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silverstreams · 10 months

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Hey, kinda basic question, but what inspired you to write tlg? Was there a specific moment in canon that inspired you? Did you crave more chelldos content and chose to contribute to the fandom yourself? Have you always wanted to write a certain type of story or shipping dynamic and chelldos seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get started?

I'm so curious because I really love your fic and it's always interesting to know how it all started and to learn more about the author's relationship with their own story.

Sorry if the wording of my ask seems weird, I'm not a native English speaker, but I'd be happy to talk to you about our lord and savior, chelldos christ

Not too basic at all, I'm happy to answer that!

One fun thing about Discord's easily-accessible and searchable message history is that I can pinpoint the precise conversation where I had the idea for the fic. I was talking to some other chelldos folks in 2018 about the concept of a cloned Chell, mainly how, if that happened, what would GLaDOS do to keep herself from getting bored? She's already gone through the most exciting stuff when it comes to Chell fighting back and destroying GLaDOS the first time. So what kind of stuff could be done that would be interesting to her but not dangeous? Would the variables between these clones gets more intense, more wild as she tried to get results an experiences that she hadn't had before? Then I fell face-first into the idea of GLaDOS messing with her in some psychological manner instead, if she could lull Chell into a false sense of security, but I wondered if she could ever be so "patient and willing to play the long game" and a lightbulb went off in my brain somewhere. After more of that discussion, that month I sketched out a super basic outline of a fic, and then went 'that's kinda messed up' and then set it down for like 6 months.

But the concept was still in the back of my mind, and I kept thinking about what I could potentially offer that I hadn't seen in other chelldos fics. One thing that came to mind is that, for at least the chelldos fics I had read, Chell returning to Aperture tended to end up being not a big deal, and/or GLaDOS and Chell repaired their relationship easily, or that repair happened off-screen and the fic took place in an established-relationship setting. Which, there is nothing wrong with that! I enjoyed them! And not everyone needs to write a long involved longfic before being allowed to write something fluffy, you know? But what I was thinking about was how hard things might be for both of them, the kinds of trauma they had been through, both on their own and at the hands of one another. Trying to build a foundation of trust between them would be very difficult, much less one where they could start to heal, much less one where they could start to develop feelings for one another. It would require a ton of work, especially since I couldn't ever see Chell returning to Aperture unless her hand was completely forced. Chell doesn't want to be there, and GLaDOS doesn't want her to be there, either. It would take a lot of work on the writing end to write that sort of progression in a way that wasn't rushed and that made sense too.

But I was still working on my other portal longfic at the time, so I decided that I would try to write this SHORT, 50-60k longfic as novel writing practice, something with short chapters that I could write for fun and without too much pressure in between the chapters for my other longfic (lol). Obviously the story developed out a lot more than my preliminary outlines, ha ha, but I'm glad for it.

One thing I do wish though is that I could have written it without an android form, because I love regular GLaDOS just as she is and think that if Chell was going to develop feelings, that she should be able to do it for regular GLaDOS. But unfortunately I couldn't get around it because some major plot points hinge upon GLaDOS getting locked out of her mainframe. Still feel like I'm taking the coward's approach though. It is what it is.

Anyway now it's 2023 and I am 120k into my 60k fic, which will probably end up at like 150k or so, not sure. I have wordcount projections but we'll see how I compare.

Thank you for asking!

#tlg stuff #silver stuff #asks #always happy to talk about my fic

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wilkers1 · 8 months

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there was always something about games like the Portal series or games such as Data Wing that always stuck out to me as something that could be seen as an allegory to a narrative about abusive relationsips, and i'm not at all talking about the Companion Cube, i see that as something of a build-up to later scenes. something about the way you start out thinking you're cared for and blindly following instructions and forming opinions molded to someone else's will. i wish to build a game following that kind of narrative around the phrase "Because i told you so.", but i wanna take a slightly different approach.

looking back at the first time i played Portal, i liked how the way that new hazards were introduced felt like GLaDOS was looking to punish me for things i never did or fully understood at the time, or specifically in the first time where Turrets are introduced, the one part in particular where the two turrets are facing eachother, could be comparable to a double-bind situation -- the saying "dammed if you do, dammed if you don't" applies here, the kind of thing someone with power over you could do to make you keep guessing what they want, only for the objective to be that you just keep guessing while you submit to whatever they want you to do or think. likewise, the turrets facing eachother are an embodiment of that. they are difficult to deal with on their own because there's no reasonable way to possibly deal with them both at the same time, as you'll always get shot by the other either way. and to add insult to the injury, the first turret has a good view of you just enough to helplessly keep shooting into the glass where it would hit you had the glass not been there.

that shooting is the thing that keeps pounding into your head saying that you can't hide forever and you have to deal with this situation eventually.

except that you can deal with both turrets at the same time, you might be remembering. but have you ever stopped to think that there were never any cube dispensers up until that point? in fact, have you noticed that the first appearance of the cube dispenser was one showing up after that point, sabotaged into staying open? the only way you were able to deal with the turrets is that you were able to see you are not alone, and that there were people who actually risked their lives to gather those cubes and make sure you are be able to not hide forever behind that glass.

i want to explore more of a story like that. in Portal, not only do you already get nudged into the realization over time, but as you slowly come to the realizations of your surroundings, you also get distracted with the confrontation you're forced to put increasing effort into over time. in Data Wing, you always get to just be happy following whatever orders are given to you to keep on racing and delivering data, even if the motivations during that game were mostly void of malice throughout the story. and in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (the JP version), you slowly come to the realization of what your purpose is as you try new decisions, and also what others' motivations around you are, but aside from the little choices you make, no real power is actually given for you to challenge or influence anything you're doing in the longer term, so you always fulfill a purpose according to the will of the one taking care of you in the end and only get to realization after your purpose was already fulfilled as their creation.

a story i want to explore is along the lines of: how would one come to the realization that they are experiencing an abusive relationship when they don't have any frame of reference or morality about what an abusive relationship even is? what kind of purpose would someone like that be fulfilling, and what would bring them to have their opinions and motivations be aligned with their creator's?

you may also notice how i'm using the term "purpose" very loosely here, perhaps in a way that feels objectifying, because that is how i myself feel about what i think an abusive relationship often end up being. i want to make up an Ace Combat kind of gameplay in a way that the storytelling would feel more nuanced than a "go to this path" or "go to that path". i want to know and show a player about how could someone be able to find themselves in a situation like in Portal where they don't have the boxes laying around in a corner by someone else who already found out what's up. more importantly, i want to show a story where they themselves would be in the bliss of ignorance until they put active effort in wanting to know a story like this. the problem is that i don't know about those things myself, so i'd like to have some clue about how to put something like this together.

#wilker #storytelling #gamedev #portal #data wing #ace combat #ac3 #come to think of it- maybe the international version of Ace Combat 3 *does* fit the overarching story of the japanese version in this conte

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flynndesdelca · 8 months

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For Day 15 (Chell) of @chelltastic’s Portal Drawtober 2023 Challenge. As I’m not really an artist, I chose to write short pieces for the prompts.

Wipe those tears off and make your heart proud

The first day had seen her not move from the spot, sitting curled up next to the Companion Cube as though in a sort of trance. Her mind had felt so sharp on the elevator ride up, coming up with plans and contingencies and courses of action, but actually being free had killed most of that momentum. She had been content to sit in the silence, listening to the wind rustling the stalks of wheat and the distant sounds of animals. It had felt like some sort of fever dream to Chell after so long of the sounds of Aperture, of the background hum of ventilation and the distant sounds of machines and the constant creak of the structure itself. It was impossible to believe that this was real, and she truly did expect to wake in utter disappointment in a corner somewhere that she'd tucked herself into in order to take a nap.

The next day forced her to move because without the cocktail of adrenaline and whatever else GLaDOS had pumped into the air her body was falling into a more natural cycle. Specifically, she was hungry. Alarmingly so, she realized. Who knew that sitting for a day without eating would have that effect? As she'd been in and out of hibernation and kept in carefully controlled environments for so long just how her body functioned had become a sort of a mystery. She could remember distantly how it worked, but actually experiencing it again was just as feverish as being outside had been. Being surrounded by wheat had the promise of flour, but as she lacked the means to grind it efficiently, as well as a the other things you put into flour to make it not just ground wheat, it was unpalatable. Plus the whole concept of wheat grown above the land that Aperture occupied...it certainly looked normal, but much like everything else about the place, she suspected that it was definitely beyond it.

In the distance she could see trees, and that was where she headed off to. She left the Companion Cube where it was, a landmark. A pointless landmark, as the electrical shed itself stood out well enough in the sea of gold that contained it. Still, she felt better knowing that it was there, rather than lugging it with her on what her mind was saying would be the trip of a few hours. She set off through the field, eventually finding a large copse of trees to wander through. The shade was nice, she felt, and more than that, she could hear birds. It was a simple matter to climb the trees and look for nests, and she found a few small eggs that way. She had no idea if the eggs were even edible, but it didn't matter at this point. Either it would be nourishing, or she'd wind up dead from hunger. She also found a couple of mushrooms, small brown ones that she distantly remembered from books as a child. Whether that meant they were poisonous or not she couldn't remember. Again, she could eat or she could eventually face starvation. Cutting through the woods had been a small cold spring, the water clear. She didn't see any fish in it, but perhaps she could follow it and find a larger lake where there could be fish.

Figuring out what to do with her obtained food had been tricky. With everything laid out on top of the Companion Cube she had set about the next step, which was starting a fire. She understood the basics of starting a fire, but finding the materials to do so had been trickier than planned. It was infuriating to think that all the materials she needed were just underground, but she was not going back. She was not going to be deterred by a little camping. She had just gotten out, and she had known that it was not going to be easy. She hadn't backed down from anything thrown at her so far, so why should starting a fire be an unsurmountable challenge?

It was already sunset by the time she managed to coax sparks from the small firestarter she had concocted, but that was enough, and she gently nursed the tiny coals into a small blaze. Thankfully there was a lot of dry vegetation she could use. The little fire seemed homey somehow as the shadows of night fell across the field, its light blazing in defiance. Just like her, she thought. She could see herself in that hard-won little fire.

Actually cooking the things had been another issue she'd been thinking about during her preparations. Finding a long, flat rock had given her an idea, and now she quickly set up the other rocks she'd dug up, making a stand for the flat rock to rest on over the fire. She let it heat up, waiting until she could feel the heat emanating off of the rock when she held her hand over it. Hopefully that would be hot enough. She cracked open the first egg, which made a huge mess of broken shell everywhere. As she didn't particularly feel like wasting it, she grit her teeth and went with it, starting to mix the egg around on the hot rock with a flat stick she'd found and felt would be a good spatula replacement. Another egg, cracked much more carefully given how delicate they apparently were. The yolks were dark, so much darker than she remembered seeing before. They were so small, the amount of egg she had gotten from them was negligible, but it would do. She added one more, deciding to keep the rest for later. Once the eggs had really started to cook she dropped the mushrooms on top, stirring the whole thing around. A really crude omelet, but an omelet all the same. Better than nothing, after all. The smell was driving her crazy and it was so hard to wait until she felt as though whatever dangers might have lurked in said food had been cooked out of it. She ate it off the rock with the spatula-stick, and it was burning hot and slightly crunchy from the egg shells, but somehow it was the most delicious food she could remember eating in a very long time. It was a victory, she decided. She'd overcome another hurdle. She couldn't help but glance at the shed smugly.

The next day she managed to revive the fire, and ate one of the eggs that way. She was hoping to explore along the river a bit more now that she'd found it, maybe finding fish or other food. She returned much later in the day sweaty and tired, but with a couple more eggs, some more mushrooms, and a fish that she'd managed to spear with a broken stick. She had plans to improve on said stick design, and that meal was much more triumphant than the last, the fish roasting pleasantly skewered over the little fire.

The next few days passed in much the same way. She followed along the river and the small lake that it fed into, exploring more and more. Yet each day she found herself returning to the shed in the field. As her exploration took her further and further, she would have to push herself to make it back before it got too dark. One night as she sat there, trying to rekindle the fire that had gone out hours beforehand, she couldn't help but wonder why she kept coming back there. She'd gone far enough and figured out enough to make small camps anywhere else. She'd seen some signs of actual human life last time. If she had kept going instead of turning back, she might have found civilization of some kind.

The next day she tried exploring in a different direction, pushing the previous day’s thoughts out of her mind. Again, she ranged far, and returned late in the day, and couldn't help but wonder why. She'd torn off one leg of her jumpsuit to make a little pouch to carry food she found in, and she was so good at starting fires now that she wasn't worried about that. There was no reason to come back to that place. Her thoughts chased themselves in circles around her head all that night, and left her in a dreamless, restless sleep.

The next day she went out again, but it was a passionless, drifting effort that took her along places she'd already been. It was nothing new, but it was familiar, and comfortable, and all at once she turned and ran back to the field and the shack and the Companion Cube. Grabbing onto it as though its rough surface and pointed corners would comfort her, she found herself crying. Why was she crying? What had happened? She already knew, just like she knew why she had not strayed from that spot. Having a place to return to that was familiar had been a comfort in a world that had left her behind. Perhaps it hadn't been the implied hundreds of years, but it had been long enough that there was nothing familiar left to her. Whatever had happened had swept the world clean, and anyone left there were the descendants of strangers. Despite her drive and her fierce determination to survive and to be free, the thought of leaving behind the last bits of everything she had known was a terrifying prospect. She'd faced down death how many times now? All the horrors that Aperture had to offer she had borne… but yet, the idea of leaving the facility and all of the trauma it had inflicted onto her sent her into a dull panic, one that had driven her to return there every night.

Mechanically she set about making food and eating, and attempting to sleep. But sleep did not come that night, and she tossed and turned and stared at the stars, stared into the dying embers of the fire that she had coaxed into being one more time. She stared at the dark shadow that she knew was the Companion Cube, and the nearby electrical shack with its tiny emergency light that cast dim shadows all around. All comforts, but all reminders of just what she had suffered... and what she had overcome, in the end.

The next day she packed up everything she could take with her in her little pouch. She put out the fire carefully, stamping it down and digging up the ground to bury its remains. She cast one last long look at the shack, then hefted the Companion Cube in her arms and turned away. She walked through the field, letting her feet take her down the familiar path she'd worn into it, towards the trees and the river and the lake and whatever else laid beyond. She didn't let herself look back, not even once. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she forced herself to march onward until at last she was in the shade of the trees and the shed was too far away to see anymore.

She sat down and let herself cry again. It shouldn't hurt to say goodbye to all that had happened, but yet it did, somehow. She had been given her freedom, she needed to take it. To find herself. Who was Chell, in this world? Not a test subject for Aperture, not anymore. That chapter of her life was closed, the Companion Cube the bookmark to remind her that it existed, but that it was over and done and behind her. It was time to find out who the new, free Chell would be.

#portal drawtober 2023 #portal 2 #chell portal #chell #saying goodbye to aperture is hard to do

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megatron-is-a-mattereel-gurl · 5 months

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Tell me abt the necrospark guys go wild I am here to listen

NECROSPARK MY SLIGHTLY TRAUMATIZED BABIES!

telling me to go wild about Necrospark is like letting all the rats out of a cage,WHICH IS a GOOD THING. Warning, this might be long.

Where do I even begin with those two-?

So, Necromancer and Scatterspark, Or Necrospark, is a Ship of Two of My Transformers,Specifically Cyberverse,OCs, I call it Necrospark to make it easier.

Necromancer Uses He/They Pronouns, he has one red eye and one blue eye, which he is a little self conscious about, he used to cover the Blue One, but when the war ignited, he started to cover the red one, and leave the blue one uncovered. His main colors in his frame are shades of Blue, except for his One Red Eye and one Biolight Thighs(Garter belt looking thing) that is present on most Cyberverse characters.

Scatterspark is actually Necromancer's Ex-Wife. He was married to her, but let's just say Necromancer had his "Say No To This."" Moment and Scatterspark had her "Burn" Moment. But they did get back together later. They just never remarried.

Oh!Important. Detail about both of them. They are Knights of the Primes Like Thunderhowl. Actually,Necromancer is Thunderhowl's cousin. He's the Knight of Maccadam/Alchemist Prime.

Hey. If Ratchet can have a niece, I think Thunderhowl can have a cousin.

I know, technically, for Scatterspark,Dame is the Correct Term, But Eh. Dame of the Primes doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

Necromancer is Basically as a Character:Alexander Hamilton From Hamilton, Plus Spinel from Steven Universe,Plus Glados from Portal, Plus JD from Heathers.

Oh, yeah, and Necromancer loses his mother figure very early in his life.

Scatterspark uses She/Her Pronouns, but is Pansexual. Her design is mostly pink, as she is inspired Lot by Katherine Howard from Six and Katherine Howard, historically, too. But the pink and the high ponytail were taken from the Six:The Musical Version of her.

Like i said, she was inspired a Lot By Katherine Howard. She was a victim of Grooming/Pedophilia, and she didn't really fall in love with any men after that for a long time. Then she let Necromancer into her heart, and she fell in love with him. Don't worry, Necromancer and her are the same Age. They are perfectly legal. But even there, it took her a lot of time to let Necromancer even be somewhat affectionate with her. And he, being the sweetheart he is, let her take her time.

BTW I'm trying not to cry happy tears writing this,THEY ARE TOO CUTE SOMETIMES.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Like I said, Necromancer has a Say No To This Moment. He cheats on Scatterspark with a microwave throwing Oc of Mine by the Name of Nitroquake. Scatterspark has her Burn Moment. They divorce. But they get back together after Necromancer comes back from being shot by Praxis.YES, THAT praxis, WHO IVE TALKED ABOUT. He ain't what he seems.

Anyway, he comes back, and they get back together, and they stay together for a long time, up until early in the war.

And then Alpha Trion,Scatterspark's Liege Prime, asks her to infiltrate the Decepticons, pretend she's one of them,etc,etc. So she does that and reports back to Orion Pax frequently while doing that.

Well, Long Story Short, Megs, finds out about it, and chops her head clean off (in an alleyway) with a blade when she's distracted, I mean, Points for Deception, I guess.

Anyway,Necromancer finds her body and brings her back to life, and tells her to change her color scheme and they are going back to Caminus, which is their Home Planet. So she changes it to blue.

And they Live Pretty Happily After That.

#im sorry this is so long #transformers cyberverse oc #◆knight's honor◇#✨️necrospark posting ;)✨️#maccadam #maccadams #i love them sm #cyberverse #transformers cyberverse #tf cyberverse #cyberverse transformers #oc x oc #tf ocs #tf oc #transformers oc #transformers original character

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portalnewage · 1 year

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Portal New Age of Testing [RP Server]

𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀! 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴...! 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲!

Portal 3: New Age of Testing is a NEW literate and passionate group of Portal fans exploring and collaboratively writing out the aftermath of Portal 2's cooperative mode! Join us and bring YOUR very own unique dampening sphere, test subject, or other original character into a new era for the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, or explore past eras of Aperture and claim your favorite canonically established characters from the Portal games and mods themselves!

─────────

This server focuses on an expansion in Aperture's scope of testing beyond simple portal testing. With the success of the cooperative testing initiative, GLaDOS has begun to explore the possibilities for additional testing initiatives, as well as the return of the original singular portal testing tracks she began with.

With hundreds of newly discovered trapped subjects and a plethora of dampening spheres, turrets, and other sentient Aperture Science technologies under GLaDOS, Aperture has entered a glorious new age. One where subjects are tested under a more benevolent and human A.I, but also a simultaneously more powerful and ambitious one as well...

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- A beautiful server layout and roadmap to help you navigate and join the roleplay in no time!

- Flashback era categories for those more interested in Aperture's past than its present!

- Testing initiative categories and chambers, allowing human and android test subjects alike to think with MORE than portals!

- A supportive and loving community of talented writers that will help you fit your own characters and writing into the server's roleplay!

- Lots and lots of cake!

───────── https://imgur.com/r2R8VQA

https://discord.gg/q2XwDxgJAZ

Hello! You may know me from my main blog @chaoticcutiewhirl but this blog can be basically seen as a sort of ad. Before you Scroll, let me explain. Portal New Age of Testing is an RP server, me and my friend Fludd worked hard on, there are so many plans such as adding game elements to the RP and trying to create a world set after Portal 2 that will eventually touch upon Half-life. I will be planning to post a couple of RP snippets through my time here, as possible ideas of what you are getting into, and yes, I will mark it when it is other Writers other than me on the RP which will be almost always. If you see this and think RP is childish, well you are kind of right, only thing is, that RP is also played as a game as well as a possibility to get better at writing. Do you want to better thrink of how to write internal dialogue, boom you have testing and having your character try to figure out what to do. Do you want to test a character idea for something you’re writing? Well as long as it fits within canon, test them in RP. Do you just want to find possible online writing friends? Well this server can also have your back. We are already on Disboard but I am trying to reach out here as well because Tumblr is mainly an artist alley, which includes writers and writing side of Tumblr, if you played Portal (and its tumblr, of course you have, its ome of the most lgbtq+ kinda games from a big company), come over and join, we will be happy to have you. We also have a fairly strong artist side of the server with members like Fludd for example creating the gif and video from above, all on his own may I add.

Simply put, if you have an itch to write portal and you don’t want to write a fan fic, come over and join us, everyone is welcomed!

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spiribia · 1 year

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cut content from portal 2 where you and glados meet cave johnson's consciousness uploaded to a cube (source). after he dies, you use his corpse as a stepping stool as part of the puzzle.

//======================================= //Called when discovering the Cave Johnson cube //=======================================

//Cave: Greetings, friend. It's Cave Johnson, CEO of Aperture Science.

//Cave: Down here! [pause] On the floor.

//Cave: That's right! It's really me. My entire living consciousness, for all eternity, inside a machine.

//Cave: Alone. On a dirty floor. In an abandoned room. At the bottom of a pit.

//Cave: My life is torture, please kill me.

//Glados: We don't have time for this.

//Cave: Hold on. Is that you, Caroline?

//Yes SIR, Mister Johnson! I'll have that report on your desk by four�thirty! [normal voice, horrified] What. In the hell. Was THAT.

//Cave: You were my assistant! The heart and soul of Aperture Science! You don't remember?

//Glados: No, Mister Johnson. I DON'T.

//Cave: See, the science boys invented me a machine to house my consciousness in. But that sounded DANGEROUS, so I volunteered you to go first. // Like a food taster, except with your soul! [chuckling] Guess they must've found a use for you after all. Oh! Which reminds me. I do need you both to kill me.

//Cave: Come on, be a sport and kill me. All you gotta do is pick me up.

//Glados: Sure

//Cave: Plug's in the back of me. Give me a good pull, it should pop right out.

//Glados: Okay.

//Cave: Now, before you say no, I want you to remember that I've lived a full life. Also, if this helps seal the deal, livin' in a computer this long's made me crazy. That's right: I am insane.

//Glados: I said we'll do it.

//Cave: Wait. I suppose tellin' you I'm not in my right mind could sway you to not unplugging me. Let me round back on the important parts: in a computer. Ceaseless torture. Monster in the eyes of god. So why don't you get on over here and unplug ol' Cave.

//Glados: If you don't unplug him, I will.

//======================================= //Called when the player kills the Cave cube //=======================================

//Cave: Ho ho! I can feel myself shuttin' down. Man, this is excitin'.

//Glados: Maybe we can stand on him to climb up.

//Cave: Oh! Room's gettin' dark. That's a good sign.

//Cave: I'm comin' for you, Caroline!

//Glados: Mister Johnson? You need to shut up.

//Cave: Ten�four!

//Cave: Here I go! The great beyond! Valhalla, home of Hercules! I can hear them winged chariots thunderin' over now!

//======================================= //Called if player lingers after using the Cave corpse to escape //=======================================

//Glados: Goodbye, sir. May whatever tests await you on the other side either support or disprove your hypotheses.

//Cave: Thank you, Caroline.

//Cave: Alright! Too much jawin', not enough dyin'. Here I go! Ah.

//======================================= //Called if player lingers after using the Cave corpse to escape //=======================================

//Glados: I'd... appreciate it... if we never... EVER talked about that... ever again.

#THIS IS LIKE PORTAL 3 TO ME.#talks #MISTER JOHNSON YOU NEED TO SHUT UP high fives everybody #apparently some of caves lines here were directly reused in Aperture Desk Job

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 2 years

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True Darkness

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing.\

Glados lay still, like a spider at the center of her great web, she rested in her nest beneath the streets of Arcadia. The nest lay at the junction of all the major tunnels, where the flow of the upper city reached her through air currents and distant echoes. From here she could sense the pulse of the city’s life and hear the whirring of the life support generators that ran to keep the planet habitable.

Rather than one large terraforming facility, Arcadia had over a thousand smaller generators. Yes certainly it was a bitch to get around to all of them and fix them, but at the very least it would be impossible to take them all out all at once. Arcadia had been designed by warriors for warriors, ahd that meant creating a defensible infrastructure that wasn’t so prone to sabotage.

Not to mention each generator was heavily guarded and then remotely monitored.

It took a series of five people to open a generator with the proper access codes, or one of the three members of the triumvirate could do it. She supposed director Conn could as well, but he knew almost everything. It may have sounded like overkill, but the thought process remained that it was unlikely someone could corrupt all three generator key admins at once AND the proper offsite monitor.

And then there was her.

Glados didn’t HAVE to live in the tunnels, no one made her do it, and no one had ever overtly made her feel unwelcome, but after the Adaptids had closed themselves off for visitors, Glados had cast her lot in with her Father and his people, but that meant she was one of the only ones of her kind, and it was hard not to feel a bit isolated.

Well, that was not counting her first partner, who clung to the underside of her belly with his many legs, but the male adaptids weren’t exactly one for stimulating conversation. In fact, they lived their lives mostly comatose until they were actually needed for genetic material, generally speaking adapids society was run primarily by females and the third sex, of which Glados remembered little, and she certainly had her doubts that anyone on anin would be eager to do her a favor and carry an egg sack.

Ending up in the tunnels had sort of been a natural progression for her, and now she was a guardian of the city, basically a myth, and one of Arcadia’s favorite cryptids, if not more friendly than your average cryptid tends to be.

And there she sat, brooding darkly, surrounded by piles of fluffy pillows, stacks of comic books, and other various odds and ends. And the brooding might have continued were it not for the sudden change in smell that reached her nose. Adaptids have an amazing sense of smell, as, the generation before her had communicated primarily by the subtle variation in release of pheromones. Though, Glados could talk, with her human vocal cords, she still maintained her incredible sense of smell.

A single change in the tunnels was enough to alter the entire chemistry of the underground.

She always knew when Adam was coming to visit.

Or Narobi.

Or Sunny.

A single body entering the air flow of the deep tunnels was significant enough to alert her to their presence. She knew everyone, recognized their sent…

But not this time

Whatever it was, the creature was alive, that much she was sure.

And it was human…. Or at least it smelled mostly human.

Glados rose to her feet, lifting her snout to the air which was suddenly filled with the caustic sent of chemicals. Glados was familiar with chemicals, having dabbled in all areas of science in her time, and having run into most of them while working with Narobi, but even if she hadn’t been familiar with chemicals, she would have recognized the smell in the air as spray paint, and aerosol propellent.

She lifted slowly to her eight standing legs and scuttled quietly into the tunnels.

Her eyesight was as good as any human’s which meant it was shit in the dark, but her sense of smell was good enough to basically map a 3D image of her surroundings almost as strong as sonar. While her human eyes could see nothing, she could sense the tunnels around, her in great detail, up to the point she could just make out the hazy figure in the tunnel ahead, vaguely human shaped as it shed it’s scent, through the picture was difficult to distinguish as more aerosol filled the air

Another thing she could smell.

Fear.

Anyone who had spent any sort of time on Arcadia knew the urban legends that surrounded glados, and anyone stupid to walk into the tunnels uninvited was basically playing russian roulette, except instead of holding a gun to their head, it was the likelyhood of shitting their pants.

She scuttled faster.

The user of the spray can was not very precise in their movements, a couple slashes here, a couple slashes there, a Messy circle witch dripped paint towards the floo, something that Glados was going to have to clean up. She rubles softly in annoyance, but despite its softness, the sound carried up the tunnel, bouncing off the walls.

She saw the figure stiffen, and the fear smell increased

Well

Scaring the piss out of stupid people was one of her favorite passtimes, why deny herself the joy.

She relaxed in her stealth, allowing the scattering rush of her legs to echo up the tunnel.

Whoever it was at least had enough control over their sphincter not to soil themselves, as the spray can clattered to the ground, and the tunnels were field with the sound of running footsteps. Glados didn’t bother to increase her speed, with her nose as good as it was, she was better than a bloodhound.

The vandal would not last long.

The chemical smell grew stronger as she approached the intersection pausing right next to the source.

Glados reached into her toolbelt and pulled out a flashlight, which she switched on and aimed at the wall.

The red paint was still wet, dripping in gentle rivulets down the steel wall and onto the floor.

The symbol, or tag, the artist had left behind was comprised of a large red circle, and two messy letters.

A shiver ran through her body, though she had no idea why it would have such and effect on her. She could still hear retreating footsteps, and listened as the grate to the deep tunnel opened and closed. The interloaper’s smell still lingered.

Their mystery vandal was about to experience real horror.

Glados turned off her flashlight, and followed the smell through the tunnels, quiet and quick and she slipped out into the open night. The maintenance hatch the interloper had used was, a small human sized door, next to the much larger cargo entrance, through which Glados had to pass. The door was an older part of the city, and it didn’t surprise her that the locks had never been checked.

She would have to see to that later.

The cargo entrance and small door lay tucked under a small overpass, upon which Glados could hear the rush of traffic in the night.

Strange plants and fungi grew here letting off dim bioluminescent illumination. A few space jellies floated absently, though for the most part this area of the city was untouched, and mostly unkempt. Plant lie had taken over where it could, and, sniffing the air, she could sense the presence of a nest of Jeffery snakes somewhere in the bushes.

She scuttled past, following under the overpass.

The air here smelled like graffiti, and so there were colorful murals on the walls. Rarely did she see any tags, like the one she had seen in the deep tunnel. Arcadia actively encouraged artistic pursuits, even street art, while gang activity was not tolerated, and could result in exile from the planet’s surface.

But still there was always someone’s annoying kid….

Speaking of which, the smell was still strong, and she followed silently through the shadows, up the block and into a small, residential suburb, where the night orbs glowed a dim sort of blue. Up ahead she spotted them, the dark figure walking down the center of the road.

The fear smell was still strong, and they looked over their shoulder constantly, but Glados kept to the shadows and they saw nothing.

She hoped briefly that their human instincts would be on fire right about now, sensing hr but not seeing her.

She followed them up the block, until they reached one of the houses. They fumbled with the side door for a long moment before finally managing to open it and scramble inside.

Glados heard the lock click.

She scuttled forward, through backyards and over fences.

Dogs barked in the distance, sensing her presence.

She made it over the last fence hunkering up against the side wall of the house and listened.

She was rewarded.

“I’m not doing it again!” Came a voice.

The person who responded came in distant with a mechanical quality, some kind of long distance call, “Don’t be a baby”

“I heard her.” The voice said, quivering gently

“Urban legend.” The voice shot back, “Besides, we don’t allow little bitches into the group.”

Glados eased up against the wall.

“I’m not a little bich, but I’m not stupid either, I know whta I heard.”

The voice snorted, “When True Dark says jump you say how high, now stop your moaning, you’re alive aren't you, nothing bad happened.”

There was a pause and she could feel the person shaking their head.

“Good, then this is your first step . I will work on getting a vial to you, but Arcadia’s security network is a real bitch, but until then I have some more jobs for you. Prove your loyalty.” The caller wasn’t that old, maybe in his late teens , and a complete douche to boot, but his words did serve to put lados on edge.

She didn’t like where this was going.

The caller hung up, and the person inside took a deep breath. She could hear the distant breathing sounds of others in the house, their smells heavy with sleep. She may not have known exactly what was going on, but she knew she didn’t like it.

Scuttling closer to the wall, behind which lay her mystery person’s room glados raised up on her rear four legs and rested her other six against the wall.

Time to scare the little bastard straight.

There was a small window in the side of the room, and she was just able to raise herself up high enough to peer inside.

She could see the figure now, sitting on their bed, scrolling through their holofeed.

Perfect.

She set herself up in the window, pulling her gums back to expose her teeth in a terrible grimace. She was primarily a carnivore, so all of her teeth were nice and pointy. She opened her eyes nice and wide, crazy wide, and once she was ready, she rattled her legs against the sie of the house in a sharp scuttling noise,

The person, or teen juped, and turned rapidly towards the window.

The scream was so loud it probably could have shattered glass as they keeled over backwards and scrambled backwards towards the door, screaming, and now crying.

Glados dropped back down rattling her feet against the side of the house a few more times before scuttling away into the bushes cackling herself. Hopefully, a few more encounters like that might scare the little shit straight.

But until then she needed to talk to conn.

Glados didn’t like traveling above ground, but she had her own private entrance into the CI building where she was tasked with doing plenty of engineering work.

Conn was waiting for her when the door opened, likely having sensed her coming.

His expression was surprisingly grim.

“What?” She asked, knowing he had already shifted through the relevant images in her head.

His dark eyes bored into her, “True Darkness.”

She frowned, “And what is that?”

Conn’s ribbons flared, and he reached up to adjust his tie, absently with long spidery fingers, “Nothing good”

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socialpermadeath · 1 year

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Alright, the tinfoil hat is on, I'm just speculating at this point, none of this has any basis in canon but I see a lot of humanoid robot designs for GLaDOS and Wheatley and I would like to throw my hat into the ring.

Probably, the way we see them in game is their "true form" but there are humanoid, autonomous chassis that they can be transferred into. This is done if they need to self-evacuate in the case of an emergency, or for social functions where the Aperture team wants to show off the AI. I imagine, at some point during 2's exploration of the facility, Chell wanders through a hall of perfectly statuesque androids, holding stock still in their glass cases, hooked up to charge, a few missing, some broken. She lays her hand on the glass of one of them, a slim built man, metal and ceramic plates making up his face, a pair of glasses resting on his nose.

"That's me." Wheatley supplies.

Chell looks at the android in the case and then at the sphere on the management rail.

"We're designed after the scientists in the facility. I think he was someone's assistant, maybe an intern. I have his voice too."

The android is wearing a lab coat over his pristine business casual clothes, a name tag reads "Wheatley". The face stares ahead, motionless and lifeless. The ceramic plates gleam with a glossy finish.

"I never used it, didn't need to, so I guess it's like a statue now, an homage to the errand boy who worked here all those years ago. Bit creepy when you think of it that way."

Chell looks around the hall, perfectly crafted androids, each one's face molded into that of a real person's. There's crooked noses, a few have what looks like hearing aids on their ears, plenty of glasses, and each one in a slightly different lab appropriate outfit. She notes that at the end of a pair of perfectly pressed slacks, Wheatley's android seems to be wearing sneakers.

"Come over here, check this out." Wheatley calls out, Chell jogs to the far end of the hall.

"There she is, the old lady herself."

The woman's case is on a taller pedestal, but even then she's probably 6 feet tall. Tall, imposing, broad shoulders, ceramic face bearing a few dignified wrinkles, silver hair glimmering like fiberglass cables, cut into an angular style. The orange ascot around her neck almost seems out of place given the rest of her appearance being one of control and perfection. Chell taps the glass.

"GLaDOS. Her body has seen some use, she was the pride of the facility back when they were still doing cocktail parties and tours for investors."

Chell notes that the androids heeled boots are slightly dirty, toes scuffed, maybe from dinner party guests bumping into her or fumbling their way through an awkward dance at the director's insistence. Even at rest her face looks stern.

Chell gestures back towards Wheatley's android.

"Oh, it's no good to us now. No interface ports for the industrial equipment. I'd have to use my hands... Don't have any practice with that sort of thing, pretty inefficient, I'd just be fumbling my way across a keyboard. Decidedly uncool."

#portal #portal 2 #long post #headcanon

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girlwiththegreenhat · 2 years

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wheatley x chell. go on

explodes

my Printed Copy Of Blue Sky And I have a few words. dare i say this is the ORIGINAL girlboss and malewife, for me at least. friends to enemies back to friends and, very eventually, lovers. nobody comes out of aperture without a good number of scars and i love me a good redemption story. i love chell trying to navigate a post-combine world with the scraps of humanity that clung on through it all, like we always do. trying to find Normalcy where she's not constantly running on adrenaline fighting for her life, finding a peaceful way to live the rest of her life. she is a testament to the tenacity of humanity as a whole. and the thought of wheatley somehow finding his way back to earth and getting to reconnect with her, to have meant his apology to the void and trying to make up for what he did, to finally have Escaped aperture and THE BOTH OF THEM getting to see what comes after!! GOD. sometimes you need someone who knows what you've been through and they are Perfect to help each other through it. they were a team before, they can be a team again, though hopefully this time without any Life Or Death situations.

this gets the "better in fanon than in canon" tag because, even though it can still be fun otherwise, the absolute Best versions of this ship exist with Plentiful Headcanons and post-aperture environments. wheatley having to choose to better himself and make up for betraying her is a Core Piece to me, chell has already fought for her happy ending but he hasn't yet. he has the opportunity, but he has to take the Steps. and while she has no obligation to forgive him... it's a nice thought that she would give him that chance, he is probably her oldest friend by virtue of not having anybody left from Before Aperture, and he's giving this all an honest shot.

and if you plug in the "ALL the personality constructs used to be Real Human People like GLaDOS" headcanon? it gives it Many layers of Robot Identity Crisis that i am ALWAYS here for, and he gets to join her in trying to rediscover what it means to be human and live.

so anyway this is the original OTP it still rots my brain so very wonderfully they even have the Complimentary Colors thing going on i ADORE THEM

#liz blogs #frankforested #chelley #portal 2 #ask #ship bingo #ROTATES THEM IN MY HEAD #MAKES MY CHELL FIGURE AND MY WHEATLEY KEYCHAIN KISS #SHAKES PRINTED COPY OF BLUE SKY A G G R E S S I V E L Y #THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME YELL ABOUT THEM i need to replay portal its been A Minute

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novelmachine · 1 year

Text

The Abyss is Calling

Portal 2 drabble set between GLaDOS waking and Wheatley's jailbreak. Based on my own curiosity and pull towards the void. I always wondered if Chell would have felt it too as she stole glimpses of the facility that lay beyond the testing tracks. [AO3]

It wasn't difficult to get in between the panels. Using portals to redirect the light bridge, Chell was able to bring herself closer to the opening she'd spotted from the ground level of the testing track. She just managed to slip through, doing so quickly in case the panel was on a timer, set to move back into place. Chell had to shake the original thought from her head: that the panel may move on its own, because it felt like it. That would imply the facility was alive. Chell knew better. Nothing in this place that moved or spoke was by accident. Everything was controlled, calculated, dreamed up by mathematicians and engineers and scientists long dead by now.

Chell allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkened back room. There was metal grating all around. Heavy boxes were scattered here and there. She surveyed the bare walls in the cramped space. No remnants of empty cans or dirtied office mugs either. Clearly the wayward artist who had been scurrying around the facility before her had not found this place. She felt some comfort in that. A place seemingly untouched by anyone, human or not.

Chell aimed the portal device at the off-white wall, and fired. Almost instantly, a blue ring formed a pathway back into the test chamber she'd just escaped from, casting a cool familiar glow. She figured she might need it later to return. Or, if she allowed herself to hope, she could use it to find a way out of here. She strode along the uneven floors, along the metal grating that kept her here. She peered out into the abyss that was Aperture Laboratories, allowing her device to hang from her dominant hand at her side.

Light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. She saw room after room, like abandoned storage units, stacked on top of each other. Some had collapsed in on themselves after being deserted for years. Steel beams and metal pipes protruded out from unnatural angles. Foliage hung from above and twisted upwards from the endless pit below. Even when it was unclear if the elevators were taking her up or down after each test chamber, Chell had the distinct feeling she was underground. Looking out from her newest hiding spot, she thought of how unusual it was that something could survive down here. But that wasn't completely true. She was still alive, after all.

She looked up, down, all around, and could not see an end to it all. Chell strained her eyes, but couldn’t make out any indication that the facility wasn't impossibly infinite. The thought of an endless supply of testing tracks and chambers made Chell reel. For the first time in a short while, she felt small and insignificant.

And yet, there was another feeling that was beginning to claw its way out of her stomach. It burrowed its way into her chest, unfamiliar but not unwelcome.

Chell was curious. How many test chambers were there really? How far underground was she? How far underground did Aperture Science really go? Would she be able to see it all in her lifetime? Could any human, for that matter, if given the time to explore this place in peace? Were GLaDOS and the little blue sphere the only sentient robots here? There were so many questions that if left unchecked would cause her to fall over the edge into insanity.

She felt drawn back to the metal grate, and forced herself to stare out into the abyss. It was calling her.

Chell could picture herself walking along those catwalks. She could see herself climbing over the wreckage of long-forgotten halls and rooms and digging through all those rooms. Maybe she could find clues left behind by the scientists, or even the previous test subjects. Something to explain where she was and why she was here and why this had all happened in the first place. She didn't want to be here, forced to test again and again without rest. She desperately wanted to see what else was out there.

The portal gun was immediately held in both hands once again, back in position. Chell scanned the vicinity, looking for any light-colored surfaces. She fired, but was met with an unsatisfactory phttz. She'd mistaken a refraction, a trick of the light, for a portalable surface. She looked around and fired again, only to be met with the same resulting fizzle. Again and again, she fired and hit nothing that could sustain a portal. Her shots became more and more erratic, until they were completely blind.

Overwhelmed, she stopped herself. Chell backed away from the metal grating. When her back hit the cool white panel, she slid down towards the floor. The sense of curiosity and the need to explore had morphed into an ugly feeling of hopelessness that sank to the pit of her stomach. Taking deep breaths, she allowed her head to lull back, intending to stretch her neck.

She gasped at what she way.

Above her was an opening, broken metal pipes panels bent out of shape. The walls reached up high above her, at least four stories high. Beyond the encroaching darkness and signs of brutal architecture was a canvas of stars. The sky glowed, freckled with white dots large and small, clumped in an array of clusters. The placement of these stars had not been calculated or designed by a machine. This kind of chaos could not be manufactured. There was an outside, and Chell could nearly touch it.

It took every ounce of self-control Chell had to tear her eyes away from the cosmos. She used the wall behind her to balance herself as she got back on her feet. With new resolve, she faced the glowing blue portal she'd made, staring back into the test chamber she had yet to finish.

She had been dragged back into the abyss. She would not allow it to swallow her whole. Chell would make it out alive.

-----

Feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for reading!

#portal #portal 2 #fanfic #portal fanfic #chell #hannah writes

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10moonymhrivertam · 10 months

Note

#16 for the writer questions!

After rifling through my folders I have decided the answer is properly working on four with a fifth that I really enjoyed rereading yesterday.

In order of how Consumed With Them I am...

Princess' Son/Your Eyes Aren't Rivers There To Weep (The Witcher, Renfri's son!Jaskier; very consumed but very little progress)

Alianora!Eleanor (The Sandman; survived my initial burst of productivity, so actually stands a chance of getting finished)

And They Were Fishbowl Roommates (The Sandman, Hob and Dream together; is still technically in the initial burst of obsession so it could still fail but it's been a few days so it might survive)

Giles!Hob (B:tVS/Sandman; doing one of those things where I'm wrapping it pretty closely around the skeleton of the show (Buffy) so it's slow going as I check transcripts and decide what changes to make)

Sandman Portal AU (Sandman/Portal; not consuming me but I had enough fun rereading it to want to go back to it)

Mmmmmmm let's expand on the Portal AU because it's the least likely to see the light of day anytime soon :P

Basically all of Aperture is the fishbowl/circle, and Hob deliberately volunteers for the testing program to mount a rescue mission after Jessamy went to come get him. In the current draft he's having some memory problems from the suspended animation, though. Dream is GLaDOS and has her lines pretty directly, but I'm also incorporating a plot point that Dream has to answer direct questions, in part just to make it easier on verbose protagonist Hob and in part as a thing Roderick programmed in to spite Dream for his years of silence.

I haven't actually planned the Portal 2 parts yet but I have done a fair bit of daydreaming, but I keep waffling on whether I want Wheatley to be Matthew. It seems like it would make a lot of sense, but I just. Can't make Matthew be evil/drunk with power, I just can't :( But like a whole bunch of my Portal 2 thoughts are just revolving around the crow's nest scene and how Jessamy would be so glad to see Dream relatively safe and coddling him and by then Hob has recovered his memories and laughs at him a little and Jessamy tags along with them as a companion throughout all Portal 2.

Oh!!!!!! And Dream's body is still being held in Old!Aperture in the fishbowl and so that's on Jessamy and Hob's agendas and I haven't decided yet if they should be open with GLaDOS!Dream or if the poor potato-guy gets left in the dark.

#ask game answers #10moony howls #the witcher #the sandman #portal #fic #writing

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canadian-riddler · 2 years

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I'm the LaaC anon I saw the tags on the reblog I'm happy with spoilers, they never really took away from my enjoyment of anything haha

alright then

it's super long so set some time aside lol

I'm putting this in the tags so if anyone there cares, this contains massive spoilers for my fic Love as a Construct but who cares at this point lol

where we left off, Claptrap, Carrie, and Alyx return to Aperture and Claptrap disappears. they brought Hammerlock back with them and GLaDOS is pissed that she has to deal with this uninvited guest while Claptrap does who knows what. turns out Claptrap loaded the gun she gave him with real bullets and accidentally killed a skag that was stalking them while everyone else was sleeping and Hammerlock showed up and took the trip over because Claptrap had a hard time handling it.

Claptrap and Wheatley catch up and end up making friendship bracelets. they make one for GLaDOS too and she acts like it's dumb af but then later they see that she snaked it around one of her wires and Claptrap's like why she do this and Wheatley's like hell if I know and they decide to be co-husbands. they know they're not allowed to call GLaDOS their wife but them being co-husbands will piss her off and they think this is very funny

a while after that, Hammerlock comes down to ask for Claptrap's help. Claptrap and GLaDOS get in a huge fight over Claptrap putting himself out for people who treat him like garbage. she says she's trying to help him and he says he doesn't need her help and he ends up saying something bad and Wheatley walks him to the transporter. Claptrap asks Wheatley to tell her he's sorry and leaves. Wheatley is pissed for Claptrap's sake and isn't going to, but she was watching on the cameras and tells him she already knows.

then the story shifts a little into GLaDOS setting the facility up as its own country, basically. GLaDOS calls Carrie into her chamber and tells her she has a job for her, and Carrie, who has been waiting for this forever, asks her to repeat that. GLaDOS is like ... oh but recovers and gives her the job of building a silicon refinery (I think) but when GLaDOS asks the core she's working with how she's doing the news isn't good. the core is hesitant to criticise the boss's daughter but GLaDOS is cool about it and tells them to let her build it wrong and see what happens when you don't take advantage of other peoples' expertise. Carrie is a little embarrassed about this but she understands the point

GLaDOS has a lot of talks with Gordon because he's genuinely very smart and there aren't a lot of humans around on his level. they talk about Gordon not being a big people person and the responsibility he has to his unruly sons and she convinces him to work on that. she thinks about how Gordon and Chell are happier when they're away from their kids and each other and realises perhaps Wheatley might be happier when he's away from her, given what a hassle she is, but he says he's never happy to be away from her and misses her when he is.

they then make contact with someone they never expected to hear from: Caroline's mother, Madeline. one of Caroline's sisters found out they were looking for her and she goes to see GLaDOS, who she was led to believe by Caroline was a human girl. Madeline disparages her and Caroline with regards to them not being real parents/family and Carrie defends GLaDOS and talks about how although she's not perfect she does know she's always trying.

Chell then returns to Aperture and she's brought GLaDOS a present: a photo album with pictures of all the places she's been while she was gone. she explains she was out of contact because she gave the ECHO to an isolated group of people up in Canada who needed it more than her. she then says she's leaving again and GLaDOS gets upset and Chell explains going out there and helping the remains of humanity get into contact with each other is what she needs to do. she leaves and GLaDOS looks at the pictures and sees the CN Tower still standing. she remembers that its primary purpose was as a wide-range broadcasting antenna and calls Chell back and asks her for a favour: to take Atlas there and have him turn it on so GLaDOS can use it to help restore some measure of communication. Atlas does not want to go because he's afraid, especially since P-body can't come, but GLaDOS tells him he has to do it because P-body isn't good at that kind of thing. He agrees to go and P-body gets jealous mostly because she wants to go on a trip too. GLaDOS says she can go on a trip with Chell when Atlas comes back (because the car she has can't hold all three of them) and P-body is satisfied.

there is an incident where a core accidentally kills a human and the human's friend comes in and demands punishment. the core explains the human was threatening it and it reacted unintentionally and GLaDOS says okay that's that. the human is furious and is like 'there are LAWS' and GLaDOS is like 'my facility, my laws' and implies to the core that if it happens again, it happens.

there is then a construction incident where a human is impaled and needs immediate surgery, but the only one who can handle anything like this is of course GLaDOS. she's about to do it when she pauses and then calls in a core who's interested in this kind of stuff to do it instead. it says it doesn't know how and she's like I'll talk you through it and it goes fine. she then tells the core 'congrats, you're a human doctor now' and sends them on their way.

the humans find out she has a greenhouse and get pissy that she isn't sharing. some kids hear she has apples and ask her nicely for some and she says she'll give them some in trade for something else. they obviously don't have anything she wants so she trades them for stuff like reading a certain amount of pages or drawing her a picture and stuff like that. eventually the adults catch on that she will do trades of stuff like electricity if they do work for her, but they have to be vetted and they're only allowed in the facility during certain hours. one girl gets special permission to work in the greenhouse, contingent on her not stealing, but she immediately starts stealing and GLaDOS tells Carrie about it. Carrie talks to the girl and finds out her mom was forcing her to do it and GLaDOS is like so? and Carrie is like 'don't you know how hard it is to not do what your mom wants?' and GLaDOS is like no? but the girl is given special permission to live in the facility because it may be that worse things are going on for her out there

Atlas comes back and he has pictures for GLaDOS too. He actually climbed up to the top of the Tower to get some that Chell wouldn't have been able to and she's very happy (even if Toronto has been annihilated)

Claptrap then returns! Wheatley is so shocked to see him again that he starts crying and Claptrap is like man you are really not in touch with your feelings. Claptrap asks him if he's smashed GLaDOS while he was gone and he's like no and Claptrap's like what's wrong with you. Claptrap gives GLaDOS GENIVIV and GLaDOS gives her to Carrie to serve as the AI in the other facility

he tells GLaDOS about Veronica and GLaDOS is offended for him about her being shitty. GLaDOS mentions she promised to make the kids a cake with the stuff they were helping grow in the greenhouse and Claptrap's like let me do it, I've watched every cooking show ever made. so he makes a delicious cake and GLaDOS gives him a minor update which gives him the ability to taste and he's so surprised he throws his piece of the cake on the floor. he also immediately goes outside and eats dirt.

Veronica changes her mind about Claptrap when she finds out he has a girlfriend already because this makes him a challenge and he goes to see her but he discovers he's actually not interested in her. he goes back to Aperture to tell GLaDOS about it and finds out she's not super attracted to him anymore because he looks like shit. she shows him what he looks like and he asks if it's a joke but she's like no. you're falling apart. and he gets upset and she's like take it easy I'll take care of this and she fixes him up. GLaDOS and Wheatley then make him a pink scarf and give it to him while he's drunk and he has sex with GLaDOS while wearing it which she finds very funny

he has some troubles with Veronica treating him badly and GLaDOS asks to meet her. Veronica tries to 'we're strong women who don't need no man' on her but GLaDOS is like you're stupid, Claptrap is great and you're awful and Claptrap breaks up with Veronica which pisses her off.

Claptrap is invited to Hammerlock's wedding and is absolutely delighted he got invited to something. GLaDOS asks if he has a wedding present and he's like wedding present? and she's like you're stupid and gives him two Aperture guns for them.

While he's gone Carrie talks about building a daughter because she's sure she can do it without a partner and GLaDOS is like oh do you want help and Carrie is like no I actually already did it. GLaDOS is shocked (Wheatley and Claptrap already knew but they managed to keep it a secret) and they turn her on. her name is Gladys obviously and GLaDOS is like why that name is so bad. Wheatley always refers to her as 'little Gladys' so as to keep clear which one he's talking about. unfortunately, Gladys has a lot of problems and Carrie has no idea how to deal with them alongside the jobs she has. she brings her to GLaDOS and leaves her to see if there's anything she can do and the first one Gladys actually talks to is Wheatley. turns out she's terrified of GLaDOS because of her size and Wheatley says she's that size so she can protect everyone. Gladys is actually pretty chatty, if quiet, after this, and GLaDOS tells her Gladys's problems stem from having a bunch of settings up way too high so she is basically having constant sensory overload and the easiest way for her to deal with it is to be quiet and still. Carrie asks why she didn't fix it and GLaDOS says she doesn't think Gladys wants to be fixed. Carrie is frustrated that Gladys will interact with Wheatley and GLaDOS but not her and GLaDOS says that's part of why she doesn't.

Claptrap asks to see GLaDOS privately and Wheatley isn't told what their conversation is about. He finds out that GLaDOS is beginning to break down and asks Claptrap why he doesn't just go to Pandora and pick her up some new parts and he's like it doesn't work like that. Pandora doesn't have a bunch of parts for a custom bot like that and even if it did, there's no guarantee they would be compatible with her. he asks why Claptrap doesn't come to see her anymore and he doesn't give him a straight answer. they go to Pandora to talk to Hammerlock about it and Wheatley is a jerk about Claptrap not going to see her. Hammerlock gives Claptrap a rare flower to give her that he was never quite able to reproduce en masse and he has Wheatley give it to her. GLaDOS has him give Claptrap an origami flower in return and he's pissy about being the messenger but he does it.

Carrie regularly hands off Gladys for them to watch, which is the highlight of their day pretty much. GLaDOS sings her to sleep every day and Gladys turns out to be a good singer herself, if very quiet. Carrie asks GLaDOS for help with some complex task, which GLaDOS struggles with and ultimately fails at, and they tell her GLaDOS breaking down. she argues that it's not true, that GLaDOS wouldn't let that happen, and GLaDOS tells her it is true and she's disappointed in Carrie for not believing her and tells her to go away. she tells Wheatley she shouldn't have said that but she is disappointed.

GLaDOS starts attempting to offload as many of her tasks as possible but there are still a great deal of them she has to do because they depend on her physically being there. she starts to get very tired as her software attempts to force her to sleep so it can do cleanup, but there's just too much for it to deal with and it can't fix the hardware faults anyway so it always fails. Gladys notices what's happening but she isn't too sad about it. Atlas and P-body are told and hang out with her a little and then her chassis gets stuck and she has to have them fix it. she's in debilitating pain and Wheatley gets pissed off at Carrie for not doing anything and also not going to see her or talk to her, which she hasn't been doing. Carrie gets upset but fixes the problem, which was that she tried to turn GLaDOS's pain off entirely but because GLaDOS is such a mess of spaghetti code she just turned it up all the way by mistake. GLaDOS tells him to leave Carrie alone, that she understands what Carrie is doing and isn't happy about it but she understands, and Wheatley finds out that Carrie sends GLaDOS a folder of all the drawings she's done at the end of the month.

GLaDOS does her best to hide her breakdown but eventually word gets out. instead of the scramble to take advantage of this that she expected, a group of cores come in and ask how they can help. she's able to offload a good portion of her remaining tasks to them and this helps. they have Gladys come over for a sleepover because she likes space and her dream is to go to the moon and they open the ceiling so she can look outside. Gladys talks about going to the moon and GLaDOS coming with her and GLaDOS says she can't do that but she can tell her all about it when she comes back. GLaDOS can no longer lift herself high enough to look out of the ceiling so Wheatley has her look out of his optic, which is cleaner and is working better anyway. they start privately flirting and Gladys asks them if they're even paying attention and they're like oh yeah of course.

GLaDOS mentions that she misses Claptrap. Wheatley asks him to go and see her but he says he can't and Wheatley gets mad and Claptrap reveals he still talks to her but he can't go to see her because he can't do it without touching her and touching her is just going to make him sad because he can feel her breaking down and she doesn't need to deal with that. Wheatley's like well why didn't you just say so and Claptrap's like I didn't want you to see me differently like you do Carrie. and Wheatley realises he was putting himself on a pedestal a bit because he is okay to be around her even when she's sick when other people aren't. he tells Claptrap there's one thing GLaDOS never got to see that she always wanted to and he wants to go to Pandora to get some video of snow for her. Claptrap's like well what kind? and Wheatley's like idk and they go to get some footage of snow but they get distracted and just start goofing around. Wheatley realises he messed up but gives it to her anyway and she starts watching it but asks him to leave. she tells him later it was exactly what she wanted but she needed to be by herself to cry a little. he says that would have been okay but she says it was an alone cry.

she continues to degenerate. Wheatley ends up in one of her dreams just like way back when and discovers Caroline has been there the whole time. GLaDOS thinks she's just dreaming her but Caroline tells Wheatley no, she couldn't leave without killing GLaDOS so she just retreated. she came back a little to talk to GLaDOS because she's scared of dying a little bit but they've talked about it and she's okay now. Wheatley tells her about what's been going on since she left.

GLaDOS gets to the point where she barely exists. she's hanging on for Wheatley's sake but she doesn't have a lot left in her. Wheatley cries and begs her not to leave him and then tells her to hold on and leaves the room. she does and Wheatley comes back with Claptrap who holds her and sings Still Alive (from Mirror's Edge) to her.

the facility still needs someone to act as Central Core and Carrie is unable to take over, so it falls to Wheatley. not only does he have to take over her software tasks, he's the de facto leader and people are coming to him to make decisions. Claptrap tells him he needs to go back to Pandora and think and Wheatley is upset but he can't stop him. he's also often watching Gladys because Carrie can't handle her crying for her grandma and he eventually blows up on Carrie for forcing her job on him as though he doesn't miss GLaDOS too. this is a wakeup call for her and she takes over. Wheatley's primary job now is watching Gladys which he's fine with. Claptrap comes back but their relationship is sort of stalled because neither of them know what to do now. they're still bffs but GLaDOS was a big part of them.

Carrie grows well into her role as the Central Core and tells Wheatley she's been trying to sort through GLaDOS's files, a lot of which contain shortcuts for tasks that GLaDOS just had too much pride to use. she finds a few things that GLaDOS left for them, one of which is a bunch of songs GLaDOS sang for Gladys. Carrie asks if she wants to listen to one because she cries for GLaDOS to sing to her, but she says not right now. Carrie finds shy of a million test chambers GLaDOS designed and never used which included elements she never built and she decides to hold Olympics with them. there are also a lot of recordings of GLaDOS giving Carrie advice geared for many different situations and Carrie feels as though she doesn't deserve them, given she wasn't as there for her mom as she should have been which she has a lot of guilt over, and Wheatley tells her GLaDOS understood and not to do that to herself.

Wheatley is given his employee file that they got in a fight over and he starts reading it just to be close to her again. the first chunk of it is awful but the closer he gets to the end, the more she stops criticising him and starts instead to list off all the things he did that made her happy. the very last second before she died she just put 'thank you' and he cries.

Carrie is doing better at multitasking being Central Core and being a mom so Wheatley kind of has nothing to do. he and Claptrap are sitting on Claptrap's couch in silence. Claptrap takes out the origami flower and unfolds it to find that on the inside GLaDOS drew a picture of them hugging that says 'for whenever you need one' and he carefully folds it back up again and offers it to Wheatley, who says no, he needs it more. Claptrap's like this isn't us. she wouldn't want this for us. we should go do something stupid. so they go to Pandora and do a whole lot of stupid stuff. when they come back Wheatley starts to have memory problems and Claptrap isn't sure what to do about it. he tells Claptrap it's okay if he just takes him back to Carrie and that's it because he knows Claptrap got messed up from holding GLaDOS while she died but Claptrap says no. he asks if Claptrap will be able to tell when he's going to die and he says yes. he tells him what he wants him to do when the time comes because he'll forget if he doesn't do it now. every time Wheatley shuts down his memory places him at a different point in time and doesn't remember anything that happened after.

Wheatley eventually returns to the present and asks Claptrap to do it but not to tell Carrie. so they go outside and Claptrap puts Wheatley in his storage tray and they look up at the stars. they talk about how a person can be insignificant and yet incomprehensibly important at the same time and Wheatley realises he understands something GLaDOS tried to tell him when she was dying. he tells Claptrap to shut him off and he does. Carrie, who was there the whole time but didn't say anything so Wheatley could do whatever final stuff he needed to do, thanks him.

Claptrap goes to Pandora to talk to Hammerlock because he doesn't know what else to do. he cries and Hammerlock gives him advice and he sleeps at Hammerlock's house. in the morning when he goes to leave Hammerlock gives him a condolences card and tells him to ask if he needs anything.

on Wheatley and GLaDOS's anniversary, Carrie brings Gladys to see them and they find Claptrap there. he's brought a dandelion but the floor is already covered with both them and the glittery flower he gave her. the mainframe says it thought it would be nice and they're like yeah. Gladys is scared of Claptrap until she finds out he's an alien who can take her to the moon. Gladys is sad that she doesn't get to talk about it with GLaDOS but she talks to her regularly as though she's still there so she's not too sad. Claptrap is like man these two did so much but no one will ever know about it. the only ones who knew about it were them. and Carrie says no, YOU know. Momma showed you ALL her memories. you should write it down. ask someone on Pandora to publish it for you and then the seven galaxies will know what they did. and Claptrap's like you know that's a good idea.

#so says Indy #asks #anon #LaaC fic #GLaDOS #Wheatley #WheatDOS

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