#intern chell

[mayalacookie]

Thanks to a discord user who randomly just said "Give Curly Chells boots as his prosthetic legs."

You have officially kickstarted the portal au

[electricairfryer]

Letting the Cat out of the Bag...

So, I got a crazy, insane, ambitious idea a number of days ago.

What if I drew out and adapted my favorite, most beloved fanfic into a webcomic?

Well, here it is! The announcement you [may or may not] have been waiting for! I am going to attempt to take on the massive behemoth of a project that is transforming @sarcasticgaypotato 's fanfiction The Resurrection Project into an illustrated webcomic! This fic has honestly changed my life and helped me through hard times - and I want to show everyone my love for this story.

Now, I have never done something quite like this before, but I am determined I can push through [no guarantees - but I won't let myself give up on this easily]. I'm still working through lots of the nitty-gritty bits of the whole thing, but I want to keep the webcomic as faithful to the original fic as I can [that being said, go read the original fic too!].

Upload schedule will most likely be about 1 page per week... I'll try and speed things up here and there when I can though [don't count on it - I'm a team of exactly one (1) high school student here!].

The webcomic will be published to @trpillustrated, once I get everything up and running [I'll reblog pages to my main blog too though]. Currently I'm eyeballing the end of January for the start date, but keep an eye out for updates [as dates are subject to change]... Lastly, I just wanted to thank elvenwhovian's adaptation of another Portal fic, @bluesky-thewebcomic, for inspiring this whole project. I don't think I would have ever gotten this idea in the first place if I hadn't stumbled upon the Blue Sky webcomic way back when in 2020.

All in all, I'm extremely excited for this project, and I hope everyone else that reads this post will be too!

[putting-chell-in-places]

Put Chell in the international space station

So many space related requests

[lmsintmedia]

Arokodare Eyes More Goals for Super Eagles After Scoring First Against Russia

Tolu Arokodare has expressed excitement after scoring his debut goal for the Nigerian national team, according to a report from LMSINT MEDIA. The forward netted Nigeria’s only goal in their 1-1 stalemate with Russia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Friday evening. The KRC Genk attacker found the back of the net in the 71st minute, taking full advantage of a costly error by Russian…

[ari-orangebox-collection]

Tw: Violence. Sad, kinda dark shit. Mental unwellness. Body image. Self esteem issues. Fatphobia. Uhhh. Language?

I’ve had this idea of, after portal 2, Chell goes up to the surface and is met with a world occupied by combine.

She finds a city or just general occupied settlement, naively expecting compassion or help from other humans. Humans must be better. [I think Chell is very optimistic, despite her bluntness and stoic nature, which is why she’s so determined, because she has a lot of hope.]

But they aren’t better. And she’s treated like just another citizen. Probably worse, because she can’t talk. Maybe she even becomes like a black sheep and other citizens blame things on her so that she gets in trouble instead of them.

There’s so many ideas I have with this augh.

Ex 1: When Chell first arrives, and is first attacked by the combine, they grab her by her hair so she won’t get away before beating the shit outta her. This ends up massively affecting her self image and she buzzes her hair because she feels like it makes her too vulnerable. (Bonus if it makes her feel like her femininity is a weakness) (extra bonus if she lets her hair grow out when she goes back to GLaDOS because through building their relationship she’s able to regain some of her self confidence)

Ex 2: Chell has extra ptsd now and is very not okay with being touched or cornered/loomed over (bonus if she has nightmares and ends up going to GLaDOS for comfort and they’re awkward and sad and gay) (or if Wheatley is there he says something that triggers her and he doesn’t understand why she’s upset bc no one told him and GLaDOS explains it to him and he apologizes to her and is sweet and kind)

Ex 3: The reason Chell comes back to aperture is bc she’s been fatally injured or was intentionally neglected [probably widespread famine up there] and GLaDOS is like

You little shit‼️ wtf go away die somewhere else‼️ ughh…[then she gayly nurses her back to health and over time they build a healthier bond] [bonus if maybe GLaDOS is able to do some retrieval mission for Wheatley or something] [it’s so unrealistic but him being stranded in space makes me so sad]

ALSO side note but this idea makes me so joyous

So like I hc that if Chell was healthy and eating normally and shit she probably would be chubby and in GLaDOS care she gains weight bc she’s actually being cared for and fed right and she’s happier and healing [bonus science cooperation points if she has self esteem issues about it bc she doesn’t really understand beauty standards as a concept, but understands that as far as she can remember <being like…the events of portal 1 and 2> Fatness has always been equated to wrongness and ugliness and being generally bad so she associates her gaining weight with her being ugly and she has to unlearn that internalized fatphobia]

Okay I’m done ranting I’m actually so insane bye lol

[britishsquidward]

Chelley Week 2024, Day 6: Heartbeart/AU

(AU being Blue Sky but the other way around, lol - Orange Sky)

Somehow it didn't immediately occur to him that Chell wasn't covered in all those silly little colours barricading him from viewing anything at all, and took to what he was best at: speaking his mind. "Is that you?" a moment passed where said nothing in favour of rubbing his stinging eyes, "Oh, wow, you look awf-" What he saw when he looked up again was certainly a sight to behold. One that stopped him talking, actually, so assuredly some kind of miracle. Or at least a world record. Right next to where he'd left the cold, lifeless shell of a core, stood the prettiest, most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his entire existence, and probably before that, if it were even possible. What little light was left in the room from the instructional video he'd left on standby hit her just perfectly, emphasising every delightful detail and feature. Her eyes were a fairly dull colour alone, but when she stood in the light like that, he'd never seen eyes shine brighter than hers, like two burningly beautiful stars sitauted in the middle of a stunning night sky. The sort of sky that you usually wouldn't pay half a mind to unless you really, truly looked and realised just how beguiling it was. Wheatley was having trouble focusing on one thing. Her skin looked soft and smooth, as did her hands - well-kept and taken care of, a contrast to his pale and damaged ones (he often found himself getting papercuts and getting too emotional over them, or being disappointed when his knuckles got all red and dry again in the hotter months of the year). Her hair fell oh-so-perfectly across her face, looking elegant yet messy at the same time, the combination of which just radiated an over all feeling of breeziness. And her face, she was-

'Okay', Wheatley internally spoke as he took a moment to compose himself, 'calm down, Wheatley, she's just a bit of light. Like a... photo..synthesis... or something. Something like that. Dunno what that means, but I remember it from somewhere. She is sort of like a photo, though. Pretty as one. AUGH wait, no, stop this... Just keep talking!' "...Gorge- GOOD." quick to correct himself, nice save, "L-looking good, actually. Very... very nice."

[candaru]

just gonna ramble about some Ultrakill/Portal crossover thoughts don't mind me

(considering The End of All Known Land canon for these thoughts, i.e. a world where Gabriel and V1 are the only ones to get out of Hell)

Chell hates robots with all her soul and would try to fucking annihilate V1 if she thought they posed even a sliver of a threat but V1 would be so fucking excited at the prospect of another human. like obviously if they were still in a situation where they needed blood, they'd kill her without a second thought, but now? they're just FASCINATED by the question of "how did a human SURVIVE" and they want to know everything

V1 inner monologue: oh boy a new sparring partner!!! wow they have a cool new kind of gun I've never seen before!! that would've been soooo helpful back in hell. I wonder if that's how they escaped? and they're quiet just like me! I wonder if their organic voicebox is broken? or do they just not have one? can humans not have one?

GLaDOS would fucking despise Gabriel because he's sooooo full of himself. She doesn't even need to hear him say anything robot-racist, She's already decided She hates him and wants him dead. an "angel?" yeah, right. sounds just like another human ripe for the picking. let's see how high-and-mighty you are when you're in my TESTING DOMAIN! DO MY PUZZLES, BOY!!!

Gabriel is like wow this robot is stuck up and has some serious issues but also I am uncomfortable with how much of myself I see reflected in her. hmmmm. yeah I'll try your puzzle, tell me more about your deep-seated hatred of organics and particularly this one that keeps ruining the facility you run and is the only one to ever beat you in a fight. mhm. yeah so quick question have you ever thought about trying to fuck—

(EXPLOSION AND GUNFIRE)

meanwhile if Chell ever met Gabriel on the surface it'd make for such a good tense encounter. bc she is hiding behind a tree in full fight-or-flight mode wondering "how did another human SURVIVE" and also second question "how did they get such sickass wings and where can I get a pair?"

and then Gabriel noticing her would ALSO send him into fight-or-flight mode but only for a moment because of the pure shock of, again, "HOW DID A HUMAN SURVIVE" before curiosity completely overtakes him and he tries to talk to her. trying to get her to talk and not attack or run is like trying to coax a wild injured animal out of a hiding spot. but he eventually manages to earn the barest, most minimal amount of trust by setting down all his weapons and leaving offerings of food in front of her.

...this gets harder when she sees Gabriel and V1 together and registers that they're allies. she's unsure if they're plotting against her or if V1 is manipulating Gabriel. eventually she leans towards the latter and thinks her fears are confirmed when she witnesses them drawing Gabriel's blood while he's sleeping.

she tries to communicate this to him by drawing crude pictures on the ground and is VERY FRUSTRATED when he's like "omg can you not talk? that's ok!! V1 also can't talk but we make it work, they're really incredibly kind and patient and—"

Chell, internally: I AM GOING TO KILL THAT FUCKING ROBOT AND SAVE YOU

I think it would be funny for V1 to try and go urban exploring in Aperture. GLaDOS is initially all excited because a new testing robot literally fell right into Her clutches but then V1 proceeds to be the most stubborn, impudent, tenacious piece of shit and they remind her WAY TOO MUCH OF CHELL so now She's trying to kill them but they have ACTUAL FUCKING GUNS and Aperture is being destroyed in the wake of their battle

meanwhile V1 has decided they don't like this robot but also She makes fun tests. so they do puzzles until they get bored and then they blast holes through the wall and try to kill Her

something something Ultrakill is just Portal for NBs (everyone knows Portal is for women) and I'm so fascinated by the similar dynamics of the toxic yuri/toxic yaoi robot-and-human pairs. and I think they would mostly hate each other and I love that for them.

(also something something GLaDOS is too far gone, too corrupted in Her immortality, and too deep in denial for any possible healthy ending with Chell—it's just not possible. so seeing Gabriel and V1 in a healthy and loving relationship would make Her SO FUCKING MAD for reasons She can't articulate)

[thepacifistrouter]

Demon Portal AU

Hello People!

After a little conversation with some friends, this idea came to me and I needed to cook it at least a bit!!

Note aside: this will not be based in any special or specific folklore so I'm not too creatively limited, but I'd do like to recieve information about the so I can make a more solid base.

-----------------------------------

Basically, here Wheatley is a demon, a weak demon, who's first actually serious mission was to curse Chell, and... the results were not expected... not for him at least e.e

He was told this was going to be an easy target buuut, yeah... he was trolled

BUT he is less of a wimp than it coul seem.

Even tho he was caught since the first time he arrived that house, he also, at first managed to scape every single time he was trapped, but comes back the very next night cause he refuse to surrender and because he want his trident back 😛 after all, it was his, he won it.

He stopped scaping at some point because, since is been a long time from the last time he ate any blood, vital energy or soul, so he is started not only being lack of energy but starving (which is worst by reasons I'll explain later). Also, being trapped in a salt circle didn't help, since that limited his movility.

A little detail about him is that he use magic to try to look more intimidating, but once he lose his glasses (he still needs them) after a little struggle with water, Chell discovers this, it seems like he doesn't naturally look intimidating at all, which is a shame for him, because it plays against him and because other demons make fun of him by that 🤷🏽‍♀️ ( The other demons being the other cores, or most of them at least)

Also, I was thinking on Chell bein rude and/or cruel at him at first or at some point and he doesn't get why does she act so confident as if she already knew him and was mad at him from before.

It turns out she did, he doesn't rember but they did met before and the betrayal (mirroring canon) already happened while he being a human. Something happened in the past, something really bad that took both of them apart when they both were not only humans, but friends ( have to decide this yet, but implied a big missubderstanding due to misscomunication)

I'm still not sure how will this end, but they both will build a new bond with time and Chell would have an internal debate over giving him a new chance or not, he is a demon now after all, he have done queationable things. Let's just say he won the trident and his wings, part of the objective of this mission was to win his horns. One of this actions implied a stealer who wanted to got in the house while Wheatley was badly starving, so he was hungry AND angry. But she also have seen the silly nice guy she use to be friend with is still there no doubts, so we have a problem here.

(I'm also not sure how he became a demon yet, but I have some ideas here and there)

Aaaaan that's pretty much it for now, hope you like it

See ya next time

Bye!!

[bubbl3zdaseaotter37]

Whumptober 2024

No. 4: HALLUCINATIONS

Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | “You're still alive in my head.” (Billy Lockett, More)

A/N: I'm not completely happy with it, but here you are. I got it finished in time! For this one, I focused more on the lyrics of the song than the word prompts. The first half of the song in particular really reminded me of Chell and Wheatley’s relationship, whether you ship them or not. I tried really hard to keep this one short, since I am already struggling a little to keep up with the prompts and keep my usual style/quality of writing, so I hope y’all like it!

No trigger warnings this time, but spoilers for all of Portal 2 :)

As far as Wheatley could tell, space had a way of driving one insane.

At least, he thought it did. Out here, his only benchmark of what was “sane” was his space-obsessed companion and himself. And he had proved just how absolutely splendid of a role model he was in that area. A true bastion of mental stability, he was. Especially when he had singlehandedly destroyed a massive, sprawling super facility, gone absolutely off his rockers, and tried to murder the only person who cared for his sorry metal husk in who knew how long.

“Yeah, I really am kidding myself, aren’t I?” Wheatly asked aloud, to only be answered by silence.

At some point in the last few hours – or had it been days? It was really quite hard to keep track of such linear things when you were spinning uncontrollably, handle over carapace, around the Moon which itself was spinning uncontrollably around another astrological body, the Earth, which was in turn spinning uncontrollably around a bloody massive ball of blindingly bright fire—

Wait where had he been going with that thought? Oh, right. His astronomically obnoxious companion in exile.

At some point, Kevin – that was what he had taken to calling the personality core who had been jettisoned out into the depths of space with him – had gained a little more speed than he had in orbit, and was now a good distance away from Wheatley, and out of range of his internal radio receptors. Because of course Aperture Science had thought up a way to allow Aperture Tech to communicate even in the soundless vacuum of space.

Initially, he had thought that being forced to constantly listen to Kevin’s babbling would be the thing to drive him insane. Goodbye higher reasoning skills! You would be missed. But now, Wheatley was starting to almost miss the yammering about stars, comets, and space in general.

Because with the overpowering, infinite silence of the cosmos pressing down on his audial processor, Wheatley was starting to hallucinate. At least, he thought he might be. What was really categorized as a “hallucination” was likely up to debate; maybe there was a requirement jotted down there somewhere about needing to be human, or a non-Aperture Science Technology. Either way, something wasn’t meshing right back there in the ol’ central processing unit, and it was getting to him.

It had started with small things. Little flashes of light that might have simply been attributed to the damage his lens took when She crushed him in her huge, terrifying claw-arm. The twitching remained, although there were no sparks to accompany the obnoxious bug out in the vacuum of space.

Now though, it had developed into something significantly more concerning. Periodically, Wheatley would hear the low, droning noise that flowed through the very veins of the Laboratories, the one he had never really realized was there until it was gone. It was strange, how many things one realized they had taken for granted when they were floating pointlessly through space.

The people they took for granted.

That was the other oddity, of course. There was no one to talk to out there, and no one to listen to with Kevin temporarily out of conversing distance. At least, Wheatley hoped it was temporary…

Anyways, with no one to actually speak to – a real one-on-one conversation, with a sentient being who could actually comprehend what was being said and maybe even talked back— well, maybe not that one. Ironically, the only sentient thing that ever really responded to what he said was the exact murderous supercomputer who wanted him dead more than anything in the world. Except maybe for the death of Her nemesis and 2-time vanquisher.

No, the sentient being he was thinking of was quite the opposite. He had never heard her speak during their time in the facility, not once, and yet it always felt like a conversation to him. A real give-and-take conversation. He would talk, she would listen. He would give an order, and she would either follow it or give him one of those mildly confused glances, or annoyed eyerolls, or graveside-smiles. It felt like she listened.

And with no one listening out here, no one for an astronomically long distance…

Wheatley liked to pretend that maybe, just maybe, if he ever got to talk to her again, he could change things. Maybe, he could have tried to see things another way than from his stupid, narrow viewpoint, then things would have been better.

And sometimes it was like she was really there. Really, actually there.

Like they were back on the run, speeding through the endless catwalks between the testing tracks – or just strolling. There were those dreams too, if they were considered a dream since he was a robot and couldn’t technically sleep.

They would talk— well, he would talk, and she would do the listening and reacting that she was so very skilled at. Sometimes it was just babble, a skill Wheatley had down pat; that was maybe the only thing he was good at, come to think of it. Talking. But the point was, it felt so real. And every time he twitched, or otherwise snapped back to reality, it was like being hurled into space all over again.

The worst part, of course, was knowing that this was all his own doing. It was his own, stupid fault that he couldn’t do anything right, and he would never be able to do anything right because he was a moron. A moron who couldn’t see what he had until he had singlehandedly destroyed it. And oh, how I wished I could take it all back, everything. I really swear it.

I’m sorry. That’s what I would say, if I ever saw her again. I was monstrous, and horrible, and you deserved so much better.

I’m sorry.

[moldsporr]

I'm looking into your eyes holding your hands. You Must Play Portal 1 and 2. Or At Least Watch A Playthrough. And Not Just Because The Robots Are Hot. They Are. But It Is Also A Very Good Story About Internalized Misogyny And Misogyny In General And How Women Are Treated In Stem/The Workplace And Loss Of Autonomy. Do it for Chell and Glados ok

[lunarcat982]

Angels and demons 🥲

Chell’s internally screaming

Did sum artt (I miss the companion cubeee 🥲) I’m actually proud of this :))

[stereopticons]

Thanks for the tags, @kiwiana-writes @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart! The one sentence I wrote yesterday plus the handful I managed tonight are pretty much everything I’ve written in the last ten days. I’ve spent a lot of time internally screaming at myself to just open the damn doc while just staring at a wall. It’s not been great! But here are a few sentences. It’s still sunday in a few places plus they stole an hour from me, so it counts!

“And you’re sure this is the right moment?”

David watches Patrick’s throat bob as he swallows hard, then nods. “I’m sure.”

David kisses Patrick’s shoulder lightly. “Then we should probably get dressed.”

It sounds simple enough, but their nerves make getting dressed a bit of a comedy of errors. David trips and nearly goes crashing to the floor because he’s too busy staring at Patrick’s naked ass to pay attention to putting his underwear back on. Patrick accidentally tries to pull on David’s jeans, and while the thought of Patrick wearing his clothes does something funny to David’s heart, there’s no way that that pair in particular will fit over his tree-trunk thighs. Eventually, though, they manage to get all the right clothes on the right body parts with no major injuries.

Patrick takes a deep breath and puts his hand on the doorknob, but doesn’t turn it. Recognizing the fear for what it is, David rests his hands on Patrick’s shoulders.

“Hey,” he murmurs. “Whatever happens, however this goes, I’ll be here.”

@alienajackson @mostlyinthemorning @hippolotamus @apothecarose @ramonaflow @jamilas-pen @l56895 @lizzie-bennetdarcy @nontoxic-writes @smblmn @chelle-68 @myheartalivewrites @rmd-writes @beaiola

[sarcasticgaypotato]

tell me about chell, that potato hauling criminal

Chell is such a fascinating character to talk about because she, even more so than Caroline, isn't a character... but she absolutely is, at the same time.

On the surface, Chell is simply a player stand-in. She's silent, her actions are decided by the player, and we never get the game telling us outright how she feels or what she thinks. The closest we get to a backstory comes from an Easter Egg (which I've already said I don't necessarily consider canon) and insults made at the player's expense. Insults that, for all we know, are completely baseless.

Chell can reasonably be whatever the player decides she is. (If she's like me, she's actually terrible at tests and fails at puzzles repeatedly before giving up and googling the answers.) Your Chell could be compassionate towards the robots— trusting Wheatley right off the bat and being torn up by his betrayal, forgiving PotaDOS and working together easily— or your Chell could be a silent, bitter, furious killing machine, craving robotic blood and hating every second she's stuck in this hellhole. Neither Chell is technically wrong, but neither is right either.

There's a lot that could be said about the personal projecting that people often do to their favorite characters in fandom, especially with characters as open-ended as Chell, but that's an entirely different can of worms. TL;DR If it makes you happy to picture a character as being like you, go for it. It might not be my cup of tea, but you're not asking me to drink it, so who cares?

All that rambling out of the way, who do I think Chell is?

I think Chell has more character than first glance would give her credit for. We can learn a lot from what actions the game's story forces her to complete and how other characters react to her, ultimately giving us a lot more to work with than Caroline.

Chell is intelligent. If you complete the games (even if you're terrible like I am), you've completed complicated tests and outsmarted a robot that nobody else has survived before. She has a logical brain for solving puzzles as well as a quick wit for thinking on her feet and getting through life or death situations. Chell might have some internal damage from her time in stasis, but she's not slow.

Chell is tenacious and stubborn as all hell. Canon material tells us this outright, I don't need to elaborate much. Chell refuses to be kept in Aperture against her will, she refuses to stay down, and she was willing to risk dying in space just to beat Wheatley. Our girl can hold a grudge if she wants to.

Chell is a little bit of a shit. There's an achievement for breaking all of Wheatley's monitors. Chell doesn't have to do that... but she can, and I think she does. Her jumping when told to say certain words? She's playing dumb knowing Wheatley's not going to get that she's making fun of him.

Chell is fair. She held up her end of the deal with Wheatley, he didn't hold up his, so he learned his lesson. GLaDOS saves her life, even when she didn't have to, and held up her end of the deal? Chell leaves Aperture without a fuss. She doesn't try to kill GLaDOS again or wreck shit on her way out. I believe that Chell's respect is hard to win back once you've lost it, but with the events of Portal 2, GLaDOS succeeded. Chell is perfectly willing to work alongside a partner, and in fact she does so quite well as we've seen, but only if they give her the respect she deserves. If you cheat her you are going to regret it.

Finally, concerning the 'mute' part of our favorite dangerous mute lunatic; I personally am in the camp of 'Chell can speak, she just doesn't want to give the robots the satisfaction.'

There are out-of-universe reasons for Chell not talking. Erik Wolpaw actually talks about the decision to keep her silent in the Kotaku article "Why Chell Doesn't Speak" and I'd recommend hearing what he had to say on the matter. However, that explanation doesn't necessarily need to dictate in-universe ones. I think Chell can speak because frankly, it checks out with the other observations I've made here.

She's a bit of a shit, so yeah, if she noticed it bothers the robots that she's not talking, of course she'd keep it up to annoy them, and she's stubborn enough to keep at it even when she's allied with one of them. Further, she's smart, so she would know that she has very little control in a place like Aperture. This is one thing she has complete control over, this is one card she can hold over everyone else, and she's going to keep it.

All that combines to become my Chell. She's probably different from your Chell, and that's okay, but I think I've made a pretty good case for why I see her the way I do.

I could spin potential backstories for her, but they'd all be very headcanon and speculative, so I'll save that for another time.

[trickiwooao3]

12 Days of Fandom, Day 2

Thanks again to @mostlyinthemorning for kicking this event off with this post. I'm not quite sure I'm doing this "right," but oh, well. (Yikes, another "but." [See below].) Avoid whatever holiday chore you're dreading by reading Some Things I Still Can't Tell You by @demora00 Here was my comment on this lovely, quiet work: A dozen chef's kisses! I love Patrick, I love emotional drama, I love David's caretaking, I love hearing inner monologues. As an extroverted talktalktalker, I've always been fascinated and mystified by "selective" mutism. Of course not talking doesn't mean they're not communicating, as you demonstrate: "He moves his hand to David’s thigh and taps three times with his first two fingers. David hums and tips his head in answer, pencil moving in confident strokes."

I appreciate your always evocative writing even more because of my description deficit disorder: "That tight thrumming through his body, like bees under his skin."

+++++ When I decided to have a go at fiction writing in 2020, I knew I needed help -- a lot of help. @demora00 to the rescue. We "met" during the five minutes I ventured into the impenetrable and vaguely sinister Discord. My call for betas yielded responses from several people who either then ghosted me or had commitment issues ("I can't read anything longer than 3K. Sorry!") — with one exception. Since then, my friend @demora00 has handywomened over 200K of my words. I wrote this at the end of my first fic From the Sunny Day I Met You: If while reading this fic you didn’t think, “How many hands can one man have?” or “Doesn’t she need a comma there?” or “There aren’t Targets in Canada” or “How many times do I have to read the word ‘but’?” or “Does she not know how to write contractions?” thank Demora00. I’m pretty sure I’d still be fiddling with chapter 1 if not for her soft little taps on my shoulder over these months. Her nearly instantaneous feedback at any time of day or night left little excuse for me to lollygag. She’s an international treasure. I think I have finally kicked my "but" habit, but my inexplicable contraction avoidance and my inability to visualize anything more complex than a circle have kept her plenty busy. (OMG. Look at that sentence. Sad!) My posts just fade away into oblivion unless I tag people, so here goes. @demora00, @ramonaflow, @characterassassination-at-9am, @carolrain, @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3, @mostlyinthemorning, @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3, @a-noble-dragon, @chelle-68, @obsessedwithdavrick, @jamilas-pen

[thegayestofbats]

We're Dancing in the Sky

This is the first fic I've ever written, so don't hesitate to give me your thoughts or criticism.

Rating: General Audiences

Pairings: Space Core/Wheatley

Summary:

Getting stuck in space with the most annoying core you've ever met seems like a punishment worse than death, but maybe it won't be as bad as you thought it'd be.

OR

Wheatley and Spacey are stuck alone together in the endless void that is outer space for the foreseeable future, why not get to know each other and become friends? (Or perhaps more?)

2,417 words, 1 chapter

Read on ao3:

---------

“ I am genuinely sorry.”

Those were the last words Wheatley had said since he and the Space sphere were hurled into space.

The two of them had been in space for a few days, at least as far as Wheatley knew. It was hard to tell up here, and he wasn’t too confident in the accuracy of his internal clock, especially after all of the adventures he’d been through just a couple of days ago with Chell. 

He meant what he said, he really was sorry. Now that he’s had a while to think about it he still isn’t sure if the body he’d been put into was the thing that’d corrupted him or if it was of his own accord. “SPAAACE! Space! Need to see it all!” His thoughts were cut off by his partner’s incessant ramblings. He’d been talking since they’d gotten here, and he showed no sign of stopping or sign that he’d ever change the subject. It was really starting to give Wheatley a headache, or whatever core equivalent to the human sentiment was.

“Will you stop that, mate? I’m trying to think here!.” Wheatley yelled, losing his patience with the chatty robot.

“Oh- okay.” The space-obsessed core replied, actually listening to him for once, before finally shutting up for the first time since they’d arrived. Wheatley let out a sigh of relief at the silence. “Look! A comet!” the Space Core broke the silence before blabbering on again. Well, at least he got a couple seconds of peace.

☆

It’s been about a month since the last time Wheatley had been on Earth’s surface.

It seemed that the other core had finally run out of energy to speak and had decided to go into sleep mode. Now Wheatley had a moment of peace and quiet to think.

Yep… time for some thinking

In silence.

In the vast, endless void that is space.

All alone.

It seems that after listening to his partner talk for a month straight that he’d gotten used to it. His mind began to buzz with the emptiness as he slowly turned around to stare at the Earth from afar. It was quite a beautiful sight, he had to admit, but he couldn’t really enjoy it due to the unadulterated dread that began to set in.

They’d probably never make it back home. He was stuck in space forever with a bumbling idiot to talk endless chatter into his ear until one of them got crushed by space debris or succumbed to the death of a dead battery. He’d never get to talk to his rude self-centered manager again. He’d never get to talk to that nice mechanic again. He’d never be able to talk to any of his friends again, and it was all his fault. 

God, he really was a moron, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t he have admitted it sooner?

“Are you alright?” A familiar, light robotic voice chipped next to him. He yelped in surprise, it seemed like his moments of silence were over. He braced himself for more space talk before he noticed what his companion had said.

He’d finally said something that wasn’t about space. Wheatley didn’t even think he was capable of that, but I guess he still had a lot to learn about this guy he’d probably be spending the rest of his life with.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Wheatley replied apprehensively.

“Okay!” The Space Core said before getting distracted again. “ Hey, look!- It’s the Earth!” He admired the scenery in front of the two of them. They’d probably seen the Earth from this angle at least a hundred times by now, but this time was different, he had someone to enjoy the sight with. 

“She really is beautiful from this height, isn’t she?” Wheatley remarked with a slight chuckle in his voice. The Space Core nodded in agreement beside him.

☆

It’d be a few days before the other core would say anything real again. During the wait Wheatley worried it’d be a one-time thing. God, he hoped not, he wasn’t sure how he could live with that.

“What’s your name?” Wheatley asked the other core during a few rare moments of silence between them. The core didn’t respond, and Wheatley almost repeated himself thinking that maybe he hadn’t heard him.

“I don’t remember.” The Space Core admitted a bit forlornly.

“How about I call you Spacey?” Wheatley offered.

“That’s a great idea! How’d you come up with that?” The core seemed to light up at the idea, forcibly turning his body in space to look at Wheatley. His gaze was piercing, as if Wheatley was simply a specimen he was studying closely. It was the first time he’d focused on him, come to think of it. Did he look at everything else with such intensity?

“U-Um.. It’s just that- you like space, so why not name yourself after it?” He stuttered from the core’s burning gaze. He couldn’t hold eye-contact long, glancing to the side every now and then before looking back to the core’s unfaltering eye.

“I LOVE SPACE!!” The core enthused, spinning around happily, finally breaking eye-contact and conversation. Wheatley was a little surprised that he’d been able to keep up a whole conversation with Spacey, sure it hadn’t been long, but it was progress.

Spacey spent the rest of the day rambling about space as he usually did, and now Wheatley enjoyed hearing him a bit. It was better than the infinite silence that was space. Eventually Wheatley grew tired and went into sleep mode. He’d recently learned that the personality cores had built-in solar batteries that charged best when in sleep mode, so he didn’t have to worry about losing power as long as they had the sun’s UV rays around.

☆

Wheatley woke up a few hours later according to his internal clock. Spacey was still floating around, awestruck at all the stars around them. Wheatley wondered how he could stay so interested in them. The stars hadn’t visibly changed since they’d gotten here. Sure, they were pretty, but aren’t you bound to get bored of them after hours and hours of staring at them?

He drifted towards his companion, trying to look in the same direction that he was.

“Good morning-..” Spacey greeted, not finishing his sentence “What’s your name?” The core asked

“Wheatley. The name’s.. uh.. Wheatley.” He answered awkwardly, he didn’t expect conversation with Spacey to become a regular thing so soon. “Good morning, Wheatley!” Spacey sang, continuing where he left off.

“ How do you know that it’s morning?” Wheatley asked curiously

“I don’t.” Spacey replied casually before going back to stare at the stars.

☆

It’s been several months since they entered the cosmos. Wheatley doesn’t remember what month it is. Maybe August or September? He wasn’t entirely sure. It doesn’t really matter, does it?

He’s learned more than he’s ever wanted to about space from his space-obsessed companion.

“Hey, hey Wheatley!” Spacey yipped, trying to get Wheatley’s attention.

“Yes, Spacey?” He sighed, he wasn’t exactly in the mood for more endless space talk.

“What’s your favorite color?” Wheatley hadn’t expected the question, and to be honest, he hadn’t ever really thought of a good answer to it. There were so many colours to choose from, why choose just one? 

He thought about it for a moment. Blue was a nice colour, it was his eye colour, but he wasn’t sure it was his favourite colour. He wasn’t too fond of himself, anyways, after what he’d done. Green was nice, organic, but it reminded him too much of the humans. Red was pretty, but too passionate for him. Purple was overrated, in his opinion, and he never really had an opinion about orange.

He looked to Spacey while thinking, and he just looked back at him patiently waiting. Over time he began to get a little more used to the intense studying look that he gave everything. Spacey was the only person who’d ever looked at him with such undivided attention, and it was pretty nice to feel so seen. 

“Yellow.” He finally answered confidently as he stared into his companion’s golden yellow optic lens. 

He was the first person to really care about Wheatley or pay any real attention to him. Chell was a nice friend, but she only liked having him around when he was useful to her escape, he could easily see that. His friends back on earth never paid much attention to him, just seeing him as a moron that would never mean anything to a conversation, laughing at whatever he said. After spending so much time with the other core, he found that he began to grow fond of him. 

“What’s yours?” Wheatley asked in return, wanting to learn more about his space friend. (Were they friends? He supposed they were.)

“Blue.” Spacey answered quite a bit quicker than Wheatley had with the same strong confidence. He didn’t break eye contact while saying it either. The single word made Wheatley feel his heart skip, despite not having one. It was a feeling he’d never experienced before, it felt so foreign. He never thought there would be someone out there that cared for him as much as Spacey did. How could he forgive a monster like him so easily? Shouldn’t he hate him for what he’d done?

“How can you forgive me so easily after what I did?” Wheatley said his thoughts aloud. He was beginning to doubt that Spacey actually cared for him as much as he thought he did, was he just assuming things? 

“Are you sorry about what you did?” Spacey retorted with another question.

“What- of course I am!” Wheatley defended.

“Then shouldn’t that be reason enough?”

He’d never thought about it like that. He did something so unforgivable by his standards. He made other people’s lives so much harder for his own personal gain, and he feels horrible about it. If he could go back and change what he’d done, he wouldn’t hesitate to, but he couldn’t, so why did it matter? Spacey seemed to read his train of thought easily.

“You clearly regret what you did. You didn’t mean to hurt anyone. So, what’s the point of holding a grudge?” Spacey added on to his point. Wheatley wished he could see it that way as easily as Spacey could.

“Thank you, Spacey. For forgiving me.” If Wheatley could cry, he thinks he’d probably be on the verge of tears right now. He didn’t think that anyone would ever truly forgive him.

“Anything for a friend!” Spacey chipped. You could hear the smile in his voice. He quickly got distracted by a meteor that flew by near a distant planet. He always seemed to find a way to entertain himself in the most boring places.

☆

It’s been a while since their last meaningful conversation. Wheatley is fondly listening to Spacey’s ramblings. It gives him something to pay attention to in the vast and exhausting emptiness of their current predicament. Spacey is happily spinning around while explaining something random about the moon and what it’s made out of and why it makes such a good portal conductor. Wheatley wonders how he’s able to navigate the vacuum so easily, it’s pretty challenging to move even a little bit out here, at least for him, but it seems that Spacey had gotten the hang of it fairly easily.

He appeared to be almost dancing out here. It was quite an amusing sight to see him jump around so happily like an excited puppy.

“How do you move so easily out here?” Wheatley asked his companion. It couldn’t hurt to speak what’s on his mind. He’d been making a habit of doing that more often than he ever did back on earth. He can trust that Spacey wouldn’t make fun of him.

“It’s pretty easy. You just build up a bunch of energy, and launch yourself!” Spacey explained, pausing his prior moon explanation to pay all of his attention to Wheatley and his query.

“That seems like a lot of work. How do you not get tired?” 

“ I guess I just have a lot of energy,” Spacey answered simply

“That makes a lot of sense, knowing you.” Wheatley chuckled, and Spacey giggled in unison. After a moment, Wheatley decided to try it for himself. He closed his eye and braced himself before throwing himself forward, almost bumping into Spacey in the process. 

“Woah!” He yelped while flying a few feet past Spacey. 

“There you go!” Spacey praised. Wheatley did it a few more times, trying to get the hang of it. Before long, the two of them were jumping around in space while laughing together.

They eventually began forming a sort of rhythm, dancing together across the inky black sky. Wheatley was clearly more clumsy than Spacey was, still struggling to get used to steering himself across space, but they were both still having fun together. 

Wheatley ended up accidentally bumping into Spacey mid-launch, causing him to launch Spacey a bit. Spacey didn’t mind, erupting into a fit of laughter at the action. As robotic as it was, Wheatley thought that his laugh was the most contagious and beautiful one he’d ever heard, so it wasn’t long before he began laughing as well. They both drifted back together, pausing their dance to laugh together.

“Heh heh, I love you.” Wheatley admitted breathlessly without thinking as their laughter waned. After noticing what he said his happiness broke immediately as he became absolutely mortified. He looked to Spacey as he looked back. He didn’t appear angry, or upset in any way.

“Awww, I love you too, Wheatley.” Spacey giggled, a smile appearing in his voice. He looked at Wheatley with such adoration that it was hard to doubt his words. 

“Wait- really? Like.. more than just platonically?” Wheatley puffed, dumbfounded. 

“Yeah, maybe even more than space itself.” Spacey admitted his thoughts aloud. Wheatley hadn’t expected his feelings to be reciprocated so easily.

“Oh..” Wheatley didn’t really know how to process the sentiment, it’d happened so suddenly. “Would you like to be something more than friends?” 

“If that’s what you want.” Spacey responded patiently as always.

☆

It’s been a couple days since Wheatley started his first and probably last relationship, and now he thinks that he doesn’t really mind that Spacey is the one he’s going to be spending the rest of his life with. He wouldn’t want it to be anyone else.

 It’s nice to finally be loved and appreciated for who he is.

---------

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day/night!! I'm thinking of expanding onto this story in the future, it'll likely include GlaDOS, Chell, and the stories of the other cores while all of this goes down.

Here's the playlist I listened to while writing this

[applestorms]

wip game

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs

lol i believe i was tagged by @neallo, @empressofthewind & @shydroid3000 thx fellas <33

i am Also stuck in an endless purgatory of somewhat finished fics (and vague half-thought ideas that may or may not eventually end up actually being fics lol) buuut there's some of the major highlights, split up by fandom:

(also WARNING some of these are kinda nsfw)

DN:

it's not too late to say you're sorry (ch.3/finale)

suck so passionately (yagamane)

up my spine (meronia sequel to praise the sweetness)

unknown jungles everyday (more meronia)

evil coffeeshop au (actual title pending)

no title, nothing written, copy/pasted straight out of my wip ideas doc: death note mormon au ryuk is the one bouncing the bed while misa and light try to soak

ALNST:

kickin' the communal cum bucket (real title, yes)

old enough to know better (:smirk:)

it always happens to me (:pensive:)

SP:

[ weed joke ] - (this WILL be finished by 4/20 or father's day istg. legitimately my top priority once i'm done w/ finals)

ichor of the dead and gone (K2 MERMAIDS)

i fear that we're losing the best years, my love (stares in pain at a nearly 50 page document)

makes me better

sacrificial slaughter

visual meters

MISCELLANEOUS:

a polite request (kuroshitsuji)

staring through ghosts (homestuck, based on the dave PQ route)

touch starved (homestuck, dirkjake)

something something tamakyo love potions (ouran)

bring your daughter to work day gone wrong gone sexual (glados/chell portal fic idfk)

there's no title for this the concept is literally just the most pathetic, sloppy, wet-dog ass service top jotaro getting his shit rocked by kakyoin in an everybody lives pt.4 verse or smthn (jjba)

similarly: utena getting railed. (by anthy, obvs.) no thoughts just that one frame from ep.39 where she's shaking with her fist on the ground and the power of imagination (rgu)

OCS: (why not)

top ten reasons to kill your brother (necros <33)

international space goddess

consumptionverse (EAT BETTER part 2, essentially)

uhh not gonna tag anyone else cuz i think literally everybody i would've put has already gotten tagged by someone LOL but if any followers would like to do this pls pls pls go for it you have my blessing ^w^