Here's an idea for a character I could play if we ever potentially plan on reviving the Portal rp lol LORE: Near the end of the 20th century, Aperture was doing terribly. The company hadn't had any major innovations in over twenty years, and was losing government science contracts to competitor companies, such as Black Mesa, nearly weekly. Naturally, they were fraught to try and figure something out and make some sort of breakthrough. In an act of desperation, they decided to create a new secret faction of Aperture, disguised as its own company. They gave it the pseudonym (fake name) of Arbeit Communications (Pronounced Ar-Bite). The faction was disguised as a cell tower developer and radio operating company. But under the surface, Arbeit's true purpose was to use the cell towers to hijack onto radio transmissions between Black Mesa employees and listen into them and discover their secret projects. The main operator of the cell towers was a copper personality core named Sherman. Sherman was very charismatic and was equipped with top-of-the-line radio equipment to intercept Black Mesa's signals. He functions as Arbeit's main operator and Mainframe. The front's true purpose was discovered by the government, and Arbeit was swiftly abandoned by the company. Due to it being 'too risky,' they hadn't sent a notice, and all the personnel and cores working at Arbeit's main headquarters in Antartica were unaware they were no longer needed and continued functioning normally. Throughout the Seven Hour War as well as the Combine's occupation of Earth, Sherman and the rest of the employees at Arbeit were able to defend themselves and continue operating the facility as normal. Arbeit, to this day, remains one of the only functioning facilities left, alongside Aperture's HQ in upper Michigan where the events of Portal 1 & 2 take place. Despite Arbeit being located in the Artic, Sherman and the rest of the 'company' are unaware they are in close proximity to the greatest superweapon known to mankind. The Borealis.
"Well.. seems those bloody 'combines' are gone for good. Good riddance. Anyways, back to work people. We've got a job to do!" "Well, if I wasn't wiser, I'd accuse those hooligans at Black Mesa of stealing Aperture's tech! Honestly, have those donut-eating miscreants have an original thought in their LIFE?" "Ah yes, I'm perfectly aware of the turret production line issues. Those bloody engineers are, well. excuse my rudeness, miss, but they... aren't great at their job. Respectfully, of course. Nothing ever works around here with them at the reigns of the chariot." "Picking up a signal? From where? Oh... must be those degenerates back at Michigan. Honestly, I'd like to see them not break something for ONCE. Here we are at Arbeit, doing the REAL work. Honestly, they must thank us more." (yes hes british lol. search up Codsworth from fallout 4 for voice reference. He sorta sounds like that.)
