Chell (Portal)

**Chell** is the main protagonist of the *Portal* games.

Chell is an incredibly determined woman wearing an orange jumpsuit. Her exploits begin when GLaDOS awakens her from stasis to run a series of tests in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center for mysterious reasons.

In the AWA fics, Chell is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **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 Her knee replacements have been replaced by Long Fall Boots.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.

## **Trivia**

* While it is kept ambiguous whether or not if Gordon Freeman participates in conversations in the Half-Life series, according to Erik Wolpaw, Chell does not actually speak during the course of Portal. Wolpaw explained that this is because of Chell's anger and frustration at her unfair situation, choosing not to give her surroundings the satisfaction of a response. Wolpaw further stated that Chell probably can talk. Also in Portal 2, GLaDOS does call Chell a mute, though this could just be an observation, not a fact. Additionally, Wheatley attempts to get Chell to speak to check if she has brain damage after being in suspension; the speech prompts provided actually make Chell jump instead. This doesn't necessarily mean she actually has brain damage, as she is still cognitively capable in several other areas. The only known noises that Chell makes are rare grunts of pain in the course of the first game. Which the sound is taken from female Citizen's pain sound.
* Chell's in-game height has been calculated on the channel "The Game Theorists" to be around 5'3"- the American national average for women.
* In the course of the games, Chell has left the Enrichment Center three times and has been to the surface twice. The first time was after she defeated GLaDOS at the end of Portal, however she was dragged back into the facility by the Party Escort Bot. The second was when she launched a Portal on to the surface of the Moon to defeat Wheatley. She was sucked into the vacuum of space but was saved by GLaDOS. Finally and currently, she was forced to leave the Aperture Laboratories and was sent to the surface by GLaDOS where she exited the lift near a shed in the middle of a wheat field with a burnt Companion Cube.
* It is not exactly clear how much time Chell has spent in stasis between events of Portal and Portal 2. At the beginning of Portal 2, she is woken up for the first time after 50 days of sleep after the events of the Lab Rat comic, for a mandatory set of physical and mental exercises. It is unclear how she is woken up since her Relaxation Room was already on Reserve Grid, which is not capable of scheduled waking. Now beginning the events of Portal 2, she wakes up countless of years later, the Announcer fades out (or stutters) after uttering a nearly endless stream of the digit, nine - as the Announcer has reached a maximum count. This is proven when the Announcer's sound file suggests the "nines" repeated until the message has finished, making it about 50 "nines", which would imply a stasis of 2.74×1047 years (longhand this number is "274" followed by 45 zeros). Even with the many scientific and technological leaps and bounds made by Aperture, it is highly unlikely that a patient could be kept in stasis for such a long time, as normally patients must be awakened every 50 days to avoid psychological damage. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that this enormous figure is correct. What seems more likely is that the Announcer's calendar-keeping program may have corrupted after much of the facility fell into disrepair following the destruction of GLaDOS at the end of Portal. However, if confirmed, that theory implies that Chell might have been asleep for any number of years, short or long, as the calendar-keeping program was corrupted all the while. However, judging from the amount of plant growth in the Testing track, it is likely that Chell has been asleep for quite a long time, long enough for the facility to become dilapidated and plant life to take root and flourish. It seems likely that she has been asleep for perhaps 20 years (If this is correct, it could link the timeline of Portal 2 with Half-Life 2: Episode Three).
	+ Upon taking a look at the other containers in the Extended Relaxation Center, it can be seen that the period of time between the "packing" and the "expiration" dates is exactly 20 years. Thus the cryogenic storage can only keep a person alive and healthy for 20 years, which means that it has most likely been even less than that, judging by Chell's mental and physical strength that allowed her to survive the events following her awakening.
* In the Lab Rat comic, one of the files Rattmann has on Chell states the question "Why should Aperture Science accept you as a research volunteer, and would anyone file a police report if you went missing?" Which HR notes: "Subject refused to answer." At the bottom of the file are lines of binary code that translates to The cake is a lie.
* When visiting the Bring Your Daughter to Work Day Science Fair, a large overgrown potato plant with information on a large piece of cardboard can be found. Close inspection of the project's information reveals "By Chell" as written on the side.
* In the Co-op Campaign, after completing the Hard Light Surfaces course, GLaDOS makes an indirect reference to her, pausing for a few seconds before saying that she'd rather not go through that again (referring to the events of the single-player campaign).
* In the video "Michael" - Long Live Play, Chell makes a cameo appearance going through a blue Portal.
* Given the nature of the game, it is difficult for the player to get a close look at Chell in-game. The easiest way to do so would be setting the sv\_cheats 1 command, then activating "thirdperson". The camera can then be adjusted through "cam\_idealdist #" for distance, "cam\_idealyaw #" for yaw, and so on.
	+ Although it is possible to use the thirdperson cheat to change camera modes, the camera itself does not have a "clipping" function. This causes it to be able to go through walls, ceilings, and floors, and pass though Chell with clever positioning. Doing so will be able to reveal the interior of Chell's model - with eyes that are stuck shifting sideways, due to a lack of eyeball models, and a mouth that has a properly modeled and textured tongue, but teeth that use the hair texture.
		- Another way to do so, however, is to place two Portals right next to each other on a wall and inch oneself into one Portal while facing the other. Particularly in Portal 2, this (combined with the zoom command) will allow a close-up look at Chell's face and costume. Interestingly, Chell adopts a deranged expression when she crouches - and, due to a glitch, her pupils may go up her skull. Experimenting with Portal placements can allow viewing of Chell from different angles.
* In the original Portal, it is possible to connect to someone's game by typing "connect (IP address)" and then typing "sv\_cheats 1" to move freely in the console. By looking at the other player's model, it is actually Chell's model, although Portal wasn't made for multiplayer and game may be glitchy upon doing that.
	+ Although not very noticeable, if the player cheats by using "impulse 101" or "give item\_suit" and hurt himself/herself, it is revealed Chell actually regenerates health like Alyx, Barney and Grigori but much faster.
* Her name is never spoken in-game, but there are several unused lines in *Portal 2* that include GLaDOS calling her "Chell" directly.
* Chell makes a cameo in Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 as the Queen of the Portal set of cards.
* Chell makes an appearance in *LEGO Dimensions* as a playable character.