application for singularity_rpg
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Liana
OOC Journal: lunais_cross
Under 18? nope
Email/IM: lirance@gmail.com | lirance @ AIM
Characters Played at Singularity: Terezi Pyrope
Character Information ;
Name: Chell
Name of Canon: Portal
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference:
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Portal
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Chell
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Portal_storyline
Canon Point: After the end of the first game, when she is being dragged away by the Party Escort Bot.
Setting:
Once upon a time, there was a fucking crazy dude named Cave Johnson who started up a company called Aperture Science. He made shower curtains. Apparently he was damn good at making shower curtains, because the US Government commissioned him to make them for all branches of the armed forces, except for the Navy. Eventually he got mercury poisoning and went even more batshit before he died of kidney failure and brain damage. On his death bed he laid out a three-tiered plan for research and development that would ensure success for the company for years to come.
The first tier was: The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver - "A reliable technique for interrupting the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver."
The second tier was: The Take-A-Wish Foundation - "A charitable organization that will purchase wishes from the parents of terminally ill children and redistribute them to wish-deprived but otherwise healthy adults."
The third tier was: The 'Portal' project - "Some kind of rip in the fabric of space... That would... Well, it'd be like, I don't know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven't worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one."
SHEER. FUCKING. BRILLIANCE.
Aperture Science engineers got to work on the first two tiers of research before shit hit the fan, because let's face it, techniques for guaranteeing that someone chokes to death and taking presents away from dying children is what is generally considered to be A Dick Move. So they were brought before the Senate to answer for these Dick Moves, and then some asshole let it slip that they had made progress on the third tier of research and had produced a "man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain." Upon hearing this, Aperture Science got the Senate's approval to continue with what they were doing.
Of course, they weren't the only ones working in this area. Black Mesa, another research corporation, was busy looking into portal technology themselves. When they caught wind of this, Aperture Science got to work on GLaDOS, the Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, who would presumably give them the edge they needed against their competitor.
It took them more than twenty years, but eventually they were finished. On one fine Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in the twenty-first century, GLaDOS was brought online for the first time.
And then she proceeded to try to murder everyone.
Though personnel were able to outfit her with a Morality Core to stop her from flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, she was still able to wrest control away from the employees. She kept some people around as lab rats, intending to use them to test the functionality of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in the hopes of beating Black Mesa once and for all.
Too bad a few days later Black Mesa was a victim of a clusterfuck of their own. Blah blah blah anomalous materials introduced into resonance cascades and then suddenly headcrab zombies and Vortigaunts and goddamn creepy G-Men. The events of the Lambda incident effectively brought an end to the two companies' rivalry, mostly because the Earth was preoccupied by aliens and monsters attacking its place. For close to twenty years the world forgot about Aperture Science, the Enrichment Center, GLaDOS, and everything they were trying to do.
Enter Chell.
Chell is an enigma. No one knows anything about her, except maybe GLaDOS, and GLaDOS is a lying liar who lies. All that remains to us is speculation.
References to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in the game and on the main Aperture Science website lead some to believe that perhaps Chell was brought to the labs on that day, which happened to be the day GLaDOS was first switched on. Others speculate that Chell was an employee in some dead-end position before the start of the game. Some even say that the Chell we play is just a clone of the real one.
Whatever the case, the game begins with Chell in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment center, woken by GLaDOS’ voice. She had no idea who she was or why she was in the Center or even why the voice was welcoming her “again.” All she knew was that forty seconds later a strange portal opened in front of her, leading out of the relaxation vault.
So began Chell’s brief tenure as a test subject. She ran a gauntlet of nineteen test chambers, learning the basic and advanced skills for proper use of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. GLaDOS talked at her and offered her guidance and commentary, always watching through the security cameras.
She had a sense that this was not the way things were supposed to be. Although everything pertaining to herself were completely shot, there were wisps of memory of other things - trees, grass, flowers, the sun… Outside. A place beyond the cold, blank walls of the Enrichment Center. Perhaps she’d be able to go there after she completed her Tests and got her cake and grief counseling.
Chell metaphorically latched onto GLaDOS the moment she woke up. GLaDOS was the only other being in the Center, the only one who communicated with her. Chell trusted her, despite the lies and not-so-veiled threats, because Chell just didn’t know any better. GLaDOS talked to her. Advised her. Told her what to do and warned her about the dangers of the tests. Instead of reacting like a normal person and treating everything the AI said with a healthy degree of paranoia, Chell hung on to her every word, like a child would with her mother.
The deterioration of this supremely messed-up relationship began in Test Chamber 16 - which was allegedly replaced with a live fire obstacle course. Designed for military androids.
Oh yes.
Chell was left completely alone - GLaDOS didn’t say a word the entire time beyond the cursory explanation for the state of the test chamber. She managed to figure out the trick to disabling the turrets and managed pretty well before reaching a seemingly impassable corridor. Around that area she discovered an open panel leading to the dark backstage of the chamber and red writing on the walls. Someone had been through there before. Chell was not alone. The forerunner (The Rat Man) had scribbled disjointed, almost mad warnings on the walls. SHE’S WATCHING YOU. THE CAKE IS A LIE. And with that the seeds of doubt were planted in Chell’s mind. The graffiti extended outside; on the ceiling of the impassable corridor were marks where Chell could open portals to drop cubes on the turrets, allowing her to continue. Whoever had made these marks wanted Chell to succeed.
The next Test Chamber strained Chell’s trust in GLaDOS even further, for this is where she was introduced to her best friend, the Weighted Companion Cube. It did not talk to her or give her advice, but it also did not threaten to stab her, so Chell was fine with its silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, either; it was the comfortable kind shared between friends. Their bond transcended mere words. Theirs was a partnership rivaled only by Chell’s relationship with the portal gun, but there was no jealousy between the three.
And then GLaDOS told her to euthanize it.
Chell finally understood why grief counseling was offered at the end of the tests.
Everything came crashing down in the final test chamber. It wasn’t even the most difficult she’d faced, but the fire pit at the end complicated things. You know, because GLaDOS was trying to kill her. A fact which was made even more painfully obvious when Chell survived and GLaDOS, totally unprepared for that outcome, desperately backpedaled and lied unconvincingly to cover it up. Chell was told she’d won. Now all she had to do was lie down with her arms at her side in the Party Escort Submission Position and wait for an associate to come and collect her.
Yeah, right.
Chell immediately took off. If she’d been an obedient child following her robot not-mom’s instructions before, now she was a rebellious teenager lashing out against said robot not-mom’s rule. She ducked deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of the Enrichment Center, angry and upset and grief-stricken. She was guided by the Rat Man’s warnings and markings on the walls, and finally she made it to GLaDOS chamber. GLaDOS, of course, was not happy, and proceeded to try to make good on her threats to kill Chell, only to be stopped as something unexpectedly fell out of her. The robot claimed it was unimportant. Chell didn’t believe her. Chell incinerated it just to be difficult. Unfortunately, it was important -- it was a morality core, the only thing keeping GLaDOS from direct attempts at violence instead of passive-aggressively trying to kill Chell. Whoops. GLaDOS celebrated this newfound freedom by firing up the neurotoxin emitters and -- apparently thinking that wasn’t enough -- a rocket turret. Chell, however, used the turret to knock the remaining cores off GLaDOS, which she also incinerated in retaliation. When they were all burned, GLaDOS exploded rather spectacularly, and Chell was drawn upward by a swirling vortex of energy. The last thing she saw before she passed out were GLaDOS' remains, Outside.
Personality:
Imagine a lab rat born and raised in captivity. All its skills, all it knows, is going to be related to the experiment conditions the scientist raises it in, right? Run through the maze to get to the cheese at the end. Learn how to operate the levers to open the doors to the exit. Evade the traps. Don't step on the electrified wire.
Say hello to Chell.
Chell has amnesia. Chell doesn't remember anything about herself. Is she a clone? An android? Is "Chell" even her real name? It is a mystery.
Chell was basically "born" in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. All her skills, all she knows, is related to the testing chambers GLaDOS made her run through. Run through the facility to get to the cake at the end. Learn how to use the portal gun correctly. Evade the turrets. Don't step in the acid pool.
Because of this, Chell is very goal oriented. Everything she does is done with the intent to achieve a set of objectives. She pays careful attention to the way things are done, and threats to her physical well-being are avoided at all costs and reacted to with extreme prejudice. She's quick to adapt to new situations and problems.
Chell has a tendency to get very attached to inanimate objects. Animate objects? Not so much. If it moved or talked, it was generally out to get her. Energy pellets moved. Turrets talked. GLaDOS -- God forbid -- moved and talked. Things like the Weighted Storage Cubes helped her in the Testing Center. They were her friends. The only time they hurt her was if they fell on her, and that was never through any fault of their own. And if the regular Storage Cubes were "just" her friends, then just imagine her relationship with the Weighted Companion Cube. Although their time together was brief (read: one Test Chamber), that did nothing to weaken the strength of their bond. It was only with GLaDOS's reassurance that the Cube would rather die in a fire than hinder her that Chell was able to euthanize her friend. And if the Cube was her best friend, imagine what the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is to her. It's not merely a tool or a useful piece of tech -- it's an extension of her self. After her time in the Enrichment Center, operating the portal gun is as easy as breathing and twice as natural. It is her partner in all things. So yeah.
Chell can be a tad socially dumb/awkward/slow. Test subjects were never tested on their conversational skills, so she never developed any. The only social interaction she had was with GLaDOS, and that wasn't "social interaction" so much as it was "Chell listening to GLaDOS talking/lying at her about cake and occasionally offering commentary on the test chambers." It isn't very interactive if only one person is participating. As such, Chell is rather quiet, preferring not to speak unless she really has to. She is, however, a fantastic listener, mainly because that's all she ever did.
She's also a little naive. For one thing, she actually believed there was going to be cake and grief counseling at the end of the test. It wasn't until she was actually sliding into the fire pit that she realized the computer never had any intention of letting her live at all. Which is a shame, because Chell really needed that grief counseling. She's a little more suspicious of people/things since the murder attempt(s), but at heart she still wants to believe in people.
GLaDOS once mentioned that Chell was not smart. Whether there is any merit to that is unknown, but Chell grasped the trippy fundamentals of portaling pretty quickly and passed her Tests with flying colors. She is a kinetic learner to the extreme. She might not be book smart, but you won't find anyone better than her at on-the-fly (sometimes literally) spatial problem solving skills. And what she lacks in ACT scores (or test scores of any kind whatsoever) she makes up for in creativity. Give her a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff and she can do anything. So. Perhaps Chell just isn't smart in the areas GLaDOS deems important. Or perhaps GLaDOS is simply a lying liar who lies and whose claims ought to be ignored on those grounds.
SPEAKING OF HORRIBLE DEMORALIZING INSULTS ISSUED BY GLADOS: Chell likes to pretend that the things the AI said about her don't bother her at all. After all, she knows GLaDOS is a liar and a murderer. She knows GLaDOS was just trying to mess with her head. Like a willful, disobedient child, Chell discounts everything her crazy robot not-mom says about her. But, deep down inside, Chell is secretly afraid that GLaDOS is right. Chell can't remember anything about herself.
What if she isn’t smart? ("You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not even a full-time employee.")
What if she isn't a good person? ("Good people don't end up here")
What if she really is an android? ("Well done, android. The Enrichment Center once again reminds you that Android Hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance.")
What if there really was a clone of her somewhere and it really died as a result of her actions? ("Okay, enough, I deleted it. No matter what happens now you're dead.")
What if she's the clone?
Chell doesn't know, and that terrifies her.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Chell is a plain, vanilla human being. Shoot her enough times and she will die. Drop her in a pit of fire and she will burn. Blast her with an energy pellet and she will disintegrate.
Throw her at high velocities? Drop her from great heights? She'll shrug that shit off like it was nothing, thanks to the heel springs. They act as shock absorbers that prevent her from taking damage while running through the test chambers. She might sustain cuts and bruises from scraping across the walls or crashing into things, but she won't break any bones or die on impact. They're fucking magic okay don't think about it too hard.
She doesn't have anything even remotely resembling marketable job skills, but give her a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff, and suddenly she becomes a fucking wizard. I mean, anyone with a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff will be a fucking wizard, but she's like the grand high Archmagister of the Mages Guild. Curbstomping physics is what she does best.
Inventory: nothingggggg
she got dragged away by that stupid robot escort before she could grab her portal gun
Appearance: sup sup
Chell is of average height and appears to be of mixed descent. She has grey eyes and black, messy bed hair with streaks of grey through it. She could be anywhere from her twenties to her early forties. Who knows! She certainly doesn't. Other than her bright orange standard-issue test subject jumpsuit, her most noticeable physical feature are her heelsprings.
Despite the name, they’re not actually attached to her heels; they actually replace her knees. A long length of metal juts out from the top of her calf and comes down to curve under her foot. The way the “springs” are set up force her to be on her tip-toes all the time. When Chell falls or gets smacked around, the springs absorb the worst of the shock from the impact.
Age: currently unknown -- estimated to be anywhere from late 20s to her 40s.
OC/AU Justification ;
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test? Chell is not an OC, but since there is absolutely no canon information on her and I'm pretty much making everything up from what we see in the game, I ran her through anyway.
And What Did You Score? 10
Samples ;
Log Sample:
"What are you doing? Stop it! I-i-i-i-i-... Weeee are pleased that you made it through the final challenge where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are very very happy for your success. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success..."
GLaDOS may have thought She was being wildly clever and convincing, but Chell knew better now. Maybe she would have fallen for it earlier, but no more. It was like a veil had been ripped from her eyes and suddenly everything was clear -- the not jokes about being baked and the casual way GLaDOS spoke about her death, the writings the Other Person left on the walls, the complete lack of anything of any sort ensuring any kind of safety whatsoever.
GLaDOS had lied.
GLaDOS wanted her dead.
GLaDOS probably didn't even have any cake.
Well, then.
Chell quietly waited until GLaDOS finished issuing her ever-so-slightly panicked instructions regarding the Part Escort Submission Position before completely disregarding everything She'd just said and portaled away. A simple fling; she could almost do one in her sleep. One portal up high, one low, fall down until enough moment is built, a beautiful moment of flight, and then WHAM -- she crashed into the metal cylinders on the other side. She crumpled to the floor, momentarily dazed with pain, before gritting her teeth and hauling herself up as usual. She was lucky this time; she didn't come out horizontally or upside down like she sometimes did during flings, so the impact hadn't hurt as badly as it could have.
She immediately took off down the corridor to her left, trying to get away from where GLaDOS could have a camera set up. She followed it as far as it went, letting it lead her deeper into the Enrichment Center. The entire interior was a sharp contrast to the Testing Chambers; here it was mechanized, dirty, neglected. The metal catwalks felt grimy beneath her bare feet, and rust flaked off wherever she touched the railings. Sick looking pools of what looked like the same acid hazards in the Tests congealed wherever they pleased. Whereas the Chambers were well lit and cold, here it was darker and warmer. The sounds her heel springs made against the floor were even different -- they sounded lower, hollower, and they echoed throughout the empty rooms.
Despite how ugly and run-down and downright dangerous the interior was, Chell felt more safe than she ever had. There were no cameras, no turrets, no horrible fire pit traps. All GLaDOS could do was talk at her. And the Other Person, the one who'd come before and scribbled he warnings and messages on the walls, Chell could see that his influence extended here as well. Occasionally she ran across graffiti on the walls pointing her in what she knew had to be the right direction. This was a good place. GLaDOS could not reach her here, and she was surrounded by friends: her portal gun, the Rat Man, and there were even Storage Cubes being shuttled in the glass pipes around her.
...All that was missing was the Weighted Companion Cube.
Chell had to stop for a moment as the pain hit her like a punch to the solar plexus, nearly doubling her over. It was like her muscles had just given out under her; she had to clutch at a railing to even stay on her feet, knuckles turning white from the strain. Blinking did nothing to keep back the tears.
He'd been her best friend, and she'd killed him. She'd set him down and pressed the button and thrown him into the incinerator. He never tried to stop her. He didn't even say anything. He just sat there with those pink hearts all over him and accepted his fate with dignity whereas Chell had cried and tried to find another way even as GLaDOS had assured her there wasn't. And it had turned out to be for nothing. The Cube had sacrificed itself so that she could go on and finish the tests and be free and GLaDOS never had any intentions of letting her live.
No.
She stood up, wiped the tears from her eyes, adjusted her grip on her portal gun. She wouldn't let his sacrifice be in vain. She would make it Outside. She would be free. And if she had to go through GLaDOS to do it... well, that would just be the icing on the cake.
Network Sample:
[First, there is silence.
Or, rather, what only seems to be silence. Anyone listening closely can hear the sounds of a faint clicking, like that of metal against pavement. At one point there is a rustling, and then the quiet sounds of someone breathing. This continues for a few seconds before cutting off.
Then, there is a short video clip. Ten seconds of a disorienting whirlwind of images as the communicator is shakily moved around -- sky, buildings, road, back to sky, a flash of green -- and then Chell herself comes into a view, hair disheveled and falling out of its bun, orange jumpsuit dirty and torn, gray-green eyes wary. The view holds for a few seconds before abruptly cutting away to the ground, and then it ends.
There is a ping issued to the network, marking a location right outside the junkyard, before one takes Hypatia's tour.
And then finally, a text message is posted.]
hello world ?
[Less immediately obvious is the appearance of new accounts on both Everbreath of Fantasy MMXIV and Team Portal 19: a level one archer, and someone with no matches logged, both called subject_name_here.
Chell is testing her new wearable, and she is nothing if not thorough.]
Your Nickname: Liana
OOC Journal: lunais_cross
Under 18? nope
Email/IM: lirance@gmail.com | lirance @ AIM
Characters Played at Singularity: Terezi Pyrope
Character Information ;
Name: Chell
Name of Canon: Portal
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference:
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Portal
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Chell
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Portal_storyline
Canon Point: After the end of the first game, when she is being dragged away by the Party Escort Bot.
Setting:
Once upon a time, there was a fucking crazy dude named Cave Johnson who started up a company called Aperture Science. He made shower curtains. Apparently he was damn good at making shower curtains, because the US Government commissioned him to make them for all branches of the armed forces, except for the Navy. Eventually he got mercury poisoning and went even more batshit before he died of kidney failure and brain damage. On his death bed he laid out a three-tiered plan for research and development that would ensure success for the company for years to come.
The first tier was: The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver - "A reliable technique for interrupting the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver."
The second tier was: The Take-A-Wish Foundation - "A charitable organization that will purchase wishes from the parents of terminally ill children and redistribute them to wish-deprived but otherwise healthy adults."
The third tier was: The 'Portal' project - "Some kind of rip in the fabric of space... That would... Well, it'd be like, I don't know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven't worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one."
SHEER. FUCKING. BRILLIANCE.
Aperture Science engineers got to work on the first two tiers of research before shit hit the fan, because let's face it, techniques for guaranteeing that someone chokes to death and taking presents away from dying children is what is generally considered to be A Dick Move. So they were brought before the Senate to answer for these Dick Moves, and then some asshole let it slip that they had made progress on the third tier of research and had produced a "man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain." Upon hearing this, Aperture Science got the Senate's approval to continue with what they were doing.
Of course, they weren't the only ones working in this area. Black Mesa, another research corporation, was busy looking into portal technology themselves. When they caught wind of this, Aperture Science got to work on GLaDOS, the Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, who would presumably give them the edge they needed against their competitor.
It took them more than twenty years, but eventually they were finished. On one fine Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in the twenty-first century, GLaDOS was brought online for the first time.
And then she proceeded to try to murder everyone.
Though personnel were able to outfit her with a Morality Core to stop her from flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, she was still able to wrest control away from the employees. She kept some people around as lab rats, intending to use them to test the functionality of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in the hopes of beating Black Mesa once and for all.
Too bad a few days later Black Mesa was a victim of a clusterfuck of their own. Blah blah blah anomalous materials introduced into resonance cascades and then suddenly headcrab zombies and Vortigaunts and goddamn creepy G-Men. The events of the Lambda incident effectively brought an end to the two companies' rivalry, mostly because the Earth was preoccupied by aliens and monsters attacking its place. For close to twenty years the world forgot about Aperture Science, the Enrichment Center, GLaDOS, and everything they were trying to do.
Enter Chell.
Chell is an enigma. No one knows anything about her, except maybe GLaDOS, and GLaDOS is a lying liar who lies. All that remains to us is speculation.
References to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day in the game and on the main Aperture Science website lead some to believe that perhaps Chell was brought to the labs on that day, which happened to be the day GLaDOS was first switched on. Others speculate that Chell was an employee in some dead-end position before the start of the game. Some even say that the Chell we play is just a clone of the real one.
Whatever the case, the game begins with Chell in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment center, woken by GLaDOS’ voice. She had no idea who she was or why she was in the Center or even why the voice was welcoming her “again.” All she knew was that forty seconds later a strange portal opened in front of her, leading out of the relaxation vault.
So began Chell’s brief tenure as a test subject. She ran a gauntlet of nineteen test chambers, learning the basic and advanced skills for proper use of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. GLaDOS talked at her and offered her guidance and commentary, always watching through the security cameras.
She had a sense that this was not the way things were supposed to be. Although everything pertaining to herself were completely shot, there were wisps of memory of other things - trees, grass, flowers, the sun… Outside. A place beyond the cold, blank walls of the Enrichment Center. Perhaps she’d be able to go there after she completed her Tests and got her cake and grief counseling.
Chell metaphorically latched onto GLaDOS the moment she woke up. GLaDOS was the only other being in the Center, the only one who communicated with her. Chell trusted her, despite the lies and not-so-veiled threats, because Chell just didn’t know any better. GLaDOS talked to her. Advised her. Told her what to do and warned her about the dangers of the tests. Instead of reacting like a normal person and treating everything the AI said with a healthy degree of paranoia, Chell hung on to her every word, like a child would with her mother.
The deterioration of this supremely messed-up relationship began in Test Chamber 16 - which was allegedly replaced with a live fire obstacle course. Designed for military androids.
Oh yes.
Chell was left completely alone - GLaDOS didn’t say a word the entire time beyond the cursory explanation for the state of the test chamber. She managed to figure out the trick to disabling the turrets and managed pretty well before reaching a seemingly impassable corridor. Around that area she discovered an open panel leading to the dark backstage of the chamber and red writing on the walls. Someone had been through there before. Chell was not alone. The forerunner (The Rat Man) had scribbled disjointed, almost mad warnings on the walls. SHE’S WATCHING YOU. THE CAKE IS A LIE. And with that the seeds of doubt were planted in Chell’s mind. The graffiti extended outside; on the ceiling of the impassable corridor were marks where Chell could open portals to drop cubes on the turrets, allowing her to continue. Whoever had made these marks wanted Chell to succeed.
The next Test Chamber strained Chell’s trust in GLaDOS even further, for this is where she was introduced to her best friend, the Weighted Companion Cube. It did not talk to her or give her advice, but it also did not threaten to stab her, so Chell was fine with its silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, either; it was the comfortable kind shared between friends. Their bond transcended mere words. Theirs was a partnership rivaled only by Chell’s relationship with the portal gun, but there was no jealousy between the three.
And then GLaDOS told her to euthanize it.
Chell finally understood why grief counseling was offered at the end of the tests.
Everything came crashing down in the final test chamber. It wasn’t even the most difficult she’d faced, but the fire pit at the end complicated things. You know, because GLaDOS was trying to kill her. A fact which was made even more painfully obvious when Chell survived and GLaDOS, totally unprepared for that outcome, desperately backpedaled and lied unconvincingly to cover it up. Chell was told she’d won. Now all she had to do was lie down with her arms at her side in the Party Escort Submission Position and wait for an associate to come and collect her.
Yeah, right.
Chell immediately took off. If she’d been an obedient child following her robot not-mom’s instructions before, now she was a rebellious teenager lashing out against said robot not-mom’s rule. She ducked deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of the Enrichment Center, angry and upset and grief-stricken. She was guided by the Rat Man’s warnings and markings on the walls, and finally she made it to GLaDOS chamber. GLaDOS, of course, was not happy, and proceeded to try to make good on her threats to kill Chell, only to be stopped as something unexpectedly fell out of her. The robot claimed it was unimportant. Chell didn’t believe her. Chell incinerated it just to be difficult. Unfortunately, it was important -- it was a morality core, the only thing keeping GLaDOS from direct attempts at violence instead of passive-aggressively trying to kill Chell. Whoops. GLaDOS celebrated this newfound freedom by firing up the neurotoxin emitters and -- apparently thinking that wasn’t enough -- a rocket turret. Chell, however, used the turret to knock the remaining cores off GLaDOS, which she also incinerated in retaliation. When they were all burned, GLaDOS exploded rather spectacularly, and Chell was drawn upward by a swirling vortex of energy. The last thing she saw before she passed out were GLaDOS' remains, Outside.
Personality:
Imagine a lab rat born and raised in captivity. All its skills, all it knows, is going to be related to the experiment conditions the scientist raises it in, right? Run through the maze to get to the cheese at the end. Learn how to operate the levers to open the doors to the exit. Evade the traps. Don't step on the electrified wire.
Say hello to Chell.
Chell has amnesia. Chell doesn't remember anything about herself. Is she a clone? An android? Is "Chell" even her real name? It is a mystery.
Chell was basically "born" in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. All her skills, all she knows, is related to the testing chambers GLaDOS made her run through. Run through the facility to get to the cake at the end. Learn how to use the portal gun correctly. Evade the turrets. Don't step in the acid pool.
Because of this, Chell is very goal oriented. Everything she does is done with the intent to achieve a set of objectives. She pays careful attention to the way things are done, and threats to her physical well-being are avoided at all costs and reacted to with extreme prejudice. She's quick to adapt to new situations and problems.
Chell has a tendency to get very attached to inanimate objects. Animate objects? Not so much. If it moved or talked, it was generally out to get her. Energy pellets moved. Turrets talked. GLaDOS -- God forbid -- moved and talked. Things like the Weighted Storage Cubes helped her in the Testing Center. They were her friends. The only time they hurt her was if they fell on her, and that was never through any fault of their own. And if the regular Storage Cubes were "just" her friends, then just imagine her relationship with the Weighted Companion Cube. Although their time together was brief (read: one Test Chamber), that did nothing to weaken the strength of their bond. It was only with GLaDOS's reassurance that the Cube would rather die in a fire than hinder her that Chell was able to euthanize her friend. And if the Cube was her best friend, imagine what the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is to her. It's not merely a tool or a useful piece of tech -- it's an extension of her self. After her time in the Enrichment Center, operating the portal gun is as easy as breathing and twice as natural. It is her partner in all things. So yeah.
Chell can be a tad socially dumb/awkward/slow. Test subjects were never tested on their conversational skills, so she never developed any. The only social interaction she had was with GLaDOS, and that wasn't "social interaction" so much as it was "Chell listening to GLaDOS talking/lying at her about cake and occasionally offering commentary on the test chambers." It isn't very interactive if only one person is participating. As such, Chell is rather quiet, preferring not to speak unless she really has to. She is, however, a fantastic listener, mainly because that's all she ever did.
She's also a little naive. For one thing, she actually believed there was going to be cake and grief counseling at the end of the test. It wasn't until she was actually sliding into the fire pit that she realized the computer never had any intention of letting her live at all. Which is a shame, because Chell really needed that grief counseling. She's a little more suspicious of people/things since the murder attempt(s), but at heart she still wants to believe in people.
GLaDOS once mentioned that Chell was not smart. Whether there is any merit to that is unknown, but Chell grasped the trippy fundamentals of portaling pretty quickly and passed her Tests with flying colors. She is a kinetic learner to the extreme. She might not be book smart, but you won't find anyone better than her at on-the-fly (sometimes literally) spatial problem solving skills. And what she lacks in ACT scores (or test scores of any kind whatsoever) she makes up for in creativity. Give her a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff and she can do anything. So. Perhaps Chell just isn't smart in the areas GLaDOS deems important. Or perhaps GLaDOS is simply a lying liar who lies and whose claims ought to be ignored on those grounds.
SPEAKING OF HORRIBLE DEMORALIZING INSULTS ISSUED BY GLADOS: Chell likes to pretend that the things the AI said about her don't bother her at all. After all, she knows GLaDOS is a liar and a murderer. She knows GLaDOS was just trying to mess with her head. Like a willful, disobedient child, Chell discounts everything her crazy robot not-mom says about her. But, deep down inside, Chell is secretly afraid that GLaDOS is right. Chell can't remember anything about herself.
What if she isn’t smart? ("You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not even a full-time employee.")
What if she isn't a good person? ("Good people don't end up here")
What if she really is an android? ("Well done, android. The Enrichment Center once again reminds you that Android Hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance.")
What if there really was a clone of her somewhere and it really died as a result of her actions? ("Okay, enough, I deleted it. No matter what happens now you're dead.")
What if she's the clone?
Chell doesn't know, and that terrifies her.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Chell is a plain, vanilla human being. Shoot her enough times and she will die. Drop her in a pit of fire and she will burn. Blast her with an energy pellet and she will disintegrate.
Throw her at high velocities? Drop her from great heights? She'll shrug that shit off like it was nothing, thanks to the heel springs. They act as shock absorbers that prevent her from taking damage while running through the test chambers. She might sustain cuts and bruises from scraping across the walls or crashing into things, but she won't break any bones or die on impact. They're fucking magic okay don't think about it too hard.
She doesn't have anything even remotely resembling marketable job skills, but give her a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff, and suddenly she becomes a fucking wizard. I mean, anyone with a gun that can shoot intradimensional holes in stuff will be a fucking wizard, but she's like the grand high Archmagister of the Mages Guild. Curbstomping physics is what she does best.
Inventory: nothingggggg
she got dragged away by that stupid robot escort before she could grab her portal gun
Appearance: sup sup
Chell is of average height and appears to be of mixed descent. She has grey eyes and black, messy bed hair with streaks of grey through it. She could be anywhere from her twenties to her early forties. Who knows! She certainly doesn't. Other than her bright orange standard-issue test subject jumpsuit, her most noticeable physical feature are her heelsprings.
Despite the name, they’re not actually attached to her heels; they actually replace her knees. A long length of metal juts out from the top of her calf and comes down to curve under her foot. The way the “springs” are set up force her to be on her tip-toes all the time. When Chell falls or gets smacked around, the springs absorb the worst of the shock from the impact.
Age: currently unknown -- estimated to be anywhere from late 20s to her 40s.
OC/AU Justification ;
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test? Chell is not an OC, but since there is absolutely no canon information on her and I'm pretty much making everything up from what we see in the game, I ran her through anyway.
And What Did You Score? 10
Samples ;
Log Sample:
"What are you doing? Stop it! I-i-i-i-i-... Weeee are pleased that you made it through the final challenge where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are very very happy for your success. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success..."
GLaDOS may have thought She was being wildly clever and convincing, but Chell knew better now. Maybe she would have fallen for it earlier, but no more. It was like a veil had been ripped from her eyes and suddenly everything was clear -- the not jokes about being baked and the casual way GLaDOS spoke about her death, the writings the Other Person left on the walls, the complete lack of anything of any sort ensuring any kind of safety whatsoever.
GLaDOS had lied.
GLaDOS wanted her dead.
GLaDOS probably didn't even have any cake.
Well, then.
Chell quietly waited until GLaDOS finished issuing her ever-so-slightly panicked instructions regarding the Part Escort Submission Position before completely disregarding everything She'd just said and portaled away. A simple fling; she could almost do one in her sleep. One portal up high, one low, fall down until enough moment is built, a beautiful moment of flight, and then WHAM -- she crashed into the metal cylinders on the other side. She crumpled to the floor, momentarily dazed with pain, before gritting her teeth and hauling herself up as usual. She was lucky this time; she didn't come out horizontally or upside down like she sometimes did during flings, so the impact hadn't hurt as badly as it could have.
She immediately took off down the corridor to her left, trying to get away from where GLaDOS could have a camera set up. She followed it as far as it went, letting it lead her deeper into the Enrichment Center. The entire interior was a sharp contrast to the Testing Chambers; here it was mechanized, dirty, neglected. The metal catwalks felt grimy beneath her bare feet, and rust flaked off wherever she touched the railings. Sick looking pools of what looked like the same acid hazards in the Tests congealed wherever they pleased. Whereas the Chambers were well lit and cold, here it was darker and warmer. The sounds her heel springs made against the floor were even different -- they sounded lower, hollower, and they echoed throughout the empty rooms.
Despite how ugly and run-down and downright dangerous the interior was, Chell felt more safe than she ever had. There were no cameras, no turrets, no horrible fire pit traps. All GLaDOS could do was talk at her. And the Other Person, the one who'd come before and scribbled he warnings and messages on the walls, Chell could see that his influence extended here as well. Occasionally she ran across graffiti on the walls pointing her in what she knew had to be the right direction. This was a good place. GLaDOS could not reach her here, and she was surrounded by friends: her portal gun, the Rat Man, and there were even Storage Cubes being shuttled in the glass pipes around her.
...All that was missing was the Weighted Companion Cube.
Chell had to stop for a moment as the pain hit her like a punch to the solar plexus, nearly doubling her over. It was like her muscles had just given out under her; she had to clutch at a railing to even stay on her feet, knuckles turning white from the strain. Blinking did nothing to keep back the tears.
He'd been her best friend, and she'd killed him. She'd set him down and pressed the button and thrown him into the incinerator. He never tried to stop her. He didn't even say anything. He just sat there with those pink hearts all over him and accepted his fate with dignity whereas Chell had cried and tried to find another way even as GLaDOS had assured her there wasn't. And it had turned out to be for nothing. The Cube had sacrificed itself so that she could go on and finish the tests and be free and GLaDOS never had any intentions of letting her live.
No.
She stood up, wiped the tears from her eyes, adjusted her grip on her portal gun. She wouldn't let his sacrifice be in vain. She would make it Outside. She would be free. And if she had to go through GLaDOS to do it... well, that would just be the icing on the cake.
Network Sample:
[First, there is silence.
Or, rather, what only seems to be silence. Anyone listening closely can hear the sounds of a faint clicking, like that of metal against pavement. At one point there is a rustling, and then the quiet sounds of someone breathing. This continues for a few seconds before cutting off.
Then, there is a short video clip. Ten seconds of a disorienting whirlwind of images as the communicator is shakily moved around -- sky, buildings, road, back to sky, a flash of green -- and then Chell herself comes into a view, hair disheveled and falling out of its bun, orange jumpsuit dirty and torn, gray-green eyes wary. The view holds for a few seconds before abruptly cutting away to the ground, and then it ends.
There is a ping issued to the network, marking a location right outside the junkyard, before one takes Hypatia's tour.
And then finally, a text message is posted.]
hello world ?
[Less immediately obvious is the appearance of new accounts on both Everbreath of Fantasy MMXIV and Team Portal 19: a level one archer, and someone with no matches logged, both called subject_name_here.
Chell is testing her new wearable, and she is nothing if not thorough.]