[7th Portal] Cara Mia Addio Encore

[jumpsuited_rat]

Action - 850 Goldberg

[Chell opens the door to find 3 packages of varying sizes, one small and rather flat, one medium-large one, and one quite large one of a suspicious size.

She opens the small one first to find her clothes from Aperture. She doesn't plan on wearing them again, but they could come in handy later, you never know. The next one contains her portal gun. She hasn't seen many places that portals could be placed on, but if there were any, it'd be very useful.

Finally, Chell turns to the last one. It's about as tall as a turret, so that's what's got her worried. It's a bit wider, though, so she's not sure what to make of that. She circles the box, knocking on it to see if she can get any information that way.

She assumes that if it was a turret, the gun portion would be facing towards the door, so she tips the box over so that if there was a turret inside, it'd now be facing the ground instead.

Chell pries the box open and discovers that not only is it a turret, but it's the oversized turret that she had seen a few times. It had never attacked her or anyone else that she saw, it just somehow used the elevator and oversaw some of the other turrets when they were making music.

It's an odd choice of something to be returned to her, so she shrugs, just leaves it where it is, and goes back inside the house.

She sets her clothes on the Companion Cube, and when she turns around, the turret is standing in front of her. Chell dives beside the couch and peers around at the turret. The turret doesn't make any movements, it doesn't even have a red laser sight for targeting, it just stands there, staring blankly.

Chell waves her hand at the turret, and it still doesn't move. She shrugs to herself and stands up, walking past it and over to the curtains. She turns her back to the turret and pulls off a long strip of cloth and goes to work using it as a strap for the portal gun. She doesn't want to leave it in the house alone with Cliff and carrying it with her hands would get old, so this was a nice compromise.

When she turns around to head for the door, once more the turret stands staring at her. Chell frowns at it and decides that if anyone would know what's going on, it'd be GLaDOS.

She leaves the house and heads down the street.]

Action - Around Town - The streets on the way to 1450 Mitchell Road

[If you're walking down the street or peeking out a window, you may see Chell being followed by a large turret. You never see the turret move, however, if you take your eyes off of it for even a second, it'll suddenly be further down the street and closer to Chell.]

Action - 1450 Mitchell Road

[Chell finally arrives at GLaDOS' house and starts banging on the door, she's got a frustrated expression on her face as she does so.

The turret is waiting quietly behind her and may not be seen at first glance.]

Comments

Action - Around Town

[party_hard]

Chell! Chell!

[Pinkie's bouncing up and down when she sees Chell, and look, she's got a small, green baby alligator biting down on her tail. It doesn't seem to be bothering her in the least.

She's spotted the turret, too, and she's rather interested. The baby alligator, however, only blinks.]

What have you got there?

[And it's following her, so...]

OOH! Is that your pet? Did you get a pet! Pets are the BEST!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[And here Chell had thought this day couldn't get any weirder. She's puzzled about the alligator, especially since it seems to be making lunch out of Pinkie's cotton candy-esque tail.

Instead of asking about it, she opens her notebook and writes a message to Pinkie in scrawled, but legible, handwriting, "It's a turret. I don't know why it's following me. They usually shoot bullets."

She holds up the notebook and shows her response to Pinkie.]

[party_hard]

Maybe it likes you! Ooh, or maybe it really wants to be your pet, because it's not shooting at anypony! Even if it's a turret that might be scary otherwise doesn't mean anything!

[She holds up her tail with the gator attached. He drops off, falls on the ground, and blinks as he just sits there.]

Like I ran into a few people here that were worried about Gummy here just because he's an alligator, but he would never ever hurt anypony! He doesn't even have any teeth!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs and writes again, "I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. I haven't interacted with this turret. Except when it took the elevator. And sang a song."

She looks over at Gummy and now that he's not chomping on Pinkie's tail, she can see that he doesn't have any teeth like she said. That cleared up one mystery. She writes down, "Will he get teeth later?"]

[party_hard]

It sang a song? What kind of song did it sing? Do you think it could sing for us now?

[Pinkie looks kind of surprised at that question.]

Well, he's just a baby, so I guess he will! But that won't matter, because he still wouldn't hurt anypony!

[Really, in order to hurt someone, you'd have to move. Gummy isn't doing much of that other than blinking his mismatched blinks every so often.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell thinks for a moment, drumming her fingers on the notebook, then finally writing down, "I think it was opera. I don't know, the other turrets played music for it to sing with."

She nods, then starts writing again, "I guess if you take good care of him, he won't want to bother anyone."]

[party_hard]

Oh, I don't think Gummy's ever bothered anypony in his life!

[Really, Gummy is still looking completely disinterested in this plane of existence. But Pinkie is now trying to examine the turret more closely.]

You know, if it sang opera before, maybe it would like to hear some now!

[Watch out, Chell, Pinkie's taking a big breath, and...yes, she's singing opera-style now. There aren't any words, just loud notes.]

LA-LAAAA-LA-LAAAAA-LA! LA-LAAAAA-LA-LAAAAAAAA-LAAA~!

[Gummy's kind of wagging his tail slightly now. Maybe he likes it?]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[It's normal for the turret to stare about as blankly as Gummy does, but it's more unusual to see Chell do so. They're both going to just look at Pinkie during her performance, Chell blinking in confusion every so often, the turret, not so much.]

[party_hard]

[Finally, Pinkie stops and turns to the turret.]

Well? Did you like that?

[She seems quite determined to get a reaction of some sort out of this turret...]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Unfortunately, the turret is going to remain silent and unchanging.

Which is probably better than filling Pinkie full of bullets, as turrets are wont to do.

Chell just shrugs, she honestly can't figure out what's wrong with the turret.]

[party_hard]

Maybe it would respond better to interpretive dance! Come on, Gummy! Help me out!

[And Pinkie will start dancing for the turret.

Gummy just...sits there.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[At least Pinkie's dance is more interesting (and quieter) than her singing.

The more time that goes on, the more Chell realizes that the turret and Gummy seem to have a lot in common.]

[party_hard]

[At last, Pinkie finishes the dance.]

Did that do anything? Did it? Did it? Gummy, did you see it blink?

[Gummy just blinks. Not like that's an answer.]

Oooooh, maybe it DID blink! Chell, did it blink? Did it even do that much? Huh? Huh?

[She's pretty much all up in the turret's personal space now trying to get a better look at it.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugged and wrote down, "I couldn't see its eye from here." She doubted it blinked, but if Pinkie thought it might have, she might calm down a bit.

The turret doesn't seem bothered by Pinkie's closeness to it.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie is still keeping really close to the turret, examining it from all angles and all sides.]

It doesn't move around a whole lot, does it?

[Gummy, meanwhile is sitting right were Pinkie left him and not moving around a whole lot.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shakes her head and writes down in the notebook, "It only moves if you're not looking at it. That's how it's been following me."]

[party_hard]

It only moves if you're not looking at it? How sneaky!

[There can be only one thing to do now--she covers her eyes with her hooves.]

OH LOOK, I'M NOT LOOKING!

[And she'll just peek out between her hooves to see if the turret is falling for it.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell glances away from it, since she moved earlier, when she was talking to Pinkie, as soon as they both stop looking at it, the turret suddenly reappears behind Chell.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie drops the pretense of trying to peek through her hooves once she's realized it moved. Really, this is pretty much a taste of her own medicine.]

Oh, I see the game you're playing--hey, what's your name anyway?

[Yes, she's still talking directly to the turret like she thinks it'll answer.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell thinks for a moment, tapping the pen against the notebook before writing, "I don't think they have names. I've only heard them called turrets."

She holds the notebook where Pinkie can see it, but doesn't press the issue, the pony can look at it in her own time when she's ready.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie is still quite focused on the turret.]

Huh, how come you don't talk? Huh? Huh? Didn't anypony ever teach you it's rude not to answer questions? Huh? Huh?

[At least the notebook catches Pinkie's eye, distracting her from the turret for a moment.]

But if it's following you around like this, you really need to give it a name! I bet it would like that! Maybe that's why it's following you--because it wants a name!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs, mulling this idea over, before she writes, "It's worth a shot, I don't see how it could hurt." She glances over at the turret and then back to the notebook, "What sort of name would fit it?"

She hadn't been in a position to name something before, so this was new to her.]

[party_hard]

Well, you need to think of its strong suits! What does it do best?

[She's thoughtfully pacing around the turret and looking it up and down.]

It's sneaky! And quiet! So maybe something along those lines! Like Mr. Sneakarifficquiettime!

...or maybe Carl! Carl's a nice name!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell just blinks at the first suggestion, but gives a half nod at the second, and writes down, "Carl's not too bad."

Carl was definitely better than Mr. Sneakarifficquiettime, even if the second was more...descriptive.]

[party_hard]

But do you think it looks like a Carl?

[She turns to study the turret carefully.]

Gummy, what do you think?

[Gummy blinks.]

Gummy thinks it looks like a Carl!