Disclaimer: (Yes, I know, these things are annoying. :P) I don't own Portal.
Chapter Three: A Companion
"Wake up! Wake up!" The voice buzzed again, as usual. Yawning, I tried to ignore the voice for a second so I could continue to sleep. "You need to do your chores quickly. A surprise is being delivered soon." My eyes popped open. A surprise? Have I ever gotten a surprise? I closed my eyes and quickly tried to remember. No, I guess this is the first one. I smiled. A surprise! I hope it's a good surprise. I frowned for a second, puzzled. What's a surprise? Shrugging, I went to go eat my food. I guess I'll find out. I ate and drank quickly, had a shower, changed, ran to the glass room, and waited. Some of the humans were talking about me. I ignored them. I wonder what a surprise looks like. One of the humans was carrying one of the weighted gray cubes. Is that my surprise? She walked by. I guess not. Patiently, I waited, sitting on the ground, hands folded in my lap, watching everything and everyone go by. Eventually, the humans started shuffling, and pointing at two of them. They were a female and a male; the female had extremely dark skin, dark brown eyes, and black hair. She looked like the was the dominant of the two. He was the subordinate. I had never seen him before. He wasn't as tall as some of the humans, but he was still taller then me, like all humans were. His skin was a light color, and he had hair on his face around his mouth and on his chin, like some male humans had, along with the hair on his head. They were both the same color. He had green-brown eyes,and he seemed to be much more unkempt then most of the other humans. He was probably under stress, didn't get a lot of sleep. I smiled, proud of myself for being able to tell that. They walked to the side of the glass room, talking, like the other humans were. I decided what they were talking about wasn't important. The female human touched something next to the side of the glass room. A panel of the glass door slid away. My mouth fell open.
This must be my surprise! The male human walked inside, the panel shut behind him.
"Uh, hello." He said, smiling awkwardly. I waved, smiling, and jumped, happily. He held out his hand. "My name is Doug."
How can I talk to him? I wondered. I'd never thought about it before, but I wanted to make sounds like humans could, to speak. I tried, but no sound came out. His hand was still held out awkwardly. Why are you holding out your hand? I remembered, suddenly, that humans slapped their hands against other humans hands. I slapped his hand gently, smiling at him. He blinked, confused. I need to find a way to talk. An idea struck me. Or, I need a way to tell him I can't talk! Proud that I had figured out what to do, I jumped.
"Um..." He looked at me, confused. I smiled apologetically, then tapped my lips and shook my head 'no', they way I had seen humans do it. "Okay, what do you mean?" I smiled at him, waiting for him to get it. "Are you trying to tell me something?" I nodded, smiling encouragingly.
Come on, you can figure it out!
"You're trying to tell me that you're hungry." He said, smiling like he'd figured it out.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head no. At least I can say 'yes' and 'no'. That's a start.
He snapped his fingers. "You're trying to tell me you can't talk."
I jumped up and down, smiling and nodding. Yes! He got it! Doug smiled.
"Nice to meet you. Like I said, I'm Doug. Doug Rattman." He held out his hand again. I slapped it again. He pulled his hand back and chuckled. "Okay, so introductions aren't your thing."
Why did he say he was Doug? What's Doug? And why Doug Rattman? Are males called Dougs? I put my hand on my chin, thinking.
"Here, I brought you something." He put his hand in his coat and pulled out something. It was flat. It was white. And it was flimsy. I took it from him, curious. Studying it, I turned it over. It had been folded, and I quickly unfolded it, leaving me with a white, flat sheet of... something. I looked up at him. "Oh, right. I forgot." He pulled out another thing from his coat. It was small, and black, and hard. It left a black mark on my hand when I held it.
"It's a pen." The Doug said. "You know, you write with it?" I'd heard that word before. Write. Holding the pen, I dragged the side that had made the mark along my arm. It made a long black streak. He chuckled. "Do you know what to do with it?" I looked at both the pen and the white thing. Something clicked. I dragged the mark down the paper. It made a mark, like before. I smiled up at him. "Yup. It's used to draw, too."
Draw. I've never heard that before. I looked down at the paper. Why would you need this? For fun? An idea struck me. I can 'draw' pictures to talk! I sat down on the floor to draw when I realized something. Those weird symbols. What if they were used to convey information? If I knew those symbols, I could talk using a pen! Quickly, I drew a few of the symbols that I could remember.
"What are you drawing?" Asked Doug. I showed him. He picked up my drawing, staring quizzically at the paper. He glanced both at me and the paper. "Do you know what these mean?" The Doug asked, pointing at the white, flat, sheet, surprise in his face. I shook my head no. "Would you like to know?" I nodded. He smiled kindly. "Alright, I'll teach you."
