Chell

**Chell**, documented as **Test Subject #1** but previously as **#1498**, is the main protagonist of *Portal* series. She is a former test subject of Aperture Science.

## Appearance

Chell is a young woman in her early or mid 20's. Her ethnic background is somewhat ambiguous; she appears to be of Latin or multiracial descent, and Valve concept artist Matt Charlesworth described her as having "a hint of Japanese ethnicity." (Chell's face and body model, Alésia Glidewell, has a Brazilian-American father and a Japanese mother.) She has light brown skin and pale blue eyes (occasionally described as grey), and her hair was black with most likely stress-induced grey streaks in the first game, before appearing as very dark brown in the second game. This change in hair color could be explained by the grey streaks fading when the constant stress of testing stopped when she was asleep.

Throughout the first game, she wears a worn-out orange jumpsuit and has bare feet, with Advanced Knee Replacement prostheses surgically attached to her legs. She has a ponytail and mild "bed hair" from sleeping in a stasis pod for an unknown period of time.

In *Portal 2*, Chell appears much better groomed and rested. Her knee replacements have been replaced by Long Fall Boots. She wears the same jumpsuit, but with the upper part folded down and tied around her waist, revealing a white tank top bearing the Aperture logo and tight-fitting pale blue shorts or pants. She also wears a white wrap up past the wrist on her right hand, presumably to provide joint support while holding the ASHPD.

GLaDOS and Wheatley both make fat jokes about Chell (the latter being very blatant with "fatty fatty"), even though she appears to be a thin, fit woman.

## Personality

As with her fellow silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, relatively little is explicitly known about Chell's personality. The most certain information about her comes from the *Lab Rat* comic, which shows portions of her personnel file. According to the file, psychological testing showed that Chell scored well in the 99th percentile on the trait of tenacity. A note on these test results characterized her as "abnormally stubborn," adding that "she never gives up. Ever." Because she was so much an outlier in this respect, she was initially rejected for testing until Rattman altered the records.

Rattman's comments imply that Chell's profile was not outstanding in other respects like she is in tenacity. She was not the fastest or most athletic of the test subjects GLaDOS captured (though she does appear to have strong stamina, strength, and balance), and some of the others had higher IQs, although Rattman implies that Chell's IQ was well above the average. Based on her accomplishments in the games, it can be surmised that Chell is highly resourceful, quick-thinking, very intelligent, strong-willed, good at creative problem-solving, and does not panic easily. Her file shows her fluency in binary code, demonstrating knowledge of coding. Chell's combined traits of athleticism, intelligence, and extreme tenacity make her an excellent test subject.

Chell never speaks to GLaDOS; in the first game, GLaDOS asks "Are you even listening to me?" and in the second, she calls Chell a "dangerous, mute lunatic." However, Eric Wolpaw has stated that Chell is probably capable of speaking, but refuses to do so in order to avoid giving GLaDOS the satisfaction of a response. (She can be heard making painful utterances on occasion in the first game, suggesting she is, at least, not mute, though she makes no such sounds in the second game.) The *Lab Rat* comic showed that Chell declined to answer at least part of her test subject questionnaire, suggesting that her defiant refusal to answer GLaDOS may be a long-standing habit. At the beginning of *Portal 2*, when Wheatley asks her to speak, she jumps instead, which Wheatley interprets as a sign of brain damage; the game doesn't expand on whether this is actually the case, or if Chell was simply dopey after being asleep for so long (given she doesn't display any similar "misdirections" later in the game).

Little else is known about Chell; all further information about her comes from comments by GLaDOS, who is by no means a reliable source of information. GLaDOS claims that Chell is "a bitter, unlikable loner," "pointlessly cruel," and that objective test results show that she is "a horrible person." As GLaDOS lies habitually about many subjects and has a particular interest in trying to make Chell feel uncomfortable, guilty, or worthless, none of her comments can be assumed to be fact. However, Chell seems unaffected by the loneliness of test chambers that might make other subjects go insane- this could be due to a preference of being alone, or it could be just another example of her strong will and mental strength.

## External links

* Chell on Half-Life Wiki
* Chell on Wikipedia