app: ximilia

[testgasm]

OOC
Name: Whit
Contact: whitticus, discord at whitticus#8139
Other characters: N/A
Invited by: N/A, apping during open period

IC
Name: Wheatley (Aperture Science Intelligence Dampening Sphere)
Canon: Portal 2
Canon point: Post-game, after being launched into space and giving his apology monologue.
Age: Unknown, but presumably 50+ based on the (vague) timeline of the Portal/Half-Life universe. Who knows! For all intents and purposes, he was programmed to be an adult.

History: [Portal 1 + 2 Storyline] [Wheatley]

Personality:

+ Gregarious
Wheatley is friendly and enthusiastic, albeit high-strung. He’s bumbling and anxious in an endearing way, and wears his emotions on his (figurative) sleeves. He loves to talk, doing so constantly, with a penchant for rambling and strange anecdotes. He’s congenial, superficially polite, and encouraging when working with someone towards a common goal. Ultimately, he wants to be liked, and as such is outgoing and generally good-natured (to a point).

+ Innovative
As a robot designed to have ideas, he’s positively full of them. He tends to throw things at the wall to see what sticks, but despite his programming, manages to devise and enact clever plans over the course of his attempted escape from Aperture. He applies his knowledge of the facility’s inner workings and guides Chell through a multi-step scheme to successfully depose GLaDOS. It’s possible that this is the result of a loophole: Wheatley can be extremely cunning in certain situations simply because his success is bad for everyone else, but he is shown to have a creative problem-solving sensibility.

+ Proactive
Despite the fact that he is largely dependent on others and terrified of most things, Wheatley takes a surprising amount of initiative during the first half of the game. He puts an escape plan in action and serves as a well-meaning facilitator, able to work and re-work things on the fly as obstacles arise. Though he’s motivated in part by a life-or-death situation, he knows what he needs to do to survive and wastes no time making it happen.

- Self-centered
He has little concept of empathy and no regard for human life. His relationship with Chell is entirely transactional, dependent on what she can do for him, and ultimately he proves to be a coward concerned with his own survival and fulfillment. Underneath his quirky brand of geniality is a robot who is embittered and unhappy with his lot in (artificial) life, and he’s not above throwing others under the bus if it means he gets to see another day.

- Delusional
Wheatley is largely defined by a crippling inferiority complex, preferring to ignore things he doesn’t understand rather than try to understand them. Plagued by the feeling that he might not be intelligent after all, he overcompensates, trying very hard to appear as though he knows what he's doing. When that doesn't work, he seems content to exist in blissful ignorance, "manually overriding" walls and doors by slamming into them, and "hacking" computers by engaging them in conversation. However, he's more self-aware than he lets on, as he seems to have been built just smart enough to have a massive complex about being stupid.

- Vindictive
Given any kind of authority, Wheatley quickly takes the opportunity to abuse it, flying into a rage any time his competence comes into question. He betrays, antagonizes, and attempts to murder Chell simply because he has the means to do so. After spending so long as "tiny little Wheatley", insignificant, inept and ignored, he goes insane with power the instant he gets it, proving to be highly unstable and very dangerous as he enacts his revenge, incapable of understanding that his own lack of self-control is the problem.

Powers/Abilities:

◎ The astounding power of the bad idea: he is hardwired to make the worst possible choice in any given situation. It’s entirely likely a fellow AI would find their functions hindered because he’s programmed to hamper the intelligence and decision-making skills of other computers.

◎ As a core, he possesses the ability to interface and communicate with computer systems by plugging into them. The degree of control he gains is determined by the system itself: if he's plugged into the controls for an elevator, he is only able to move the elevator. Unplugged from his overhead track, he's limbless and incapable of independent locomotion.

◎ Did you know that all Aperture Science Personality Constructs can survive temperatures of up to 400 degrees Kelvin and will remain functional in apocalyptic, low power environments of as few as 1.1 volts, which is the exact amount of electricity generated by a potato battery? Now you do!

◎ He has a built-in flashlight!!

◎ Wheatley is IMMUNE TO LOGICAL PARADOXES actually this is less of an ability and more of a shining testament to his sheer lack of basic comprehension of logical paradoxes.

Regret:
Wheatley’s last known sentiment is an explicit wish to “take it all back”. He’s certainly not a stranger to making terrible mistakes, and seems to be capable of feeling remorse. Given the deep regret he feels (or claims to feel) after his betrayal and disastrous management of Aperture Laboratories, he would want to undo being plugged into the mainframe and escape with Chell instead.

Inventory:
Wheatley is a ball-shaped robot who is a little worse for the wear and owns nothing.

However, as per this mod comment, he will arrive with the ability to hover, though it may take him some time to realize he is able to do so, and even longer to master. As the game progresses, I hope to work with the mods and technically-inclined PCs to acquire the necessary resources to assemble a bipedal chassis, with the ultimate goal of giving him more independence and greater ability to interact with his environment. He thinks having thumbs would be neat.

Sample:
Log sample
Network sample