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

Once you got past the sign in the entry corridor, the classroom setup today might be vaguely recognizable as a tennis court -- Aperture style, which meant that instead of a net there was a grating about four feet high, and the only lines on the "court" were the tiles made of non-portal-holding material that bordered the space. Past that, on the other side of a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, was a slightly elevated surface that might've been a racquetball court.

Sort of.

Not that there were rackets anywhere. Just, on each court, a glowing tennis-ball-sized energy sphere that bounced steadily back and forth between the floor and the ceiling (both portal-able surfaces, interestingly enough).

"It's easy enough to plan your movements and time your reactions when you have a steady pattern to plan around," GLaDOS informed the class in the detached and vaguely disdainful voice of someone who was not at all holding a bit of a grudge over the potato battery thing from the other day, not at all, she was FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. "Let's see how you handle a slightly less predictable situation. It's still entirely scientific, of course. It is possible to calculate the possible outcomes of a given moment and weigh the odds of each possible outcome, but have fun with that if you can't handle data as fast as I can. Ha. Since that's astronomically unlikely, you'll just have to resort to primitive guesswork."

She paused and let several bars of the Jeopardy! theme music play.

"Oh, and in order to add a sense of urgency to the test conditions and encourage more realistic results, there will be consequences for making incorrect contact with your Vital Testing Apparatus. Try not to be too . . . shocked. Good luck."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Following the bouncing energy ball.

Topher Brink

Liara T'Soni

Korra

Jackson Whittemore

Victor Mancha

Ace McShane

Susan Sto Helit

Billy Kaplan

Hanna Marin

Evan Sabahnur

Richie Ryan

Do whatever it is you do in the locker room before class. No cameras in here anyway!

Puzzle out today's ~~lesson~~ test if you want to!

Ace eyed today's signs a bit grumpily. Her toast had burnt this morning and she'd been running too late to make more, so it was go hungry or taste burnt toast all day. She'd chosen b.

And was still hungry, so sod that for a game of (toast) soldiers.

"Y'know, that slice of cake keeps showing up everywhere but here."

Edited 2012-11-14 18:12 (UTC)

"I keep thinking there are, like, easter eggs or something in the rooms and there's cake hidden there," Topher shared. "But it's probably poison or expired or something, what with how she hates us and everything."

"Y'think?" Sort of agreeing was never going to stop Ace from looking for that damned cake anyway. "I dunno. She talks a good game about hating us, but nobody's actually got hurt in here."

"Says the person who collides with stuff all the time," Topher reminded her helpfully.

That was once, Topher. Maybe twice.

Ace made a sound that was intelligible in exactly zero languages and rude in all of them. "I've got hurt worse in my own experiments than I ever have in here."

That... might not be a bragging point, Dorothy.

"Yeah, well, duh, who hasn't?" Topher said, unimpressed. The answer was 'sane people,' Topher. "Do you know how many times my hair's caught fire? A lot."

Not to worry, Ace. Topher was pretty terrible at bragging too.

"My point, charcoal-hair, was she can't hate us that much, if she hasn't even hurt us as much as we've hurt ourselves."

Or, you know, maybe GLaDOS was just smarter than them...

"Yeah, I know--" not really-- "but I don't know, there's probably safety controls on the room or something. Plus you may be underestimating the pain it causes me to not get cake."

"...There is that. Lying about food is pretty diabolical."

It's just like regular tennis, only instead of hitting the ball back and forth over the net, you're trying to portal it somewhere that your opponent can't retrieve and return it to you successfully. More than one bounce, or bouncing out of bounds, ends a rally. Tsk.

The energy pellet will zap you if you come into contact with it. Nothing serious, though, just a mild static shock and that patch of skin going a tiny bit numb for about ten minutes.

The games in here were so much easier for Richie when they were easily recognizable as games.

Which didn't stop Richie from getting zapped on the arm repeatedly when he failed to move out of the way of a ball fast enough. But at least he understood the basic concept right off.

Same concept: use portals to move the energy ball around and try to keep your opponent(s) from returning it! Just be careful not to let the energy pellet start ricocheting off the glass walls; then you're not playing racquetball any more. More like dodgeball. Effects of the energy ball are the same as above.

Not a potato today, thank you very much.

Getcher full room screenshot set (http://gladigotburned.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/2119) here!

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

Sign In [PITS, 11/14]

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Locker Rooms: Before Class [PITS, 11/14]

During the "Lecture" [PITS, 11/14]

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Activity: Aperture Tennis [PITS, 11/14]

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Activity: Aperture Racquetball [PITS, 11/14]

Talk to GLaDOS [PITS, 11/14]

OOC [PITS, 11/14]