[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

[party_hard]

You haven't heard much music?! Did you hear that, Gummy? She hasn't heard much music!

[Gummy can only blink at the horror.]

You need to come with me right away, and I'll show you a whole bunch of great music! Ooh! I might need to find a kazoo somewhere...it's too bad I didn't stash any away in case of kazoo emergency!

[[It's cool! My inbox ate this notification so I think we're even. ^^;; ]]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell blinks as well and writes down in response, "It's not an emergency, there's no hurry."

She wasn't sure why not hearing much music was such a problem.]


[[Hee hee, bad inbox! Don't eat all the notifications!]]

[party_hard]

But music is IMPORTANT! We need to get you some right away so you can start in on knowing just how great it is!

[[I bump things when I check mail on my phone sometimes. I think that's what happened. DX]]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs and writes out, "If it's that important to you, I'm not really doing anything right now."]

[[Ah, yeah, I do that too! It's so easy to accidentally poke things on the phone.]]

[party_hard]

YES! It's really, REALLY important! Come on, Gummy, let's take Chell and Carl over to the house to show them some music!

[It really was too bad she hadn't stashed any kazoos anywhere.

At any rate, Gummy docilely clamps back onto Pinkie's tail, and Pinkie will begin nudging Chell in the direction of Kramden.]

[[Easiest thing ever. DX]]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs and lets Pinkie guide her towards the house. The turret will follow along by its usual teleporting when nobody's looking.]

[[Phones are just so touchy! D: ]]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie will happily lead Chell to her house, barging inside and cheerfully ignoring the drone kid (who at least politely greets Chell) before trotting into the basement.]

Come on! I have LOTS of great instruments down here!

[[But the important thing is that at least I found the tag again! 8D]]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell just nods to the kid in return and keeps following Pinkie. The house is pretty much identical to the one she's staying in, so she weirdly almost feels at home there.

She raises an eyebrow, how many instruments did Pinkie have?]

[[Yes indeed! :D]]

[party_hard]

[Upon entering the basement, Chell will see a HUGE pile of random instruments...including a piano. (Exactly how Pinkie got the piano down there is probably a story best left untold.) Gummy hops off to one side as Pinkie rushes the pile.]

Should I try this one first? Or this one? Or ooooh, maybe THIS one!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell wasn't expecting that many instruments in such a variety, so she's just standing and staring (with the turret right behind her) at the musical mess. She's pretty sure she's never even heard of some of the instruments present before.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie has, at this point, literally dived into the pile of instruments, and she soon pops out holding a ukulele. (Best not to question how she's doing this with hooves.)]

How do you like this one?

[And she'll start enthusiastically playing that ukulele. With hooves. The music itself isn't bad, at least. She knows what she's doing!]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell doesn't have much of an opinion on which instrument Pinkie shows her first, she's just going to go with the flow.

She's very impressed and possibly a little baffled that a talking pony is able to play the ukulele and so well.]

[party_hard]

See? That's a ukulele, it makes way different sorts of music than some of this other stuff!

[There's a bit more rummaging, and Pinkie's got a setup involving some drums, a tuba, and a xylophone. She will now begin to play all three of them at once. It's "Flight of the Valkyries."]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell gives Pinkie a small nod to let her know that she's listening and understands.

When she pulls out the other instruments and somehow manages to play them all at the same time, Chell's even more impressed than she already was. The pony was clearly talented, that was for certain.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie cheerfully finishes up her impromptu concert with those instruments.]

See? Music can be really REALLY fun! Do you want to try playing any?

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shrugs, she doesn't care either way, though she'd rather not put her mouth on anything that Pinkie's already had, like the tuba.

Pinkie will probably insist on her playing an instrument, but she's not sure which one she should start with. She's preoccupied with thoughts of the strange turret and the portals that appeared in town, Abel told her to stop and smell the roses, but it was hard to relax when so many strange things were going on.]

[party_hard]

Here! You should try one!

[She grabs a flute out of Gummy's mouth. He hadn't actually had his mouth on the flute's mouthpiece, but...it was still in his mouth.]

How about the flute?

[She dives back into the pile.]

Or a trombone?

[She'll play a few sliding notes on that for emphasis before grabbing something else.]

Or an accordion? Or this violin?

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell shakes her head at both the flute and the trombone, but gives a half-hearted nod to the accordion and violin. Either one would be fine, since she doesn't really have an idea as to how to play them.]

[party_hard]

See, the accordion, you play like this...

[There's a little bit of the Pinkie Polka as Pinkie demonstrates the accordion for a few seconds.]

...and the violin, you play like this!

[Pinkie's playing that violin more like a bluegrass fiddle, actually, in this demonstration.]

So, which do you want to try?

[She's eagerly holding both of them out with her hooves.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell considers both instruments, tapping her foot lightly as she thought about it.

Might as well give the accordion a try and she points it it. If she doesn't like it, she can switch to the violin or any of the other numerous instruments Pinkie's got lying about.]

[party_hard]

Ooh, the accordion's a GREAT choice!

[Pinkie hands Chell the accordion.]

Go on, give it a try!

Who knows, maybe Carl will like it, too!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell takes the accordion and does her best to mimic how Pinkie played it, except she's trying to find the right way to place her fingers on it.

For now, she's making a whole lot of noise and too little music.]

[party_hard]

You're doing great! Keep it up!

[Pinkie seems unaffected by the noise...but Gummy has slowly decided to crawl up the stairs in a bid to flee and go off and do...whatever it is he does all day when Pinkie isn't there.]

Here, you've got to work the buttons--it should be easier than doing it with hooves!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell nods, she knows there's something different she needs to do, she's just not quite sure what.

That being said, the longer she works with it, the more she figures out and eventually she's got her fingers placed right and she's able to make one consistent note, instead of a general cacophony.]

[party_hard]

See, that's just how it works! Now you use different combinations with your fingers, and you can play even more notes!