[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

[bye_to_yer_head]

You could just toss it through th' window an' run.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell grins and quickly writes, "I like that idea, give her something to think about."]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Well let's see if this thing follows us first. If it's dead we might as well just leave it.

.. So why're you trapped in a lab anyway?

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs slightly with just the smallest hint of a frown as she writes, "I don't know. I think I signed up to be a test subject, but I don't remember."]

[bye_to_yer_head]

That's harsh mate. So is this place better or worse fer ya?

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Without hesitation, Chell writes for him, "Worse."

After several seconds, she adds underneath, writing more slowly now, "I had finally gotten out. Then I arrived here."]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Strewth mate, that's awful.

Maybe if ya get out of here you'll go right back where ya where. I did anyway.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell nods and writes determinedly, "That's what I'm hoping for. If not, I'll just have to find my way out again."

It was good news that at least some people got sent back right where they had been previously. If that was the case for her, she'd still be free once she had made her escape from Mayfield.]

[bye_to_yer_head]

First we 'ave to get out of here. I still have no idea what I did.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell nods and replies by writing in the notebook, "It could have just been the town messing with you."

There still had to be some kind of rhyme or reason to it, though. They just had to find out what it was.]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Or it jus' got tired of me. And then it missed me.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell writes back, "Possibly. Wish it'd get sick of me and stay that way."]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Try being more annoying. Throw produce through the grocers windows and leave your pet sentry on porches when you doorbell ditch.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell thinks on this, "I like that. But I don't want to be brainwashed."

There were two freedoms at war here, freedom of body and freedom of mind. There wasn't a guarantee that she'd be sent home of she started causing problems, but there was a definite risk of being brainwashed for who knew how long. As long as she was in control of her brain, she could find other ways to try and escape.]

[bye_to_yer_head]

True, being a drone is no fun at all.

Apparently I took to wearing Hawaiian shirts.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell frowns at this and quickly scrawls out, "You were brainwashed and don't remember anything you did?"]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Nope. Fer a while too apparently. Almost half a year.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell looks very troubled by this and frowns as she writes down, "That long? And you don't remember a thing?"]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Nothin'.

I wasn't even here. That's when I had gone home. Come back here and everyone was tellin' me that I was still here too. Don't really know what to think about that.

*Actually he tried not to. It seemed too likely that home had been a dream or hallucination, and that Mayfield was the reality.*

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell's frown deepens and she shakes her head, thinking on this matter before writing in the notebook, "How can you be in two places at once?"

What he was saying didn't make any sense. What was Mayfield capable of? What if one of the two Snipers had died?]


[[Sorry about the slow reply, I was at a convention for the weekend!]]

HOW DARE YOU GO AND HAVE FUN!??!?!

[bye_to_yer_head]

I don't 'ave a bloody clue. And honestly .. I'm not sure I want t' know. Like some kind of respawn malfunction gone horribly wrong.

I KNOW, RIGHT? FOR SHAME!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell taps her pen against the notebook nervously as she thinks this over. Breaking the laws of physics with portals was one thing, but possibly having multiple copies of yourself is another matter entirely.

She finally focuses on part of his sentence and writes another question down, "Respawn is what happens when you die in Mayfield, right?" She had yet to die and had no plans to, respawn or no.]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Sorta. I only died here once, an' I woke up in my bed th' next day good as new. Respawn back home is jus' a little while after ya die. You end up in the Respawn Room. Don't ask me how it works but it does.

Th' way I'm thinkin' is the copy of me here? He weren't real, he was just some kind of clone or robot. Loike when those plants put people in pods and made duplicates of 'em.

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell is startled by this revelation and quickly scrawls down, "You respawn at home, too?"

She thinks on the second part of his statement before carefully writing, "Does this mean we might be clones?"]

[bye_to_yer_head]

Sure do. Part of th' whole fighting process. I mean, not everyone does, but everyone workin' fer RED and BLU do.

Suppose it's possible, but I think th' fact we know we're not supposed to be here means we're not.