[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

[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!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell moves her fingers in different patterns slowly, testing out different notes. Since she doesn't know all the positions, she might accidentally skip over a couple here and there.]

[party_hard]

That's good, you're figuring it out! You'll be playing music in no time!

[Pinkie seems rather excited at how quickly Chell is picking up the accordion.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell's a pretty quick learner and if something escapes her, she'll keep at it until she succeeds.

Now that's she's gotten some of the hang of the notes, she's going to cautiously experiment with pulling and pushing on the accordion.]

[party_hard]

Yeah, that's exactly how you work an accordion! You do that while you move your fingers around and then you can make all sorts of music like polka or zydeco!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell nods and then pushes the accordion together more boldly, while pressing some buttons, which results in a very loud wheeze.]

[party_hard]

You need to make sure you're holding it right, too! That way you're going to give it the maximum optimum airflow for the best sound!

[And Pinkie will zip over there and nudge Chell into the proper position.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell doesn't resist as Pinkie puts her into place, the pony obviously has more experience and she'll defer to that, especially since the noise that it just made could not have possibly been right.]

[party_hard]

[Pinkie finishes those adjustments.]

Okay, try it now!

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell tries again, this time it doesn't sound quite as horrible, but it's still on the unpleasant side.]

[party_hard]

You're getting there! Keep it up--all you need is a bit of practice!

Here, I can even play with you!

[And Pinkie grabs a washboard from somewhere and strums along on it with her hooves.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[Chell watches Pinkie play the washboard for a few moments, then joins in on the accordion.

She's sticking with a single note for now as she gets a feel for the pushing and pulling on the accordion.]

[party_hard]

Yeah! See, we're making music now!

[Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. But they're geting there!

Elsewhere in the house Gummy is very calmly burrowing his head into a pillow without showing much reaction beyond that.]

[jumpsuited_rat]

[It's a start!

Chell has now added a second note to her "music", she's alternating between the two as she experiments with the pushing and pulling and how they relate to the buttons and notes.]