AN: Okay, so I had absolutely no plans to write another story before finishing Amour, but I was listening to some music when I came across this one: This Providence – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
And I was like "Holy shit! This sounds exactly like a ChellDOS song!" and then I wrote this. So yeah. It also was intended to just be a one shot but, as usual, I got carried away. I'm not sure how many parts this will have, but I don't think it'll be very long. (Yeah right, I'll probably end up turning this into a super long story…)
Amour should be updated sometime today are tomorrow. Probably today.
Enjoy!
For the fifth time that morning, Chell let out a frustrated sigh and ran her fingers through her hair. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not write anything. Biting her lip, she strummed a few notes on her guitar before giving up yet again as her mind went totally and utterly blank.
Upon her release, Chell had discovered her love for music. A few months after leaving Aperture, she had bought a guitar and, when meeting a group of people that shared her interests, joined a band named 'The Parachutes.' Since she was the best singer among the group, she was appointed the lead singer, and, in turn, the sole writer for their songs.
Their band became very well known in the small town she now inhabited, and they quickly were offered many gigs at all kinds of places- including the summer festival, which was a pretty big deal considering everyone in town was going to be there.
And it just so happened to be on the very same night she developed an immense writer's block.
Chell, being terribly bored and agitated, began to wonder how the hell she developed her love for singing anyways. It definitely had nothing to do with a certain murderous robot who wrote a song, one that made her tear up as it played softly throughout the elevator when she descended to the outside world. It had nothing to do with how beautiful her notes sounded, how much emotion she'd put in the Italian lyrics. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she found herself in love with the same damned robot who had once hated her with passion.
But it did.
Chell laughed dryly, imagining just what the hell GLaDOS was up to nowadays. Probably off testing, probably didn't even remember her at all. As angry tears began welling up in her eyes, she realized that she would give anything to be in Aperture once again, to repay her for all those times she'd made butterflies grow in Chell's stomach, for all the times she sent her heart beating a thousand times a minute.
'She probably won't even acknowledge me even If I did show up,' Chell scowled. 'She'd just insult me again. Like she always does.' Gripping her guitar to the point where it made her knuckles white, she thought of ways to get back at the A.I. for making her heart ache for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Chell noticed the companion cube, innocently placed in the corner of the room. It was the only thing she had left to remember Aperture by.
Then she got an idea.
Grabbing a sheet of paper and a black ink pen, Chell furiously began writing out her thoughts on paper. When she was finished, she grinned wickedly and turned slightly so she was facing the companion cube; If GLaDOS wasn't there, she'd project her anger out on the second best thing. As much as she'd like to take out her anger by kicking and punching the thing, she didn't think it would be such a good idea to break her hand trying to punch a heavy cube.
So she wrote a song. One of the things she did best.
As Chell started to play her guitar, she noticed a small crinkling sound that seemed to be coming from the cube. Dismissing it as just paranoia, she continued to strum notes with a determined look set on her face.
"Oh, you're throwing everything you have at me, cheap shots low blows will you ever let it go? You're so pathetic give it a rest, you're not gonna win, you're never gonna." She sang the lyrics fast, pent up anger threatening to boil over.
"Oh, you love of the sound of your own voice and the crown of death upon your head, oh c'mon." She could've swore she heard a "humph." coming from somewhere in the room, but she ignored it and continued on.
"You and all your royalty only lead to infamy; you're going to taste my fist." This time, she knew she heard an angry huff, and was temporarily caught off guard before she continued on, narrowing her eyes at the not-so-innocent-anymore companion cube.
"You're so good at stretching the truth into a sugar-coated lie, everyone takes a bite. I have been dining with the enemy; it was a wolf in sheep's clothing, now it's so clear to me."
"I've had enough of your games, if you're not trembling you better be. 'Cause we're gonna be the end of you. I've had enough of your games, I'm gonna show them who you really are. And I can tell you right now, it won't be pretty." She sang lies, not something she wrote down on the sheet with lyrics, but she wanted to measure the reaction of whoever was listening to her song. Sadly, it was quiet.
"You say, 'I can convince anyone, anything.' Provoking the anger of a jealous god, still you still spin a web of lies, fear, lust, pride, greed and shame. You say no one. Oh, you say no one escapes the pain." She confidently stared at the companion cube as she sang.
For a while, she stopped singing and just quietly studied the cube as she played a few notes, and was a little surprised to spot a tiny camera hidden on top of it. 'She's listening…' Chell considered stopping singing all together, but then decided that she needed to get her feelings off of her chest.
She hesitantly began singing. "I'm a coward not a fighter, disguised as a lover in disguise, in disguise," This time, she sung slowly, her eyes set on the camera, wondering what GLaDOS was thinking of her performance.
"For so long now, you've held me down. You held me, you held me down…" She drifted off for a second, her eyes softening before singing a little bit faster.
"You held me down for so long but it's not gonna last, 'cause I can see right through your beautiful lies."
As the song slowly winded down, she didn't know what she'd do when it ended. "Oh, you're throwing everything you have at me, cheap shots low blows will you ever let it go? You're not gonna win, never gonna." The song came to a halt, and Chell looked everywhere except for the camera, blushing slightly.
After a few moments of her heart beating loudly in her chest, Chell spoke up. "Are….Are you listening?" She squeaked, glancing at the cube one last time before once again being stuck in a silent room.
She stayed quiet for a few minutes before deciding that her mind was deceiving her the entire time. "Of course, I'm such an idiot." She muttered angrily. Why would GLaDOS want to watch her anyways?
She was just about to forget about the whole thing when she heard a click, like a microphone shutting off. 'I knew I wasn't imagining things!' Chell became increasingly furious at the new information. 'I can't believe she just ignored me!'
Dangerously close to destroying something in a fit of anger, Chell forced herself to calm down. 'She had the gall to say nothing after I basically poured my heart out to her.'
Chell was in silent thought for the rest of the morning, and almost forgot about the whole ordeal when she heard a knock on the door.
"Jake, I'm not finished with the song yet-" She called out as she headed towards the door, but, when swinging it open, was surprised to see not her rather lanky drummer standing at the porch, but a lithe female with short white hair and all too familiar golden eyes.
"The enrichment center would like to inform you that tone-deaf former test subjects are not encouraged to sing. Ever."