Science of Art
Chapter 2
A/N: I have no excuse for being this late other than lack of motivation. And laziness
Disclaimer: I do not own Ib or Portal and anything else within these games. They belong to their respective owners (Valve and Kouri).
Chapter 2
999999999999- years later…
"Has anyone told you how slow you move?" The potato AI grumbled as Chell looked over the various displays along the walls. The test subject simply gave a quick glare to remind GLaDOS who was in charge at the moment before returning to indulge her curiosity. It seemed to do the trick…for about 10 seconds. "I'm serious, if you don't move any faster, my battery is going to die and we'll both be dead because the idiot you put in charge of my facility is going to burn it down with his stupidity!" Chell silently sighed before turning away from the exhibit.
They had been trying to find a way out of the lower bowels of Aperture for what felt like a day and despite the progress they had made, it felt almost futile. GLaDOS, in spite supposed lack of power; somehow had the energy to constantly harry Chell to keep moving, least she finally loose power. Chell could understand the AI's concern at the least. She had seen Wheatley's incompetence first hand and knew what he was capable of. She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts by a loud gurgle the seemed to echo throughout the empty room. She jumped and pointed the portal gun around, looking for the sound's source. It took a second time for her to determine the gurgle's location.
"It sounds like you're hungry." GLaDOS grumbled, who was obviously miffed with Chell's human limitations. "When was the last time you actually ate?" Chell shrugged. She had stored some of the potatoes from the children's experiment in her jumpsuit and had managed to survive off them while GLaDOS was still in control. However, she had apparently lost all of them when she fell down the pit and hadn't eaten since.
It's not like you being a potato is helping Chell thought bitterly. As she continued to move down the corridor, Chell felt her legs ache from the constant walking and jumping from tests and exploring. Additionally, the need to carry the portal gun constantly was doing no favors to her arms. Exhaustion now seemed to add to her ever-growing list of problems. This time, however, Chell didn't have GLaDOS pumping adrenaline vapor to re-invigorate her. If she didn't get some sort of reprieve soon, she was going to pass out. A little nap couldn't hurt. I just need to find someplace comfortable. Looking around, she noticed what looked like a waiting room off to the side of the corridor. Curiosity got the better of her and she peered inside.
Just like the rest of the facility, the room was in surprisingly good condition for a place that had been abandoned for who knows how long. It was a decently sized room, with plain wallpaper and a dusty chandelier hanging from the ceiling. In the middle stood a glass table with an empty blue vase in the center. There were a few plastic chairs lined up on either side of the room, each with an Aperture logo printed on the back. She also noticed a rather worn looking leather couch against the back wall.
It's better than sleeping on the floor,Chell thought to herself. Without hesitation, she slid herself down onto the worn piece of furniture and leaned back, allowing herself to stretch her tired limbs. It was then she noticed a painting the hung above the couch. It seemed to take up the black wide depicted a surreal landscape and with what looked like a dove blowing out of a horn in the foreground. Slowly, she placed her portal gun next to the couch and found her vision being encroached by darkness until an electronic voice cut through her bliss.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" GLaDOS snapped, with just enough volume to awaken Chell. The test subject opened her eyes enough to glare at her. "Sleeping is not an option at a time like this! We have to get back and put me back into my real body and not this joke!" Wordlessly, Chell stood up and began walked around the table to the other side of the room. "What ever you're doing, stop it!" Ignoring the potato, she leaned the gun against the outside wall and briskly walked back to the couch. At this point, GLaDOS' naggings were a faint humming in the back of her head, to the point where they were almost soothing. Closing her eyes yet again, she let herself fade away into the realm of sleep.
Chell suddenly found herself awoken by what sounded like human voices coming from all around her. Instinctively, she reached for her portal gun, only to be reminded of its location just outside the room. Leaping up from the couch, she jumped over the table and made a mad dash over to the door, knocking over the vase and grabbing the gun. Pointing to a far wall at the end of the corridor, she pulled the portal gun's trigger. To her dismay and horror however, she found the device was unresponsive. The usual blue and orange hue it gave off from its core was replaced by a dull grey.
What the hell?! She thought, her mind racing. The voices could still be faintly heard, but now sounded muffled, as if they were coming from behind a wall. She pulled the gun's trigger again, only to receive the same lack of response. Shit, shit shit! She shook the device before pulling the trigger to receive the same response. Becoming slightly more panicked now, Chell began to race down the hallway to try and get out of there on foot. She ran for what felt around a few minutes before she realized that she was no closer to exiting the hallway than she was when she started. Somehow, the hallway had begun to loop, keeping her in the exact same place. What the hell is going on?!
The voices were continuing the fade out, no more audible than a whisper now. It was then she noticed something else: GLaDOS was also unresponsive. The usual yellow glow of her optic was the same shade grey as the dead core of the portal gun.
Hey! Wake up you stupid potato! Chell thought angrily, lightly shaking the gun in hopes of eliciting a response from the AI. She even made a few grunts to get the AI's attention, being as her vocal chords were too far damaged from her extended cryogenic sleep. Suddenly, she heard it: a voice that seemed to be growing above the other voices. It sounded like a giggle, a childish one to be exact. Looking around, she noticed that the giggling was coming from the room she was napping in. She began to tentatively walk towards the waiting room.
"Hello?" she tried to call out. But as usual, she only managed to make a huffing sound. It was then she noticed the painting above the couch had changed. Instead of the strange landscape it once displayed, it now depicted a rather unsettling scene. A dead tree that seemed to be shrouded in black stood against an eerie purple sky. Around the tree also seemed to be indistinguishable figures, all with piecing red eyes all trained on the tree.
The giggling seemed to be growing louder with each passing moment while the other voices seemed to have died out completely. Chell could tell, despite her logical mind claiming otherwise, that the sound was coming from the altered canvas. Slowly, she reached out and brushed her hand against the painting. Suddenly, the eyes of the figures surrounding the tree were trained on her. She stumbled back in terror and fell on the glass table, knocking off and shattering the vase.
What the hell?! She groaned in pain and pushed herself back up. She noticed that she had cut her arm on the shattered glass, making a mental note to treat it later. She looked back up at the painting and saw the painting figures were still glaring at her. She stumbled back and turned to flee for the door, only to find it was closed. But it was open a few seconds ago! She lunged for the knob and jiggled it violently to find it wouldn't budge. She tried kicking it down violently, but the wood didn't give any indication of failing.
The giggling seemed to be louder than ever now, to the point where she could hear it ringing in her brain. Chell suddenly felt an icy breeze blow over her back. She swiveled around the see a darkness spreading all over the room from the edges of the painting. It seemed to be stretching out in the form of dark hands and claws, all trying to reach for her. If Chell could scream, she surely would have. She began banging on the door with all her strength and grunting profusely.
Oh god, what the hell is going on here?! I'm going to die! Chell thought, all rationality leaving her mind as she felt the shadowy black hands began to close in on her. Finally, the door clicked and she pushed herself through the door just as the shadowy claws were about to grab onto her. She regretted the decision in an instant.
She found herself on a thin ledge right outside the door and where the hallway should have been there was only a black abyss. Below her was an expanding whirlpool that seemed to fall into darkness. She turned around to try and get back inside, but found the door slammed into her face. It dawned on her that the claws weren't trying to grab her; they were trying to push her out into this abyss.
The giggling by then had metamorphosed into a sadistic cackling and seemed to be echoing all around her. All of a sudden, Chell felt something in her clasp of her hand. It was much lighter than the portal gun and much smoother. She turned to look at the new item in her hand and realized, to her surprise, that it was a white, thorn less rose. What the-? Was all Chell was able to think before she noticed an enormous black shape that seemed to be swimming in the torrent of water beneath her. Without warning, the shape rose out of the water, revealing itself as an enormous pitch-black fish with what looked like a light bulb tied to a rod dangling off its forehead.
Guess I'll never know if I'm adopted or not, was Chell's final thought as she was swallowed whole by the leviathan and engulfed in blackness.
Chell's eyes shot open as she lurched forward, gasping for air. In a flurry of movement, she tumbled face first off the couch and yelped as she smacked her head on the dull edge of the table.
"What was that? I heard something fall!" GLaDOS squeaked from outside the room. Chell groaned as she slowly regained her composure and pushed herself off the ground. Looking around, she found that the room was exactly the same as when she had fallen asleep. The painting was the same, there were no shadowy hands reaching out for her and there was no maniacal giggling or fading voices. The vase on the table had fallen over when she had hit the table, but was still in one piece. Suddenly remembering her cut, she looked at her arm and found that the gash from the shattered vase was no longer existent.
A nightmare? It was only…a nightmare? She thought to herself. Her heart was still rapidly beating as adrenaline courses though her. Since she had first woken up in Aperture, it was not uncommon for her to have nightmares. They followed her wherever she went, and even in cryo-stasis, she occasionally had nightmares. Most usually involved dying, whether being gunned down by some form of monster turrets, being gassed by GLaDOS, or being disintegrated by energy pallets. But this had been so different, at least with previous ones, it had been something she was at least familiar with the terrors.
"Hey you aren't giving me any response! Answer me!" GLaDOS' voice cut through her thoughts. Chell moved unsteadily across the room. She reached out and lightly jiggled the door handle. It still moved normally. After breathing a sigh of relief, she walked through the doorway and out into the hall. The portal gun glowed a faint blue and in contrast, GLaDOS' optic glowed a light orange. "Oh good, you're still alive. I almost shorted out in a panic. Look, I know you're human and all that, but we have to hurry and get out of here. We've wasted enough time already." Chell rolled her eyes and waved off GLaDOS before picking up the portal gun. "They continued down the corridor, Chell wanting to get as far away from the room as possible. Thankfully, it didn't loop this time around.
As Chell left the decorated corridor, she felt her stomach let loose a gurgle. Despite being more or less well rested now, she was still incredibly hungry. She jumped over a rusted railing into what was probably another employee only area. She spied a number of the "motivational" posters plastered along the grey walls along with long dormant computers that were now covered with dust.
I don't know how, but this place just keeps pilling on the depressing atmosphere. She continued moving though the work area at a steady pace so as to not expend more energy than she needed. Suddenly, she came across a sign that made her stop dead in her tracks. On the wall, in bold orange letters, were the words "Lunch area" along with an arrow to the right. Could it be possible that there's food?! Her thoughts began to race with the possibility of fragile vending machines, ready to be robbed of their precious cargo. But it then occurred to Chell that most of this food would be long gone, picked away by whatever scavengers living in the lower bowels of the facility or rotted to the point of inedibility. She was just about ready to kick a desk when GLaDOS spoke up.
"You know, most Aperture brand snacks were meant to last thousands of years for cryogenic sleep subjects in the case of nuclear holocaust, alien invasion, and the likes. It's more than likely that there's some food left if it's been stored well enough." It was all Chell needed to hear before she took off in said direction.