#and yes I had to put Repulsion and Propulsion gel puddings in the vending machines

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Valicer Severance AU Time

Okay, so, it's been a while since I talked about this one -- blame various things in my life being distracting and having trouble getting all of my thoughts together, for there are a loooot of thoughts. But I am here now and we are going to talk about it, damn it. Let's go --

-->To recap from my previous post, this is a multi-fandom crossover AU using the premise of the "Severance" (2022) Apple TV+ show, where a group of workers for the Lumon company have their consciousnesses "severed," splitting their minds into Innies (who only exist on Lumon's "severed floor" and are perpetually at work, with no memories of their outside lives) and Outies (who only exist outside the floor and have no memory of what they do at work), with the switchover between the two happening in the elevator that goes to and from the severed floor. My AU would focus primarily on the Innie versions of Victor, Alice, and Smiler, who together with their supervisor Wheatley make up the Macrodata Refinement team on the severed floor of Aperture Science. Because I can't see corporate malfeasance and not think "Aperture Science." XD

-->Some worldbuilding for you about how the severance procedure came about in this universe: When Cave Johnson got sick and started demanding that, if they couldn't successfully shove HIS consciousness into a computer before he died, they shove CAROLINE'S into a computer instead, one lab boy, seeing how reluctant Caroline WAS to become a computer, went, "Well, what if we try copying your brain into a computer instead?" Caroline was more on board with that, and they gave it a go --

And got GLaDOS, a computer intelligence that had most of Caroline's personality and intelligence, but none of her memories. This version of GLaDOS did indeed still try to kill the scientists (pissed off by them insisting she was an "imperfect copy" and yet trying to force her to work for them regardless), but they managed to shut her down -- and Caroline, despite the danger, thought there was something to this. They thus started experimenting with scanning the brains of various employees, turning them into artificial intelligences, and seeing what resulted. Some were -- imperfect (one "personality core" wouldn't do anything but recite cake recipes, while another wouldn't stop going on about space), while others were almost perfect replicas of their human counterparts, just without any memories of who they were before. Which made them more amendable to doing jobs that their human counterparts might have balked at. Caroline was all for having a workforce that couldn't REMEMBER why they might not want to work at Aperture and do inadvisable science, and thus the severance chip was born!

-->And one of the first test subjects for that chip? Why, none other than Test Subject 0001, aka Chell! Who was just as intent as escaping THIS version of Aperture as she is the canonical one. The scientists at Aperture were hoping that her Innie would be much more amendable to doing all their tests without complaint --

Instead, they got an even angrier Chell who, upon realizing she couldn't fucking remember anything, rebelled by refusing to even talk to anyone and tried even harder to escape. The scientists decided to try and put her under the supervision of one of their newly-made personality cores -- a scan of one of their janitors, Stephen "Wheatley" Wilco -- to see if the talkative robot could maybe convince her to be more compliant --

Instead, Wheatley -- who, having overheard some scientists talking about the outside world and grown very curious about it -- ended up befriending Chell and helping her escape. The IDEA was that he would join her in the elevator to the surface world once he got her safely inside -- but when he disconnected from his rail, Chell failed to catch him. And of course, once the elevator went up, Chell swapped to her Outie form, who had no idea that Wheatley even existed, and Outie!Chell just fucking ran for it when she reached the surface. Leaving poor Wheatley still trapped in Aperture. The angry and embarrassed scientists promptly wiped his memory of the whole incident and moved onto new test subjects, figuring maybe they should start with office workers instead...

-->Bringing us to the "present day" and the Macrodata Refinement team! So why exactly are Victor, Alice, and Smiler all down there when they're not canonically Aperture employees? Well --

Victor signed up after the death of his fiancee Victoria Everglot and their mutual friend/secret third Emily Merrimack during a mugging perpetrated by Emily's old boyfriend Barkis Bittern. The poor guy ended up extremely depressed after their deaths and even tried to take his own life, which led to him (unwisely) allowing his parents to take more control over his life and finances to stop that happening again. They were told about the program by one Dr. Kellard Kelman, one of Aperture's chief psychiatrists and "social compliance officer," and they talked Victor into trying it so he'd have at least eight hours a day where he wasn't moping about his lost love (William also wanted to see how it worked because, well, as owner of Van Dort Fish, he was interested in the procedure for his own employees...).

Alice was signed up for the program after it was offered as a "rehabilitation program" -- to the prison she was currently in. Yes, unfortunately in this reality, while Alice did successfully shove Bumby in front of a train for what he did to the children of Houndsditch and her own family, she was subsequently caught and convicted of murder. (With the silver lining being that Bumby was exposed for all the horrible things he was doing in the process, so the public is pretty sympathetic to her reasons for murder.) She wasn't exactly keen on the program, as you might admit, but as a prisoner of the state and an orphan with no one really speaking up on her behalf (not even Nanny, who thought it might be good for Alice to forget Wonderland, even for a short time each day), she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

And Smiler -- well. Smiler, aka Marmaduke Kelman, had no interest in joining the program, having no real idea it existed because they'd gotten away from their asshole father as soon as it was possible for them to do so. They were happily living on their own, hanging out with their friends and working a barista job they loved while studying chemistry in college --

And then Kelman, with the help of his assistant Miles Cedars, managed to kidnap them and forced the procedure on them because a) he thought it would make his "son" more socially compliant and b) it would look good for Aperture for his kid to have gone through the procedure as well. Smiler, as you might imagine, was furious about the whole thing, but unfortunately they were also trapped inside Kelman's "Sanctuary" and unable to do anything about it. The most they were able to do was to convince Kelman to let them keep their purple-tipped hair and yellow contacts -- and that was only because Kelman decided that Smiler asking for a haircut "would be a good sign that you're becoming more socially compliant." (Smiler made a vow right then and there that they would do ANYTHING they needed to maintain their haircut.)

-->As for the order they were "hired" -- Alice entered the program first, then Victor came along about a month later, and Smiler a month after that. However, despite being the second employee hired, Victor is in fact the Team Lead of Macrodata Refinement (aka MDR) because Nell insisted he have some sort of "managerial" role, and that was the best they could offer under the circumstances. Innie!Victor has no freaking idea why he's Team Lead and doesn't actually want the position, basically ignoring it as much as possible.

--As stated above, their supervisor is Wheatley, post-Chell memory wipe, with the scientists wanting to see if his "deviant" behavior of "wanting to escape the horrible basement" comes back despite the change in circumstances. Caroline especially wants to keep an eye on this experiment after the whole "Chell" debacle, so she takes on the persona of "Miss Glados" for the Innies, serving as their terrifying and misanthropic boss. She finds it a great way to blow off steam after having to play up the perky "Ms. Caroline McLain" persona for the rest of the world. Dr. Kelman rounds out the department as their "social compliance therapist," monitoring the group for unwanted behaviors and pushing them to become happy corporate drones with the help of "guard core" Rick (who keeps hitting on Alice, to her annoyance). (And yes, Rick has a human counterpart upstairs -- ironically, he's the security guard who swipes all the severed employees into the elevator at the start of their day. And yes, he still hits on Alice, to her annoyance.)

-->The AU would "officially" start with Smiler's hiring, with their Innie self ("Marmaduke A" according to their badge -- Dr. Kelman thought it best not to even hint that they might be his kid) waking up on a table in a conference room and being asked a series of questions to confirm that all their personal memories have been locked off by the chip (as per "Severance" canon). Once that's been sorted, they're introduced to the rest of the team by Wheatley, and learn from them what exactly it is they do -- which is stare at files full of various numbers on their computers and try to sort them into bins based on if the numbers make them feel scared, happy, angry, or sad. (Smiler: ...we sort numbers based on vibes? Alice: [sarcastically] The work is mysterious and important.) They also learn the incentive system for sorting these numbers -- at 10% file completion, you get an Aperture-branded eraser; at 25% done, you get an Aperture-branded finger trap; at 75% done, you get a "Music & Dance Experience" (a five-minute dance party for the team); and at 100%, there is a Cake Day for everyone. Though -- well, I'll let Alice explain it --

Smiler: We get cake if we complete a file? Victor: Ah -- theoretically. Alice: Yes, don't get your hopes up -- for whatever reason, these files mysteriously vanish on us after a while, and we have to start new ones. Victor and I have never been able to fully complete one. Smiler: Really? Victor: [shaking his head] 73% is the closest I've come. Alice: 74% for me...so while earning the "Music & Dance Experience" is probably possible -- I think the cake is a lie.

:D

Oh, and there's also the possibility of earning a "waffle party" if the entire team does really well, which Wheatley is mildly obsessed with.

-->Speaking of food, the Innies have lunches provided for them by Van Dort Fish -- tuna fish sandwiches and carrot sticks! Every single goddamn day! Victor has made it clear that, if he ever meets him, he is punching "that asshole with the mustache" on the label. XD There is also a vending machine, with each Innie allowed two tokens per day to get snacks -- Victor, however, immediately warns Smiler off getting any of the pudding cups in there. Reason being, Victor got one of the blue puddings shortly after he was brought in, only for Alice -- annoyed with him for some reason, I haven't quite decided why yet -- to grab it from him and throw it on the floor -- and the damn thing BOUNCED all the way up to the CEILING. There's still a small blue stain up there. Among the "safe" snacks are dried blueberries, cubed ginseng, roasted peanuts, and "Raisins (Shriveled)." Smiler is naturally like "what" and Alice tells them "this place is so weird I bet they HAVE made unshriveled raisins."

As for drinks, the Innies have their choice between water, lemonade, and coffee from the coffee machine. Smiler feels oddly drawn to the latter, and it is quickly discovered that they are mysteriously amazing at making coffee -- to the point where, after allowing Smiler to make her a cup, even Miss Glados has to say "...good job." XD They cheerfully take over all coffee duties going forward, which everyone is happy to let them do.

-->Anyway -- after some time spent as part of the MDR team, dealing with the baffling work and the fact that they're trapped on the severed floor (because every time they get into the elevator, from their perspective, they just end up getting right back out again in different clothes -- Smiler had a bit of a hard time adjusting to that the first time it happened), Smiler goes "I am assigning myself the duty of keeping us all sane so we don't snap" and goes to raid the supply closet for stuff to decorate their cubicle with, settling on grabbing as many colorful Post-It notes as they can. Victor and Alice are initially reluctant to join in, but Smiler points out that there's nothing in their employee manual that says they can't decorate their cubicle -- and when Wheatley protests, saying they can't "deface company property," Smiler shows him how the notes just pull right off. And then gives him an orange Post-It note with "Supervisor" written on it, which makes him MUCH more amendable to the whole idea. XD The gang ends up having a lovely time using the Post-Its to make pictures on their walls, and even manage to suss out what they think are their favorite colors (Smiler yellow, Victor blue, Alice red).

-->Not long afterward, Smiler comes up with the name "Smiler" for themselves (they'd been going by "M" previously because, well, their name is fucking Marmaduke) and uses a label maker they found to update their name badge appropriately. Wheatley insists THAT is defacing company property and gives them their first write-up for it --

Smiler: What exactly happens when I get written up? Wheatley: It means you can't earn any incentives -- no erasers, no finger traps, no nothing -- for a week! [beat] Alice: [holds out her hand] Give me the label maker.

Yes, it's not exactly a deterrent. XD However, unfortunately, not long after that, Miss Glados shows up and starts making snide comments about their decorations -- and a fed-up Smiler deliberately tears a hole in their cubicle wall. Victor immediately is like "I'm sorry, I didn't onboard them well, please don't punish them," but Miss Glados will not be deterred, and Smiler is taken to the Break Room. Which, as per "Severance" canon --

is the place where they break you. Usually by having you recite an apology over and over and over again until they're content you mean it, but occasionally Miss Glados gets -- creative. Smiler gets the apology, though, and ends up staying in there three hours until she's content they're truly sorry. They slump back to their cubicle feeling miserable, and with the "Smiler" label on their badge scraped off. Victor and Alice immediately offer them water and comfort, talking about the first times they ended up in the break room (Alice actually ended up in there on her second day after trying to smash her way through the fire escape door with a fire extinguisher; Victor ended up there at the end of his first week for threatening to take his fingers off with a paper cutter unless they let him go home) -- and Wheatley, who was being a bit of an ass about the "Smiler" thing before, starts using their preferred name because now he feels bad.

-->From there, we have a bunch of random Innie adventures and discussions --

A) Victor taking the group on a trip to the "Johnson Memorial Wing" as a "team-building exercise" when Smiler asks who the hell "Cave Johnson" is anyway -- the little museum features such things like the giant singing "stone" head from the Desk Job game/tech demo, causing Smiler to go "Are we in a cult?" (Alice: "I haven't ruled out the possibility.") Grady from that game is also there as the local "Maintenance Core" -- Wheatley hates him because he gets to have an arm and Wheatley doesn't XD

B) Smiler discovering one day while playing with index cards that they can fold hopping frog origami, and the Innie trio wondering what other skills they have that they might not know about -- notably, Victor discovers that he can speak French when Wheatley tries to show off his command of languages (telling the core that he said "Please consult your user manual for help using this translation software"), and Alice realizes she seems to know a weird amount about photography

C) Relatedly, the trio wondering who their Outies are and why they would go through severance -- notably, Alice's theory is that they are all in jail and were made to get severed to make sure they remained "productive citizens." Smiler goes "like we're all murderers or something?" and Alice goes, "oh no -- you robbed a bank, and Victor probably committed tax evasion." An amused Victor goes "what about you?" and she replies, with a big grin, "Oh, I totally killed someone."

D) Alice dealing with hallucinations still, because being severed does NOT cure her mental illness -- most often, she sees horrible black goo dripping from the ceiling, and the walls being covered in rotting pink flesh, with occasional glimpses of this weird grinning cat and this white rabbit with a pocket watch observing her. Victor and Smiler do their best to support her as she deals with the weirdness

E) Smiler getting the orange pudding cup of the vending machine one day just to see what the "pudding" does -- after determining that it massively speeds up anything rolled across it after painting some on a piece of paper, the gang end up making rally cars out of office supplies and holding a race. Unfortunately, Miss Glados catches them partway through -- and while she doesn't force any of them to go to the Break Room, she does give them all a second-level write-up. Which means they don't get any vending machine tokens at all for the rest of the week. As you might imagine, they spend the rest of that week kinda hungry

F) The gang having "social compliance sessions" with Dr. Kelman which don't really make them feel any better about their lives -- Smiler in particular does not understand why the guy seems so annoyed by them using they/them pronouns, or why he's utterly obsessed with their haircut...

G) The gang going on a trip through the hallways after getting utterly bored and disgusted with their jobs, taking Wheatley with them on a handcart after it's revealed his management rail doesn't go to the places where they want to explore They find on their wanderings two people named Dan and Trish making a video of some sort (a reference to the "Smile Always" ad campaign for The Smiler); someone named "Des J." inspecting toilets in a room with a giant conveyor belt (aka the protagonist of Desk Job); a room of defective cores, including the aforementioned Cake Core and Space Core; a room full of musical instruments, with Smiler discovering they can play guitar and Victor piano; and a random guy who is taking care of baby goats and insists they're "not ready" when the MDR group shows up (this is something that actually happens in "Severance" itself -- though unlike in the show, the MDR team here gets to pet the goats). Unfortunately, all this wandering causes them to get lost, and they're unsure how to get back to their department --

And then Alice spots the mysterious white rabbit waiting for her at the end of the hall they're in. She asks Victor and Smiler if they trust her, and when they affirm they do, she goes "then maybe I can trust myself" and chases the rabbit. Rabbit, naturally, does successfully lead them back to their own department -- though unfortunately Miss Glados catches them as they return. Smiler immediately takes responsibility for the trip, having been the one to suggest the "mental health walk" -- however, Miss Glados decides that this is actually a failure of their Team Lead and punishes Victor instead, knowing that this will get to them worse than if she punished Smiler. Victor's actually in the Break Room for the rest of the day, to the point where, when he goes home, he has lost his voice from repeating the apology -- leading Outie!Victor to think maybe he's getting sick and take a day off. Smiler and Alice are naturally a bit freaked out by their coworker not showing up for work, and only calm down when Victor reappears the next day (a bit freaked out himself after he realizes they experienced a whole day without him).

H) On the opposite end of that, Smiler actually gets to 75% on a file and earns them all a Music/Dance Experience -- cue the gang actually having corporate-mandated fun with five minutes of "defiant jazz" played through Wheatley's speakers and learning which of them can dance XD

I) Victor doing something to piss off Miss Glados and getting one of the "creative" Break Room punishments -- namely, he's locked in a pitch black room and left to stew on his own baffled terror for a while. He ends up in the kitchenette afterward, curled up on the floor having a panic attack -- Smiler finds him in there and -- without really knowing how they're doing it -- hypnotizes him to calm him down (having Victor picture an image of that swirly-eyed smiley face they keep doodling when they're bored). Having thus discovered the talent, they end up using their surprise hypnosis skills on Victor and Alice at their request whenever they come in a bad mood thanks to their Outies or after a bad Break Room session or the like (yes, Alice too -- no memory of Dr. Bumby's hypnosis shenanigans, remember?). Victor and Alice are very grateful for the chance to turn their brains off for a bit and do their best to return the favor however they can to Smiler (Victor, it is eventually revealed, is quite good at shoulder massages).

-->Now, this is a Valicer AU, so we must have Valicer content -- so how do the romantic times start? Well, at one point after the hypnosis stuff is discovered, Smiler and Alice both help Victor coming in with a nasty headache thanks to his Outie. Victor desperately wants to pay them back for all the good they've brought into his life afterward, so he gets Wheatley to distract them right before their lunch break and tapes up a bunch of green and blue construction paper in the corner of the kitchenette by the vending machine and spreads more paper on the ground for a "blanket" for their sandwiches so they can have a picnic together (as it's the closest they'll ever get to going outside). Alice and Smiler are naturally touched, and the three enjoy a lovely lunch together...and during said lunch, Victor goes "fuck the fraternization policy" and kissing happens. Alice and Smiler fully reciprocate, and the trio become romantic partners as well as coworkers. Now, there are some initial worries about them getting punished when they realize their accidental "date" got recorded on the security camera --

But then they come in the next day, and discover Miss Glados giving Wheatley shit for practicing his "hacking" skills on the security footage, which reveals that he deliberately deleted the footage to stop them getting in trouble. :) The trio thank him, and keep their romantic activities (mainly just making out, though I have some ideas related to the "Kink Discovery" prompt on this year's Polyship Week prompt list...) to the storage closet from then on.

...and holy HELL this is getting long! O.O Like I said, lot of thoughts here. So let's take a quick break to have our tuna fish sandwiches, and we'll pick up after lunch for Part II -- The Rest Of The AU!