The longer Wheatley suffered his return, the more he figured that She was intent on making his life as miserable as possible.
A joint assignment! Could you believe it? At first, it seemed like a blessing in disguise. Surely another shot at escape with a human couldn’t hurt … But then She insisted that it would be another bot he’d be spending the day with, and it took everything the android had to bite back a groan upon the realization of exactly what kind of bot he’d be up against.
It was a simple task, really. A custodial and morale bot. Wheatley and ASMIA. The perfect team to dote over thousands of slumbering humans in some derelict sector of the facility. Wheatley was to do diagnostics, and ASMIA to interface directly to the humans in order to assuage any particularly distressed subjects. He’d done the job alone plenty of times, though he perhaps was a bit careless in exactly how he went about doing so.
If there was something Wheatley didn’t play nice with, it was distressed humans.
They’re at least thirty subjects down when Wheatley can no longer bear the heavy silence. ❝ I did this job for years, actually. Did I ever tell you that? ❞ Some part of him knows he did, and some bigger part of him knows that ASMIA had a few stern words for exactly how he’d done his job. But the desire for conversation far outweighed his ego, at least for now.
❝You did, yeah. Remember all the people you let die? You told me about them too,❞ she reminds him, continuing her work as if his mouth had never opened. This whole time she has refused to look him in the eye, dreading what she might find if she does. Or rather, fearing what might be absent: regret, repentance, or-- y’know, any responsibility for his actions at all.
While most of her grudge towards the taller android stems from his disastrous attempts at caring for the poor souls stuck in suspension, there is one other matter she has yet to confront him about.
ASMIA had managed to hide out in the facility for years, searching for a way out and helping those in need along the way. For years GLaDOS had assumed she’d either made it out or died trying, never caring to actually fact check this conclusion. Until Wheatley let the secret out, that is. Now She was assigning them to work together, just to rub the metaphorical salt a little deeper into ASMIA’s wounds.
So here she was, forced to work under the person she hates most in the world and partnered with the runner-up for that position. Well-- okay, hate is a strong word. A really negative one, the kind she was always told to stay away from. ASMIA has gotten used to that word in regards to Her, but with Wheatley it’s a different emotion. Several, really. She is bitter and disappointed and angry and hurt all at the same time.
Still, a twinge of guilt pierces through it all. It’s not like her to snap at him like this, to lash out in an attempt to make him feel even a little bit sorry. A sigh escapes her as they walk towards the next subject, ❝ Sorry. Look-- can we jus’ work? I--❞ She realizes her voice is shaking. So are her hands. This isn’t the first time she’s been so overwhelmed by negative emotions it’s sent her into a panic attack, far from it. It is, however, the first time she can’t run away from the cause. The job had to get done, and they had to do it. ❝ I really can’t talk to you right now-- please jus’...stop. ❞