mewtwowarrior: (Portal Fun)
mewtwowarrior ([personal profile] mewtwowarrior) wrote2010-11-04 01:06 am

NaNoWriMo: Chapter 7

Just finished level 06/Chapter 7 of my Portal novelization.  :D  I kinda got off on a few tangents, so I thought it'd be a nice length.  It's longer than the previous chapter, but only by 200 words-ish.  XD

XD  Oh 50,000 words, thou art such an unobtainable goal methinks.  The next few levels are slightly longer, but not by much.  If I really work at it, maybe I can salvage this yet, maybe.

Only 13 test chambers left, the very long behind the scenes area, and then the final battle.  It's just too hard to tell how this is going to go down, know 3 or 4 of the levels are pretty complicated, so that'll give me a lot to work with, I hope. 

Anyways, any crit or advice you have, feel free to post.  <3

Getting too late for another chapter and my fingers are kinda stiff.  XD


Chapter notes:

06

-Augh!  It was a different level than I thought, but still crazy short.  *flails*
-It does introduce a new mechanic, the energy pellet, so that should be interesting to write about.
-I'm getting lazy with the screenshots.  XD  I'm always going back and rechecking stuff and playing as I write anyways.
-Ahhh, I probably talked too much about the Pellet, but I really wanted to try and give a sense of what it looks like.  It's a fascinating little pretty thing.  :D
-I hope the Subject Name Here blahblahblah isn't too out of character, it feels off, but I'm not sure how to get the right feeling across.
-I fear the part of the Pellet may be a bit purply-prosey, but uh, I hope that's okay.  It won't happen again. I think.  <3
-Ack!  Need to add in about the unportable surface  *flail*
-It looks and feels longer, yay!  :D
-.....Not by much.  :|  XD




Usually the elevators took a bit to get going once Chell got inside, but this time, the doors closed behind her as soon as she walked past them and the elevator started moving. It was a quick trip to the next chamber.

When the elevators opened, the sight in front of her was drastically different than the other rooms she had been to previously.

The floor and ceiling were the same familiar grey as she had been previously nearly surrounded with. However, the left and right walls were a dark grey that nearly looked metallic. Even stranger was the fact that each individual segment looked like it was partially raised up, with the edges sloping towards a flat section in the middle. The deeper tones of the walls made the hallway and room look more ominous and darker.

The Grid and elevator were not behind a door this time; instead, they were in an open square nook across the way.

There was some kind of odd raised platform on a small silver stand that was in front of the exit.

The middle of the room contained two strange objects. From where Chell was, she couldn't get a good look, so she headed down the strange hallway.

As she made her way to the main area, on her right, an information board lit up. Since she wasn't sure what was in the room, Chell felt like it was a good idea to see what was in store for her.

The third and fourth squares were now highlighted. The first of these squares consisted of a stick figure being hit violently in the face with some kind of ball. The second one showed a ball falling downward into some kind of clawed thing.

While Chell was wondering what exactly was going to happen here, the voice gave her some helpful information. "While safety is one many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High Energy Pellet, seen to the left of the chamber, can and has caused permanent disabilities such as vaporization.

Please be careful."

She recoiled slightly at this information and looked back to the sign, then to the Pellet in question. It was dangerous enough to vaporize somebody? And that was merely a 'disability' in the thoughts of the voice. Something was off here.

Chell glanced back to the closed elevator with a sigh. Well, she was going to have to tangle with the vaporizer one way or another.

She walked further into the room and studied the situation.

As the voice had so helpfully informed her, the Pellet was to her left.

On the ceiling was a strange looking white dome that had three metal bars coming out from the sides that converged into one circle at the bottom facing the ground.

Below the dome was a seething orange portal, ready to be opened when Chell deemed it so.

Between these two was the Pellet. It was a bright sort of thing, round like a ball and glowing like a light bulb or miniature sun. It had a shining nucleus in the middle and was surrounded by an iridescent and translucent larger orb. The Pellet was a thing of beauty with a deadly secret. It rotated and spun, bouncing repeatedly from dome to floor portal and back again, upon each impact it would send off a shower of gleaming sparks that rapidly vanished from sight.

As it moved, it hummed with the pure energy that it contained, with each impact; it gave a jaunty ping as it ricocheted away. It started at the dome and made its way to the floor, after eight total impacts, four to both the floor and ceiling, the thing suddenly vanished with a loud dissipating bang. After several seconds, another shimmering ball would come into being and start the cycle all over again.

Overall, Chell figured it was close to the size of her head. The warning sign was a fairly accurate portrayal of the object, and she was certain she didn't want to meet the stick figure's doomed fate.

Too bad she wasn't able to control both portals; otherwise she could just put one by the exit and one out of harm's way and just leave without having to mess with the Pellet. But, it was guarding the orange portal, so she'd just have to deal with it as quickly as possible.

To the right was an unfamiliar item. It was the clawed thing she had seen on the information board. The main part was a medium-sized circle, about the size of the Pellet's dome. In the middle was a smaller circle with a hole in its center that beamed out an orange-red light. At equal intervals, there were three clawlike pieces of metal that had vertical pieces attached to their tops. Each piece of metal was hinged, so they were capable of movement somehow.

The picture had shown the ball falling into this strange container, and the Pellet was bouncing against a portal. Chell looked up, and right above the object was a medium-sized dot of red-orange light.

Chell aimed for this beacon and fired a blue portal up on the ceiling. After a moment, she was rewarded with a Pellet rapidly descending towards its new destination.

Upon impact with the circle, the thing folded in upon itself in a burst of blue electricity. The pieces of metal moved to be flat with the ground. Chell looked in at it cautiously; the Pellet was surrounded by blue flowing energy.

Her success was praised by the voice. "Unbelievable! You, Subject Name Here, must be the pride of Subject Hometown Here." When she said 'Subject Name Here' and 'Subject Hometown Here', her tone changed and sounded almost unfamiliar.

This was fairly baffling to Chell; wouldn't the voice know who she was? The voice was in control of everything, after all. It was supposed to be a compliment, but how could you compliment somebody if you read strictly off the script and failed to learn the name of the people who were in essence helping you out.

Bah. It wasn't important. But, there was something odd going on, this, combined with the previous malfunctions proved that. Chell would have to keep aware of the situation.

The container for the Pellet had activated an energy line; Chell followed it with her eyes and saw it was connected to the platform. However, because the Pellet was now in its proper place, the platform had lowered so that Chell could stand on it.

She didn't need the platform, though. Now that the Pellet was safely restrained, she could just put a portal on the hallway wall and jump through the orange one on the ground.

Chell aimed the portal gun at the right-hand side of the exit hallway and fired. The blue energy made its way to the wall and promptly proceeded to bounce off in a bright shower of sparks.

That was...different. She wasn't used to that. So the odd dark metal walls couldn't hold a portal. Was it because the individual segments had raised edges? It was something to think about. For now though, she just wanted to get to the next chamber.

As she walked to the platform, she glanced around the room a little further. To distance itself even further from the familiarity of the previous rooms, some of the squares in the wall were sunken in and lit up from an unknown light source. To the high left, overlooking the Pellet dome, was a long observation window.

Chell looked down at the platform before she stepped on it. It was square, with curving rails on the left and right sides. The border of the platform was white, but the entire middle was clear. She could see the crisscrossing bars that held it together.

As soon as she was on the platform, it started up and began to move. It made a sort of vrooming noise as it activated and gently hummed as it traveled upwards. It stopped right at the ledge for Chell to get off, making an almost disappointed-sounding grumble.

She walked down the dark hallway and through the grid to the elevator.



Chapter Word Count: 1,360
Total Word Count: 9,086