Chell

Chell is the protagonist of the Portal video game series. She is the player character in Portal and sequel Portal 2, and has also appeared in other media.
==Fan Community==
===Reception and Popularity===
===Fanon and Tropes===
One of the common areas of debate revolves around her silence, as there's discussion about whether she's mute, whether (in the second game) she suffers from brain damage after her experiences in cryo-sleep, or whether she's perfectly capable of talking but just stubbornly refuses to give the insane and annoying robots she's surrounded by the satisfaction of a response. Chell does not actually speak during the course of Portal; Valve writer Erik Wolpaw explained that this is because of Chell's annoyance at her situation, choosing not to give her surroundings the satisfaction of a response. Wolpaw further stated that Chell probably can talk. Some fans portray Chell as fully or partially capable of speaking, while others portray her as fully or partially mute/nonverbal.
It was previously speculated that Chell might be Test Subject 234, but this was disproved in the official comic Portal 2: Lab Rat, which stated that Chell was Test Subject 1438, until Doug Rattmann changed her to be Test Subject 1.
The general consensus in the fandom is that GLaDOS took over Aperture on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, based on the in-game comment that BYDtWD "did not end well". Additionally, Chell's name can be found on one of the potato battery projects, leading many fans to believe that she is the daughter of an Aperture employee, captured as a child by GLaDOS on that fateful day. However, the official comic Lab Rat more or less suggests that Chell applied to be a test subject, presumably as an adult, at some point before GLaDOS' takeover.
Some posit that Chell is the (adopted) daughter of Cave Johnson, the founder and CEO of Aperture Science, and/or Caroline, his secretary and successor.
In canon, Chell's last name is shown to have been redacted in Aperture's files for reasons unknown. Thus some fan works refer to her as "Chell [REDACTED]" as a full name.
===Shipping===
====Notable Ships====
*Chell & Companion Cube
*Chell/GLaDOS (ChellDOS)
*Chell/Wheatley (Chelley)
*Chell/Doug Rattmann (Chellmann)
*Chell/Gordon Freeman
==Fan Works==
===Fan Fiction===
* alternate link -- fanart by the dangerous-mute-lunatic for a half dozen fics, including:
**The Future Starts With You - @fuchsiamae 
**The Long Game - @silverstreams 
**Reversal - Obvious Octopus
**Schrödingers Cave - @sciencewife 
**The Resurrection Project - @sarcasticgaypotato
**Testing Maintenance - @wheaterz 
**Liminal - @99thpercentile
===Fan Art===
*https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/21704228
*https://www.deviantart.com/lukedenby/art/Chell-208255509
*https://www.deviantart.com/2dforever/art/Chell-Redacted-209825914
*https://www.deviantart.com/twinklepowderysnow/art/Badass-Chell-282876272
*https://www.deviantart.com/yunyin/art/Tenacity-247744141
*https://www.deviantart.com/tribute27/art/Chell-286298154
*https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/57837723
* by rachell-redacted, 2023
===Cosplay===
===Meta===
==External Links==
===Fan Communities and Archives===
*FanFiction.Net (FFN): Portal stories and crossovers featuring Chell
*DeviantArt (DA): Chell-Fans
*Archive of Our Own (AO3): Chell (Portal) tag
===Resources===
*Wikipedia
*Combine OverWiki
==References==
Category:Portal