Remember my scientist friend V? I wrote about her here and here. Despite all my intentions to remain friends with her, I still broke contact eventually. Not because anything had changed about our situation, but rather because nothing ever changed at all. Maintaining our friendship was deeply exhausting, and the emotionally manipulative, immature way she treated me was actually kind of toxic. When the joy of one-upping her with kindness wore off, all what was left was that toxicity. It was an intriguing experiment, but I am happy it’s over.
Why am I writing about her again? Well… lately I was going through some Portal stuff, and the more I saw and recalled of the game’s antagonist GlaDOS, a sort-of-evil AI obsessed with science, the more I felt like this was familiar to me. And suddenly I realized that V. was basically a human GlaDOS. I mean, seriously. Reading through our online conversations, the resemblance was uncanny. High intelligence, “science is all that matters” attitude, obsessive need to control everything, emotional manipulation of every living thing around her, self-loathing and insecurity hidden underneath the world’s largest ego, constant, paranoid fear of betrayal, inability to trust anyone, need to experiment and test every single hypothesis*…
*(Have I told you V. once ended up in the hospital because she was testing how long a human being can remain at maximum productivity without rest? And yes, that was how she put it.)
It was so striking that for a moment I wondered if she had been doing it on purpose, emulating this character’s behavior to see what it would do to the people around her… If this were the case, I sincerely applaud her for her dedication. It’s doubtful though.
I somehow don’t know if I should find it hilarious that I knew a person with such an extremely caricatural personality, or rather sad that such a person exists outside of video games. I think I’m just gonna stick with being disappointed that I only realized this uncanny resemblance after breaking contact. It would have made for a more interesting (and potentially amusing) experiment…
We're All Mad Inhere 
Sounds like you made a good choice.
If you’re familiar with the book/film Party Monster; an ex boyfriend of mine totally reminds me of Michael Alig. It’s super creepy. Not that he murdered anyone, just the narcissistic and manipulative part.
Life imitating Art? I would have been creeped out beyond belief by a guy like that… (good thing that he’s ex!)
I like to think I made a good choice. Maintaining a friendship solely for the purpose of studying, frustrating, and trying to one-up each other is nothing but draining. I still think she was the best enemy I ever had. I don’t think I’ll ever find someone more dedicated.
Ha, that’s a good way to look at it 😛