

Susan Sto Helit

Billy Kaplan

Richie Ryan

Alex Aaron

Annoyingly cheerful music and all.

Not that GLaDOS is bitter at all about how other people can go on vacation without being stuck in a potato.

A test on testing! Ooooh. Each section of the chamber is separated by a Material Emancipation Grill fizzler, thereby ensuring that once you go on to the next bit your previous portals are erased and the next person has to make their own.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/42581)

[OOC: Leave a note in the OOC thread/poke me somehow if you want sarcastic guidance and/or unhelpful commentary from GLaDOS at any point during your run through the chamber.]

Edited 2012-10-03 07:25 (UTC)

There's a fizzler separating this entrance area (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/43514/43514_original.jpg) from the first section of the test. Step through it, and portal your way up to the first platform.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/44271)

This seemed easy enough. Korra aimed her two portals and stepped through the lower one onto the platform.

Not a hard one, though Ace being Ace, she spent the first ten seconds wishing she still had her grappling hook so she could just climb it, because, well. Fun. Plus it would mean she still had her grappling hook. Stupid creepy lurker bloke.

Okay, after all these weeks, this part wasn't so bad. Billy was sort of vaguely getting the hang of things... at least, he thought he was.

Richie much preferred the classes where he could watch, say, Topher and figure out what to do from there. This stuff was all a little beyond him. But he could manage this part at least. It was pretty simple. He hoped.

Up on the platform (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/45386/45386_original.jpg), you find yourself facing a low wall with just one patch of portal-conducting surface on it, and a long pit of goop (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/46219/46219_original.jpg) below. There's also a hard light bridge overhead; you're going to have to use that along with strategically placed portals to cross the goop.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/47033)

No, Korra, just because you have your firebending back doesn't mean you can run along the wall and bypass the test completely.

Instead she took the boring option and aimed one portal up where the bridge hit the wall and the other at the wall opposite her.

See above re: grappling hook. Though a combination of shooting holes in the right places and balancing on that laserbeam like it was the top of the stone wall at one end of Horsenden Hill got Ace across with only one freaked-out moment of almost falling on her arse.

As you approach the far end of the hard light bridge you can see an aerial faith plate (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/47920/47920_original.jpg) on a low ledge off to your right, though the wall you've been facing seems to extend up to a high platform somewhere. You'll have to portal-fling yourself up there, because there's a fizzler stretching across the opposite platform so there'll be no portaling yourself directly there.
There's also a bullseye spot (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/48202/48202_original.jpg) on the wall, and if you look up, one portal-conducting panel. Guess what? You get to let shoot a portal into the wall and let the aerial faith plate fling you through that and up onto the platform. Assuming you put a second portal in that high-up panel first, anyway.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/48432)

Edited 2012-10-03 07:26 (UTC)

Yeeeeah, Korra totally used her airbending to help make sure she hit the portal instead of the wall.

So... basically what Ace had avoided doing last time by virtue of harassing the unseen teacher about making wipeout vids of the whole class failing at this.

Sure. No problem.

On the third try.

Was it cheating to use a personal flying ability to not crash and burn? Billy certainly hoped not, because that's how he was succeeding at the moment.

Well, now that you're up on this platform (passing through another fizzler on the way) you can see through the fizzler to the opposite platform (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/49398/49398_original.jpg). If you stand near the edge and look up, there's another portal-conducting panel that should be able to fling you across the gap . . . you're just going to have to shoot a portal in the floor and jump off the platform (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/52304/52304_original.jpg) to get the right momentum to do it.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/51711)

Korra looked at the gap, it didn't seem that wide, so she was pretty sure she could just jump it.

And she was almost right, which lead to hanging off the ledge with one hand while she set up portals with the other.

It was not, in any way, a dignified jump.

Dignified jumps don't end with the jumper looking like they just lost a game of Twister.

Congratulations, you succeeded at your portal fling! Now that you've gone through that fizzler, you can see a Weighted Storage Cube (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/52967/52967_original.jpg) on the floor in the corner, beneath a Vital Apparatus Vent. Maybe it has something to do with the 15,000 Megawatt Super-Colliding Super Button over there, which just might be how you're going to get the moving platform to carry you over yet another pool of goop below. And . . . toward a Laser Discouragement Grid (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/55589/55589_original.jpg)? Oh, goodie.
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/54766)

This one was another simple one, since Korra could lift and carry the cube pretty easy.

Ace was huffing like a badly-maintained steam engine by the time she finally got the cube where it needed to be, but she got it there.

Once you hop off the moving track platform at the far end, you can see there's a small button pedestal (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/55589/55589_original.jpg) that could be related to the symbols (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/57815/57815_original.jpg) on the sign beside the giant laser field. Hmm! Hit the button and sprint for it; you've got five seconds to make it through before the lasers turn back on again. (Should you actually get caught, it'll be very warm but not deadly or even very skin-sizzly.) Just be careful not to run straight into the single laser beam (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/58095/58095_original.jpg) on the other side!
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/57318)

Korra made the sprint easily enough, but was going fast enough the only way she was going to avoid colliding with it was to slide under it...and keep sliding.

Which resulted in dangling off the edge of a platform for the second time that class.

Which single laser beam? The one after the one that would have set the back of Ace's coverall on fire if it had been real? No, she didn't run into that one.

She didn't run into the other one, either, not enough to have been zapped, but she suspected she wouldn't have got full marks for smoking gymkit.

Oh god oh god this is when it would have been really nice to have Tommy's power instead, but thankfully, Billy had learned how to run pretty fast himself and only got a little toasty at the end.

"I lied, by the way," GLaDOS decided to put in right about now. "Actually, I didn't, technically. I just implied that you'd only be getting tested on Aperture Science elements you'd already seen. This next section involves Thermal Discouragement Beams, otherwise known as deadly lasers."

Not that deadly. Sigh.

"Here at the Enrichment Center, we strive to provide you with a realistic sense of danger in order to enhance your testing experience."

There's a laser beam stretching horizontally across the wall in front of you, near the edge of this platform, and what looks like a receptacle (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gladigotburned/37922480/59560/59560_original.jpg) for you to direct the beam. Use portals to get the laser beam into the receptacle, hop over the beam (this is the agility part), and ride the lift platform down. You'll see a second lift platform on the other side to take you up to the exit door. Congratulations, you survived the midterm!
(http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430/58894)

Since Korra was already on the other side of the beam, all she had to do was aim her portals and get to the platforms...without overbalancing and falling off the edge again or into the laser. Simple, really.

"I can't decide..." Deep, gasping, wonder if she was developing asthma breath. "...if I hate this class or I..." Oh, who was she trying to kid? "...love it!"

Because LASERS. Lasers you could change the direction of by breaking most known laws of physics.

Aaand jumping out of the way when you miscalculate that direction and send it shooting straight toward your face. Maybe she hated that part a little.

But mostly not.

Billy was determined to make it through this part without shielding, and that was how he ended up getting a little scorched the first three times.

Someone was very ready for a safari.

You are victorious! Or hid there the whole time. Whatever.

Who is really, really, really glad Parents' Weekend is over, actually.

I have been working on this test chamber for two days. This is exactly the kind of nerd I am. And as always, your complete image reference gallery (http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1430), now with improved graphics! Yay, new video card.

Again, let me know if you want GLaDOS to comment on your character's trip through the chamber, whether a specific section or the whole thing. SP may be quite the thing, but I'll do my best.

Comment on Korra's trip, please!

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

Sign In [PITS, Week 6]

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Re: Sign In [PITS, Week 6]

Locker Rooms: Before Class [PITS, Week 6]

During the Lecture [PITS, Week 6]

Midterm! [PITS, Week 6]

Midterm [Part 1: Portal Basics]

Re: Midterm [Part 1: Portal Basics]

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Midterm [Part 2: Balance/Hard Light Bridges]

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Midterm [Part 3: Agility/Aerial Faith Plates]

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Re: Midterm [Part 3: Agility/Aerial Faith Plates]

Midterm [Part 4: Reflexes/Coordination/Portal-Flinging]

Re: Midterm [Part 4: Reflexes/Coordination/Portal-Flinging]

Re: Midterm [Part 4: Reflexes/Coordination/Portal-Flinging]

Midterm [Part 5: Strength/Weighted Storage Cubes and Buttons]

Re: Midterm [Part 5: Strength/Weighted Storage Cubes and Buttons]

Re: Midterm [Part 5: Strength/Weighted Storage Cubes and Buttons]

Midterm [Part 6: Speed/Reaction Time/Thermal Discouragement Beams]

Re: Midterm [Part 6: Speed/Reaction Time/Thermal Discouragement Beams]

Re: Midterm [Part 6: Speed/Reaction Time/Thermal Discouragement Beams]

Re: Midterm [Part 6: Speed/Reaction Time/Thermal Discouragement Beams]

Midterm: [Part 7: More Agility/More Thermal Discouragement Beams/The Exit]

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Locker Rooms: After Class [PITS, Week 6]

Talk to GLaDOS [PITS, Week 6]

OOC [PITS, Week 6]

Re: OOC [PITS, Week 6]