Happy Anniversary, Corpse Bride!
Sep. 23rd, 2012 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Released on this date seven years ago. :D In honor of the day, I've posted "Absence of Hate" to Ao3 (I'm basically doing one story per day for the time being), updated "Finding You" with Chapter 17, and now I'm going to give you the Virtue to the last Sin:
11. Fortitude
Fandom: Portal 2
Aperture Science Laboratories was a place where people went to die.
Alice knew it couldn’t have started out like that, of course. But the fact remained. Aperture metaphorically stank of death. (It would have literally stank of death too, if not for the dedicated cleaning robots and subprocedures.) GLaDOS – or the Queen, as she liked to be called – had destroyed everyone else who had ever set foot in this world of strange, perverted science. And now, the Queen was doing her level best to destroy Alice.
She would not succeed.
Alice knew this too – knew it deep in her gut. She’d already survived one round against this monster – hell, she’d almost managed to kill her. (If only Aperture technology weren’t so indestructible!) She’d tasted, for an all-too-brief moment, sunlight and fresh air. It didn’t matter how much testing, how much taunting, how much pain that glorified fuel deicer put her through. She would endure. She would survive. Alice knew there was a world above waiting for her – a world of blue skies and green grass. And she was going to reach it.
We’re going to reach it, she corrected herself, giving the robot currently leading her through the darkened corridors a smile. Victor smiled back, then turned his brilliant flashlight gaze ahead of them again. Alice wasn’t quite sure if she really trusted him yet – after all, he was Aperture technology. And from his own account, he’d rather fouled up the job he’d been entrusted with. But she was willing to give him a chance. He’d seemed genuinely remorseful about the dead test subjects, after all – and he had explained that he hadn’t gotten a warning before the power had gone out. Besides, he was surprisingly gentle and shy, and – and the closest thing to human contact she’d gotten in a while. And he was helping her escape, which automatically made him better than the Queen. He seemed just as eager to see the outside world as she was. Hopefully, she thought, sticking close to him as they traveled through the darkened underbelly of the facility, we can learn about it together.
The other of our Portal 2 pair, and the main reason I did this fandom -- Alice does map to Chell very well. Always pressing forward, never letting anything stop her. I bet an Alice with a working portal gun would be even more dangerous.
-HD: And here you get to indulge in two ships you like at once!-
LoL, yes. I do enjoy a bit of Chelley (Chell/Wheatley) when done right. The Victor/Alice version here is probably easier to do, though, given that I make Victor a little less evil than Wheatley once he gets installed into the chassis.
Anyway, not too much to say about this one. This is set during the second escape from GLaDOS, after she catches you the first time and Wheatley has to break you out. GLaDOS turns off all the lights, and Wheatley has to light your way with his internal flashlight. Victor here is being a lot quieter than Wheatley, who spends the entire trip babbling. XD Also, GLaDOS actually DID start life as a fuel deicer, according to the first game. Maybe that knowledge makes her even crankier? Someone should write a fic about that. *contemplates making it a prompt over at
portalkink*
-VD: Out of curiosity, do they make it to the surface together?-
They do. At the end, Victor nearly flies into space, but Alice catches him at the last minute, and he's dragged back with her. While she's unconscious, a terrified Victor babbles apologies to the Queen and begs her forgiveness. The Queen decides to leave the choice of punishment up to Alice once she wakes -- and is absolutely astonished when Alice slaps him once, then hugs him. Alice makes her intentions clear -- he's coming with me you old bitch -- and the Queen decides, fine, I wanted you out of my facility anyway, and it's best if you take the moron with you. So up the elevator they go, and into the wheat field. And the Queen even returns the old companion cube (though she makes sure to hit Victor with it, just because).
I hope you enjoyed that! I think I'm going to go finish off the Helloween videos I haven't watched. And then probably watch another Corpse Bride clip or two.
11. Fortitude
Fandom: Portal 2
Aperture Science Laboratories was a place where people went to die.
Alice knew it couldn’t have started out like that, of course. But the fact remained. Aperture metaphorically stank of death. (It would have literally stank of death too, if not for the dedicated cleaning robots and subprocedures.) GLaDOS – or the Queen, as she liked to be called – had destroyed everyone else who had ever set foot in this world of strange, perverted science. And now, the Queen was doing her level best to destroy Alice.
She would not succeed.
Alice knew this too – knew it deep in her gut. She’d already survived one round against this monster – hell, she’d almost managed to kill her. (If only Aperture technology weren’t so indestructible!) She’d tasted, for an all-too-brief moment, sunlight and fresh air. It didn’t matter how much testing, how much taunting, how much pain that glorified fuel deicer put her through. She would endure. She would survive. Alice knew there was a world above waiting for her – a world of blue skies and green grass. And she was going to reach it.
We’re going to reach it, she corrected herself, giving the robot currently leading her through the darkened corridors a smile. Victor smiled back, then turned his brilliant flashlight gaze ahead of them again. Alice wasn’t quite sure if she really trusted him yet – after all, he was Aperture technology. And from his own account, he’d rather fouled up the job he’d been entrusted with. But she was willing to give him a chance. He’d seemed genuinely remorseful about the dead test subjects, after all – and he had explained that he hadn’t gotten a warning before the power had gone out. Besides, he was surprisingly gentle and shy, and – and the closest thing to human contact she’d gotten in a while. And he was helping her escape, which automatically made him better than the Queen. He seemed just as eager to see the outside world as she was. Hopefully, she thought, sticking close to him as they traveled through the darkened underbelly of the facility, we can learn about it together.
The other of our Portal 2 pair, and the main reason I did this fandom -- Alice does map to Chell very well. Always pressing forward, never letting anything stop her. I bet an Alice with a working portal gun would be even more dangerous.
-HD: And here you get to indulge in two ships you like at once!-
LoL, yes. I do enjoy a bit of Chelley (Chell/Wheatley) when done right. The Victor/Alice version here is probably easier to do, though, given that I make Victor a little less evil than Wheatley once he gets installed into the chassis.
Anyway, not too much to say about this one. This is set during the second escape from GLaDOS, after she catches you the first time and Wheatley has to break you out. GLaDOS turns off all the lights, and Wheatley has to light your way with his internal flashlight. Victor here is being a lot quieter than Wheatley, who spends the entire trip babbling. XD Also, GLaDOS actually DID start life as a fuel deicer, according to the first game. Maybe that knowledge makes her even crankier? Someone should write a fic about that. *contemplates making it a prompt over at
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-VD: Out of curiosity, do they make it to the surface together?-
They do. At the end, Victor nearly flies into space, but Alice catches him at the last minute, and he's dragged back with her. While she's unconscious, a terrified Victor babbles apologies to the Queen and begs her forgiveness. The Queen decides to leave the choice of punishment up to Alice once she wakes -- and is absolutely astonished when Alice slaps him once, then hugs him. Alice makes her intentions clear -- he's coming with me you old bitch -- and the Queen decides, fine, I wanted you out of my facility anyway, and it's best if you take the moron with you. So up the elevator they go, and into the wheat field. And the Queen even returns the old companion cube (though she makes sure to hit Victor with it, just because).
I hope you enjoyed that! I think I'm going to go finish off the Helloween videos I haven't watched. And then probably watch another Corpse Bride clip or two.